Chapter 21
“What can you do if I don’t let you go? Your mother has been continuously using our home supplies to help out with her own family and raise a bunch of parasites. I barely managed to get some pork ribs and fish back yesterday but good for her! She secretly brought them to her family! Ha!”
“Sure! Doesn’t she like to raise that side? From now on, everything she stole will be deducted from you and your mother’s food ration. Every time she helps her family, I will get it back from you. Hurry and work or you can just dream on for having lunch.”
Gu Ruoqing was stunned!
Her mother brought all the meat to Grandmother’s?
Hurry and take a look in the kitchen. Those are meats!
Gu Yunshen frowned slightly after hearing that and followed them in as well.
As Gu Ruoqing stared at those pork ribs, Gu Qingyao named, “About five hundred grams of pork ribs and at least one thousand five hundred grams of fishes are missing. Some mushrooms are missing as well. It must be that she took to the Zhang Family.”
Gu Ruoqing puckered her lips, evidently dissatisfied with her mother’s action. Her mother had always been biased towards her grandmother – she constantly gave delicious foods from home to the Zhang family for her grandfather, grandmother, uncles and cousins. Sometimes, she had not even eaten those delicacies and her mother had already taken it away.
This time, Grandfather Gu walked in from the courtyard with a basket on his back. Elderlies like him slept little and woke up very early.
Grandfather Gu and Grandmother Gu had to raise cows for the brigade as part of their reformation. Cows were used for ploughing lands annually and were treated better than humans. Thus, Gu Chonghua and Wen Ruyu were very meticulous in their work.
However, Gu Chonghua felt extremely sorry for his wife. Before the day broke, he was already up to feed the cows but Wen Ruyu was only up after hearing the noise in the courtyard. Everyone in the Gu family was now in the kitchen.
After knowing what happened, Wen Ruyu’s stomach ached from anger and she went out to groan loudly!
How unlucky were they to have this daughter-in-law!
This Zhang Xiaohui never cared for the people at home over the past few years and was only dedicated to raising the people in her maiden family. The Zhang family’s manpower was much better than the Gu’s but they were still short of food supplies every year as they were too lazy!
All these years, those people did not die from hunger only because Zhang Xiaohui took this from the Gu family to raise them.
Conversely, the Zhangs were living even better than them!
Gu Ruoqing ran out to the courtyard once again and tried to run even further but was stopped by Gu Qingyao. “You’re not allowed to leave!”
Gu Ruoqing was infuriated. “Why? I want to leave. My mother was the one who took those items away, not me. What has this got to do with me?
“Furthermore, look at the composition of the Gu family and the Zhang family. Everyone in my grandmother’s house is a poor farmer by birth and has a good background. So what if they eat a little meat from you? What do you people from the Five Black Categories want? Do you all still want to enjoy? Be careful that you will be dragged out… Ah…”
Piak!
Gu Qingyao gave Gu Ruoqing a tight slap!
Gu Ruoqing widened her eyes. “How… How dare you hit me?”
Gu Qingyao scoffed. “That’s right. I hit you. Don’t forget, you’re also a little bastard from the Five Black Categories. You were born to the Gu family so the Gu family is your destiny. Don’t ever think of flaunting or bragging about being a farmer by birth. Return to the Zhang family if you have the ability to! Change your surname to Zhang if you have the ability to!”
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“You…”
Background was the greatest distinction in this era.
People with the best background in this generation were poor farmers, the working class and military men. Meanwhile, landlords, capitalists and a few educated men and academics were a group of people that needed to be reformed through labour.
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The Gu family was a landlord while Wen Ruyu was the daughter of a capitalist. Their background was extremely terrible and the entire Qing River brigade looked down on and avoided them.
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