Chapter 35: Being a Stepmother 2
Huang Lamei looked at the empty bowls on the table and muttered loudly: "They are like reincarnated starving ghosts. They are not active in their work but run away to eat."
Everyone at the table pretended not to hear her words and continued to eat their own food, fearing that if they were a second late, they would miss a bite. After finishing her meal, Ye Zhiqiu touched her stomach and felt as if she had not eaten anything, but there was nothing left on the table.
She wanted to find a place to hide and eat, but Huang Lamei called her: "Second girl, wash the dishes."
"Today it's the turn of Zhuzhu from my fourth uncle's family. Why do you want me to wash it? I won't." Ye Zhiqiu said and ran away. If a tiger doesn't show its power, she will be treated as a sick cat. The premise for her to maintain her original personality is that she can't suffer any loss.
Huang Lamei was so angry that her head hurt, but she couldn't do anything about Ye Zhiqiu who ran fast, and she couldn't bear to let her granddaughter do the work, so she had to do it herself.
The three daughters-in-law still have to work in the fields and have a good rest at noon. The other granddaughters are not as easy to talk to as Ye Zhiqiu, and she can't get them to do anything she wants. Usually, only Ye Zhiqiu and the second daughter are as obedient as she is, and they do their work quietly without refutation when she is called. But today, when the sun rises from the west, they dare to resist.
The other people in the family didn't think much about it. Ye Zhiqiu was not wrong. It was not her job. If she wanted to help, she could help. If she didn't want to help, she couldn't do it.
There were too many children in the family, and they were hungry and cold every day. No one had the extra energy to care about any changes in the children. As long as the children were not too sick to move, the family would not care.
That is, Ye Erniu felt that Ye Zhiqiu was disobedient. When her grandmother asked her to do some work, she ran away. If you have the ability, don't go home at night.
Ye Zhiqiu didn't know what Ye Erniu was thinking, and even if she knew, she wouldn't care. Why didn't she go back? If she didn't go back, would she sleep in the wild? The original body had grown up so big, but she didn't eat the family's food in vain.
She started earning work points at the age of ten, and she had more than enough to support herself every year, enough to make up for the debt she owed her family for the past ten years of eating for free. Besides, she didn't sit at home waiting for food in the past ten years. She was collecting grass for pigs, picking firewood, washing clothes, and taking care of her younger siblings. What kind of things didn't she do?
Although she is not the eldest among the third generation, her brother is a boy, so he doesn't have to do housework even if he needs to work. He is the kind of person who doesn't even bother to pick up the broom when it falls over.
My cousin from my uncle's family has been living in the city, so she, the de facto eldest granddaughter, has suffered the most. She has done a lot of work but still gets no thanks.
From childhood to adulthood, I have never worn a new piece of clothing. I have always worn my cousin's old clothes. Nowadays, every household is poor, and if there are old clothes given by relatives in the city, many people will rush to get them.
Logically, Ye Zhiqiu shouldn't be disgusted, but the problem is that her cousin is shorter than her, so the clothes are too short for her. The short clothes are fine, but the most aggrieved thing is that the shoes are too small for her to wear.
It's okay if she doesn't wear it. The family won't buy her shoes. She prefers to go barefoot in the winter. She doesn't mind the cold. If all the girls in the family live like this, it would be fine, but the youngest cousin Zhuzhu is not like this.
Zhuzhu has been favored by Huang Lamei since she was a child. I dare not say that she is more important than her grandson, but it is almost the same. Since she was a child, she has also had a share of the good things that boys eat, such as eggs every few days and new clothes during the Chinese New Year.
She eats better than her sisters at home, wears better clothes, and does the least work. The original body was naive, not only was she not jealous, but she was often called by Huang Lamei to work.
The rest of the family saw it, but no one said anything, not even Ye Erniu and his wife. They had the most say, but they didn't say anything, and others would not say anything to offend the old lady and the fourth room.
Ye Zhiqiu felt that his original life was hard, due to the Ye family’s reasons as well as his own.
Although the Ye family was poor, they had a worker in the city, so their living conditions were actually the best in the village. They certainly couldn't afford to have good food and clothing, but they had enough to eat.
There was no white rice, but mixed grain rice would be fine, or at least sweet potatoes with mixed grains could fill the stomach. But Huang Lamei couldn't bear to eat it. In her words, every household around her ate and dressed like this, and no one had starved or frozen to death, so why couldn't they?
If you don't want to, get out if you have the ability, otherwise just stay. In this era where you need a letter of introduction to go anywhere, whoever dares to leave can only accept it.
Ye Zhiqiu didn't want to care about the complicated situation of the Ye family. She was a selfish person. She would be nice to whoever was nice to her. None of the dozen people in the Ye family were nice to the original body, which saved her a lot of trouble.
In the future, she no longer needs to be nice to anyone in the Ye family. It’s enough for her to have enough food and drink. In a few years, she can pass the college entrance examination and move to the city, making the Ye family shed tears of envy.
She was not afraid of the Ye family's moral blackmail. Not to mention the rural areas in the 1970s, even in the rural areas decades later, it was assumed that sons would take care of the elderly. As a married girl, she would be praised by everyone for bringing gifts back to her parents' home during festivals.
After finishing the last bite of the bun, Ye Zhiqiu chewed a piece of gum to remove the meat taste from his mouth. When he could no longer smell anything, he prepared to go to work.
Buns are supplies prepared in the previous world. They don’t take up much space, but that has one advantage: whatever you put in remains the same when you take it out. They are much more useful for preserving quality and freshness than a refrigerator, and are a must-have at home or when traveling.
When Ye Zhiqiu arrived at the field, the others had already arrived. The team leader saw that she was late, but because she had always performed well, he didn't say much, but just asked her to work quickly, and if she didn't finish, her work points would be deducted.
Her task was to weed. She was surrounded by women. The three sisters-in-law of the Ye family were also assigned to weed, but they were a little far away from her. However, her younger sister Ye Zhidong, who was one year younger than her, was right next to her.
"Sister, where are you going? You're not taking me with you. Dad is unhappy and says you don't listen to grandma." Ye Zhidong chatted while weeding.
In fact, the relationship between the two sisters is not very good, but no matter how bad it is, they are still family. If they work hard without talking, not only will time pass slowly, but they will also have to keep their mouths shut.
Ye Zhiqiu was worried that he had no chance to express his attitude, so he immediately put on an unhappy face when he heard this: "So what if I'm unhappy? I won't lose a piece of meat if I curse you. No one will expect me to do more work in the future."
As she spoke, she swung the hoe according to her original body's memory, and she almost hit her foot with the hoe. Only then did she realize that farm work was not suitable for her. It looked simple, but when she really put it into practice, she was not even as good as a flower stand.
Forget it. Anyway, she didn't want to be like the original owner, working herself to death for six or seven work points every day. She just wanted to earn three or four work points by fooling around and pretending to have an explanation to others.
Ye Zhidong was shocked by his sister's sudden boldness. When he found that she was weeding much slower than before and almost mistook the corn seedlings for weeds, his eyes widened even more.
"Sister, are you really my sister? Aren't you afraid of being beaten by grandma?" Ye Zhidong is not as obedient as her original body. She has been beaten a lot since she was a child, but she has no complaints because she has to do less work in exchange for being beaten.
Even if Huang Lamei didn't like her granddaughter, she couldn't beat her to death every day, as the neighbors were watching. Even if she didn't want fame, the captain was still watching her.