But as a widow, after seeing her parents pass away, she went on to marry off her two sons, and her last bit of savings was long gone. Her life had been too bitter.
Jiang Xiaoman overheard someone in the village mention this old lady when she was collecting wild vegetables last time. They said that the old lady had been on a blind date with her father before.
There were people around who were joking and saying that since his father, Jiang Youliang, had never married, and this old lady was widowed, the two of them might be able to rekindle their romance.
Jiang Xiaoman was also somewhat tempted at the time. His father lived alone in the mountains, and such a big house was indeed a bit lonely.
But when he got home and told Jiang Youliang what he had said, Jiang Youliang refused without even thinking.
"I'm already so old, what's the point of getting a wife?"
"Don't listen to those people's nonsense! If your dad gets married, you'll just have a ready-made stepmother, won't you?"
"She has two sons! She definitely won't treat you as well as her own sons, and you might even have to support her two sons' families."
"There are many women in society nowadays who bring their families along, specifically looking for a rich old man to remarry. The whole family hopes the old man will die soon so they can swallow up his family's assets. Xiaoman, don't make a mistake!"
“If those people in the village say those things to you again, just say that your father doesn’t want to get married. If they want to, they should go home, divorce their wives, and marry someone else themselves!”
Jiang Xiaoman burst out laughing.
Is his dad watching some melodramatic family drama lately?
What kind of nonsense are you imagining?
However, to be selfish, Jiang Xiaoman was secretly relieved that her father was unwilling to find a partner.
It wasn't that he was afraid of supporting more people; the main problem was that he genuinely didn't know how to get along with his stepmother...
Although she didn't manage to pair up with her father, Jiang Xiaoman was still willing to help this old lady.
The reason is simple: this elderly lady is a truly rare and insightful person!
The old lady is also a pitiful person. She raised her two sons and they both got married. Logically speaking, she should be able to enjoy her life now, right?
No!
Her two good-for-nothing sons, who seemed perfectly fine when they were young, have become brain-dead as adults. They have completely forgotten how they were bullied by their father's relatives when they were young. After hearing some gossip, they feel that it is not right for their mother to live with them at her parents' house.
They insisted that their widowed elderly mother move back to her husband's family home!
Lang Hongfan, also known as this old lady, had a falling out with her husband's relatives many years ago in order to protect her two sons. What good will it be for her to go back now?
She also knew that her two sons were not only being instigated, but were probably also thinking of fighting with their uncles for the family fortune. Bah! What family fortune did they have?
Just for a few dozen square meters of land for a house, they're throwing their own mother into a den of wolves? Leaving her alone at her husband's family home to fight against those wolfish relatives?
Get out of here!!!
Lang Hongfan picked up a large broom and immediately swept his two sons out of the house.
While rushing back, she cursed, "Since you all want to reunite with your grandma and uncles, then I'll grant your wish!"
Anyway, you're all grown up now, you have wives and kids, it's not fair to let your own mother support you anymore, do you want to go back to your own father's place?
Okay, you guys go ahead. I have to stay here and look after my own mother, so I won't go back with you.
The two sons were dumbfounded.
They were indeed up to no good, after all, they were the younger generation and it wasn't appropriate for them to compete with their uncles. But their biological mother was different; she was their father's lawfully wedded wife, and she had even raised his two sons.
With such great merit, shouldn't they be entitled to some residential land?
Rural homesteads are really valuable now! They're brothers, and if they could get a plot of land, they'd like to split it between their father's and grandmother's families, making it more spacious for each household…
That's a very clever scheme; don't try it again next time.
Lang Hongfan stated: She does not have such an unfilial son!
The hardships I endured over the past twenty years are now just a waste of time. From now on, we'll each go our own way. I don't expect you to support me in my old age, and you shouldn't leech off me anymore.
Go back to your own grandmothers, all of you!
Chapter 187
Jiang Xiaoman chose Lang Hongfan as the first family in this series for two reasons. First, she wanted to use this older woman's experience to tell the uncles and aunts who often see her videos not to always feel that it is their responsibility no matter how old their children are.
They're all married and have established their own families, even as fathers themselves. Do they really think they can't make it through life without their parents' help?
Jiang Xiaoman has seen countless examples like this. Many men are clearly playing on their phones after get off work, but they still complain that they are too busy to take care of their children. They either leave the children with their wives or directly with their grandparents in their hometown.
It's as if they have children just like they lay an egg anywhere, throw the egg away, and then don't care about anything else!
Either don't have children at all, or if you do, you have to take responsibility for raising them!
Aunt Lang Hongfan does this very well!
My son is filial and sensible, so I don't mind helping you take care of your child.
You want me to help you take care of your child, but you're also trying to squeeze every last bit of value out of me.
I'm really sorry, but as long as I have no morals, morals can't hold me back!
I raised you all, helped you get married, and took care of you during your postpartum period. I've fulfilled my duties as a mother.
As for my daughter-in-law, don't blame me.
Either you let your husbands help you take care of the children and support the family, or you should just divorce this heartless lazybones!
Look at your mother, I was widowed at a young age and bullied by my in-laws so much that I couldn't stay there anymore. But I still managed to raise these two little beasts.
The villagers all thought that Lang Hongfan's wife had gone mad.
You've kicked both your sons out, who will take care of you in your old age?
LOL!
Jiang Xiaoman will use her videos to show these people that without her two good-for-nothing sons dragging her down, Aunt Lang Hongfan is living a very comfortable life!
However, you can't say that when filming a video, otherwise you'd offend Aunt Lang Hongfan's two sons.
Although it wasn't written in the script, it turns out that some things are better conveyed through the camera!
Lang Hongfan still lives in her parents' old house. This kind of house, made of rammed earth, is actually more comfortable to live in than the brick and tile houses that are popular now, except that it is easy for dust to fall inside.
"I've been filming about my own family all this time, and I guess everyone's tired of that. Okay, let's start a new theme today. Let's jump on the bandwagon and give everyone an immersive experience of a day in the life of us mountain folk!"
With Aunt Hongfan's permission, Jiang Xiaoman held up the selfie stick and gimbal and followed behind the old lady to watch her work.
Without the burden of her two sons, Aunt Hongfan's daily life is now incredibly regular.
Older people sleep less, so Lang Hongfan gets up at five o'clock every morning to feed the three pigs in his house, and then feed the chickens and ducks he raises.
After breakfast, the old lady carried a large basket on her back, which contained a roll of hemp rope, two large snakeskin bags, her own large water cup, two alkaline rice dumplings, and a small bottle of chili sauce, and headed into the mountains.
There's no autumn tea to pick this season, so Aunt Hongfan went to the mountains to dig for medicinal herbs.
Langshan's climate is very suitable for the growth of Chinese medicinal herbs, and it has been one of the famous producing areas of Chinese medicinal herbs since ancient times. In addition to growing potatoes and sweet potatoes, the biggest source of income for the local mountain people every year is digging for medicinal herbs in the mountains.
Nowadays, very few young people are willing to do this kind of work. It's too hard, and the income is unstable. If you're lucky, you might find a medicinal herb patch and make a small fortune. If you're unlucky, you might go into the mountains all day and find nothing.
Only older generations like Jiang Youliang and Lang Hongfan go into the mountains every year to find medicinal herbs, turning the nearby hills into their own vegetable gardens. They have a mental map of which mountains have which herbs.
She wasn't afraid that Jiang Xiaoman would take the opportunity to raid her hideout. In these mountains, whatever you find belongs to whoever digs it up. Besides, Jiang Xiaoman doesn't sell herbs; he earns far more selling wild mountain vegetables.
They were lucky today and found two very large He Shou Wu (Polygonum multiflorum) plants.
Modern people face a lot of pressure, and hair loss is a common and serious problem. The market demand for He Shou Wu (Polygonum multiflorum) remains high, and the price of wild He Shou Wu is also rising. She dug up two such big ones and sold them at the market, which was enough for her to live on for a month.
However, Lang Hongfan didn't just look for herbs along the way. She would take anything that could be sold for money, such as wild gastrodia elata, kudzu root, uncaria, wild jujube, angelica, wild hawthorn, and so on. She picked them all and threw them into her basket.
On the way down the mountain, she didn't need the two burlap sacks. Instead, she turned a corner, found a pine forest, and casually picked up two burlap sacks full of pine needles and pine cones.
Because he only brought one rake, Lang Hongfan didn't ask Jiang Xiaoman for help. He could only squat down beside her, filming her rake the pine needles while explaining to his fans why he needed to use this tool.
“Pine needles are great for starting fires! And these pine cones, when dried, are excellent for burning for cooking. We still use earthen stoves here, unlike other places where rice is grown with straw, so we come up the mountain to rake some pine needles to start fires for cooking.”
Lang Hongfan took out a hemp rope, tied up two large bags full of pine needles, and carried them on her back. Jiang Xiaoman helped her carry the basket. The two of them went down the mountain one after the other, and it was almost one o'clock when they got home.
"Xiaoman, don't go home for dinner tonight. Tell your dad to come down too. I'll kill a chicken and treat you two to dinner tonight." Lang Hongfan didn't seem to care about appearances at all.
Aunt Hongfan had heard about the villagers' one-sided attempts to arrange marriages for her, and some even thought it was for her own good, so they spoke frankly with her, asking if she would like to find another partner.
Bah! She's all alone, carefree and happy, isn't she?
Find another one? It's not like you're looking for a life partner, it's more like you're finding yourself a tyrant!
It's not that she has a sharp tongue, but at her age, many old men need to be taken care of themselves. If the two of them get married, not only will the other party not be able to earn money to help with household expenses, but she, an old woman, will also be expected to serve the old man. Is she a cheapskate? Willing to be someone's maid?
Because she was open and honest, Aunt Hongfan generously invited Jiang Xiaoman and his son to her home for dinner. She thought that even if the two families couldn't become related by marriage, Jiang Xiaoman was a kind and honest person. This year, she had also worked with Jiang Xiaoman to sell tea cakes and wild vegetables, and had made a lot of money. She should kill a chicken to thank him.
The thought of two middle-aged or elderly people who are afraid of marriage sitting down to eat together is just too dramatic!
Jiang Xiaoman immediately made a phone call to her father.
Worried that his father wouldn't come, she deliberately used Aunt Hongfan's words to provoke him: "Aunt Hongfan said that if you're afraid of being gossiped about, it's okay if you don't come."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Youliang jumped up and shouted: Who's afraid? Let's go!
Lang Hongfan didn't go out in the afternoon. She was seen climbing ladders and going down into the cellar, carrying baskets and bags, and pulling out a bunch of delicious food from somewhere.
"These trichosanthes seeds aren't spoiled yet. Take them out and stir-fry them; you can take them home and eat them." Lang Hongfan took out a small woven bag, which was half-filled with trichosanthes seeds.
These trichosanthes seeds look a bit like watermelon seeds, but they are much more expensive. Jiang Xiaoman dared not take so many.
"Auntie, just grab a couple of handfuls for me to try, the rest can be sold for a good price at the market."
"We can't sell it. This is all last year's stock. We were going to save it for those little bastards, but none of them wanted to come back. I'll sell the new stock next year when it comes out. This old stock isn't worth much. We'll eat it ourselves."
As he spoke, Lang Hongfan poured half a bag into the large basin with a splash. Jiang Xiaoman had no choice but to help pick through the contents, preparing to stir-fry them.
Actually, if Trichosanthes kirilowii seeds could be cultivated on a large scale, the annual economic benefits would be quite good.
But the people in the mountains felt that it was a waste of the land to use good farmland to grow these snacks that couldn't fill their stomachs, so almost no one in the village grew them.
Lang Hongfan grows so much probably because some of his younger relatives like to eat it, but it costs 20 or 30 yuan per kilogram to buy, which is too expensive, so he simply grows some himself.
Unfortunately, Lang Hongfan's loving motherly heart was ultimately misplaced.
She has spent most of her life trying to give the best to her children.
Unfortunately, she raised two ungrateful wretches who not only showed no gratitude but also wanted to squeeze every last drop of blood out of their own mother.
She had thought that although her two sons were a bit selfish, they must still care about their mother.