After leaving Chen Family Village, crossing a river brought you to Lu Family Village.
Zhou Xueqin never imagined that in the future, one of her sons would be constantly sick and troublesome, while the other would amount to nothing.
But Lu Jingyu's two children would become successful - the daughter a famous singer in Hua Country, and the son an entrepreneur. Both would be genuine big shots.
Passing by a small shop, Zhou Xueqin stopped.
During the divorce, she had taken back the house and savings from Yan Zhao. Now she had plenty of money, and the most effective way to please children was to buy them things.
After the reform and opening up, goods became plentiful. In recent years, bubble gum and sorghum candy were children's favorites, especially the chewy and sweet sorghum candy that kids loved.
"Comrade, give me 50 cents worth of bubble gum and a handful of sorghum candy," Zhou Xueqin said, taking out a yuan.
The shopkeeper, not recognizing her, asked, "You're not from our village, are you? Here to visit relatives?"
"Yes, sister. Where does Lu Jingyu live?" Zhou Xueqin asked with a smile.
The shopkeeper looked up and saw two dirty children pressed against the shop door, drooling. She nodded, "Look, those are Lu Jingyu's kids. Let them take you there."
Although since her rebirth, Zhou Xueqin had been determined to raise these future big shots while they were young and become the wife of a tycoon, she still felt a bit nauseated seeing the two dirty, fierce-looking children.
She thought about how sweet and adorable her younger son had been as a child.
Though her older son had always had a bad relationship with her and hated her, he was much cuter than Lu Jingyu's fierce-looking son with his garlic-bulb nose. When he grew up, talent scouts on the street would try to recruit him for movies.
If Zhou Xueqin hadn't foreseen that no matter what she did, she'd end up living in poverty, she who even found her own children annoying would never have eagerly tried to please someone else's kids.
But never mind, she thought about how Lu Jingyu would become Xiping City's richest man through real estate in the future. Zhou Xueqin could endure this discomfort.
"Little ones, would you like some candy?" She stepped forward, taking out a large handful of bubble gum from her pocket with a smile.
The two children, a boy about seven and a girl about five, looked at Zhou Xueqin warily. Suddenly, the boy pulled the girl away: "Quick, run! This must be a kidnapper."
The girl also spat on Zhou Xueqin's hand: "Kidnapper, we won't eat your candy."
These little brats had such bad tempers?
"Lu Dabao, don't run! Where did your father Lu Jingyu go?" Zhou Xueqin called out.
Hearing Zhou Xueqin call his name, the boy thought she must know his father. He hesitated before mumbling: "My dad's usually out doing business, then he has to stop by Chen Family Village. He won't be home until very late."
Gone to Chen Family Village?
Could he be going to see Chen Meilan?
Ever since Chen Meilan got divorced, even though she was known for not being able to bear sons, because she was pretty and had a gentle personality, some bachelors, widowers, and even young men often went to Chen Family Village just to catch a glimpse of her.
Hearing this, Zhou Xueqin was so angry she almost threw all the candy on the ground.
But she couldn't. The memories of thirty years were too painful.
Her face went pale, but she tried her best to hold back her anger. She handed the candy to Lu Dabao and said with a smile: "I'm a friend of your father's. This candy is a gift for you to eat. Go on, eat it."
The two children eyed Zhou Xueqin warily for a while. Dabao snatched the sorghum candy, grabbed his sister's hand, and ran off.
Wild dogs of children, without any manners. Zhou Xueqin was sick of them.
But she still forced a smile through her annoyance.
As long as they were willing to take it, she had a way to win them over.
But was Lu Jingyu already eyeing Chen Meilan?
This wouldn't do. She had to stop it.
As for her two sons, although one was always sickly and the other hated her, as a mother, she had to make sure those two children received better care. For this reason alone, she had to make Chen Meilan and Yan Zhao's marriage happen.
That's right, the plan to make Chen Meilan marry Yan Zhao was conceived and facilitated by Zhou Xueqin.
She needed to add more fuel to the fire.
The busy farming month of July was marked as extremely unlucky for matchmaking and marriages on the calendar.
This wasn't mere superstition.
July was the busiest time for farming. The wheat had just been harvested but not yet dried or cleaned, piled under the eaves waiting to be stored. The millet was ripe, hanging heavy on the branches. After a few days of scorching summer sun, the millet would start to shed its husks. Once that happened, the slightest touch would make it fall to the ground, ruining a year's harvest.
During this season, matchmaking was strictly forbidden.
Hugging Zhaodi, Chen Meilan lived in a newly built house.
Although the hot summer sun blazed every day, the dampness from the new walls seeped outwards. The mother and daughter found it too hot and only covered themselves with a thin cloth over their bellies. When they woke in the morning, their arms were damp with moisture.
Chen Meilan had heard her brother and sister-in-law discussing remarriage, but she didn't know how they had negotiated with Yan Zhao.
She figured that since Yan Zhao had just divorced Zhou Xueqin, he probably wouldn't be willing to meet a relative for matchmaking so soon. It would take at least ten days to half a month.
But early in the morning, just as she was about to go to the fields to harvest millet, her sister-in-law said with a wry smile: "Quick, put down the sickle. Today the magpies are chirping in the branches - it's a sign of great joy. Yan Zhao is coming, you need to meet him."
Yan Zhao was coming already?
Of course, if Yan Zhao wasn't coming, her brother and sister-in-law wouldn't have specially taken a day off during the scorching July to stay at home.
Remarrying again, Chen Meilan didn't intend to deliberately dress up, but she at least needed to wear clean clothes.
But when she went in to look through her trunk, she found that not only were her own clothes missing, but several of Zhaodi's clothes had vanished too.
Coming out of the bedroom, she glanced along the wall and saw a long bamboo pole propped against her second brother's courtyard wall. It was the long pole used for picking cherries in spring, which should have been put away after cherry season. What was it doing leaning against the wall?
She didn't say anything, but turned and entered her second brother's house.
Her second sister-in-law was bent over a large basin of hot water, washing her hair. The yard was quiet, with no one else around.
There was a clothes chest in the second sister-in-law's bedroom, usually kept locked. Now the key lay on the windowsill along with her undershirt.
Chen Meilan picked up the key and entered the bedroom. She quietly opened the chest and immediately saw several of her own blouses and dresses that she had brought back from the city, lying neatly in her sister-in-law's wardrobe.
Looking further, she even found Zhaodi's little flowery clothes and dresses lying in the chest.
No wonder her and Zhaodi's clothes had been disappearing lately. She had suspected her older sister-in-law of stealing them for her own daughters to wear, but here they all were, lying in the second sister-in-law's wardrobe.
She didn't take them, but kept looking. To her surprise, she found several neat stacks of renminbi bills, all 10-yuan notes. Counting quickly, there was at least 10,000 yuan.
She gently closed and locked the chest, then came out. Her second sister-in-law was still squatting on the ground, bottom in the air, completely unaware.
She was curious about one more thing - wasn't her second brother supposed to be bedridden with a bad back, unable to work? Why wasn't he lying on the kang bed?
Suddenly she smelled a strong aroma wafting from the kitchen. Looking over, she saw her second brother, who was supposed to be bedridden, bent over in the kitchen stewing a chicken carcass.
Her second brother was thin and short, balding at a young age. Half of his shiny bald head gleamed in the morning sun.
It was yesterday's roast chicken. Today he was making the bones into soup, sprinkled with garlic shoots and green onions. Following the old Shaanxi style, he'd bake some flatbread, cut it into strips, and soak it in the chicken soup. Oily and fragrant, it would make a delicious paomo dish.
Chen Meilan still said nothing as she left her second brother's house.
"Why are you running around everywhere? Hurry up, Yan Zhao will be here any minute. Quick, get yourself ready," her sister-in-law called from the kitchen where she was busy as could be, still keeping an eye on Chen Meilan.
Chen Meilan boiled a kettle of water. She needed to wash Zhaodi's hair first. In those days, rural children often had lice. When Zhaodi was in the city, she bathed every day and didn't have lice, but after staying in the countryside for a while, her hair was full of white lice eggs, caught from her cousins.
She used the hot water to scald the hair ends, killing the lice eggs first, then carefully combed them out with a fine-toothed comb.
Next, she braided Zhaodi's hair into two particularly beautiful plaits.
She then dressed her in a short-sleeved blouse with a lotus leaf collar. The child originally had a very pretty dress, but unfortunately, it had been stolen by the second sister-in-law. So she could only put her in an old pair of pants. She washed the child's plastic sandals thoroughly clean. The little girl's skin had tanned to a wheat color during her time in the countryside. Although she was thin and a bit tomboyish, she was now a well-behaved little girl.
"You should just dress yourself up, why bother with the child?" Zhou Qiaofang said reproachfully as she finished cooking the sour soup and brought out the leftover mixed flour pancakes from yesterday.
The second sister-in-law, having washed her hair and finished her chicken soup with bread, made sure to clean her mouth before joining in on the conversation.
She chimed in, "That's right, you should hide Zhaodi first. That Yan Zhao is like the King of Hell. If he sees you with a kid in tow, he might not want to marry you. What if the King of Hell loses his temper in our house?"
When Zhou Qiaofang heard her call out the "King of Hell," she glared at her, "Watch your mouth. If you don't know how to talk, then keep quiet. No one's taking you for a mute."
Chen's Second Sister-in-law pursed her lips, tucking a gold bracelet on her wrist further up her sleeve. She said, "Wasn't it you, elder sister-in-law, who always said that everyone in the army called Yan Zhao the 'Living King of Hell'?"
Wasn't it Zhou Qiaofang herself who used to say that Yan Zhao was a dark-faced King of Hell, killing people on the battlefield without blinking an eye, and that even the Vietnamese would flee at the mere mention of his name?
Why couldn't anyone talk about it now?
Moreover, Meilan's first husband, that nouveau riche, was fair-skinned, sweet-talking, and very good at business. He doted on Chen Meilan in those first few years when he just started making money.
Meilan would return home every year with bags full of gifts - new leather shoes, new woolen coats - making everyone in the village green with envy.
Now she's marrying this rough-looking King of Hell, and becoming a stepmother to boot. It's an ugly business, so why can't people talk about it?
The elder sister-in-law slammed her cleaver onto the table in anger, glaring at the second sister-in-law. But the latter wasn't intimidated at all. She simply sat down on the steps, clearly intending to cause a scene today.
The two sisters-in-law glared at each other, like hens pecking at fish.
Chen Meilan only got around to combing her own hair after finishing her meal.
As she combed, she observed more carefully and noticed that the second sister-in-law not only wore a gold bracelet on her wrist, but also had a red string around her neck. Through her thin summer shirt, a golden pendant could be seen glinting.
On her feet were a brand new pair of Warrior brand sneakers. Yinbao was even more extravagant, wearing a pair of leather sandals that looked like they were from Kangnai.
Those must have cost at least twenty yuan.
How could farmers who rely on the weather for their livelihood suddenly afford gold bracelets, gold pendants, and leather shoes for their children?
When she got divorced, Chen Meilan had initially planned to go to court to demand money. But her second brother had his kidney damaged by the nouveau riche and was bedridden when he returned home. So, for her brother's sake, she chose to swallow her pride and stay quiet.
But she always knew that her second brother and his wife harbored resentment towards her.
In her previous life, when she became successful later on, she took very good care of her natal family, especially her second brother and his wife. Although they were cousins, she treated them just as well as her eldest brother and his wife.
But once, when her second brother was drunk, he cried to her, saying that his biggest grievance was that she had given money to support their eldest brother in building a new house, but hadn't helped him build one.
She had actually given her second brother a lot of money too, arranged for him to work as a security guard in Lu Jingyu's company, and supported Yinbao's education. But her second brother didn't remember those favors, only remembering that she hadn't helped him build a house years ago. Whenever he drank, he would always bring up the fact that she hadn't helped him build a house.
The new house for her eldest brother's family was built with Chen Meilan's support when she was still living in the city and on good terms with her nouveau riche husband.
Since she was already divorced, where would she get the money to help her second brother build a house?
Moreover, this kind of help was a favor, not an obligation. She never imagined that her second brother and his wife would hold a grudge over this.
In their eyes, her helping to pay for building a house had somehow become an absolute duty, something she was supposed to do.
If her guess wasn't wrong, her second brother's kidney being damaged by the nouveau riche was a lie. The couple, harboring hatred over the house issue, had actually conspired with the nouveau riche to set her up.
Her cousin brother, whom she had always treated like her own brother since childhood, had treated her like this.
