"Grandma, the water is boiled. Get up and have a drink!"
Li Dazhuang walked into the room with a coarse porcelain bowl in his hand. Inside the bowl was freshly brewed houttuynia cordata and rock sugar water.
Every winter, Grandma Shen would suffer from asthma. Every time she had an attack, she would go to the village doctor for some medicine and brew some folk remedies to relieve it.
Grandma Shen had a good constitution and had managed to get through the years.
But this year was colder than usual, and her asthma was worse than ever. Taking medicine didn't help.
She drank the houttuynia cordata water every day, but it had no effect at all.
Li Dazhuang put the bowl on the lid of the wooden box, reached out to help Grandma Shen sit up, and made her lean against the head of the bed steadily.
"Grandma, how do you feel?" He picked up the bowl, blew on it gently near his lips.
Grandma Shen gasped for breath, her voice weak. "Still the same!" Although she knew the water was useless, she still reached out to take it and drank it slowly.
"Or should I go to the commune to find other doctors and get you some more medicine?" Li Dazhuang took the empty bowl and wiped the water droplets from the corner of her mouth with his sleeve.
"I've had this old problem for years. No medicine can cure it!" Grandma Shen sighed. "Just endure it. It'll get better when spring comes."
Suddenly, she raised her eyes, glanced at the curtain, and asked in a low voice, "Where's Lanhua?"
"She's warming the quilt in the other room."
Since Wang Lanhua lost the baby in her belly, she had hated Chuntao, thinking that this misfortune was caused by Chuntao.
In front of her, neither Grandma Shen nor Li Dazhuang dared to mention Chuntao. Whenever Chuntao was mentioned, she would get angry. For the sake of family peace, they could only try not to mention her.
When Li Dazhuang said that Wang Lanhua was warming the quilt, Grandma Shen lowered her voice even more and said, "I wonder how Chuntao is doing?"
Li Dazhuang replied, "Liu Cuilan said she reported it to Secretary Wang of the commune, and that Secretary Wang would personally investigate."
"Liu Cuilan is just a trouble - maker. I'm really worried about Chuntao!"
"Grandma, with Zhou Zhijun around, she should be okay."
Li Dazhuang comforted her, "The secretary is so busy. He doesn't have the time to care about this.
I heard that last time when the family - planning officials went to Dongshan, they didn't arrest anyone. They probably won't cause trouble again in the future."
"This girl, Chuntao, has had a hard life," Grandma Shen's eyes turned red. "I used to be selfish and wanted you to get married.
Now you have children, and Lanhua is willing to live with you well. Chuntao should also have her own happy life.
I'm just afraid that Liu Cuilan will keep causing trouble and won't let it rest!"
"Grandma, don't worry. It'll be okay."
"As long as it's okay. If something happens to her, I won't be able to close my eyes even when I'm dead!"
As Grandma Shen said this, her eyes became even redder. "I don't know if my body can last until I see her again."
A flash of sadness passed through Li Dazhuang's eyes. He quickly comforted her, "Grandma, what are you talking about?
This is just an old problem. After the new year, when the weather gets warmer, you'll be fine.
You're in good health. You'll definitely live to be a hundred and see your great - grandson get married!"
Grandma Shen forced a smile on her lips. "I wish so too."
Just as the grandma and grandson were talking, suddenly there were "thumping" footsteps in the yard. Immediately afterwards, there was Liu Cuilan's shrill cry, "Lanhua... Lanhua!"
It was so cold outside. Why did she suddenly come here? Li Dazhuang frowned and got up to walk out of the inner room.
"Where's Lanhua?" Liu Cuilan asked as soon as she saw Li Dazhuang.
Li Dazhuang replied coldly, "She's warming the quilt."
Wang Lanhua was sitting in the quilt, feeding the baby. When she heard Liu Cuilan's voice, she didn't even lift her head and kept silent.
There was mud on Liu Cuilan's shoes, and she didn't even wipe them on the threshold. She just stepped into the inner room.
"Lanhua! Come back with me today. Tomorrow morning, we'll go to Secretary Wang together!"
Wang Lanhua's eyes were always fixed on the little face of the baby in her arms. She didn't look at Liu Cuilan and didn't answer her either.
Liu Cuilan plopped down on the edge of the bed and said anxiously, "Guess who I met the other day? I met Uncle Haitao!
It turns out he knows Secretary Wang. I told Uncle Haitao about our family's affairs, and he was so angry that he asked Secretary Wang to stand up for our family!"
Liu Cuilan exaggerated and glossed over the facts as she told Wang Lanhua about meeting Liu Haitao.
She continued, "Secretary Wang said he would definitely help us get justice, but we need witnesses to prove that Li Chun Tao and Zhou Zhijun are having an affair.
I've already found a few people in the village. You were in a bride - swapping arrangement with Li Chun Tao. You have to go too and tell them about your grievances!"
It turned out that although Wang Jinlong had promised to take care of this matter that day, no one had come to the village for investigation for several days, so Liu Cuilan got anxious.
She thought that the secretary was busy at the end of the year and didn't have time to come to the village. It would be better for her to take the witnesses to the commune herself. This matter couldn't be delayed any longer.
Even if she couldn't get rid of the illegitimate child in Li Chun Tao's belly, she would at least make them feel uncomfortable.
To find some witnesses, the first person Liu Cuilan thought of was Baldy Zhang. After all, Baldy Zhang had gone to Dongshan and had seen Li Chun Tao with her big belly with his own eyes.
That night after having soup, she went to find Baldy Zhang.
Baldy Zhang's eyes rolled around on her body. "What's in it for me? I won't do anything without benefits."
"All you think about is benefits?" Liu Cuilan knew his dirty mind very well.
"All you men are no good!" Although she was scolding on the lips, her feet walked into Baldy Zhang's inner room on their own.
Baldy Zhang had a lewd smile on his face. "So self - conscious."
The two of them rolled around in the thin and hard broken quilt for a while, and Liu Cuilan shivered from the cold.
While putting on her clothes, she said, "Baldy Zhang, you've taken advantage of me. You must go to the commune to testify!"
"Once isn't enough. I want it for a month." Baldy Zhang played the rascal.
Liu Cuilan glared at him fiercely. "You're useless, but your appetite is big!"
"If you promise to let me have you for a month, I'll go to testify and never go back on my word."
"Fine, I'll spare you for this month!"
After settling Baldy Zhang, Liu Cuilan went to find Zhou Pandi.
But Zhou Pandi had gotten a root problem after falling into the mud pool. When it got cold, she gasped for breath and couldn't go at all.
"Everyone in the village knows about Li Chun Tao and Zhou Zhijun. Why don't you find a few people who have a grudge against them?
The more people, the better." Zhou Pandi was lying in bed, her eyes full of scheming.
Since Zhou Pandi couldn't go, and Zhou Zhaodi was pregnant, of course she couldn't go either.
Liu Cuilan then went to Huang Meili's house. Coincidentally, Zhou Zhimin was not at home.
Liu Cuilan leaned close to Huang Meili and whispered to stir up trouble, "Meili, your mother - in - law likes Li Chun Tao the most. If she really has a baby, won't your mother - in - law hold her up to the sky?
By then, she'll look at you and Wang Haiying even more unfavorably."
"She doesn't like me, and I don't like her either!" Huang Meili replied irritably.
"Do you still remember? That jade bracelet on your mother - in - law's wrist is an old family heirloom passed down from Zhou Zhimin's grandma. It must be worth a lot of money.
If that bracelet goes to Li Chun Tao, you'll really lose out!"
The jade bracelet on Aunt Zhou's wrist was bright green, a family heirloom passed down through generations in the Zhou family.
If it went to Li Chun Tao, she would really lose out. Huang Meili frowned tightly.
Seeing this, Liu Cuilan quickly struck while the iron was hot. "If you want to get that bracelet, you can't let Li Chun Tao give birth to that illegitimate child, and you can't let her step into the Zhou family's door!"
Huang Meili drooped her eyelids, her voice listless. "I can't do anything about it."
A few days ago, she was still thinking about having a word with Zhou Dana and asking him to come up with a way to deal with Zhou Zhijun. But she never got the chance.
"Meili, as long as you want to take action, you can make it happen!"
Liu Cuilan quickly told her plan and slapped her chest in assurance. "As long as you go to the commune to testify, Zhou Zhijun won't get away with it, and Li Chun Tao won't be able to give birth to that bastard in her belly."
As if grasping at a straw, Huang Meili suddenly looked up and gritted her teeth. "Okay, I'll go!"
Having settled things with Baldy Zhang and Huang Meili, Liu Cuilan still thought the number of people was too small. She then went to several gossiping women in the village, but without any benefits, none of them was willing to get involved in this mess.
She then remembered the Wang Haihu brothers and asked them to go too. More people meant more voices and a greater chance of success.
To be more certain of success, she trudged through the mud and walked more than twenty miles to find Wang Lanhua, hoping she would also go to testify.
After listening to her, Wang Lanhua didn't even lift her eyelids and coldly spat out three words: "I won't go."
Liu Cuilan got anxious and shouted at the top of her voice. "Your babies were all cursed away by her! And she made it so that you can never have children again. Can you swallow this humiliation?"
