Zhou Zhijun returned to the courtyard with a belly full of anger, squatting at the door of the main room smoking a dry tobacco pipe.
His mind was full of Chuntao's little appearance with red eyes.
He was a thirty-five-year-old man, what kind of life was he living? The person he wanted to guard couldn't see the light of day.
The old tobacco leaves choked him to cough twice, but his heart was empty and aching.
Chuntao's heart was also a mess of hemp.
Thinking of Zhou Zhijun's desire overflowing from his eyes, thinking of what he said, her heart tightened.
After eating lunch, Chuntao went to Hanzhuang to find Old Man Han to geld the pig.
When she rushed to Hanzhuang, Old Man Han had just returned from outside with the boar.
Hearing that Chuntao wanted to geld the pig, he agreed without hesitation, "Okay, I have two more jobs to run today, I'll go to your house early tomorrow morning."
Early the next morning, just as the sky was getting light, Chuntao got up.
She first cleaned the pigpen, boiled a pot of hot water, and then started cooking.
Entertaining craftsmen couldn't be too shabby. She stir-fried a plate of leeks and eggs, stir-fried noodles with chili, and baked an oil pancake.
But the sun had risen high, and Old Man Han had not come yet, so she planned to go to the melon field to take a look.
A few days ago, several small watermelons in the field were picked by people, all of which were raw melons that had just set.
Thrown in the ditch and smashed to pieces, it made people feel distressed.
Just as she walked under the big locust tree at the head of the village, she saw Han Wenke riding a bicycle over, with a cloth bag tied to the back seat.
"Before dawn today, my dad was called away by someone. I happened to have no work today, so I came over!"
Han Wenke explained while pushing the bicycle and following Chuntao towards her house.
Chuntao's little pigs were more than a month old and very lively. One person couldn't hold them down at all, so Han Wenke asked her to find someone to help.
Chuntao had nowhere to look, so she still had to go find Zhou Zhijun. Before she walked out of the yard, Zhou Zhijun came.
He knew Chuntao was going to geld the pig, so he didn't go out, pricking up his ears to listen to the movement outside.
Just now he saw Han Wenke and Chuntao passing by the gate, got up, took out a pack of Baihe Bridge cigarettes from the cabinet, and came out.
"Veterinarian Han, you're here! Smoke a cigarette before getting busy!"
The two squatted at the root of the wall and smoked a cigarette, then rolled up their sleeves and entered the pigpen.
Chuntao, a woman, couldn't intervene in this kind of thing, and her face flushed red, so she carried a bamboo basket to the vegetable garden, preparing to get some vegetables to entertain Han Wenke at noon.
She walked along the path towards the melon field. Before she reached it, she saw several figures in the melon field.
Chuntao's heart skipped a beat. A few days ago, several small watermelons that had just set were ruined, and her tears of distress came out at that time.
Is someone coming to ruin her melons again today?
She was burning with anxiety and ran away, the bamboo basket hitting her arm with a "clatter" sound.
When she got closer, she saw clearly that Wang Xiaohong was tightly grabbing Zhou Xiaomei's wrist.
Zhou Xiaomei's face was flushed red, "Let me go! I didn't pick the melons!"
Zhou Xiaoying stood aside, her chest heaving, hands on her hips, her hair braid thrown back, and her voice sharp like a horse chicken.
"Wang Xiaohong, you wronged someone. My sister didn't even touch the melon vines. Let her go quickly!"
One of the two onlookers was Baldy Zhang's little nephew Zhang Ming, holding a sickle in his hand, with a few green grass leaves still stuck to the blade.
There was also Zhou Hongxia. She looked at Zhou Xiaoying and said, "We all saw it. Xiaomei picked a few raw melons from the melon vines, and you were keeping watch in the field above!"
"Xiaohong, what's going on?" Chuntao ran to the front breathlessly, her forehead covered in sweat.
Seeing her coming, Wang Xiaohong grabbed Zhou Xiaomei's wrist even tighter. "Sister-in-law, look, these two girls are coming to ruin our melons again!"
Chuntao's eyes fell on the ground, and she saw the green small watermelons thrown on the ground at a glance.
She bent down and picked up the small watermelon on the ground, her fingers trembling slightly.
These watermelons were already the size of a fist, but they were ruined. It was really a pity.
The Zhou Xiaoying sisters were both teenagers. It wasn't like they didn't know better. They knew it wasn't good to eat, but they still picked it?
Huang Meili was jealous that Aunt Zhou was good to her, but she wouldn't let the two girls come and ruin her melons, right?
"Xiaoying, Xiaomei, did you really pick these melons? They are still small. They are not good to eat if you pick them. Why did you pick them?"
Zhou Xiaoying looked at her, eyes burning with fire, and said righteously, "We didn't pick them! They teamed up to frame us!"
Zhou Xiaomei burst into tears with a "wow", crying and shouting, "I'm going to cut grass, let me go!"
Wang Xiaohong said, "Xiaobao went to call your dad. When your dad comes in a while, explain it clearly face to face! If we don't clear things up today, no one is leaving!"
"The melons in the field a few days ago were picked by them. Hongxia saw it when she was grazing cattle on the ridge...
Today I saw them coming to Donggou, so I called Hongxia to follow!
Zhou Xiaoying was keeping watch at the edge of the field above. We bypassed her and ran over from the ditch, and saw Zhou Xiaomei picking melons."
Hearing Wang Xiaohong's words, Chuntao's voice was light and floating. "Xiaoying, Xiaomei, if the watermelons are ripe, I wouldn't say anything if you picked a few to eat.
But now the watermelons are only this big and can't be eaten, and you picked them. This is too much of a pity! Don't pick them again in the future!"
She looked at Wang Xiaohong again and said, "Xiaohong, let them go! It'll be fine if they don't pick them in the future!"
"This is already the second time. If we let them go, there will be a third and fourth time. If this field of watermelons is ruined by them, our hard work will be in vain!"
Wang Xiaohong grabbed Zhou Xiaomei's wrist and didn't want to let go.
Zhou Xiaoying stepped forward and gritted her teeth to pry Wang Xiaohong's hand. "Let go of my sister!"
Wang Xiaohong was tall, two years older than Zhou Xiaoying, and had a lot of strength. She couldn't pry it open at all.
"Ouch! Are you a dog!" Zhou Xiaoying couldn't pry her hand open, so she lay on it and took a bite.
Wang Xiaohong felt the pain and suddenly let go of her hand. Two rows of tooth marks were bitten on the back of her hand, and blood was seeping out.
But she didn't care about the pain and blocked the two of them. "Don't even think about leaving. When your dad and mom come, let them see what good things you two have done!"
Just as they were arguing, a series of "thump thump thump" footsteps were heard, followed by Huang Meili's high-pitched scream.
"Wang Xiaohong, what are you doing?" Huang Meili trotted over with an angry face.
"Ask them what they did first! Look, the watermelons on the ground were all picked by them!"
Huang Meili ran to the front like a mother hen protecting her chicks, protecting the two girls behind her.
She squinted at Chuntao, spit flying everywhere, "Jieshi's wife, look at what you've done?
As an elder, you just watch Xiaohong bully our two girls? If anything happens to the two girls, I won't let you off!"
The watermelons were ruined by them just after setting fruit, and Chuntao was still holding back her anger!
Not only did Huang Meili not teach them a lesson when she came, but she also made false countercharges.
Chuntao was choked so much that her chest felt stuffy, like a big stone was blocking it, and she couldn't breathe.
Listening to Huang Meili's unreasonable words, the fear in her bones was long gone from anger.
"Third sister-in-law, you can't say that. The raw melons on the ground are right here. Xiaohong, Hongxia, and Zhang Ming all saw it. It was Xiaomei who picked them.
They are not three-year-old children anymore. What's the matter with ruining the crops?"
Chuntao stared straight into Huang Meili's face. Her voice was quiet, but it carried an unyielding, head-on stubbornness.
She had always been an easy target to bully, so Huang Meili could hardly believe she would actually say such a thing today. However, her shock quickly gave way to a cold sneer.
"Aren't they just a few lousy melons?"
With that, she bent down, picked up a small watermelon, and smashed it viciously against the ground.
Chuntao's face instantly drained of color. Her hands clenched into tight fists, the veins bulging beneath her skin.
