The Chen family's cotton was harvested, and when the weather was fine, Mr. Chen led the family to dry cotton in the yard.

The tool for drying cotton is reeds, and the reeds in the Xiaohuai River are dried and cut into filaments, and the cotton threads are worn little by little to make a mat, which is a good helper for drying cotton.

Chen Zichang's injuries gradually improved, and he occasionally sat at the door to bask in the sun. After Zhao was troubled by Xue Jiao for opening a small stove, he continued to pretend to be sick in the house. Mrs. Chen sat under the sun all day, watching her family dry cotton, and she wanted to have a bottom about this year's harvest.

Xue Jiao took a dustpan full of cotton, and followed behind Li to remove the dead grass and leaves on the cotton little by little. These days, Chen Xuejiao and Wang Jinghao rarely go to Master Qin's place, because they know that the family is busy, Master Qin deliberately takes Jing Jing off for a few days.

"Mother, this year's cotton harvest is good, while the work in the field is finished, make a jacket for my father and brother." Xue Jiao looked at Li with an expectant face.

Chen Xiucai and Chen Qi'an got up early to go to private school, and they needed to wear thick clothes when they got up early in the cold in late autumn, and in the morning Chen Xuejiao saw that the jackets worn by her father and brother were very thin, and the cotton inside was all off.

"This cotton is sold for money, and it is kept for next year to buy seeds." Li Shi quietly glanced at Old Lady Chen, and stopped talking.

"You can't have no clothes in your family, right?" Xue Jiao was dissatisfied, knowing that her mother was worried about Mrs. Chen's reprimand, "Every winter, except for our family, everyone has new clothes and new jackets to wear, but our family doesn't have them." Not to mention anything else, two days ago I saw my sister drying her winter clothes, and the flush cotton jacket was thin. Mother, our family is also a member of the Chen family, and we deserve a share of the things in the public. ”

Li Shi was silent, and his eyes flashed. Since Chen Xuejiao calculated an account in front of Mrs. Chen last time, Li's mind is not as old-fashioned as before. These days, Xue Jiao emphasizes the efforts she has made for this family every day, but she has received very little, and her family deserves a part of it. In the past, such an idea was devastating for the Li family, she thought that she should pay for the busy family, and if she used the money in the public school, it would be out of line.

Mrs. Chen sat on the bench, although the late autumn sun was brilliant, it was a little cooler, and she ordered Xue Miao to go to the house to get her a jacket and cover her legs. Seeing Xue Jiao and Li whispering, occasionally scraping into her ears a sentence or two of "make a padded jacket" and "deserve", she couldn't help but sneer in her heart. Make a new padded jacket and wear new clothes, you deserve it. Xue Miao is right, although they are all descendants of the Chen family, they must also pay attention to the relatives of flesh and blood, and you are also worthy of being a relative in front of me.

Thinking like this, Mrs. Chen's eyes turned cold when she looked at Li and her children.

These days, Li asked her for money to buy oil and salt, but she was not ambiguous at all. Li Shijing was obedient, she didn't ask her for money, but let her second girl ask for it, Mrs. Chen raised her voice a little, and this second girl played tricks, which made her brain hurt.

"Are you going to sell out all this year's cotton?" Xue Jiao asked Li.

Li Shi thought for a while and said: "These three acres of cotton are self-retained, and all the cotton is our own, and it is estimated that most of it will be sold as in previous years, leaving a small part for winter clothes and weaving." Li spread out the cotton in his hand, the color was white and dazzling, and he couldn't help but smile, "This year's cotton harvest is good, there are a few rains when it blooms, and when the cotton peaches are ripe, it will be sunny for half a month, and it will be a good time." Although the cotton harvest does not belong to her, Li, as an authentic peasant woman, has a heartfelt joy for the harvest.

Xue Jiao saw Li's heart warm, thinking how good it would be for her to have land, those crops were her own, and looking at the endless land every day, her heart was solid and quiet.

"Mother, have you ever mentioned to your grandfather and grandmother before that you want to make winter clothes?" Xue Jiao couldn't help but ask.

"No," Li hesitated, "your grandmother is old, so she should be close to her." ”

People are like this, if you give up your fair share, once or twice, it doesn't matter, but after many times, people take it for granted, and one day you want to take your part back and find that you don't have your share anymore. Last time, Xue Ru dried winter clothes, listening to her, the cotton used to make jackets at home was given by her grandmother.

Li suddenly smiled apologetically at Xue Jiao. Li loves children, and it is enough for her to do such an "out-of-line" thing as beating Chen Zichang for her children. The previous children were sensible and accustomed to forbearance in everything, in other words, in Li's ears, they thought that it was a matter of course to give up what they deserved, so no child said to Li that they wanted to take their part.

Now Xue Jiao has spoken out.

"Mother, you see, our family will also be cold in winter, and they also need to wear padded jackets. If you don't tell grandpa and grandma that we are cold, they think that we don't need cotton clothes, and it can only be us who suffer. Especially my brother and Qi Ping, one has to get up early in the winter to study, and this morning I saw my brother shivering from the cold. One is still a child, his body is weak, what if he doesn't wear it in winter and it freezes warmly. Xue Jiao said to the child Qiao, only in this way can the Li family be impressed.

Li Shi looked at Xue Jiao's gaze even more guilty, and the hand pulling the cotton in his hand slowed down.

"Then I'll ask your grandmother for some cotton this year." Determination rose in Lee's eyes.

Xue Jiao didn't ask Li to go to Mrs. Chen to ask for cotton, otherwise she would inevitably be scolded. What she said to Li meant was that she was going to ask for cotton herself, but she just hoped that Li would not feel guilty in the face of the cotton she was asking for, and realized that she deserved it.

Xue Jiao gave Li a bright smile, went to the pot house and brought a teapot of water, and then ran to Old Man Chen's side. Mrs. Chen's eyes kept following Xue Jiao, Xue Jiao only couldn't see it, and occasionally gave her a bright smile, and Mrs. Chen snorted angrily.

"I'm tired, drink some water." Chen Xuejiao smiled sweetly and handed the water to Old Man Chen.

Old Man Chen was stunned, took the water and drank it.

"Master, you work every day, I'll give you a beating on the back." Xue Jiao said as she clenched her fists to help Old Man Chen beat him up.

Old Man Chen was not used to it at first, Xue Jiao's movements were just right, and the priorities were urgent, and Old Man Chen breathed a comfortable sigh of relief.

He heard Chen Xuejiao's words in the back room yesterday, and he originally complained that this girl attracted the neighbors so loudly, but at night, lying on the kang and hearing the old wife and second son complaining that Xuejiao changed relatives and hit the wall, he felt guilty. This guilt made Mr. Chen think farther and farther, he thought of the embarrassment of the eldest family surviving in the cracks, the hard work of the Li family, even if the second son calculated that the eldest family almost made the second girl lose his life, the eldest family still treated his parents respectfully and treated his brothers and sisters, and he felt sorry for the big house. Listening to Mrs. Chen's noisy voice, Old Man Chen remembered his ex-wife Liu, the beauty who melted like a snowflake, and her noble figure always looked at Chen Zimin with a faint and gentle smile. He never understood Liu's thoughts, Liu was a spotless fairy on the high mountain to him, and he fell on the Chen family's earthen kang by mistake, he was full of inferiority in front of Liu, and that time was a time of humility and joy for him. After Liu left, his heart was gone, he didn't dare to get close to Chen Zimin, Chen Wenxiu, and Chen Wenying, as soon as he saw the three children born by Liu, he was at a loss, and he could only cover it up with a cold heart.

"Master, what's wrong with you, am I comfortable beating it?" Seeing Old Man Chen's sluggish expression, Xue Jiao shouted softly.

"Comfortable, comfortable." Old Man Chen paused and said.

This dead old man, Old Lady Chen's eyes are like blades. I don't know what kind of soup the old man has drunk in the past two days, last night he compared the second child with the eldest child and repeatedly said that the second child was a loser, and he defended the son for a few words, which caused him to get up and go to the outside to sleep on the waste kang. Thinking that the waste kang was slept with by the former head Zimin's mother, a mouthful of phlegm blocked in Mrs. Chen's throat, and she was heartburned and lungs.

"Master, this year's cotton harvest is good, my mother said that I should make new cotton clothes for you and my milk, and the new cotton will be worn on the body to keep warm." Xue Jiao continued to flatter.

Since the things that are obtained from the fierce and noisy reasoning are used by the Li family, then change to a gentle method. After Xue Jiao's observation, although Old Man Chen is pedantic, he will listen to Mrs. Chen more often, but no one can change the decision made at the critical moment, she decided to use gentle coquettishness to go to Old Man Chen's special line to fight for her own interests.

"Your mother is filial." Old Man Chen looked at the Li family, Li was lowering his head to spread the cotton, and the old man Chen nodded. Although he was influenced by Mrs. Chen to favor his second daughter-in-law, he always knew in his heart that he wanted to be filial or the eldest daughter-in-law.

Xue Jiao saw the kindness of Old Man Chen's expression, and continued: "My mother works until late every day, and she is afraid of burning oil by lighting the lamp at night, so she can only find time to make clothes for her grandfather and grandmother during the day. ”

It means that the Li family worked very hard for filial piety to the second elder.

"Thank you for your hard work." Old Man Chen looked at Jing Hao, and the face similar to his deceased wife always made him in a trance, so he always had a cold face in the face of Jing Hao.

It was also in late autumn like this that he met Liu, she fell into the water, and he saved her, it was a long, long time ago.

"Master, a few days ago, my sister helped my mother dry her winter clothes, and I saw that our family's winter clothes were all jackets without cotton jackets, so I was afraid that winter would come, and it would be cold without cotton jackets." Xue Jiao said softly, "Sister told me, my mother said, if you have good things, you have to honor your grandmother, and we should have honored our grandmother with cotton before, so we don't have to wear cotton jackets, so we have to honor our grandmother when we grow up." ”

It means that there are no cotton clothes to wear in our big room, and Old Man Chen's eyes are fixed.

"But I know that it is right to honor my grandmother, but if my body freezes, my grandmother will also be sad, and making my grandmother sad is the biggest unfilial piety." Xue Jiao's big innocent eyes opened, "Master, are you right when you say what I said?" ”

"Yes, yes." Old Man Chen frowned, "Your grandma will be sad if you get frostbitten." ”

"My mother told us that it is our greatest filial piety to make grandpa and grandma live comfortably." Chen Xuejiao giggled.

Old Man Chen's face was smiling, as if he had drunk a bowl of frozen mung bean soup in June, his whole body was full of comfort, and his voice was a little softer, "This winter, let your mother make you more padded jackets." ”

When the sun reached midday, through the plane trees in the yard, the mottled light and shadow were scattered all over Chen Xuejiao's eyes, eyebrows and feet, and it became more and more lovely.

"Master, how much cotton will be distributed to us this year?" Chen Xuejiao asked coquettishly.

"One person with a cotton jacket and two pairs of cotton shoes, I think ten catties of cotton is enough." Old Man Chen counted it with a pen.

Mrs. Chen's teeth were sour when she heard this, ten catties of cotton, and she needed so much cotton to make a cotton jacket.

When Chen Xuejiao heard this, she happily shouted to Li: "Mother, the master said that one of us will be dressed in a cotton jacket for the winter." ”

Li Shi listened to the eyebrows and stretched out, and Xue Rujing also laughed. Zhang snorted coldly, the old family has never made new clothes, what is the situation this year, but when I think about this cotton is the heart of the public middle school, the unhappiness in my heart has disappeared, since the old family wants to make a new jacket, there is no reason for my family not to follow, and when the old lady Chen scolds her, it is reasonable to justify.

"Master, can you put the cotton that made us a new jacket separately." Chen Xuejiao asked happily, her eyes staring at Old Lady Chen's face.

Old man Chen called out to Li: "Eldest daughter-in-law, you spread the cotton that your family made into a jacket in the yard near your house to dry." He looked at Mrs. Chen's face, and said, "The old man didn't make jackets in previous years, save cotton to honor the two of us, we can't finish it, I see that there are more than a dozen catties of cotton in your cabinet." This year's cotton took out ten pounds to make a jacket for the boss, and the boss is also a showman, wearing a jacket to go out to give a lecture makes people laugh. Eldest daughter-in-law, you make a new jacket for Jinghao's girl. ”

When these words came out, they forced Mrs. Chen back what she wanted to say. also explained to the other houses why he gave the boss ten catties of cotton, because the boss's family is filial, and filial piety is the most important reason to gag people's mouths in this era.

Chen Xuejiao cheered, pulling Qi Ping to spread cotton at her door, and Xue Ru and Jing Hao also followed to help.