09/eng_cont/i_0029.txt

Chapter 29 Tian Manlan.

However, Tian Sisi knew that Tian Manlan was still very lucky. Although the man she married was unreliable, the three sons she gave birth to were all promising. Two postdocs and one doctor later settled in the United States and took Tian Manlan with them. Shou Jizu was not very lucky and did not live until his third son became promising. It seemed that something happened. It should have happened in the past ten years, but Tian Sisi couldn't remember the specific year.

In addition, Tian Manlan also has a large property, which is a large grove of torreya trees that was given to Shou Jizu when the family was contracted and divided. The torreya trees are a major specialty of Huangkeng Village and can only be grown in this area. In later generations, this kind of dried fruit was very popular, selling for nearly 200 yuan per pound. People in Huangkeng Village also made a fortune by planting torreya trees, and every household bought a car and a house.

But now that everyone has nothing to eat, torreyas are no longer rare. At most, they can make some for their children as snacks or give them to relatives for a taste. Tian Sisi’s family has a lot of fried torreyas sent by Tian Manlan, which tastes very good. In addition to torreyas, Huangkeng Village also has many tea trees and moso bamboos on the mountains. These two can be exchanged for money, and people from the town purchasing station often come to buy them.

For this reason, when Shou Jizu's parents separated, they divided the money-exchangeable tea mountains and bamboo mountains between their eldest and youngest sons, and gave the least valuable torreya forest to their second son. Shou Jizu never worked and was too lazy to care about these things, so he agreed to this division. Tian Manlan knew it well, but she was a soft-tempered person, so she didn't dare to resist, so she suffered the loss of being dumb.

However, this torreya grove became popular in the late 1990s. Shou Jizu's eldest brother and younger brother wanted to take the torreya grove back. However, although Shou Jizu was gone at that time, Tian Manlan's three sons had great prospects. Although they looked down on the profits of this torreya grove, they were not willing to take advantage of their uncle and uncle, so they asked Tian Manyin, his second uncle, to help take care of it, and all the profits went to Tian Manyin.

Tian Sisi and Tian Xinhua had just entered the village when they saw a group of children blocking three children and beating them. The eldest one had the two younger ones under his body and his hands protecting his head, and fists like raindrops fell on him. However, this child was very strong and did not say a word. He stared at the children who were beating him, as if he wanted to remember all the people who beat him.

When Tian Xinhua saw the children's faces, he hurriedly ran forward to drink them away. The children who hit were only seven or eight years old. Seeing the tall and strong Tian Xinhua, they all ran away in fear. Only then did Tian Sisi remember that the three children on the ground were the sons of her sister-in-law Tian Manlan. The eldest was 9-year-old Shou Jianguo, followed by 6-year-old Shou Weiguo and 3-year-old Shou Baoguo.

At this time, the young Weiguo and Baoguo were crying with tears and runny noses all over their faces. How could they have the grace of the social elites in their previous lives? Tian Sisi wanted to laugh a little. It would be great if she had a camera. It would be fun to take pictures of the two little guys and take them out after they succeed.

But now she was not in the mood to think so much. Why did the children in the village bully Jianguo and his three brothers? Tian Sisi wiped the two little guys' faces clean with a handkerchief, then took out the biscuits given by her fourth uncle and gave each of them a piece. Weiguo and Baoguo stopped crying soon after they had the biscuits and ate them with curiosity. Jianguo refused to eat and put the biscuits in his pocket, preparing to take them back to Tian Manlan to eat.

Tian Sisi felt sad. Her father was careless and her mother was too weak. This nine-year-old boy had already shouldered the burden of the family too early. It was really hard for him. Tian Sisi gently asked Jianguo to eat the biscuits. She also showed him the whole pack of biscuits in the basket, indicating that there were plenty of biscuits and letting him eat them without fear. Jianguo then carefully took out the biscuits from his pocket and ate them bit by bit.

On the way Jianguo explained the cause of the matter. It turned out that the matter was caused by his uncle and the children of his uncle's family. Because of the partiality of their grandparents, the three Shou Jianguo brothers were often bullied by their cousins ​​at home. Their grandparents would only scold them, and their mother only knew how to cry, so they had to endure it or try to avoid them.

But they wanted to settle the matter, but those cousins ​​were addicted to bullying them. They would cause trouble for them from time to time, and sometimes they would call other children in the village to bully them. When Tian Sisi heard this, she was so angry that her eyebrows stood up. These bastards, they thought that the Tian family had no one, right? Tian Xinhua was also very angry. He didn't come to his sister-in-law's place very often. He didn't expect that his sister-in-law's life would be so difficult.

No, the daughter of the Tian family could not tolerate being treated so badly by people from other villages. The two brothers and sisters looked at each other and understood. Tian Sisi took Jianguo's hand and said to him: "Jianguo, let's see how I will avenge you. Hmm, if you dare to bully our Tian family, I won't beat them to death."

Tian Sisi danced her little fists as she spoke. Shou Jianguo looked at Tian Sisi's small body and said carefully: "Sister Zhaodi, I'm fine. Don't go looking for them."

"Call me Sister Sisi, remember the bitterness and sweetness. From now on, I will be called Tian Sisi. Don't be afraid of Jianguo, they don't dare to do anything to me and Brother Xinhua." Tian Sisi said this with confidence. In this era, she has such a big backer as Mr. Tian. She can walk around in Wangjia Town no matter how she wants. It's just a trivial matter like venting her anger on her cousin, which is nothing at all. Only Tian Manlan, a dumpling, is bullied like this.

Weiguo and Baoguo were younger and did not think as much as their eldest brother Jianguo. When they heard Tian Sisi say that they wanted to avenge them, they both jumped up with joy. Weiguo said loudly: "Sister Zhaodi,..."

"Sister Sisi" Tian Sisi reminded again.

Wei Guo was quite clever. No wonder he later became a postdoctoral fellow. He immediately changed his tune, "Sister Sisi, Shou Liguo is the worst. He beats him the hardest every time. Sister Sisi, you have to beat him hard."

"Isn't Shou Liguo just a little fat, maybe a boy in his teens?"

"Well, that's him. He is my uncle's son. My grandparents like him the most. They feed him whatever delicious food they have." Shou Weiguo nodded.

"Okay, just wait and watch how Sister Sisi beats that Shou Liguo, breaking his butt in three halves."

"Yes, beat him in half! He can't even poop."

Tian Sisi: "......"

She picked up a wooden stick from the ground and weighed it with her hands. It was quite suitable. It was just right for beating a dog. Tian Xinhua smiled and looked at Ah Nanxiong's arrogant look, but did not stop her. This is what the Tian family girl had to do. She was bullied to the point of being bullied, so how could she not fight back? In other words, my sister-in-law's soft bun doesn't look like the Tian family at all.

Shou Jianguo took them home. As soon as they stepped through the courtyard gate, they heard an old woman's vigorous scolding: "You cheap thing who threw yourself at us, the sons you raised are all no good—how dare you hit my grandson? If Liguo gets hurt anywhere, just watch me beat those three little brats to death."
The reason this old lady was cursing with the phrase "thrown away for free" was that back then, because Tian Manlan insisted on marrying Shou Jizu, the old man said in a fit of anger: "If you insist on marrying that good-for-nothing, your mother and I won't prepare a single cent of dowry for you."
You must understand that the bride's dowry represents the girl's face and status. Even the poorest families, when marrying off a daughter, would borrow money to prepare dowries such as chamber pots, washbasins, and quilts for her, to avoid being looked down upon by her husband's family after marriage. That was why the old man used this to pressure Tian Manlan, thinking she would be intimidated. Who would have expected Tian Manlan to be dead set on it, even saying that she would marry him even if she had not a single cent of dowry.
This made the old man very angry. Even if Mrs. Zhao no longer had to worry about his daughter's life and death, there was no dowry, no matchmaker was invited, and even the wedding banquet was not arranged. Tian Manlan and Shou Jizu just went to the town to get a marriage certificate, and then lived together. Since their marriage, Tian Manlan wanted to return to her parents' home several times during the New Year, but the old man blocked the door. He gave the three children red envelopes, but did not let them enter the house.

That's why Mrs. Shou called Tian Manlan a bitch who came to the door for free. This sentence was already extremely excessive at the time. Tian Xinhua and Tian Sisi's expressions changed after hearing this. This old lady was just slapping their Tian family in the face! Hum, I don’t have the ability to find a wife for my son, yet I dare to think that my sister-in-law doesn’t have a dowry.

ps: Lao Yang doesn’t know what the customs are like in other places? But if a girl here in Laoyang does not have a dowry, she will indeed be looked down upon by her husband's family.