Chapter 8: The Goat Milk Dispute and Little White Lotus

Zhang Dalian, seeing that Lin Yue was willing to listen to her, felt very pleased.

She stopped talking about other things and turned to the children, “You’ve had them lying on their stomachs for so long. Turn them over. Don’t tire them out!”

Lin Yue smiled and agreed. Just as she was about to turn the children over, she heard a timid little girl’s voice from the doorway.

Lin Yue looked up and saw a girl of about seven or eight years old, with two pigtails and wearing a clean floral dress. She was nibbling on her fingernails and peering into the room.

This was Zhang Yuandong’s younger sister, Lin Yue’s little sister-in-law.

Lin Yue greeted her, “Little Xi, you’re here. Come in.”

Zhang Xiaoxi’s big eyes darted around the room. She then went over to look at the two little ones lying on the kang like little turtles, she pursed her lips, grabbed Lin Yue’s sleeve, and boldly made her request, “Sister-in-law, Mother said you have several sheep here, and your nephews and nieces all drink goat’s milk.

I want to drink goat’s milk. Please milk some for me!”

Lin Yue’s mouth twitched. She had been here for so long, and this was the first time she had seen her little sister-in-law, and she was here to demand milk.

She didn’t have any ready-made goat’s milk, but she had to patiently coax her, “Little Xi, be good. We don’t have any goat’s milk ready here. Look outside, the two little lambs need to drink milk too. They belong to the brigade, and we can’t compete with them, right? I have some peanuts and soybeans here. Would you like to eat some of those?”

Most of the plate was filled with soybeans, and there were only a few peanuts left. Lin Yue brought the plate over and let Zhang Xiaoxi eat.

Zhang Xiaoxi immediately refused, “The two lambs can drink milk, why can’t I? My mother said that you’re my sister-in-law, and you should take care of me first when you have good food, otherwise, you’re being unfilial!”

Lin Yue slowly straightened up.

When she first entered, the little girl seemed a little timid, so Lin Yue didn’t immediately remember that she was actually a bully.

She was quite temperamental at home, throwing tantrums and kicking things whenever she was unhappy. The original owner had always kept her distance from her.

This was the first time Lin Yue had seen her, and she hadn’t adjusted her thinking yet. She spoke to her in a gentle, coaxing voice, as if she were talking to a child.

Hearing Zhang Xiaoxi’s outburst, Lin Yue finally came to her senses.

She said with a wry smile, “I don’t think you’re a three or four-year-old child anymore. I ask you, did you come to see your nephews and nieces or to demand goat’s milk?”

Zhang Xiaoxi was just a seven or eight-year-old girl. She couldn’t understand Lin Yue’s sarcasm and continued to stuff her pockets with beans and peanuts.

Hearing Lin Yue’s words, she stiffened her neck and shouted, “What do I care about them? My mother said they’re just two little brats, they have nothing to do with our family, and she told us not to come and see them! You, woman, you’ve been dawdling for ages. Why haven’t you milked the goat for me yet?”

Zhang Dalian scolded, “How do you talk to your sister-in-law? You’re so big, and you’re still trying to steal food from your nephews? Those sheep belong to the brigade. They’re just lent to your sister-in-law, and she has to pay for them.

Didn’t your sister-in-law give you peanuts and beans?”

As she spoke, she got off the kang and pushed Zhang Xiaoxi out the door, “Go back home quickly. It’s getting dark, and you’re still running around outside. Be careful, your mother will spank you!”

After Zhang Dalian’s husband died in the war, she raised her six sons alone. Therefore, although her generation wasn’t high, she had a lot of prestige in the village.

Moreover, her husband and Zhang Zhiwei were related within five generations, so even Zhang Zhiwei had to respect her, let alone Zhang Xiaoxi.

She had always been quite afraid of this elder sister-in-law. Seeing Zhang Dalian scolding her, she didn’t dare to resist and ran home crying.

Lin Yue thought that since Zhang Xiaoxi hadn’t gotten her way, her mother-in-law would definitely come to scold her. Zhang Dalian was afraid that Lin Yue would be taken advantage of again, so she didn’t leave immediately and stayed with Lin Yue for a while longer.

But after waiting for a long time, no one came.

Zhang Dalian still had a large family waiting for her at home, and she couldn’t stay here forever. Seeing that no one was coming to cause trouble, she went home.

Lin Yue was also hungry. Zhang Xiaoxi’s little incident wasn’t enough to ruin her appetite. She picked a handful of green beans from her space, fried them with oil, and baked cornmeal cakes on the edge of the pot.

When the green beans were cooked down and the cakes were done, she took them out.

The cakes were golden brown and crispy, with the salty and savory flavor of the green bean sauce. Even Lin Yue couldn’t help but drool.

Since the vegetables in her space had matured, she had stopped asking Su Dashen to deliver meals. She had been cooking her own meals for a while now, but they didn’t have much food left at home, so she didn’t dare to eat much.

She brought the food into the room and ate it beside her two little ones.

Little Wanli put his hand in his mouth and sucked on it diligently, drooling.

Lingling waved her little hand around, and accidentally gave her brother a big slap.

Little Wanli was stunned for a moment, then he pouted his lips and started crying, “Waa!”  Lingling heard her brother crying, turned her head to look, and didn’t understand why the little boy was crying.

Little Lingling even reached out to try and push her brother.

Lin Yue, seeing this, quickly picked up her brother and gently patted his back to soothe him.

Lingling, seeing her mother holding her brother, started to get upset. She made unintelligible protests and waved her hands, wanting to be held too.

Lin Yue had no choice but to hold one chubby son in her left hand and one chubby daughter in her right, holding both of them in her arms.

She could clearly feel that her strength had increased. The two little ones combined weighed over 20 jin, but she didn’t find it difficult to hold them.

After calming her two little ones, she quickly finished her meal and put everything that couldn’t be seen by others into her space.

Just as she finished cleaning up, she heard a little boy calling out “Sister-in-law” from outside.

Lin Yue answered and went out, only to see a boy of five or six years old standing outside the fence. He was thin and small, wearing a thick padded jacket with patches upon patches. The jacket was too big for him, almost completely enveloping his small body.

Lin Yue recognized him as Jin Ajie’s youngest son, Liu Shiliang.

She called the child inside and asked, “Shiliang, you’re here. What’s the matter?”

Liu Shiliang refused to go inside and said hurriedly, “Sister-in-law, my mother said you should hurry over. Your mother-in-law is scolding you in the street.” As he spoke, he reached out and pulled Lin Yue’s clothes, dragging her forward.

Lin Yue knew that Sun Hongmei wouldn’t leave her alone, but she didn’t expect that she would be scolded in the street just because she didn’t give Zhang Xiaoxi goat’s milk.

On the other side, Sun Hongmei didn’t expect her usually timid and cowardly daughter-in-law to be so tough again and again.

Seeing that Zhang Xiaoxi not only didn’t get the goat’s milk but was also sent back, she was furious. She wanted to tear that little vixen to shreds.

Hearing her daughter say that Zhang Dalian was there, she was afraid of getting the worst of it and didn’t dare to cause trouble.

She held it in until after dinner. Her husband had gone to the brigade headquarters to chat with people. Seeing that people kept passing by her house, she immediately sat down at the entrance with her three children and started singing and cursing.

Their old house was close to the brigade, and many villagers had to pass by their door to go to the brigade.

There was nothing to do in winter, and everyone was practically bored out of their minds. They rarely got to see a drama performance at their doorstep, so they all stopped to watch, even those who didn’t get a good spot, hiding in neighboring houses. Some people even used flashlights for Sun Hongmei because it was too dark.

Lin Yue asked Liu Shiliang to stay home and help watch the two children. She rushed over and saw this lively scene, with Sun Hongmei singing and cursing. She stood outside the circle, not daring to go forward.

This was the first time she had heard someone curse like this. She was singing about things like “Raising a son for twenty years, he gets a wife and forgets his mother,” “The daughter-in-law is heartless, she ignores us, her old parents,” “We worked hard to find a wife for our son, but she starves her old parents…” It was like a real opera performance.

Her two younger sons, one on each side, stood beside Sun Hongmei, crying their hearts out, almost drowning out Sun Hongmei’s voice.

Lin Yue was still wondering why these two kids were trying so hard to help their mother, and then she saw Sun Hongmei crying and singing, while keeping her ears open for any signs of silence. When she heard a lull, she would slap her twins.

Zhang Xiaoxi buried her head in Sun Hongmei’s lap and didn’t get hit. She was also sobbing.

This morning, Su Dashen had just told her that the brigade had decided to rent the mother goat to Lin Yue. Since the two lambs hadn’t been weaned yet, Lin Yue had to take care of them too.

For the whole year, as long as she didn’t let the sheep die, all the goat’s milk would belong to Lin Yue. The village would symbolically charge her two yuan as rent, but she would have to return all three sheep to the brigade after a year.

The decision had been made in the morning, and Zhang Xiaoxi went to her house to demand goat’s milk in the afternoon. What a coincidence.

When they separated, Sun Hongmei didn’t know that the original owner had some private money, otherwise, she would have taken it from her.

Now, hearing that Lin Yue not only lived a good life but also had money, she started acting up.

Lin Yue stood outside the crowd, adjusting her expression.

The lessons Wang Xiuxiang and Zhang Dalian had taught her were finally put to the test! This mother-in-law of hers wasn’t easy to deal with. She would bully anyone weaker than her.

If she got away with it today, Lin Yue would never have a moment’s peace.

She had to let her know that she wasn’t the same person she used to be, someone who could be manipulated at will. Only then would she stop.

“Mother, what are you doing? Can’t you talk about things properly?” Lin Yue shivered when she heard her own “weak” voice. She really wanted to go over and fight Sun Hongmei, but she had to hold back and pretend to be a good daughter-in-law.

The entrance was narrow, and she had to squeeze through. She continued to plead, “It’s really not like you think. I was so happy when Little Xi came to my house. No one has seen the children since they were born. How could I be angry with Little Xi over some goat’s milk.