CHAPTER 95: CHAPTER 84: LAUGHING AT THE ECCENTRICS

Everyone found it funny to hear about Guoshu’s wife and looked at Zhang Meili. Zhang Meili rolled her eyes at everyone, "What are you looking at me for? That’s old news, I don’t even remember it myself. That woman is just a bully, taking advantage of the weak and avoiding the strong. Her husband is useless. If it were me, I’d beat her every day until she was scared. It’s all about spoiling."

Huang Cuilan chuckled and shook her head, "Her husband isn’t useless. If he were, he wouldn’t be the only one in the family wearing clothes without patches."

Everyone exchanged glances, realizing they hadn’t noticed this before. Zhang Meihao quickly urged her sister-in-law to continue.

"I hadn’t paid attention either, but your elder brother asked me to look at what was going on with the separation fiasco. Guoshu’s brothers split things up, and every time his wife made a scene with people, he let her be, and everyone said he was honest, so they let it go for his sake.

Whenever Guoshu’s family argued with someone, he’d stay silent, head down, squatting. If people offered apologies, he’d take them without needing his wife to. If people didn’t apologize, thinking they were in the right, he’d remain squatting, head down, letting his wife yell without moving, not going home, which is like supporting her. He’s honest but not stupid, he’s not present at the scene. Everyone in the village knows well enough to avoid dealing with her.

Then I thought about it, and it’s true. Once, while working in the fields, for a word, his wife clung onto the other party, lay on the ground, claiming she didn’t want to live. Guoshu ran over from a distance but didn’t pull her up. Instead, he squatted, holding his head, repeating ’it’s all my fault, my lack of ability.’ I was shocked.

Normally, you’d either take your wife home or honestly go about your work, but why does the matter escalate when he arrives? Just a word caused such a family drama, like they were breaking up.

After that, whenever I saw those two, I’d walk away quickly. It’s infuriating. Several times when I went to wash clothes in the river, his wife came over, and I washed frantically, afraid she’d cause trouble. I’m not scared of her; I find it bothersome."

Zhou Jiao curiously asked, "Doesn’t that make her even more smug since no one can deal with her?"

Mother Zhang found this amusing and said nothing. Lin Juhua looked on and remarked, "There’s someone who can deal with her — your Xiao Wu. She’s afraid of Xiao Wu; she used to be scared of the elder sister too, but isn’t anymore. She’d lie at the village entrance shouting that the cadre family bullies her, is there no justice? The elder sister couldn’t be bothered to deal with her, not wanting to tarnish her reputation.

Why is she afraid of Xiao Wu? Once, when Xiao Wu returned from hunting, she somehow grabbed him, refusing to let him leave, demanding meat. Xiao Wu directly threw her off and far away. When Guoshu arrived, Xiao Wu said if she kept pestering for his meat, he should manage his useless wife — even his own wife needs to snatch food. If she screams again, he’d hit Guoshu each time she did it.

His wife didn’t believe it and shouted loudly, so Xiao Wu really punched her, and Guoshu’s wife immediately stopped screaming. Xiao Wu told Guoshu, "Your wife creating trouble has annoyed the village; believe it or not, we’ll drive your family out?" After saying, he ignored them and left, we found out later.

Otherwise, you’d see every family in the village afraid of her, Guoshu’s wife wouldn’t care if others want her company or not, she’d intrude. Yet our house’s gate is open, why hasn’t she come in? She’s afraid of Xiao Wu. He truly scares her husband. If you encounter her later, just ignore her; everyone knows her hands aren’t clean."

Zhou Jiao giggled, amazed that there were such people. She thought Huang Zhaodi was already extreme enough, "The more shameless, the more invincible. These two don’t consider their children’s future. Who would dare associate or marry into their family?"

Mother Zhang listened and said, "Now the village kids don’t play with their son. Dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, mice give birth to hole-diggers; those kids follow after their mother too. Every time they don’t get someone else’s wild fruits, they lie down rolling, throwing tantrums; marrying such a woman ruins at least three generations."

Zhou Jiao listened to their talk and thought about collecting items after the full month. Thankfully, besides grains and meat being strictly managed, the rural areas are fairly relaxed.

While the market is still open, I need to prepare. If it’s fully ticketed management next year, it’ll be harder. Grains are tough to find, so stocking taro, potatoes, noodles, eggs is crucial. The monthly meat ration for my son by ticket won’t be enough to eat. When spring arrives and feeding pigs becomes difficult, I’ll raise more chicks for eggs.

After the full month, I’ll explore the mountains to see what can be gathered even in this winter. The village is sending parcels, and I’ll collect some things to stash away, especially mushrooms, wood ears, pine nuts, melon seeds; these are great. Once ticket quotas are set, it’ll be even harder to buy. No rush, I’ll note things down later."

"Mom, can we book the chicks for next spring? Should we arrange it before the year ends?" Zhou Jiao asked, eager to learn.

"Someone in the village hatches eggs, a few you can buy without ordering, but for more, find someone at the year-end market to book them, and they’ll be delivered next spring. We’ll all head to the market for New Year purchases; they have everything."

"Hmm, Mom, now that you’ve harvested the fields, why are you still working? What are you doing?"

"Now we are weeding, plowing, clearing roots. Otherwise, we can’t sow crops next spring. Once cleared here, grass grows there; there’s lots of work. Once it snows, we stop working, leaving tasks for others. This year’s work points were enough, exhausting year after year for just enough rations. This year’s good rainfall meant a grain surplus, allowing more divisions."

"When it snows, do people still work? Doing what? Wouldn’t they freeze with the soil frozen?"

"In heavy snow, we collect manure for spring, also plow. That’s the toughest work, earning more work points. Families with many mouths but little labor can’t rest; otherwise, they won’t have enough food next year."

Our family has more labor, so usually in snowfall, we do lighter work with fewer work points. The pig farm never stops working throughout the year and has many points. When field work slows, we also make ropes, never stopping. Ropes are needed by the brigade and at home; they’re useful anytime.

Soon we’ll make ropes again. Farm work never stops, so everyone wants to go to the city. Our grain ration per person is only 300 pounds a year, any extra depends on the production team’s surplus, even money might not make up for it.

We exchange fine grains for coarse ones to have enough. City folks get 40 pounds monthly, kids get 22, plus salaries and tickets. We village folks exchange work points for cloth tickets by year’s end, see why many kids wear patched clothes. All year leads to a white rice meal and dumplings during the year-end."

"It’s really not easy. I’ve never seen you take a break, always busy as a bee. In April, May, September, October, you work skin off, all thin with no recovery; everyone looks dark due to sun exposure. Thanks to our family not fearing sunlight, otherwise we’d be hard to find in the dark without an oil lamp." Zhou Jiao sighed.

Zhang Meili heard this and laughed heartily, "During New Year’s market, see the crowd; it’s fun, city and village folks all mixed. People all look dark with touches of white, really amusing."