Chapter 39
In the afternoon, there were also many guests.
In previous years, Yang Yuyan was hiding in her room, this year by Mr. Su’s teaching, the courage to come out to treat the guests, she also did not know that her family could have so many guests.
Yang Yucicang has become an adult, and Zhu Yanshu sitting together more youthful and bright, many come to pay New Year’s visit to the wife of the wife are to make fun of her, asking about son-in-law. How dare Zhu Yanshu let people know that Yang Yucan is in love? What if she breaks up later? It’s not a big deal for a boy to fall in love twice, but it’s not good for a girl to fall in love too much. It’s best if no one knows about Ma Tianbao!
If she didn’t say it, Yang Yucan herself was too embarrassed to mention Ma Tianbao. The wives and madams learned that such a wonderful young girl was still in her bosom, and burst out with incomparable enthusiasm! Looking at Yang Yucan, she felt that she was good at everything, her age was just right, and her family was also good.
She is going to graduate next year, and once she graduates, she will be able to get married. Although Zhu Yan Shu has been divorced, but the ex-husband Yang Xu He although there are things that abandon their wives and daughters, but a small famous man of letters, compared to smoking cigarettes and gambling in the home to raise a small wife, but it does not seem bad.
Zhu Yan Shu only has two daughters, her money will only leave them, Yang Yucan’s dowry will not be less.
Yang Yucan sat on the sofa, gentle tone, talk is also very measured, know how and know how to get in and out, in the eyes of all the wives and madams is really very suitable for matchmaking, they talk about it, as if the whole city’s unmarried young men are all popping up at once, each sounds young and promising, and Yang Yucan can’t tell you how it complements.
Zhu Yan Shu listen to all the light in the eyes, but Ma Tianbao’s matter has not been resolved, had to be all put off back. She looked at Yang Yucan’s expression, want to know if she has a young man, but Yang Yucan’s jade face is like ice, listening to the introduction of more young people is just like water. After another moment, she hid back inside.
Zhu Yan Shu sighed darkly, turned to mix in the children eating snacks Yang Yu Yan to grab over to let a bunch of Mrs. and Mrs. jokes.
I don’t want Yang Yuyan to sit in the middle of the wives and madams, but she was like a fish in water, with her eyes open and quiet, not interrupting, and not too bored.
Yang Yuyan is “sick for a long time” people, and not yet adult, barely two years of secondary school girls dropped out of school due to illness, a group of wives and ladies did not look for her matchmaking, just holding hands and touching the face of the sigh a couple of words “good poor child”, “born Like you”, and then they unlocked their wallets and took out one, two, five dollars and stuffed it into her.
Yang Yuyan made a small fortune, and felt more at ease sitting here.
Half of these ladies and wives were former classmates and friends of Zhu Yanshu, and half were poker friends. Surprisingly, the number of poker buddies was more than the number of classmates.
After Zhu Yanshu divorced Yang Xuhe, many of her classmates broke off contact with her, leaving only those who had received Mr. Zhu’s favors to still communicate with her.
These people told Zhu Yanshu some stories about when they were classmates, left gifts and left. Some of them were well-dressed, some were old, and some of the gifts they brought were expensive, some were just an old book.
What surprised Yang Yuyan the most was that whenever a classmate left, the rest of them would rush to gossip about that person.
After a well-dressed lady left, the rest of the people will make eyes and say “she is friends with Mr. so-and-so”.
Yang Yuyan couldn’t even pretend she didn’t understand the meaning of the words, and only pondered in her heart whether this woman was a mistress or a mistress? Does she have a name? Did she have a child?
After a man in old clothes left, the rest of the people rushed to say, “His wife ran away, and he owes a lot of debt outside”.
Yang Yuyan thought at first that the uncle who had just given her an old book was a gambler, but as she listened further, she realized that he was actually an idealist who was not good at life. The debts he owed were for the rent and the rice from the rice store, and his wife had run away because she had no money to live on, so she had gone back to her hometown to work the land with her son, not to get divorced, but because there was no land to work in the city, and she had no money to eat. The reason he stayed here and refused to go back home was to pursue his dream.
This was the kind of poor scholar she had in mind. People like Yang Xuhe who can publish articles in the newspaper can’t be called poor literati because they are not poor at all and their wallets are full of money. The real poor literati, should be written articles are nowhere to deliver, can not exchange money, can not replace the rice, flour, grain and oil, and ultimately lead to food and clothing and poverty, is the authentic poor literati.
However, such a person, Zhu family do not dare to provoke, only to drive away a, can not lead to a second, so Zhu Yan Shu even dare not borrow money, only to let Zhang Ma packaged some more snacks bacon to send him.
After listening to the gossip of the classmates, there is also the gossip of the poker friends.
The poker players look more glamorous than their classmates, which makes sense, otherwise where would they get the money to play poker?
The gossip of the poker buddies sounds more similar to Zhu Yanshu.
This one said, a certain wife’s husband has a small public house; that one said, a certain lady’s husband has another illegitimate son; the third said, Miss so-and-so’s fiancé has kept a concubine at home even before she got married.
See, isn’t it the same as Yang Xuhe? It seems that people like husbands can’t do anything else new except keep a concubine.
There have been several divorces like Zhu Yanshu’s that have been published in the newspapers.
A certain long-faced, sharp-tongued wife was also divorced, but she didn’t recognize the divorce and still lived in her old house with her son, forcing her ex-husband to go out and find another love nest with his new wife. The ex-husband does not come home, the family has no source of livelihood, fortunately, this lady also has a dowry, the mother’s family also from time to time to help, life is not poor, but she really hated her ex-husband, a hate ex-husband, ordered his son to go to find his ex-husband to ask for money, heard that Yang Yuyan just went to see Yang Xuhe, immediately sat over to ask Yang Xuhe in the end there is no money, I heard that there is no money, and more with ZhuYanShu to be good up.
She touched Yang Yuyan’s arm and said: “I’ll tell my son to go to his father’s door to ask for money, and if he doesn’t pay, he’ll cry and see if he pays! If he doesn’t give it, he’ll lose face!”
Touching Yang Yuyan goosebumps, straight to Zhu Yanshu’s arms to hide.
Zhu Yan Shu embraced her smile, said: “My family this is a girl, not thicker than the skin of boys, they are thin-skinned it, how to ask them to go to that kind of place to shame? He that place, once a year asked my children to go, come back I have to let people brush their shoes.”
A group of ladies laughed, and some asked Yang Yuyan if she had really brushed her shoes when she went to see her father today.
Yang Yuyan smiled and nodded her head, and said incredibly nicely, “If I don’t brush my shoes, I won’t wear them! I stepped on two feet of mud.”
The wives laughed again. Zhang Ma specially brought over the unpainted shoes for the wives to take a look at, opening their eyes, the wives were really laughing happily.
It was until six o’clock in the evening that people gradually left, and Zhang Ma covered the door and came back to clean up this house of melon seeds and cigarette butts and sugar paper.
Zhu Yan Shu said a day of words, some headache, back to the house to lie down.
Yang Yucicang came out from the house only at this time, following Zhang Ma to help, so angry that Zhang Ma pushed her to Yang Yuyan: “My good young lady, quickly accompany your sister to talk, here I have it!”
Only then did Yang Yucan sit next to Yang Yuyan.
Yang Yuyan’s talk was not over, when she saw Yang Yucan, she said, “How come there are so many guests in the house?”
Yang Yucan was double minded, while memorizing Zhang Ma’s actions of doing household chores, she replied, “Mom is a divorced woman, so it’s not good for guests to come to the house, but only on the New Year’s days.”
Yang Yuyan wasn’t too happy hearing this, it was as if she was being discriminated against in Mo Ming.
“What divorced woman? It’s so unpleasant to hear!” Yang Yuyan said.
Yang Yucan froze for a moment, although this kind of divorce seems to be more humiliating for women, but because Zhu Yanshu’s life is usually very free and easy, and all of her neighbors are tenants, usually there is really no one to give the Zhu family mother and daughter face, on the contrary, they are all holding them up to speak. When Yang Yuchan was in school, her classmates were even more progressive, not to mention that they would not discriminate against her.
Yang Yuyan’s reaction was a bit strange for Yang Yucan to update, she used to think that her sister wouldn’t care about this.
“Don’t take it to heart, no one dares to look down on us.” She put her arm around Yang Yuyan and said.
Yang Yuyan suddenly got a clue from somewhere, and asked a question from out of the sky: “Do you think mom will get married again?”
Yang Yu Cicada was startled and immediately asked her, “How did you come up with this?”
Yang Yuyan remembered Yang Xuhe’s mistress and spare tire mistress there, so she said, “I just don’t think I can lose to that surnamed Yang!”
She had never thought of this before, and today, I don’t know if it was because she had met Yang Xuhe or saw the other ladies’ shrill faces, but she suddenly felt that it would be too bad if Zhu Yanshu ended up becoming just as pathetic as them, and it would be good if she could be happier.
Yang Yu Cicada didn’t realize that it was this reason that made her enlightened and smiled, ”Fool, could it be that our life is to gamble with him? Mom had said long ago, gambling with someone that life is not good. She doesn’t care what happens to Yang’s side, as long as it doesn’t involve us.”
When Yang Yuyan thought about this, the evil spirit that had just risen dissipated.
Mom was right.
Yang Yuyan had thought about this before, because she had seen someone come to Zhu Yanshu to make a match. She was scared at the time, afraid that Zhu Yanshu would not want the sisters after she got married again. Now she was still a little worried that after Zhu Yanshu got married again, everyone would not get along well.
Yang Yuyan said, “Then if mom wants to remarry, what do you think is the right person?”
Yang Yuyan was instantly stopped by the question, covered by the fact that she had never thought about this kind of thing, so she couldn’t even mention the conditions.
“It is a …… reliable person, right?” Yang Yucan said.
Yang Yuyan’s conditions can be much more detailed, immediately able to wrench the hand index: “First of all, this person can not be too old, look better too, handsome a little bit, character gentle a little bit, some interest, can not be too rigid. Mom likes to play cards, he can not say anything about this. Last time we went out for dinner, I saw that mom also likes romance, this person can’t work if he doesn’t know how to be affectionate.”
While she said that, Yang Yu Cicada nodded her head, thinking that it really should be the case.
Yang Yuyan: “Also, it should be someone from the right family. Mom’s lifestyle like this, if it’s not a door-to-door person may not even be able to look at it, and since it’s a remarriage, it’s even more important to be agreeable and not let mom be picked on.”
Yang Yu Cicada also nodded and said, “That’s right. And it’s best to be a bit more westernized, a family that’s too closed is also troublesome, it’s best if the elders in the family have already accepted westernization, so it’s more lenient.”
Zhang Ma stretched her head in the kitchen to listen to the two sisters counting like for like, her heart blossomed with joy, and she hated that she couldn’t immediately run to tell Zhu Yanshu!
She held back until the two girls went back to the house to change their clothes and immediately ran to Zhu Yanshu’s bedroom.
Zhu Yanshu was lying on the bed, hearing the door slam, she opened her eyes to see that it was Zhang Ma, pressed her forehead and said, “Zhang Ma, I’ll eat in the house tonight, I’m not going out.”
Zhang Ma came over with an arrow step, her face full of joy, “Mistress, guess what I just heard Big Sister and Second Sister talking about? Guess!”
She dragged Zhu Yanshu up and learned it to her word for word, hearing Zhu Yanshu’s two cheeks on fire, covering her face and whispering, “These two dead children! How …… how …… blindly say what ah!”
But even if she covered her face, Zhang Ma could see the happiness in her eyes and the upturned corners of her mouth.
Zhang Ma held her shoulders and said, “Mistress, you have raised two good children! They are both filial to you! None of them look down on you! None of them blame you! They all love you!”
Zhu Yanshu’s eyes were hot and tears fell instantly, she wiped away the tears, tilted her face back, stood up with red eyes, sat down in front of the dresser, and said happily and proudly, “Of course! My child, can I not know?”
She didn’t feel tired for a while, feeling the powder on her face, she got up to reapply her makeup.
Mrs. Zhang poured water for her and waited for her to wash her face and reapply her makeup.
Zhu Yanshu asked her: ”What dishes have you prepared for the evening? Why don’t we cook another yellow fish.”
Zhang Ma quickly agreed: “Since Mrs. wants to eat, then I will go and do it, there is still a fish, originally it was prepared to be burnt for tomorrow’s lunch, but there are not many dishes on the table at night, so it looks good to burn a fish, it is the plate that contains the fish that was beaten up by Big Sister.”
Zhu Yan Shu is full of joy at this time, hit the plate also feel happy: “She is a small child a will do? If the plate is beaten, then it is beaten, another set to make.”
Zhang Ma said, “Eldest sister has been thinking about doing housework for the past two days, I think she’s taking the bull by the horns again.”
Zhu Yanshu was still smiling, “This is good, it’s better than her stupidity of only thinking about love. In the next two days, let her do whatever chores she wants to do, whether it’s cleaning or washing clothes, let her do it, and she’ll learn after she suffers a bit.”
Zhang Ma laughed: “Then her hands will freeze in less than two days!”
Zhu Yanshu: “There are medicines at home for frostbite.”
Zhang Ma laughed and said, “Ma’am, you’re just as narrow-minded as you were when you were young!”
That night, after dinner, Yang Yucan went into the kitchen and watched Zhang Ma wash the dishes, and Zhang Ma said, “My hands hurt a bit, or else, Big Sister, will you help me wash the dishes?”
Yang Yucan quickly said, “Sure, Mrs. Zhang, I’ll do it!”
Zhang Ma then stepped aside and gave the sink to Yang Yucan, then stood beside her and instructed her step by step on how to wash the dishes, how to wash the bowls, how to brush the pots and pans, and afterward, she also had to clean up the sink and the garbage cans, and also wipe the kitchen table clean. After a round of work, Yang Yucan’s back ached, and her arms were so sore that she couldn’t lift them.
Zhang Ma looked at her reddened fingers and said, “If your hands are uncomfortable, put some medicine on them, the medicine is kept in the kitchen, or you can call me to get it for you.”
Yang Yu Cicada didn’t think there was anything wrong with her hands, so she said it wasn’t necessary. Zhang Ma didn’t insist either.
But that wasn’t the end of it, Zhang Ma started boiling water after an hour, cleaned the ashes of the stove, sent the water for each person’s washing into each person’s house, and also took the time to cook a pot of pear soup.
Yang Yucan had to stretch her hands and help with everything, so Zhang Ma did as Zhu Yanshu said and carried her all around the kitchen.
When Yang Yuyan saw that the person who brought her foot washing water was actually Yang Yucan, she was so scared that she almost jumped out of bed.
Yang Yucan put the foot washing basin on the floor with a tired face, and then collapsed on her bed, covering her back and moaning.
Yang Yuyan came over, “What are you doing?”
Yang Yucchan slurred, “I’m helping Zhang Ma.”
Yang Yuyan bristled, seeing through it and not saying anything, so she said, “That’s quite good too. Zhang Ma has always wanted us to help her with her chores, it’s not bad for you to help her.” She didn’t do it anyway.
She took off her socks, put her feet into the hot water basin, and was so hot that she felt comfortable, then she saw that the kettle hadn’t been brought over, and pushed Yang Yucan on the bed, “Sister, you didn’t bring the kettle over for me, and I’ll have to refill it in a while. Go, go.”
Yang Yucan was pushed up, a resentment arose in her chest, but she had no place to throw it, so she could only go out step by step, bring the kettle to the kitchen, and then come over to refill Yang Yuyan’s hot water.
Zhang Ma followed her closely and handed her a mop, saying, “After you pour out the water later, you have to mop up the residual water on the floor, Yan Yan loves to flop around when she washes her feet, spilling water everywhere.”
She took the mop and turned her head to see Yang Yuyan taking turns to play with her two feet, the water dripping down from her snow-white rounded feet, falling back into the basin and splashing onto the floor.
Yang Yu Cicada immediately rebuked, ”Don’t play with water! How old are you to still play with water!”
Yang Yuyan beamed and stopped playing, and having soaked enough, she took her feet out of the basin, wiped them dry, retreated back to the bed, and commanded her sister, “Take the basin away, by the way, did Zhang Ma cook pear soup? You can bring me a bowl.”
Yang Yu Cicada had a hot kettle in one hand, a mop in the other, a foot washing basin on the floor, and water all over the floor, her own sister had gotten her another job, she really felt like she had grown two less hands!
“Go out and drink it yourself!” She said.
Yang Yuyan raised her voice and shouted, “Zhang Ma, Zhang Ma, I want to drink pear soup!”
Zhang Ma’s voice then rang out, “Coming, coming, little ancestor, I’ll serve it to you!”
Yang Yucan was furious.
Yang Yuyan sat on the bed obediently and coquettishly, and when Zhang Ma brought the pear soup, she sweetly thanked her, and held it in her hands and took small sips.
Zhang Ma lovingly watched Yang Yu Yan drink the pear soup, when she turned her head and saw that Yang Yucan hadn’t even carried out the foot washing basin, she immediately exclaimed: ”Eldest sister, why are you moving so slowly? Hurry up, you haven’t washed yourself yet! I’ve put the pear soup on the table in your room for you, clean up here and fetch the water then go back to the house to wash it, and don’t let the pear soup get cold!”
Zhang Ma finished her sentence and waved her hand and went out with particular ease, serving herself the pear soup and carrying it back to the house to drink it, listening to the movement of Yang Yuchan coming and going in the living room.
She poured out Yang Yuyan’s foot washing water, and Zhang Ma hurriedly stuck her head out and shouted, “Elder sister, the foot washing basin needs to be brushed even after it’s been used, and it needs to be left standing oh!”
Then went back to the house to continue reading the scriptures and drinking pear soup.
Yang Yuchan continued to listen to mopping the floor, put the mop, was asked by Yang Yuyan, “Help me put the bowl back to the kitchen,” “I do not want to get out of bed, but also to put on pants and shoes,” “Good sister, thank you!”
Then Yang Yuchan poured water for herself, went back to the house to wash up, then came out to clean up by herself, and finally after another five minutes, rushed back to the kitchen to put the bowl back.
Zhang Ma sighed in her heart, the pear soup must have gotten cold.
The next morning, Zhang Ma was cooking breakfast in the kitchen, when she heard a commotion behind her, she turned her head and saw Yang Yucan’s eyes flushed red, covering her hand as she stood behind her and said, “Zhang Ma, my hand hurts a little, I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”
I don’t know what’s wrong. It was frozen by the cold water, how can a young lady who has never worked before stand it?
Sighing, Zhang Ma took out the medicinal oil and let her rub her hands, “Big sister, you have to rub the medicinal oil all the way in.”
The medicinal oil is pungent, Yang Yucan sits on the sofa and rubs the joints of her fingers, the strange numbness and itchiness at the joints kept her awake all night, the backs of her palms and hands are red, hot and itchy.
So housework was such a hard thing to do? Why is it that Zhang Ma has been doing it all her life and it’s fine, but she can’t do it after only one day?
Yang Yucchan’s heart was filled with bitterness and confusion. Was she too useless, or was it something else?
Zhu Yanshu came out from the bedroom and smelled a pungent smell of medicine, covering her nose and seeing Yang Yucan on the sofa, she quickly waved her hand, “Go back to the house and rub it, how big is the smell of the medicine rubbing here.”
Yang Yucan got up, and when she was about to go back to the house, she stopped and turned around to ask Zhu Yanshu: “Mom, have you ever done housework before?”
Zhu Yanshu gathered her shawl and nodded her head slowly: “Yes, why haven’t I done it before? When I got married, of course I had to do housework.”
Yang Yucchan asked, “Then how did you do it?”
Zhu Yanshu spread her hands, “I did half a day’s work, and then I went home to find my mom at noon, and my mom, that is, your grandma, sent Zhang Ma to me. At that time, I called Zhang Ma as Sister Zhang.” Thinking of the past made Zhu Yanshu smile and narrow her eyes, she really misses the old youthful days.
Zhang mom came out from the kitchen, said with a smile, “back then can be really easy ah, I just came to me when I said is a pair of young married couple, not much work, people and young face tender, will not make hard to make people, the results came after it is on the thief ship, your mom did not take two months to conceive you, followed by is to give birth to children to do the month, and then it is to raise you two little things, live more and more, tired me! I’m so tired!”
Speaking of the past, Zhang Ma and Zhu Yanshu were both very happy. Only Yang Yucchan didn’t get the answer she wanted.
Seeing her depressed, Zhu Yanshu said, “Your grandma said back then that the most unfortunate thing in the world is when a smart person takes the bull by the horns, but smart people love to take the bull by the horns the most.”
Zhang Ma asked, “How can they be smart people? I think it’s the stupid ones who love to take the bull by the horns.”
Zhu Yanshu: “Zhang Ma, I thought the same thing at the time, but my mom said that because a smart person is smarter than everyone else, it’s harder for him to correct his mistakes, and if he thinks that there’s no problem in the world that he can’t solve, he’ll keep taking the bull’s-eye. If he thinks there’s no problem he can’t solve, he’ll just keep on taking the bull by the horns. That’s why stupid people don’t make many mistakes even if they are wrong, and once a smart person makes a mistake, it’s all a big mistake.”
Zhang Ma listened to a deep thought and couldn’t help but sigh, “This is what the old lady really understands! I usually see is stupid people make a mistake is already enough to make people angry, but he is stupid ah, you can not be too much with him, sometimes with stupid people can not be clear. But to really meet a smart person out of the wrong, that …… then I can only shout Amitabha Buddha.”
Yang Yu Cicada seems to be clear.
Zhu Yan Shu looked at her and said, “Big sister, I usually praise you for being smart and beautiful, that’s all because I’m your mom. Your teachers and classmates praise you for being smart and pretty, that’s because you’re good at your schoolwork and active in your activities. But the truth is, I think you’re a stupid child, and neither you nor Yan Yan are smart children. That’s why mom only wished for you to be peaceful in your life, never wished for you to excel and be rich.”
Yang Yucan looked at her mother, the words she had heard so much in the past, today it sounded something else, more sobering.
Zhu Yanshu: “You have to see where your own skills are, and how much you can do. Don’t do what you can’t do, people, you have self-knowledge.”
Yang Yucang finally understood, she covered her hand full of medicinal oil, standing stiff and speechless.
Zhu Yan Shu: “Go back to the house and apply the medicine, let Zhang Ma send you to your room for breakfast today.”
Yang Yu Cicada stood still for three breaths before turning to leave.
After her bedroom door is closed tightly, Zhang Ma walks over to Zhu Yanshu’s side and says worriedly, “Mistress, will big sister understand this time?”
Zhu Yanshu: “If she doesn’t understand this time, there will be another time. She was in love with Ma Tianbao in school, but it’s only a skill if she can still be in love after leaving school. Ma Tianbao can read books and newspapers with her in school, but after leaving school he has to earn a living to support his family, so how much more energy does he have to read books and newspapers with her? After this year, after helping the Ma family rent a house, I’ll see how long she can still deceive herself.” She liked Yang Xuhe back then because he was able to read poetry with her all the time, and the two of them lived a life of envy. If Yang Xuhe had been Ma Tianbao, it would have been impossible for her to keep her love for so long.
In the final analysis, her love and happy marriage back then were all bought by the Zhu family’s money, but unfortunately now the Zhu family has no money to help Yang Yu Cicada buy a perfect love back again.
Zhang Ma sighed: “Alas, in fact, the Ma family is also quite pitiful, it is just not compatible with our family, big sister really married over non-bitter.”
Zhu Yan Shu gathered her shawl and did not speak.