I used rebirth to bury his captivating gaze.

Chapter 85 Yu Mei Returns to Her Parents' Home in the Countryside (Zhu Yanli and Zou Yunfang al

An ugly daughter-in-law must eventually meet her in-laws. Yang Yumei couldn't stay away from her family forever, especially her mother Diao Yan, who was the only one who cared about her. Diao Yan was really something else. She looked shrewish and unruly, and she wouldn't let anyone have a share of the money. But as soon as her daughter-in-law entered the house, she seemed like a completely different person. Was it because her husband had died and her son and daughter-in-law had taken away her financial control? Her spirits began to decline, and Yumei disappeared again.

Zou Laqian introduced Yu Mei to a potential partner in the coal city, which wasn't far away. The bus ride from Tuandingshan Township to Qishi only took a little over three hours, but she was powerless to help.

For someone who has always lived in the countryside, even a short distance feels very far away.

Yang Yumei, carrying her one-year-old daughter, returned to her parents' home in Daxing'an Village, Yang Family Compound, with her husband Chen Lixin.

It just so happens that Zou Yunfang and Zhu Yanli also returned to their parents' homes in the same village at the same time, and the two of them went back together. Yu Mei and Chen Lixin also went back to their parents' homes with their daughter.

Then, Zou Yunfang and Zhu Yanli stayed at their parents' home for a few days before returning to the Seventh City Coal City Compound to rent a house.

Yang Yumei, Chen Lixin, and their daughter didn't return to their home in Qishi so early. Their bus fare had been stolen by a pickpocket on the bus, leaving them stranded at their parents' home and unable to return to their city home.

This season coincides with the time when farmers finish their autumn harvest. After harvesting corn and soybeans with small sickles, farmers always leave a few scattered ears of corn and soybean kernels. Then, some of the older farmers, who are not currently employed, take their empty fertilizer bags and go to the fields to collect the remaining grain.

Chen Lixin and Yang Yumei also joined in picking up grain from the fields to sell for money. However, when the two of them were not far from the village, they were ridiculed by Wu Sanbao, who was also picking up grain in the village.

They especially mocked Yu Mei, saying that she used to be a lazy girl who never did any farm work, but now that she's married and living a normal life, she's become very diligent.

Yu Mai scolded, "Is it any of your business? You should take care of your own man. Is he still going to Widow Li's house at the west end of the village lately?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Sanbao became agitated and immediately retorted, "My husband is none of your business what he's like. How is he better than you? You went to the city for blind dates and never returned. Now you're back with the child, probably having given that city man a free lunch. You were too ashamed to come home, so how dare you come back now?"

"Haha!" The onlookers burst into laughter!

With a "smack!", a slap landed heavily on Wu Sanbao's face.

Just as Wu Sanbao was about to resist, she saw that Chen Lixin's ten fingers on his two large palms were clenched tightly, and that his ten fingernails had dug red blood into his two large palms.

Yang Yumei was secretly pleased with Chen Lixin's actions!

Seeing that Wu Sanbao was in a dilemma, Zhang Cuihua gave her good friend a way out and pulled Wu Sanbao away.

The next day, a handsome young man appeared on the village's dirt road, carrying a small black camera and earning money by taking photos for people.

The handsome young man taking the photos is Chen Lixin. There's a girl in the village surnamed Lang who usually walks around the village with a small camera, taking photos for people to earn money. Her photography business is quite good, and her income is quite high.

So, imitating the wolf girl, Yang Yumei borrowed 500 yuan from Yang Zhi to buy a small black camera and took photos of others as well.

But when it came to his own turn, things didn't go as planned; he didn't earn money like the wolf girl did with her camera.

Later, when Yang Zhi's sister-in-law Liu Yue and Yu Mei came to visit, Yang Zhi kept asking for the 500 yuan back.

In the end, Yu Mei never returned the money to Yang Zhi. Of course, that's a story for later. There was no reason for not returning it. Later on, it wasn't Yu Mei who owed them money, but Yang Zhi who owed Yu Mei money.

Yu Mei and Chen Lixin failed in both their attempts to earn money by collecting grain and buying cameras to take pictures. After that, they had no other way to earn money in the rural village to buy train tickets home.

Then, after a while, the two adults and their one-year-old daughter stayed at their mother's house, where their mother, Diao Yan, and their brother and sister-in-law lived, for more than two months.

It turns out that my brother and sister-in-law, Diao Yan, and Yu Mei lived together and ate together when they were young girls at home.

With the involvement of three other people, Liu Yue, the sister-in-law, started cooking and also ate Yu Mei's portion.

Then Diao Yan cooked for Yu Mei and her family of three.

When Yu Mei and her family first ate together, her sister-in-law Liu Yue complained that Yu Mei ate too many scallions. She said that the autumn scallions in their yard were to be saved for cooking and making scallion garnishes throughout the winter, so they stopped eating together. Diao Yan used the only five yuan she had in her pocket to buy a large bundle of scallions from a horse-drawn cart on the main road. Diao Yan carried it to the east room with great strength, put it on the ground, and then said with a smile, "Eat up, Yu Mei. After you finish eating, Mom will buy you more scallions."

Afterwards, Liu Yue made pork dumplings for her family of four, and also brought a bowl of dumplings to her mother, Diao Yan, in the east room.

Looking at the bowl of dumplings on the kang table, Yu Mei felt a sense of unease, a kind of shame from her family.

Suddenly, she felt homeless, and then she decided to return to the home she had married into in Qishi Coal City as soon as possible.

Going back wasn't difficult; the difficulty lay in being trapped here. They borrowed money to buy a camera, but it was useless. Yang Zhi even scolded them, saying they bought the camera to play with.

In the evening, Yu Mei went alone to the home of her third cousin's wife, who lived at her second uncle's house behind the village.

It had been quite a while since they last met, and her relationship with her cousin Yang Yuqiu was just so-so.

Yang Yuqiu has been married for five or six years and has two children, a son and a daughter. The older boy is six years old, and the younger girl is four years old.

Yang Yuqiu and Zou Jun warmly welcomed her, inviting her to sit on the kang (a heated brick bed). Zou Jun also poured her a cup of hot water and placed it on the edge of the kang.

Zou's father and son both passed away from illness about half a year ago.

All four rooms are occupied by Zou Jun and his family of four.

Yu Mei sat for a while without drinking the bowl of boiled water. Suddenly, the people inside the room disappeared, leaving only two children playing with six white "knucklebones" and a flower-patterned bag on the heated kang.

Yu Mei stood up and went to another room, where she heard Yu Qiu talking to Zou Jun, "Why did Yu Mei suddenly come to our house? She never came to our house before she got married. I heard that the man she married in the city is from a very poor family. Did Yu Mei come to our house to borrow money?"

Zou Jun said, "You secretly called me out just to say this. Don't overthink it. Maybe Yu Mei came back to our house because she missed us. After all, we're close relatives. Alright, let's go back to the east room. It wouldn't be good to leave them there."

After Zou Jun finished speaking, he walked out, and Yu Qiu followed closely behind, just in time to run into Yu Mei standing there.

Then all three of them paused awkwardly for a moment, and Yu Mei said goodbye and left.

Zou Jun complained, "Look at you talking nonsense. She might have heard you. Why don't you go see her off?"

"What are you giving away? What if you end up asking me for money again?"

"Alright, stop worrying unnecessarily. It's not like I'm not going to pay you back."

As the two were talking, Yu Mei suddenly turned back, and then boldly said to Yu Qiu, "Third Sister Yu Qiu, I want to borrow 30 yuan from you."

"Oh! You really want to borrow money?"

Yu Mei had originally intended to overhear their conversation and abandon her original purpose of coming to buy a train ticket home. When she reached the gate, she suddenly remembered the bowl of dumplings her sister-in-law Liu Yue had given her. At least she could still cheat her mother and give her a bowl of dumplings. At least she was now down on her luck and couldn't even afford to buy her mother a bowl of dumplings.

She wanted to go home as soon as possible; leaving here meant she'd have to swallow her pride and borrow money.