EBE Chapter 2 When will this kind of life ever end?
Chapter 2 When will this kind of life ever end?
Next to the pigsty.
Shen Xiaotang asked softly, "Xiaoyu, did Grandma just scold you for no reason again?"
"Ah."
Xiaoyu paused and then said, "She...she thought I wasn't working fast enough. I was so scared of Grandma that I dropped the basin. Grandma tried to hit me, but Mom saw it and protected me."
Hearing her sister's stuttering words, although it was much better than when the old woman was around, she still felt very sad.
My little sister is only four years old, but her stutter is so severe. She thinks it's all because she was frightened by that old hag!
If they don't persuade their parents to separate the family soon, their eldest son's family will be ruined by that old hag sooner or later.
"Grandma is a bully who picks on the weak and fears the strong. Don't be afraid of her in the future. Speak slowly and don't rush. If she hits or scolds you again, just shout 'Sister!'"
"Okay, next time... I'll call you 'elder sister'."
Xiaoyu obediently slowed down her speech and finally managed to say something without stuttering.
Listening to her two daughters' conversation, Liu felt a little uneasy.
As the saying goes, with a stepmother comes a stepfather. Her husband lost his mother when he was two years old, and his father didn't like him either. His mother-in-law often beat and scolded their daughter behind their backs. The eldest son's family had a very difficult life in the Shen family. They suffered countless losses and humiliations, but they were powerless to resist.
“Mother, you see, when Grandma isn’t around, my little sister speaks perfectly well. But as soon as she sees Grandma, she gets so scared that she can’t speak properly. If we don’t think of something soon, people will definitely gossip about her when she grows up and goes out.”
Yes, if you still stutter when you grow up, how will you get married? Wouldn't that ruin your whole life?
A hint of worry flashed in Liu's eyes. "Sigh, what can we do?"
"Let's split up!"
Upon hearing this, Liu hurriedly covered her daughter's mouth with her hand and quickly looked around, afraid that someone would hear and make her look like a thief.
"Tang'er, you know that as long as your parents are alive, we can't separate the family because of the concept of filial piety alone."
Shen Xiaotang couldn't help but feel a little discouraged.
She is six years old now. Before she was four, she never dared to mention the matter of separating from the family, for fear that if she "sensed" too early, people would think she was a reincarnation of a ghost, grab her, tie her to a pile of firewood, and burn her. Only in the last two years has she started to brainwash her parents intentionally or unintentionally.
Unfortunately, my parents were too deeply poisoned by this feudal society and always obeyed their elders, insisting on the rule that the family would not separate until the elders left.
“Mother, I understand your and Father’s concerns. You’re afraid that if our eldest branch of the family were to separate, we would be labeled as unfilial.”
"You and Dad have been working tirelessly for six or seven years, doing all the farm work. Dad even went to town to work to supplement the family income. You ground the tofu, you cut the pig feed, you raised the pigs, my sister fed the chickens, and I cooked the meals. Did all that income even bring in a single copper coin for our eldest son's family?"
"We work hard year after year, but in the end we don't even have a penny of savings. When will this ever end?"
Liu was stunned by her daughter's question and couldn't find the words to answer for a moment.
The second wife embroidered, the third wife wove cloth, and all the wives had new clothes to wear every year, so they must have some savings. But the eldest wife handed over every penny she earned, and all four of them wore clothes patched upon patched.
The two comparisons clearly show a significant bias!
"But...but..."
"Mom, no buts. You and Dad are hardworking and capable. You've fed a whole family of more than ten people. Surely the four of us won't go hungry if we share the burden?"
This time, Liu finally fell silent and did not refute any further!
Shen Xiaotang pondered in her heart how to persuade her blindly filial father.
The eldest son of the family took on all the farm work for the whole family. Every day, they worked non-stop like donkeys pulling a millstone, doing the dirtiest and most tiring work, yet they were never well-fed, warmly dressed, or well-rested, and were constantly scolded.
They should have woken up a long time ago!
After she helped her mother feed the pigs, she led her younger sister back to the small kitchen in the east room for breakfast. By then, the whole family had almost finished eating.
Several adults got up and went back to their rooms one after another, leaving the children and Mrs. Sun still eating. Mr. Shen sat to the side, tidying up the bag he needed to take to school.
The large round stone table, which was just full of food, is now just a pile of empty bowls and plates that no one has cleaned up. The few remaining green vegetable leaves are quickly eaten by Sun.
There were only two dark, coarse cornbread buns in the bowl, along with three bowls of thin soup, one large and two small.
Shen Xiaotang was so angry that she wanted to overturn the table on the spot, but her mother held her hand tightly and stopped her from lashing out.
"What are you standing there for? Hurry up and finish your food and get back to work!"
Sun glared at Shen Xiaotang, but her tone was much gentler than when she had just scolded her.
She has always been good at saving face; no matter how angry she is inside, she always knows how to behave in front of her husband.
Liu, holding her two daughters' hands, silently sat down at a corner of the table, giving each of them one of the two remaining cornbread buns, while she herself ate some thin soup.
Shen Xiaotang was furious. This whole family was like reincarnated starving ghosts. They had been lying in bed all morning without getting up. But as soon as the food was ready, they all jumped up faster than anyone else. She had worked so hard all morning, and all she got for them was this meager little bit of food.
It’s so deceiving!
She and her younger sister are still small and can only eat until they are about 70% full, but their mother only drinks some thin soup. How can she possibly keep up?
Ever since she was born, she has never seen her parents have a full meal.
Whoever wants this reputation for filial piety can keep it; dividing the family property is inevitable!
"Mom, my teeth hurt a bit. I think I'll be losing my baby teeth soon. This cornbread is too hard. I don't want it to break my teeth. You eat it."
She stuffed the cornbread in her hand into her mother's hand, picked up a small bowl of thin soup, and drank it.
Liu was an honest but not stupid woman. How could she not tell that her daughter was deliberately giving her the food out of pity? She glanced at the eggshells scattered around the table and couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.
The two daughters fed the chickens every day, but never tasted the eggs. The eggs laid by the chickens were always taken to town to sell. Only five eggs were kept each day for the fourth and youngest sons and the three nephews of the second and third wives to nourish their bodies. There was never any mention of the eldest son. It would be a lie to say that they were not sad.
"Mother isn't hungry, Tang'er, eat quickly. It will get hard if it gets cold, but it'll be fine to eat it warm next time."
"Auntie, aren't you hungry? Then give it to me, I'll take it to school, it'll be good to have something to eat if I get hungry."
The speaker was Shen Changyan from the second wife's family. He was the same age as Shen Xiaotang, but was born a few days earlier.
Because Sun was eager for her own son to get married, the second branch of the family got married a year and a half earlier than the first branch.
Shen Xiaotang sneered inwardly. Just because he was the eldest grandson in the family, he was eating eggs and hot cornbread and drinking thick porridge, yet he shamelessly tried to steal their breakfast to fill his stomach.
That's just wishful thinking!
She smiled faintly, "You cook tomorrow morning, and I'll give you all of mine, how about that?"