Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 221
Second Uncle
When they went to the fields again in the afternoon, the family filled up the donkey carriage with water from the pond.
?Using a basin and a bucket, they poured water from the pond onto the oil cloth covering the carriage. Whether it was the wooden bucket or clay basin, it was too heavy for Mo Yan to move. At this time, she thought about the modern plastic basins and buckets. Even iron pails and enamel basins would be lighter than these.
Since the oilcloth does not leak, why not use it to make a bucket, just like the waterskins of nomads? It’d be convenient for fetching water and easy to carry when going out.
Looking at Xiuying, she was carrying water a basin at a time despite her pregnancy. Ms. Liang was worried about the child in her belly, so she rushed to carry water. However, she had become so tired she was gasping for air after two trips.
Xiuying took the clay basin and said, “Mother, let me do it! Don’t get so tired you start coughing again.”
“You need to keep the child in your belly in mind.”
“It’s okay, people from agricultural families aren’t that squeamish.”
Looking at Mo Feng, he fetched a bucket of water, but found it hard to carry. He put it down after taking two steps, and couldn’t transport the water as fast as Xiuying.
Ms. Liang glanced at Mo Yan standing to the side and gave her a hard look, “You useless thing, you can’t even carry water, what’s the use of feeding you?”
Mo Yan really wanted to go over and poke a hole in the oilcloth holding the water to let her see if feeding her was truly useless, but saw Xiuying struggling to carry the water, so refrained.
She turned to leave, and Ms. Liang said, “Go and see your second grandma! She hasn’t been feeling well these past two days.”
Mo Yan immediately ran to the backyard. The door of the west room was slightly ajar, and she called out “Second Grandma” outside the door. Inside the room was the sound of a grunt, a mixture of having difficulty breathing and phlegm stuck in the throat. Mo Yan pushed the door open and saw her second grandmother lying on the kang, staring blankly at the roof, her mouth half-opened, and a choking sound came from her throat.
“Second grandma, are you alright?”
Second grandma looked at her from her peripheral vision but said nothing. Mo Yan came closer and asked again, but she still didn’t speak.
“Second grandma, can you move?”
?The old lady blinked but still didn’t speak.
“I’ll call Mr. Cao,” Mo Yan ran out.
When Mr. Cao and Zhao’er came, they met the old woman living in the northern house, who was going out. When she saw Mr. Cao, she greeted, “Sir, there’s no use checking up on the woman in the southern house. She’s been like this since yesterday.”
Mo Yan said, “If she’s been like this since yesterday, why hasn’t anyone called the doctor?”
??The old woman snorted coldly, “Who’d call the doctor, me? You want me to serve her?”
Mr. Cao came into the room and looked at second grandma, but shook his head and said, “She had a stroke. We came too late, there’s nothing we can do.”
If the stroke had been noticed in time, she might have still been saved. But since they had come too late, even the gods had no way to save her.
“Then do we just wait here?”
Mr. Cao said, “Send a message to your second uncle and ask him to come back and take care of the funeral!”
Mo Yan then remembered that her second grandma had a son in her name, as she had adopted her second uncle. However, she had never seen her second uncle come back to visit her second grandma.
She didn’t know the address of her second uncle, but she had heard that he was in Yi City, so Mo Zenian must know it. She rode back to town to ask Mo Zenian, and then went directly to Yi City.
?At the outskirts of the city centre, there was a small cloth shop called “Linhe Cloth Shop”. This was Mo Yan’s second uncle’s business.
As soon as Mo Yan entered the cloth shop, a tall, thin and neatly dressed shopkeeper in his forties immediately greeted her, “Girl, what do you want to buy?”
“I’m looking for Mo Zelin.”
“That’s me, what’s the matter?”
Mo Yan did not perform salutations, but just nodded slightly, “My name is Mo Yan. My second grandma is about to pass away, and I am here to inform you to go back to take care of her funeral arrangements.”
Mo Zelin stopped smiling and furrowed his brow, “How could she have passed away? I can’t step away from my shop!” [1]
“I’ve sent you the message. It’s up to second uncle whether you go back or not.”
Mo Yan turned around and left the cloth shop to get her horse, but Mo Zelin followed her out, “Is this your horse?”
Mo Yan said coldly, “I borrowed it.”
“You go first, I’ll make arrangements here and then go back.”
“Second uncle, please hurry up, you might make it there for her last moments.”
Hearing that his adoptive mother was seriously ill, he was filled with impatience. But when he saw Mo Yan coming on horseback, he immediately followed her out with a different tune.
It was impossible to expect him to go home to arrange the funeral. When Mo Yan went home, she stopped by the coffin shop in the town and ordered a cheap coffin, which she asked them to send to the village immediately.
When she returned to the back courtyard, second grandma had trouble breathing. She went to ask Mr. Cao, who said that she wouldn’t make it through the night.
How desolate was it to have no one beside your bed when you died? Mo Yan wanted to stay here, if not for anything else, for the warmth her second grandma gave her when she first transmigrated into this world.
Zhao’er was afraid that she would be scared, so he came to accompany her.
The two of them rummaged through the house and found a bundle. Inside was a set of new clothes. This should be the mourning clothes second grandma had prepared for herself.
They helped her put the clothes on while she was still breathing. It would be difficult to do so if she had rigor mortis. [2]
?That night, Mo Yan and Zhao’er kept vigil next to each other on stools all night. Occasionally, Mo Yan would doze off, and would only feel at peace when she came back to and heard her second grandma breathing.
?The coffin arrived early the next morning. The storage room had a low roof and its door was narrow, so the coffin couldn’t enter at all. It had to be placed in the courtyard and set up on a long bench.
The coffin was blocking the courtyard, and the old woman in the north house could see it from her house, which she thought was unlucky. She stood at the door of the north house and stabbed her crutch hard on the ground, “It’s unlucky for the coffin to block the courtyard, get it out!”
No one paid attention to her, and the old woman was so angry that she went over and knocked on the coffin with her cane, “She doesn’t let me live in peace even after her death. She should’ve just been wrapped up in a mat. It’s not worth buying such a good coffin for her, it’s really a waste.”
Mo Yan held back her anger and came over, “What does it have to do with others if I waste my money? This is my second grandma’s residence, and her coffin will be placed here. Let’s see who dares to touch it!”
The old woman turned around and called Mo Zenian, who came out of the north house and said, “Mom, my aunt has already passed away. What is there to worry about? Even if it’s annoying, it won’t be more than a few days.”
Just as Mo Zenian was about to go to town, Mo Zelin barged in. Instead of asking how second grandma was doing, he asked Mo Zenian, “Mo Yan is your daughter?”
“Yes, my second daughter.”
“What does your second daughter do? I see that she is well-dressed and she even rode a horse over.”
“She does business with others. She has a workshop, and a commercial firm.”
Mo Zelin’s eyes shone, “So impressive, she must have made a lot of money!”
“How would I know? Now that I have divorced Ms. Liang, she won’t give me any of the money that she’s earned.”
“Even if you’ve divorced, she is still your daughter! The law stipulates that even if the parents are divorced, the children should still be filial to their parents. If you ask for something from her, she cannot refuse.”
“Is that really the case?”
“You’re the educated one, how do you not know this?”
P.S. Uhhhhh this is definitely a chapter. Thanks for reading?
[1] Right, we now know the second uncle is also a scumbag.
[2] That’s when the body stiffens up after death.