In the hazy morning light of spring, a small meandering stream divides the barren and rich land below the mountain into two like clear white lines, the rich land on the other side of the river belongs to a Li Yuanwai in the town, and the village houses sparsely spread along the river bank on this barren land are the Li family village where the Tiaohua family is located.

The cold winter has just passed, and the fertilizer fields opposite are covered with the scientific name milk vetch, which is called "cauliflower" in the local language, or "flower for short". However, the cauliflower flowers are still full of green leaves at this time, and there is no way to see the enchanting beauty of the purple stars connected together.

The blue sky did not see the slightest trace of pollution, and the lotus flower standing on the slope of the mountain exhaled a deep breath of turbidity, smelling the thick smell of grass in the air, and suddenly felt relaxed and happy, and the depression that had plagued her for more than ten days dissipated slightly. A pleasant smile appeared on her shriveled face that was not appropriate for her age.

The small body of the flower is because the skeleton is large, although there is no flesh, it does not look thin, a round face is very similar to a shriveled waxy yellow flatbread because of the lack of nutrition, a few freckles on the round nose are like a few sesame seeds on the flatbread, and the withered yellow hair has a little natural curl, and it looks messy no matter how you comb it, like a messy grass on the top. The patched linen garment was a little wide, loosely draped over the body, and only a hemp rope was wrapped around the waist to fill the belt.

"Sixth sister, sixth sister." Two immature calls came from the bottom of the hillside, awakening the lotus flowers that were intoxicated by the beautiful scenery. She turned to look, and two small heads appeared on the path, which were her younger brother Yuangen and sister Camellia, and each of them carried a back basket larger than their body, each containing a small half-back basket of grass.

Tiaohua hurriedly lowered her head and hugged a small bundle of dry firewood at her feet, and ran over to the two of them: "Why did you come out?" "Although the core contained in this body is not the sixth sister of the dragon and phoenix fetus, but after making a flower for so many days, she really has a family affection for this pair of precocious younger siblings.

Put down the firewood, put the pigweed in the two small baskets together, and carried it to himself, hugged the firewood again, and shouted to the two children to go down the mountain.

"The second uncle is fierce, there is no firewood, and the camellia is afraid." Camellia didn't speak in any order, and she needed to think about it to know what she was trying to express, and a sour feeling surged in her heart, and she looked at the dragon and phoenix fetus in front of her who was carefully holding hands and walking, these two children were here to help her do her work.

There are so many people in the family who are crowded together all day long, and they are not clean, and it is strange that children are not afraid, and the ten days that the flower has crossed over can be regarded as seeing what is the best, and the Qiao family is simply the best everywhere. Fortunately, the memories left by the original body combined with her own experience of living in the countryside did not cause any major problems in the past ten days, but she took Camellia and Yuangen to avoid several storms.

Looking at the flower in a daze, Yuangen pulled the firewood in her arms, and muttered aggrievedly: "Where did the fifth sister go?" Why don't you go home yet. ”

Huahua was speechless, two years ago, when the fourth sister orchid was taken away by someone's tooth, Yuangen and Camellia didn't know anything, but the fifth sister Chrysanthemum was the one who brought them up after all, so it was inevitable to remember it so much, maybe tell this child that his fifth sister was sold to Lu Xianxian, the son of the human tooth, by his grandmother and two uncles? And the family still plans to take this silver to his father Qiao Mutou to marry a daughter-in-law, that is, to find a stepmother for themselves?

Tiaohua took her younger siblings down the mountain with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and heard the high-pitched scolding voice of the second uncle Luo Shi from afar:

"The beasts who eat and drink are embarrassed! If you are in a hurry, the old lady will sell you tomorrow. ”

"What a roar of the hammer family! If you don't make a fire to cook, do you want to starve your grandfather? In the main house, Grandma Li scolded not to be outdone. Because there are many sons in this room, there is also a seventy-eight-year-old old lady Qiao Baisheng with impaired mobility and a little back in his ears; So much so that Li, who is almost sixty years old and still can't be completely in charge, is not very comfortable.

"What do you do if you don't have a single firewood in the stove? I didn't know who was going to cook yesterday? It's so energetic, even firewood can be eaten together! Steamed, or boiled! ”

"This dead girl can't do a little thing like picking up firewood, and she doesn't look like a few big ones, so I'm afraid I can't get a good price if I sell it."

"Eat, eat, eat, you can eat any good or bad thing, and you are not afraid that things are not like you......

The subdued complaint was accompanied by the sound of Luo Shi beating the pigsty with a stick spread far and wide, and the flower held the firewood, carried the pigweed, and led the younger siblings to subconsciously walk two steps faster. Her second aunt has something to say! The front ones are aimed at the eldest aunt Xiao Li's family, but the back ones are all aimed at their family.

Qiao Baisheng, the grandfather of the flower, had three sons and one daughter, and now the Qiao family compound is divided into three sons. The old lady lived with Qiao Chengyin, the second child with the most sons. Qiao Chengyin is the grandfather of Tiaohua, and there happen to be three sons and one daughter under his knees, namely Qiaoshi, the eldest uncle Qiaoshi, the second uncle, Qiao Hammer, Aunt Qiao Wuni and Qiaomutou, the father of Tiaohua. Qiao Langtou's wife Luo and Qiao Mutou's wife Xiao Luo are the two sisters of the in-laws, and in the past, several of them were called Luo's "aunt" instead of "second aunt"; But after Xiao Luo's death, this "aunt" turned her face and immediately put on the posture of an outsider, unwilling to stretch out her hand to take care of a few more oil bottles.

A few days ago, Luo didn't ask for silver from Li's hand, and he heard that he was going to find a new daughter-in-law for Daddy Huahua, and his face was a little wrong at that time. No, I found a reason to go back to my parents' house the day before yesterday, and I only went home in the dark last night, and I don't know what I went back to discuss. But listening to her scolding today, it doesn't seem like she has any good ideas to go back to her parents' house, right?

It's no wonder that Luo is so irritable, even if she is in her forties and menopause, it has been more than 20 years since she married into the Qiao family, and everyone lived together to open up wasteland and farm land. But now that the wasteland that can be opened in the village is almost opened, what is the role of a family of more than 20 people guarding six acres of paddy fields and ten acres of mountainous land?

Father-in-law Qiao Chengyin has been thinking about that bit of land all his life, and he is either squatting in the mountains or sitting on the edge of the paddy field and watching his crops all day long.

The eldest brother Qiao Shi is about the same as his father-in-law, and he also carries a hoe and pestle in the ground all day long; Sister-in-law Xiao Li is her mother-in-law's niece, and the two are so good that they are closer than other mothers and daughters. The Li family is also the most child-giving woman in the entire Da Qiao family, and has added three sons and two daughters to the Qiao family.

The bad food is also bad here. Two of the three sons of the Li family have already married, and the rest except for the youngest Qiao Yuanhui, who is only twelve years old, the other seventeen-year-old Qiao Yuanfang and fifteen-year-old Qiao Yuangui are about to discuss marriage.

When it comes to this "money" issue, Roche's anger is even more useless! There are so many men in the big house, all of them are nested at home, and the men and their two eldest sons take advantage of the slack to do odd jobs in the town to go home and hand over the money to the public middle school, even if they can save two of them in their own pockets, it is limited.

Moreover, since the death of Luo's sister-in-law four years ago, the laundry, cooking, sprinkling and cleaning yard of a large family have been divided into two parts by the Li family, that is, one for the big house and one for the second room; Every other day, Roche is responsible for cooking, laundry, and cleaning the yard. Thinking that he was going to cook a meal for a large family, his man and son braved the spring cold to help people carry bags in the city; Xiao Li's family and his family are nesting on the warm kang and can't get up, why isn't Da Luo's here to talk about pigs and scold dogs?