Chapter 110

The live broadcast was turned off long before dinner, and the staff who finished recording went to the room prepared at the back of the Mushroom House to rest and plan tomorrow's recording.

Jiaojiao ran into the house from the yard and leaned against the kitchen door, sticking her little head out to look at her father who was washing and cleaning the dishes and putting them into the cupboard.

Li Yubai noticed Jiaojiao's gaze and put down the bowl, then turned to look at him. He could tell at a glance that Jiaojiao was looking for him for something, and immediately raised his eyebrows: "Something?"

"Dad." Jiaojiao ran into the kitchen, hugged her father's legs, and looked up expectantly, "Is there any food left?"

"What? Are you hungry again?" Li Yubai frowned, squatted down and reached out to touch Jiaojiao's stomach.

"I'm not hungry. It's that brother who is hungry." Jiaojiao, who didn't know Zhou Yi's name, used that brother instead.

Hearing that he was not hungry, Li Yubai relaxed his brows, rubbed Jiaojiao's furry head, and without asking anything, stood up and turned on the stove again to make fried rice for Jiaojiao.

Li Yubai always controls the amount very precisely when cooking, so the rice used for the fried rice was the rice that Lu Yian accidentally overcooked, and he also asked Lu Yian's opinion before using it.

Lu Yian, who was worried about the excess rice in the rice cooker, heard this and waved his hand generously to let him use it as he pleased.

Li Yubai quickly made a bowl of fried rice, and put it in an insulated bowl to prevent Jiaojiao from getting burned. He reached out and took the spoon that Jiaojiao rarely used and put it in the bowl, then handed the fried rice to Jiaojiao.

Holding the egg fried rice, Jiaojiao bent her eyes towards her father and said sweetly, "Thank you, Dad. Dad is the best. Jiaojiao loves Dad the most~"

Li Yubai was speechless and pinched Jiaojiao's fleshy face: "Go!"

After Jiaojiao went out with the fried rice, Li Yubai thought for a while and asked Lu Yian, then turned around and made rice balls with the remaining rice, intending to have it as breakfast for them and Lu Yian tomorrow.

Because she was carrying the meal, Jiaojiao walked very carefully along the way. After leaving the yard and coming to Zhou Yi, she handed the bowl to him. Only then did Jiaojiao breathe a sigh of relief, then smiled and said, "Brother, eat."

Zhou Yi looked at the bowl of steaming rice in his hand and felt a little helpless for a moment.

The aroma of egg fried rice drifted in the wind, and Zhou Yi, his stomach aching with hunger, kept swallowing his saliva. However, he still endured the hunger in his stomach and forced himself to look away from the bowl of golden fried rice in his hand. He looked at Jiaojiao in front of him, and his voice trembled with pain, with worry in it: "You, give me the rice, won't your father beat you?"

"No, Daddy is good. I won't hit Jiaojiao." Jiaojiao waved her little hands and said happily, "Jiaojiao told Daddy that she was hungry, so Daddy made some fried rice for her. Daddy's cooking is delicious. Come and try it, brother."

Hearing this, Zhou Yi felt a little envious and couldn't help but said, "Your father is so nice."

Jiaojiao curved her lips and raised her chin proudly. Her dark eyes shone brightly on her fair face. She said without a hint of modesty, "Yes, Jiaojiao's dad is the best."

In Jiaojiao's heart, his father is the best, and he wishes everyone in the world knew that he has the best father.

After knowing that Jiaojiao would not be beaten for giving him the food, Zhou Yi lowered his head and began to wolf down the rice.

Jiaojiao squatted aside, waiting for her brother to finish his meal so that she could take the bowl back.

Zhou Yi ate very quickly, swallowing the food without chewing at all. In a blink of an eye, half a bowl of rice was gone.

Jiaojiao was amazed when she saw this scene, and her pair of black eyes widened a lot.

But as she watched, Jiaojiao noticed something on Zhou Yi's face.

Because the light was dim, Jiaojiao couldn't see clearly and took two steps forward to take a closer look.

Dark red blood had gathered into strands at Zhou Yi's temples, and a little blood was dripping down his cheeks.

Jiaojiao, who saw it clearly, was so anxious that her voice became much louder: "Brother, you are bleeding!"

Zhou Yi, who was concentrating on eating, heard this and said vaguely, "It's okay."

As he spoke, he shoveled rice into his mouth. The delicious egg fried rice flowed down his throat into his aching stomach, and all the pain in his body seemed to be suppressed.

Obviously, the long-term experience of being beaten has made his tolerance for pain reach a very high level.

Jiaojiao reached out and pulled Zhou Yi to get up: "Brother, let's go. Jiaojiao will take you to apply the medicine."

In Jiaojiao's opinion, if you bleed, you need to apply medicine.

This was the impression Jiaojiao had when the aunts from the welfare home were applying medicine to a child who had fallen and was crying.

Zhou Yi didn't follow Jiaojiao's strength to get up. Instead, he froze for a moment and quickly shook his head: "No, no, I don't need to apply medicine. I will be fine in a few days."

"Really?" Jiaojiao tilted her head in confusion.

Zhou Yi nodded seriously: "Really, I'm very lucky, I don't need any medicine."

"Okay." Although Jiaojiao didn't understand much, but since her brother said there was no need to apply medicine, then she definitely didn't need to apply medicine.

Zhou Yi pursed his lips and smiled, a small dimple appeared on his dark and thin cheek, and he looked very shy.

Jiaojiao, who was squatting beside him, looked up at him as he lowered his head and continued to dig for rice. There was a little doubt in her ignorant dark eyes.

In his impression, bleeding is very painful. The children in the welfare home would cry loudly when they bleed. Why didn’t his brother cry?

Thinking about it, Jiaojiao asked, "Brother, don't you feel any pain?"

Zhou Yi, who was busy eating rice, paused for a moment, shook his head briefly and continued eating.

In the dim light, a tear suddenly fell into the rice. Zhou Yi, who had only screamed but not cried when being beaten, suddenly burst into tears uncontrollably.

In order to prevent Jiaojiao from seeing his tears, Zhou Yi lowered his head even more and swallowed his food in big mouthfuls mixed with tears.

After Zhou Yi finished all the rice, he returned the bowl to Jiaojiao, mumbled that he was going home, and then stood up and limped away.

Jiaojiao, who was standing there holding the bowl, waved at his back. A tender voice came from behind him along with the evening breeze: "Brother, see you tomorrow."

Zhou Yi said nothing, lowered his head and left in a hurry.

He just lied. He is not unlucky. He is a jinx, a star of misfortune, a jinx, a ghost...

Everyone in the village knew that his father died in a car accident on the day he was born. His mother was fine after giving birth to him, but when she returned to the ward and saw him, she suddenly became short of breath, had chest tightness, and coughed. Then a group of doctors and nurses rushed in and pushed his mother away. And then nothing happened. His mother could not be saved and died of a sudden amniotic fluid embolism.

I heard from the villagers that his grandfather and uncle treated him very well in the first two years after he was born, and they often carried him around the village to show him off.

Later, his uncle's wife, who hadn't gotten pregnant for years, became pregnant. To take care of his pregnant aunt, he stopped taking him out to play. However, on the day his aunt gave birth, his uncle was in a car accident, and his aunt couldn't be saved due to amniotic fluid embolism. From then on, his grandfather's attitude towards him completely changed.

They said he was an unlucky person and a ghost, who killed his son and daughter-in-law. They beat him at every turn and told the whole village about it.

It was also at that time that the villagers learned that he was the son of Zhou Daquan, who had disappeared years ago. Originally, they thought that Zhou Yi was the son bought by Chow Tai Fook.

After all, during those years, Zhou Dafu did hold Zhou Yi in his arms and called him son every day. At that time, Zhou Yi was not called Zhou Yi, but Zhou Yi, which symbolizes wings. It was because he hoped that he could fly out of the mountains one day. However, it was later changed to Yi by Zhou Daqiang, which means abandoned.

Therefore, although the villagers did not like Zhou Daqiang beating his grandson to death, they could still understand it at some point. After all, two sons and two daughters-in-law died because of this grandson. In such a situation, giving him a meal to eat and a place to live was already considered good.

That is why, although the villagers felt sorry for Zhou Yi, they still told their children not to play with Zhou Yi or even to stay away from him.

Of course, there are also people who don’t believe that Zhou Yi is a ghost or a jinx, but all these have changed little by little over the years.

When Zhou Daqiang beat his grandson, he really beat him to death, as if he was not afraid of being beaten to death at all.

The wounds on his body frightened the villagers. Every time they thought he was going to be beaten to death, he always managed to survive without any medicine or treatment.

How can one not be frightened by such a tough life!

That's why the children in the village were told by their parents not to get close to Zhou Yi, lest they be cursed by him. This led to Zhou Yi being ostracized and isolated among the crowd.

When all the children in the village saw him, they scattered as if they had seen a flood or a monster.

Sometimes, mental damage is no less than physical damage. As time goes by, Zhou Yi becomes more and more silent.

This was also the reason why when Zhou Yi saw Jiaojiao, he asked carefully and expectantly if she needed help.

Because he was so eager to talk to someone and he was so eager for a friend.

That's why he was secretly happy when he saw neither pity nor disgust in Jiaojiao's eyes. That's why, after he couldn't stand the beating and ran out of Zhou's house, he went to the mountain to pick some more rice to soak, then carefully ran to squat in the bushes opposite the mushroom house.

Because there was a person whom he unilaterally considered a friend in this strange house, the joy that rose in his heart just thinking about this was enough to suppress the pain in his body.

It’s just that…anyone who treats him well will suffer retribution, and being close to him will bring bad luck…so if he secretly considers you a friend…it will definitely be miserable…very unlucky…

Then... let's not meet... let's not be friends...

The night passed quickly, and the next morning, after breakfast, Jiaojiao and others went to the fields again, carrying small bamboo baskets and hoes.

Jiaojiao walked into the field and continued to pick up stones and dead branches. Before he picked up many, Li Yubai grabbed his overalls from behind and pulled him out of the field.

Jiaojiao was carried to sit under the shade of a tree, holding a small stone in her hand, and looked up at her father in confusion.

Li Yubai took the stone from his hand, took out a pack of wet tissues from the pocket in front of Jiaojiao's belly, and lowered his head to wipe Jiaojiao's hands carefully: "We have cleaned up enough. There is no need to go downstairs again."

Work points are distributed according to the area and scope cleaned by each person. If Li Yubai wants to earn more work points to support Jiaojiao, he should clean a larger area and scope, but in fact he only cleaned one-third of the two acres of land and gave up.

Netizens in the live broadcast room were very confused about this, because with Li Yubai's speed he could clean a larger area and earn more work points.

"Li, what are you doing?"

'Doesn't he plan to earn more work points?'

"That shouldn't be the case. Logically, he should have earned more work points to buy Jiaojiao delicious food, right?"

Just when many netizens were confused, a few netizens suddenly had an idea, but then they hesitated, because Li Yubai really didn't look like the kind of person who holds grudges?

"Is it possible that Li Ta did this on purpose?"

Although hesitant, someone still spoke out.

"What on purpose? Are you deliberately trying to earn less work points?"

"Didn't they reach an agreement before leaving yesterday..."

"Whoever causes the deduction of basic work points will use his or her own personal work points to make up for it."

"No way? What good would it do him if his basic work points were deducted?"

"It's not good, but it's not bad either. He doesn't have to pay any work points anyway."

"No, it's good for him. He's venting his anger."

"Bad air?"

"Didn't Xiao say Jiaozi was a burden earlier? Li probably wanted Xiao to know who was the burden."

"No way? Li doesn't look like such a vindictive person, right?"

"...are you so stingy?"

'I prefer to call it protecting one's shortcomings!'

Judging from the current speed of Lu Yian and Xiao Tiancheng, the person who ultimately caused the cleaning task to not be completed before dinner tonight is indeed most likely Xiao Tiancheng.

This means that Xiao Tiancheng will have to hand over 40 basic work points to the program team.

Three mu of land is worth a total of 150 work points. If everyone cleans the same area as a family, and the 150 work points are divided equally, each family will get 30 work points. Does that mean Xiao Tiancheng toils for two days and still owes the production team 10 work points?!

Maybe it will take more than two days of hard work. After all, if you don’t finish cleaning within the specified time, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to clean the rest. Otherwise, you may not even get the thirty work points.

Netizens who thought this through were surprised that Li Yubai would hold a grudge, but they couldn't help but gloat over Xiao Tiancheng's misfortune.

Netizens also thought of Xiao Tiancheng. At this moment, he was gritting his teeth in the fields, cursing in his heart, but looking worried.

When Xiao Tiancheng's fans saw this, they were both distressed and angry. They already disliked Li Yubai and became even more aggressive. Not only did they say in the live broadcast room that Li Yubai was stingy, mean, and had no sense of overall situation, they also dug up all the negative information about him in the past and introduced to the netizens in the live broadcast room what a bad person Li Yubai was.

Unfortunately, some people buy it, while others don’t.

After all, most people who come to watch Zaizai's variety show are here to have some fun and be healed. When they make the live broadcast room smoky and chaotic, they immediately have a worse impression of the innocent brother Xiao Tiancheng they mentioned.

Li Yubai, who was unaware of the content of the live broadcast room's barrage, lowered his head and carefully wiped Jiaojiao's hands, and also picked out the black mud that had accidentally gotten into his nails.

However, even if he knew the content of the live broadcast room barrage, Li Yubai would still do this.

He was indeed venting his anger, not for Jiaojiao, but for himself.

Although Jiaojiao didn't understand the word "burden" and wasn't hurt by it, Li Yubai still cared about it.

Even as a father, he doesn't think Jiaojiao is a burden, so what right do others have to question whether Jiaojiao is a burden?!

Leaning in her father's arms, Jiaojiao found that her little hands had become white and tender again. She curled her eyes, raised her head and rubbed her father's chin with her furry hair, and said in a soft voice: "Hello, Daddy, I like Daddy."

Li Yubai rested his chin on his head, a smile floating in his drooping eyes.

He found that in Jiaojiao's eyes, he seemed to have never been bad.

Time passed little by little, and when it was around half past ten, Zhou Yi endured the pain in his body and gritted his teeth as he came down the mountain carrying the pig feed.

When Zhou Yi was passing by the ridge of a field with pig feed on his back, he heard some noise. He looked up and after hesitating for a while, he couldn't help but stepped forward to walk up.

After walking uphill for a while, when the view became wider, Zhou Yi saw Jiaojiao sitting next to his father at first sight.

It was very strange. There were a lot of people on the ridge of the field, Cao Yuhao and Lou Yaoyao playing, Lu Yian and Chen Yingke sitting nearby to rest, and staff carrying cameras. There were about twenty people in total, but Zhou Yi just saw Jiaojiao sitting next to Li Yubai at a glance.

He hesitated for a moment, turned around and went down the slope, went around to the back of the tree where Jiaojiao and the others were sitting, and approached carefully.

Li Yubai noticed when Zhou Yi tried to get closer, but he didn't move, intending to see what this person was going to do.

Netizens in the live broadcast room also noticed Zhou Yi and started posting comments to guess what he was going to do.

Some people speculated that he wanted to scare Jiaojiao, and some people speculated that he wanted to steal something. After all, the boy looked very thin, the kind of thin that made people think of suffering when they saw him.

Under everyone's gaze, Zhou Yi came to the back of the tree, squatted down, quietly placed something wrapped in leaves in his hand next to Jiaojiao, and hurriedly got up and left.

"elder brother."

Just as Zhou Yi was walking hurriedly down the slope, a bright and tender voice came from behind him.

Zhou Yi's steps slowed down slightly, and then he quickened his pace.

"Brother, wait a minute!"

Jiaojiao's voice came from behind, accompanied by the sound of his running.

Thinking that the slope was a bit steep, Zhou Yi looked back worriedly. This glance made him feel frightened.

On the top of the slope, I saw a little person running upside down, giving people a frightening feeling that he would fall down at any time.

Zhou Yi was so frightened that he stopped walking. With his eyes full of Jiaojiao, he ignored Li Yubai who was following Jiaojiao, staring at her and ready to reach out to grab her at any time.

Jiaojiao stopped running, lowered her head, took out the ointment from her pocket in front of her belly and handed it to him: "Here, Daddy said that if you are injured, you need to apply ointment to make it better."

Zhou Yi lowered his head, his gaze not on the ointment, but on Jiaojiao's eyes that seemed to be filled with stars.

Her bright eyes were black, a very pure black, without any negative emotions in them, so clean that one could see through them at a glance, like a clear spring in autumn, like sunshine in winter.

Zhou Yi had never seen such beautiful eyes.

Seeing that he didn't move, Jiaojiao doubtfully handed the ointment in her hand forward again: "Brother, take it."

Zhou Yi came back to his senses and moved his fingers. He knew he should refuse, but the thrill of being cared for for the first time made him unable to help but reach out and take the tube of ointment.

Seeing her brother take the ointment, Jiaojiao lowered her head and took out a pack of sterilized cotton swabs and several sterile dressings from her pocket.

Zhou Yi was in a trance until he left. He looked down at the pile of things in his hands and remained silent for a long time.

When they were about to reach home in silence, he put down the pig grass on his back, carefully hid these things at the bottom, then gritted his teeth and carried the pig grass back.

On the way back, he couldn't help but smile, and the dimples on his cheeks were faintly visible.

When Jiaojiao was carried back to the mushroom house by her father, she opened the thing wrapped in leaves that Zhou Yi had given her. Inside was one plump rice bubble after another.

Most netizens in the live broadcast room didn’t know what it was, but the few who knew began to excitedly explain it to them. After all, they used to pick it and eat it with their friends when they were young, and looking at it now brings back so many memories!

Jiaojiao picked out the largest and fullest one and handed it to her father, looking up: "Dad."

Li Yubai, who had eaten this yesterday, lowered his head and soaked the rice in his little hand and ate it. But when Jiaojiao was about to eat it, he stopped him and said, "Go back and wash it before eating."

Jiaojiao didn't make a fuss about eating. She nodded obediently and wrapped the rice in her hand again.

Netizens watching the live broadcast said it was so cute and they really wanted to steal it.