Chapter 23: Beaten
Zhang Guangzong was so angry when he heard this that his nose was about to be crooked. He touched the old lady and asked, "How dare they ask for it!"
The Liu family members were not afraid at all. They surrounded Zhang Guangzong's family aggressively. They did not mention reporting to the police, but kept saying: "We are going to ask the county and make you famous among the scholars. Let everyone know who you, Zhang Guangzong, are. Even the old ladies in the village will not be spared!"
The reputation card played by the Liu family almost hit Zhang Guangzong's sore spot.
Seeing that Liu did not restrain his family members, Zhang clan leader could only swallow his anger and whispered to Zhang Guangzong: "Either you don't take the exam for the scholar in the future, or you just consider yourself unlucky to have met this family of scoundrels. We have no better solution."
It is absolutely impossible to ask Zhang Guangzong to give up taking the examination for the scholar degree.
When Niu Niu was about half a year old, one night, Zhang Guangzong dreamed that he had become the top scorer in the imperial examination, and was parading in the streets with flowers in his hair, feeling very proud and happy.
Four years later, he still kept thinking about this dream. Even though he was only a student now, he still firmly believed that he had the potential to be the top scholar.
So how could he give up the exam? After all kinds of thoughts flashed through his mind, he gritted his teeth and said to the scoundrels of the Liu family: "Isn't it just compensation? I'll pay it!"
When Patriarch Zhang heard this, he felt terrible.
Zhang Guangzong could agree to pay, but he couldn't say it so readily. Clan leader Zhang originally wanted to help him bargain, and the other party's outrageous price of thirty taels clearly left room for negotiation.
But now that Zhang Guangzong had done this, it was good enough that they didn't raise the price. Clan leader Zhang thought that scholars were so worldly-wise and didn't understand the ways of the world at all.
The Liu family was naturally overjoyed. Mrs. Chen, who had been crying about being molested, immediately stopped feeling sore in her legs and howling. She quickly wiped the tears from her face and grabbed Zhang Guangzong, demanding money from him.
Zhang Guangzong was naturally furious, but he still had a plan, and said, "I can give you money, but I want a written agreement. You Liu family are not allowed to bring this up again. If I hear rumors, I will call you to see the officials."
When Mrs. Chen saw that there was a huge sum of money, thirty taels of silver, she didn't care about such a small matter and agreed without hesitation. They were illiterate, so they found a literate person to help read the contents, and then they took turns to put their fingerprints on the document.
After receiving the thirty taels of silver and leaving the Zhang family, Mrs. Chen said to her eldest son with emotion, "Zhang Guangzong said that the money he earned from selling ginseng would be gone after the house was built. It seems that he was just kidding. He took out thirty taels of silver without a single word. Maybe there is even more hidden in the house."
Her son nodded vigorously, and was more concerned about another question: "Mom, we just got so much money, why don't we go to Lao Gu's house to buy some meat? We haven't eaten meat for a long time."
Mrs. Chen lived a very frugal life. If it was normal, she would not agree to this. But with thirty taels of silver in her arms and seeing the pitiful look of her children and grandchildren, she stamped her feet and said, "Buy it! The whole family can eat meat today!"
When the younger generations in the family heard this, they immediately burst into cheers.
They spoke very loudly, and the Zhang family members in the yard heard everything.
Zhang Guangzong was so angry again that he fell backwards. He had sold Niuniu to Gu Mingda before and had finally earned five taels of silver. Now, before the money had even warmed up, he was blackmailed by these scoundrels from the Liu family and even owed twenty-five taels of silver!
Now the Liu family took the money and turned around to go to the Gu family to buy meat. In his eyes, this behavior is no different from the money returning to Gu Mingda's hands!
But his four-year-old son, Jinbao, didn't know that the adults in the family had just had a heavy hemorrhage. He just heard others discussing eating wild boar meat, and immediately started crying and making a fuss: "I want to eat wild boar meat, too! I want to eat it! Go buy some!"
When Mrs. Cai can order her daughter-in-law around, she will never cause trouble for herself. When she saw Jinbao making trouble, she immediately glared at Mrs. Cai.
Little Cai had no choice but to squat down and hold her little son Jinbao in her arms, and whispered to comfort him: "Jinbao, be good, we don't eat wild boar meat. Mother will make you some frangipani later."
Although Jinbao was young, his temper was already bad. He would get what he wanted. When he heard this, his first reaction was to slap Little Cai and shove her, saying, "I don't want to eat frangipani! I don't want to eat frangipani, I want to eat wild boar meat!"
Little Cai was caught off guard and was pushed by her son, causing her to stumble back and fall on her butt.
Jin Bao didn't feel sorry for his mother at all, and kept shouting: "I want to eat wild boar meat, go buy it for me!"
Seeing that his family members did not agree, he simply rolled on the ground and made a scene, causing a headache for the whole family.
Mrs. Cai couldn't bear to scold her grandson, so she could only scold her daughter-in-law: "You spendthrift woman, you can't even teach a child well, what's the point of my family marrying you!"
Little Cai struggled to get up from the ground. She didn't dare to refute her mother-in-law and could only lower her head and keep coaxing Jinbao.
But the more he coaxed Jinbao, the more excited he became, and he even said something more outrageous: "I will die if I can't eat wild boar meat!"
These words made Mrs. Cai feel distressed. What she cared about most were her children and grandchildren. Jinbao was her precious grandson whom she had been waiting for so long. She couldn't bear to see him sad, so she said to Zhang Guangzong: "Guangzong, why don't you pay some money and ask the villagers to cut some wild boar meat..."
Zhang Guangzong thought of the thirty taels of silver he had lost, and the loss of face he had suffered in front of everyone today because of the Liu family's unreasonable harassment. He was immediately furious, and he was no longer happy with his son. He directly picked up the fat boy from the ground, threw him into the house, and said viciously:
"I told you to keep asking for wild boar meat! If you keep asking, I won't give you any dinner!"
Jin Bao was locked in the room, howling like a ghost. Zhang Guangzong became more and more angry. He slapped Little Cai in the face again and cursed, "You can't even discipline a child, you're useless!"
When Niu Niu was in this family, Zhang Guangzong would beat Niu Niu whenever he got angry outside, and the others would just be scolded at most.
Now that Niu Niu is gone as the scapegoat, Mrs. Cai finally remembered what kind of person her husband was, and she became so scared that she shrank like a quail.
Only Mrs. Cai, as a mother, felt that she could not bear the beating from her son. She still looked like a wicked mother-in-law and kept fanning the flames: "That's right, this woman has only given birth to Jin Bao after so many years of marriage. If it were someone else, she would have divorced and returned to her parents' home long ago. But she is not satisfied and only knows how to do bad things!"
Zhang Guangzong did as his mother wished and slapped little Cai again, leaving her hair in disarray and looking very miserable.
As Xiao Cai hurriedly dodged, the first thought that came to her mind was that it would be great if Niuniu was still in this family, then she wouldn't be beaten...
After the wild boar was carried down the mountain, it was sent to Lao Gu's house. Because the wild boar was already dead, they didn't hire a butcher. Instead, they asked Zhang the hunter to do the butchering and divide the meat among the people who went up the mountain with him.
This pig was heavier than the Gu family had estimated with the naked eye, almost 300 kilograms. The actual amount of meat obtained after slaughtering it was over 200 kilograms. If divided based on the number of people, each person could get 15 kilograms of meat.
Including the three children, a total of five people from the Gu family went into the mountains and obtained more than 70 kilograms of meat. As the main force in killing the wild boar, they did not even get half of the wild boar meat.
As Mrs. Gu watched more than 100 kilograms of wild boar meat being distributed, the pain in her eyes almost overflowed. However, Gu Mingda had already said that it would be divided equally, and even if Mrs. Gu was dissatisfied, she did not say anything to spoil the fun. At most, she did not dare to continue watching the meat distribution because she was too heartbroken.
Old Man Gu and the people from the second branch of the Gu family in the room didn't care at all about dividing the pork outside, they all surrounded Niu Niu.
Niuniu was stared at by everyone. She took small sips of the hot water in the cup and said repeatedly, "Grandpa, Dad, Mom, Big Brother and Third Brother, I really don't feel unwell anywhere. I'm fine."
Niu Niu finished drinking the water, put down the cup, and jumped up and down on the spot to show that she was really not injured.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
Gu Mingda insisted, "Let's go to town to see a doctor. If not, I'll always feel uneasy."
As soon as he finished speaking, a woman's scream suddenly came from the yard.
"Mom, this wild boar meat was clearly killed by our dad, why did he give away so much meat!" Liu Erni's voice was so loud that it was clearly heard by everyone in the room.
(End of this chapter)
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