Old Mrs. Song is reborn; get out of here, you scumbag husband and illegitimate child!

When dinner was served.

The stone table in the courtyard is almost overflowing.

The steamed grouper was placed in the center, with a layer of piping hot scallion shreds and soy sauce poured over it, and steam rising from it.

Next to it was a plate of steamed red flower crab with vermicelli; the crab shell was lifted to reveal golden roe.

The glass noodles, soaked in crab broth, are placed at the bottom of the plate.

Stir-fried squid with snow peas, blanched baby squid, blanched whelks, pan-fried crab with roe, and mixed fish in soy sauce.

In addition, there was a plate of neatly sliced ​​pork belly and a large plate of golden-brown, crispy fried oysters.

Pheasant stewed with Codonopsis pilosula soup, and stir-fried chicken giblets with pickled bamboo

The stone table was completely filled with food.

Liu Chunhua gasped, "My God, all this food on the table is enough to feed my family for half a month."

Widow Wang stood there holding her bowl, not daring to sit down.

My eyes scanned the rat-spotted area several times.

"Sit down, why are you standing?" Song Xianglan shoved the chopsticks into her hand.

Liu Yidao sat on the corner of the table, picked up some food, and shoveled it into his mouth in a few bites.

He eats like he's in a war.

The ugly woman glanced at him sideways and said, "Eat slowly, no one's going to take it from you."

Liu Yidao chuckled.

He picked up the bowl, shoveled the last bite of rice into his mouth, put down the bowl and chopsticks, and stood up.

"You guys enjoy your meal, I'm leaving."

Liu Dahua looked up at him.

"Where to?"

"Old Lin from next door is calling me to drink; he's called me three times already."

Liu Dahua reached out and pulled out a plate of fried oysters, pushing it to the side of the table. "Bring a plate of fried oysters over to them to go with their drinks. Those guys are really stingy; they only have drinks, no food."

"Get some more squid over there."

"Bring some chicken soup too, and some pork belly."

Gou Sheng from next door quickly came over to help carry the dishes, saying, "Grandma, I'll help Grandpa Yidao carry the dishes."

Liu Yidao picked up the plate.

Gou Sheng and I walked briskly out of the yard.

He had just left.

The atmosphere in the courtyard immediately relaxed.

Ronghua's wife put down her chopsticks and let out a long sigh. "With the man gone, even the air feels fresher."

Several women burst into laughter.

Song Xianglan poured a bowl of rice wine for everyone, and took a sip herself.

The rice wine was brewed by Lin Mu's wife.

It has a low alcohol content, is sweet, and has a smooth texture.

Liu Dahua picked up a piece of grouper with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth.

She chewed twice, then slowed down.

Then it stopped.

Liu Dahua's eyes reddened.

She finished chewing the fish in her mouth and swallowed it, then wiped her eyes hard with the back of her hand.

"I've spent my whole life dealing with the sea. I started wading in the water to catch sea snails when I was six, and I went out to sea with my dad to pull nets when I was eight. I've been in the sea for decades." Her voice was a little hoarse. "I've also caught grouper more than ten times."

She paused for a moment.

"But I've never eaten it."

The courtyard was quiet.

"Every time I catch a spotted rat, my first reaction is to quickly put it in a bucket and keep it there, protecting it like my lifeblood."

They were afraid that if it died, it wouldn't fetch a good price.

I rushed to the commune's aquatic products station before dawn, my heart pounding in my chest the whole way.

Once you get there, you still have to be mindful of the buyer's mood. If they're in a good mood, they might give you a few extra cents; if they're in a bad mood, they can arbitrarily lower the price, and you can't even say a word.

Liu Dahua sniffed.

"Today, Tolan is lucky enough to get a bite of grouper."

Liu Chunhua didn't say anything, but silently picked up a piece of fish and put it in her mouth.

After chewing a couple of times, her eyes lit up.

"This fish..." Liu Chunhua smacked her lips, "It was so fresh I almost swallowed my tongue."

Widow Wang carefully picked up a small piece, put it in her mouth, and chewed it slowly.

She placed the chopsticks on the bowl and didn't move them for a long time.

"I've never eaten anything this expensive in my entire life."

Ronghua's wife had already eaten two pieces and nodded repeatedly, "No wonder rich people are scrambling to eat this."

The ugly woman, with fish in her mouth, mumbled:

"It tastes good, but Lanlan has definitely eaten better than this."

All eyes turned to Song Xianglan.

Liu Chunhua glanced at her sideways. "Lanlan, have you ever eaten grouper?"

Song Xianglan took a sip of the rice wine, her expression indifferent.

"I've eaten it. Su Mei has eaten it too."

As soon as these words came out...

The women on the stone table all stared wide-eyed.

"Su Mei?!"

Liu Dahua's voice rose three octaves.

Having spent decades in the sea, she knew exactly what Su Mei was like. "One of those things costs two or three hundred yuan. Where did you eat it?"

Liu Chunhua: "That's almost half a year's salary for someone else."

Widow Wang smacked her lips:

"Our boss, Mr. Song, lives a more comfortable life than the county magistrate."

Liu Chunhua picked up the bowl and took a sip of rice wine. "Lanlan, you know, she's no good at finding men."

Liu Chounv immediately chimed in, "But their children are amazing. Xiangdong and Tingting are outstanding individuals. What do you call that? A good bamboo shoot emerging from a bad one."

"You're the one who's a scoundrel," Song Xianglan rolled her eyes at her.

Liu Chunhua laughed heartily:

"The words may be rough, but the meaning is sound. You could say she's lucky, she married that bastard Yang Dashan."

But you could say she was unlucky; other people's sons are successful, and their daughters are capable too, even managing to set up a workshop.

Widow Wang nodded:

She has terrible taste in men, but she's got a real knack for raising kids.

Song Xianglan buried her head in eating crab.

Liu Chounu drank two bowls of rice wine, and her face flushed.

"I'm even worse off than Lanlan. Not only am I blind to choose men, but the seed I father is also no good."

The women in the courtyard were all stunned.

He then burst into laughter.

The ugly woman got more and more excited as she talked:

"Lin Gang is just like his father, a real taciturn guy. If you ask him three questions, you're lucky if he can utter a single word."

Lin Mu said a few more words, but he was full of petty schemes that he himself couldn't even figure out.

Lin Man owes a great debt to Chrysanthemum. I've been blind twice in my life; the first time was because of Old Lin, and the second time was because of my own stomach.

Ronghua's wife laughed so hard she lay on the table and kept punching the stone slab.

Liu Chunhua pointed at Liu Chounu with her finger: "You said your son was a worthless seed in front of people, aren't you afraid that Lin Gang and Lin Mu would get angry with you if they heard it?"

The ugly woman rolled her eyes.

"Let them be anxious. I'd be happy if they could be anxious."

In the neighboring yard.

Old Lin's eyelids twitched twice.

I feel so choked up.

Lin Mu walked over with a plate of peanuts, opened his mouth, then closed it again.

Lin Mu's wife glanced at Old Lin's expression.

Then he listened carefully to the sounds coming from next door.

"Dad, you should be content." Lin Mu's wife poured him a glass of wine. "Without Mom, our family wouldn't be living such a good life now."

Old Lin picked up his wine cup.

He downed it in one gulp.

The alcohol burned my throat.

He smacked his lips twice.

I felt a pang of sadness, but also a sense of contentment.

"Liu Yidao".

"Um?"

"Is that grouper... tasty?"

Liu Yidao had just eaten two bites of fish next door, and he was still savoring the memory.

He moved his mouth twice and narrowed his eyes.

"Delicious. So delicious. The fish was so fresh I could swallow my tongue. I've lived this long and never eaten such delicious fish."

Old Lin's teeth were extremely sensitive.

He'll never eat rat spots in his entire life.

He had never even seen what the rat-spotted rat looked like.

Liu Yidao was still savoring the moment, muttering to himself, "Everyone says good things aren't sold to the poor, but that's just something to comfort us poor people. Truly good things won't end up on our lips."

Old Lin's teeth ached even more.

In the neighboring yard.

The women's laughter never stopped.

Bowl after bowl of rice wine was poured, and plate after plate of dishes was emptied.

By the time Liu Chunhua had drunk her fourth bowl, her face was as red as the flames in the stove.

She started cursing at her man.

"My husband," she pointed a finger into the air, "is a brigade leader, always putting on airs outside. But what about when he comes home?"

Widow Wang casually replied:

"What are you doing?"

"Do nothing."

Liu Chunhua burped, "He won't even pick up the oil bottle if it falls over. He lies in bed like a dead fish, and I have to call him eight times to eat."

He doesn't do any work in the fields, he doesn't lift a finger in the kitchen, and I even have to feed the chickens he raises. What's the difference between my life and that of a widow?

I deeply sympathize with the ugly woman.

"At least you have the title of battalion commander to rely on. What kind of life did I live before?"

Her voice grew louder.

"I toil away at home, working from dawn till dusk, managing everything inside and out by myself. When I cook and bring the food to the table, other families sit down and eat heartily, and I just push my bowl away and leave."

After cleaning the stove, I had to go work in the fields, and when I came back, my back was so sore I could barely straighten up. Luckily, Xiaofang helped me with the chores before we got married.

The more he talked about the ugly woman, the more excited he became.

He complained that my cooking was bad, that my clothes weren't clean enough, and that my children weren't smart enough.

Even my two biological sons don't give me a kind look, so how could my daughter-in-law possibly value me? I live worse than a dog in that house.

She took a deep sniff.

Her eyes were red-rimmed.

"When a dog does work, its owner at least pets it and praises it. I've worked my whole life, and I've never heard a kind word from it."

Liu Chunhua's eyes also reddened.

I wiped it with the back of my hand.

She nodded. "Before, you didn't even dare to lift your head in the village. You would walk close to the wall, like a mouse. The only time you could speak a few words like a human being was when you were with Lanlan."

Liu Chounu said, "Lanlan wasn't having an easy time back then either, but she never looked down on me."