Chapter 20 The Final Excitement
Back in the yard, "My dear grandson, have you eaten yet?" Old Mrs. Wang took out the key from her pocket and opened the kitchen door.
Lin Xianwen yawned, tears welled up in his eyes, and he rubbed his eyes, "Well, grandma, why did you wake up after sleeping for such a short time?"
"How can I sleep like this! Come on, old man, old four, eat something." Old Lady Wang lifted the lid of the pot, which contained millet porridge and multi-grain steamed buns. "Where are these damn girls? There's no sign of them!" She said as she walked towards the backyard.
"What's that smell..." Old Lady Wang sniffed, "It smells so good! What are you guys doing?"
Lin Cuihe grabbed one end of the cloth bag, and Lin Xiatao grabbed the other end, and the water in the cloth bag fell into the ditch.
"Grandma, we just finished washing the fur!" Lin Zisu put the detergent and disinfectant back into the RV. As soon as she got out of the car, she heard the voice of Grandma Wang coming from the backyard.
"Oh my!" Old Mrs. Wang was frightened, "You kid! You walk without making any sound!"
“Hehehehe…”
"Why are you grinning like an idiot! You scared me, is that funny?" Old Mrs. Wang patted her chest, this child.
"Mom, the sun is rising and it's getting hot. Let's put the meat in the car quickly." Lin Youcai was standing at the kitchen door, holding porridge in one hand and eating a steamed bun in the other, looking at Old Lady Wang.
"Yes, my meat." Old Mrs. Wang clapped her hands and hurried to the kitchen.
"Shisu, where's your mother?"
"In the RV."
"Go wake her up, then drive the RV to the door of the kitchen front yard and put the meat in later."
"okay."
At the headman's house, the whole family was busy packing their luggage. Old Mrs. Wu had to stop and scolded them with a stern face, "In this time of rushing to escape, everyone is busy running in and out, and there is no time to drink a sip of water. Who are you trying to show off to, throwing things around!"
The third grandson's new daughter-in-law, Mrs. Cao, who had just married into the family half a year ago, turned around and hummed softly.
Old Mrs. Wu's face turned cold. "We, the Lin family, are not unreasonable. If you want to go back to your parents' home, just give me a letter of divorce immediately. Eldest daughter-in-law! Eldest daughter-in-law?"
"Mom, what's wrong?" Li, the eldest daughter-in-law of the village head, who was collecting clothes in the room, heard her mother-in-law calling and hurried out of the room.
"Your third daughter-in-law wants to go back to her parents' home!" After saying this, Old Mrs. Wu turned around and went back to the house to pack up.
"What? Going back to your parents' home?" Li turned around and looked at her third daughter-in-law. "Hey, you're not at peace at this critical moment, are you?"
"Mom, I just want to go back to my parents' home to tell them. My parents' home is not far away, and everyone will leave tomorrow morning, so it's not too late..." Jiang twisted her fingers, looking aggrieved and angry.
Li was so angry that she shouted, "You are too deaf to listen to what your grandparents said this morning! All daughters-in-law and granddaughters-in-law are not allowed to go back to your parents' home to report the news! Everyone has parents, but you do! Go back and tell them, go back and tell them! Are you leaving or not? None of the girls in our family who got married went back to report the news, how dare you make a scene here! If you can't bear to leave your parents' home, leave quickly! My family can save food!"
"When my San'er comes back from the fields, I will ask him to write a letter of divorce! Don't even think about taking anything from my Lin family. You've been married for half a year, but you haven't laid a single egg. I didn't even ask your family to return all the betrothal money, but you should at least return half of it to me!" Li was so angry that she put her hands on her hips, pointed at Cao, and spitted heavily.
"Mother, that's not what I meant." Sun was panicked when she heard that she was going to be divorced and sent back to her parents' home. She also had to return half of the betrothal money. Her parents would definitely not return it, and she would be beaten half to death by her father.
"What do you mean? You ignored everything my grandparents said! You are such a rebellion!"
The wives of the two families in the Lin family courtyard did not stop working, but listened to the conversation between the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law in the courtyard. They put all the thoughts in their minds behind them.
The closest courtyard to Lin Benzhu's house was the home of his second brother, Lin Benshan. The courtyard was noisy, with cries and scolding all around.
The eldest daughter-in-law, Zhao, cursed outside the house, "Once this woman gets married, she belongs to her husband's family in life and her husband's family in death. She only knows how to go back to her parents' home. My Lin family can't afford such a daughter-in-law. If you want to go back to her parents' home, ask your parents to bring the betrothal money! Bring the money and we will let her go immediately! I want to see if my sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law will tolerate this married daughter going back to her parents' home."
The young wife in front of him was crying and couldn't say a word.
Outside Nanlin Village, a mule cart was rushing towards the village, and stopped at the gate of Zhu's house with smoke and dust rolling in. "Bang bang bang bang!" The knocks on the door interrupted the arguments in the yard.
"Who is it?" Zhu Dafu's eldest son Zhu Ming walked to open the door impatiently.
"Brother, it's me!"
"Mingyuan?" Looking at his sister and nieces behind his brother-in-law, "Why are you back? Why are there so many things in the car?"
"Brother, come inside and talk. It's so hot. Are mom and dad home?" Zhu Xiaoyu took the lead and walked into the yard with her two children. "Mom! Dad!"
Not long after, the Zhu family became bustling again.
"I have been trying to persuade my parents for the whole morning, but they are unmoved. Now, my son-in-law and daughter have come back and told me, so I believe it!" Zhu Ming drank a glass of water and wiped the sweat off his face. The weather is too hot, which makes people even more irritable.
"What? You knew it a long time ago?" Tao Mingyuan looked at his elder brother in surprise.
"Early this morning, the village head called all the villagers to the dirt floor and told them that those who wanted to leave should leave together tomorrow morning and flee south. Lin Youcai brought back the news. My parents refused to believe it. They wasted the whole morning while other families had already packed up half of their belongings!"
"Lin Youcai is so well-informed! How did he know to go south?" Tao Mingyuan was a little surprised.
Old Lady Yang said sullenly, "Mingyuan, are you really heading south?"
Tao Mingyuan lowered his voice and said, "I heard from the lawyer that the county magistrate's wife and children were sent to the south. Most of the wealthy families also went south. Everyone said so privately."
"Old woman, stop talking nonsense! Hurry up and pack up! Zhu Ming, Zhu Liang, hurry up! Load the grain into the car!" The more Zhu Dafu listened, the more anxious he became. He shouldn't have listened to the old woman's nonsense.
Outside the stone mill at the entrance of the village, women lined up in a long queue, with baskets filled with wheat and millet waiting to be ground.
"The mule cart that just passed by seems to be the return of Zhu Dafu's son-in-law!"
"She looks like she's on fire! Aunt Yang is the one who yells the loudest this morning! She will definitely be among the refugees tomorrow morning!"
"Who said it wasn't true? What good would it do for Mr. Lin to lie to everyone? Besides, the village head has left, so how could it be fake?"
"These well-off families are willing to leave, so why should we be reluctant to leave with our shabby houses and small fields?"
"It's a war! Oh my God! White knives go in and red knives come out! It's so scary!"
. . .
On the village road, an old woman grabbed a child with one hand and pointed at the woman in front of her with the other, shouting: "No matter where you talk about this, the old woman is right. You want to go when you need to escape, just go by yourself, don't ask my son or grandson to go! Call everyone to judge! How can children and grandchildren abandon their own grandparents and parents to be filial to their parents-in-law? Is there any justice in the world! Aren't you afraid of thunder and killing you? If you can't bear to leave your mother's home, you should have stayed at home and not married! If you have the ability, ask your parents to find you a live-in son-in-law!"
Before the quarrel here was resolved, the sound of beating and scolding came from another house. The thin woman was pinned down by her mother-in-law, who pulled her hair and slapped her face, cursing, "You jinx! What's the use of you! You're a jinx! You're just lazy and can't do any work well!"
A thin figure rushed over and tried to pull up the woman on the ground, crying, "Wuwuwuwuwu... Don't hit my mother, don't hit my mother!"
"You useless idiot, just cry and cry, all you do is cry every day! You are as wicked as your mother! Your father died because of you two crying! You are unlucky! You are an unlucky star!" The old woman pushed the child away, and the child was pushed hard and fell out.
The woman on the ground pushed her mother-in-law away with all her strength and crawled towards the child. "Flower, little flower."
One family quarreled, the other family cursed, and Nanlin Village was noisy all day long.
The eldest and young wives who could not report the news had different thoughts, but most of them faced the reality.
Some people’s parents’ homes are far away and they cannot visit them.
Some of them have no say in their parents' home, so even if you tell them, they won't believe you, and even if they do, they won't take you with you to escape.
Some of the bride's families will not flee with the bride's family. The bride's family will go with people from their own village and their own relatives and friends.
A daughter who is married off is like water spilled on the ground. Once she leaves her husband's family, her parents' family will not care about her life or death. At least she has her husband and children in her husband's family, and she still has food to eat and a place to stay. They will not chase her away.
Some have never been treated well by their parents since childhood, and after they got married, no one cared about their life or death. Some of their parents-in-law didn't even ask a question, let alone support them.
A woman's life is like duckweed drifting with the waves. Her parents' home is not her home, and her husband's home is not her home either.