People who come home from the town don't have to think about having another New Year's dinner last year, they have already had experience this year, and they have put the New Year's dinner symbolically on the table early, and they only need to be busy frying some peanuts and melon seeds when they get home. Children and men who have nothing to do sit in the hall and gossip from south to north, keeping Chinese New Year's Eve every year.

Uncle Xiaohu was particularly excited tonight, the three of them have not been vigiling together for many years, this year the second brother's family did not come back except for Laizi, Xiaohu's family, and the children gathered again to keep a vigil at his house on Chinese New Year's Eve.

Uncle is like a big parent, what he is most willing to see is a lot of happy and happy people sitting around the stove, talking, laughing, and affectionate. In his heart, there is no difference between sons and nephews, they are all the dearest and most important children in his life. In those years, because of his daughter-in-law's trouble, his nephews and nephews had a lot of shares with his own family, although he was materially rich, but his heart was empty and there was no way out. I just feel that I didn't manage the children well, so that this family was distracted and separated.

He said to his younger brother and his sons and nephews who were eating corn and fried rice with emotion: "It's better for the family to be reunited and lively together!" Since you're all busy earning money, you don't see anyone all day long, and when your home is deserted, you don't even have a breather! ”

His second brother sneered: "Big brother, you really don't know how blessed you are!" In the past, when our family was poor, we were together all day long, but all of them were sad and sighed, where was it lively? ! ”

Dahong also joked with his father: "Dad is hypocritical!" You say that now, if we really all stay at home. If you don't work, you will have to scold us for being lazy. ”

Daman has always felt ashamed of his father and mother because of Qingzhu Niang's matter. became a lot silent in front of his father, and when his brother said this about his father, he just grinned and laughed silently.

Xiangzi and Xiaohu didn't hear what the uncle wanted to express, they only thought that they were nephews, and even if they were idle at home, it was impossible to stay at the uncle's house. So nothing was said. also looked at the uncle and smiled.

The eldest uncle, the second aunt, the big Hong daughter-in-law, the daughter-in-law who wants to be the son, and the second girl are in the kitchen, while frying peanuts, fried melon seeds, and fried sweet potato fries, while picking bad peanuts and melon seeds such as bad and deflated seeds.

Erya, who was sitting at the mouth of the pot and burning the fire, asked the uncle next to her, who was rummaging in the dustpan for bad peanuts: "Uncle! It's not like it's okay. Let the red fruit be produced here, why did you still go back? ”

The eldest uncle replied without raising her head: "If you don't agree with it, then I can't be reluctant, after all, if you marry someone else, you are someone else's person." But. There's a lot of emphasis on the fruit. I had already prepared for them to go back, and the quilts, beds, and rooms were all sunburned, washed, and wiped. When her mother-in-law came to pick her up, she said that she had been busy since November, and she had cleaned up the house neatly, so she came to pick up the two of them back. In the first month, I went over with the second family to have a look, and if there was nothing wrong, I waited until I was about to give birth. I'll go over and watch it for a few more days. Now it's a good life at home, so it's so exquisite. In the past, Hongxia and them were born until they were born. My son-in-law came to report the good news, and I found out, let alone take care of her confinement. ”

Erya didn't speak again, she didn't get along with the other aunts and sisters for a long time, and the relationship could only be said to be good, but they weren't too close. Only Hongguo liked to follow her until she was fifteen or sixteen years old when she was eight or nine years old. She is naturally different from Hongguo, so she hopes that Hongguo can be produced here, so that she can come and see it at any time. If Hongguo goes back to her mother-in-law's house, she can't always go over, it is estimated that she will only follow the eldest aunt and them when she sends the birth meal!

When the eldest aunt saw that Erya stopped talking, they thought that Erya was just casually concerned, but they didn't expect that Erya was actually worried about Hongguo.

There is a village in the eastern suburbs of Liuhe County, which is not small, because it is close to the county seat and has convenient transportation, and every family can have other side jobs to do in addition to farming, so they are quite wealthy. Among them, although the income of a family surnamed Zhang this year is a little more than in previous years, they do not have the joy of getting money before.

"What the hell is going on with you? Your aunt's second girl in the lobby has always been inferior to you in embroidery, and last year she received less than half of your salary, why is your salary this year not even as good as a fraction of others? ”

This one was blamed for Zhang Yunzhu, the embroiderer of the Hongxiu Embroidery House, and it was her mother who blamed her. She was also panicked in her heart, but what could she change?!

"Can I be blamed for this? I cried and begged you not to bind my feet, but did you relent? Zhang Yunzhu replied with a little resentment.

Her mother asked inexplicably: "What does this have to do with foot wrapping, you embroider with your hands, can you still embroider with your feet?" ”

Zhang Yunzhu twitched her nasal voice, and explained to her mother in a very low tone: "At the end of last year, a partner from the owner came to our embroidery workshop to pick people. Originally, she chose several of us with the best embroidery skills, but when she saw that we were all bound feet, she regretted not using us, and picked her cousins and their unwrapped feet again. She was about to cry as she spoke.

Her mother hurriedly whispered: "Don't cry! Today is Chinese New Year's Eve, if your grandmother knows, you have to scold the sky. What does embroidery have to do with foot wrapping, you can tell me quickly! ”

"We are still not convinced, so we have to ask to understand, but the owner said that we will know after the first month. As a result, on the day of the Lantern Festival in the first lunar month, we were all called by our host to help, and then we saw our cousins wearing particularly beautiful fur high shoes, and we knew that we were wrapped in our feet, and we couldn't wear that kind of shoes at all, and it was useless to call us.

When we saw the shoes, no one cared, they just thought they looked good in those shoes. But! Later, I learned that the owner was generous and wanted his life. All the clothes they wear are custom-made, they are counted as their personal orders, and the embroidery is also completed by them, and there is a 5% sales commission in addition to the wages of embroidery. The cousin earned a hundred or a few dozen taels of silver, and the most they heard was that they earned nearly three hundred taels of silver.

Whining! Mother! If only I could earn so much money in a year. Where do you use it to wrap your feet and hurt, and you have to beg your father and grandfather everywhere to marry some good family? Yes!? Woo."

Zhang Yunzhu, who was talking while helping her mother to light the fire at the mouth of the pot hole, finally couldn't hold back, put down the fire tongs, covered her mouth, and cried bitterly.

Her mother's eyes straightened as she listened. I also forgot to flip the peanuts in the wok, and my intuition was cold from head to toe, hissing into the cracks of the bones.

Last year, she was still laughing at her sister-in-law for not binding her daughter's feet, so she waited to suffer when she talked about her in-law's family! But in the blink of an eye, her daughter, who has suffered so much in vain, is suffering the pain caused by this foot binding, how can she accept it?

The grandmother in the hall finally heard the cry coming out of the kitchen, and ran over with a blue face in anger. I slapped my granddaughter who couldn't help herself when she started crying.

scolded in his mouth: "This is the New Year, what are you crying about!" ”

After all, Yun Zhuniang felt sorry for her daughter, so she hurriedly explained the reason to her mother-in-law. As soon as the old woman heard about it, there was such a thing. was also so shocked that his eyes straightened, and he muttered for a long time: "How can this be?" How so? She didn't dare to think that the highest was nearly three hundred taels, even if only the cousin and nephew and the girl earned more than one hundred taels, it would be a great income!

Whining! If it weren't for the Chinese New Year's Eve, she would have cried!

Three generations of grandchildren. It's like a fool. Standing in the kitchen with a dull eye, you look at me and I look at you, until the peanuts in the pot smell of burnt and don't come back to your senses.

In the Fucheng Qin Zhifu family, the children and grandchildren will accompany the old lady in the old lady's room for a while on the night of the Chinese New Year's Eve. A few people who were chatting suddenly heard the old lady scolding the granddaughter sitting in front of her: "What? Who said it, who said it was half-crippled? You explain it to me immediately, otherwise you won't go out for a month in the first month. ”

The youngest daughter of the Qin Governor's Mansion, with tears in her eyes, whispered: "This is not what I said!" When we used to play together. It's all a joke that those who don't bind their feet are big-footed men. But since July, I've heard people talking everywhere. Saying that those of us who bind our feet are half-crippled. We don't dare to go out now, for fear that people will laugh at us for being half-crippled.

I heard them say that it was originally said by a scholar from the academy, and one scholar said that many women in this world are half-disabled. Others ask what a semi-cripple is, and then he tells people that a woman's feet are like that, and they are not crippled. ”

When the old lady heard that it was said by the scholars in the school, it was not good to blame her granddaughters anymore, after all, the granddaughters were also wronged. Under the pretext that she was a little tired, she sent the children out, leaned on the chaise longue herself, and taunted the old maidservant beside her: "Half-crippled! Hehe! Half-crippled! That's right! Am I half-crippled? I can't walk on cloudy days and rainy roads, and I can only move step by step with my heels, what's the difference with a cripple?! Even if you wash your feet every day, you can stink so that flies and mosquitoes retreat, where is the decency that a normal woman should have? ! But what can be done? Generations have been like this, who can fight for what this ancestor left behind? I didn't want to bind my feet at that time, and I didn't end up suffering this sin! What can be done to raise a daughter but follow the sins of the previous generation to let her daughter suffer with it! What can I do? ”

The old maidservant persuaded the emotional old lady Qin: "Old lady, don't be angry, the children are not sensible, let them go!" There is always an adult in their family who is in charge. ”

"Hey! Let's make trouble! If these scholars have the ability to make trouble and prevent women from binding their feet, they want me to kowtow to them, and I will never kowtow to them without saying a word. ”

The old maidservant sighed: "Alas! ”

Lin Fenfang, another embroiderer in the Hongxiu embroidery room, her grandmother is an enlightened person, and her granddaughter earned more than 200 taels of silver, only a fraction of 30 taels, and the rest was kept by her granddaughter as a dowry.

Before, because her granddaughter was bigfoot, even if she had good embroidery skills and outstanding appearance, she still couldn't find a good in-law. At that time, she always regretted that she was too soft-hearted and should not feel sorry for her granddaughter's offense, so she let her granddaughter's footcloth go. But now she is very glad that her granddaughter has the opportunity to earn a few hundred taels of silver a year because of this pair of big feet. Even if the granddaughter is bound to her feet, she may not be able to find a family with a good family background, but now the granddaughter can earn so much money by herself, which is much more reliable than relying on other people's family background. At the beginning, I still did it right! (To be continued......)