Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 9

Father Jiang ate to relieve his hunger, and finally called out to Mother Jiang, who was still bundling rice in the field, “Ailian, come to eat.”

Mother Jiang tied the rice stalks tightly with straw ropes and said, “Here I come.”

Looking at the four clear dishes in the basket, Mother Jiang didn’t say anything. Instead, she stared at the umbrella in her hand and cursed, “It’s really a shame to hold up an umbrella. I’m afraid the sun will kill you. I’m out every day. Even though I am working here, I didn’t get sunburned to death.”

Jiang Ning swayed, looking like she was about to faint.

She was already thin. When she stretched out her hand and pulled on her back, there was only a layer of skin with no flesh at all. In addition, she had a heat stroke the day before, and her eyebrows, neck, and arms were covered with red sand. 

Father Jiang jumped up and put down the bowl in fright. He came to help her with chopsticks, saying, “Quick, come and stand under the shade of a tree. It’s such a strong sun. Why didn’t you find a shaded place to get a cover? What are you doing here waiting for us? Hurry home. I will deliver your grandpa’s food later.” He then said to his wife, “Isn’t it nice for girls to be fair and not get tanned?”

That was the first time Mother Jiang encountered green tea behavior. She had no doubt that her daughter was faking fainting. In addition, Jiang Ning had indeed fainted for a long time due to heat stroke the day before. But seeing that she was really going to faint, she was a little worried.

It was just that she had always been strong-tempered and had a sharp mouth. When she heard it, she couldn’t help but say, “You are a good person, I am the stepmother.” She then scolded Jiang Ning, “You are really a young lady. I didn’t ask you to cut rice and plant rice seedlings. I just gave you a task to prepare a meal. You’re so useless that you faint being out a bit. You can’t even open your mouth to catch the shit of a sparrow in the sky.”

Jiang Ning stood under the shade of the only small tree on the edge of the field, stroking her forehead and saying weakly, “Mom, you are so powerful. You can definitely catch it when you open your mouth.”

After speaking, she ran away without waiting for Mother Jiang to get angry.

Jiang Ning returned home, hastily had her lunch, and glanced at the overflowing basin of dirty clothes. Sighing, she resolved to tackle the chore herself. With the farming season in full swing, there was no time to wait for Mother Jiang, who was in the field.

When Mother Jiang returned from her meal and bundled up the remaining rice, she was met with a sight that ignited her fury. The table was cluttered with unwashed dishes and chopsticks, accompanied by the broken thermos bottle from the morning mishap. Enraged, Mother Jiang stormed towards the gate, her voice piercing the air with anger as she shouted, “Jiang Ning, where did you go? Look, I will peel your skin when you come back.”

The scene deeply troubled Mother Jiang. Despite her exhaustion from a day of hard labor, she begrudgingly set about washing the dishes and clearing the debris from the floor. Tears welled in her eyes as she muttered, “Why am I so miserable to have given birth to such an ignorant girl? If I had known she was like this, I would never have given birth to her. She made me angry, but after scolding her a few words to let her go to work, she took a sickle and smashed things.”

Mother Jiang’s heart was heavy with sorrow.

Both of her children came into the world amidst struggle and hardship. To bring them into existence, she endured the trials of hiding in the mountains, facing injustice and hardship at every turn.

Having borne two sons, she saw herself as a significant contributor to the Jiang family’s legacy. Yet, her desire for a daughter burned within her. She envisioned a future where her daughter would assist her sons, support the family’s endeavors, and eventually care for her in her old age.

In her eyes, she had been exceptionally kind to Jiang Ning. In many households, girls were expected to toil in the fields, tend to livestock, and assume household responsibilities from a tender age. 

Yet, Mother Jiang shielded Jiang Ning from such burdens. While her brothers took on outdoor tasks, Jiang Ning was spared from laborious chores. She enjoyed the privilege of studying in school, sheltered from the hardships that many of her peers endured.

In the village, it was customary for girls to join adults in their labor by the age of eleven or twelve. However, Jiang Ning, at fifteen, seemed oblivious to the weight of her family’s responsibilities. With her two brothers pursuing higher education, the burden on the family weighed heavily. Yet, Jiang Ning appeared unaware of the need to share in the family’s workload. Instead of shouldering some of the responsibilities, she focused on her academic pursuits.

Jiang Ning’s behavior mirrored that of a few other girls in the village. Despite completing junior high school or learning basic elementary education, they returned home without aspirations for further learning. Instead, they readily embraced the toils of rural life, unswayed by the allure of education.

The bowls from the previous day remained unwashed, awaiting Mother Jian’s return to wash them. Mother Jian had been working outside for a day, and her waist was aching because of fatigue, and her daughter didn’t even feel sorry for her.

The girls in the other family cared about their mother and were diligent at home. The girl she raised had a heart made of iron.

She put away the dishes and chopsticks resignedly, cleaned the floor, leaving the outer shell of the thermos bottle behind. She would go to town to buy an inner pot later.

Thinking of the smashed thermos bottle, she wiped away tears again.

But soon, she lay on the bed and fell asleep from exhaustion.

The house was very quiet when Jiang Ning came back. Grandpa Jiang and Father Jiang were sleeping in the rice field, and Mother Jiang was probably taking a nap in the house as well.

Seeing that the dishes and chopsticks at home had been washed and the floor tidied up, she silently hung the clothes to dry.

Mother Jiang had always washed the clothes at home, and it was not that she had never asked Jiang Ning to wash them. Jiang Ning started washing and cooking when she was six or seven years old, but Mother Jiang felt that her work was not clean, so she took over the work herself.

Mother Jiang was the kind of person who got things done while cursing and talking and ended up being thankless.

Jiang Ning had been watching Mother Jiang since she was little. When she was still ignorant, she had a vague idea in her heart that when she grew up, she would never be a person like her mother. So she grew up to be a completely opposite person.