Splendid peasant girl busy farming

Chapter 11947

"My father-in-law is worried that the villagers won't listen to advice, so he's preparing to go to the homes of those stubborn villagers with a few village elders to persuade them."

When Luo Fengtang came home and had breakfast with Yang Ruoqing, he mentioned this matter to her.

Yang Ruoqing ate stir-fried vegetables with tofu dregs, a smile playing on her lips.

"What are you laughing at?" Luo Fengtang asked.

Yang Ruoqing said, "I have a feeling that this time the villagers will be less stubborn than expected."

"I believe Qing'er's prediction."

During lunch, Yang Huazhong came to the Luo family to borrow a shovel, and inevitably talked to Yang Ruoqing and Luo Fengtang about his trip to the village to persuade people earlier that day.

"It was really unexpected. I thought it would take a lot of talking, but I didn't expect things to be so easy this year."

“When we went to talk to them, many villagers agreed, saying that even if we didn’t go to talk to them, they would have started thinking about their houses themselves. The lesson they learned that year had really scared them!”

Upon hearing this, Yang Ruoqing and Luo Fengtang exchanged a smile.

"In that case, things will be much easier this year."

Although it has been snowing for the past few days, Changping Village is very lively and peaceful.

Outside, snow was falling heavily, but there were many people wandering around on the road. Most of these people were the inspection and repair teams organized by Yang Huazhong and Luo Fengtang.

They travel around the village every day, conducting on-site surveys of every household and then making registrations.

Besides those who were doing the work, there were also many villagers who came to watch the excitement, including men, women, young and old, but mostly children.

These women and children had nothing to do at home and couldn't stay at home. Even when it was snowing heavily outside, they would run out and follow the group to check each house. So after going around the village, they knew exactly what the houses were like.

"These women and children, they really caught up with us, we couldn't chase them away no matter what. Following behind, we saw that the women's faces were all blue from the cold, and the children had long snot hanging from their noses, but they didn't want to go back. Sigh!" Yang Huazhong came to the Luo family for dinner at night and talked about what happened during the day. He was both amused and annoyed.

"I'm worried that if they follow us from morning till night like this, they'll get terribly cold, especially during the Lunar New Year."

Hearing Yang Huazhong's complaints at the dinner table, Luo the blacksmith, Wang Cuilian, and Sun all laughed.

"Try to persuade them. It would be best if you could get them to go back, but if you really can't, there's nothing you can do!" said Luo the blacksmith.

Yang Huazhong nodded, picked up his wine cup, and clinked it against the teacup in front of Luo the blacksmith.

Yang Huazhong was drinking liquor, while Luo the blacksmith was drinking tea. Luo the blacksmith had not touched a drop of alcohol for almost three years.

Luo the blacksmith stared intently at the wine bowl in Yang Huazhong's hand, his Adam's apple bobbing a few times.

"Cough cough!" Wang Cuilian suddenly coughed twice, and gently kicked Luo the blacksmith under the table. Luo the blacksmith turned his head and met the warning in Wang Cuilian's eyes.

Seeing through Luo's intentions, the blacksmith smiled sheepishly, "I was just looking. I don't crave alcohol, really, I swear!"

“There’s no need to swear an oath, you old man really are…” Wang Cuilian was a little embarrassed.

Fortunately, Yang Huazhong and Madam Sun were both smart people and pretended not to hear.

As for Yang Ruoqing and Luo Fengtang, they were also enjoying a hot pot meal while listening to their elders chat.

As for the women and children in the village following behind like tails to watch the excitement, Yang Ruoqing didn't find it strange at all.

In this time and space, there are no computers, no cell phones, no televisions. You can't watch TV, you can't watch short videos, and you can't even use beauty filters to dance in the square or lip-sync to songs...

The village lacked entertainment, so any slightly novel event would attract the attention of all the women and children...

Yang Ruoqing's gaze fell on the two children beside her. Fortunately, the two children did not follow the trend this time, but stayed at home obediently.

What to do at home? Haha, build a snowman, of course!

Now everyone else's yards are covered in snow, so much so that there's barely any room to walk, but the Luo family's front and back yards are almost completely snow-free.

Because there was a little more snow, the two children gathered it and built snowmen, standing in rows against the walls, along the roadside, under the eaves, everywhere.

So whenever someone came to visit the Luo family, from the moment they entered the courtyard gate to the backyard, it was like entering a heavily guarded palace, with snowman guards standing watch everywhere...

The snowmen the two children are building are getting better and better, more and more like people. They use black beans for eyes, carrots for noses, and red clay for mouths. They wear hats and scarves, and some of them are holding sticks while others are holding brooms...

The two children from the Luo family were busy, so they didn't go out to join the fun.

In two days, Feng'er and the others will be back. When they do, the two boys will probably run to their grandparents' house next door as soon as they get up to play with their cousins.

To be precise, Yuanyuan went to play with Fuwa and Jun'er, while Tuantuan went to ask Feng'er about academic matters.

Yang Ruoqing had figured it out: although her two sons were twins, one was interested in literature and the other in martial arts.

Good.

……

"That Mai Lao Er, his whole family is no good. Such a good daughter, they just throw her away like that! They're so heartless!"

That day, Liu came to visit the Luo family and talked about the gossip she had heard while wandering around the village these past few days.

"Mai Lao Er? Who is that?" Yang Ruoqing was warming herself in the fire bucket. Actually, it wasn't that she was cold, but that the two little ones' shoes were damp, and she was drying them.

"Mai Lao Er, Qing'er, don't you recognize Mai Lao Er? He's a celebrity in our Changping Village!" Seeing Yang Ruoqing's reaction, Liu Shi was astonished, forgetting to spit out the sunflower seed shells which were stuck to her tongue. She quickly reminded Yang Ruoqing. "Mai Lao Er lives in the row behind your aunt's house, right next to your Uncle Changgen's old house. The lady of that house died in childbirth a few years ago, leaving Mai Lao Er to raise his two daughters alone. Later, she remarried, and the new wife brought two more daughters with her. Then Mai Lao Er and his wife had a son. Mai Lao Er sold his eldest daughter to buy new clothes for his new wife and her children. Your father found out and led the villagers to kidnap her, driving the girl away... Do you remember?"

After Liu's reminder, Yang Ruoqing finally remembered it.

In Changping Village, there is indeed such a remarkable person, the second son of the Mai family, known as Second Brother Mai.

This Mai Lao Er, well, he's probably close to 30 years old, which is several years younger than Yang Ruoqing. In Yang Ruoqing's memory, Mai Lao Da was the same age as her, so Mai Lao Er should be the same age as Da An.

In Fatty's memory, when she was little, she wandered around the village and was bullied not only by the children her own age, but also by the children who were a few years younger than her.

Among them was Mai Lao Er, who always had two snot worms hanging from his nose.

Yang Ruoqing still remembered that Mai Lao Er seemed to have smeared his snot on Sha Pang Ya's body back then, and he got addicted to it. So much so that when Yang Ruoqing traveled through time and went to the village one day, she met Mai Lao Er.

The brat actually tried to bully Yang Ruoqing, but ended up having his head pinned down by Yang Ruoqing and pushed into the stinking ditch behind the village.

His older brother, Mai Laoda, was the same age as Yang Ruoqing. When he heard that his younger brother had been bullied, he rushed over to stand up for him.

As a result, Yang Ruoqing pulled down the pants of both brothers and whipped their buttocks until they were bright red with a broom!

“That Mai Lao Er, I remember now, he got married in the same year as our Da An, right? His eldest daughter is 10 years old this year, isn’t she?” Yang Ruoqing asked Liu Shi while turning over the shoes in her hands.

Ask anyone else about these things, and they certainly won't be able to answer. But if you ask Liu, she'll answer every single question.

Because Liu's brain, this memory bank, is specifically used to store other people's affairs, and its memory is so huge that it seems it will never be full or get stuck.

Sure enough, no sooner had Yang Ruoqing finished speaking than Liu's side immediately provided the relevant search results in response.

"That's right, she got married in the same year as Da'an. Da'an was born in the second half of the year, and Mai Lao Er was born in the first half. The woman in front of him married a girl from Zhengjia Village."

At this point, Liu suddenly paused, as if the system had triggered a certain keyword. She suddenly slapped her forehead and continued, "I remember now, if we really talk about his wife, she and Tuanyuan's godmother are actually related!"

"Zheng Xiaoqin?" Yang Ruoqing asked again.

“Yes, it’s Zheng Xiaoqin. I think they’re cousins!” Liu said again.

Yang Ruoqing tried to recall carefully, but unfortunately, her memory was too blurry, and she couldn't remember the woman's features at all, probably because she had never interacted with her in the village.

"I've never heard Xiaoqin mention it before, I had no idea that Mai Lao Er was actually her cousin-in-law," Yang Ruoqing said.

“Zheng Xiaoqin definitely won’t tell. You have to understand what kind of person Mai Lao Er is. His wife died giving birth to his child. She had a difficult labor, and the midwife asked him whether to save the mother or the child.” Liu’s tone was full of resentment as she spoke of what happened back then.

"That second-in-command, Mai, always thought his wife was carrying a son, and without thinking, he insisted on saving the baby. His wife died after giving birth, and it turned out to be a daughter. He really lost both his wife and his army!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Ruoqing frowned slightly and subconsciously shook her head.

In many melodramatic TV dramas and novels, there are always scenes of women experiencing difficult childbirth, where the pointless question of whether to save the mother or the baby arises, forcing the family to undergo a mental ordeal and make the most difficult choice in human nature.

In reality, those screenwriters who create those melodramatic plots are simply trying to grab the audience's attention and generate buzz, so that the audience and the authors can immerse themselves in the story and continue to pay for their works.

If you encounter a meticulous person, they will see the flaws in this. This is no longer a flaw in knowledge, but a lack of common sense!
Should we save the mother or the baby? Asking this question means the baby is still in the mother's womb.

If the mother dies and stops breathing, the baby in her womb will also suffocate and die. So if you abandon the mother, you are also abandoning the fetus. Neither can be saved.

Unless you, the midwife, have hands long enough to reach inside and violently pull the baby out of the womb before the mother has completely stopped breathing...

Tell me, can such a delicate and fragile child withstand such pulling and tugging? I'm afraid that what comes out of that pulling will be incomplete!
As for modern cesarean sections, it's even less likely that doctors would ask the family whether to save the mother or the child—a very unprofessional question...

In short, medical and health technology was very backward in this era, and many women really had to walk through the gates of hell to give birth.

A terrible disaster could have been caused by a pair of rusty, unsterilized scissors...

“That Mai Lao Er is a real scoundrel. His wife risked her life to leave him with two daughters, but as soon as she died, he threw the two daughters into the willow grove…” Liu said again.

"My God, they are worse than animals!" Yang Ruoqing couldn't help but curse.

Willow Grove is located behind Changping Village. After crossing the small river at the foot of the mountain behind the village, there is a large, lush pine forest, which is called Willow Grove.

Isn't that ridiculous? The entire forest is full of pine and maple trees, with not a single willow tree to be found, yet the forest is called Willow Grove.

The willow grove was not a good place for the nearby villagers; it was even used as a curse word.

The reason is that there is a depression in the willow grove, and that place is where people from almost ten miles around, including Changping Village, throw away dead or sick infants.

When Yang Ruoqing transmigrated here, Fatty was already barely breathing. Although she hadn't completely died, if it weren't for Madam Sun's persistent efforts to stop her, Madam Tan would probably have already taken her to the willow grove...

Because Tan said that the body should be sent out before it dies, and it shouldn't be left at home to die, as that would be bad for the family and bring bad luck.

If it really gets thrown there, it might get buried in the ground, or wild animals might come and dig it up and eat it...

Even if Yang Ruoqing traveled over, it wouldn't make a difference. Therefore, she was very grateful for Sun's unwavering support and felt an immediate connection with Sun, regarding her as her true mother.

As for Madam Tan, this is the crux of why Yang Ruoqing has never been able to truly get close to her over the years.

There are many things about this old woman that Yang Ruoqing cannot accept, not only her rigid and outdated thinking, but also some selfishness and evil in human nature.

The reason why everyone in the Yang family seems to be so open-minded and reasonable these days is that they are all very willing to listen to reason, and Old Yang and his family all seem to care a lot about appearances.

Yang Ruoqing understood all of this; it was only because of her absolute strength that they were able to calm down and listen to reason.

If she were still that silly, chubby girl, if she hadn't married Luo Fengtang, Luo Fengtang would still be that ordinary hunter. Da'an wouldn't have had the chance to study, Xiao'an wouldn't have had the chance to learn martial arts, and Yang Huazhong and the others would never have had the chance to separate from the Tan family and break free from their control...