78.078 Er Ya's Rebellion

Su Yu took the paper he handed her, read it over from beginning to end, then looked at the man, glanced at him, and turned away, teasingly saying, "Are you hurt? You can lean on my shoulder."

Ning Jin glanced at the two children in the main room. When Xiao Yuan met his eyes, he immediately turned his head away. He knew that these two brats were also eavesdropping, but unlike him, they were eavesdropping openly.

Ultimately, he wasn't thick-skinned enough to do anything that would be contrary to his image as a father in front of his child. He didn't reply, but squatted down and helped wash the sauerkraut.

"Heartbroken?" Su Yu glanced at him.

"I'm heartbroken," he mumbled, his voice low so his son wouldn't hear.

"Then what should I do? I'll lend you my shoulder, but you don't want it. How am I supposed to comfort you, hmm?" Su Yu raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'll compensate you with yourself." Ning Jin said half-jokingly, "Don't change your mind, you have to stay at my house and wait for me to come home."

"I won't agree to that. Your parents hurt you, so why should I sign a contract to sell myself? I'm not your parents' daughter, so I don't even count as the son paying for the father's debts." Su Yu glanced at him and realized he was really unhappy. She then changed her tune and said, "It's more like you should compensate me. Your mother has a grudge against me for slapping her. You're her son, so you should pay for her debts by selling yourself to me."

"It's already been sold to you, you just need to ask that the owner provide food and lodging."

“I’ll even let you sleep,” Su Yu added.

"Will you sleep with me or will I sleep with you?" the man chuckled lewdly, leaning closer.

"Do you want me to sleep with you, or do you want to sleep with me?"

"tonight?"

"tonight."

Ning Jin hesitated, his eyes fixed on her, "You want to sleep with me?"

“No problem,” Su Yu readily agreed.

The man looked up at the rising sun and sighed, wishing it would get dark soon. "Call me if there's any strenuous work," he instructed her. "You need to conserve your energy so I don't have to give up just as I'm getting into the swing of things.

Su Yu couldn't help but laugh and spat at him; he got all excited whenever this topic came up.

"Hey, wash the sauerkraut and chop it into small pieces, and chop the celery into small pieces too. Remember to knead the dough after lunch, and you're also responsible for rolling out the dumpling wrappers." She made a lot of demands of the laborers she brought in.

"Your master is heartless. I'm being sold into this family, working hard day and night." He even put on an act, pitifully carrying a jar of sauerkraut into the house, then returning to drain the sauerkraut, squeezing out the water and chopping it, and also bringing in celery stalks to chop into minced meat, and mixing a lump of dough in a basin.

He came out and asked, "Let me check if the dough's consistency is okay?"

"How dare you speak to your mistress like that!" Su Yu walked in and slapped his butt. "You pinch a lump of dough and I'll knead it. I'm too lazy to wash my hands."

"..." Ning Jin gave her face as she requested and waited for her to speak.

"That's enough. Let it rest for a while and then knead it again." She sprinkled the dough with pickled cabbage bits and threw it away, then washed her hands to prepare the filling.

At noon, the four of them put down their bowls and chopsticks and played rock-paper-scissors. Ningjin won and had to wash the dishes. The three who lost played again, and the loser rolled out the dough.

"Come on, let me roll out the dough, you go and wrap them." Ning Jin washed his hands and took the rolling pin from Su Yu's hand. He boasted to others that his wife had specially wrapped the dumplings for him, not that she had rolled out the dough for him.

After practicing for four or five years, Xiao Yuan and Ping An were much faster at making dumplings than Su Yu. Xiao Yuan, in particular, was skillful and could make dumplings with plenty of filling without breaking them. However, no matter how hard he tried, he could never make dumplings that tasted the same as his mother's when it came to mixing and frying the filling.

Su Yu is not picky about food as long as she doesn't have to lift a finger. She can praise even mediocre food as an absolute delicacy. But Ning Jin is different. When he comes home, he wants to eat Su Yu's cooking. He only eats the steamed buns that his son makes and the leftover steamed buns that his wife bakes the night before.

Whenever Ping An and Xiao Yuan acted jealous and resentful, Su Yu couldn't help but feel a secret joy, even though she knew the man was just being difficult.

After spending most of the afternoon making dumplings, Old Man Su piled the bamboo basket he had woven from sorghum stalks high with dumplings. Su Yu picked out forty dumplings and put them in a clean bamboo box. She and Ning Jin took the two children out and strolled all the way to Xinhe Brigade, where they delivered the dumplings to Old Man Su and strolled back.

After sitting for half a day, my back ached, but now that I'm warmed up and have walked around, I'm hungry. I had two bowls of dumplings for dinner, and I put the rest in the pot. I got up before dawn the next morning to steam them. By the time Ningjin left, they were completely cold, so I put them all in a bamboo box for him. Now that the temperature has dropped a lot, I reheat them every time he eats. There are enough dumplings for him to eat for three days.

A few days after Ningjin left, the two boys also started school. They were taught a "5-2-2" system, which meant two years of junior high and two years of senior high. Junior high was at the same school as elementary school, but senior high was in the county.

"Mom, would you like to come with us to take a look?" Xiao Yuan asked.

"Is that even a question? Of course I want to," Ping An replied. He pushed Su Yu out, and Xiao Yuan followed behind, locking the door behind them. The two of them walked on either side of Su Yu like bodyguards.

"You're both in the first year of junior high now, and you still want your mom to come with you when school starts? Aren't you afraid people will laugh at you?" Su Yu pretended to be annoyed. Sigh, the two kids are just so clingy.

Xiao Yuan and Ping An noticed her cheeks were puffed out, and without looking closely, they knew she was smiling, so they didn't bother to expose her feigned smile.

The junior high and elementary school were in the same school but separated by a wall. When Su Yu first stepped in, it felt like a small courtyard with two floors of classrooms attached. The place was narrow and there was no playground like the elementary school, but it didn't feel crowded when you went in.

The first grade has the most students, and the number decreases as you progress through the grades. The number of students who can continue to junior high school after graduating from elementary school is even smaller.

Su Yu walked around, gave the tuition fees to the two children, and turned to leave. She only came with them at the beginning of each school year to create a sense of ceremony; once they entered the school gate, the ceremony was over.

"Is that your mother? She doesn't trust you to pay your tuition?" A boy with an unfamiliar face came over and spoke after Su Yu left.

"Who are you? I've never seen you before. Didn't you go to elementary school here?" Ping An was certain that he had never seen this person before, and he not only knew everyone in his grade, but he could also call out the names of students who were a year younger than him.

“I used to attend primary school in the county. My dad was transferred to a cannery, so my mom, my younger brother, and I moved here. My name is Chen Min’an. What are your names?”

"My name is Ning Ping'an, this is my younger brother, Xu Yuan, and my dad also works at a cannery and drives a truck," the talkative Ping'an immediately introduced.

Chen Min'an was puzzled, not knowing whether the shorter one was called Xu Yuan or Ning Xu Yuan. When the two of them went to the office to pay their tuition, he followed them and heard the one called Xu Yuan announce his name.

"You two have different surnames? Aren't you brothers? Or did one of you take your mother's surname?" He asked, puzzled. He had a neighbor in the county who first took his father's surname and then his mother's, because his neighbor's father had been sent to the countryside.

Xiao Yuan frowned at him, ignoring the talkative person. Ping An rolled his eyes at him, his previous friendliness gone, and said, "None of your business."

Neither of them liked to explain their family relationships to others.

Chen Min'an was taken aback by their sudden outburst. He had only approached them because they were dressed neatly, but he hadn't expected them to be so rude. His mother was right; people from small towns were unreasonable.

After paying the fee, they received the books. Compared to elementary school Chinese and arithmetic, the first year of junior high included politics and basic agricultural knowledge. More importantly, junior high was a work-study program, so the two of them only needed to attend classes for half a day and spend the other half learning to farm with the teacher.

"So you two are stepbrothers, huh? I already know." Chen Min'an came over after school, looking smug, as if he had discovered a great little secret, and then ran off.

"You idiot, you look like a complete fool." Ping An spat at him.

"It's all my dad's fault. He should have changed your name to Ning Pingyuan when he transferred your household registration back home." Ping An muttered to himself as he walked down the street. If he had the same surname as Xiao Yuan, no one would be stupid enough to ask him again.

"Dream on! Ning Pingyuan sounds awful. If I were to change my name, I should call myself Su Yuan. Su Ping'an sounds better than Ning Ping'an. You might as well change your surname too." Xiao Yuan chased after Ping'an, punching him. He thought it was better to be surnamed Xu than Ning. Even if he were to change his surname, he would take his mother's.

"No way, Su Ping'an sounds awful." Ping'an moved like a snake, always turning just as Xiao Yuan was about to grab him, making him miss. He laughed and sang, and his backpack moved in front of him, hitting Xiao Yuan's hip with a slap as he ran.

I ran all the way home, and as soon as I opened the door, I saw Er Ya from next door coming over.

"Sister Er Ya, why haven't I seen you today?" Xiao Yuan asked as he poured himself a drink of water.

"My mom won't let me go to school anymore, and my dad won't give me any money either," Er Ya said bitterly, rummaging through Xiao Yuan's schoolbag to look at the new books he had been given.

“You have money, right? If your dad doesn’t give it to you, you can pay your own tuition. It’s four yuan per semester. You can pay for your own tuition in the first and second years of junior high, right?” In the past few years, he has earned more than seventeen yuan from his mother just by planting trees. Er Ya and Xiao Dan have earned even more.

"No, that's money I saved myself, for my own survival." Er Ya had a premonition that kept her from revealing her wealth, and she felt that if her mother knew she had money, she would definitely take it away. She also told Xiao Yuan and Ping An not to mention her wealth again; her money was buried under a bitter tree she had planted, and no one but her knew about it.

"Then what are you going to do? Aren't you going to school? I haven't seen Xiaodan today either. Ping'an, is Xiaodan not going to school either?"

"I don't know either, he didn't say he wasn't going to school anymore."

Er Ya stroked Xiao Hua's dog fur without saying a word.

She didn't say anything, and Xiaoyuan and Ping'an looked at each other and didn't bring it up again.

After Er Ya left, Ping An went into the kitchen to add water to the pot and wash it. He asked Xiao Yuan, who was scooping rice, "Does she want Mom to pay for her tuition?"

"It shouldn't be that, Sister Er Ya isn't that kind of person." Xiao Yuan thought for a moment and shook his head firmly.

Ping An puffed out his cheeks, let out a "pop" sound as he held his breath, scooped up the water from the pot and poured it out, no longer thinking about Er Ya's thoughts.

Su Yu had just returned in the evening. She scooped the porridge from the pot into a wooden basin to cool, and had just washed the rice crusts off the pot when she heard a commotion outside. She added a ladle of water and ran out, followed by Ping An and Xiao Yuan.

“If you won’t let me go to school, I won’t work or take care of the kids anymore. Don’t expect me to wash your clothes, cook for you, or empty your chamber pots anymore.” Er Ya shouted loudly outside her door, with a wailing little tiger hanging on her leg.

"Fine, forget it. I'll find you a husband tomorrow and marry you off," Du Xiaojuan said, standing at the door.

Er Ya panicked a little. When she saw Su Yu standing outside the door next door, she clenched her fists and screamed in a high-pitched voice, trying to suppress her fear: "I'm only sixteen years old. Even if you marry me off, you have to support me for another two years. Otherwise, if you dare to marry me off, I'll sue you for selling people, selling your children."

Du Xiaojuan chuckled, suppressing the urge to kill her in front of everyone. She was still too naive. She would send her away that very night, so she wouldn't have a chance to sue her.

Er Ya knew about the practice of selling daughters to traffickers, who would then sell them to men in the mountains to become wives. She swallowed hard, knelt down before the neighbors who had come out to watch the commotion, and cried, "Please, aunties and grandmas, help me out. If you don't see me go out one day, please call the police. If I suddenly disappear, it must be because my parents sold me. People who sell their children must go to jail and don't deserve to work and earn money anymore."

“You…” Du Xiaojuan hated it most when people used her job to control her. She said to her neighbors, “Don’t listen to this crazy person’s nonsense. She’s already sixteen, she’ll be seventeen next year. What’s the point of her going to school? What’s the use of a girl going to school? I told her to stay home and take care of the family, raise Xiaohu, and make sure he’s satisfied when he marries.” Du Xiaojuan said she meant well.

"Both of my children failed their grades and can still continue studying, so why can't I? If you won't let me go to school, don't expect me to take care of your kids. If you push me too far, we'll die together, Xiaohu..."

Su Yu exclaimed, interrupting Er Ya's desperate words, "Du Xiaojuan, I've been married into this family for so many years and I've never seen your eldest daughter. I just suddenly realized, you didn't sell your eldest daughter to some remote mountain village, did you?" After saying that, she glanced at Er Ya and, seeing that she had calmed down, stopped talking.

You can say harsh things, but don't say them in front of others, especially if you're asking people to keep an eye on you and call the police for you. You don't want people to think you're scary or crazy.

"Da Ya married the son of her grandmother's sister-in-law's nephew. I didn't sell her. Don't try to pin this on me." Du Xiaojuan rolled her eyes. She must have been incredibly unlucky to be Su Yu's neighbor in this life. Su Yu was always there for her.

"Dad, Mom, let me go to school! I've been working non-stop all year round. I do all of Mom's chores. After she gave birth to Xiaohu, I took care of everything except breastfeeding. My tuition is only eight yuan a year. You two spend more than that on two meals of meat. If you let me go to school, I'll bring Xiaohu with me. I'll teach him to count. He definitely won't be like Da Bao and Er Bao, who are seventeen or eighteen and still can't pass arithmetic." Er Ya sat on the ground, hugging Xiaohu and crying desperately. Her crying made Xiaohu cry even harder, and his voice was almost hoarse.

"Alright, alright, come in here, don't embarrass yourselves." Du Xiaojuan's husband, that coward, finally came out. He lovingly picked up his youngest son, only to be kicked twice in return. He cried out "Sister!" in a pitiful voice, as if the child was about to be killed.

“Er Ya’s dad, just look at Xiao Hu’s chubby face. Eight yuan a year for Er Ya to take him to school is definitely not a bad deal,” Su Yu said. This coward, apart from his loud cough, rarely spoke, and she had even forgotten his name.

“Yes, Dad, it’s rare for your child to like going to school, so just let her go. It’s only eight yuan a year, which is just a small amount each day.” A neighbor also chimed in, saying that they were all workers with a fixed monthly income, and they could scrape together eight yuan a year even if they had to.

The man had two fingernails scratched on his face, so he had no choice but to put down his son, who was bewildered and didn't recognize his father. He sighed and said, "Fine, go to school. I'll support your education even if I have to go without food."

"Ugh—" Just as he finished speaking, someone vomited. Su Yu turned around and saw it was that brat Ping An.

Su Yu glared at him, then couldn't help but laugh; he had vomited what she wanted to vomit.