(c)

The three small grass houses of the Zhong family lit kerosene lamps, the small square table was placed on the kang, Li Chunhua served a plate of boiled salted duck eggs, a plate of cabbage and potato slices fried in meat oil, and boiled garlic slices, and the hut was filled with aroma. Li Chunhua put sorghum rice porridge on three coarse porcelain bowls, first served a bowl to Zhao sitting on the left-hand side, and pushed the other bowl to Zhong Shulin, who was sitting on the right-hand side, picked up the remaining bowl himself, stood on the ground, lifted his chopsticks and lowered his head to eat, and did not pick up vegetables.

Listening to his mother's story about the before and after of adopting Chunhua and marrying them, Zhong Shulin didn't say anything, just snoring and snoring and picking up rice in his mouth one after another. Zhao thought that his son was a little shy when he saw his unmarried daughter-in-law for the first time, so he didn't say much. Li Chunhua secretly looked at the man's face with the afterglow of her eyes, and her heart was like a little rabbit, fluttering and fluttering, and her little face was red and white for a while.

After dinner, Li Chunhua cleaned up the dishes and chopsticks, wiped and moved the kang table, swept the kang mat with a broom, laid out the mattress, baked the quilt, lowered her eyebrows and lowered her eyes and said that my mother would leave if there was nothing to do at home, and then pushed the door out. Chunhua went to the house of the eldest sister-in-law who lived in the east courtyard, and slept with the three girls of the eldest sister-in-law.

After blowing out the oil lamp, Zhong Shulin lay on his mother's hot little kang, his arms and legs were indescribably comfortable, such a situation has appeared in his dreams many times in more than ten years. But now, he couldn't fall asleep after tossing and turning. After a while, he squeezed out a sentence in his throat: "Mom, that daughter-in-law, I don't agree." ”

"What?" The small-footed woman Zhao had been busy for a day, and at this time she was lying on the hot kang head, and she was already sleepy. Her son's words made her cheer up again and sit up on the ground, "Why don't you agree?" ”

"I don't have a relationship with her."

"What do you call feelings! When I married your father, I didn't even meet each other. Later, I didn't live well, I gave birth to you and your brother, and I have a sister, but unfortunately I threw smallpox when I was three years old. ”

"You are feudal, and now it is a new society, and you pay attention to the freedom of marriage."

"The new society does not recognize the six relatives? This family affair was ordered by my mother, and it can't be said that yellow is yellow. Chunhua has been waiting for you for 12 years, and she will take a break? Our Zhong family is not so human! ”

"I didn't let her wait, and besides, I didn't marry her, so it can't be counted as a divorce."

", the family that is set is a nail on the board, if you don't marry someone, you will divorce someone, we can't be that Chen Shimei."

"Anyway, I don't want this daughter-in-law."

"You don't want to? Unless you take my life first. You don't know, after you left, the county came to our house to arrest the strong man, and knew that you were outside, and you couldn't find it, so they arrested me and did a coolie for three months. How can my small-footed woman withstand such a toss? Why did your daughter-in-law say that she would go with her, without her to take care of her, would I still be able to live to this day? I saw Hades early! You won't be able to see your mother today. As she spoke, the old lady with little feet began to cry bitterly.

Seeing that his son was silent, Zhao said again: "There is still a year, I have an old problem with a painful heart, and I am so painful that I roll on the kang and can't eat a mouthful of food." Your daughter-in-law grabbed medicine, decocted medicine, made millet porridge for me to eat, and waited for me for a whole month, and the heartache was never committed again. ”

"Chunhua has no father and mother since she was a child, and her life is hard, but her heart is good, and I can see it most clearly as a mother. We can't let her come to our house and suffer two stubbles and suffer two sins, that would be a loss of conscience. When you come back this time, you just happened to round the house and take your daughter-in-law to the city, and I will die, and these eyes can be closed. ”

Zhong Shulin was afraid of his mother when he was a child, and after hearing these words, the picture of the beautiful life of his ideal partner who had been woven for many years was disillusioned in an instant, and he sighed in his heart, and he didn't dare to reply anymore.