Chapter 209

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

Chai Mi took it in stride anyway, since Song Qiushui was extraordinarily talented—when it came to eating, Song Qiushui could rival contemporary Einsteins, Newtons, and Xu Xiake...

Crucially, Song Qiushui could always find an excuse to scrounge food and drink.

"Later, you go stir up trouble with Da Zhi again. When noon comes and Da Zhi returns, you say: 'Ai, look at you, what lousy work you've done. This chicken obviously isn't the one they originally had you bleed out. You two teamed up and used some other rooster to trick you—this is an insult to you...'"

Song Qiushui's eyes lit up immediately: "Right, right, right, you're the best. I was still wondering how to put it..."

"Ai, you..." Chai Mi said helplessly, pouting: "You go cool off for a bit, it's hot. I'll go into the room and check."

Everything bought had already been unloaded from the cart; with many hands, it only took a few trips to move it all into the yard.

Chai Mi went into the room, then came out from the west room with a fan and started fanning herself.

"It's too hot. On this road, when we left in the morning there was nothing, but on the way back the sun got hot." Chai Mi said to her mother Su Wan: "Mom, you're not afraid of the heat, just cooped up in the room. Last night I meant that when there are more people around making noise, you'd be better off staying in the room. Today there aren't many outsiders, so if you're hot, go wait outside for a bit."

Su Wan patted the little daughter who had already fallen asleep and said: "Not hot. It's noisy outside anyway, I'm not going out. Your younger sister is asleep; if you fuss around she'll wake up. I don't sweat much, it's not that hot."

Chai Mi sighed. Her mother Su Wan indeed had this constitution—the result was that she actually was hot, but she couldn't feel that kind of...

"Where's Xiu'er? Where did she run off to?" Chai Mi hadn't seen Chai Xiu when she got home, so she asked.

"I sent Xiu'er to call your maternal aunt over for dinner. Your aunt is thin-skinned; if you tell her to come over at noon, she won't come. Your cousin and sister-in-law went out and probably won't be back by noon. So I sent Xiu'er to call again." Su Wan paused and said: "Just now your Second Aunt came."

"Which Second Aunt? Song Qiuping?" Chai Mi had many Second Aunts on her clan's side.

"Mm."

"What did she come for?"

"To see the child, and she bought your younger sister a set of little clothes." Saying this, Su Wan took them out to show Chai Mi.

Chai Mi frowned: poor quality, just perfunctory junk. The whole set added up to no more than twenty yuan.

"Song Qiuping is too stingy, buying such cheap, shoddy clothes, and she's embarrassed to take them out." Chai Mi was indeed very dissatisfied: "When Chai Min, that sickly thing, was in high school, I remember we both went to the county town and bought her a skirt, spending over a hundred yuan. Song Qiuping, on the other hand, spends ten or eight yuan to perfunctorily fool people."

"The gift is light but the sentiment is heavy..." Su Wan defended.

"Pfft! What 'sentiment is heavy' nonsense! My Second Aunt, that piece of goods—the whole family lives on bragging. Mom, do you remember? My Second Uncle even said back then: if Chai Mi gets into high school, that would be the most glorious thing for our Old Chai family; if Big Brother doesn't have enough money, I'll support her through high school. And what happened?" Chai Mi couldn't help but laugh: "I knew our family didn't have enough money, so I never planned to go. Those two were so scared they didn't dare visit our house for half a year. Then once, that sickly Chai Min borrowed two ninth-grade English books from me—I don't know where she tossed her own book—so I took books to her, hehe... The first thing my Second Aunt said when she saw me was: 'Ai, Chai Mi, my family has no money...'"

Chai Mi laughed, not really angry after all, since this was long in the past, and she hadn't intended to borrow money anyway.

But originally she was taking books to the sickly one, and Song Qiuping said that, so Chai Mi immediately blushed red, and left within two minutes.

This experience from her previous life let Chai Mi know that her own family's relatives were unreliable.

Even...

Chai Mi felt that among all the relatives, only her maternal aunt was somewhat reliable, but the problem was her aunt's word didn't count. Crucially, her aunt's family situation was special...

Chai Mi's maternal aunt Su Jin's family looked prosperous on the surface, but every year the money they gave to hospitals, clinics, and places for burning incense was countless.

Chai Mi's cousin Liu San and his wife had no children; they went to a clinic every two or three months and a hospital every half year. Whether county-town, city, or Sheng Cheng hospitals, as far as rumors went, any place said to treat infertility, Liu San and his wife went to them all.

Not to mention this era—even in later times when the economy was developed and ordinary people had rural-urban cooperative medical care, for an old farmer, medical expenses were still an astronomical figure.

If you went to the hospital, there were transportation fees, meal money, lodging, and even buying several decent sets of clothes—all of it was money.

Liu San's money mainly came from loans because his father's elder brother was the director of the Savings Office.

Loans had to be repaid.

If loans didn't need to be repaid, then Chai Mi's maternal aunt's family would indeed be very rich...

But there was no "if" in this matter.

Su Wan listened to Chai Mi's words and was also dissatisfied, muttering something in a low voice, but in the end she didn't say too much.

Chai Mi also deliberately dropped the matter and said instead: "Mom, go cool off. Let Dad watch the child for a while; he's outside doing nothing. He can't do anything proper, just knows to sit there and chat with the Village Chief. There's so much to do inside and out here, and he's fine. It's almost ten-thirty, and no food has been cooked yet."

Afterward, Chai Mi didn't care whether Su Wan agreed or not; she just went out and called Chai Youqing over to watch the child for a while.

His own child wasn't just the mother's business; as the father, he passed the buck and ran outside to cool off.

No wonder so many women in later times refused to have children no matter what.

It must be the rotten traditions passed down from ancestors.

Su Wan complained instead: "Chai Mi, does your father know how to watch a child? If you let him watch your sister, he might throw her into the middle of nowhere."

But Chai Youqing had already been called into the room by Chai Mi: "Dad, help Mom watch the child for a while. Let Mom go cool off..."

Chai Youqing was stunned at first, then his expression showed some wild joy, thinking to himself that he finally got to watch the child again.

Chai Youqing had conflicts with his wife and children, and he knew it well, but as someone who had received traditional ideological education, though changed, he ultimately couldn't turn over a new leaf in a single day. Fortunately, Chai Mi directly used her mother's divorce and return to her maiden home, along with some cold violence, plus Chai Mi's proactive offensive of hot violence, making Chai Youqing now seventy percent afraid of Chai Mi and thirty percent changing.

Of course, added together that made one hundred percent.

Now outside everyone said: Chai Youqing's family was run by his eldest unmarried daughter Chai Mi, and Chai Youqing was afraid of his daughter, afraid to the point of stuttering.

Chai Youqing sometimes heard this and was very dissatisfied, directly retorting: as if only he was afraid of Chai Mi...

Everyone afterward was speechless.

Everyone was afraid.

In the village, someone even made a doggerel poem about Chai Mi.

Fierce person, few words; going out, a kitchen knife flies; beat up Chao Lao San, viciously beat Xiao Doubao; small temple, big demon wind; shallow pond, many turtles; hurt Wang Huirong, Qiuping takes the blame...

So Chai Youqing sometimes proudly said: hehe, Chai Mi is my daughter, my daughter...

Others envied endlessly...

Chai Youqing was like a child who had gone to the wrong place, looking at the child, then at his wife Su Wan, and finally resting his gaze on Chai Mi.

Seeing Chai Mi say nothing, he plucked up courage and said: "The child is asleep... I can watch. It's hot, wife, you go cool off. Just now Song Qiushui's mother sent over two boxes of ice cream for everyone to eat; there are still a few sticks left..."

Su Wan was indeed too hot to bear; just now she had really been gritting her teeth and holding on, so she gave a few more instructions, then came out to get some air.

Chai Mi arranged these things, then started calling the hardworking people to begin cooking.

"Hey... Liu Zhanggui, how did you get away again?" Chai Mi asked Song Qiushui with some puzzlement.

Song Qiushui gnawed on an ice pop while shaking her head: "How would I know... the Village Chief has long legs, if he wants to run he runs, anyway he's not my son, if he's lost then he's lost."

Chai Mi rolled her eyes at Song Qiushui, casually snatched the ice pop from her hand, and took a bite herself to quench her thirst: "Careful the Village Chief hears, later he'll spread it all over the enclosure."

Village Chief Liu Zhanggui wasn't there, so Chai Mi could only arrange people to do the work.

Fortunately most were Chai Mi's clan relatives, either uncles and elders or brothers and sisters-in-law.

Chai Mi arranged them to work, those who could cook cooked, those who could pick vegetables picked vegetables.

She also specially called a few more familiar sisters-in-law to help with cutting vegetables and such.

When Chai Mi was at the vegetable market, she bought a few aprons, quite good-looking, and directly gave them to them.

The countryside has this advantage, many people eat for free, but when there's no food to eat, this group of freeloaders gets most anxious, their hands move extremely fast, afraid they won't get to eat, so work speed obviously accelerates, they even direct themselves to work...

Especially today Chai Mi's grandfather Chai Zhongxiao didn't come, so the oldest in the Chai family, Chai Zhonghou, also known as Chai Mi's non-clan Liu Yeye, jianghu people call him Lao Liutou, became the commander when everyone worked.

"Hey, what are you few idling for? Go tend the fire..."

"You sisters-in-law, stop eating melon seeds over there, the vegetables haven't been cut yet..."

"Eldest sister-in-law, find two people to cut the meat... Third Uncle, what are you acting like a grandpa for? You fucking asking for a beating again... there's hair all over the pig trotters, are you fucking blind, find some charcoal to scorch them... Chai Dajun, did I give you face? I fucking told you to get tables, where did you take them?... And you few, just know how to drink tea, really fucking lazy (missing a character) blazing, want to drink go home and drink..."

Lao Liutou cursed and scolded continuously, everyone was very dissatisfied, but there was no way...

Song Qiushui was stunned: "Wow, your Old Chai Family, cohesion not bad. Look at our Old Song Family, not so good... I've never seen this scene, curse whoever you want, really satisfying."

"You cut it out, when you're eighty you'll also curse whoever you want... this Lao Liutou is already eighty, the oldest in our Chai family, his words may not carry weight, but truly no one dares provoke him. Whoever provokes him, that's eating more than they can carry. Whoever makes Lao Liutou angry, keels over, his sons won't carry the body to their house..."

"Look at Chai Lao San, that's purely won't walk when led but rides fast. Let Lao Liutou scold him a round, look he himself knows to go get a scraper to scrape pig trotters. Early fucking thinking what, just scheming to come to my place to eat and drink for free..."

Everyone worked in full swing.

Chai Mi raised her voice slightly: "Today thanks for everyone's hard work. At noon eating rice, all you can eat."

Everyone was secretly delighted, worked with even more vigor.

After all, rice isn't eaten every day.

That's fine grain, being able to eat one meal openly, also counts as quite luxurious.

After all, other people's hardworking laborers don't have this treatment.

Everyone pretended to work in full swing... (actual situation is fifty or sixty people cooking one meal together.)

Suddenly, Liu Zhanggui led two people, driving a donkey cart, entered the courtyard.

Chai Mi narrowed her eyes to look, heart had some doubts, that cart obviously loaded two pigs...

"Village Chief what did you go do? Half a day couldn't find anyone, come lunchtime you arrive timely. Charitable say Village Chief is busy person, uncharitable think our Village Chief only knows to eat for free..."

Song Qiushui's one sentence made Liu Zhanggui who was preparing to speak not know what to do.

Liu Zhanggui face blank: This girl, indeed a straight intestine, speaks too fucking annoyingly, this Old Song Family also doesn't manage... letting Song Qiushui come out to "talk fucking nonsense"... I Liu Zhanggui as Village Chief, don't I want face?

"Qiu Shui ya... I this not that, went home to kill pigs."

"What? Village Chief you really know how to scheme, Chai Mi's family has business, you go home kill pigs, come here to sell meat?! Look at how capable you are, Iron Crutch Li doesn't have you crooked..." Song Qiushui spoke regardless.

Liu Zhanggui directly held his forehead: almost angry to speechlessness, Song Qiushui this girl speaks, really fucking potent! Stronger than drinking erguotou, even more head-rushing...

Subsequently Liu Zhanggui decided to ignore Song Qiushui.

After all, acknowledging Song Qiushui easy today put his old life here.

Chai Mi also conveniently tugged Song Qiushui: "Alright. The Village Chief selling meat isn't illegal, what are you making a fuss about... what, the Village Chief selling meat is short-weighting?"

"That's not right, Da Zhi gave me lost a big rooster still hasn't repaid me, Village Chief your son made mistake, you must compensate me. Nothing else to say." Song Qiushui pointed finger at pig head: "Give me a pig head. I'll treat this as never happened."

Liu Zhanggui helpless, said: "Pig head can another day I send you one. Today this won't do, these two pigs, are gifted to Chai Mi..."

"What thing? Free gift..." Song Qiushui also stunned.

Chai Mi also stunned: "Uncle, don't make such a big joke. This... I can't accept. How much money, I'll buy."

Su Wan on the side also heard the few people speaking, hearing Liu Zhanggui giving two pigs free, immediately ran over.

"This won't do. This too expensive..."

Chai Mi also repeatedly refused.

Two pigs really too expensive, must know one catty pork this era costs two or three yuan, such big fat pigs, two heads... would be nearly two thousand yuan, equals ordinary person one year salary.

"Village Chief, you old brat wouldn't be fancying Chai Mi right... you undying old thing wanting old cow eat tender grass?!"