In the past, Lin Erlai had a good relationship with their father. Since they had been married for many years and had no children, they loved Lin Xiaoman and his sister as their own children.

When Lin Erhu was young, he was often carried around the village by Lin Erlai on his shoulders.

The earthquake last year claimed the lives of their father and mother, as well as the life of Aunt Er Lai and a leg of Uncle Er Lai.

Now only Erlai's aunt and son are left in the family, relying on each other for a living, relying on the little land planted by Erlai's mother and the family's financial support.

But the brother and sister didn't have any copper coins to pay for their work, so they went to the two mothers to discuss it.

As soon as he entered the door, he saw his second wife sitting in the yard in a daze. Lin Xiaoman asked: "Fourth grandma, where is my second uncle?"

The fourth grandma sighed after hearing this, "I went to see your second aunt early in the morning."

Although they have been married for many years and have not been able to give birth to a son and a half, the relationship between the couple has always been so good that others would envy them. Lin Xiaoman could only sigh after hearing this, "My family has harvested a lot of mushrooms these days, and I can't sell them all at the moment.

I wanted to ask someone to dry the mushrooms and help me settle the bill with salt. I couldn’t trust anyone else, so I asked Grandma Four for a favor, and I paid Grandma Four for her work.”

When the Fourth Grandma heard this, she squeezed out a smile on her sad face and said, "What are you talking about with the Fourth Grandma about the salary but not the salary? The Fourth Grandma and your second uncle can't do anything else. The farm work is all done now. Can I help you with some mushrooms?"

What's wrong? If you ask for wages again, the Fourth Grandma will worry about you."

Lin Xiaoman didn't dare to mention it anymore. The siblings only had the two hundred cents they had when they separated. Since the fourth grandma refused to take it, she would send more food and clothes bought there.

It won't be long before the weather gets cold. Hedong Village is located in a bitterly cold place in the north, and there are no cotton-padded clothes and quilts like those there.

Rich families use silk to fill their winter clothes and quilts, while poor families can only use straw, straw and reeds to fill them. If they don't do it right in winter, they will freeze to death.

Lin Xiaoman thought of the quilts and cotton-padded clothes she saw in the supermarket yesterday. Although they felt light and fluffy, they looked warm. When she and Lin Erhu bought them a few days later, they also bought them for the fourth grandma and her two wives.

Send it over.

"Well, I will tell them later that any mushrooms I pick will be sent to Fourth Grandma. I will send the salt over later, with a basket of mushrooms and a jar of salt, and fill it up with salt.

”

The fourth grandma agreed, and Lin Xiaoman went back to get the salt. She unpacked the salt and poured it into a cloth bag. There were fifty bags in each bag, making a total of two bags. She also brought a small jar for weighing the salt.

The fourth grandma opened the bag and saw the fine white salt inside, and exclaimed: "Xiao Man, where did you buy the salt? It is much better than what is sold in the city. A jar of salt costs hundreds of dollars, right?"
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Lin Xiaoman didn't dare to say that she bought the salt for almost a penny, so she could only make up: "I went to the city with Erhu before and met a merchant from out of town selling salt, so I bought a few bags. The fourth grandmother also knew that the court did not

They must be selling private salt, and we bought it secretly. The price is not that expensive, about 30 yuan per jar."

The Fourth Grandma shook her head and said, "A basket of mushrooms won't sell for much in the city. If you take a basket of salt from this jar, you'll lose!"

Lin Xiaoman smiled sarcastically, "It's okay, but I can't pay for it. Grandma Fourth, where is your salt jar? I'll fill a jar for you first."

"That's not possible. You are doing business here, so how can you use it for nothing?"

"The Fourth Grandma refuses to accept the salt from me, and I am too embarrassed to ask the Fourth Grandma to do unpaid work for me."

The fourth grandma couldn't resist Lin Xiaoman, because there was really no salt at home. She drank wild vegetable porridge every day these days, and she didn't have any strength. Finally, when Lin Xiaoman gave her a jar of salt, she didn't refuse.

After returning home, Lin Xiaoman agreed with the villagers that if there were any mushrooms in the future, they would be sent to Grandma Fourth's house, and the salt would be collected there.

After spreading the word one by one, the family was finally quiet again, and the two siblings could go there to sell mushrooms with peace of mind.

Hedong Village has collected enough thorn cones and no longer worries about how to survive this winter. However, several nearby villages are not as united as Hedong Village.

After hearing about Hedong Village going up to the mountain to pick thorn balls, before the village leaders or clan leaders could organize people to go up to the mountain, people had already rushed to the mountain to collect thorn balls. The clan leaders thought

We can no longer stop these people with red eyes.

During this period, there were several fights over the thorn ball forest. Almost every day, people were injured by throwing thorn balls at each other.

The most serious thing was in Yaojia Village. Two families who had not yet given out their fifth-class clothes used knives and injured two people. Fortunately, no one was killed, so the government was not alerted.

When the Lin family in Hedong Village heard about this incident, they all became frightened.

In disaster years, everyone is afraid that their family members will starve to death. If Lin Daqiang, the patriarch, had not organized the villagers to go up the mountain together and then distribute the food according to head after transporting it down the mountain, that kind of thing might have happened in Hedong Village.

Early in the morning, people came from Yaojia Village, and Yao Sancheng, the brother of the eldest uncle Yao, gave him a basket of eggs. Fortunately, his brother-in-law went to report the news early in the morning, so their family went up the mountain to pick thorn balls three days ahead of others.

By the time everyone else went up the mountain, their family had already stocked up more than a thousand kilograms of thorn cones.

When Mrs. Lin heard that her nose was not a nose or an eye, she said, "How do other villages know that our villagers go to the mountains to collect thorn balls? It turns out that there is a spy in our family. If the boss and his daughter-in-law are not thinking about their parents' family, our village still has to

How much more should I pick?"

Yao Sancheng couldn't help but feel embarrassed when he said this. He obviously wanted to use the pretext of thanking him to come and see his sister, and to reassure his sister about her parents' family. He also gave her eggs, but the taste changed in the old lady's mouth?

When leaving, Mrs. Yao wanted to give her younger brother some mushrooms that had been dried these days. The mushrooms from other people's homes were taken to Lin Xiaoman's house in exchange for salt. Their family was embarrassed, so they had to dry and eat the mushrooms they picked at home.

"This girl has been raised so well. She still misses her mother-in-law after so many years of marriage. I don't have such a good life!"

"Sister, this stuff is all over the mountains and plains. If you want to eat it, we can go up to the mountain to pick it up. You can keep it for yourself." Yao Sancheng angrily walked away empty-handed, vowing never to enter Lao Lin's house again.

Yao chased him out, but did not give his younger brother any more mushrooms, but whispered, "Xiaoman and Erhu exchanged salt for mushrooms. When you go back, let your family members go up the mountain to collect mushrooms, and then bring them over to exchange salt with their siblings."
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Yao Sancheng's eyes lit up when he heard this. He had heard from his brother-in-law that the idea of ​​collecting thorn cones came from the siblings. In the past, people had always heard that the sister-in-law was the best at cooking when she was alive, regardless of whether they collected mushrooms or cooked them.

What, it’s always good to exchange for some salt.

When Mr. Yao came back, the old lady was in the yard, pointing fingers at the trees and scolding the trees.

Yao wanted to have a quarrel with her, but Lin Goudan pulled her sleeves and whispered, "Mom, don't quarrel with me. If she pisses you off, you will die!"

After hearing this, Mrs. Yao thought of that night when the old man was so angry that he went all over the yard looking for the person who listened to the window, "Tell your mother, did you hear something?"

"I just listened to my grandpa's wishes. My second aunt was beaten to death because she was pulled to block the beam of the house."

After hearing her son's words, she couldn't help but shiver even though it was broad daylight.

In the past, the old lady opened and shut her mouth because of her second daughter-in-law. The second daughter-in-law's mother's family was rich, but she was willing to spend money on her. Her words were more beautiful than her singing, but she was killed without blinking an eye?

She lives in a courtyard with her parents-in-law, and they never see each other when they look up. If one day the old lady doesn't like her, will she die just like Lin Goudan said?

After that, the eldest uncle became more efficient at work and stopped talking back to the old lady. She greeted the old lady and served her comfortably. She even smiled when the old lady said some crooked words, but she couldn't help but always smile.

I wanted to take a peek at the old lady, but the more I looked at her, the more hideous she seemed.

The old lady only treated her as the eldest daughter-in-law. Now she knows who is the real master of the family, and she feels very unhappy.

But every time I sit alone, I feel like I'm being watched. Following my feeling, I look over and see that the eldest daughter-in-law is doing the work at hand obediently.
Chapter completed!