allonlinenovel Chapter 1 Bullying the Honest! (My darlings, add it to your bookshelf so you don't get lost!)
Chapter 1 Bullying the Honest! (My darlings, add it to your bookshelf so you don't get lost!)
early morning.
As the mist dissipated, the crowing of roosters and the squealing of pigs awakened the slumbering Osmanthus Village at the foot of the mountain.
"You brat, you've been grinding corn all morning, and this is all you've produced?"
"Don't you even know what time it is? The whole family is waiting for you to cook! You wretched thing, why don't you hurry up? All you do is slack off and avoid work!"
The woman standing with her hands on her hips, angrily rebuking Mr. Shen, was his second wife, Ms. Sun.
She grabbed a wooden stick from the yard and was about to hit Shen Xiaotang with it, her eyes filled with malice, as if she was about to commit a crime.
Shen Xiaotang, carrying a bowl of cornmeal, deftly dodged to the side, saying, "Grandma, calm down, I'll go cook rice right now."
After saying that, she darted into the kitchen, rolled up her sleeves, and quickly got to work preparing breakfast for the whole family.
Sun was filled with resentment and paced back and forth in the courtyard with a sullen face. She walked from the east wing to the west wing. Seeing that the second and third wives had not yet made a move, she became furious. She turned her head and saw Shen Xiaoyu feeding chickens in the chicken coop by the west wall. She scolded her loudly again.
"You lazy bum! Feeding the chickens takes until the sun is high in the sky. If you don't hurry up, you're not getting breakfast this morning!"
The sharp sound startled Xiaoyu, causing her small hand to tremble and spill half a basin of chicken feed all over the ground.
The chickens flapped their wings and swarmed over, vying for the food, almost causing the small chicken coop to collapse.
"You bastard... I'll beat you to death!"
Sun had intended to make a few sarcastic remarks, but she was shocked that her granddaughter dared to "shirk her responsibilities." Enraged, she ran to the chicken coop and raised her hand to strike Xiaoyu.
Xiaoyu was already so frightened that she stood frozen in place.
Liu, who was carrying pig feed back, happened to see her mother-in-law about to beat her youngest daughter. She immediately dropped the pig feed and rushed over to protect her youngest daughter.
"Mother, Yu'er is still young and it's inevitable that she will make mistakes. Please don't hold it against her." She pulled her youngest daughter out from behind her back and gently instructed her, "Yu'er, quickly apologize to your grandmother."
"Grandma, I'm so sorry... I was just... I didn't hold it properly... I... I... I'll definitely get up early next time and hold it properly..."
Xiaoyu, in a panic, stammered even more than usual.
Just as Mrs. Sun was about to slap her granddaughter, her eldest daughter-in-law caught her in the act. Mrs. Sun's face turned pale and then red. She was extremely embarrassed. When she heard her granddaughter stammering and unable to make sense of what she was saying, Mrs. Sun immediately lost her patience.
"Alright, enough with the stuttering. By the time you apologize, the sun will be setting. Be more efficient next time, instead of being so clumsy and causing everyone so much worry."
Shen Xiaotang came out of the small kitchen in the east room and placed the steaming food on the large stone table in the yard. From a distance, she saw her mother protecting her younger sister, talking to the old woman.
She walked quickly toward the group and overheard their conversation, which made her inwardly scoff.
That old hag started picking on the eldest son's family early in the morning, a classic case of nitpicking!
She glanced at the chicken coop. The feed bowls lay on the ground, trampled underfoot by several chickens. The feed on the ground was quickly pecked clean, and the chickens, having eaten their fill, began to scatter in all directions.
Shen Xiaotang immediately understood and roughly guessed what had just happened. She reached out and took out the food bowl, placing it aside.
"Grandma, Xiaoyu is only four years old and timid. She was probably scared by one of the grumbling chickens. Luckily, the food bowl didn't fall outside the coop. It's all being eaten, so nothing is wasted. Don't be angry. I'll get up a little earlier next time to feed her with my sister, and then we won't make a mistake."
Mrs. Sun looked embarrassed, feeling that something was off about her granddaughter's words, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
She snorted coldly, "Alright, you guys go feed the pigs, I'm going to wake your grandpa up for dinner."
After walking a few steps, Mrs. Sun realized that her granddaughter had actually called her a complaining chicken.
She immediately flew into a rage and turned to confront her granddaughter.
Unexpectedly, Shen Xiaotang acted even faster, grabbing her younger sister and pulling her mother, who was carrying pig feed, as they ran towards the pigsty behind the house, giving Sun Shi no chance to cause trouble.
Sun stormed towards the east and west wing rooms, slamming the doors of each room while cursing and swearing. Finally, she changed her tone and called out to her old man.
Shen Xiaotang's grandfather, Shen Yunting, was a handsome man in his youth. After his father died and his mother remarried, he reluctantly married into the Lin family in the east of the village. After having his eldest son, he passed the imperial examination and became a scholar. He outlived his parents-in-law, and eventually his first wife also died of illness. He immediately changed his son's surname back to Shen and married his childhood sweetheart, Sun.
Sun entered the family based on her childhood friendship with her husband. She gave birth to four sons and one daughter, and firmly established herself in the Shen family. She made all the decisions in the household!
The Shen family was dirt poor, owning only a small, half-collapsed house. Now, the whole family lives in the Lin family's large brick and tile house, and sixteen of their twenty acres of land belong to the Lin family.
Because he was the only scholar in the village and his family had many male members, no one dared to gossip about Mr. Shen eating the blood of a childless family for many years.
When Mr. Shen passed the imperial examination and became a scholar, he was very proud in the village and lived a very prosperous life. However, his sons were born one after another, and as they got married and had children, the family grew larger and larger, and there were more and more mouths to feed.
He has the title of a scholar but no official position. He has repeatedly failed the higher examinations. Now he has to support his children and grandchildren to study and take the imperial examinations. Life is getting tighter and tighter.
Shen Qingchuan was born to Mr. Shen and his first wife, Lin. He took care of almost all the farm work on the family's twenty acres of land, and in his spare time he would go to town to help people repair houses to supplement the family income.
His wife, Liu Feng'er, would get up early to cut pig feed, help him with farm work during the day, and grind tofu at night. All the dirty and tiring work at home was done by the two of them.
The second son, Shen Jiangchuan, the third son, Shen Haichuan, the daughter, Shen Jinzhu, the fourth son, Shen Qianchuan, and the youngest son, Shen Xiaochuan, were all born to the second wife, Sun.
The eldest son's wife had only two daughters, the second son's wife had a son and a daughter, the third son's wife had twins, the aunt was already married, and the fourth and youngest sons were not yet married. Apart from Mr. Shen, who taught at the school, and the eldest son, Shen Qingchuan, who worked in the fields year-round, all the other children and grandchildren were studying at the school.
In Mr. Shen's words, as long as one member of the Shen family passes the imperial examination with top honors, their entire family will soar to great heights.
Because Peach Blossom Village is small and adjacent to Qinghe Town, there are not many students in the school. The Shen family accounts for a small portion of them, so Mr. Shen's income is only a meager tuition fee. His second daughter-in-law and granddaughter help the town's clothing shops embroider some embroidery and rush to make clothes, while his third daughter-in-law can also supplement the family income by weaving cloth.
However, with all the men in the family studying, there were few people to work and many to eat, and the family was already struggling to make ends meet. Naturally, the heavy burden fell on the eldest son's family.
Nothing else, Xiaotang's father is simple-minded, clumsy, and soft-hearted; the whole family bullies honest people!
ps:
[This is a slice-of-life story, not a wish-fulfillment novel. Writing is hard work, so please be gentle with your comments @-@]
[The author swears that this story is absolutely, positively good! Please be patient and read on, my darlings. If it's not good... then never mind, hehehehe~-~]