Stepmother Reborn: Dad, my mom hasn't hit me for three days

bang bang bang!

The brigade cadres went around the village beating gongs one by one, and soon all the villagers came out to watch the fun.

It turned out that it was too cold last night and two pigs in the pigsty froze to death, so they had to be separated.

It’s okay to freeze to death early, nothing bad will happen in such cold weather.

Zhang Xiuhua didn't mind at all. At most there were some blood in the meat, so she blanched it in water to remove the blood foam before frying.

The village ranks people according to their work points, and Zhang Xiuhua earned few points, so she definitely won't get much. So she just watched the fun from the sidelines.

The educated youth also came, but they had to wait until all the villagers had distributed their crops before it was their turn.

Zhang Xiuhua squeezed over to Aunt Li Si's side and listened to her gossip. Suddenly, someone pulled her hand. It turned out to be Baolin. She asked eagerly, "Mom, the meat has been divided. Let's stew potatoes, okay?"

Zhang Xiuhua nodded, "Okay!"

Baolin jumped for joy, and she dragged Yaoyao to play with Xiangxiang. Zhang Xiuhua also played with the children.

The families with more strong laborers in the village distributed the pork first and left with their pork. The others were still waiting in the wind, wrapping their clothes tightly and holding their hats and scarves tightly.

At this moment, Baolin, who had just run out, turned back again, her face full of panic, "Mom! Mom! There's a house collapsed over there!"

Zhang Xiuhua was slightly stunned. She was not familiar with the people in the village yet and had no idea which family Baolin was talking about.

When Aunt Li Si heard Bao Lin's words, she immediately turned her head and looked at her, "Which family?"

Baolin pointed to the front, "The sixth house in the fourth row."

The villagers immediately started talking about it, "Oh, it's Old Man Zhang's house."

Such a big thing happened, the villagers had to go and see. The village cadres couldn't just ignore it, so the team leader asked the team accountant and the team leader Li Jiandang to stay here to distribute the pork, while he and the secretary went to check the situation.

Zhang Xiuhua glanced at the list and realized it was still early, so she ran over to join in the fun.

When she got there, Zhang Xiuhua took a deep breath. She had passed by this house before when she went to Li Jiandang's house. It was a thatched house, but the wall had cracked and looked shaky.

It snowed heavily this time, and the snow piled up so thick that it collapsed the house. What's even more annoying is that there were people in the house.

The villagers immediately went to help and tried to pull Old Man Zhang out.

They did open the door, but Old Man Zhang had already frozen stiff and was beyond dead.

The team leader asked the villagers to call Old Man Zhang’s three sons.

The villagers murmured, "Poor thing, it's so cold, he must have frozen to death."

"Look at the quilt he sleeps on, it's too thin. How could he not freeze to death?" Every household has a new quilt this year, and Old Man Zhang also spent money to buy one, but they just searched the house and couldn't find it at all.

Someone whispered, "He must have given it to his third son."

Zhang Xiuhua heard the hidden meaning in these words and asked, "Are you biased?"

This was a matter recognized by everyone in the village. When they heard that someone didn't know the story, they turned their heads and saw that it was the new daughter-in-law Zhang Xiuhua. They immediately acted like a teacher and began to talk incessantly about the Zhang family.

Old man Zhang had four sons, and he favored his third son the most, supporting him until he was in junior high school. However, he never expected that Zhang Sanxi would marry into a family in the city and become a worker. Old man Zhang was furious. Although Zhang Sanxi came back every year, he had become someone else's family.

"That quilt must have been secretly taken away by Old Man Zhang through Zhang Sanxi. A few days ago, I saw Zhang Sanxi come back with my own eyes. He was dressed like a decent person, but he did such shady things!"

When someone heard people talking about Zhang Sanxi, someone immediately responded, "Who says it's not true? It's a waste of time to raise a person like him."

Just then, Old Man Zhang's other three sons came over.

The three sons lay on the body of old man Zhang and cried bitterly. The other villagers could not just stand by and watch, and they all urged them to mourn.

The daughter-in-law was also lying on the ground howling, how did Zhang Xiuhua find out? Because Baolin had never seen a dead person, she ran over to watch the people crying, but she stared at them for a long time without tears, so she secretly ran over to ask Zhang Xiuhua why she was crying fake tears.

Zhang Xiuhua told her not to tell it and she would tell her later.

Baolin had no choice but to drag Yaoyao out to play.

Zhang Xiuhua asked Aunt Li Si in front of her, "Why didn't Zhang Sixi bring his wife?"

"He has no wife." Aunt Li shook her head.

Zhang Xiuhua suddenly realized.

The brigade cadres over there have persuaded the people to come down and discuss the funeral. Burial is not popular now, so the body needs to be sent to the crematorium. We also need to notify relatives and friends to come and pay their respects. There are a lot of things to do.

Of course, it was easier than later times. Feudal superstitions were eliminated, and old practices were not allowed. There was no need to prepare banquets. Because supplies were too scarce, when relatives and friends came, they only gave gifts, and the host family gave them a coarse porcelain bowl. Generally, bowls were given at funerals, and candies were given at weddings. Zhang Xiuhua suspected that the bowls her family ate were from this source.

While they were discussing, Zhang Daxi suddenly stamped his feet in dissatisfaction, "Why can't the third brother come? He has to come too! The old man loved him the most when he was alive."

Funerals are always a loss-making business. Nowadays, every household has a hard time, and it is only natural for Zhang Daxi not to suffer a loss.

So Zhang Daxi asked the team leader to open a letter of introduction for him, and he wanted to go to the county town to call his third brother over.

Naturally, the captain couldn't refuse.

The rest of the matters will have to wait for Zhang Sanxi to come back to discuss.

On the way back, some villagers gathered together and whispered, "Now that Zhang Sanxi is back, these four brothers are bound to fight!"

"Of course. None of the four sons are easy to deal with. The eldest son has a large family, the second son's family is good at talking, and the fourth son is smart and unwilling to suffer any loss. The third son's family is clearly trying to make him bleed. Will he be willing to do so?"

The villagers' eyes were shining with excitement, and they wished Zhang Daxi would bring Zhang Sanxi back right away so that they could watch the live broadcast.

Zhang Xiuhua went back to the threshing ground and waited for ten minutes before she got her share of pork. Of course, her work points were not enough, so she paid for it herself. The price was naturally a little cheaper than that of the supply and marketing cooperative.

Besides her, Zhou Pandi and Li Xiaoying each received half a catty. They were educated youth with few work points, so they could only receive half a catty. Zhang Xiuhua's family had many people, so they received six catties in total.

After returning home, Zhou Pandyi and Li Xiaoying gave her the meat to process.

So that afternoon, Zhang Xiuhua cut the meat into slices and put it into the hot pot for her second meal.

During the meal, Baolin still did not forget her question, "Why did that aunt cry without tears?"

Zhang Xiuhua explained, "Because she wasn't really crying, she was just pretending. The person who died was her father-in-law, not her father. Without emotion, how could there be tears?"

Baolin seemed to be thinking about something. "You adults are really weird. If you don't want to cry, just don't cry. Why do you have to pretend to cry?"

Zhang Xiuhua was at a loss for words and had no way to explain to her, so she could only pick some food for her and ask her to eat more.