Chapter 657: The System of a 1950s Mother (14)

After Liuqiang left, Xie Yang hurriedly got up and released a bucket of hot water she had stored in advance, fearing this exact situation: wanting to take a bath in a rush but having no hot water. That was why whenever she boiled water, she would boil an extra pot to store for emergencies.

Last night, she had consumed half a small jar of fruit wine with her barbecue—a three-jin small jar, of course.

The alcohol content wasn't high, but one could still smell a hint of wine when close.

After taking a hot bath and changing into the new cotton-padded jacket she had just made, she packed a bag of dried jujubes bought at the market and, feeling refreshed, stepped through the accumulated snow toward Liuqiang's house to eat the pig-slaughter feast.

Just halfway there, she heard a shrill, dry howl coming from the Old Zhuang Family, with Qiu Caohua wailing: "You thousand-cut thieving rats! You actually bit my money into such tiny pieces! Just you wait! I'll catch you one by one, peel your skins, and render them into oil to eat! Ouch! My money—"

Xie Yang: "..."

No wonder it had been so quiet lately; so they had only just discovered it now?

Could it be that Qiu Caohua had hidden money elsewhere? Otherwise, it made no sense to only discover it now; it was already the Little New Year, didn't they need to prepare New Year goods?

It wasn't that Qiu Caohua wasn't preparing New Year goods; she was hoping her daughter-in-law in the city would bring them for her, so she could show off properly in the village.

Thinking that her son hadn't been home for many years and had now married a city girl, he surely had to come home for the New Year this year, right?

Although her son had lost his official position some time ago, he had at least married a city girl, the daughter of a Cadre in Beijing. For his first time returning to the Old Zhuang Family for the New Year after marriage, could he really not bring her, his mother, festival gifts and New Year goods?

The Branch Secretary's fifth son had married a wife from the County who ate commodity grain; last New Year, they had given the Branch Secretary and his wife a new outfit popular in the County, and had also brought Brown Sugar, White Sugar, rice cakes, and fresh Fish, making so many people envious.

Her daughter-in-law was from Beijing; when the time came, if she gave her a new outfit popular in Beijing, people from all the surrounding villages would envy her when she walked out.

Besides, coming back from so far away to see the two elders, they couldn't just give two outfits, right? They surely had to bring some food that couldn't be bought in the countryside, right?

Therefore, Qiu Caohua gritted her teeth and spent money to send an urgent telegram to her son, telling him to bring his wife home for the New Year.

As a result, she received a letter from her son today saying he wouldn't be coming back for the New Year because the road was long, the holiday was short, and he was afraid of displeasing his leaders by asking for leave.

This letter from home was just a bare letter, with no money enclosed and no parcel.

Qiu Caohua had returned from the township feeling incredibly disappointed, and the more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt.

If her son didn't come back for the New Year, he would definitely go to his wife's parents' home in Beijing. She had raised her son with such difficulty, and the moment he got married, he didn't even come home—he really had forgotten his mother for his wife!

She completely forgot that when Zhuang Mingcheng had been missing for several years, he hadn't come back for the New Year either.

But Qiu Caohua wouldn't blame her own son; even if he was heartless, she would only think he had been led astray by his wife.

The more she thought about it, the angrier she got, so she said to her husband: "Since our son and daughter-in-law aren't coming back for the New Year, we'll spend it ourselves! I'll go get the money, and you go to the township to weigh a few liang of wine, and buy some Peking jujubes and sugar cakes for the New Year."

Upon reaching for it, she discovered that the oil-paper packet she had folded so neatly was no longer in the hole in the wall; she only felt a hole full of shredded paper scraps.

When she pulled them out to look, both the money and the oil paper had been bitten into powder by the rats.

One hundred yuan!

The one hundred yuan her son had given her out of filial piety!

Ouch—

After hearing this, Zhuang Laotou was also dumbfounded: "What did you say? The money was bitten to pieces by rats? Didn't you say it was wrapped in an oil-paper packet? Even that could be bitten to pieces?"

"Heaven knows why those thousand-cut thieving rats came to bite it; even such thick oil paper could be bitten to pieces by them! Oh, my ten-yuan bills! Not a single one left before I could even spend them!"

Zhuang Laotou almost couldn't catch his breath: "Then what about the other money? Where did you put it?"

Qiu Caohua's crying stalled, and after a pause, she wailed again: "You dead old man! What other money is left in the house!"

In reality, it had been borrowed by her maternal brothers and never returned.

If her son hadn't sent her money, she would definitely have gone to her maternal home to demand it back by the end of the year. She had thought that with the money her son sent, she wouldn't have to worry about money for three to five years, so she hadn't pressed her maternal brothers for what they borrowed, to avoid hurting their sibling relationship.

Who knew it would be bitten to pieces by heaven-killing rats!

"Ouch—"

The more Qiu Caohua thought about it, the sadder she became, wailing as if someone in the family had passed away.

Although there was snow on the ground and most villagers were hiding in their homes, they couldn't withstand the volume of Qiu Caohua's wailing; neighbors who couldn't suppress their curiosity came over to ask.

Once one person knew, there was a second, a third... soon, most families in Shili Village knew that the filial money Zhuang Mingcheng had sent to the two elders had been bitten to shreds by rats.

"Heaven is watching what people do; the Old Zhuang Family hasn't acted with integrity, and even the beasts can't stand it anymore."

"Who's to say otherwise! That's why one must have a conscience! Otherwise, retribution will come sooner or later."

The Branch Secretary's family was slaughtering a pig for the New Year today, and with various relatives and friends gathered, they heard about the unlucky event at the Zhuang house; while sighing, they felt it might be retribution for the bad things the Zhuang family had done.

"That boy Zhuang Mingcheng, we old folks watched him grow up; he was quite honest when he was little, but I didn't expect him to have such a wandering eye when he grew up. He has such a capable and virtuous wife at home, yet he still found another one in the city."

"Zhuang Fucang and his wife are even more unscrupulous. They knew their son was married in the city, yet they hid it from the wife chosen for him at home, fearing that if people found out and she left the Old Zhuang Family, there would be no one to serve the two old folks. Tsk! I suppose even Heaven couldn't stand it and sent rats to teach them a lesson."

In the main room of the Branch Secretary's house sat several prestigious clan elders, puffing on their dry tobacco pipes, waiting for the pig-slaughter feast to be served while occasionally exchanging their views on the Zhuang family's affair.

In the kitchen, a group of women worked nimbly; some were cleaning the internal organs, some were scraping hair off the pig's trotters and head, some had already scrubbed the Steamer clean, waiting to steam the pig head meat, and others were already preparing to heat the pot and add oil to stew the pig-slaughter feast.

Xie Yang offered to help, but was pressed down in front of the stove by the Zhishu Xifu, who told her to help tend the fire.

In the dead of winter, tending the fire was a top-tier job; from time to time, one would use a poker to stir the firewood in the stove, and if there wasn't enough, one would add a piece of Wood split into small slivers. Most of the time, one could free up their hands to do other things, such as shelling peanuts and melon seeds or holding a roasted sweet potato to eat.

"Here! Take a sweet potato to warm your hands."

Just as Xie Yang sat down on the small stool, a hot sweet potato was shoved into her hand, and a handful of fragrant roasted peanuts was stuffed into her cotton-padded jacket pocket.

Xie Yang was torn between laughter and tears: "Auntie, I'm not a child anymore."

"Haha! In our eyes, anyone who isn't married is a child," the Zhishu Xifu said with a smile.

A woman nearby took the opportunity to add: "How old is Yangyang this year? Do you have a young man you fancy? If you do, just say it, and Auntie will help you play matchmaker."

Another woman smiled and said to Xie Yang: "That's right! Yangyang, you just tell Auntie Tian; she's handled no fewer than eight or ten matches, and every single one was a success."

"That's for sure!" Auntie Tian said proudly, "Of all the matches I've brokered, not one has ever fallen through."

Xie Yang: "..."

Why is it that whenever women get together, they can never escape this topic?