PFC Chapter 260 Bullying to the extreme
Chapter 260 Bullying to the extreme
As the sun set, Li Xiangyang drove the donkey cart, while Li Xiaoyun leaned on his shoulder, closing her eyes to rest.
"We're home."
Li Xiangyang parked the donkey cart at the gate of the courtyard, gently woke Li Xiaoyun, and opened the gate.
Li Xiaoyun carried the things she bought that day into the house, while Li Xiangyang led the donkey cart back.
"Woof woof woof!"
On the way, Xiao Hu came down from the mountain and frolicked around Li Xiangyang.
"Good lad, missed me?" Li Xiangyang patted Xiao Hu's head with a smile.
After returning the donkey cart, Li Xiangyang went back to the house, where Li Xiaoyun had already lit the oil lamp and was tidying up the things she had bought.
On a summer night, with the sounds of frogs and insects, the two ate a simple dinner and went to bed early.
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Li Xiangyang heard someone knocking on the courtyard gate.
"Brother Xiangyang, are you up yet?" Wang Ergou's voice came from outside.
Li Xiangyang got up quietly, went to the courtyard gate, and unlatched the door.
"Good morning, Xiangyang!" Wang Ergou greeted him energetically.
"Good morning, I was just about to look for you. Wait for me. I asked you to go to town with me yesterday to buy weasel pelts, but you weren't up yet, and I had something to do, so I went by myself. We made three hundred in total, and with what Old Yang gave us, we'll split six hundred and fifty each. I'll give it to you now."
As Li Xiangyang spoke, he went back into the house to get the money.
"Brother Xiangyang, it's all thanks to you that we made so much money. By the way, are we going fishing today?"
Upon hearing that he had earned so much, Wang Ergou said happily.
"Let's go, we'll call Daqiang later, while it's still cool..."
As Li Xiangyang spoke, he gave the money to Wang Ergou, then shouldered his fishing gear and went out.
After leaving the house, Wang Ergou first left the money at home, and then the two of them called Li Daqiang. They chatted and laughed, and soon arrived at the riverbank.
The river water was clear with high visibility, and fish would occasionally leap out of the water, splashing water everywhere.
“This place is nice,” Li Xiangyang said, looking around. “There’s a rapid current upstream and deep water downstream; there should be plenty of fish.”
Wang Ergou couldn't wait to take off his shoes, roll up his trousers, and tentatively step into the river: "The water isn't cold, it's just right."
Li Daqiang also began setting up the fishing nets: "How about we set up the nets downstream first, and then drive the fish downstream from upstream?"
“Good idea,” Li Xiangyang agreed. “Let’s divide the work. Er Gou, you stay upstream, I’ll stay in the middle, and Da Qiang will guard the net downstream.”
The three quickly took their positions.
Wang Ergou started splashing water upstream, stirring up the riverbed and driving away the fish.
Li Xiangyang used a hand-woven bamboo basket to intercept the enemy in the middle reaches of the river.
Li Daqiang stood guard by the fishing nets downstream, preparing to haul them in.
"They're here! They're here!" Wang Ergou shouted excitedly. A group of fish were startled and swam downstream.
Li Xiangyang, quick as a flash, scooped up several plump carp with a bamboo basket: "Not bad, these fish are quite fat."
Li Daqiang also began to pull in his net, which contained more than a dozen fish of varying sizes struggling within: "A pretty good haul; there are really a lot of fish in this river."
The three of them worked hard all morning and had a good catch.
Various kinds of fish are jumping in the fish basket, including carp, crucian carp and silver carp.
As the sun climbed higher, beads of sweat appeared on the foreheads of all three.
Li Xiangyang wiped his sweat and said, "Let's rest for a bit, eat something, and then continue."
A gentle breeze blew and the river murmured. After finishing their dry rations, the three continued fishing and shrimp catching.
By noon, the harvest was quite substantial, with several fish baskets and nets filled to the brim.
"That's about enough," Li Xiangyang said. "Let's take these back and put them in the fishpond to raise for now. We'll sell them in the city when we have a larger quantity."
Neither of them had any objections to this.
Back at Li Xiangyang's old house, just as he released the fish and shrimp into the pond, a sound of crying came from outside the yard.
"Isn't that my aunt? What's wrong?" Li Daqiang asked, frowning.
Li Xiangyang looked in the direction of the sound and saw his aunt Zhou Xiulan sitting on the stone steps in front of her house, clutching a piece of paper in her hand, crying uncontrollably.
“Let’s go take a look.” Li Xiangyang wiped the water off his hands and strode toward his uncle’s house.
Wang Ergou and Li Daqiang followed closely behind.
"Aunt, what's wrong?" Li Xiangyang walked up to Zhou Xiulan and asked with concern.
When Zhou Xiulan saw the three of them arrive, she quickly wiped away her tears with her sleeve, stuffed the letter into her bosom, and forced a smile: "N-nothing, you can go about your business."
“Aunt, please tell me what’s wrong. We’re all family.” Li Xiangyang squatted down and looked at his aunt earnestly.
Zhou Xiulan's eyes reddened again, and she shook her head: "This...it's really nothing."
"Why are you crying if nothing's wrong?" Li Daqiang asked, stepping forward. "Did your uncle upset you?"
Zhou Xiulan shook her head and sighed, "No."
"What is that?" Wang Ergou asked curiously.
Li Xiangyang noticed the letter in his aunt's hand and guessed, "Is it a letter from my eldest sister?"
When Li Xiangyang guessed it, Zhou Xiulan was stunned, tears immediately streamed down her face again, and she nodded.
Li Xiangyang's heart sank.
His uncle's family has three daughters and one son. The eldest sister is named Li Guihua, and she married into Shanhe Town, which is more than 100 miles away.
When he was a child, before his older sister got married, she was really good to him. She would secretly give him any food she had.
But after she got married, it became rare to see her.
In these days, transportation is inconvenient, and it's truly a case of "a married daughter is like water spilled from a cup." If you're more than a hundred miles away, you basically won't see each other again except for weddings and funerals.
As far as I can remember, my eldest sister came back twice after she got married, and each time she was forcing a smile. It seems that she was not happy in her husband's family either.
"What's wrong, sister? What happened?" Li Xiangyang asked.
Seeing that she could no longer hide it, Zhou Xiulan sobbed, "Your eldest sister... her in-laws are so mean!"
The three of them immediately sat around Zhou Xiulan and listened to her story.
“Your eldest sister has been married into the family for years, and she’s done all the farm work, feeding the pigs, cooking, washing clothes—all the household chores have fallen on her shoulders,” Zhou Xiulan said, wiping away tears. “But her in-laws are not only ungrateful, they’re always finding fault with her.”
“It’s gotten even worse lately,” Zhou Xiulan continued. “Her in-laws look down on her for not having given birth to a son, and they’re actually encouraging their son to divorce his wife and remarry…”
"Damn it!" Wang Ergou slammed his fist on the table and stood up. "Isn't this bullying us to the extreme? Do they really think our sister has no one to rely on?"
Li Daqiang clenched his fists: "That's right, you bastards, you've gone too far! Do you think I and Xiangyang are both dead? Er Gou, lend me your gun, Xiangyang go home and get yours, we're going over there right now."
"No problem, you can have it. Come on, let's go home. Can you ride a bike? Take my bike!"
Seeing that Li Daqiang was unusually assertive, Wang Ergou immediately pulled him away.
"Come back! What are you doing causing trouble? What era are we living in? A gun? Even if I gave it to you, would you dare to shoot? Ultimately, this is a family matter. Even if you want to fight them, you have to wait until the divorce is finalized and they're brought back."