Chapter 5 Chapter Four

Everyone in the village had seen Zhou Ligong, but Zhou Shuancheng did not go.Although he didn't go, he knew what Zhou Ligong looked like, hanged a ghost, tied half of the rope around his neck!Bah, he spit out a mouthful of phlegm and cursed, he was still wearing a filial robe, should he wear it for himself or for his father and mother! Yinwa knew that his father must have peeped through the cracks in the wall.Zhou Kewen and Zhou Shuancheng are neighbors, separated by a courtyard wall. When the wall was built, a hole the size of an old bowl was dug in the middle of the wall for the convenience of communication between the two families. When something happened, they could greet each other through the hole. Detour and ran to the other party's house.Later, this hole was blocked and opened at other times, witnessing the changes in the relationship between the two families.When the relationship between the two families was close, they not only greeted each other graciously through the cave, but also had delicious food, such as dumplings and fried sesame candy, they would share it with their brothers from here.Once the relationship between the two countries deteriorates, this hole will be blocked immediately, just like when the two countries are at war with each other, the border is immediately sealed off.But the funny thing is, no matter whether it is intentional or not, no matter who takes the initiative to block the hole, there will be a finger-wide gap, through which you can still vaguely observe the other party's movements.At best, this is breaking bones and connecting tendons, after all, they are brothers; at worst, it is chilling: only enemies miss each other the most.

The last time the hole was plugged was a few days ago.The reason is that the rooster of Zhou Kewen's family came to the next door and stepped on the eggs of the hen of Zhou Shuan's family. Zhou Shuancheng felt a little distressed when his back actually pulled out that pinch of hair.He scolded, you are too domineering, you even pull people's hair after enjoying the blessing!He picked up a bamboo pole and swept it over, and hit it on the chicken leg. Fortunately, the rooster was so strong that he was able to jump around the yard on tiptoe after being hit by a bamboo pole on his leg. When he escaped for his life, he tied Zhou like purple sand on the window sill of the building. The teapot fell and shattered.Zhou Shuancheng became even more angry, and he swung the bamboo pole into the wind, determined to beat the rooster to death.The wild crowing of the chicken aroused Zhou Kewen's curiosity. He lay down on the hole and saw that it was his chicken that had caused trouble.He greeted through the wall and said, Hey, if the teapot is hit, I will pay for it, and people don’t care about animals.

Zhou Kewen thought it was reasonable, but Zhou Shuancheng felt that his brother was scolding him.What does it mean that people don't care about animals?who is humanWho is the beast? The two had a quarrel, and after the quarrel, Zhou Shuan succeeded in plugging the hole. Yinwa was dissatisfied that his father scolded Zhou Ligong so much. Although she said so, she knew that the meaning was completely different.She reminded her father that Brother Ligong is your own nephew. Look at the one who flirted with you, Zhou Shuancheng turned around and scolded Yinwa, you haven't seen brother, you call pigs brother?You have your brother, but I don't have his nephew!

Zhou Shuancheng was angry when he saw Zhou Ligong's arrogance and arrogance. This anger came from the comparison between his son Zhou Baogen and Zhou Ligong. Zhou Baogen is Zhou Shuancheng's precious lump. Zhou Shuancheng and his wife tossed on the kang until they were forty years old, and finally got such a golden egg.Talking about the process of making humans, Zhou Shuancheng was the most sad. It turned out that when Zhou Niuwa was alive, she had already betrothed her two sons, and personally arranged for the marriage of the daughter-in-law.Having learned from her painful experience of being deceived by pockmarked faces, Zhou Niuwa was careful and careful about her son Zhang Luo's marriage this time, and did everything by herself.He not only verified the real identities of the daughter-in-laws in a roundabout way, but also inquired clearly about the three generations of their ancestors.Needless to say, the girls are good-looking, and they are all from decent peasant families. In the three generations, there is no one who steals chickens and dogs, not even singing opera drummers. The character of girls trained by such families is not up to date.The daughter-in-law's natal family is a large family with a prosperous population, three generations living under the same roof, and a long line of brothers and sisters. Women born in such families are guaranteed to be able to give birth and raise well.

Facts have proved that Zhou Niuwa's vision is really accurate.Zhou Kewen gave birth to Zhou Lide one year after his marriage, and Zhou Ligong two years later.Just a hundred days after Zhou Ligong gave birth, Zhou Shuancheng got married.But things didn't work out for Zhou Shuancheng.His wife, Mrs. Zhou Guoshi, did not conceive for one year and two years, and even his brother's third son, Zhou Liyan, was born in the fourth year. His wife's belly was still as flat as the Weihe Plain. He was so anxious that he didn't know what to do. up. Zhou Shuancheng first complained to his father, Zhou Niuwa, that he would not do porcelain work without diamonds.But thinking about it the other way around, he felt unreasonable. His father married a pockmarked wife, but the pockmarked wife gave birth to two sons in one go. Where would he be without a pockmarked wife?Besides, his father can't try it on his daughter-in-law when he is engaged in childbirth, so no one can make mistakes.Besides, if his father didn't give him Zhang Luo's wife, he might still be a bachelor now. There is no such thing as children marrying themselves in this world, and he has to thank his father for this.

If you can't blame his father, then blame his brother.His brother is so lucky, he studies better than him, is taller than him, builds a bigger house than him, eats bigger bowls than him, buys more land than him, walks faster than him, and employs longer-term workers than him Much, even coughing is stronger than him.Fortunately, he is even more capable than him in bed work, and his wife gave birth to three children in one go, and they are all cowboys!Why is he so good, hasn't he sucked away other people's luck?Of course, the first thing is to suck away Zhou Shuancheng's luck, because they are brothers.The blessings given by the ancestors are quantitative, and of course he will have fewer brothers if he has more brothers!But after he thought about it later, he felt that such a thought was absolutely unacceptable. Admitting that his brother was better than him was tantamount to admitting that he was inferior, and it was a sign of admitting defeat.How can he admit defeat?This world is still going on, and he hasn't finished using his skills, so how can he casually make others prestige and destroy his own ambition?Especially the matter in the bed, how can a man recognize it!Mine can be used as a chisel!He really wanted to shout out to those in the village who made fun of him.

When all outsiders can't complain, Zhou Shuancheng can only blame his wife.The wife should have been the first to complain, and there was a reason for putting her last.In addition to Zhou Shuancheng's good face and unwillingness to let people see that their family is at odds, there are also considerations of internal and external differences and the orderly relationship. Give my wife enough face. Unexpectedly, the wife didn't appreciate it at all, but felt that she had been wronged greatly, so she and Zhou Shuancheng looked for death and life.One said that a good pair of plowshares just ran into saline-alkali land, and the other said that a fertile field just bumped into poor seeds.No one can explain this kind of thing clearly, so no one is convinced.Later Zhou Shuancheng became angry and wanted to divorce his wife.Of course, these are not all negative words, he has to think about his own incense, there are three unfilial acts, the worst is to have no descendants!He can't even go to the grave after he dies.

It is a man's right to divorce his wife, and Zhou Shuancheng knows that this has been in his old life.But he had only heard about it, not seen it, not only he hadn't seen it, but he hadn't even seen Mr. Xiao Zheng who was writing papers for others in Jiangzhang Town.This Mr. Zheng is the son of Mr. Zheng, the famous Yin-Yang master. He has attended foreign schools and walked through Xi'an Mansion, so he is a well-informed person.Zhou Shuancheng asked him how to write a petition for divorcing his wife. He said that he had only heard of such a petition, but he had never written it.This shows that divorcing a wife is a major event and a taboo that cannot be easily done, otherwise how can it be so rare?

Of course, if a woman is abandoned by her husband's family, even if she is innocent and has suffered a great injustice, it is difficult for the society to accept her. Not to mention remarriage, even her natal family will refuse her to enter the house.Zhou Guoshi naturally knew the consequences. She was not a soft persimmon in the first place, and now she was going to fight with her life.In addition to fighting with Zhou Shuancheng at home, she also ran back to her mother's house and encouraged her brothers and younger brothers to help her, because it would be a great shame to her mother's family if a woman was divorced.

Zhou Shuancheng was cooking for himself in the kitchen when Zhou Guo's eight younger brothers came to him. He had been starved by his wife for several days.My wife always went on strike when she was at home, so don't expect her to go back to her mother's house now.Zhou Shuancheng was used to eating ready-made meals before, and asking him to cook by himself was like forcing a tiger to pull a mill. He poked in the pot for a long time, but he couldn't even start a fire, but thick smoke filled the room. .He was so smoked that he couldn't open his eyes, stumbled out of the kitchen, and kept scolding that stinky woman.Zhou Shuancheng didn't know that the stinky woman had come back. When he opened his eyes with a thump, the stinky woman and her eight brothers had already approached him aggressively.Zhou Shuancheng turned around and ran into the kitchen, and hid behind the door.He knew that this was the rescuer brought by his wife to vent her anger.This is the custom of Guan Zhongdao. When a daughter-in-law is angry at her husband's family, her natal brothers will stand up for her.Brothers from the natal family came to the door, smashing things at least, and beating people at worst.Of course, if the in-law's family has many brothers, and the mother's family sees that they are not opponents, they can only turn their actions into reasoning.

Zhou Shuancheng only had two brothers, and the brother who had turned against him could not be counted on at all. A hero would not suffer immediate losses, so he ran away first. Unexpectedly, the eight men didn't come hard. They said, brother-in-law, don't be afraid, let's reason first, and then fight with courtesy. To be reasonable, Zhou Shuancheng got out from behind the door, walked around behind the water urn, and said to his brothers-in-law through the water urn. It's easy if you're reasonable, and the eight-tiao man asked, if you want to divorce my sister, there must be a reason, right? Zhou Shuancheng was justified this time. He said, why don't I marry a wife? The eight-tiao man asked, how can you be sure that my sister is not pregnant?Why not you? Zhou Shuan was about to speak foul language, but he was facing his brother-in-law, so it was difficult for him to speak.He glanced left and right, saw the rolling pin on the chopping board, and grabbed it.His brothers-in-law thought he was going to fight, so they all stepped back and shook their fists and sleeves.But Zhou Shuancheng slapped the rolling pin on the chopping board and said, look, look! Zhou Guo's face was flushed, she cursed, shame on your ancestors! When the eight men saw that their brother-in-law was so dishonest, they had no scruples.They said, this matter is uncertain, there are plenty of barren corn with long stalks and no sticks, let's try it? Zhou Shuancheng asked with a salivating face, why try? Batiao said, let my sister spend a year with someone else in private, or with your brother Zhou Kewen.If my sister doesn't show her pregnancy within a year, let alone divorce her, it's up to you to kill or cut her up.On the contrary, if my sister is happy, it's up to us to send you: You have to recognize the baby, and the right is your own. If you don't recognize it, then our brothers will break your legs. It can be regarded as venting my sister's anger and restoring her reputation.Which one do you choose? Zhou Shuancheng took a deep breath and touched his head involuntarily. The eight men said, it was wrong, it was the legs! Zhou Shuancheng didn't touch his leg, he said, let's discuss it again, discuss it again. Talk about your fucking legs!The brothers-in-law scolded, this matter is not discussed!Sister, you can rest assured, he dares to flirt and watch us deal with him. When the eight men left, they picked up the rolling pin just now. Zhou Shuancheng thought they had changed from "reason" to "soldier" and wanted to beat him.They didn't, and the brothers took turns breaking the rolling pin, and the last one pushed it on his knee, and the rolling pin broke into two pieces with a click. He looked at Zhou Shuancheng proudly and said, hmph, you see. Zhou Shuancheng felt a dull pain in his crotch. Zhou Shuancheng didn't mention divorcing his wife anymore, he didn't dare to play that kind of gamble with his brothers-in-law.He can afford to wait for a year, and his wife is sure of the saline-alkali land, but the saline-alkali land may also be cleaned up. If there is a good way to grow crops, it may really produce food. Zhou Shuancheng is a farmer, he will not fail to understand this truth.If this is the case, it would be called injustice. Let alone let the wife sleep for nothing for a year, and give birth to a wild species and have to raise it by myself! Instead of letting others sleep, it is better to sleep hard by yourself. Zhou Shuancheng broke the jar anyway, and tortured his wife on the kang when he had time.In addition to revenge, this also has the intention of planting a wide range of crops and reaping a small harvest. Maybe a seed will germinate by chance. As a result of such tossing, nothing happened except that the two of them were getting thinner and thinner, and their temper was getting worse. Zhou Guo's stomach was still flattened, and it was even more flattened than before. Almost when they were in despair, Mrs. Zhou Guo once met Mrs. Zhou Liang in the Niangniang Temple.Niangniang is Songzi Guanyin, and people in Guanzhong Road call it that.Zhou Guoshi is a frequent visitor here, she never thought that her sister-in-law would also come here.After all, the women of these two families are kinder than the men, and since they met, it was inevitable that they would exchange a few words.It turned out that Mrs. Liang also came to ask for a son this week, but she asked for a woman instead of a son.She struggled to earn three sons but did not have a daughter, which made the couple feel incomplete no matter what. People often say that a daughter is good, a daughter is good, and a daughter is a little padded jacket for parents. When Zhou Guoshi heard this, she burst into tears immediately. This is the best of the best, but I am sorry that I am not even better at all!Seeing his sister-in-law so anxious, Mrs. Zhou Liang gave her an idea: warm her arms. Nuanhuai means that a person who has not given birth for a long time adopts someone else's child, to give himself the bottom line, to warm his body, and maybe he will conceive his own child in the future.It's like a hen that doesn't lay eggs, and puts an egg laid by another hen in the coop. If the hen warms the other's egg, it may lay its own egg.The eggs that are placed in the chicken coop to lure the hens to lay eggs are called Yindan.He also went to the doctor in a hurry. Later, Zhou Guo really adopted a girl and named him Yinwa. What a coincidence, a year after introducing the baby to the house, Zhou Guoshi became pregnant, and when she was born, she looked like a cow baby, which made Zhou Shuan and his wife almost crazy with joy. With his son Zhou Shuan, he has confidence. He wants to compare his luck with the next door. He never obeys his brother.He let his brother's son do whatever he wanted, and he did it better than them.His elder brother's boss is a fool, he only knows how to punch and stick, so there is no need to learn from him.The third child works as a husband-in-law in the Fengxiang store, so there is no need to learn that, as a scholar, farmer, businessman, and business is the last kind of earning, which makes people look down on him.The rest is the second child. His elder brother's second child goes to school, and he also lets his son go to school, and he goes to the best school. At that time, the best school in the surrounding area was Fuqiang Primary School in Jiangzhang Township, which accepted the children of wealthy officials and gentry, and the tuition fees were expensive.Zhou Shuancheng didn't care about money, so he generously sent his son to this school.The son thought it was new at first, but after a few days, he couldn’t die. Zhou Shuancheng became anxious and urged him, but his son lost his temper. kill me! Changgong Mancang laughed when he heard that, and said yes, yes, shopkeeper, tell me to change with Baogen, and the baby will be tired. Zhou Shuancheng couldn't laugh or cry, but thinking about his son's words were not unreasonable.Getting up early to study and coming back late is really not an easy job, and this baby was born with a weak body, so it might really be too much for her.So from that day on, Mancang was asked to put on a cart to pick up Baogen every morning and evening, and when the time was short at noon, he was given money to buy and eat on the street without having to run back and forth. This is the fun of Baogen, who can play all day long.At first, he was sent to school with a full warehouse, and he could still sit in class for a whole morning. After school at noon, he walked out of the school gate and had fun. There were more food and play in the streets of Jiangzhang Town.Noodles, jelly, pulled noodles, dumplings, steamed cakes, oil cakes, spicy soup...he ate them in rotation.After he was full, he would look for jugglers, monkey jugglers, jugglers, storytellers, singers, foreigners, gambling, opium smokers, brothels...Of course what attracted him most was watching Qin Opera.It took one afternoon to look at it, and I had long forgotten about the class.Later, he even skipped the morning class. Mancang sent him to the school gate, watched him enter the gate, and rushed back to work. He walked around the campus, presumably Mancang walked away, slipped out of the school, Dive into the street.Sometimes unfortunately he is caught by the teacher and escorted into the classroom. He always has a way to skip school, or pretends to be sick, or suddenly yells out loudly: Hey, here we come!The teacher and classmates were all taken aback. He said to the teacher seriously: "Report to the teacher, my father called me, something happened at home."The teacher was taken aback and said why didn't I hear it?Zhou Baogen said, teacher, you are so engrossed in the lecture, how can you hear it?The teacher was fooled, so he let him go in a daze. As soon as he went out, he went straight to the theater.His favorite play is "Teaching", which is a clown play. It tells the story of a young man from a rich family who tosses away all his Wanguan family property.Baogen has read it countless times, and he can recite the lines verbatim: Whenever he sat down on the stage, he wanted to laugh. Isn't this play about him?He was just too much like that swinger.But he felt that he couldn't be blamed for this, his father was to be blamed, knowing that their family didn't have the energy to study, they insisted on forcing him to study, and he forced a good boy into a prodigal son.He felt that he was worthy of his father by not gambling or eating opium.It's fine if his father doesn't talk about him. If he doesn't know what to do and troubles him, he will go back to his father's old school background. Why do you talk about me like that! In this way, Baogen returned home after primary school, while Zhou Ligong had been admitted to the Normal School in Xi'an Prefecture at the same time, and later he was admitted to Beijing City to go to university. Why didn't this make Zhou Shuancheng angry! Crazy people are no good, but crazy dogs are hit by bricks, Zhou Shuancheng scolded, one day you will be ugly as a dog!