Chapter 683: Five-Zero Motherhood System (40)

【Congratulations, Host! The Orchard level has reached level 20, unlocking the Processing Workshop. Currently, one processing unit is unlocked.】

Two years later, Xie Yang finally looked forward to the Processing Workshop!

With the cotton harvested from the Smart Vegetable Garden, "one-click processing" can yield Cotton Cloth, bedding, ready-made clothes, and even sanitary pads and diapers.

One can also process sugarcane into Brown Sugar, milk into powdered milk or milk tablets, Pork into meat floss or ham, or choose a cooking method for seafood to make a surf-and-turf feast...

Of course, what tempted her most was the processing of cotton.

Cotton Cloth, bedding, tissues, and sanitary pads—she needed these so much!

With the unlocking of the Processing Workshop, the variety of supplies Xie Yang had the Main System help deliver also increased.

The families of martyrs everywhere no longer received only unhusked millet or wheat grains; they also received processed staple foods like rice cakes, steamed buns, and noodles. Fresh Fish and Shrimp or whole cuts of fresh meat were also partially replaced by ready-to-eat or steam-to-eat dried fish, dried shrimp, salted meat, and Chinese sausage.

Every Spring Festival, families of martyrs in difficult financial circumstances would also receive a thick cotton quilt or a set of cotton-padded clothes.

Xie Yang also took this opportunity to take out several sets of fine cotton bedding and thick cotton quilts, and she prepared a new set of cotton clothes for each of the children.

Seeing the children of Nuan Shu Zhi Jia wearing soft, warm new cotton clothes as they went to school together, Qiu Caohua's eyes were bloodshot with jealousy; this was all money her son had paid for!

Her own grandson couldn't even get such good cloth for a new set of cotton clothes!

Never mind her grandson, even she, as the mother, was still wearing a cotton-padded jacket from many years ago! The cotton batting had matted, and it wasn't warm at all to wear.

"Why don't you have your Mingcheng's wife buy one for you! In Beijing, is she afraid she won't be able to buy a stylish cotton jacket? Save yourself the trouble of buying cloth to make one. The cotton jackets we make in the countryside are nowhere near as good-looking as the ones bought in big cities."

"That's right, Auntie Caohua, you work so hard raising their child, isn't it only right that your daughter-in-law buys you a new set of clothes? If you didn't help her look after him, she'd have to spend a lot of money every month to find someone to do it in the city! If she saves that money to buy you a new set of clothes, she wouldn't be losing out."

A few women who couldn't stand her constantly bringing up her son in Beijing kept egging her on, one after another.

Qiu Caohua actually listened to them.

She felt that since her daughter-in-law was enjoying a good life in Beijing with her son and dressing properly every day, while she, the mother-in-law, was suffering in the countryside and still having to raise their brain-damaged child for them, wasn't it only right for them to buy her a new set of clothes for the New Year? If they didn't buy it for her, she would send the brain-damaged grandson back to Beijing for them to raise themselves!

Qiu Caohua went to the Post Office to send a telegram to her son.

After sending the telegram, she stayed home waiting for her daughter-in-law to show her filial piety with a new cotton jacket.

If they really didn't have time to buy her a stylish new cotton jacket from Beijing, sending her some money to buy one herself would be fine too.

She thought happily to herself.

However, after waiting and waiting, what she received was not a package or money sent by her son and daughter-in-law from Beijing, but—

Zhuang Mingcheng had returned to his hometown with his wife!

Seeing them, Qiu Caohua was initially overjoyed: "Son! You finally decided to come back to see me and your father? Can you stay for a few more days for the New Year this time?"

Zhuang Mingcheng's face was gloomy, and his words were very harsh: "Mother, you're either writing letters or sending telegrams asking me for money every few days. My job has been ruined because of you. Now I've been suspended without pay; are you satisfied?"

"..."

Qiu Caohua's eyes widened in shock: "What! You don't have a job? Didn't they say city jobs were iron rice bowls? Can an iron rice bowl be lost?"

"It's not that I don't have a job, it's a suspension without pay," Chen Wanru retorted with a look of annoyance. "But if my father hadn't intervened, it's very possible I would have lost the job completely. Iron rice bowl, iron rice bowl—you still have to work hard and not make mistakes to have security. You kept asking your 'good son' for money every few days. Your good son didn't have any money, so he set his sights on the procurement funds, and then he was exposed. He lost all his dignity and reputation!"

In the final analysis, it was because Qiu Caohua kept asking her son for money; Zhuang Mingcheng had no money of his own, and Chen Wanru held onto both their salaries, only sending five yuan to the countryside each month out of consideration for the elderly couple helping to raise their son, and she refused to give any more.

Zhuang Mingcheng couldn't refuse his mother, and he was afraid she would go to his workplace to cause a scene. It just so happened that during that time, the colleague in charge of procurement funds had broken his leg and taken long-term leave. With his father-in-law's efforts, he was temporarily put in charge of the procurement funds, and he had the crooked idea to embezzle a sum of public funds to send to his mother.

It just so happened that for that particular embezzlement, because the supplier was slow to demand payment, and later the other party's procurement officer had some trouble and the handover wasn't completed, no one came to him to settle the account, so he never returned it to the public coffers.

After this "extra income," his courage grew, and every time his mother wrote a letter or sent a telegram asking for money, he would take it from the existing procurement funds.

When a supplier came to demand payment, he would use the procurement funds from another unit to fill the gap; if they didn't come to demand payment, he would just keep owing it.

But paper cannot wrap up fire; eventually, the matter was exposed.

This time, even his father-in-law wasn't willing to step in to protect him. If it weren't for the fact that his wife was pregnant with their second child, he might have been forced to divorce.

And precisely because his wife was pregnant again, even though his father-in-law was angry, he still went to intervene for him.

After much pleading, he managed to keep his position and wasn't fired directly, but it was almost the same as being fired. During the suspension without pay, not only was there zero income, but he had also lost all face at his workplace.

His father-in-law told him to stay in his hometown for a while.

His wife was also afraid of being pointed at, so she simply took long-term leave and accompanied him back to his hometown to rest and protect her pregnancy, planning to return to Beijing together once the pregnancy was stable and the storm had passed.

After hearing the ins and outs of the story, Qiu Caohua wailed and cried.

"Son, it was Mother who ruined you!"

But after she finished crying and thought about it carefully, she felt that it was good her son was back; there was someone to farm the land at home, and the brain-damaged grandson could be dumped on the daughter-in-law to raise herself.

She and her old man could finally catch their breath, rest, and enjoy their old age, living off the blessings of their son and daughter-in-law.

However, in reality, after Zhuang Mingcheng and his wife returned, the elderly couple not only didn't catch their breath, but they were even more exhausted.

Zhuang Mingcheng worked in the fields for a few days during the busy farming season, then lay in bed saying his whole body ached and he was too tired to move.

Chen Wanru claimed she was pregnant and needed to rest, so she couldn't take care of her brain-damaged eldest son and threw him back to Qiu Caohua.

Upon learning she was pregnant with a second child, Qiu Caohua couldn't say anything.

It was just that she had originally thought her old bones could finally rest and enjoy the blessings of her son and daughter-in-law, but in the end, she was even more tired than before they had returned to the hometown.

Why was a city daughter-in-law's pregnancy so troublesome? She couldn't stand the smell of cooking smoke and would dry-heave as soon as she entered the kitchen; she also couldn't stand the smell of urine and would want to vomit as soon as she entered the latrine. Consequently, the three daily meals were still Qiu Caohua's job, and she also had to help scrub the chamber pot in her son's room.

Life was so bitter it made her want to cry.

She went to complain to her son, and once or twice Zhuang Mingcheng was still willing to comfort her: "Mother, my wife is pregnant and can't stand pungent smells; there's nothing to be done about that. Once the baby is born, it will be fine, and then I'll have her treat you well."

But after it happened too many times, he couldn't be bothered to deal with it.