Chapter 67: Chapter 65: Vicious Woman Hits My Son

Lin Lan smiled and said, “You also have to subtract the cost of labor, firewood, and gypsum!” ’Seeing Yang Liying get so excited over a little more than one yuan… People from this era are really easy to please,’ she thought.

Yang Liying shook her head, unable to hide her joy. “Labor doesn’t cost us anything! Your brother-in-law and I have plenty of strength!”

Lin Lan recalled hiring two bricklayers to fix up her house for just a few yuan a day, not including meals. She sighed, “You’re right. The least valuable thing right now is manual labor.”

Yang Liying nodded. “Exactly. I sometimes wonder—factory workers do their jobs, and we farmers do ours. During the busy season, we work harder than they do. So why do they get a monthly salary and new work clothes while we toil all year long for nothing?”

Lin Lan chuckled. “It just proves how enlightened we farmers are!”

When the two sisters-in-law got back, Zhao Dehai had already gone home.

When the old woman learned that Yang Liying had also made over a yuan today, she was happy for her too. She encouraged her with a cheerful smile, “Keep up the good work. Life will get better day by day.”

Yang Liying felt a surge of motivation and nodded happily. “I hope your words bring us luck.”

“Third Sister, you should make a bit more tofu and tofu pudding tomorrow,” Lin Lan reminded her. “Those customers who didn’t have containers today will probably bring them tomorrow.”

“Okay. I’ll wash the wrapping cloths and then head home to soak the beans.”

Lin Lan asked her mother-in-law and learned that Little Douzi and Dandan had gone out with Little Kai to play with their rolling hoops. She then started mixing paste to paper the windows.

The old woman, still worried about the caponized chicks at her house, went home to check on them.

Lin Lan poured some boiling water into a bit of starch to make a paste. After papering over the windows in both rooms with newspaper, she started moving her bedding back into her room.

’The days are getting hotter, and the mosquitoes will be out soon,’ she thought. She took a clean, old mosquito net from a chest, hung it properly, and then draped the oilcloth over the top of the canopy bed to keep off the dust.

Yang Liying finished washing the tofu cloths and the soymilk filtering bags. She then grabbed a tofu-making basket from the shed near the pigsty and left it to soak in the washing basin.

Remembering that Lin Lan was also short on firewood, she left half of the tofu pudding at her house. Finding Lin Lan in her room, she said, “Lin Lan, I’ll bring some firewood over for you tomorrow.”

Lin Lan smiled and shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I asked Li Xiangyang to help me buy two tons of coal from the black market. He said he’ll deliver it tonight.”

She was worried that if Yang Liying brought firewood over, it would attract attention and start gossip.

Yang Liying felt that constantly using Lin Lan’s firewood wasn’t a sustainable solution. She considered borrowing the stone mill to use at her own house, but then she had a second thought. Carrying the tofu and tofu pudding from her home all the way to the Eucalyptus Forest would mean crossing nearly the entire First Brigade, and she’d have to deal with endless questions from people along the way.

“Lin Lan, I have to bring the firewood. I can’t let you subsidize us like this.”

Lin Lan considered that until economic policies loosened up, Yang Liying would likely have to keep making tofu at her house. Over time, that would indeed be a lot of firewood.

’Her years of experience had taught her a valuable lesson: the closer people were, the more important it was to keep finances clear. Only then could relationships between relatives and friends endure.’

She thought for a moment and came up with a compromise. “Third Sister, how about this? You can use my firewood, and in return, you leave half the soybean dregs for me to feed my pigs.”

Yang Liying laughed. “That’s such a small amount of dregs, and you want to split it? You can have all of it!”

Lin Lan nodded readily. “Once you’re making more, we’ll split it fifty-fifty.”

“Okay, I’ll head back now. Your brother-in-law is waiting to hear the good news!” Yang Liying paused for a moment. “We’ll come over tonight to help you unload the coal.”

Lin Lan smiled and nodded. “Go on! Let your brother-in-law share in the good news.”

Yang Liying nodded and left, absolutely beaming.

Lin Lan finished making the bed and put the rice on to cook. She was just thinking about going out to find the two children and call them home for dinner.

As she reached the courtyard, she heard Dandan shouting. Lin Lan shot out the door like a gust of wind, just in time to see Zhang Yazhen screaming as she viciously slapped Little Douzi across the face.

Lin Lan’s vision blurred with rage, her heart twisting in agony. ’You bitch! How dare you hit my son! How dare you touch the precious treasure I cradle in my hands, my darling boy whose hair I wouldn’t even let be ruffled…’

She instantly became a furious lioness protecting her cub. She shot forward like an arrow loosed from a bow and, before Zhang Yazhen could even react, grabbed her by the braid and yanked her to the ground. Lin Lan straddled her, and with a loud SMACK, viciously slapped her across the face. She followed with a backhand, then another. SMACK! SMACK! She rained blows down on her, one after another.

“You venomous bitch! You uncultured trash! How dare you hit my son!”

Suddenly yanked down and pinned, Zhang Yazhen was stunned, unable to react for a long moment. When she finally came to her senses, all she felt was the searing pain on her face.

She started to wail, clawing wildly at Lin Lan. “You widowed bitch! You slutty vixen! You dare hit me…”

Lin Lan jerked her head back, but not before feeling a burning pain as the other woman’s nails raked her from chin to neck.

Eyes bloodshot, Lin Lan said nothing. She saw that Zhang Yazhen’s cheeks were bruised and swollen, the corner of her mouth split open. She stopped slapping her face. Gritting her teeth, she started landing blows where they wouldn’t be seen.

All her recent work pounding bean paste, kneading dough, and cutting grass had built up the strength in her arms. Within moments, she had completely overpowered Zhang Yazhen, who could only wail in pain.

By now, neighbors had started to gather. “Lin Lan and Zhang Yazhen are fighting!”

“What’s wrong? What happened?” He Cuicui yelled, rushing forward to pull Lin Lan off.

Lin Lan whipped her head around and shot her a savage glare. “You lay a hand on me, and I’ll beat the hell out of you, too!”

He Cuicui was terrified by her savage glare. Seeing Lin Lan’s mother-in-law arrive, she froze, not daring to intervene.

Xiong Jianjun rushed over as well, shouting, “Stop! Both of you, stop!”

Only then did her mother-in-law manage to pull Lin Lan off. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Jianjun! Waaaah…” Zhang Yazhen threw herself at Xiong Jianjun and burst into tears.

The crowd saw Zhang Yazhen clinging to her husband, her face red and swollen, her mouth split, and her hair a mess. They began to whisper among themselves about how badly she’d been beaten.

“That bitch Zhang Yazhen hit my son!”

With her eyes still red, Lin Lan turned and saw the four bright red finger marks on Little Douzi’s left cheek. His pale, tender face was swollen like a ball of risen dough, and a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth. The sight was blinding.

Her heart twisted in agony. Lin Lan lunged forward and swept Little Douzi into her arms, letting out a heart-wrenching wail. “Yang Laoyao, open your eyes and look! You’re gone, and you left your wife and son all alone!”

“A grown woman is beating our three-year-old boy! You who died young, send a sign! Avenge us! Oh, Little Douzi! It’s all because your mother is useless! Everyone, young and old, just walks all over us!”

“Mama, they’re the bad guys! Waaah…” Little Douzi clung to Lin Lan’s head, sobbing along with her.

When the crowd saw Little Douzi’s face, they gasped.

“He’s just a little kid! How could she hit him like that?”

“Yeah, that woman from the Xiong family is just too much.”

Xiong Jianjun listened to the murmurs of the crowd. He looked at his wife, whose face was swollen like a pig’s head, then at the mother and son crying in each other’s arms. He was caught in an impossible position.

Zhang Yazhen, who had been hoping her husband would avenge her, was so furious she shoved him away. Pointing a finger at his face, she shrieked, “You useless coward! Oh, does your heart ache for her? You can’t bear to lay a hand on that little vixen, can you…”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep