Chapter 208: Chapter 204: A Pity About the Generational Difference

Seeing the father and son looking so happy, Wu Shufen hesitated for a moment, then looked at Lin Guodong and said, “When you go back later, you need to knock some sense into Little Hui. Tell her not to go running back to her parents’ house to meddle in her niece’s marriage!”

Lin Guodong frowned. “I already told her off yesterday. I’ll go over and check on things now.” With that, he shouldered the manure buckets, grabbed a hoe, and started walking back.

Lin Changyou watched Lin Guodong hurry away and shook his head. “A leopard can’t change its spots. We’ve reprimanded our second daughter-in-law plenty over the years, but she just can’t fix that gossiping mouth of hers. When we’re gone, there’ll be no one to keep her in line, and those two are going to have a lot of fights.”

Wu Shufen rolled her eyes. “She’s just making her own bed.”

Lin Guodong went back, washed his face, and then headed to his in-laws’ house, a half-hour walk away. Standing outside the wicker fence, he saw that the main gate was shut tight. He turned, walked thirty or forty paces, and arrived at Zhao Xiaohui’s eldest brother’s home.

Seeing Zhao Xiaohui and her eldest sister-in-law in the main room, he frowned and pushed open the wicker gate to walk in.

Eldest Sister-in-law Zhao, who was sitting facing the courtyard gate, saw Lin Guodong enter the yard and quickly nudged the gossiping Zhao Xiaohui. “Little Hui, Guodong is here.”

“Ah!” Zhao Xiaohui, still wanting to say more, cut herself off. Turning her head, she saw Lin Guodong already on the steps and went to greet him with a smile. “What brings you here?”

Zhao Aihui stood up with a smile and greeted him, “Uncle, come in and sit down.” Seeing Lin Guodong, Zhao Aihui was reminded of Lin Guoqiang, who had left to join the army, and she sighed to herself. ’If only they weren’t from different generations.’

Lin Guodong gave a polite smile. “The septic tank at home is full. I came to get your aunt to come back and help.”

Eldest Sister-in-law Zhao said with a sour tone, “Look at you people! The more you have, the more you work to get even more. Guodong, if my family had what your family has, I’d just hire a few people to carry manure. Wouldn’t it be nice to be the boss and just kick up your feet!”

Lin Guodong gave a cool glance at Eldest Sister-in-law Zhao, whose gums showed when she spoke and whose lips were flecked with spittle. “Sister-in-law, we’re not like you. We have two young kids who need money for school. When they grow up, they’ll need money to get married and build houses. What are we supposed to do if we don’t earn it?”

Of everyone in the Zhao family, he disliked this eldest sister-in-law the most. She was a woman herself, yet she placed no value on her own two daughters. For something as important as marriage, she never cared if the man was a good person or not; all that mattered was that the betrothal gift was large enough.

Seeing the two of them at each other’s throats again, Zhao Xiaohui quickly pulled Lin Guodong away. “Let’s go! Didn’t you say you were waiting to carry manure?”

Lin Guodong took the opportunity and left with her.

The moment Zhao Xiaohui and her husband were out of the yard, Eldest Sister-in-law Zhao spat. “Who does he think he is? Earns a little money and suddenly looks down on his wife’s family!”

She then turned back to Zhao Aihui. “You heard your aunt just now. Even a mute, divorced woman like Lin Yuezhen found a man from the city. You’re in the prime of your youth, like a flower in bloom. How could you not find someone better than her man?”

Zhao Aihui lowered her head and said softly, “But Auntie also said the scar on that man’s face is enough to make a child cry!”

Eldest Sister-in-law Zhao roared in exasperation, “What good is being good-looking?! Can you eat it? Can you spend it like money? Let me tell you, if the Pei family can’t cough up the money for a watch, you two are through! Immediately!”

Zhao Aihui kept her head down and said nothing.

Eldest Sister-in-law Zhao stared at the top of her daughter’s head for a moment before saying coldly, “Plant the vegetable seedlings, and you’d better think long and hard about what I said.” With that, she stomped outside in a huff.

When Lin Guodong and Zhao Xiaohui got home, he said to her, “You’re a woman yourself, and Aihui is your niece. If that young man from the Pei family is really a good guy and Aihui likes him, you should put in a good word for her, not stir up trouble. Also, Mom told you not to go around telling people about Little Lan and Yuezhen. Did you tell your sister-in-law about it again?”

Zhao Xiaohui shot him a guilty glance. “I didn’t. I just went over to try and persuade her.” She started walking toward the woodshed. “Didn’t you say we needed to carry manure? Let’s get to it before it gets dark.”

’I told my sister-in-law over and over not to tell anyone else. If word gets back to my mother-in-law, I’ll get another scolding!’

Lin Guodong looked at her. “What are you so guilty about? If you start acting like your sister-in-law, don’t blame me for getting rough.”

Zhao Xiaohui glared. “I said I didn’t, so I didn’t! If you don’t believe me, then fine.”

The couple carried the manure buckets to the pigsty. Lin Changyou and Wu Shufen had already left, so the two of them rolled up their sleeves and got to work.

Zhao Xiaohui dutifully carried a few loads, but when she saw that Zhang Xiuqing still hadn’t returned to help, she started to feel resentful. ’The pigsty doesn’t belong to just Lin Guoliang’s family, so why should the eldest brother and his wife get to slack off while the two of us are here doing all the hard labor?’

“If you think it’s too hard and you don’t want to do it, you can go back to your parents’ house. I won’t stop you.” Lin Guodong dropped this line, then shouldered the manure buckets and walked off without looking back.

Zhao Xiaohui watched his retreating back, absolutely furious, but she didn’t dare drop her buckets and go home.

At dusk, Zhang Xiuqing and Lin Guoliang returned, pulling a handcart. On the cart were four bamboo baskets, each over a meter tall and filled to the brim with pumpkins.

Zhang Xiuqing said to Lin Changyou, “Dad, my eldest brother and sister-in-law are going to Lexing tomorrow at noon. They said they’d like you to go with them.”

Lin Changyou nodded readily. “Alright! We’ll need to ask your brother and the others for help carrying a few baskets of pumpkins to Little Lan’s place.”

Zhang Xiuqing smiled. “I already spoke with them. They said they’ll each carry a load over.”

Wu Shufen looked at her. “What time are you leaving tomorrow?”

Zhang Xiuqing replied, “We’ll leave tomorrow afternoon. Zhixue is teaching my eldest brother how to make tofu. They’re planning to make tofu and sell it from a pushcart around the production teams after they get back from Lexing!”

Wu Shufen smiled. “That’s wonderful! With the three big production brigades nearby, selling two blocks of tofu and a bucket of soft tofu pudding a day could bring in a few yuan.”

Zhang Xiuqing agreed. “Zhixue also said they can trade tofu for soybeans.”

Early the next morning, Lin Guoliang took a padded jacket, some grain, and a cut of meat and went to pick up Qiaohui.

That afternoon, Lin Changyou, Zhang Guangming, Yu Xiufang, Wang Zhixue, and Zhang Yuru each shouldered a load of pumpkins and headed for the ferry.

The group arrived in Lexing and delivered the pumpkins to Lin Lan’s house. Yu Xiufang looked at Lin Yuezhen and sighed in admiration, “You’ve gotten fairer and put on some weight, and you look younger and younger. If I ran into you on the street, I wouldn’t even recognize you.”

Yu Xiufang’s few words of praise made Lin Yuezhen blush.

Lin Changyou watched her with a cheerful smile. “We still have to go to Zhixue’s house. Could you pour us some hot water so we can wash up?”

Lin Yuezhen nodded, ladled hot water from a pot warming on the stove, and gave it to them to wash up.

Wang Zhixue pointed to an oven and said to Zhang Yuru, “That’s the oven Auntie had someone build. The mooncakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival were baked in there.”

“Mhm!” Zhang Yuru looked at him, her eyes sparkling. “Does your mom use an oven to roast the tofu, too?”

Wang Zhixue smiled and shook his head. “Nope. You’ll see when we get there.”

Seeing the two of them whispering to each other, Yu Xiufang pressed her lips together to hide a happy smile.

After washing up, the group went to the Wang family’s home in the second team.

“What a surprise! What a surprise!” Yang Liqun happily welcomed them inside, explaining as she walked, “Zhixue’s father went to make a delivery to the canteen.”

She had thought Zhixue would be back by noon, so she had bought groceries at the Dongzikou market early in the morning, ready to start cooking as soon as the guests arrived.

Yu Xiufang smiled. “Being busy with business is a good thing!”

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