Chapter 12 Make more money

Seeing the self-blame in Zhao Suying's eyes, she immediately changed the subject: "Mom, Xiaokang was in poor health when he was young, and no one said anything when the good ones were given to him first. But he is still like this now. What do you think your eldest sister-in-law will think? What do the other children think?"

When Sun Xiuqin was seven months pregnant, she fell and almost had a miscarriage. Perhaps this was the reason why Li Kang often suffered from headaches and fevers when he was a child. He would easily catch a cold when the weather changed. He was the only boy in the family at the time, so they were naturally more concerned.

"Ah." Zhao Suying sighed: "You know he is weak. Although he has not been sick much in recent years, his body is not as good as the other children.

Your second sister-in-law treats him like the apple of her eye. Naturally, she is afraid that he will develop a chronic illness, so she keeps everything under control.

In the past, the children didn’t suffer any loss, but isn’t the family situation different now than before? "

"But mother, we are not afraid of scarcity but inequality. That is to say, we are not afraid of poverty or lack of things, but we are afraid of unequal distribution. If he is injured or sick, you will naturally worry about him. You always say that he is in poor health. Have you thought of ways to improve it? In addition to taking medicine, it is also necessary to keep fit. Life lies in exercise. If you don't let him do anything like my second sister-in-law, how can he be healthy?

Life is tight, but all the children have to eat what they want. If there is not enough food, none of them will eat. There is favoritism, and even if those who are treated poorly don't say it out loud, they will feel resentful. In the long run, they will either accumulate deep resentment and do extreme things, or they will become numb and will not resist when they are bullied in the future. Either way, it is not a good sign.

We can’t always ignore the other children just because they are sensible and don’t talk.”

Zhao Suying smiled: "When did you start speaking so elegantly?"

Li Wanyue chuckled: "After all, I have been in the Gao family for a few years, it can't be that I have gained nothing."

Zhao Suying smiled and nodded: "Okay, Mom will pay attention next time, you can take a rest."

After saying this, he stood up and left.

Li Wanyue followed him out the door, as she had to deal with a personal problem.

When I stood in the simple open-air hut surrounded by shabby wooden boards, I felt terrible.

The smell was bearable, but she was worried about falling down because of the wooden planks.

There were a few bamboo sticks stuck on the ground. When I guessed their purpose, I was completely devastated.

He closed his eyes, prepared himself mentally, and finally stood up with a fearless look on his face.

For the sake of quality of life, you must make more money.

In the main house, Li Youshan and Zhao Suying counted the silver in the wooden box. Together with Li Wanyue's nine taels of silver, there were a total of ten taels and three hundred and eighty-two copper coins in the box.

Li Youshan unfolded a piece of rag on which various patterns were drawn with fire sticks. This was his own 'account book'.

He pointed at the patterns one by one and muttered to himself.

A pattern of a round face with squinting eyes and three circles drawn behind it: "The village chief's family has three taels of silver."

A round-eyed square face with a circle at the back: "One tael of silver from the eldest daughter-in-law's family."

A bull head pattern with a circle drawn behind it: "There is one tael of silver at Tie Niu's nephew's house."

A tree branch pattern with two circles at the back: "One tael of silver for every family that has roots."

A pattern of a field map with five circles at the back: "Five hundred copper coins for a family with field."

The pattern of a gold ingot, followed by eight circles: "Eight hundred copper coins for a wealthy family."

…

Li Youshan muttered to himself while counting on his fingers. He found that the current debt owed to others was 14 taels and 7 cents of silver.

Zhao Suying asked, "How's his father doing?"

Li Youshan: "Even if I pay back all the money, I'm still short of four taels of silver."

Zhao Suying comforted him, "It's alright. Farming is almost over. If the three brothers Dachuan all go to work, they can earn 15 wen a day in the town and 25 wen a day in the county. Even if each person is paid 20 wen a day, that's... 60 wen a day, and... 1 tael and 8 qian a month. It will be enough in three months. Even if you can't find work every day, you should be able to save enough in half a year. After deducting food and household expenses, you should be able to pay it off this year."

When the time comes, I will pay back the money, save up for a few more months, and raise enough money for the betrothal gift, and then propose to Sandong's future daughter-in-law. We have been engaged for a year, so it is time to propose."

Li Youshan nodded: "Fortunately, most of the Li family's relationships are good and they are willing to lend money to our family. Otherwise, I don't know if we can recover to the way it is now.

"If Yueyue hadn't brought back the nine taels of silver, we wouldn't know when we would be able to pay it back. We might even have to sell our land to pay it back. We have to keep one tael for ourselves and use the rest. Let's see which families to pay back first."

Li Youshan nodded and began to ponder.

Under the old locust tree in the middle of the village, children were playing and women were chatting while sewing shoe soles: "Li Wanyue is so unlucky. It was such an honor to marry a scholar, but she was divorced after only three years. If it were me, I would be too ashamed to live. Li Youshan's family actually took her back. Tsk, tsk, they are not afraid of affecting the marriage of his younger generation."

"Who says it's not true? Youshan has been borrowing money everywhere to treat his injuries. Now his family's Sandong has been engaged for a year and has not yet made an offer of marriage to the Yang family. With one more mouth to feed at home, I think he won't be able to save up enough money for the betrothal gift even next year."

Some were against it and some were in support: "They didn't divorce, they divorced. That's not the right thing to do. Besides, even if he's a scholar, if he has bad behavior, would you want your daughter to marry him and suffer? I heard that Gao Zhiyuan didn't consummate his marriage with the girl from the Youshan family, and yet he was scolded by his mother-in-law as a hen that couldn't lay eggs. If it were you, would you tolerate that?"

"Aunt Wang is right. Who can bear to see their daughter suffer this kind of injustice? After three years of working like a slave, this is the result. Any biological child would not tolerate this. Can scholars bully others?"

"Gao Zhiyuan is not heartless. I heard that he compensated her with ten taels of silver and wrote her an IOU for another five taels. He was quite kind and righteous."

…

In the old house of the Li family, the second wife Liu Jinhua and her eldest daughter Li Xiumei walked into the yard.

"Grandpa, grandma, I'm here to see you." Li Xiumei greeted with a smile.

Old Mrs. Li looked at her with a smile: "Oh, Damei is here, come and sit down."

"Ai."

After the mother and daughter sat down, Liu Jinhua immediately said, "Dad, Mom, have you heard? That night at my eldest brother's house, Yue girl was divorced by the Gao family and returned home."

Old Man Li is Li Youshan's father Li Song, and Old Lady Li is Li Youshan's stepmother Wu. When Li Youshan was three years old, his biological mother died of illness. Two months later, Old Man Li married a second wife, who gave birth to a son, Li Youfu, the following year, and later a daughter, Li Chunyan.

"Really?" Old Mrs. Li's eyes widened instantly.

Old man Li frowned: "Second wife, tell me what's going on?"

Liu Jinhua sat down on a bench nearby: "Dad, I just passed by the big locust tree and heard them say that Gao Zhiyuan's family disliked Li Wanyue for not being able to have children and wanted to divorce her. Later, considering the relationship between husband and wife, they agreed to a divorce. But a divorce is almost the same as being divorced. She dared to go home as a divorced woman, and she was not afraid of affecting the marriages of her nieces. Fortunately, their branch has been separated, otherwise our younger generation would also be affected."