Reborn as a Landlord-Chapter 1279 - 653: Discordant Voices

The second watch, asking for pink votes.

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"Lian Duoduo’s heart is too vicious," Zhang Caiyun heard from the side, while picking beans, "Da Niuniu is her own niece."

"How dare she do that?" Wu Jiayu was also surprised. Now, Lian Duoduo relies entirely on Lady Chiang for support at the old house.

"She thinks others can’t find out." Lian Manman thought for a moment and said. Lian Duoduo was not feeling comfortable and had nowhere to vent her anger, so she took it out on someone even weaker than her, Da Niuniu. She didn’t dare do it in front of Lady Chiang, so she could only do it secretly like this.

I wonder what Lady Chiang would think about this matter.

"Really takes after her mother, a venomous scorpion." Zhang Caiyun said.

Calling Lady Gu a venomous scorpion was actually Yingzi’s invention. Speaking of Yingzi...

"Sister Caiyun, the family you talked about, is it really the Yingzi from our village?" Lian Manman turned her head to ask Zhang Caiyun.

"Yingzi, what happened to Yingzi?" Wu Jiayu asked.

"It should be her, it’s said to be someone from your area, with that family situation, there’s no one else besides her." Zhang Caiyun first answered Lian Manman, then said to Wu Jiayu, "I also heard from someone, here’s what happened..."

Turns out, to the northwest of Burner Pot Village, about thirty li away, deep in the mountains, there’s a village called Yangshu Gou Village. It’s truly deep in the mountains, with very little land, and most villagers live off fruit trees and hunting. In Yangshu Gou Village, there’s a household with only a widowed mother and her son. The son got married a couple of months ago, and the bride was named Yingzi.

As to how Burner Pot Village got this news, it was because the bride named Yingzi was very poorly treated by her mother-in-law after marrying there.

"It’s said she tried to run away twice, but was caught both times. When she ran away, she told others she’s from Thirty Mile Camp and asked her parents to save her." Zhang Caiyun told the few young girls.

In this era, it’s commonplace for a daughter-in-law to be mistreated by her mother-in-law. People’s tolerance for this is quite high. That’s why new brides don’t say they’re living life; they say they’re ’enduring’ life until the day they become a mother-in-law themselves, only then can they hold their head high.

Yingzi’s story spread because she couldn’t stand the abuse, tried to run away, and failed, and because the abuse she suffered was beyond the usual understanding of people.

"Not getting enough to eat, made to work all day. Carrying water, making fire, cooking, those were given, but even the dirty job of cleaning dung was given to her." Zhang Caiyun said.

In tenant farmer families, it’s also the man outside, woman inside. When it comes to work, it’s usually the stronger men doing the heavy lifting. For something like cleaning dung, you generally wouldn’t find a man letting a woman do such dirty work.

It’s not as if the household lacked men. For living, women working can’t be helped, but who would really be willing to let their daughter-in-law or girl clean dung.

Men who do this don’t see women as women, let alone feel pity or affection for them.

The few young girls all sighed deeply.

"That’s not all, the mother and son also beat her." Zhang Caiyun continued, "Seems like if they’re even slightly unhappy, Yingzi’s mother-in-law would get her son to beat Yingzi, and not with hands, but with broom handles, or something else. Yingzi’s mother-in-law also took part, and she did it sneakily, always in the middle of the night. They have a cat at home..."

Saying this, Zhang Caiyun coughed twice, looked around to see if anyone else was there, then lowered her voice.

"...She threw the cat into Yingzi’s pants, and then sewed Yingzi’s pants up, using a stick to hit the cat from the outside..."

"Ah..." The young girls gasped, their faces changed color.

"How, how could they be so vicious..." Wu Jiayu said with a trembling voice.

Not only vicious, this was simply perverse. Compared to this mother-in-law, Lady Zhou seemed almost like a Bodhisattva.

"And there’s more," Zhang Caiyun glanced around again, and whispered mysteriously, "They sleep on a heated brick bed, with that mother-in-law in the middle, Yingzi and her husband on either side. The mother-in-law decides when the husband gets to be with Yingzi..."

The young girls all remained silent.

"... I overheard this and told you all, make sure you don’t go telling others." Zhang Caiyun finished, reminding them again.

Among young girls of the same age, sometimes they could speak without much restraint. But they all knew there were some topics they weren’t allowed to know or discuss.

So, Lian Manman and the others all nodded.