Chapter 23 Separated

"Mom, didn't you change Xiaoxiao's diaper?" Liu Xihua took off her daughter's pants with an angry look on her face, threw them into the small wooden basin used by Jiang Xiaoxiao, turned around and asked loudly towards the outer room.

Aunt Jiang was sitting on a bamboo chair in the outer room, fanning herself leisurely with a palm-leaf fan.

Hearing her daughter-in-law's question, she suddenly raised her head, her eyes widened and her face was full of dissatisfaction.

"Why didn't you change it? I just changed it and you came back! You complained that I didn't feed the baby, and then accused me of not changing the diaper in time. Do you have to worship this little girl like an ancestor before you are satisfied? Let me tell you, there is no daughter-in-law in the world who is as difficult to her mother-in-law as you are!"

Liu Xihua was so anxious that she quickly explained, "Mom, you misunderstood me. That's not what I meant."

However, Aunt Jiang didn't listen to her explanation at all. She interrupted her and said, "Hmph! Stop talking nonsense to me! I think you are just looking for trouble and think I can't take good care of this child. Today you blame me for not feeding her enough and not changing her diaper. If she has a headache or something bad tomorrow, are you going to kill me with a knife?"

Faced with her mother-in-law's harsh rebuke, Liu Xihua was speechless.

But when she saw her daughter's wet diaper, eczema on her butt, and sweaty hair, she felt wronged and helpless.

Jiang Xiaoxiao listened to the quarrel between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and reached out her little hand to Liu Xihua, pulling the corner of her clothes hard.

[Mom, I don’t want grandma to take care of me. I want to follow you. Mom, take me to the fields. I will be good and obedient.]

[Mom still has to hide the milk powder. My aunt asked Xiao Shengzi to ask grandma for Xiaoxiao’s milk powder.]

Although it would be a bit hard for Liu Xihua to take care of the baby, when she goes to the fields, she has two sisters-in-law and Jiang Daguo who can help Liu Xihua with the burden of taking care of the baby.

If she is left at home, she will be abused by Aunt Jiang.

In the plot of the original book, Liu Xihua only entrusted her daughter to Aunt Jiang occasionally, but Aunt Jiang frequently asked Liu Xihua and her husband for money and things on the grounds that she had raised a granddaughter, and then secretly subsidized her eldest daughter's family.

This made Liu Xihua and Jiang Daguo feel resentful, but they had no one to complain to.

Liu Xihua looked at her daughter in her arms, milk powder?
She put her daughter on the bed and hurriedly opened the bottom drawer of the small cabinet, and found that several packets of milk powder had indeed been moved.

She became even angrier.

It's bad enough that he doesn't like the child she adopted, but he also wants to take away the child's food rations. That's too much.

Liu Xihua put several packets of milk powder and the half-finished packets into another drawer and locked it.

She suppressed her anger, first fed Jiang Xiaoxiao some cold boiled water, then went to the kitchen to boil some bath water, and brought it to the room for Jiang Xiaoxiao to take a bath.

After cleaning up, she applied talcum powder all over Jiang Xiaoxiao's body and prepared milk powder.

After feeding Jiang Xiaoxiao, Liu Xihua went to wash clothes for the three of them.

She was busy running around, but Aunt Jiang just glanced at her indifferently, didn't lend a hand, and didn't even ask about Jiang Xiaoxiao's situation.

After hanging out the clothes, Liu Xihua's stomach growled with hunger.

She walked into the kitchen and found that her mother-in-law had not prepared lunch yet and the rice had just been put into the pot.

"Mom, Dad and Daguo are still hungry and are waiting for me to bring them food. Why isn't the meal ready yet?" Liu Xihua picked up the spatula and stirred the rice in the pot that was about to stick to the pot.

Aunt Jiang sent her grandson back and forth. It was hot and she was tired from walking. She rested until now, so she was late in cooking.

But she would not say it was her problem. She only said, "Don't you see how much work there is at home? You are all out, and I am alone at home. I have to sweep the floor, feed the pigs and chickens, and take care of the little girl you picked up and change her poop and pee. I am so busy that I am almost dying."

Aunt Jiang sat at the door of the stove and angrily stuffed a handful of firewood into it.

In the room, Jiang Xiaoxiao heard Aunt Jiang talking loudly in the kitchen and clenched her fists in anger.

[Mom, after you left, grandma didn’t feed the chickens or pigs. She sat under the willow tree in front of our yard and chatted with our neighbor, Grandma Gui, until ten o’clock.] [Later, Huang Sheng came. They stopped chatting, but grandma played with Huang Sheng again, cooked noodles for him, and sent him home.]

[After I came back, I sat there from 11 o'clock until 11:30 when my mother came home]

Liu Xihua opened her eyes wide. No wonder her daughter was so angry.

My mother-in-law is indeed busy, but she is either busy chatting and having fun or taking care of her eldest sister-in-law's children.

"Mom, you chatted with Aunt Gui for most of the morning, right? And you played with Xiao Shengzi for an hour?" Liu Xihua glanced at her mother-in-law coldly.

It’s not that she really wanted to quarrel with her mother-in-law, but the four people in the field were still waiting for her to bring them water and food. How could she do anything if they didn’t eat or drink?
The team leader said at the meeting yesterday that the cotton seedlings at this stage must be weeded and watered as soon as possible, otherwise it will affect the growth of flower buds and the yield will be low.

Therefore, the farmers who were allocated cotton fields went out before dawn, and few of them came back for dinner. They all brought their meals to eat in the fields.

But when she got home, she had been doing housework for half a day before her mother-in-law put the rice into the pot.

It would take at least half an hour for the rice to be cooked, and another hour before it could be delivered to the field.

After being scolded by her daughter-in-law, Aunt Jiang's temper flared up.

"If you are capable, do it yourself. I am old, can't I take a break?"

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were arguing in the house, and passers-by stopped and looked towards the Jiang family.

Liu Xihua was embarrassed, but was also worried about the four people in the field who were still hungry, so she held back and said nothing.

She silently stirred the rice in the pot and looked for vegetables to wash.

She found that the potatoes she had dug from her own plot yesterday were gone. She couldn't help but ask again, "Mom, where are the potatoes Daguo dug yesterday?"

Potatoes are delicious and filling.

Aunt Jiang glanced at her and said, "Your nephew Xiao Shengzi said he wanted to eat it, so I took it to his house. You won't snatch the food from him, right?"

Liu Xihua was so angry that she choked, "Mom, Daguo said he wanted to eat salted potato cubes for lunch, which are very filling."

"Don't talk about a big country. Do you think a big country is like you, fighting with a child for food?" Aunt Jiang glared at Liu Xihua.

Liu Xihua's eyes turned red with grievance, "What are we going to eat at noon? Daguo is carrying water to irrigate the fields, he can't go hungry."

"Isn't that a vegetable?" Aunt Jiang said, pointing to a basket in the corner.

There were four white radishes in the basket that had been there for a few days, and their skin had black spots and wrinkles.

Liu Xihua bit her lip and had to pick up the radish, peel it, cut it into pieces and cook it into salted radish cubes.

She didn't have lunch. She put dry porridge and carrot soup in two large jars and placed them in a basket together with several bowls and chopsticks.

In another basket were Jiang Xiaoxiao and her milk bottle, water bottle, and diapers.

Worried that Jiang Xiaoxiao would be exposed to the sun, Liu Xihua covered the basket with a bamboo hat.

She carried a basket and a load on her shoulder and went to the field.

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at the hard-working Liu Xihua and clenched her fists, "Mom, why didn't we separate from grandma?"

If they don't separate, Aunt Jiang will cause countless troubles for Liu Xihua and Jiang Daguo because of their eldest daughter Jiang Meizhi.

(End of this chapter)