The contradiction between Zhang Xueyun and Zhu Xiuya has always been very deep, and the two rarely talk or interact. Although this pair of concubines don't look up and look down every day, they don't have much emotional intersection.

Bao Yumei and Fang Caihe are also sisters-in-law, and the two of them, like their respective adults, usually do not have much verbal communication, and lack family interaction with each other. Fang Caihe himself suppressed her husband Li Kemin, but on the other hand, she often laughed at her brother Fang Benquan outside, and was afraid of his wife like a mouse meeting a cat. Such words will naturally be passed on to Bao Yumei's ears soon, and Bao Yumei's style of doing things is: You slap me and give you a fist back.

But now Bao Yumei doesn't have the time and energy to worry about the trivial matters between these relatives and neighbors, and she has to spend all her time and energy on valuable places and people. For example, she has to look for opportunities to quietly go to the homes of village cadres to give gifts, contact some cadres' wives, and then bring some snacks and toys to the children of these cadres. For another example, she wants to go to the market to find out what is a best-selling commodity, and she is in a hurry to buy goods but also has to ship them quickly, so she asked Fang Benquan to set up the only milling and rice processing factory in her village. On more than one occasion, she sent a very heavy gift to the home of the relevant leader of the power supply company, and the power department gave her three boxes of electricity for industrial use, and pulled the high-voltage line directly from the township to her own processing plant for free, and specially approved low-cost electricity for her factory. Fang Benquan has used endless strength to run a milling and rice mill. Bao Yumei has a delicate figure, a good face, and long hair fluttering, which is very moving. In particular, her mouth is exquisite, she can speak well, and understands some of the psychological needs of others, which makes her proud in the business field.

Bao Yumei was very proud that she arranged her mother-in-law to specialize in agriculture, so that she would inevitably be pointed at and discussed by some neighbors. accused her of squeezing her mother-in-law too hard, blindly staring at the money bag with a clear conscience, regardless of her mother-in-law's exhaustion and hard work. My mother-in-law is in her seventies and eighties, and she is also responsible for the supply of vegetables and food for the whole family. Maintaining the family's daily farming work is indeed too vicious. Zhu Xiuya's grandmother is also responsible for the drudgery of feeding pigs, raising rabbits, chickens and ducks. Is this a heavy job that an elderly man in his seventies can afford? However, whether it is criticism or accusation from others, it has not shaken Bao Yumei's iron heart in the slightest, let alone played a role in influencing and softening her thoughts. Bao Yumei even blamed her mother-in-law for all the accusations made by others against her: it must have been caused by her mother-in-law speaking ill of her outside. Therefore, Bao Yumei became more and more strict with her mother-in-law.

Bao Yumei relies on her ability to do business, so she naturally has no extra time to supervise whether her mother-in-law goes out to work every day. When her mother-in-law goes to work and when she finishes work, she has no way to supervise it herself. She had no choice but to mobilize her eldest son Fang Lei to supervise her grandmother's every move. This Fang Lei did a very good job of his mother's task. Fang Lei is very serious and responsible, and his love for his grandmother is not very deep. This is due to the role played by Bao Yumei in instilling deformed education in children from an early age. Fang Lei has always been rude and rude to his grandmother, and his attitude is not very friendly. Zhu Xiuya's old woman is in her last years, and her feelings for her grandson are gradually weakening. She has long been accustomed to the attitude of her children and grandchildren. Therefore, Mrs. Zhu Xiuya will not go out to do more work because of Fang Lei's supervision, or be angry and not work because of her grandson's accusations.

Zhu Xiuya has three daughters, all of whom are married to different villages outside. After the three daughters got married, they each gave birth to many children in their husband's family. The youngest daughter Fang Caiqin gave birth to five children, while the eldest daughter Fang Caizhu gave birth to eight children, and the second daughter Fang Caixia was not simple, and six children grew up. These 'fertility machines' not only bring heavy population pressure and economic burden to the husband's family, but also exhaust their own bodies. All three daughters were sick. They are also unable to take care of their poor mothers, who are depressed by the burden of their own families.

Bao Yumei has never ignored these aunts and aunts. Whenever a nephew came to her house to visit relatives, Bao Yumei always said to them with a cold face: "Your aunt doesn't have time to treat you well, and your grandmother is just as busy. Therefore, you can come and play, but you can only play for a while and then leave. If you have to play more, you can only boil water and cook at home. There are ready-made rice and vegetables to find by yourself, or ask your grandmother to ask for them. "These nephews come once and don't want to come a second time. Their mothers are usually more reluctant to send their children to their parents' homes to visit relatives.

Zhu Xiuya usually likes to sit on the threshold and eat breakfast. Whenever she eats, the neighbors usually have already eaten, washed the dishes, and gone out to work. Therefore, sometimes the whole courtyard of Nuoda is left with her lonely figure. At this time, the beggar who asked for food would walk in through the entrance of the stage.

At this time, the old man Zhu Xiuya will greet him warmly and ask the beggar what he needs? Most of the beggars will say, "Give me a handful of rice."

So, the old man Zhu Xiuya first poured the uneaten porridge in his bowl into the beggar's bamboo tube, and then went to the kitchen pottery to grab rice. Treating these beggars who come to the door, Zhu Xiuya's old woman is generally very generous, and pays him a bowl of rice and a liter of rice. He took out the rice, followed the beggar and carefully sent him out of the gate.

However, Mrs. Zhu Xiuya is not a saint, Mrs. Zhu Xiuya usually looks kind and honest, but secretly Mrs. Zhu Xiuya is not a decent old man. Maybe she was confused when she was old, or maybe she was unwilling. Therefore, Zhu Xiuya's old woman will also secretly do some unsightly things behind her back.

Xu Zhiguo's chicken coop and Bao Yumei's chicken coop are connected side by side, both chicken coops are built under the eaves corridor of their own house in the large courtyard, and Bao Yumei's chickens are taken care of by Zhu Xiuya's grandmother. There are about 20 chickens in a litter, except for two or three males, the rest of the chickens are small hens, therefore, these small hens will slowly grow up after a few months of careful breeding, and the growing little hens will bring a rich supply of eggs to Bao Yumei's family, and the egg production of these little hens every day is a good way to meet the daily needs of Bao Yumei's family. This is a good thing, because every call of the hen after laying the egg means that a piping hot egg has been 'produced'.

When hens lay a lot of eggs, Zhu Xiuya can pick up a dozen or even more a day. But sometimes, these eggs are not all eggs produced by the hens fed by the old man Zhu Xiuya. Sometimes, Xu Zhiguo's hens will also enter Zhu Xiuya's chicken coop at the same time to lay eggs. These hens, who usually live next door, sometimes can't tell their owners apart. Under normal circumstances, the eggs laid by the neighbor's chicken will generally be 'returned to the original owner', the main distinction is to see that the little hen will run out of the chicken nest after laying eggs, and at this time, the owner of the chicken will look for the past, and the general neighbor will take the initiative to hand over such eggs, which is basically an uncontroversial thing. This kind of hen laying eggs and not being able to find the eggs rarely happens. After a long time, everyone will tacitly agree that the neighbor's hen lays eggs in someone else's nest, and just send it over afterwards.

And Zhu Xiuya's grandmother usually conceals the eggs laid by the neighbor's chickens in her chicken coop, or pretends that she is not at home, but secretly hides such eggs when the neighbors are not paying attention, and she does not admit it. Or, when the neighbor knows that her hen is laying eggs in her nest, she chases after her with a small wooden stick, so that the hen will no longer lay eggs due to human interference, and even cause the new hen to die. This is a heavy blow to the neighbors, and the loss of an egg is a small matter, but the blow of a new hen not laying eggs or dying in vain can strain the neighbors. These are still secondary, Zhu Xiuya grandmother has a more extreme approach, that is, every time the neighbor's new hen starts to lay eggs, she will have an itch in the palm of her hand, she will not feel sorry for the neighbor's hen is the neighbor has worked hard to feed, and finally can harvest new eggs, Zhu Xiuya will always do everything possible to secretly steal the neighbor's new hen at night, and quietly send it to her daughter in the other village late at night, this kind of unearned thinking is deeply ingrained in her mind.

Zhu Xiuya's behavior sometimes makes people laugh and cry, and the clothes, pants, shoes, mops and other small things that the neighbors washed and dried in the yard sometimes disappear inexplicably. At first, everyone will think that other neighbors have collected the wrong clothes, because this happens often throughout the yard. Sometimes the weather changes instantly, and the sunny day becomes a rainy day, so the neighbor who happens to be at home will kindly put away the clothes for the other person first, and then send them to the neighbor when he comes home. It is a good thing that the neighbor has this good virtue and saves a lot of trouble and inconvenience. However, since Zhu Xiuya's old woman stayed alone in the yard for longer and longer, the neighbors lost more and more items, and everyone began to cast suspicious eyes on Xu Zhiguo and his wife. This is not without reason, first, the Xu family is too poor, often not enough to eat and wear, secretly collect some clothes to modify or divert them for other purposes, wear them in the body, no one knows; Second, since the Xu family moved into the Fang family's courtyard compound, these things have only begun to be lost, in the past, when the courtyard was inhabited by all the Fang family's people, this situation rarely happened, and it was not easy for outsiders to steal things from the Fang family's compound. At least, the Fang family's compound is a large courtyard where sixty or seventy people live, usually there is no shortage of people in the courtyard at home, outsiders enter the courtyard, in full view of everyone, who dares to steal, isn't this stupid?