Chapter 137: Troublemaker

Shen Chuning went over to see that Luo Laohan, the brigade’s donkey cart driver, was waiting with his donkey cart outside her house.

The cart was not only newly lined with dry straw but also with mattresses and blankets, practically a mobile bed.

“Mother, what’s this?” Shen Chuning asked, puzzled.

Lin Shulan said, “Your third son came to discuss this with me before he left this morning. It’s cold now, and it’s easy for you to catch a cold riding your bicycle such a long distance to the commune.  When there’s frost and ice on the road, it’s very slippery, and if you fall while riding your bike to work, it won’t be good.

So, I asked Uncle Luo to bring the donkey cart over early this morning. You’ll use his donkey cart to commute to and from work. I’ll go with you and come back together to make it easier to collect the bedding.”

Shen Chuning hadn’t expected that because of her pregnancy, Zhou Yubai and Lin Shulan would be so thoughtful.  She was moved to tears.

After getting on the donkey cart, she affectionately hugged Lin Shulan’s arm, leaning on her shoulder, saying, “Mother, you’ve been so good to me. It’s my good fortune to marry into your family.”

Lin Shulan chuckled and patted her hand, “It’s our Zhou family’s good fortune to have you as our daughter-in-law.

If it weren’t for you, Yubai’s stubborn temper might have made him a bachelor for life.”

Hearing this, Shen Chuning suddenly remembered that in her dream, Zhou Yubai had indeed remained unmarried.

Although there was less farm work in the south during winter, because it almost never snowed and wasn’t as cold as the north, the production team often arranged some scattered farm work.

Today, the brigade assigned everyone to weed the rapeseed fields.

Lin Shulan specifically took a two-hour leave to take Shen Chuning to work.

When they set off, it was also the time when others in the team were going to work in the fields.

When they met on the road, someone greeted Lin Shulan and Shen Chuning, “Oh, Shulan, where are you two going? Why are you taking the donkey cart instead of the bicycle at home?”

Lin Shulan smiled, “It’s cold, isn’t it? Ningning would be cold riding her bicycle, and with the frequent frost and ice, the road is slippery. It’s not safe for her to ride her bicycle to work alone, so I thought that since there isn’t much work in winter, I’d ask Old Brother Luo to pick her up and drop her off.”

As soon as Lin Shulan said this, the surrounding young women cast envious glances at Shen Chuning.

In the whole brigade, and even the whole commune, was there a better mother-in-law than Lin Shulan?

Before, they thought that Sun Fengjiao and Xia Yue’e, after giving birth, having plenty of eggs during their confinement period and not having to work in the fields for three months, only doing light farm work at home, was already the top treatment for a daughter-in-law.

Unexpectedly, Lin Shulan treated Shen Chuning, her third daughter-in-law, even better.  Before she even got pregnant or gave birth, they were worried she might catch a cold or fall while riding her bicycle to work in the commune.

This kind of treatment was unimaginable for others.

But with Shen Chuning, they felt it was quite reasonable.

After all, Shen Chuning had never done any housework before marriage, let alone farm work.

Now that she had married Zhou Yubai and even passed the exam to become a commune accountant, it made sense that the Zhou family would pamper her.

The crowd watched Lin Shulan and Shen Chuning ride away in the donkey cart.

Li Widow spat in the crowd, “Tsk, it’s cold, so she can’t even ride a bicycle?  She takes a donkey cart and even puts straw and mattresses in it; does she think the donkey cart belongs to her? She’s a commune cadre serving the people; this is capitalist hedonism!”

The people in the production team all knew that Li Widow had always resented Shen Chuning because she hadn’t married Shen Qingsong.

When she spoke, most people didn’t bother to respond.

Someone responded to her, “Li Widow, don’t put this hat on people casually. Besides, Shen Chuning and her husband are drawing wages and eating state rations.  She uses some of her money to hire a donkey cart to commute; this is also creating income for our brigade, isn’t it?

With the income from her hiring the donkey cart, maybe each household can get a dime or two more at the end of the year!”

After that person said this, those who had previously had some objections to Shen Chuning hiring a donkey cart immediately had no objections.

They were even worried that Li Widow would do something to ruin this, resulting in the brigade losing the income from Shen Chuning hiring the donkey cart and them getting less money at the end of the year.

They all persuaded Li Widow.

Li Widow didn’t dare to anger everyone, and although she was very unhappy, she didn’t dare to say anything more.

At this time, someone with a loose tongue called out to Li Xiaolan, “Xiaolan, if you had married Zhou Yubai, the donkey cart with straw and mattresses might have been yours.”

Li Xiaolan was still staring blankly at the direction where the donkey cart had disappeared at the village entrance.

Upon hearing this, tears instantly welled up in her eyes.

She couldn’t hold back and ran home crying loudly.

“Xiaolan…” Zhao Xiuying quickly called out to her daughter but couldn’t stop her.

She turned around, took off her shoe, and hit the woman who had just spoken, Wang Guiying, “Wang Guiying, what did my family do to you that you need to provoke my daughter?

I’ll beat you to death, you troublemaker…”

Wang Guiying had just felt sour seeing Lin Shulan and Shen Chuning, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, getting along so well, and seeing Li Xiaolan looking at the donkey cart like a lost soul, so she couldn’t help but say that.

She didn’t expect Li Xiaolan to react so strongly.

Even less did she expect Zhao Xiuying to hit her directly.

Before she could react, everyone else reacted and quickly pulled them apart.

“Zhao Xiuying, calm down, don’t bother with Wang Guiying, go home and check on Xiaolan!”

“Wang Guiying, you really shouldn’t have said that when you knew Xiaolan was already feeling down.  You’re just rubbing salt in the wound!”

Zhao Xiuying pointed at Wang Guiying with her shoe, “Wang Guiying, I’m telling you, if anything goes wrong with my Xiaolan’s marriage, I won’t let you off!”

Zhao Xiuying had recently managed to get the Women’s Director, Lü Xiaohong, to help Li Xiaolan find a good match.

The man was the eldest son of the team leader’s family in the third production team of the neighboring Dongyang brigade. The boy had a slightly limp leg due to a botched injection at the barefoot doctor’s when he was a child, but it didn’t affect his walking or work.

The key was that the boy liked her daughter, didn’t mind that she was a little older, and didn’t mind that she had pursued Zhou Yubai before.

And the team leader’s family, while not wealthy, lived comfortably.

Although they hadn’t built a red brick house, their earth house was newly built a few years ago, with seven spacious rooms in the courtyard.

The man’s family only had this one son, the rest were daughters, which meant that all the family’s assets would belong to her daughter in the future.

Zhao Xiuying had finally looked forward to her daughter agreeing to marry.

But Wang Guiying had to say that, and she really wanted to slap that old woman’s mouth.

But at this moment, she didn’t care about slapping Wang Guiying anymore, and she left a sentence, quickly chasing after Li Xiaolan to go home.