They had spent the entire night wrapped up in each other.
Chuntao’s body felt limp and weak. Zhou Zhijun had refused to let her get up early, but how could she bring herself to sleep any longer?
Before Zhou Zhijun came home, Aunt Zhou had often told her that she worked herself to the bone nursing the babies, changing them, and cleaning up after them. As long as the children weren’t making a fuss, she should sleep in a little.
Now that Zhou Zhijun was back, they kept busy every night, leaving her utterly exhausted. She didn’t get out of bed until the sun was high in the sky.
Actually, Chuntao wanted to rise early herself, but Zhou Zhijun insisted on holding her down and making her sleep a little longer.
During the hottest days of summer, it had been too hot to sleep even while lying in bed. Now that autumn had arrived, the noontime heat remained stifling, but mornings and evenings had grown considerably cooler.
When Chuntao woke up, she was the only one left in bed. Even Nuannuan was gone.
The autumn crops in the fields were ripening one after another, and the whole family was so busy they could barely keep their feet on the ground. Chuntao was only responsible for watching the children; they wouldn’t let her lift a finger for anything else.
But sleeping until this late every day and making her mother-in-law watch the children made Chuntao feel terribly guilty. She even felt that she had become too lazy.
She hurriedly climbed out of bed and ran to the east room, but no one was there. The kitchen was empty too.
Chuntao quickly washed up. Without even eating breakfast, she rushed outside to look for them.
When she reached the back of the house, she saw Aunt Zhou sitting on the ground with Nuannuan in her arms. Jianshe was crawling around on the grass, babbling away in baby talk that no one could understand.
“Ma!” The moment Chuntao thought of how late she had slept, her face flushed bright red.
Aunt Zhou looked at her with undisguised affection. “I left some food for you in the pot. Have you eaten?”
“Not yet. I’ll eat in a bit.” As she spoke, Chuntao reached out for Nuannuan in Aunt Zhou’s arms. “I’ll hold her. You sit and rest.”
“Nuannuan’s a good girl. She’s no trouble to hold. Hurry back and eat!”
Several women carrying sickles passed along the main road. They couldn’t help casting a few extra glances in this direction, whispering as they walked.
“Li Chun Tao was treated like a beast of burden in the Wang family, but she’s become a lady in the Zhou family!”
“That’s right. It’s the height of the autumn harvest, and I’ve never seen her go to the fields. She dumps both children on Aunt Zhou.”
“Of the three daughters-in-law, Aunt Zhou is partial only to Li Chun Tao!”
Aunt Zhou heard every word of their gossip, and she understood it perfectly.
She had deliberately sat outside soothing the children so that all the village busybodies could see how much their family doted on Chuntao. That way, Chuntao could hold her head high in front of everyone.
But what she did also pricked Huang Meili’s family like a thorn in their eyes.
In the fields, Huang Meili worked while cursing. “That damned old woman! She’s so biased!”
Then she turned to the sisters, Zhou Xiaoying and Zhou Xiaomei, and scolded them too. “The two of you—she won’t even pick you up. Don’t call her Grandma anymore!”
Zhou Xiaoying pouted. “She doesn’t deserve to be our grandma!”
“Exactly! Biased old hag! Rotten bellybutton!” Zhou Xiaomei joined in.
Nearby, Zhou Zhimin was loading the cart. He tied the sesame stalks they had cut into bundles with straw and carried them over to the handcart.
Hearing what the mother and daughters were saying, he pretended not to hear.
“Work faster! It’s almost noon. Try to finish cutting before lunchtime!”
“Faster, faster, faster! Are you trying to work us to death? I’m practically exhausted!” Huang Meili stopped cutting altogether. She plopped down on a bundle of sesame stalks and angrily jabbed the ground with her sickle.
When Zhou Xiaoying and Zhou Xiaomei saw their mother resting, they stopped working too and went over to her.
Zhou Zhimin knew she was throwing a tantrum on purpose, and he couldn’t be bothered with her. He finished loading the handcart and pulled it away.
The moment he left, Zhou Zhaodi came over carrying a child.
“What a miserable life!”
Huang Meili and her two daughters all turned to look at her.
Zhou Xiaoying asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing. It just goes to show that comparing yourself to others will only make you miserable. Better not to compare at all.”
Zhou Zhaodi stepped forward, putting on an indignant expression.
“Meili, your mother-in-law really does dote on Li Chun Tao. She won’t let her work in the fields, and she even helps watch her children. Li Chun Tao sleeps all day, eats, then sleeps again—she’s really fallen into a nest of good fortune.
“Now look at you. You rise before dawn to work and still have to cook for the whole family when you get home. You’re both daughters-in-law, so how can the difference be this great?
“If I were you, I’d turn the whole household upside down. She treats me badly now, but she shouldn’t expect me to look after her when she gets old…”
Huang Meili was already seething with anger. Zhou Zhaodi’s words fanned the flames, and her temper exploded in an instant.
“That damned old woman! I hope she dies a horrible death!
“And that shameless slut, Li Chun Tao—she’ll get what’s coming to her sooner or later!”
The sisters, Zhou Xiaoying and Zhou Xiaomei, joined in, cursing at the top of their lungs.
Zhou Zhaodi stood to one side, the corners of her mouth nearly reaching her ears.
Letting other people make a scene while she stood nearby to watch—she had learned that trick from Zhou Pandi.
“Don’t be angry,” she added, pretending to console them. “You’ll only damage your health, and no one else will suffer for it.
“Look at Xiaoying and Xiaomei. They’re still so young, and they’re so thin it breaks your heart, yet they still have to work in the fields.
“Li Chun Tao is a grown woman, but all she does is eat her fill and play every day. She wasn’t like this when she was in the Wang family. The moment she married into the Zhou family, she became delicate and pampered. When you get right down to it, it’s because someone loves her…”
“Li Chun Tao is nothing but a vixen. All she knows how to do is charm people!”
“That’s right! She’s got Grandma and the others wrapped around her finger!”
Zhou Xiaoying and her sister chimed in one after another, gnashing their teeth in hatred.
“What can you do about it?” Zhou Zhaodi continued to stir the pot. “Li Chun Tao knows how to sweet-talk people, so the two of you should learn from her!
“If you can’t, then stop being jealous!”
“I won’t learn!” Zhou Xiaomei snarled.
Zhou Xiaoying didn’t answer. She only tightened her grip around the handle of her sickle until her knuckles turned white.
Zhou Zhimin returned with the empty handcart. The mother and daughters were still sitting on the ground, with Zhou Zhaodi standing beside them. He knew at once that something unpleasant had happened.
He barked, “Get up and start cutting! Quit standing around gossiping, or you’ll bite your tongues!”
His words were aimed at his family on the surface, but in truth they were meant for Zhou Zhaodi.
Zhou Zhaodi understood. She turned and left with the child in her arms.
Huang Meili had a bellyful of anger with nowhere to vent it. She snatched up her sickle and hurled it at Zhou Zhimin.
“You good-for-nothing! All you know how to do is bully me. If you’ve got the nerve, go take it out on that old woman!”
“Ah!”
Zhou Zhimin cried out in pain.
The sickle Huang Meili threw struck him squarely. The tip pierced his face, and blood gushed out at once.
The rest of Huang Meili’s words caught in her throat. Her entire body froze.
“Ma, Dad’s face is bleeding!” Zhou Xiaoying screamed in fright. She hurriedly bent down to search for some thistle leaves.
She grabbed a large handful of the old leaves. Without worrying about the prickles, she crushed them vigorously in her palm and held them out to Zhou Zhimin.
“Dad, press these against it!”
Blood kept streaming down. Zhou Zhimin covered the wound with one hand, but it was soon soaked in blood, which seeped between his fingers and ran down his wrist.
Huang Meili finally came to her senses. She rushed forward, grabbed the crushed leaves from Zhou Xiaoying, and tried to press them against his face.
“Take your hand away!”
Zhou Zhimin glared at her with eyes full of fury. He pulled away the blood-covered hand and slapped Huang Meili across the face.
“Huang Meili, you’ve gone too far!”
Huang Meili had been married to him for more than a decade, and this was the first time he had ever hit her. The slap left her completely stunned.
“Zhou Zhimin, how dare you hit me? I’ll fight you!”
She forced out a few tears and, wailing loudly, began clawing and tearing at Zhou Zhimin.
Zhou Xiaoying and Zhou Xiaomei hurried over to pull them apart, crying as they did so.
The people working in the surrounding fields heard the commotion. One after another, they stopped what they were doing and turned to look.
“Stop!”
A sharp shout rang out from behind, and Huang Meili’s hand froze in midair.
“It’s the height of the busy farming season, and you still have time to cause trouble here!”
Old Man Zhou hurried over with Zhou Zhijun. The moment he saw Zhou Zhimin’s face covered in blood, all the color drained from his own face. He quickly reached out and pressed down on the wound.
“Go find some prickly herb shoots! We’ve got to stop the bleeding!”
The sisters, Zhou Xiaoying and Zhou Xiaomei, ran off in a panic to pinch off some of the shoots. They crushed them until green juice seeped out, then pressed it against Zhou Zhimin’s face, but the bleeding still wouldn’t stop.
“Zhimin, go get Zhao Qingjiang!”
“He must be out in the fields during this busy season. There won’t be anyone at home,” Zhou Zhijun said.
Zhou Zhimin was in so much pain that his teeth were clenched, yet he stubbornly held himself upright on the ground. “It’ll be fine if we keep pressing it for a while.”
With Zhou Zhijun there, Huang Meili shrank to one side, not daring to make a sound.
The commotion that had filled the air moments ago suddenly fell into an eerie silence. Only the rustling of wild grass in the breeze could be heard.
Then, from the dirt road to the north, came the low rumble of a car engine. The sound grew louder as it approached.
Everyone working in the fields instinctively looked up.
A military-green jeep was driving toward Wangjiazhai, a cloud of dust billowing behind it.
