Northeast: My Absurd Woman

Chapter 188 Whose woman went to the hospital after a miscarriage?

Zhang Changyao bought ten steamed buns: five made of wheat flour and five made of sorghum flour.

Five wheat flour noodles were kept for Wu Ni to take back, and five sorghum flour noodles were kept for herself to eat when she couldn't work anymore.

After everyone had left, Zhang Changyao approached the bald, middle-aged man in charge.

He took out the cigarettes that Guo Erluzi had given him from his shirt pocket and handed them to him.

The person in charge took out the side of a cigarette pack from his pocket and checked what kind of cigarettes it was.

He finally looked up, forced a smile, and asked Zhang Changyao, "What's the matter? I won't help you with anything underhanded."

"Brother, do I look like the kind of honest, simple guy who would do that kind of thing?"

I want to take advantage of the night when no one will be competing with me to haul more bricks.

Those people ostracized me, and I couldn't get promoted. I didn't make much money during the day.

My wife couldn't afford eggs during her postpartum period, so she didn't have enough breast milk, and the baby was crying loudly from hunger.

Could you please be lenient? I just need to earn some money to buy eggs for my wife.

Zhang Changyao bowed slightly, nodding repeatedly, adopting a respectful and humble posture as if begging for something.

"Okay! After you're done hauling the bricks, remember to close the door properly."

The bald man glanced around and found no one moving about in the yard.

He then gave Zhang Changyao a word of advice, got on his bicycle, and rode home from get off work.

Zhang Changyao took a pair of trousers off the donkey's back, wrapped them around his back, and tightened them tightly.

The injury on my back is throbbing, but I absolutely cannot let it stop me from making money.

He borrowed half a bucket of water from the watchman's hut, drank it himself, and gave the rest to the donkey.

Leftover flatbread was crumbled by hand and mixed into the hay.

The little donkey was also celebrating the New Year, eating the hay mixed with flatbread with gusto.

With one person, one donkey, and one cart, they got everything ready and started hauling bricks back.

Perhaps even God didn't want Zhang Changyao, this little sparrow, to starve to death.

Let the big, silvery moon hang in the sky to light his way at night.

Working until late at night, Zhang Changyao was too exhausted to continue, so he leaned against the donkey to rest for a while.

He would eat a bite of the sorghum flour bun himself and give a bite to the donkey.

The man and the donkey ate five steamed buns clean and drank all the remaining water in the bucket.

It's even colder if you don't work. Zhang Changyao stamped his feet, his nose running with snot from the cold.

"Brother, you have fur to keep warm, but I don't have fur and I'm really cold. I can't just not work, can I?"

We two brothers still have to keep working, and there's not much left. Let him finish it all.

Zhang Changyao patted the donkey's forehead and spoke to it in a consultative tone.

The donkey had no say and started walking along the road toward the brick kiln.

Both of Zhang Changyao's palms were covered in large blisters from being rubbed by brick clips.

If you apply force, the blister will expand and become a larger blister.

There were one or two small blisters in my palm, which couldn't grow big and broke after being squeezed a few times.

Without the protection of skin, the exposed tender flesh is excruciatingly painful to even touch.

Zhang Changyao had no choice but to put down the brick clamps and hold the bricks with both hands.

After grinding for a while, and with the coldness of the brick, I no longer felt any pain.

The rooster crowed, and he smuggled out every last brick from the brick factory that was supposed to be used for family planning.

He dared not doze off, so he used the coriander he picked up from the ground to stick to his eyelids to keep his eyes from closing.

Standing at one corner of the brick pile, he dozed off while holding a stack of bricks.

I've worked all night, I can't let someone else take it while I'm sleeping.

The bicycle bell rang as it entered the yard.

One by one, the people who came to work returned to their respective offices.

"Zhang Changyao, why are you here so early?" Miao Yu passed by Zhang Changyao and got off her bicycle.

"Director Miao, I didn't go home. I hauled bricks here all night."

I'm too slow working alone, and I can't even get to the front. The early bird catches the worm.

Zhang Changyao rubbed his sleepy eyes and forced a smile as he answered Miao Yu's question.

"Zhang Changyao, I never knew you were such a hard worker."

"Did you settle all the money for yesterday? Which ones did you pick up today? I'll have them settle the accounts with you."

Miao Yu squinted at Zhang Changyao, looking at him with a different kind of respect.

Zhang Changyao turned around and pointed to a row of brick piles behind him for Miao Yu to see.

Miao Yu looked at the neat stack of bricks, which had no protruding or dented bricks, and nodded.

Everyone else thought there was only half a day's work left, so they weren't in a hurry to get up early.

By the time they drove the cart into the yard, Zhang Changyao had already stuffed the seventy-five yuan he had earned into his pants pocket and left the yard.

Hearing the chorus of curses coming from the courtyard, Zhang Changyao was not angry.

He lay on the donkey cart with a smug look on his face, letting the donkey pull him home at his own pace.

"Youngest son, go and see! Your elder brother and sister-in-law are fighting."

Your sister-in-law was beaten so badly by your brother that she is about to miscarry. Your brother is just sitting on the ground and won't move. What should we do?

I'm an old man, and I can't really drag him to the clinic.

Before Zhang Changyao could even enter the courtyard, he saw Zhang Kaiju running out of his own yard in a panic, calling out to him.

"Dad, I haven't slept all night. Why don't you go with my older brother?"

Besides, what woman needs to go to the hospital for an abortion?

"Just stay home and rest for a few days, like a mini postpartum recovery period, and you'll be fine."

Zhang Changyao groggily sat up from the donkey cart and looked at Zhang Kaiju.

"My dear son, your sister-in-law is bleeding from her trouser leg; she needs to go to the clinic!"

Zhang Kaiju stomped his feet repeatedly, more anxious than if his own house were on fire.

"Father, you should go find Guan Shu. He has to deal with the mess he made."

The child in my sister-in-law's belly may not be my brother's, otherwise my brother wouldn't have been able to beat her until she miscarried.

"A miscarriage is good, at least it saves my older brother from raising someone else's child."

Zhang Changyao let the donkey pull him back to his own yard.

"My son, how can you be so heartless? That's your sister-in-law, Guiye and Guibao's own mother."

If she bleeds all her blood out, Guiye and Guibao will become motherless children, just like you were when you were little.

Zhang Kaiju followed Zhang Changyao's donkey cart into the courtyard.

"Uncle, go and see why Zhang Changyao came back before nightfall after only two days."

It seems his father needs to speak with him; I hope he doesn't get beaten up by his father again.

After shouting to Yang Deshan on the ground floor of the outer room, Yang Wuni leaned against the window, anxiously waiting.

"Wu Ni, don't worry, I'll go check right now. Please don't leave the house!"

Yang Deshan closed the door to the house, took off his apron, and went out to take a look.

"Dad, even if you say the most outrageous thing, I won't care about Suiyumi."

She was carrying another man's child, and my older brother did the right thing by aborting it.

Let her go find Guan Shu herself; whoever's child it is, that's who should take care of them.

"It has nothing to do with the Zhang family. I don't have the time or inclination to serve her."

Zhang Changyao was still arguing with Zhang Kaiju, feeling disgusted from the bottom of his heart and not wanting to see Sui Yumi.

"Zhang Changyao, you can ignore your sister-in-law, but give me my pension this year."

As long as you give me the money for my retirement, I'll take your sister-in-law to see a doctor myself.

Your older brother is a real troublemaker; he's good at causing trouble but not at calming it down.

All he knows is to cry his eyes out, but what's the point of all this mourning?