Chapter 34: Shen Lin is disappointed with his grandparents
”Look, that ugly Su Wan actually cares about him a lot and cooked a huge table of food for him, hahaha.”
Except for Shen San, everyone else’s focus was on the fact that Su Wan asked Old Man Shen to pay for the meal, but Shen San’s focus was on Su Wan.
Shen San is only a few months older than Shen Lin. Since childhood, he has not been as good at work as Shen Lin. Later, he and Shen Lin went to school together. Shen Lin always got the first place, while he was among the last few.
At that time, he disliked Shen Lin in every way.
Later, Shen Lao Da found out that his son Shen San was not good at studying, so he stopped him. When Shen San left the school, the teacher said that the person most likely to pass the imperial examination was Shen Lin.
But later on, Shen Lin’s family became poor, so Shen Lin had to drop out of school. In the end, he and Shen San ended up in the same place, which made Shen San feel very relieved.
There was another thing that made Shen San feel uncomfortable. In the past, the girls in the village all wanted to talk to Shen Lin. He took the initiative to talk to those girls, but they ignored him. At that time, he resented Shen Lin in his heart.
Now that Shen Lin has brought back that ugly Su Wan, it seems like it would be a good idea for Shen Lin to marry Su Wan in the future.
Shen San thought to himself, what’s the use even if Shen Lin is better than him in every way, in the end he is still poor and destitute, and can only marry an ugly and stupid woman.
~~~~~~
Su Wan got up before dawn the next morning. During the past two days living in the Shen family, Su Wan felt that she slept more soundly than ever before.
Su Wan got up so early because she was going to make breakfast for the Shen family. It was the autumn harvest season. In addition to working in the fields every day, Shen Lin also had to cook for the family. Naturally, his body couldn’t take it. Su Wan naturally couldn’t let Shen Lin exhaust himself.
Su Wan pushed open the door and saw a wardrobe, a table and a stool at the door. They were all newly made carpentry work.
The cabinets, tables and chairs were all made very neatly, with smooth wooden boards painted with tung oil, making them mirror-smooth. Su Wan walked closer to take a closer look and found that there was not even a single burr on the wooden boards. The joints between the pieces of furniture were all made using Yun’s method, making them very solid, without the need for any glue at all.
This is the carpentry work that Shen Lin started yesterday. When Su Wan went to bed last night, these furniture were still a pile of wooden boards. She didn’t know whether Shen Lin did it while staying up late at night or got up early in the morning.
In any case, it must be said that Shen Lin is indeed a very hardworking person, and the work he does is really beautiful.
These tables and chairs are real solid wood furniture. Although there are no carvings on the outside like the furniture in rich people’s homes, they still have a heavy texture.
Su Wan knew that these furniture were made for her by Shen Lin. Now there was only a bed in the room where Su Wan slept, and no other furniture. Shen Lin made a cabinet, a table and a chair. For Su Wan, these were completely enough.
Su Wan thought back to the plot in the book, but couldn’t remember when Shen Lin started to like Su Wan. In the book, after Su Wan was divorced and kicked out by Wang Luosheng, it was Shen Lin, who had become a wealthy businessman, who rescued her from despair. Even though Shen Lin had no shortage of women around him at that time, Shen Lin still made her his wife.
She wondered if Shen Lin has already started to like the original owner at this moment.
Su Wan walked into the kitchen. Sure enough, Shen Lin had already started working in front of the stove. A pot of water was boiling in the pot, and the kitchen was filled with mist. Shen Lin poured water into the basin of coarse grains. Su Wan knew at a glance that Shen Lin did not use the grains she bought.
The Shen family didn’t eat breakfast before, so Su Wan guessed that Shen Lin made dry food for lunch.
Su Wan said: “Brother Shen, let me cook for you from now on.”
Shen Lin waved his hand: “You don’t have to do it.”
Su Wan asked: “Brother Shen, what are those pieces of furniture?”
Shen Lin mixed the coarse grains in the basin and said, “Let them dry in the sun for a few days, then you can move them to your room and use them.”
Su Wan said: “Look, the Shen family took me in, fed me, and made furniture for me. How can I feel comfortable if I don’t do anything? If you let me do some work, I will feel more at ease.”
Shen Lin said: “I ate your rice and meat yesterday, and my mother also took your cloth. I made furniture for you, which is nothing.”
Su Wan secretly cursed Shen Lin for being an idiot. She had thought that he had already started to like her, but now she realized that he was very clear about the difference.
But Shen Lin naturally didn’t listen to all these reasons. Su Wan changed to a pitiful expression: “Brother Shen, if you don’t let me help with anything, then I will be uncomfortable staying here.”
“If I’m not comfortable, I have to leave the Shen family.”
”I can rent a house from someone else, but think about it, I’m a little girl, what if I rent a house by myself and there are bad people? And I’ll be too lonely.”
Shen Lin stopped what he was doing and fell into deep thought.
The reason why he didn’t let Su Wan help with the work was because he knew that Su Wan did a lot of work in the Wang family. If Su Wan treated him like he did in the Wang family, then wouldn’t his family become as mean as the Wang family?
Su Wan continued, “So, I help you with some work and occasionally buy some food and daily necessities for the family, and you let me live here and protect me from being bullied by bad people. In addition, Aunt Shen and Yaya also keep me company, so we don’t owe each other anything.”
”If I want your help, I have to feel at ease.”
This is the truth. Su Wan came to the Shen family to help Shen Lin. Of course, she needed Shen Lin’s help in many areas.
Shen Lin thought for a moment and said, “If you really want to do some work, then do some, but do the light work. Let me do the dirty and heavy work.”
Sure enough, Shen Lin is a very responsible person. Being with him makes people feel at ease. He will think about everything and arrange everything in advance, taking responsibility for things so that people around him don’t worry too much.
For example, Wang Luosheng is selfish. Su Wan even feels that Wang Luosheng can’t handle anything else except studying.
As a man, it is useless to just have a good-looking face and be able to read a few pedantic poems. A real man is one who can take responsibility.
Su Wan then smiled: “Then let me cook from now on. Anyway, I have Yaya to help me, so it’s not too tiring.”
Su Wan walked forward, took the basin from Shen Lin, and said, “Let me make breakfast.”
Su Wan knew what Shen Lin was thinking. The Shen family didn’t eat breakfast. Su Wan added, “We have to eat in the morning from now on. Yaya is growing up, and Auntie also needs to nourish her body. She can’t not eat.”
If it was just mentioned that eating breakfast was for Shen Lin’s own good, Shen Lin might refuse. But if it was mentioned about Shen Yaya and Auntie, then Shen Lin couldn’t refuse.
”Okay, but you don’t have to make mine.” Sure enough, Shen Lin still suggested that he would not eat it.
Su Wan poured the mixed grains onto the chopping board and said, “If you ruin your health, who will earn money for Auntie to buy medicine, and who will take care of Yaya?”
Shen Lin: “…”
Su Wan: “Okay, don’t stand here. The kitchen is too small and I can’t get way if you stand here.”
Shen Lin had no choice but to turn around and leave.
Shen Yaya came in with sleepy eyes, wanting to help Su Wan with the work. Su Wan told Shen Yaya that if she was really sleepy, she could take a nap for a while, as children cannot lack sleep, otherwise they will not grow tall.
Shen Yaya said: “Mom said that we can’t let Sister Su Wan work alone, I must help.”
Su Wan recalled that when she was in the Wang family, no matter what she did, Mrs Wang and Wang Luoxue would never help Su Wan in the slightest. All the work, no matter whether it was rough work, fine work, light work or heavy work, was done by Su Wan alone.
This is the difference between the Shen family and the Wang family. Only the people of the Shen family can be called family members, while the Wang family is a family of vampires.
Su Wan touched Shen Yaya’s head and said, “There are many times when I need your help, but not so early.”
Shen Yaya didn’t listen either. She sat in front of the stove and helped Su Wan light the fire.
Su Wan divided the whole grains into small pieces, rolled them into long pancakes, and steamed them in a pot. Then she beat a few eggs he bought yesterday and fried them, and asked Shen Yaya to pick some vegetable leaves in the backyard, and washed the bean curd skin and mixed them with the sauce.
Su Wan also cooked a pot of millet porridge.
Su Wan made a dish of coarse grains and vegetables. After it was done, Su Wan called Shen Lin, Shen Yaya and Mrs Shen to eat together.
It is still a little chilly in the autumn mornings, but once you drink the warm millet porridge, you will feel warm all over.
Shen Lin ate the whole grain vegetable pancake made by Su Wan and drank the porridge. He felt that his whole body was stronger than before.
Seeing Shen Lin finished eating, Su Wan said, “Don’t worry, just go out and work. I’ll clean up the dishes. I’ve got some water on the drying rack for you. You can take it to the field and drink it.”
In the past, Shen Lin would prepare water for himself after dinner, but today, Su Wan had already prepared water for Shen Lin when she boiled the water.
”Thank you.” Shen Lin said in a muffled voice, and then added: “I will be in the field at noon and will not be back, so you don’t have to cook for me.”
Su Wan tried to convince Shen Lin to let her cook by both playing the sympathetic role and trying to reason with him. Shen Lin agreed, but now Shen Lin says he doesn’t want to eat. It doesn’t mean he doesn’t want her to cook, but that he doesn’t want to eat.
Su Wan knew very well that Shen Lin didn’t come back for lunch because he had already eaten in the morning. He was really good at calculating.
Shen Lin carried the basket and picked up the sickle and went to the field.
Shen Lin planted eight acres of corn. After going to the fields, he had to first pick the corn and pile it on the ground, and then carry it to the threshing ground in baskets.
When it was almost sunset in the afternoon, he would cut down the corn stalks one by one and carry them to the woodshed at home.
In fact, picking corn is not the most tiring part. The most tiring part is carrying the corn back to the yard in baskets and carrying the corn stalks back.
The threshing grounds of each family in Qingshi Village are connected to one place, and each family has a small area to dry the grain. There are people who take turns to guard the threshing ground, so no one has to worry about someone’s harvested grain being lost.
The villagers would not be concerned about the millet of other people’s homes. After all, if I steal from your home and you steal from mine, isn’t that just a waste of time?
Millet must never be stolen. This is a commonly accepted rule. If someone steals someone else’s millet and is found out, he will no longer be able to live a good life.
The corn needs to be dried in the threshing floor for a few days, and then the corn kernels are beaten off with wooden sticks before they can be sold.
Shen Lin, wearing patched clothes, carried the corn to the threshing ground again and again. In the threshing ground, every family was busy, but other threshing grounds were much more lively than Shen Lin’s threshing ground.
Other families would go out together as a whole, with the son picking corn in the field and the father carrying baskets of corn to the threshing ground.
Shen Lin had to pick the corn by himself and then carry it to the threshing ground by himself.
When Shen Laoer was around, he and Shen Lin had the same division of labor. After Shen Laoer left, all these jobs became Shen Lin’s alone.
The villagers in the threshing ground sighed as they looked at the lonely Shen Lin.
The threshing ground of Shen Lao Da’s family and Shen Lin’s family were not far from each other. Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen would help Shen Lao Da with his work. Shen San was also at the threshing ground, but he didn’t work much. After working for a while, he would stroll around and chat with the laborers from various families.
At noon, the young men from each family gathered at the threshing ground. During the autumn harvest, the men had their lunch at the threshing ground. The mothers of other families prepared meals at home and brought them to the threshing ground for the working men and their sons at mealtime. This saved the men the time of going back and forth on the road. Instead, they could spend their time pounding corn at the threshing ground.
Pounding corn is much easier than breaking it, and rubbing it is basically like a rest.
But on weekdays, Shen Lin had to go back to cook lunch after finishing his work, and did not eat in the threshing ground.
Shen Lin had already eaten in the morning today, so he didn’t plan to have lunch. With the time to eat, he was able to stay in the threshing ground and rub a lot of corn.
In the past few days, Shen Lin was busy picking and carrying corn. Today, Shen Lin didn’t have to go back to cook and eat, so he could spare some time to pound the corn.
At noon, the women of each family brought meals to the threshing ground. The meals of the country people were very simple, with various fried or stewed vegetable leaves, accompanied by coarse grain steamed bread or white flour steamed bread. Some people even ate coarse grains or white rice.
Everyone was eating, but Shen Lin was the only one who lowered his head and rubbed the corn kernels off.
Suddenly, a figure came in front of Shen Lin. Shen Lin didn’t look up and continued to rub the corn.
”Shen Lin, why are you rubbing the corn?” The one with the uncouth tone was Shen San.
Shen San felt very ashamed when he was picked up and thrown to the ground by Shen Lin that day. Today, his grandparents were also in the field, and Shen Lin would not do anything to him, so Shen San thought about revenge.
Shen Lin did not answer Shen San. According to Shen Lin’s experience, Shen San was like a dog-skin plaster. Once you got it on him, you couldn’t get rid of it. Ignoring him was the best way.
Shen San continued, “You have time to rub corn for yourself, why don’t you go over and rub some corn for my family? You can see how busy your uncle is at home.”
Shen Lin ignored Shen San.
Shen San continued, “Grandpa and grandma are so old, but they are still working hard in the field. Look at grandpa’s back, it’s so hunched, but you don’t feel sorry for him, and you don’t even say you want to help grandpa and grandma with some work.”
Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen gave most of their land to Shen Lao Da, and only kept a few acres for themselves. They planted wheat, which was harvested in the summer. Now Old Woman Shen and Old Man Shen are completely helping Shen Lao Da with his work.
Shen Lao Da has three sons. The first two are studying in school and have no time to do farm work. However, with the help of Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen, they can still do the work.
The reason why Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen only helped Boss Shen with his work but ignored Shen Lin and was not talked about by everyone was that the Shen family had two scholars to support. It was not easy for an ordinary family to support one, and since the Shen family had two, it was natural for Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen to help.
As for Shen Lin, Shen Lin always works fast, following Shen Laoer, and it seems that he doesn’t need any help from anyone. Sometimes Shen Lin is even called over to help Shen Lao Da’s family with work.
Shen San said that he wanted Shen Lin to help Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen with their work, but in fact he was helping their family with their work.
Shen Lin still didn’t say anything. The best way to treat Shen San was to ignore him.
Shen San punched his fist, a little angry, and his voice became louder: “How can you be so unfilial and not care about the health of your grandparents at all.”
Everyone in the grain field looked at Shen Lin and Shen San.
Shen Lin’s unfilial behavior is a common place topic. However, the autumn harvest is so boring that it would be more fun if there were something exciting to watch.
Everyone’s attention was on Shen Lin. In fact, everyone could see clearly in their hearts that Shen Lin was not unfilial. It was normal for Shen Lin not to be willing to take away his house by Old Woman Shen and Old Man Shen.
Although they didn’t really think Shen Lin was unfilial, it was true that they looked down on him. Shen Lin’s family used to be the richest family in the village, but now they are indeed the poorest and most destitute.
Being poor will make people look down upon you, and going from rich to poor will make people look down upon you even more.
But at this moment, someone spoke up: “Shen San, you said Shen Lin didn’t help your grandparents with their work, but you don’t help either, you are the unfilial one.”
It was a voice coming from the Yang family’s threshing ground not far from Shen Lin’s threshing ground. It was Yang Wu. The Yang family had many brothers. Although they were poor and looked down upon, they had many brothers and few people would take the initiative to provoke the Yang family.
The villagers were easily led astray by their own discussions. When they heard what Yang Wu said, they also started talking about Shen San.
”That’s right. Although Shen Lin didn’t help Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen with their work, it was because he was too busy.”
”Shen Lin works alone, and Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen don’t even bother to help Shen Lin. I’m starting to suspect that Shen Lao Er is not Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen’s biological son.”
”You know what, it’s really possible that Second Shen is not Old Man Shen’s biological son. Think about it, Old Man Shen has been loving First Shen like crazy over the years, but when it comes to Second Shen, he lets Second Shen do all the work.”
”That’s right, when I think about it, Shen Lao Er and Shen Lin don’t look like Old Man Shen.”
Of course, the villagers were all whispering when they said this. If someone heard them talking about other people’s blood relationships, it would be a big deal. If they reported it to the government, the government would rule that the person who made the talk was wrong.
When Shen San heard this, he was surprised. Originally he was the one accusing Shen Lin of not helping his grandparents with work, but now he is the one who is saying that he doesn’t work.
Everyone in the village knew that he was in poor health and couldn’t work.
Shen San was unwilling to suffer any loss, so he called in three young men from the same village who were hanging out with him and causing trouble everywhere.
Birds of a same feather flock together. These guys are all idle and shameless people.
Shen San’s three good friends also came over, and Shen San accused Shen Lin in public.
These three people also accused Shen Lin of being unfilial. Regardless of whether he was unfilial or not, the feeling of being superior and accusing others was pleasant.
Old Woman Shen and Old Man Shen were eating the chicken brought by Eldest’s wife while watching Shen San and his brothers teach Shen Lin a lesson. Old Man Shen was angry that Su Wan took a hundred coins from them and blamed Shen Lin for the money he got from selling his crops.
Old man Shen chewed a chicken leg and said, “Our little third grandson is so impressive. Look at his brothers. They do whatever he says.”
The Old Woman Shen hurriedly added a bowl of water to old man Shen and said, “That’s right. Although our little third grandson son didn’t study in the same academy as his elder and second brothers, he is a capable man. He will definitely bring honor to our Shen family in the future.”
Shen San’s brothers continued to accuse Shen Lin of being unfilial. Anyway, if a person’s bad reputation spreads, anyone can blame him in the future.
As long as Shen Lin doesn’t help the Shen family with work, he can’t wash his hands. In fact, Shen Lin has no time to help the Shen family, and everyone knows it in their hearts, but they just don’t say it.
Some honest and kindhearted villagers could not stand it, but they could not speak for Shen Lin. Most of these people were good-tempered. If they spoke for Shen Lin, they would inevitably offend the two ruffians, Old Man Shen and Old Woman Shen.
After all, it was someone else’s family’s business, so it was better not to meddle. Farmers should just plant crops honestly. Everyone should take care of their own business and not worry about other people’s troubles.
Yang Wu wanted to say something more, but Old Man Yang stopped him: “Alas, it’s better for our family to avoid trouble.”
Shen San and his three brothers, Zhang Ergou, Li Si and Wang Chuan, were talking and the topic came to Su Wan.
Zhang Ergou said, “I heard from your third brother that you don’t have money to honor your grandparents, but you have money to pay for the medicine for the girl. You are a good boy, and you quite know how to cherish beauty.”
Shen San laughed loudly, holding his stomach and said, “Er Gouzi, you really know how to use words. What did you say just now? Cherish the beauty, what beauty, what beauty? Haven’t you seen Su Wan? Her face is as dark as Bao Gong, a female Bao Gong, hahaha.”
Li Si also said: “A few months ago, I ran into Su Wan on the road again. My goodness, I thought she was a beggar who was going to our Qingshi Village to beg for food.”
Wang Chuan also said: “In fact, I think that it doesn’t matter if a woman is a little ugly. The key is that she should be virtuous, hardworking, and frugal. You spent seven taels to pick Su Wan up, but does she know how to do these things? If a girl can’t do delicate work and be frugal, what’s the difference between her and a man?”
Shen Lin raised his head, his eyes full of sharpness: “It is not manly to talk about young ladies. If you say one more word about Miss Su…”
”Hey, you are still protecting that ugly girl.” Shen San interrupted Shen Lin with a teasing look.
”Just like this.” Shen Lin said this and opened his palm. In his hand was a corn cob. Originally, there was a core inside. When Shen Lin squeezed it, the core broke and the corn kernels fell from the core. Shen Lin tilted his palm, and the corn kernels and broken cores fell one by one like sand.
