The daily struggles of divorced women in ancient times

After Zhou and Zhang Xiaolian finished drinking, Zhou Niangzi stuffed two copper coins into Zhang Xiaolian's pocket and said, "This is a red envelope from your godmother. I wish you a peaceful and smooth new year."

Zhang Xiaolian waved her hands innocently and said, "Godmother, I can't accept this. I definitely can't accept it."

How could Madam Zhou let Zhang Xiaolian refuse? She forced it on Zhang Xiaolian and said, "You should take what your godmother gave you. You are not the only one who has it. Everyone has it."

When Zhang Xiaolian heard that everyone had one, she accepted it embarrassedly.

"Godmother, you are so kind to me. I...can't repay you in any way. I will come to you often to keep you company next year, right?" Zhang Xiaolian said with a grateful look on her face.

Madam Zhou didn't think much about it and just smiled and said, "That's a good feeling."

Xia Mianwan witnessed the whole process of pushing and pulling, but just smiled and didn't say anything.

At this time, Zhang Xiaolian held the tea bowl and looked at Xia Mianwan again.

Of course Xia Mianwan saw Zhang Xiaolian's gaze, but Zhang Xiaolian didn't say anything, so Xia Mianwan pretended not to know.

Seeing this, Madam Zhou was afraid that Zhang Xiaolian would be embarrassed, so she hurriedly asked, "Xiaolian, do you want to toast your sister Xia with a glass of wine?"

Zhang Xiaolian nodded shyly.

Madam Zhou was about to turn around and talk to Xia Mianwan, but Xia Mianwan waved her hand and said with a smile, "Sister Zhou, please forgive me. You are in good spirits. I am really tired after a busy day. I don't usually do heavy work, so I really can't drink."

Xia Mianwan smiled and finished talking to Madam Zhou, then turned to look at Zhang Xiaolian and said, "If you want to drink with me, just say it yourself. Everyone here is very nice and we are all family. You don't have to be like this. You..."

Zhang Xiaolian was stunned after hearing what Xia Mianwan said. After all, she was still young and her skills were not yet up to par. What she was thinking was revealed on her face.

……

They stayed up at Xiaowu's house until midnight. Most of the children were still excited and clamored to stay up until dawn. However, Xia Mianwan could not bear it any longer and yawned as he said goodbye to everyone with Chen Ge'er and Yu Jie'er.

When he got home, Xia Mianwan quickly lit the brazier. The cold wind made everyone feel much more awake.

"Brother Chen, Sister Yu, hurry up and wash up and go to bed." Xia Mianwan said.

Xia Mianwan had just finished washing up and lay down on the bed when Yu Jie'er knocked on the door and came in.

"Mother, I want to sleep with you tonight." Yu Jie'er said coquettishly.

Xia Mianwan smiled and nodded. That’s fine. On days like today, most people would miss their hometown and their families. It would be nice to have someone to accompany them.

Xia Mianwan and Yu Jie'er slept together, head to head. Yu Jie'er said softly, "Mother, I don't like Zhang Xiaolian."

Xia Mianwan nodded and said, "Mother knows, but why doesn't Sister Yu like Zhang Xiaolian?"

Yu Jie'er thought about it carefully and said, "Sister Xiuxiu is a very good person. She usually takes good care of her younger brothers and sisters, and also takes good care of me and Brother Chen. But Zhang Xiaolian always... imitates Sister Xiuxiu's work, and sometimes she doesn't do it well. When she doesn't do it well, she will look at everyone with grievance, and finally Sister Xiuxiu and everyone else need to coax her together. I always feel that something is strange, but I talked to Sister Xiuxiu before, and Sister Xiuxiu said that I was overthinking."

"Well, our Sister Yu has grown up and is very smart. You are right, she is very powerful." Xia Mianwan's voice was filled with a hint of smile.

"Is that so? Mother is asking you, what do you think of the people in the valley, Sister Yu?"

"Everyone in the valley is very nice. Although Brother Xiaoba often pulls my braids and Xiao Jiang is always greedy for my snacks, I still think everyone is very nice. Last time I almost fell down the river, and Brother Xiaoba almost fell down himself in order to protect me. Although Xiao Jiang is greedy for my snacks, he always remembers me every time he gets something delicious. So, they are all very nice." Yu Jie'er answered seriously.

Xia Mianwan smiled and said, "Yes, everyone is very nice, so why does Zhang Xiaolian always use a pitiful tone to win everyone's sympathy? If you want something, can't you just say it directly? It's not wrong to use other people's sympathy to achieve your own goals, but I don't like it. Besides, everyone is pitiful and has their own story. There is really no need to play pitiful for everything, right?"

Yu Jie'er nodded, not quite understanding.

Xia Mianwan looked at Yu Jie'er's ignorant eyes and smiled, "It's okay, Yu Jie'er, people like this won't make a big splash, they just want to take advantage of you. But if you meet someone like this, you still have to be careful, understand?"

Yu Jie'er nodded. Her mother always taught her a lot of principles when something happened. These principles were different from what others taught her, but Yu Jie'er could always listen to them.

……

As winter turns to spring, green buds sprout from the branches in the valley little by little, and a lot of green wild vegetables grow along the muddy ground in the valley. Among the green wild vegetables, you can see dots of red wild fruits, which are raspberries.

Xia Mianwan likes to eat this very much. When she has nothing to do, she often takes Chen Ge'er and Yu Jie'er to walk around the valley. They pick a lot of raspberries. Xia Mianwan secretly puts the leftovers into the supermarket space. When Yu Jie'er asks about it, she says she is using them to make fruit wine.

As the winter chill faded away, everyone in the valley began to resume their martial arts training.

Spring is not a good time for hunting. In addition to digging wild vegetables, people in the valley also began to carry hoes and start to open up vegetable fields in the open space and plant various vegetables in the fields.

After finishing all these, Xia Mianwan decided to go down the mountain.

On the one hand, he needed to send some food to Sun Bo, and on the other hand, he wanted to find out the news in the city.

This time, Xia Mianwan planned to go into the tunnel to take a look, and if there was a chance, he would also like to go into the city to take a look.

For safety reasons, there were six people going down the mountain this time, Xia Mianwan, Zhou Chengze, Xiaowu, Xiaoqi, Xiaoba and Huzi.

It was still Xia Mianwan, Zhou Chengze and Xiaowu who went to look for Sun Bo. The remaining three were arranged by Xia Mianwan to stay in the hill outside the dilapidated house.

After the six people had discussed it, they went down the mountain with the food.

It has been almost three months since I last went down the mountain, and I don’t know if the situation down the mountain has changed much.