"Oh, Mother!"
Zhou Xiaoying’s face turned ashen, and a piercing scream stabbed into everyone’s ears. All eyes were fixed straight on her neck.
Draped around her neck was a "dirt sack" (a type of venomous snake), a sight that made everyone’s scalp tingle.
Huang Meili turned pale with fright and quickly scrambled up from the ground, "Which little bastard did this?"
She glared and stamped her feet, cursing loudly, but didn't dare to grab the snake off Zhou Xiaoying’s neck.
Zhou Xiaoying acted like a madwoman, jumping, skipping, and screaming, the snake bouncing up and down with her movements.
The onlookers were stunned until someone suddenly shouted, "It’s a dead snake—"
Hearing this, Huang Meili was taken aback for a moment, then fiercely grabbed the jumping Zhou Xiaoying, "What are you afraid of? It’s dead!"
She gritted her teeth, grabbed the dead snake, and threw it forcefully to the side, while Zhou Xiaoying slumped to the ground in terror.
In the crowd, two half-grown girls shrank their necks, schadenfreude showing on their faces.
These two girls were about the same age as Zhou Xiaoying. When cutting grass, herding cattle, or gathering firewood, minor conflicts were inevitable. But Huang Meili was very protective of her own and would go to the other families to complain every time.
Whenever she complained, the two girls would get a beating from their fathers, so they harbored a grudge.
Just now, while cutting grass in the field, they saw an old man from the village kill a snake. They grabbed it and ran over, using the chaos to drape it over Zhou Xiaoying’s neck.
Zhou Dana looked at the dead snake on the ground, then glanced at the still terrified Zhou Xiaoying, the knot between his brows tightening, and walked away with his hands behind his back.
Seeing him walk away, Huang Meili patted the mud off her pant legs, spit flying as she yelled, "Which wicked ghost did this? I hope she has a child without an asshole!"
She then pointed at Chuntao and roared, "You can't live a good life, so you're jealous of our family! Let me tell you, want us to pay up? No way! Apologize? Dream on!"
Faced with Huang Meili’s unreasonable tantrum, Chuntao didn't care anymore. With red eyes, she glared at Huang Meili and said firmly, "Huang Meili, you must pay this money!"
"I won't pay, let's see what you can do about it!"
Wang Xiaohong stepped in front of Huang Meili, "You won't pay, and you won't apologize, right? Then we'll do as the Party Secretary said!"
Saying that, she supported Chuntao’s arm, "Sister-in-law, let's go home! Whoever dares to ruin our watermelons again is going against the Party Secretary and holding back our village from being rated as advanced!"
Wang Xiaohong and Zhou Hongxia helped Chuntao walk away. Huang Meili cursed at their retreating backs and led the two girls home.
Meanwhile, Zhou Zhijun and Han Wenke were castrating pigs in the pigpen, completely unaware of what had happened in the field.
Seeing Wang Xiaohong and Zhou Hongxia helping Chuntao back, with Chuntao looking pale, his heart tightened immediately, "What's wrong? Not feeling well?"
"No!" Wang Xiaohong replied, helping Chuntao to sit down in the kitchen, and handed her a bowl of boiled water. "Sister-in-law, we are just making her mad, we shouldn't get mad ourselves!"
Zhou Hongxia also chimed in, "Exactly!"
Zhou Zhijun listened from the courtyard, his heart skipping a beat. Was she bullied again?
As it was getting close to noon, Chuntao rested for a bit, then weakly stood up from the stool to cook.
The family usually ate sweet potato flour steamed buns, but she thought of making two oil pancakes to properly host Han Wenke.
Seeing she could barely stand, Zhou Hongxia said, "Sister-in-law Chuntao, you rest, I'll help Xiaohong cook!"
Chuntao softly said, "Hongxia, you go back and help your mom cook, Xiaohong and I can manage."
"It's fine, my mom and the others aren't home today, just Xiaobao and me!" Zhou Hongxia helped Chuntao to lie down on the bed.
Thinking of Zhou Xiaoying’s words, Chuntao had mixed feelings.
They kept staring at her and ruined her watermelons because they were jealous of Aunt Zhou treating her well!
After all, Huang Meili was Aunt Zhou’s biological daughter-in-law, and she was just a goddaughter. She didn't want to cause a rift between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law because of herself.
While Zhou Hongxia and Wang Xiaohong were busy in the kitchen, Zhou Xiaobao darted in, followed by Aunt Zhou.
Aunt Zhou carried a bamboo basket full of locust flowers.
"I picked these at the front of the village, just budding, not fully open, mix them with some flour and steam them!"
Wang Xiaohong quickly said, "Great-aunt, keep them for yourself, I'll go pick some myself."
"I picked a lot!" Aunt Zhou put the basket aside and asked, "Where is your sister-in-law?"
Zhou Xiaobao had run over and told his grandmother about Zhou Xiaoying and her sister picking the melons, so Aunt Zhou came over out of concern.
"My sister-in-law is sleeping in the main room!"
Aunt Zhou went into the inner room of the main house, looked at Chuntao’s pale face, sighed, and patted her hand.
"Those women are all fools, not one of them is reasonable. Just treat them like mad dogs, don't take it to heart."
"Mhm," Chuntao replied softly.
"Have a good rest!" Aunt Zhou advised a few more words before returning to the kitchen.
Zhou Hongxia said indignantly, "Grandma, you probably don't know, when Liu Cuilan and her gang came to make trouble a while ago, it was Zhou Xiaoying and her sister gossiping!"
Aunt Zhou was surprised and said, "These two girls, they won't learn anything good from their mother!"
After saying that, she got up to leave, "Hongxia, stay here and help Xiaohong, I'm going home."
Wang Xiaohong quickly tried to keep her, "Great-aunt, you and Xiaobao stay and eat together, don't go back and busy yourself."
"No, your great-uncle is keeping the fire going at home, Xiaobao will eat at my place!" Aunt Zhou pulled Xiaobao and left.
Wang Xiaohong cooked three scallion pancakes and brought one to Aunt Zhou.
When she came back, she held two large white steamed buns. Every time she brought something to Aunt Zhou, Aunt Zhou would never accept it for nothing and always wanted to give something back.
Wang Xiaohong stir-fried a plate of leeks and eggs, a plate of green garlic sprouts, made a cold dish of schizonepeta and amaranth, and a small basin of egg drop soup, making up four dishes and one soup, which was a decent reception.
The dishes Chuntao had cooked in the morning to host Old Man Han were untouched, so Wang Xiaohong put them back in the pot to heat up for themselves.
When the food was ready, the piglets in the pen were also castrated. Wang Xiaohong brought warm water for Zhou Zhijun and Han Wenke to wash their hands.
Zhou Hongxia stood at the kitchen door, looking at the gentle and refined Han Wenke, her face slightly flushing.
Zhou Zhijun and Han Wenke ate in the main room. Wang Xiaohong served food to Chuntao and Wang Jieshi, then ate with Zhou Hongxia in the kitchen.
Wang Xiaohong handed Zhou Hongxia a white bun, but Zhou Hongxia didn't take it and picked up a dark bun instead.
"I love dark buns, made of pure sweet potato flour, very sweet!" Her family rarely ate sweet potato flour buns, and she really craved them.
Zhou Hongxia nibbled on the bun, but her eyes kept drifting out the kitchen door, her ears perked up to listen to the movements in the main room, though she couldn't hear anything clearly.
"Xiaohong, is this Old Man Han's son, Han Wenke?"
Zhou Hongxia had long heard that Han Wenke had graduated from a technical school and worked at the commune's veterinary station, but she had never seen him before. Today was the first time.
For some reason, that young girl's heart, which had always been as calm as water, suddenly rippled.
Zhou Hongxia was good-looking and articulate. In the past two years, matchmakers had constantly come to her door, but she always refused, saying she was still young. But after seeing Han Wenke, her thoughts changed.
"Yes, they have a formal job, yet they can still swallow their pride to do this kind of work." Wang Xiaohong kept her head down, shoveling rice into her mouth, not overthinking it.
As for Huang Meili, she cursed all the way home. Seeing Zhou Zhimin squatting on the threshold smoking, she marched right up and lashed out at him.
"Zhou Zhimin, aren't you comfortable, hiding at home enjoying the peace and quiet while letting me make a fool of myself out in the fields!"
"What's wrong? I'm a grown man, what business do I have meddling in women's affairs? If I went, wouldn't I have had to scold our own girl? When women throw tantrums and make a scene, others will at least cut them some slack." Zhou Zhimin tapped his pipe and spoke slowly.
Huang Meili nearly spat a wad of yellow phlegm right on him. "Bah! That niece of yours is no good either, always taking the side of outsiders!"
She plopped down on a chair, slapping her thigh as she yelled, "Zhou Zhimin, if the party secretary really dares to withhold our relief grain, I'll go beg for food at your older brother's house every single day!"
"What? The secretary wants to withhold our relief grain? What exactly happened?" Zhou Zhimin suddenly sat up straight.
"It's all because of that wretched girl Wang Xiaohong complaining to the secretary! All we did was pick a few unripe melons, and she slapped us with the giant label of 'holding the village back'! Zhou Dana said that if we don't pay up and apologize, he's going to dock our relief grain!"
Zhou Xiaoying hadn't yet recovered from her earlier fright; she slumped in her chair, not saying a word.
Zhou Xiaomei, however, chimed in, "Even the secretary is taking Li Chuntao's side. What are we going to do?"
After Zhou Zhimin understood the whole story, he let out a long breath and tried to reassure them, "The secretary is just trying to scare you. He won't actually dock it, don't worry."
Though he said that, he felt uncertain inside. Had Zhou Dana ever shied away from lining his own pockets?
If he really dared to withhold their relief grain, he would either keep it for himself or slip it to Zhou Ergan.
Just as he was thinking this, Zhou Xiaohai came running back from outside like a madman, screaming at the top of his lungs, "Dad! Mom! This is bad! Somebody's been beaten to death!"
