006, Lu Xiaoqi: Where is my meat?

006, Lu Xiaoqi: Where is my meat?

Their dinner was ready when the sun set halfway up the mountain.

There were two large tables in the yard, one for the men of the family and the other for the women and children. The only woman who could sit at the large table was Mrs. Lu, the mistress of the household.

"Sit here and don't walk around." Liu Sanniang asked her son to sit down and went to the kitchen to help get things out.

When it was time for dinner, Mrs. Lu went over and knocked on the door of her eldest grandson's room. She lowered her voice and called out to her grandson inside, "Grandson, dinner is ready. Come out and eat."

"Got it." The person inside responded but did not open the door and come out immediately.

In their family, the only grandchild who had a room of his own was the eldest grandson, Lu Dalang. Because he was studying, his family built him a separate room. Even when he was away studying, the door to this room was always closed and locked.

They are close to the capital, and the surrounding land belongs to high-ranking officials and wealthy families. The villagers in their village do not have large residential plots for building houses, and this is also the case for their family.

Their home originally had only five rooms: Old Man and Old Mrs. Lu lived in one, and their four sons and their wives each had a room. Later, as the grandchildren grew up, they added two more rooms to the side. The eldest grandson lived in a separate room, while the others huddled together in another. As for the maids, they lived in the woodshed, even having their own shared room allocated for them.

At this time, Lu Mingfei and a group of cousins ​​were sitting at a small table. He had even reserved a seat for his mother to come over later. Hearing his grandmother's voice calling for someone, he turned around and saw the old lady, hunched over like a maid in a wealthy family, waiting outside the door to invite her eldest grandson to come out for dinner.

Fortunately, the old lady was afraid that these children would disturb her eldest grandson's studies, so she never let them disturb their eldest cousin. Otherwise, the task of inviting people to dinner would have fallen on these children.

Anyone who wants to do this job of being a nanny can do it, he doesn't care about it anyway.

After a while, the door of the house was finally opened from the inside, and the person inside walked out. The person who came out was Lu Dalang, the eldest grandson of the Lu family. His full name was Lu Zhiyuan. He was fifteen or sixteen years old, five feet tall, and wore a bamboo green robe and a black Confucian scarf on his head, dressed like a scholar.

Walking out of the house, Lu Zhiyuan bowed to the elders outside, "Grandma."

"Oh, oh, my dear grandson." Old Mrs. Lu looked at her eldest grandson who was so well-mannered and excellent, and a big smile appeared on her face. She felt that it was really worth it for the family to spend so much money every year to send this eldest grandson to school. Look at her eldest grandson who came back from studying. He was much more polite and sensible than those naughty boys and girls in the family.

Lu Zhiyuan walked over again, greeted his grandfather, father, uncles and aunts one by one, and then sat down at the main table, still sitting next to his grandfather.

When their eldest cousin walked out of the house, Lu Mingfei noticed that all the cousins ​​sitting at the same table turned their heads to look at their eldest cousin. There was envy in the eyes of these cousins ​​when they saw their eldest cousin.

Isn't it just envy! We are all descendants of the Lu family, so why can the eldest one go to school and come back home to be the eldest son, while the rest of them are just like the unwanted little cabbages in the fields? Not only do they not have the opportunity to study, but during the busy farming season they have to go to the fields to help the adults with work. Even after the work in the fields is done, they have no time to rest. Cutting grass for pigs, feeding pigs and chickens, cleaning the yard, collecting firewood, and making fires are all daily tasks for the children of the Lu family.

Among this group of people, only this eldest cousin who went to school did not have to do anything when he came home. Even his clothes were washed for him. The life of this old man must be so comfortable.

Lu Mingfei was the youngest child in the family, eleven years younger than his oldest cousin. He was five years old, and his eldest cousin was sixteen. In other families, a teenager would be considered an adult; but in his family, this sixteen-year-old eldest cousin was the eldest son, doing nothing and commanding ninety percent of the family's resources. The eldest wife was naturally delighted, but one wondered what the other two uncles and aunts felt.

All in all, he felt that this family was not as united as it seemed.

After their family's meal was served, Lu Mingfei realized that the meat he and his father had bought had been placed on the big table. There was none on their small table. Their table only had a pot of boiled vegetables and a large bowl of coarse grain steamed bread.

"..." Lu Mingfei, that was the meat that he and his biological father had earned by working hard all day selling things, and they had walked back and forth for several hours to buy it!!!

When the dishes were placed on the table, the children at the small tables didn't dare to grab the food until the grandfather at the main table gave the order. Because if anyone grabbed the food first without following the rules, they wouldn't get any dinner that day.

When Liu Sanniang arrived, she saw her son pouting slightly, and she knew he was unhappy. She also knew that he felt wronged. They had clearly earned money to buy the meat, and they had just begged their grandfather for so long to cook it, but now the child couldn't eat a single bite of meat. However, in this family, she, as a mother, didn't dare to stand up for the child, because if they started to quarrel, they would both suffer. So she could only hold the child's hand and pat it twice, as a way of comforting him.

Lu Mingfei had once instigated his sixth cousin, who was a year older than him, to cause trouble. Unsurprisingly, the old lady caught him and beat him up. This fact told him that the biased old lady would not go easy on her grandchildren, except for her eldest grandson.

Noticing his mother holding his hand, Lu Mingfei turned to look at her and gave her a forced smile. He wouldn't make a scene. Getting beaten for a bite of food, only to end up with no meat and no rice, was really unnecessary.

Old Man Lu at the main table picked up his chopsticks and started eating after seeing everyone sitting down. He said to the adults and children at the two tables, "Everyone, eat."

"Hey, Aye, you eat too." Boss Lu responded.

After the head of the family picked up his chopsticks, everyone at the table started eating.

At their small table, Mrs. Lu's daughter, Sun, was distributing food to everyone, adults and children alike, with a spoonful of wild vegetable soup and a steamed bun. However, for her own children, she would fill the spoonful a little more.

"Mom, why is there no meat? I want to eat meat, I want to eat meat." When Lu Liulang saw that there was no meat in the bowl, he shouted to his mother.

Mrs. Lu Si's wife, Chen, quickly covered the child's mouth to stop him from crying.

Hearing this, Mrs. Lu's daughter, Sun, glanced at the sisters-in-law sitting there and said with a smile, "The men work hard every day and need to eat something good. We women and children don't do any hard work, so we can just eat whatever we want and fill our stomachs. Isn't that right, Fourth Aunt?"

This statement specifically mentioned Chen as the adult.

Although Chen was suppressing her anger in her heart and didn't dare to show it on her face, she had to respond: "Yes, yes, sister-in-law, you are absolutely right."

After seeing that Chen and the other two sisters-in-law at the same table didn't dare to say anything, Sun was satisfied and continued to distribute food to the others. Because of Liu Lang's shouting, Sun deliberately only gave half a spoonful of vegetable soup and picked up the two smallest steamed buns to the other two daughters of the fourth room.

The two girls, Lu Sanhua and Lu Sihua, from the fourth room, saw that there was only half a bowl of soup in their bowls. They looked at their aunt. Seeing that their aunt was only busy comforting their unhappy brother, they did not dare to say anything to their aunt and could only lower their heads to eat.

If their mother-in-law is the head of the family, then Sun feels that she will take over her mother-in-law's position in the future. When her eldest son passes the imperial examination and becomes an official, won't the other branches of the family have to rely on their eldest branch for their livelihood?

Seeing this scene, Chen met Sun's eyes with a hint of provocation and complacency, and tried her best to suppress her inner anger, so as not to quarrel with her sister-in-law.

In reality, the Lu family's second and fourth branches knew that now that the eldest son of the first branch had been sent to school, the children of the other branches would have no chance to go to school. Over the years, they had already spent so much money on their eldest nephew. If he could pass the imperial examinations, the other branches could use the first branch's influence to start small businesses, earn money, and buy a few acres of fertile land. They might even be able to send their children and grandchildren to school, and even have their own grandchildren take the imperial examinations.

This is also the reason why people from other branches do not want to offend the eldest branch at this time.

Old Lady Lu, who was sitting at the big table, was very pleased to see that the adults and children at the small table were eating quietly and without making any noise. At the small table, the eldest daughter-in-law was distributing food to everyone, but at the big table, there was no need to share food; whoever wanted to eat could take whatever they wanted.

There was meat on the table today. Old Man Lu used his chopsticks to pick up a few pieces of meat and put them into his eldest grandson's bowl. He said to him earnestly, "Da Lang, you study hard every day, so eat more."

It was a rare occasion for the family to have meat, and seeing the extra meat in the bowl, Lu Dalang naturally accepted his grandfather's preference. Even when he was picking up food, he frequently reached out to the large bowl of meat with his chopsticks, each time accurately picking up a piece of meat and putting it in his bowl.

When the other adults at the table saw this, no one dared to say anything.

Only Lu Youtian turned to glance at his wife and children at the small table. He thought of his five-year-old son, who had followed him all the way to the city, spent the entire morning hawking, and finally earned a few bucks to buy some meat, but couldn't eat a single bite. He felt a pang of pain in his heart as he thought of his son begging him to buy meat, and how he'd happily talked all the way home about eating meat and making bone soup.

Looking at his nephew, who was now devouring meat, he asked himself: How much longer would they have to live like this? Did he really have to wait until his nephew passed the imperial examination and became an official before he could give his wife and children a bite of meat? At this moment, Lu Youtian began to doubt and ponder his current life and the future.

Lu Mingfei, however, was not the biological father of the man at the next table. He was lost in thought about his future. He saw a bowl of wild vegetable soup and a steamed cornbread in front of him, and he curled his lips inwardly. But he finally picked up the bowl and took a sip of the soup. Then he grabbed the whole grain cornbread and began to eat it in small bites. There was no other way. The whole grain cornbread was too irritating to the throat, so he could only take small bites and chew it several times before swallowing it.

Noticing that A Niang was in a daze, he grabbed a steamed bun and stuffed it into A Niang's hand: "A Niang, eat it."

"Hey, mommy eats too." Liu Sanniang took the steamed bun that her son stuffed into her hand, put it to her mouth and took a bite, thinking in her heart about her son's grievance of not being able to eat meat.