Chapter 212
“What are you thinking? Why do you look unhappy?” Jiang Yexun asked with concern.
Su Xiaoxiao shook her head. “It’s nothing, just feeling a bit drained from the cold.”
“It’s considered warm now. By the end of December, beginning of January, it could drop to minus ten degrees Celsius. We should be drawing lots for the visit home soon. Shanghai is warmer; we can come back after the snow melts,” Jiang Yexun said, pouring a cup of ginger tea with brown sugar from the hot water bottle in the corner into a enamel cup and handing it to her.
In this winter, going out could easily lead to catching a cold, and getting sick on the way to the hospital would be even worse. So, now that they didn’t live at the Jiang family’s place, they always had this kind of cold-preventing tea ready.
Although Su Xiaoxiao didn’t like the taste, she obediently held the cup and drank half of it before handing the enamel cup back to Jiang Yexun. “Yexun, I can’t finish it.”
“Fussy,” Jiang Yexun frowned, but he took the cup from her and finished it in one gulp.
Because they didn’t know when someone from next door might come to cause trouble, they hadn’t spent the afternoon making the whitening and moisturizing pills.
Su Xiaoxiao and Aunt Guo sat on the kang, one reading a high school textbook and the other knitting.
Jiang Yexun went out to the brigade to find someone to exchange for dried sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes were an indispensable winter food nowadays. Even if someone was willing to make dried sweet potatoes, they wouldn’t make much. They would just make a little to save for the New Year as snacks for the children.
Jiang Yexun asked many households before finally exchanging for half a bag.
“Xiaoxiao, put these in the house first and then go to the kitchen’s cupboard after you finish eating,” Aunt Guo said, filling three clean fruit cans and putting them in the small cupboard next to Zhou Shuyu’s bedside.
“Thank you, Auntie.” Su Xiaoxiao nodded obediently, then moved to the side of the kang to make room for Jiang Yexun.
Although sticking so close made her want to snuggle up, all sitting in the same room, it would be strange not to let Jiang Yexun sit with them.
Just as Jiang Yexun took off his cotton coat and was about to sit on the kang, the door was knocked again.
Aunt Guo frowned, impatiently saying, “Your dad must be asking me to go help again.”
“Don’t go,” Jiang Yexun’s expression changed from relaxed to cold immediately.
Aunt Guo shook her head. “It’s possoble that I don’t give him any money. But I haven’t divorced him after all. With such a big thing happening, I still have to lend a hand, or the people in the brigade will gossip about us.”
“That’s the best they can do,” Jiang Yexun didn’t care about the idle talk from the people in the brigade at all.
But Aunt Guo’s expression became more serious. “When your dad was still the brigade leader, our family was getting along. Naturally, we didn’t need to worry about what the people in the brigade say. But now he’s just an ordinary farmer, and we don’t live in the old Jiang family anymore. Eating well and dressing well every day might provoke jealousy.”
Although it was unlikely that they would be sent to the farm, it was still unpleasant for the people from the Discipline Inspection Office with red armbands to come over.
“Okay, I’ll go open the door,” Jiang Yexun responded coldly, then got up and left the room.
Aunt Guo followed him out.
Seeing that Su Xiaoxiao also wanted to get off the kang, she quickly pressed her down. “Don’t go. This house is unlucky after someone died. Anyway, you haven’t gotten your marriage certificate with my son yet. Whether you go or not won’t make a difference to the brigade.”
After thinking for a moment, Su Xiaoxiao felt that she couldn’t really help much if she went over, and Jiang Yexun wouldn’t let her help anyway, so she gave up.
“Auntie, if things get noisy over there, I’ll go over immediately,” Su Xiaoxiao said earnestly.
“Okay,” Aunt Guo chuckled.
Her daughter-in-law was like a child, always eager to join in the fun. But she was also genuinely concerned about her and Yexun, afraid they would suffer.
—
Outside the door, Jiang Guoli saw that his youngest son had opened the door and involuntarily trembled.
“Why is it you? I’m here to find your mother,” he pretended to be disgusted.
“What’s the matter?” Jiang Yexun asked coldly.
But Jiang Guoli didn’t want to talk to him much. He didn’t want to argue and end up achieving nothing. “I won’t tell you. Let your mother come out.”
Aunt Guo walked out from behind Jiang Yexun. “What do you want to do?”
“Quansheng will be buried tomorrow. Although he can’t be buried in the Jiang family’s ancestral grave, we still have to invite the villagers and relatives from the clan to have a meal. We have to hurry up and find a place for the burial. If you don’t come to help, we won’t have enough manpower,” Jiang Guoli urged while talking about what needed to be done.
But Aunt Guo, even though she had decided to go help, still retorted, “Don’t you have your eldest son and daughter-in-law? And what about Quansheng’s biological mother? She had her share when she needed money, but she disappears when there’s work to be done.”
Thinking of the eldest daughter-in-law who complained about the house being unlucky and refused to do anything when her son died, as well as the eldest son and daughter-in-law who couldn’t exert any effort when they were being pulled around, Jiang Guoli felt inexplicably uncomfortable.
But he had made the relationship between him and his youngest son and daughter-in-law so bad that it was impossible to mend it now.
Now the only ones he could count on were his eldest son and daughter-in-law, so he didn’t dare to be too harsh with them.
“You’re my wife. You should follow to whatever I tell you. Why so much nonsense?” Jiang Guoli reprimanded, feeling both ashamed and annoyed.
Jiang Yexun immediately lowered his face, scaring Jiang Guoli into swallowing nervously.
If possible, he didn’t want to come to his current wife either. But he couldn’t handle everything by himself.
Fortunately, Aunt Guo was in a good mood and didn’t care much about Jiang Guoli’s attitude.