Zhou Ling pouted and was dissatisfied with her small half bowl of paste, Wang Fengying muttered a few words in her ear, she looked at Zhou Juan with bright eyes, Zhou Juan smiled at her and nodded, Zhou Ling bowed her head and drank porridge with joy.

Zhou Wanwan lay on the kang and looked at the Zhou family who were snoring and drinking in silence, everyone was thin and dry, with vegetables on their faces, and their eyes were urgent and fierce when they pounced on the food. This is her family, seeing them again, the familiar and unfamiliar faces did not make Zhou Wanwan feel any intimacy, but saw greed, indifference, selfishness and viciousness behind those faces......

A year later, in order to change Zhou Fu's relatives, Wang Fengying married Zhou Ping to a disabled person in his thirties who was missing a hand, and Zhou Ping couldn't bear the abuse of that person after giving birth to a daughter and hanged himself;

Two years later, they forced Zhou Yang to the county's farmland and water conservancy construction base, a fifteen-year-old child, climbing the ice and lying in the snow in the winter to do the hard work that a man in his prime could not bear, just to earn the extra five points of work and two taels of dried sweet potatoes for his family every day...... For more than ten years since then, Zhou Yang spent every year in various water conservancy construction bases and farmland construction bases in the winter of farming, so that he finally suffered from severe rheumatism and anemia......

Four years later, Zhou Hongying was accidentally injured and needed blood, in order to save plasma money, Mrs. Zhou called several children of the Zhou family to the hospital for blood tests, and finally Zhou Xia had the same blood type as Zhou Hongying, and more than 1,000 ml of blood was drawn at a time. Later, Zhou Hongxiang and Zhou Hongying tricked Zhou Xia and Zhou Yang into going to the hospital many times to sell blood......

Five years later, Mrs. Zhou and Zhou Hongxiang worked together to trick Zhou Chen into prison, which directly led to his death......

After the stepmother got married, she was extremely mean to their siblings, and the family, including their father, ignored them and let them go. Even, in order to prevent her from going to university, her stepmother went to the countryside to accuse her and her eldest brother of engaging in capitalism -- the stepmother thought that at that time, as before, going to college depended on the recommendation of the masses, and if someone denounced her, she would not be able to go to college. At that time, the family also thought so, but no one stopped the stepmother, and no one thought to say a word to her eldest brother on her behalf. They just looked at it indifferently, including their biological father and sister Zhou Xia.

In the year when Zhou Wanwan graduated from college, in order to marry Zhou Qiangteng of the fourth uncle's house, Zhou Yang was driven to live in the dark and damp feed room of the production team that almost collapsed. It's nice to have a shack to sleep in. Zhou Wanwan thought about it later, if the eldest brother didn't go to that place to freeze for a winter, would his rheumatism be less serious? Will the eldest brother be able to live a few more years? Is it possible to wait until she has the ability to repay her eldest brother and cure his illness......

……

These people, in Zhou Wanwan's heart, except for the eldest brother and second brother are her relatives, everyone else is her enemy and passers-by who are indifferent to her - even passers-by, if it were not for their indifference and fueling, their brothers and sisters would not have ended up so miserable.

Zhou Wanwan lowered her eyes to hide the hatred in her eyes. If you owe us brother and sister, I want you to pay it back! You don't have a trace of affection for us, and I will reciprocate with double indifference!

After breakfast, the bell for the production team to go to work also rang, and Old Man Zhou took his son, daughter-in-law and grown up grandsons and granddaughters to work. There are only Mrs. Zhou left at home, seven-year-old Zhou Xia, six-year-old Zhou Ling, Zhou Wanwan and Zhou Lan who are lying on the kang and can't move, and of course, Zhou Hongying, who is asleep and returning to sleep.

Under normal circumstances, at this time, rural boys at the age of fourteen or fifteen go to work in the production team, and in the first three years or so, because of lack of strength and poor farm work, the team will assign them to do some relatively light work, and the work they get is also half of the adult labor force. Those who go to the farmland infrastructure team or the water conservancy infrastructure team are all young and middle-aged male laborers, and the work there is too heavy for those who are slightly in poor health. Moreover, the adults in the family will always love the children, and no one can bear to let their children who are not yet adults suffer in such a hard and tiring place, even if they can earn a few more jobs.

But Zhou Yang and Zhou Chen are two exceptions. Zhou Yang went to work in the production team at the age of twelve, and was sent to the farmland infrastructure team this winter, because the infrastructure team was given two taels of dried sweet potatoes every day, and he could earn five more points a day than in the team. In order to save one person's rations and two taels of dried sweet potatoes a day, Mrs. Zhou scolded and threatened to force Zhou Yang to the farmland infrastructure team. Mrs. Zhou's reason for threatening Zhou Yang was that Zhou Wanwan would not give her a bite to eat if Zhou Yang didn't go, and if Zhou Yang went, she would chew and feed Zhou Wanwan two taels of dried sweet potatoes every day.

Fortunately, the farmland infrastructure construction team is close to home, and the people in the team are all villagers from several nearby villages, so they can take care of Zhou Yang a little. Moreover, the construction site of the infrastructure team is next to the village, and they can come back to live every day, at least they don't have to sleep on the frozen soil kang in the cold shack. In his previous life, Zhou Yang would be sent to the Gancha River Water Conservancy Base 200 miles away next winter, and from there, Zhou Yang's health throughout his life would be ruined.

And Zhou Chen's life was even more miserable, he was only ten years old when his mother died, and he was immediately rushed to the production team to work. Every day, he does the same work and gets the same work as Zhou Jun, who is five years older than him. And all this, as a father, Zhou Chunliang ignored it, let Mrs. Zhou arrange it, and let Wang Fengying instigate it, all of which were left to chance.

The people who worked were gone, and Zhou Juan came out after tinkering for a while, still wearing a red cotton jacket and yellow collar, and two large braids that reached the waist without a single burr, obviously going in and combing it again just now.

"Milk, I'm leaving. It's late to go to work, Uncle Xu can't see him. Zhou Juan greeted Mrs. Zhou as she walked outside the house. The Xu family lives in the town, ten miles away from Sanjiatun, and it takes an hour to walk.

"Go ahead! Be careful on the road. Every time Zhou Juan went to Xu's house, Mrs. Zhou's attitude was surprisingly good, of course, this was inseparable from what Zhou Juan got back.

Zhou Juan walked to the kitchen, and Zhou Ling, who was sweeping the floor, threw the broom and followed.

"Eldest sister, you come." Obviously, Zhou Juan's family is also called by the ranking of their siblings in private. Zhou Ling motioned for Zhou Juan to bow her head and bit her ear. The sisters, you whispered to me for a long time, and Zhou Ling let Zhou Juan go with a smile.

Zhou Xia, who was washing dishes in the cauldron, watched enviously, and did not continue to wash the dishes until Zhou Juan left. Zhou Ling was a six-year-old girl after all, she couldn't hide her words, and she knew that she couldn't say it, so she could only raise her chin to Zhou Xia and snort proudly, before slowly starting to sweep the floor.

At this time, Zhou Hongying on the kang woke up, and Mrs. Zhou hurriedly called her two granddaughters to give Zhou Hongying face wash, "...... The water is hot, and then give the paste to your aunt to heat up, and burn it on a small fire, don't spoil the food. ”

Soon, Zhou Xia and Zhou Ling were sent to Zhou Hongying on the kang with face wash water and paste.

After Zhou Hongying washed her face, Zhou Xia hurriedly handed over the towel, Zhou Ling staggered to put the basin off the kang, and Mrs. Zhou scolded: "Eat for nothing!" You can't do anything! Zhou Ling had long been accustomed to Mrs. Zhou's casual reprimand, and walked out like nothing.

Seeing that Zhou Hongying was dressed, Zhou Xia hurriedly got on the kang, folded the quilt that Zhou Hongying had slept on, and stacked it neatly on the kang tip.

It would be surprising if someone else saw such a situation, and it would be unreasonable to ask two six or seven-year-old girls to serve their twelve-year-old aunt. But in the Zhou family, it is normal, and Zhou Wanwan doesn't feel strange at all when he looks at it from the side. After she was five years old, she waited for Zhou Hongying to wash her face and eat, and even washed Zhou Hongying's clothes when she was older, Mrs. Zhou is not an ordinary pampering of this old girl, who dares to let her have a little dissatisfaction, that is, she touched Mrs. Zhou's scales, and kneeling down to apologize may not be able to spare you.

Zhou Hongying took a sip of the paste and began to frown, and coquettishly said to Mrs. Zhou: "Mother, this porridge is too thin, don't be hungry, I want to eat dried sweet potatoes." ”

Mrs. Zhou glanced at the two granddaughters who were lying on the edge of the kang and watching Zhou Hongying drink porridge, and pointed in the direction of the West House, "Go!" Get out and play! It's all hanging out in this house! ”

Zhou Xia and Zhou Ling knew that this was Mrs. Zhou going to open a small stove for her aunt, although they wanted to eat it very much, they didn't dare to stay any longer, and hurriedly ran to the West House. I didn't dare not run, and my grandmother's slap fell if I moved slowly, and it was a merciless beating.

Seeing that there were only the two of them left in the house, of course, there was no need to shy away from the two words on the kang, Mrs. Zhou took out a bunch of keys to open a cabinet placed against the partition wall on the tip of the kang, and put her hand in for a long time before taking out two pieces of dried sweet potatoes and handing them to Zhou Hongying.

Zhou Hongying complained while taking it: "Just two pieces, what kind of land is enough!" Didn't they send two taels a day, and they all ate it for me! Anyway, my second brother can still bring them when they come back for the New Year, and they don't also send two taels a day, and they have to keep them all at home. ”

"Then you don't have to leave some for your eldest sister, his little Yan'er and Xiao Lei love to eat this. We don't have anything to do in this rural area, and there is nothing for them in this disaster, and the children love to eat some dried sweet potatoes and still don't let them eat it. Mrs. Zhou locked the cupboard, and fastened the key firmly to the waistband of her trousers, before she came back to sit and talk to the old girl.

"Mother, when will my eldest sister be able to eat food? Doesn't it mean that if you marry someone from the city, you can eat the supply of food? Why hasn't my eldest sister eaten it yet? ”

"Is the food available to any individual? That has to be accumulated by ancestors! Your eldest sister will suffer from the lack of study, or others would have arranged a job for her earlier, not only your eldest sister can eat the supply of food, but also the four children can eat. Mrs. Zhou sighed as she spoke, with infinite regret.

"I have to study hard and eat food later." Zhou Hongying was chewing on dried sweet potatoes while her eyes lit up and she was determined.

"That's not good! You study hard, and let your eldest sister introduce you to an object in the city in the future, and the whole family will eat and supply food, then it is called enjoying happiness! ”

……