The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Liu family’s old house.

Today is the day of Liu Eryong's funeral. Except for Liu Youliang and his wife, everyone else in the old house will go.

After the people from the eldest wife's house came back from lunch, they looked at the old couple's gloomy faces and showed expressions of sorrow at the right time, not daring to say much.

Even Changrong, who was always the most noisy, didn't dare to say anything when he saw the depressing atmosphere at home.

After the family finished dinner, the children and grandchildren went back to their respective rooms to rest, and the old couple also returned to the east room of the main hall where they lived.

Liu Youliang then asked his wife, Old Zhou.

He usually had a rosy face, but now he looked a little sad. He took a puff of welding smoke and asked, "Did you not give the money I gave you to the second son's wife?"

Although he did not go, he felt something was wrong when he heard his son and grandson describe the funeral.

The coffin used for his son was made of cheap pine wood, and the banquet was not very good either, with only two meat dishes and only two musicians invited. It was too shabby.

If the money I gave was used to arrange the funeral, this situation would never have happened.

The second son's wife would not play tricks on her husband's funeral. There is only one possibility now, that is, the old woman did not send the money to the second son's wife!

After Liu Youliang finished speaking, he stared at Old Zhou. He saw that she clasped her hands together with a gloomy face, pursed her lips tightly, and said nothing. He knew what was going on.

He frowned and lowered his voice to shout angrily, "You, you, what can I say? This is Eryong's final event, the last dignity of his life, and you are unwilling to give him even this, letting him go in such a shabby way, without the proper pomp and ceremony. He is our own son, are you still a mother?"

Old Zhou sat on the edge of the bed and glared at the old man with squinted eyes: "How am I not a mother? How have I let him down? I suffered so much to give birth to him. Because of him, I ruined my body and can no longer have children. I can no longer have children for our Liu family. No matter how angry I was, I still raised him with all my heart. I didn't deprive him of food and drink, nor did I treat him badly. But what about him? How did he treat me!"

Old Zhou became more and more angry as she spoke, her face flushed a little: "He has not been close to us since he was a child, and he has become more distant as he grew older. After he got married, he became even more alienated from us. This spring, he was desperate to split up the family for his wife. He was so troublesome that he brought shame to our family and ruined my reputation. What sin did I commit to raise such a son!"

As she spoke, two lines of tears flowed from Old Zhou's eyes, flowing freely down her wrinkled face.

After listening to his wife's accusation, Liu Youliang felt more and more upset, but he still had to say what he had to say.

"No matter what happened in the past, now that the two elders are gone, his funeral is important. The second branch of the family has just separated and has little financial resources. The second elder's wife has a hard time raising several children. We don't have much money. If the funeral is not decent, it will be embarrassing for us. I asked you to give the five taels of silver for the good of our family."

Hearing this, Old Zhou lifted up her sleeves to wipe away her tears and said bitterly, "Bah! What good is that! If it weren't for the instigation of the second son's wife, why would he want to split up the family? If it weren't for the split up, Eryong wouldn't have to do corvée and wouldn't have died. I just want to make it difficult for her, to let her know that it's all because of her that her husband died. It's all her own fault that she will have a hard time in the future!"

There was a ferocious look in Old Zhou's eyes, as if she was not talking about her daughter-in-law, but her enemy!

Seeing his wife like this, Liu Youliang sighed helplessly: "It's not for her, but for the sake of the grandchildren. They are all Eryong's children, the bloodline of our Liu family!"

Old Zhou spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm: "She has corrupted our good son. She has also taught our grandchildren to only know how to side with their mother and not know how to be close to us. I am just waiting, waiting for them to become unable to make ends meet and come back to beg us. Then I will scold her harshly and let her know that all this was caused by her. I will make her die of shame and anger!"

Upon hearing this, Liu Youliang actually felt that what his wife said made some sense.

The second son died suddenly when he was in his prime. Ultimately, it was all because of the division of the family property. If he had not been sent to perform labor service after the division of the family property, he might still be alive and well now!

The reason why Eryong wanted to separate the family was because of Chen. It was all because of his daughter-in-law's instigation.

Therefore, Chen should bear all the consequences himself!

It would be better to let her suffer a little, so that she would know that without the old house, their second branch would have a hard time making ends meet and would not be able to do anything, and how difficult life would be.

When the second branch can no longer make ends meet, they will naturally come back and admit their mistakes. At that time, he will show due kindness to his grandchildren, and their hearts will surely be won over.

After Liu Youliang figured this out, he said no more.

He said to Old Zhou: "Alright, I was just asking, you're so anxious now. The funeral is over, so let's leave it at that. Alright, go to sleep and don't waste lamp oil."

After saying this, Liu Youliang put out his pipe and got into bed.

Old Mrs. Zhou snorted, blew out the light, and went to bed.

Chen Cui, as the target of the old couple's plot, knew nothing about their plans and ideas. She was feeling curious about the fact that there was a baby sleeping in her bed.

Suisui was taken care of by Zhang during the past two nights. Today, seeing that she had regained consciousness, Zhang returned the child to her.

Chen Cui stroked the child's smooth skin and patted her from time to time to coax her to sleep.

Suisui leaned against her mother and smelled the familiar scent. She was no longer as difficult to coax as she was the past two days when she was being taken care of by her grandmother, and she fell asleep quickly.

The next morning, Chen Cui got up before dawn.

She yawned as she made the bed.

Although she had Chen's memories, she had never taken care of a child herself. She was careless for a moment and forgot that a child of this age needed to be helped to urinate at night, so she fell asleep peacefully.

When she was awakened by a burst of heat and wetness at night, she was a little confused for a moment before she reacted.

It was pitch dark and she couldn't find the flint for a moment. She was afraid that lighting the light would alarm others, so she fumbled for a sheet and put it under her body to cover the wet area. She hugged the child and moved to the side and continued to sleep.

Early in the morning, Chen Cui changed the wet sheets and mattress, and planned to wash them after dinner.

Just as she finished cleaning up, Zhang got up, washed her hands and face, and came in, accompanied by Changping.

Chen Cui asked Zhang to look after Sui Sui while she went to the kitchen to cook and Chang Ping lit the fire.

Although there are two stoves in the kitchen, there is only one iron pot. On the other stove is a clay pot, which can be used to cook porridge and soup.

Chen Cui found the rice bag, put a few handfuls of rice into the clay pot, and asked Changping to light a fire and cook porridge.

Seeing that there was not much rice left in the bag, the mother grabbed three or four handfuls in a row and put her hand in more. Changping could not help but say, "Mom, just grab a handful of rice to make porridge for Suisui, there is no need to put so much."