Chapter 226: Face and Heart
“Dad! Where does our family get so much meat?” Chen Hong couldn’t help but asked.

“The meat in the cellar? Your brother-in-law took people to the mountains to hunt. They brought back a lot of wild animals in the past winter, including wild boars, roe deer, and blind bears. There is no shortage of meat at home now!” Yue Lei said very proudly.

“My second brother just came back from killing a tiger cub two days ago! The skin he peeled off was more than one meter long!” Jingjing, who was lying in the outer room, heard the conversation inside and suddenly became proud.

“Tiger cub? That thing is very evil! Where is the skin? Take me to see it, I haven’t seen it before!”

When Chen Hong heard Jingjing mention lynx, she immediately became interested.

The supply and marketing cooperatives buy this stuff all year round, and a whole skin can be worth a lot of money.

“Our mother’s hair is done and is hanging in the warehouse! Sister-in-law, let me take you to see it!” Jingjing said, then she took Chen Hong’s hand and walked out.

Soon, Chen Hong followed Jingjing to the warehouse where sundries were stored in the yard. In a place near the north wall where the sun was not shining, a complete large lynx skin was being stretched with wooden strips.

“Wow! This tiger cub is so big!”

Chen Hong was very surprised when she saw the real thing. She had only seen lynx skin once since she was a child. In her impression, it was about the same size as an ordinary dog, but the skin in front of her was at least one or two sizes larger.

“That’s right! My second brother brought brother Xiaotao and the two brothers from the Zhang family to fight back!” Jingjing was very satisfied with her sister-in-law’s surprise and added with some pride.

“Your second brother is really amazing. He can even beat back such a big tiger cub! By the way, Jingjing, what is hanging on the beam? Why haven’t I seen it before?”

“That’s bear gall! Don’t touch it. My second brother said it hasn’t been dried yet. If you go to the supply and marketing cooperative to sell it now, they won’t buy it!”

When Chen Hong heard the word “bear bile”, her heart skipped a beat for no reason.

There are five or six bear gallbladders hanging in a row on the beam. In just a few months, how many bears has my brother-in-law killed?
Bear gall is a valuable thing. Any one of them can equal a year’s salary for the couple and still have some money left over.

If we take into account the bear gall and the tiger cub’s skin, and process them all and sell them to the supply and marketing cooperative, how much would they be worth?

Chen Hong and Yue Shan have been married for more than two years. They are both capable and almost never take leave. They also hold on to money tightly. Even so, all the savings in the family add up to only 600 yuan.

Just this amount of money already made Chen Hong feel quite confident, but when she saw the row of bear gallbladders hanging on the beams, she had strange thoughts in her heart.

The two worked very hard, but all their savings combined were barely enough to buy one of the bear gallbladders.

Is this how much money can be made by hunting in the mountains? This blind bear has killed so many, how many wild boars and the like must have been killed?

“Sister-in-law! What are you thinking about?” At this moment, Jingjing next to her waved her hand in front of Chen Hong.

“Ah, nothing. I’m just a little scared of such a big tiger cub!” Chen Hong came back to her senses.

“Don’t be afraid. My second brother has already smashed his head with a gun. What are you afraid of? The piece of front leg meat in the room is the meat of the tiger cub. Let mom cook it for you and my brother at noon!”

“Jingjing, does your second brother kill many other mountain animals?”

“A lot! Wild boars, roe deer, badgers, rabbits, pheasants. Flying dragons, sand chickens! We can catch them all!
I just took some meat from the cellar, including a piece of bear meat and a piece of wild boar ribs! Let mom cook it, it’s delicious! We eat it often at home, and my eldest brother just said that I have gained weight! ! “

Hearing this, Chen Hong felt even more complicated.

She and Yue Shan met through a matchmaker. The reason she fell in love with Yue Shan, besides his good looks and temperament, was that Yue Shan took over her second uncle’s job and became a formal worker in the city.

Although she became the daughter-in-law of Yue’s family, Chen Hong actually looked down on her husband’s family from the bottom of her heart.

My parents-in-law are farmers, and together with my brother-in-law and sister, the whole family relies on farming in the brigade to make a living, which is completely different from working in the city.

Chen Hong is a very snobbish person at heart. She looks down on her parents-in-law’s family, so all her behaviors are a bit excessive. Even when her husband goes back to his hometown to buy something, she tightens the budget.

In her opinion, it is a matter of losing as much as you spend, with no reward at all. Moreover, her husband is too close to his original family, and in the future, his younger brother will definitely have to pay for a series of things such as getting married and building a house.

It’s not a good deal no matter how you look at it.

As for Yue Shan, ever since he married Chen Hong, he looks glamorous to outsiders, but in fact, his life is extremely depressing.

His parents were born into a peasant family. They had no money and no skills. It was already good enough for them to help him get married and settle down in the city. It was impossible for them to give him any more useful help. In comparison, he had many burdens.

Chen Hong is snobbish and has a very strong personality. She holds on to the family’s money tightly, so it is extremely difficult for Yue Shan to save some money to support his family back home.

My father-in-law’s family are all city dwellers. He used his connections to transfer the couple to more comfortable jobs, and they provide a lot of help to the couple in their daily lives.

This also made Yue Shan’s status in the family even more humble.

In his previous life, after Yue Lei passed away, Yue Shan discussed with his wife about providing financial support to the family.

But Chen Hong always had the same expression when talking about money. She felt that her brother-in-law and mother-in-law were bottomless pits that could never be filled with money, so she always acted very coldly.

Even the dozen yuan that Yue Shan gave Yue Feng when he got married in his previous life was borrowed from his co-workers, and Chen Hong had no idea about it at all.

When the second month’s salary was paid, the matter could no longer be covered up. After Chen Hong found out, she cried, made a fuss, and even threatened to commit suicide with Yue Shan, and she almost got a divorce.

In this day and age, divorce is not such an easy matter. Whether in the village or in the city, there are many families living in a mess, but only a few can take the step of divorce. Yue Shan finally compromised.

In the next few years, Yue Feng’s performance was almost consistent with Chen Hong’s original judgment. After the contract responsibility system was implemented, he lived a poor life guarding the few acres of land he was allocated. He could only go hunting in the mountains in winter to supplement the family income.

Later on, Yue Feng gave up on himself because of his wife’s infertility, which made him even more despised by his eldest brother and sister-in-law.

What’s there to help a bad guy who drinks and gambles all day? The eldest brother Yue Shan’s attitude towards his younger brother was subtly influenced by his wife, and he also changed and accepted the reality.

In the winter solstice of 80 in the previous life, Chen Hong and Yue Shan did not have dinner at home. They took some things home and left that day at around four o’clock in the afternoon.

But today, after seeing so many valuable “goods” in her husband’s house, Chen Hong immediately changed her expression.

“The meat in the room should be almost melted. We can’t let mom do it alone. I’ll go and help. Come on, Jingjing, let’s go back to the north room!”

Jingjing nodded: “Okay, let’s go to work too! Mom went to the store at the entrance of the village to buy canned food and will be back soon!” Soon, the two of them entered the house, and then Chen Hong put on an apron and immediately got busy.

After a while, Meng Yulan came in carrying canned yellow croaker and luncheon meat bought from the canteen. She was also surprised to see Chen Hong busy in front of the stove wearing an apron.

My eldest son’s wife has never cooked in her hometown since she got married. Today, the sun rose from the west.

“Xiao Hong, just put it there, I’ll do it!”

“No need, Mom. Just help out a little bit! When will Xiaofeng come back? Yue Shan and I discussed this when we came here. I will stay at home with you and Dad tonight to celebrate the winter solstice, and go back early tomorrow morning!”

“Xiao Feng said that if everything goes well, he will be back today! It would be nice to have dinner at home tonight. After lunch, we will make dumplings!”

Meng Yulan was quite surprised by the change in her eldest daughter-in-law’s attitude, but as a parent, she was still very happy.

What is the purpose of having children, raising them to adulthood and helping them to start their own families and careers?
It’s all for this meal of dumplings!

Now that the eldest daughter-in-law has come around, Meng Yulan is naturally very happy.

The daughter-in-law and the mother-in-law thawed the frozen meat, processed it, and worked hard in the kitchen, and soon prepared lunch.

On the other side, in the east room, Yue Lei chatted with his son about his recent situation for a while, inquired about his son’s work and life in the city, and talked about how Yue Feng at home was busy hunting to make money. As the topic deepened, the father-son relationship, which was a bit stiff at first, gradually eased.

In fact, humans are very realistic and advanced animals. The blood relationship between father and son is real, and the considerations and weighings of various things are also real. The two are not contradictory.

There is a good saying that if you want to keep any relationship fresh, you need to manage it with care.

This is true even between parents and children.

If you don’t believe it, look around you. Do the children who are sweet-mouthed get more benefits? Do the children who are dull and not good at speaking get the least support from their parents compared to their other siblings?
Ever since the eldest son took over the family business and moved to the city to get married, he has been visiting the family less and less, and only has to go home during the holidays. Can you say that Yue Lei can’t see the perfunctory and formalistic nature of this?

Of course it can be seen, but at that time, Yue Lei could not afford to give money to his children, and he had almost no other support.

Even if he has complaints in his heart, the child has grown up and started a family. As an old father, what can Yue Lei do?

But things are different now. Ever since the second son became smart, our family’s life has been getting better and better. We have everything we need to eat and drink. Every now and then, my son goes to the city to sell game, and he earns an income that ordinary people would be jealous of.

They are all biological sons. When the performance of the eldest son is compared with that of the second son Yue Feng, the old father’s mentality naturally changes.

Even Yue Lei himself didn’t know when this change in mentality began.

……

Before we knew it, it was time for lunch. Today’s lunch at the Yue family was extremely sumptuous.

Stir-fried bear leg with peppers, braised spareribs, lynx leg braised in sauce, plus a plate of luncheon meat, a can of yellow croaker, and finally a sweet egg drop soup.

This standard is so good that even if the son and daughter-in-law come home for dinner, there is nothing wrong with the dishes.

During lunch, Chen Hong was also paying attention to the performance of the family members.

Chen Hong and Yue Shan lived in their own small home, and they could not say that they would see meat when cooking every day. Therefore, when Yue Shan ate lunch, it was really not vague at all. His chopsticks almost smoked as he swung them, and the food was so delicious.

In comparison, my parents-in-law were much more polite when eating. No matter whether they were eating meat or canned food, they ate very calmly. Even Jingjing, the youngest and most greedy girl, only ate a few more bites of the canned yellow croaker, which she usually ate little. As for the few meat dishes on the table, the little girl was not in a hurry at all.

Smart people can see a lot of problems from small details. Just from this lunch, Chen Hong knew that Jingjing did not lie to her and what she said was true.

Life in my hometown has gotten better and we can eat meat every day!

A family dinner was finished in this atmosphere of loving father and filial son. Chen Hong was very considerate and helped her mother-in-law to clean up the table. After finishing the work, she asked her mother-in-law about making things with the sewing machine. In a word, the emotional value was maximized.

By around three o’clock in the afternoon, the meat filling for the dumplings was ready. The meat used this time was a piece of roe deer hind leg meat left over from the family. The group chatted and laughed as they wrapped the three-lid dumplings. By the time they had finished, it was almost dark.

Meng Yulan went to the entrance of the alley to see her son again and again, but Yue Feng and the others had set out a little late, so they had not come down the mountain yet.

Under normal circumstances, the eldest son and daughter-in-law would come back and spend the winter solstice at home eating dumplings. How could they wait for the second son who had not returned home at dinner time?

But today, Chen Hong was particularly considerate and didn’t urge her at all from beginning to end. Several times, the mother-in-law said that we should eat first, but she stopped her and insisted that they had to wait until the brother-in-law came back before eating.

It was 7:15 in the evening and the sky was completely dark. The sporadic firecrackers in the village for the winter solstice had already passed, but Yue Feng’s dumplings were still not in the pot.

“Let’s wait until 7:30. If the second boy doesn’t come back, we’ll eat first!” Yue Lei, the head of the family, made the final decision.

Less than two minutes after the words were spoken, the four dogs in the family came back from the vanguard. After entering the yard, they began to sniff everywhere with happy expressions.

“The dog is back, they should have gone into the village too!” Mom said with certainty.

“Come on, Yueshan, let’s go to the entrance of the alley and wait for Xiaofeng!” Chen Hong said, pulling her husband’s sleeve.

“Let’s go!” Although Yue Shan was surprised by his wife’s change of attitude, he hadn’t seen his brother for several months. He responded and the two of them walked towards the entrance of the alley.

Soon, a group of four people were seen returning fully armed.

Yue Feng had an eagle on his hand and two guns on his shoulders, Xiao Tao was dragging a sled, and the brothers Xiaowen and Xiaowu were carrying a pole-like wooden stick on their shoulders, with a large animal whose appearance could not be seen hanging upside down on the stick.

“Xiao Feng?” Yue Shan shouted from a distance.

Yue Feng, who was walking home in silence, looked up when he heard his elder brother’s noise.

What happened? My elder brother and his wife came home for the winter solstice, but they didn’t leave at night?
Three chapters with 10000 words have been updated, please continue to vote!

In addition, are there any godfathers who have read my book through QQ Reading, please help me give my book a five-star rating. The rating is a bit low, I want it to be higher, please help me!



(End of this chapter)