svetikya Chapter 293 Reason
Chapter 293 Reason
Sha Zhu wanted to argue with Jia Zhang again, so Yu Li and Yu Shui pulled him back into the house together.
Yu Li pushed Sha Zhu down on a chair and poured a cup of hot tea into his hands. "Zhu Zi, what's wrong with you today? It's not the first time that Jia Zhang has been throwing a tantrum. Is it necessary to be so angry? Besides, don't we usually bother to get involved in the affairs of the Jia family?"
Sha Zhu's hand holding the teacup was shaking, and he didn't even notice that the tea splashed out and burned his hand red. Yu Shui squatted down and gently opened his brother's clenched fist: "Brother, Auntie will be fine..."
“You don’t understand!” Sha Zhu suddenly punched his thigh, his voice hoarse, “After Dad ran away with the White Widow… People in the courtyard gossiped, saying that the He family was doomed, and that Yu Shui and I would starve to death sooner or later.”
He choked suddenly, his eyes red. Outside the house, the voice of the third uncle scolding Jia Zhang could be heard faintly.
"The rain was only this high then," Sha Zhu pointed to the position of the table legs, his Adam's apple rolling, "I was an apprentice in the cafeteria during the day and took private jobs at night, so I couldn't take care of her. An old lady... came every day." Sha Zhu's fingers unconsciously stroked the teacup, "I combed Yu Shui's hair in the morning and cooked for her at noon..."
His voice got lower and lower: "One time when I came home from get off work, I saw an old lady squatting at the door of our house mending rain-soaked pants. At that time, her waist was not very good, but she was still sewing stitch by stitch..."
Yu Shui's eyes suddenly turned red: "Brother, I remember...it was during the physical education class that I broke it."
"If it weren't for Auntie," Sha Zhu raised his head suddenly, his eyes red, "how could I work in the cafeteria with peace of mind? How could Yu Shui go to school well?" He put down the teacup heavily, "Now that Jia Zhangshi is bullying Auntie like this, can I just watch and do nothing?"
Yu Li suddenly realized. No wonder Sha Zhu and the old man didn't get along well at first, and they didn't want to talk to each other. Later, the old man bowed his head first and she persuaded them, and the two families gradually returned to their old ways. And later, the aunt also helped her take care of Liuyi and Qiyi every day, just like taking care of her own grandchildren. It turned out that all this was because of the aunt.
Yu Shui had already cried like a tearful person. She remembered it more clearly - when she was a child, every time the kids in the alley called her a "fatherless bastard", it was the aunt who held her in her arms and wiped her tears with her rough hands; one winter was particularly cold, she had a high fever, and it was the aunt who carried her to the clinic overnight; when she had her first menstrual period, she was so scared that she cried, and it was the aunt who taught her how to sew a menstrual belt...
Even when she married Zhou Qisheng, the aunt secretly gave her a pair of gold earrings, saying that they were a "dowry"...
The room fell silent for a moment. Yu Li gently held Sha Zhu's hand and found that his palm was full of sweat.
Outside the window, Jia Zhang's scolding was still faintly heard, but it was no longer as arrogant as before. Little Mudan woke up at some point, walked over, and timidly tugged at the corner of Sha Zhu's clothes: "Dad, don't be angry..."
Sha Zhu picked up his daughter, buried his face in her little shoulder and took a deep breath. Seeing this, Yu Li winked at Yu Shui secretly.
Yu Shui understood, stood up and said, "Brother, I'll go see Auntie."
After Deng Li followed him out, Sha Zhu raised his head and found that Xiao Mudan was touching his face with her little hands: "Daddy is crying?"
"Nonsense!" Sha Zhu rubbed his eyes, "It's sweat that got into my eyes."
In the summer evening, the cicadas are buzzing noisily, and the sultry air is filled with the earthy smell of the farmland, sticking sticky to the skin.
Willow catkins cried again.
Banggen dropped his chopsticks suddenly, and the corn bran in the bowl splashed all over the table. Maya quickly put down her bowl, picked up her crying daughter and rocked her gently, humming a tuneless lullaby. But Liuxu was particularly noisy today, her little face flushed red, and no matter how Maya coaxed her, she wouldn't calm down.
"Are you annoying?" Bang Geng kicked over the bench, his voice as if squeezed out from between his teeth, "Cry, cry, cry, all you do is cry all day long!"
Maya shuddered with fear and subconsciously hugged Liu Xu tighter: "She, she might be teething, and her gums are itchy..."
"Bullshit!" Banggeng grabbed the enamel pot on the kang and smashed it on the ground, "You've spoiled me!"
The enamel pot rolled to the corner with a clang, knocking off a large piece of white paint. Maya bit her lip and dared not say a word, she just lowered her head and gently patted Liu Xu's back. She felt bitter - Qin Huairu wrote last month saying that she had sent milk powder, but she hadn't received it yet. Banggeng had been angry for several times because of this matter, and always felt that the people at the post office had embezzled it.
Outside the window, the neighbor's dog was startled and started barking. Maya's three brothers lived at the east end of the village. If they heard the noise...
"What are you looking at?" Bang Geng noticed her gaze and sneered, "You still want your brother to back you up?"
Maya hurriedly shook her head: "No, no..."
It's not that she didn't think about going back to her parents' home to complain. But every time she got halfway there, she turned back - her parents were old, and her three brothers had their own families to support, so what did her grievances mean? Besides, although Banggeng had a bad temper, at least he never hit her. Compared to those men in the village who beat their wives to death when they got drunk, he was much better...
"What are you doing?" Bang Geng suddenly yelled, "You don't even cook?"
Maya realized that it was getting dark, so she quickly put the gradually quiet catkins into the cradle and squatted down to pick up the enamel pot on the ground. The inner wall of the pot was still stained with unfinished corn porridge, and she scraped it off bit by bit with her fingers, not wanting to waste it.
Bang Geng watched coldly, and suddenly remembered that when he was a child in the courtyard, Qin Huairu also picked up the bowl that was broken by Jia Zhangshi and scraped the leftovers back into the pot. This association made him even more irritated.
"I'm going to the county tomorrow," he grabbed his coat and walked out, "to ask if the damn milk powder has arrived."
Maya wanted to say that it would take a whole day to go back and forth to the county, and the weeds in the fields had not been weeded yet...but looking at Banggeng's gloomy face, she finally just nodded.
After Banggeng slammed the door and left, she heaved a long sigh of relief and picked up Liuxu to feed her. The child's little hands unconsciously grabbed her rough collar, and Maya suddenly burst into tears - this dress was sewn by her mother when she got married.
"Be good..." She wiped her tears and coaxed her daughter softly, "It will be fine when your dad calms down..."
But she didn't know that Banggeng's temper would never "go away". The little bully who once dominated the courtyard was now just venting his anger on weaker people. Her forbearance was like adding fuel to a wildfire, which only made the fire burn more fiercely.