Chapter 262 Want a Hundred

Song Chunxue was somewhat surprised.

What are you holding?

The eldest brother lowered his head and picked up the cloth bag in his hand. "Steamed buns and boiled potatoes. You came in a hurry, so you probably didn't bring much. There's also a little meat."

Song Chunxue asked bluntly, "You're still willing to give me meat to eat? Did Chen Feng agree to that?"

The eldest brother muttered, "She has no choice now."

"Put it down," she said, stepping aside. "What are you doing with that shovel?"

“I just heard that Mother went to settle accounts with Cheng Laowu, and I was thinking of coming to help, but it turns out you’ve already taken care of it.” The eldest brother stood the shovel against the corner of the wall. “I know how to wallpaper, let me do it.”

The eldest brother had just built two houses and was quite skilled at it. Song Chunxue handed him a wooden plastering board.

"How's the work in the fields going?" Song Chunxue asked him while mixing mud. "Do you know how to plow and mop the land?"

The eldest brother buried himself in the mud, saying, "Although I wasn't very skilled at first and inevitably made some mistakes, I'm still a farmer's child, and I'll learn by watching enough. It's just that the donkey's parts were broken and I didn't know how to fix them, so I took it to the market and spent a few copper coins to fix it."

"That's right, you've seen how others do it, so you'll know how to do it next time."

Song Chunxue sighed, "I spoiled you too much before, only letting you bury yourselves in your studies. I naively thought that you could all pass the imperial examination and become scholars. If you fail once, you can always succeed twice. But you know in your hearts that you might not pass even if you try three or five times."

The eldest brother remained silent.

"I heard you went to argue with Cheng Laowu?"

The eldest brother nodded and said, "They're going too far. We still have family members here. He hauled hay late at night, and you could clearly see the hay that fell off the truck. He wasn't afraid of me finding out at all; he didn't even pick it up. He just thought I wouldn't dare to confront him."

"But I couldn't argue with him, and they outnumbered me..."

Song Chunxue comforted him, "At least you went to look for them. I slashed him today. If anyone dares to touch our things again, don't let them get away with it. They were in the wrong first, so don't be afraid. Isn't Chen Feng the best fighter? You two leave the kids with Li Dazui for a while, and you go together. Are you afraid you can't handle them?"

"..." The eldest son hesitated for a moment, not expecting his mother to say that.

"Since you're planning to live for the sake of the children, don't just be a bully at home. Don't let all those years of education go to waste. Use your brain more and don't let your bad temper lead you by the nose."

"As the saying goes, people with bad tempers are usually incompetent, while those with real ability will figure things out and learn to control their temper."

"Do you think I'm confident enough to confront Cheng Laowu's family today?" Song Chunxue said frankly, "I'm also afraid they'll cause trouble and spit at you if they can't win an argument, sticking out their tongues and saying 'hehehe,' and there's nothing I can do about it."

“But people have a mouth, and they have to speak except to eat. In this world, besides yourself, who will defend you or reason with you?” Song Chunxue said with great vigor. “You know the principle of ‘courtesy first, then force’, right? When reasoning doesn’t work, we’ll go crazy and fight back.”

"The bold are afraid of those who don't value their lives. When you're isolated and helpless, being beaten to the ground, you have to act like a desperate man. You can't really be beaten to death, understand?"

The eldest brother slammed the mud in his hand against the wall and stared blankly at Song Chunxue.

He never knew that his mother could also spout so many profound truths.

He asked hesitantly, "I heard that Mother is learning to read and is also drawing talismans with a Taoist priest?"

“That’s right, you can still learn things even when you’re older,” Song Chunxue said, getting up. “I’ll go inside and give you a lucky charm.”

The eldest brother touched his damp palm, feeling a mix of emotions.

He could sense that his mother no longer cared about what happened back then, because she no longer needed it.

It is said that one should look at a person with new eyes after three days of separation, but he never thought that this would happen to his own mother.

Upon seeing his mother again, he felt an unprecedented sense of powerlessness and a feeling of being abandoned by time and his own mother.

The mother looked ahead and saw that she was completely different from before.

She is no longer the poor woman who toiled in the fields, wearing old clothes with holes in her knees and hands, her life a struggle.

He could sense that she looked carefree and her heart was carefree as well.

And he, as a young man, was still arguing with his mother over some trivial matters when she was about to move away.

What he once most wanted to possess was no longer anything in his mother's eyes.

"Here, sew it inside your clothes later. If you're worried about it getting wet from sweat, you can sew it on the back."

As she spoke, Song Chunxue handed him a triangular talisman sewn with red cloth.

The eldest brother wiped the dirt off his legs, reached out and took it, examined it carefully, and then put it in his pocket.

“Mother,” the eldest son hesitated for a moment, “I’m sorry about what happened last time when we moved the grain. I embarrassed you.”

"..." Song Chunxue looked at him and thought to herself, "The sun has risen in the west."

"Also, I hope Mother won't take what I said to the county last time to heart."

Song Chunxue didn't respond. Could it be that he had ulterior motives for saying such a thing?

It wasn't that she looked down on him; even the eldest son in his previous life, who lived to be over fifty, didn't have this kind of awareness.

When the eldest brother saw that she didn't respond, he picked up the plastering board and continued plastering the wall.

Li Dazui came out of the yard and saw his eldest son working so hard. He couldn't help but praise him, "That's how a son should do things. After all, Song Chunxue is your mother."

"It's only natural to help your own mother; there's nothing shameful about it."

The eldest brother didn't say anything, and took the sour mud to the back of the yard to patch up the gap.

"You don't know yet, do you? Your eldest son is no longer being bossed around by Chen Feng. Instead, he's the one bossing Chen Feng around. You can hear him yelling and cursing at Chen Feng all the time."

Li Dazui sat under the big willow tree. "At first, Chen Feng would say a few words back, but later she obediently listened and, holding her child, didn't dare to go back to her parents' home."

Song Chunxue frowned slightly.

Li Dazui kept everyone in suspense, "Don't you want to know why?"

"Speak your mind."

"Because Chen Guangcai fell ill, and it is said that he often coughed and contracted a cough disease, which required money to buy medicine. That's not all. It is said that Chen Guangcai was sneaking around and wanted Chen Feng to cut some of the child's hair for him to use. When the eldest brother found out, he beat Chen Feng half to death."

"Is that so?" Song Chunxue chuckled. "Chen Guangcai planted a talisman in their room before, but the Taoist priest saw through it and he was harmed by it. I didn't expect him to still be so persistent and want to use his own grandson's life?"

How dare that old man do that?

Song Chunxue is currently learning to draw amulets. Although she's not very good at it, she can at least draw them.

If her senior brother were here, she could ask him for two more.

But I don't know when my senior brother will return.

I reckon that bastard Chen Guangcai won't live much longer, that's why he's desperate and wants his grandson's hair.

Fortunately, she brought the talisman paper and brush with her when she went out so as not to delay her learning to read and draw talismans.

No matter how bad the eldest child is, it doesn't change the fact that she was born from her womb.

Her eldest son's child is her grandson, and she cannot stand idly by if he is in danger.

"By the way, have you learned how to make your lucky charms? Can you sell me a few?" Li Dazui rubbed his hands together and chuckled. "If they're one copper coin each, I'd like a hundred."