As soon as Old Man Shen saw Hu Lili, he immediately greeted her warmly: "Come in, it's cold outside, right? Come on and warm up on the kang!"
Hu Lili was always a little uneasy. Although Old Man Shen was usually quite nice to her, he was surprisingly nice today.
She walked into the house hesitantly and replied to Old Man Shen with a smile: "It's okay. It's over the New Year. The weather doesn't seem to be as cold as before."
Old Man Shen was also happy to continue the conversation: "Yes, it's obviously not as cold as before these few days. From now on, the weather will get better day by day, and we will be busy here!"
Hu Lili looked like she was willing to learn: "What kind of work is there in the spring?"
Speaking of farm work, Old Man Shen's tone was a little more cheerful: "Oh, there is a lot of work to do. The first one is to turn the soil. There are not many donkeys in our village, so most of the work has to be done by people with pickaxes."
"After turning the land, we have to dig up the manure. Whether the land can be strong or not depends on how much fertilizer we can apply in the spring. By then, I guess you women will dig up the manure at home, and we men will carry it up the mountain..."
Old man Shen spoke with great interest, but Hu Lili was so disgusted that she almost vomited.
The thought of digging out all that dirt from the pit made her feel nauseous and want to vomit.
Seeing that Old Man Shen was still talking endlessly about this, Hu Lili had to interrupt him forcefully: "Grandpa Shen, then...what do we usually grow here?"
Old man Shen didn't care about being interrupted, but continued to talk about the types of food grown in Dongliang Village: "Most of them are corn, which has a higher yield than others, and the government also wants corn when paying public grain."
"The others are sorghum, millet, sweet potatoes and the like."
"Anyway, plant whatever has a high yield, as long as people don't starve to death!"
Speaking of not starving to death, Hu Lili was a little curious: "How many times a year do we distribute food rations? Will we distribute more after the spring?"
"We will give it out once before planting, but it's not much. Our village is not a big one, and most of the food rations harvested in autumn are distributed, so there is not much left before planting."
In fact, Dongliang Village does not have a warehouse large enough to store grain for a long time.
After the harvested grain is dried, it is packed into bags and divided into the public grain that needs to be paid. Most of the rest is distributed to the villagers.
The reason why a portion was reserved for spring was simply because we were afraid that during the farming season, some families would have no food to eat and would not have the energy to work.
While Hu Lili was chatting with Old Man Shen, she was also paying attention to other people in the Shen family.
She found that the Shen family kept looking at her today.
At the beginning, the feeling of uneasiness became more and more serious.
However, until they started eating, the Shen family did not make any requests to her.
At the dinner table, Hu Lili held the bowl and thanked Old Man Shen happily: "Thank you, Grandpa Shen, this meal is really delicious."
Old Man Shen smiled and waved his hands: "Don't thank me, this is all done by your second aunt. She said that you have been here for so long, so she has to show some appreciation."
"You've seen the conditions of our family. We don't have anything good to treat you. We can only make do with simple meals. Please don't be disgusted."
Ouch?
What Old Man Shen said really took Hu Lili by surprise.
Although what Old Man Shen said was very nice, it made Hu Lili even more certain that the Shen family must have something to ask of her.
Otherwise, she has been in the Shen family for so long, why did they only think of welcoming her now?
So she doesn't believe that there is nothing wrong with the Shen family!
Besides, Li Xiang is a stubborn woman. How can she decide the food rations for the family?
Although Hu Lili's mind was in a state of confusion, she did not show it on her face.
He pretended to be grateful and thanked Li Xiang.
Old Man Shen was very satisfied with the atmosphere at the dinner table, and then he winked at Li Xiang.
His original plan was to let Li Xiang talk to Hu Lili in private in the west room after dinner.
But after chatting with Hu Lili just now, Old Man Shen felt that the atmosphere was just right now and he had a better chance of success than if he talked about it in private.
Li Xiang received her father-in-law's gaze and suddenly became nervous, and her hands holding the chopsticks began to tremble.
It was Li Xiaoqin, who was sitting next to her, who secretly pinched her thigh that calmed her down.
Li Xiang looked at Hu Lili's smiling face and said, "Hu Zhiqing, is the food enough? If not, I'll give you some more."
When she said this, Wang Huilian, who had been holding back her anger, almost fell over in anger.
Don’t you have any idea how much food you have cooked?
Another bowl?
A bowl of cold water?
The bowl of rice that Hu Lili is eating now was saved from the mouths of the others!
Hu Lili looked at the unnatural smile on Li Xiang's face, lowered her head and rolled her eyes.
"No need, I don't eat much, this is enough!"
At this moment, she regretted taking advantage of the Shen family.
If Hu Lili still can't see that the Shen family is setting a Hongmen Banquet for her, then she can just find a rope and hang herself!
Seeing that Hu Lili was about to finish the porridge in the bowl with slurps, Li Xiang became a little anxious.
"Hu...Hu Zhiqing, my family is in trouble and we want to find you..."
Before Li Xiang could finish, Hu Lili, who had just finished the last mouthful of porridge in her bowl, interrupted her immediately: "The porridge cooked by Second Auntie today is really delicious. I'm done. You guys take your time. I'm going to that room first!"
After saying that, Hu Lili prepared to go downstairs and put on her shoes.
In order to show his appreciation for Hu Lili, he let her sit on the kang during meals.
Hu Lili was quite happy at that time.
Because this seat can only be occupied by people of status.
But now it has become an obstacle preventing her from getting out of bed.
Wang Huilian, who was sitting at the outermost position, moved her butt backwards and immediately blocked Hu Lili's way.
Wang Huilian: "Hu Zhiqing, why don't you sit and chat with us for a while? Why are you so busy? You don't have much to do anyway, right?"
Hu Lili looked at Wang Huilian's expression that did not tolerate rejection and secretly thought that something was wrong.
She glanced at the other people out of the corner of her eye, and sure enough, like Wang Huilian, they were afraid that she would run away.
When a whole family is surrounding a little girl, they don't actually need to say anything. Just staring at you is enough to make you suffer.
What's more, Hu Lili and they were just tenant and landlord.
For her own safety, Hu Lili could only slowly retreat: "Then... let's chat!"
No matter what, she didn't believe that the Shen family would dare to kill for money.
After all, she was an educated youth from a big city, not one of those nameless rural people.
Seeing that Hu Lili was not leaving, Li Xiang quickly took over the conversation: "Hu Zhiqing, our second son was wrongly detained in the detention center, and we urgently need money to redeem him."
"We have collected some money ourselves, but it is still not enough. We would like to borrow some from you! How much can you lend us?"
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