Chapter 24 new sister-in-law

My neighbor is a woman in her forties, tall, stout, talkative and laughing.She works in the briquette field on the street, pulling a cart to deliver briquettes and briquettes to people.This should be a man's job, but she does it with ease.Every time after moving the briquettes, I always help others to build them neatly, and clean up the scattered briquettes carefully with a woman's care.People praised her for being diligent and kind.She lives alone with her teenage son and daughter, and I have never met her man.People in Shanghai call their new daughter-in-law "Xin Sister-in-law". She is in her forties, but she is still called by her neighbors like this. It seems that no one is not used to it.

It is said that the "new sister-in-law" has a bad life.She was born in a well-to-do wealthy family in the countryside, and married a Shanghainese, but the man died of illness at a young age.After remarrying, she gave birth to a pair of children and lived a good life. Later, this husband was found to have worked in the Kuomintang, and for other reasons, he was sentenced to a labor camp, leaving her alone to raise the children. The hardships of life can be imagined.Sometimes when my grandma took me to the vegetable market, I would meet her picking and choosing among the bamboo baskets containing rotten leaves.The neighbor's stove is usually placed in the corridor, and the cooking pots in her house seldom emit any attractive fragrance.

The new sister-in-law is very good at telling stories, and my favorite story at that time was the story of the silly son-in-law.It's about a hairy-legged son-in-law who is naturally delicious and ugly.One day when the young couple went back to their natal home, the wife told him, "I will tie a rope around your feet, and you can only move your chopsticks if I pull it." The braised pork on the dinner table did not dare to act rashly.The father-in-law has a cat that sneaks under the dining table.It found the rope on the silly son-in-law's foot, curiously pulled it with its paw, and then pulled it again.Now the silly son-in-law was happy: "It seems that my wife still loves me, let me eat a few more bites." The kitten was pulled faster and faster, and he also slammed his chopsticks like flying.After eating the braised pork, he wiped out the old hen. In the end, he didn't even have time to pick up the chopsticks, so he simply picked up the casserole and swallowed a big crucian carp without spitting out its thorns.

No matter how many times the new sister-in-law told this story, she would clap and laugh with me every time, making me a confidant.Once I asked her: "Have you ever tied a rope to sister Xiaomei's (new sister-in-law's daughter)'s father?" She suppressed her smile and said, "Where the rope can hold men, they can do whatever they want. Listen to your wife." One day, a man with disheveled and half-white hair knocked on the door of the new sister-in-law. His clothes were very old, he was carrying an old schoolbag, and his skin was dark like a countryman.The new sister-in-law came out and saw him, she opened her mouth for a while, and asked vigilantly: "Why are you here?" A person entered the house.The floor of the old house was not soundproof, and weeping and scolding could be heard in the room: "You still have the face to come back, do you know how I have lived these years?"

"I have been working hard to reform these years, doing all kinds of work, and that's how I got leniency. Back then they said I was deliberately sabotaging the counter-revolution. This is wronging me, you should know." There was a long silence in the room.The new sister-in-law said: "This is the cotton coat and trousers that were originally sent to you. You can take it away and think about it for the children. They haven't had a father for seven or eight years, and they are used to it. If you come back, their lives will be over." .” The man cried and said: "I have been thinking about you mother and son for so many years, and I have only lived to this day. I only have such a family. Where are you telling me to go?" There was another cry.

After an unknown amount of time, the man walked out the door with a bulging package in his hand, his expression gloomy.Behind him, the new sister-in-law slammed the door shut, howling and crying.Since then, the new sister-in-law doesn't tell stories very much, and often sees her daughter helping her pull the cart and deliver coal.The family quietly moved away one day.They didn't have much furniture, a flatbed car was enough.I secretly hope that they are going to find that man and tell him that he still has a home in this world.He will listen to his wife.