1968: At the beginning, the beautiful sister-in-law came to borrow food! Chapter 032

“Sizzzzzle!”

While the women were chatting and laughing, making the quilts, Li Yunfeng had almost finished roasting the ducks.

He watched as the duck skin changed color, glistening with oil. Li Yunfeng went to the outer room and brought out a basin, placing the roasted duck inside.

“Come, come, come, quickly try some!”

“See how my cooking is?”

“It’s been a while since I roasted a duck, I wonder if I’m out of practice!”

Li Yunfeng took out a cleaver, cut up one duck, and distributed it to everyone to eat.

“Mm, delicious, very good.”

“The duck meat is tasty, but the skin is even better.”

After a couple of bites, the old lady laughed heartily and gave Li Yunfeng a thumbs-up.

“I’ll try some too!”

“It’s just, we don’t have pancakes or sweet bean paste this time.”

“Next time if we roast duck again, we should make the pancakes beforehand!”

“It’s a shame we don’t have glass at home; using glass to roll out dough makes it very thin!”

“Perfect for wrapping with cucumber sticks and shredded green onions.”

After a couple of bites, Li Yunfeng suddenly remembered that glass could be used to roll out dough. In his previous life, his neighbor’s sister-in-law had done it that way.

At that time, Li Yunfeng had helped out a lot, day and night. That sister-in-law was even called the “Pancake Beauty.” Every day, she set up a stall in front of the train station, selling shredded potato pancakes, coarse grain porridge, salted duck eggs, and tea eggs.

“Old lady, later, when you go home, take another one back with you.”

“Give this one to Sister Shuhua, you two sisters have helped our family a lot!”

“We’ll just eat the rest directly, if you want more, I’ll buy some next time!”

In one afternoon, several nimble-fingered women helped Li Yunfeng make two quilts. The remaining fabric and cotton were enough to make a cotton-padded coat.

However, it was getting too late, and there were no lights here. The firelight from the fireplace was too dim; continuing to work like this would ruin their eyes.

“Here, Sister Shuhua, take this.”

“Old lady, you take this!”

Holding the basin, Li Yunfeng divided the roasted ducks and returned home. The sky outside had not completely darkened yet.

The women refused to eat at Li Yunfeng’s house, no matter what he said. The rations in those years were simply too scarce.

For example, their Red Flag Commune usually distributed 70% of the grain each month. The rest could only be distributed as grain, money, and tickets based on work points.

By the end of the year, not much was saved, and if the harvest was poor, they would even owe money to the production team.

“Husband, what are we eating tonight?”

After seeing them off, Natasha folded the quilts and placed them in the kangqin (a cabinet built into the kang bed). She then got up and asked Li Yunfeng.

“Tonight?”

“We have some frozen cabbage outside; you can bring it in and stir-fry it twice with boiling water.”

“Then make some egg sauce, we still have some green onions for dipping. After that, let’s make a stew of pickled cabbage, pork belly, and vermicelli. That should be enough for the three of us.”

While Li Yunfeng and the others were discussing what to eat, Shuhua returned home, carrying Li Yunfeng’s basin.

“Went to see your lover again?”

As soon as Shuhua entered the room, her husband looked at her with a sarcastic tone.

“That’s right, I went to see my lover.”

“Look, how good my lover is, he even gave me a roasted duck.”

“I’ve been married to your family for so long, when have you ever let me eat roasted duck?”

“Besides, you’re obviously not going to make it, I’m going to leave an heir for your family!”

Shuhua didn’t indulge her paralyzed husband. Initially, she hadn’t thought of borrowing a seed from Li Yunfeng.

It was just that her husband was too much; he actually wanted her to find someone to “pull the cart” for their family. What did that mean?

It meant building another kang bed in their house. Then Shuhua would find a live-in son-in-law. This son-in-law would then earn money outside to support their family. Shuhua, in turn, would have to bear children for this live-in son-in-law.

Marrying him was already a last resort for Shuhua; she had married him because she couldn’t survive otherwise. To make Shuhua find someone to “pull the cart” was something she would never agree to, even if it killed her.

Fortunately, her husband wasn’t going to live much longer, perhaps only three or four days. Now, speaking was already difficult for him, and he was experiencing a brief resurgence of vitality before death. Shuhua no longer humored him.

In those days, those who would come to “pull the cart” were either relatively close relatives or old bachelors who simply couldn’t find a wife.

Back then, even the handsome young man from ten miles around, Li Yunlong, couldn’t manage to “pull the cart” successfully. In the end, he had no choice but to go to war, and later, it was said he became the commander of an independent regiment.

“What’s wrong?”

“You’re about to die, and you still care if I’m looking for a lover?”

“I’m telling you, my lover is much more capable than you.”

“Not only is he an educated youth from Sijiu City.”

“His family is also wealthy, and most importantly, he’s better looking than you.”

“I’ve had enough of your family; look at your brothers.”

“Are they really your brothers? They stare at me all day long.”

“And your parents, they even want me to marry your younger brother after you die.”

“What? Am I your family’s plaything? You die, and I still have to serve your younger brother.”

“It’s fine now, I’m going to be someone’s concubine. No choice, who told you you weren’t good enough?”

“Not only will my life start to be comfortable, but I’ll also be able to go to Sijiu City with him in the future.”

Shuhua was truly fed up with their family; their ideas were simply too bizarre. Her two older brothers would constantly stare at her, and even privately told her that once her husband was gone, if she stayed with them, they could give her food and such.

His younger brother even begged his parents to let him marry his sister-in-law after his brother died.

“You don’t know yet, do you?”

“You, you’re not even dead yet, and your two brothers are already trying to have an affair with me.”

“And your younger brother is thinking about how to marry me, his sister-in-law.”

“When you die, I’ll be the only one to handle your funeral arrangements. Who in your family will care about you?”

As Shuhua spoke, she sat in front of her husband and ate a duck leg.

“You!”

“You!”

“You slut!”

Shuhua’s husband heard her words, which were like a machine gun. Every word was like a knife piercing his heart.

Suddenly, he couldn’t catch his breath and just let out a gasp, then passed away directly.

“Dead?”

“Is that all you’ve got?”

Looking at her completely breathless husband, Shuhua scoffed, then couldn’t help but sigh. After all, they had lived together for so long. It was impossible for Shuhua to have absolutely no feelings.

But when she thought of her family’s absurd actions, Shuhua’s last bit of emotion vanished. After all, her family, relying on their numbers, had both tried to make Shuhua have an affair and marry her to her brothers.

Yes, in those days, it was common for a woman to marry her husband’s younger brother if her husband died, to prevent the children from suffering. But she didn’t even have children yet.

And for such matters, shouldn’t they discuss it with her, the person involved? Although marriage at that time was based on parental consent and matchmaker’s words, these weren’t her parents; they were her in-laws!