Chapter 363
Jiang Yue (3)
Great-grandmother said, “No matter what, Jiang Xing is a descendant of our Jiang family, we would not let him be neglected. With everyone pitching in, no matter what, we will be able to raise him. But it would be impossible if we add another Jiang Yue. Our family is very big and there are so many mouths to feed, it’s impossible to spare even one more. If you want to take her when you remarry, it would not be easy to find someone else, so it’s better to send her to a family without children. I had already had someone look for one, in Dahuang village, there is a—”
Before great-grandmother’s words could be finished, Jiang Xiumei suddenly stood up and said with a gloomy face, “Grandma, I don’t want to talk back to you because I think you are an elder, but I don’t want to hear something like this again!”
“You, what’s up with you? I’m doing this for your own good! You are a woman, and it’s already hard enough to support yourself. How can you raise two children? What are you doing, don’t hope that we will help you raise Jiang Yue. Among the many brothers in our family, which of them do not have a few children? Just listen to our arrangements and remarry.”
In those tough times, it wasn’t uncommon for people to starve to death if they were not careful. Often, a child would die without enough food after being born, and end up dying in bed.
It was already kind of them to be willing to help raise Jiang Xing. Why didn’t Jiang Xiumei understand their good hearts?
If she didn’t remarry, how could she survive?
She usually looked like a smart person, so why was she like this at this time?
Great-grandmother looked at her and felt that she was being unreasonable.
Jiang Xiumei also looked at her and felt that she was beingunreasonable.
Jiang Xiumei said, “They’re my children, of course I’m the one who’s going to raise them. They already grew this big without ever eating a single grain of rice from someone else’s family; I’m the one who fed them every spoonful. Why would I no longer be capable of doing so?”
“We are doing this for your own good!”
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“Then I thank you all, but I don’t need it!”
Jiang Xiumei was very angry, and great-grandmother was also very angry. The two bickered in the room and finally broke up with bad blood. Before she left, great-grandmother spat at her, saying that she couldn’t tell a person’s good intentions. Sooner or later she would suffer a lot and receive retribution. No matter what difficulties the Jiang family encountered in the future, great-grandmother would no longer care about them.
After she left, Jiang Xiumei also went back to the house with a gloomy face. She cursed a few times, saying that she was unlucky.
If she remarried, wouldn’t the Jiang ancestral family still get a dowry?
Oh, what a nice arrangement. They still wanted to give her daughter to someone else – well, they would have to go through her first!
Jiang Xiumei had just finished cursing in her heart when Jiang Yue, who overheard the adults’ conversation, secretly covered her mouth and cried.
Jiang Yue felt like the world was crumbling.
She was shedding tears, and she looked at Jiang Xiumei with hazy eyes but did not say anything. But the child’s watery eyes that were full of tears felt as if a knife had been inserted into Jiang Xiumei’s heart, causing her to gasp out of pain.
Jiang Xiumei pretended to be angry and said, “Why are you crying? Mourning? Haven’t you cried enough for your dad? What’s there to cry about?”
Jiang Yue became even more afraid. She clenched her fists and said at a loss, “Mom, I will eat less food, I will be more obedient, I will work, I will watch over my brother. I don’t want to go, wuu wuu wuu… I want to stay by Mother’s side, don’t send me away.”
Jiang Yue choked and said, “Mom… Mom, I don’t want to be sent away, I don’t want to leave Mother, I don’t want to leave my brother. I want to stay here, don’t send me away.”
The little girl’s voice was weak. Crying and begging her like this, even if Jiang Xiumei’s heart was made of steel, it would melt. She couldn’t hold back after a while; she hugged Jiang Yue and cried, gritting her teeth and saying bitterly, “Don’t worry, no one will give you away. You are my daughter, if I don’t agree, no one can give you away. Mom will raise you both, and no one is allowed to separate us!”
At this moment, Jiang Xiumei hardened her heart, and her eyes showed some redness.
Jiang Yue breathed a sigh of relief, and the mother and daughter hugged and cried.
Since then, Jiang Xiumei had been busier.
Her man was gone, and she did all the work in the production team by herself. The crops had to be grouted, weeded, and fertilized.
When the crops grew up, there would be the autumn harvest. The straws had to be cut, and the grains had to be harvested.
Cutting straws and harvesting grain in particular was very difficult.
You had to do it in a hurry, and bend your body down for a whole day. Then you had to thresh it until the grains came out. You would get prickly heat all over your body. Then, the grain had to be sent to the drying field, dried together, and then dehulled.
The production team had a collective grain drying field, which was some distance away from the farming fields. The production team didn’t have enough mules, horses and cattle, so people had to carry the grain back home.
It was heavy work. A bag of undried rice weighed fifty plus kilograms. After a day of work, even a big man would be too tired to stand up straight.
Usually, no one was willing to do it, not even the strongest men. But Jiang Xiumei was willing.
Because carrying grain gave a lot of work points, she was happy to earn more.
Jiang Xiumei was the only one who was willing to do the work that others avoided. For several days, she would finish harvesting the rice and then went to transport the grain. After suffering like this for several days, blood marks were lining Jiang Xiumei’s back.
The old marks had not healed yet but new ones were already popping up. Her shoulders were swollen and she would moan in pain at night, unable to sleep.
Jiang Yue’s eyes looked anxious.
“Brother, let’s go help Mom with the work.”
Jiang Xing was now a lot more obedient, but boys were after all a bit naughty. He was locked at home every day and was not allowed to go anywhere, and had long been tired of it. Hearing his sister say that, his eyes immediately lit up and he nodded, “Okay, okay.”
Jiang Yue quickly found a small bamboo basket from the utility room at home, held Jiang Xing with one hand, and walked hand in hand to the field.
At that time, Jiang Yue was five or six years old, with a small stature like a little chicken, and Jiang Xing was even smaller, only three years old.