Farmhouse Green Plum

"Hey, didn't you go to work in the fields today?"

Xu Yulan was very surprised to see them. As the spring farming season was approaching, every household was busy. Daya and the others were also busy helping with housework.

Daya shook the basket again and said, "We are picking up manure."

Xu Yulan understood and said, "Oh, please hold it away, it stinks."

"What are you doing at home?" Daya put the basket under a nearby tree and started chatting according to the words she had thought of on the way.

Xu Yulan turned sideways and pointed at the pile of ash in the yard, "Sweep the floor."

Daya nodded, and asked as if something suddenly occurred to her: "By the way, have you met your uncle?"

"I have seen him, but I don't remember. I was only four years old when he died, and I don't remember much. My mother told me that she was so busy with the funeral that she didn't know she was pregnant again and she was so exhausted that she had a miscarriage." Xu Yulan didn't think much about it and said with regret and sadness.

If her mother's child had not been aborted, she would have a younger sister or brother.

"There is such a thing?" Daya and the other two were stunned. This was the first time they heard of it.

"Yes, only our Xu family knows about this matter. By the way, don't tell anyone else. My mother and the others don't want others to know."

Daya and the other two quickly promised not to tell anyone.

After waiting for a while, Daya said with regret, "What a pity! If your uncle were still alive, he would definitely teach you to read. My grandmother said that your uncle and your father had a very good relationship. Even though they had to separate because they had no room to live together after starting a family, they visited each other every day. It was no different from living together. He would definitely treat you as his own daughter."

"Of course not." Xu Yulan agreed. Even now, her parents always treated her aunt's family affairs as their own and worried about everything. "Oh, I just regret that I didn't remember things early enough and have no impression of my uncle at all."

Lai Di was concerned about another point, "Your uncle was a scholar. If he hadn't died of illness, or if he had died of illness a few years after becoming a scholar, your family's situation would definitely not be what it is now..."

"What are you talking about? Can you speak?" Daya quickly poked Lai Di with her elbow to stop her from continuing. Isn't this like stabbing someone in the heart?

"It's okay. Lai Di is telling the truth." Xu Yulan was not angry. "But my mother said that even if my uncle was still alive, our family wouldn't be much better off."

Daya was full of doubts and ignored Lai Di, "Why? Your uncle is a scholar!"

"My mother said there's a saying that goes, 'A scholar is poor, but a juren is rich.' The actual benefits of being a scholar aren't that great. I don't know the details. Well, my mother herself can't explain it clearly. She just heard it from others."

“There is such a saying!”

After a moment of surprise, Daya continued to steer the topic in the direction she hoped: "Oh, let's not talk about these sad things, let's think about happy things. Well, the night of the Lantern Festival was the happiest time for me."

Lai Di nodded vigorously: "That was also the happiest time for me. It was happier than making money... uh, than hiding in the bushes to eavesdrop on people's secrets."

"Ah? You still have this habit?" Xu Yulan was stunned.

Lai Di was so embarrassed that she picked her feet and explained with a stiff face: "I didn't eavesdrop on it on purpose, I just bumped into it accidentally sometimes, haha, it would be a waste not to listen."

"What secrets did you overhear?" Xu Yulan became interested and looked at Lai Di expectantly.

"Well..." Lai Di glanced at Daya and then at Xiaoxiang guiltily, "There are too many secrets. I can't think of them all at once. Let's talk about the Lantern Festival."

Daya suppressed her laughter and continued, "It will be hard to have as much fun as we did that day when we go to the Lantern Festival in the future. We are illiterate, so we can only look at the lanterns but cannot participate in guessing lantern riddles."

Lai Di and Xiao Xiang lamented together, "If we can't guess the riddles, we'll feel like outsiders. The excitement has nothing to do with us."

Xiaoxiang's eyes suddenly lit up and she asked, "Yulan, has your cousin ever taught you to read? Didn't Daya guess a lantern riddle that day?

If you can read, when your cousin gets married, you can read it to us and we can guess together. Maybe we can guess some of it!"

Xu Yulan's eyes lit up: "Good idea! I'll go find my cousin to teach me!"

Daya and the other two looked at each other, all of them were delighted, it worked!

"Aren't you supposed to sweep the floor? There's no rush." Daya reached out to stop her. "We just passed by your cousin's house. She was embroidering her dowry. She may not be free today. You can go back when you have some free time."

"It doesn't matter when I sweep the floor. I'm not afraid of delays." As she said this, Xu Yulan couldn't help but feel sympathy for Daya and the others. They would be scolded if their work was delayed in the slightest.

Thinking about what Daya said later, Xu Yulan did not insist on going now. She was not afraid of delaying her work, but her cousin had to hurry up to embroider the dowry, what if the He family set a very urgent date?

The goal had been achieved, and Daya and the other two left the Xu family on the grounds that they had delayed their work.

A few days later, it will be March 3rd, Shangsi Festival.

Like every other festival, Xu Dahe took his wife and daughter to his sister-in-law's house to celebrate the festival together.

Zhang and Chen were busy preparing lunch in the kitchen, Xu Dahe climbed onto the roof to repair a few leaks in the woodshed, and Xu Yulan and Xu Yuzhi were chatting in the bedroom.

The two chatted about embroidery patterns for a while, and Xu Yulan remembered learning to read, so she said, "Cousin, please teach me how to read."

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw her cousin's face turn cold, and she stared at her intently, which made her feel uneasy. She swallowed her saliva involuntarily, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"What made you think of this?"

Xu Yulan felt that every word of her cousin was filled with coldness. She was a little puzzled and didn't understand why she reacted like this, but she still explained:

"If you go to the He family, you won't go to the Lantern Festival with us in the future. No one will help us guess lantern riddles. If I learn to read..."

"We?" Xu Yuzhi interrupted her, her voice becoming colder. "Who do you mean by we?"

"It's a girl from our village." Xu Yulan was even more confused.

"Hmph, I'm afraid this 'we' refers to Daya. She was the one who asked you to come to me to learn how to read."

Xu Yulan thought about it and said, "I guess so. We came up with this idea together."

"Heh," Xu Yuzhi looked at her as if she were a fool, then suddenly turned and left.

Xu Yulan was completely confused, "What happened today?"

My cousin in the past was at most a little pretentious and a little ostentatious, but never as weird as she is today.

Before she could figure it out, she saw her cousin coming back, followed by her aunt Zhang. Both mother and daughter had gloomy faces.

"Yulan, did Daya urge you to learn to read from your sister?"