“You, as a mother, are not setting a good example for your child, making him lose face in front of others. Instead of reflecting on your own actions, you blame us. I think you are being unreasonable, like trying to force a sparrow to lay a goose egg.”
"Exactly! The Lu family has already severed ties with her, yet she still acts arrogantly in front of everyone. I wonder what she's relying on?"
"That guy used to be a servant in a wealthy family. He's more knowledgeable than us old mud-diggers. He's not arrogant at all!"
"What kind of insight does she have? She's nowhere near as knowledgeable as Sanlang's wife. At most, she might throw a little tantrum at her husband, unlike her!"
...
The villagers who were being insulted either retaliated or deliberately made sarcastic remarks, but Lu Cuilan didn't care. She hurriedly chased after Fang Mingming.
The Lu family didn't have time to pay much attention to Lu Cuilan. Jiang Tangtang and Lu Shiyan brought back so many children at once, which worried Old Man Lu, Madam Su, and the others.
With so many more mouths to feed, how are we going to fill them?
Moreover, children are not like adults.
Liu Chengfeng and Li Shi are both strong laborers; they can support themselves whether they hunt or gather wild game. The Lu family doesn't actually have to contribute anything; in many ways, they are the ones who benefit.
With Liu Chengfeng and Li Shi protecting them, the Lu family's prestige increased greatly, and ordinary people dared not easily provoke the Lu family.
But what can these children do?
In this chaotic world, children are a burden.
Luo Taohua pouted and pinched her husband's leg hard. "Go tell your third brother to send these children away immediately. I don't know what he was thinking. Things have just started to get a little better, and he brings back so many mouths to feed. Does he want to drag everyone down with him?"
Lu Shiwang slapped her hand away impatiently and said, "Shut up. Third Brother knows what to do."
At first, Luo Taohua kept her voice down, but after her husband yelled at her, she suppressed her anger and shrieked, "What does he know? If he knew what he was doing, he wouldn't have brought these children back. He can't even support his own children, yet he's raising other people's children. Is he out of his mind?"
Su was also annoyed and did not agree with Jiang Tangtang and Lu Shiyan bringing these children back.
But as soon as she heard her eldest daughter-in-law's words, she got angry, rushed over in a few steps, and started spewing punctuation marks at Luo Taohua, "Are we short of food or water? The grain and meat we eat at home, which one wasn't brought back by your third brother?"
They say we're fleeing from disaster, but look at us these days, we've had meat almost every day. We're living better than we did back in the village.
When your third brother brought back food, he ate with gusto, his mouth brimming with joy. Now that he's facing some difficulties, you criticize him. How can you be so accustomed to enjoying the good times and incapable of sharing hardship?
If you keep nagging, I'll have the boss divorce you, you lazy bum.
Luo Taohua wiped the drool off her face with her sleeve and said aggrievedly, "Mother, at least give me some face in front of the children! I'm not lazy anymore. I even went up the mountain today and dug up two baskets of mountain produce! It's not like I haven't done anything... I'm just worried about the family."
"Have you no shame? If you wanted a mother, you wouldn't have shouted it out like that, making the whole village laugh at your third brother and sister-in-law!" Su scolded.
"I just couldn't control myself for a moment, and my voice was a little loud..." Luo Taohua wanted to say that your voice was even louder than mine, but she didn't dare, fearing that she would provoke another barrage of criticism from Su Shi.
"Mother, my third brother and sister-in-law have been out all day and must be tired. Why don't we eat first?" Zhou Qiong's mother carefully smoothed things over, saying, "There are outsiders watching!"
Su noticed that many people were staring at her house, and several women were even watching the spectacle with amusement.
She glared at Luo Taohua and said in a low voice, "I'll let you off the hook for today, but you'd better be smarter in the future."
After warning Luo Taohua, she said loudly, "Alright, everyone's tired, let's eat first."
Because of the sudden influx of so many children, the food the Lu family had prepared was no longer sufficient.
The Su family then decided to give everyone a smaller share.
Looking at the bowl, which contained half the usual amount of food, Luo Taohua couldn't help but mutter complaints under her breath.
Lu Shiwang glanced awkwardly at Lu Shiyan and Jiang Tangtang, nudged Luo Taohua with his elbow, and gave her a warning look, signaling her to say less.
Lu Shiyan noticed their subtle actions and the somber atmosphere in the Lu family.
He said, "Father, Mother, and Elder Brother, you don't need to worry about the food for these children. I will bring back food later. If there isn't enough food for tonight, cook some more so that everyone has enough to eat."
Besides the carriage, he also found silver on the gang leader and his men today.
The men were working for Marquis Changping, so they had a considerable amount of silver on them. Lu Shiyan found a total of over three hundred taels of silver in their possession.
In addition, the food that the gang leader and his men stored in the cave could feed these children for one or two months without any problem.
However, since it was inconvenient to travel through the mountain roads with this group of children today, he hid the carriage and the grain somewhere.
I plan to move it back sometime later.
He briefly explained the situation, and Luo Taohua immediately shut her mouth in embarrassment.
Su asked her second son to fetch a bucket of water and asked Zhou Qiongniang to cook another pot of coarse grain and wild vegetable porridge.
The atmosphere at the Lu family gradually improved. Jiang Tangtang held her bowl, but she always felt that something was missing today.
She looked around and asked curiously, "Where's Chenyan? I haven't seen him come to eat."
The little guy doesn't talk; he often stays in his own world, watching a flower, an insect, or a nest of ants.
But when it's time to eat, he always likes to sit obediently with Jiang Tangtang. Sometimes he'll look at Jiang Tangtang and smile contentedly.
But today, Jiang Tangtang was all alone.
When Jiang Tangtang asked about Lu Chenyan, everyone suddenly realized what she meant. Looking at her grandsons, Madam Su said, "Jiaren and Jiahe, where's your brother? Didn't I tell you to take care of him?"
Lu Jiaren looked around but couldn't find Lu Chenyan, and then panicked. "We were together at first, and everyone was lying on the riverbank looking for fish. But I remembered what my third uncle said, that we shouldn't go into the river, so we looked around the riverbank and then went to look for insects. I don't know what happened after that."
Zhou Qiongniang hurriedly asked her son, "Tian Duomancang, have you seen your younger brother?"
Lu Mancang said, "We'll go with our elder brother to find the insects too."
Su glanced cautiously at her third son and daughter-in-law's expressions, feeling somewhat guilty, and raised her voice, "Didn't you call your brother when you went to find the insects?"
Lu Tianduo looked at the adults with some fear and said, "I called him, I asked him to come with us to find the bugs, but he wouldn't go, so we left on our own."
Finding insects was a favorite game for children in the countryside. In the past, families raised chickens, and catching insects would feed them.
Now that we're fleeing the disaster, we don't raise chickens anymore, so these insects have become snacks for the children.
The children love to find insects like grasshoppers, bamboo worms, and cicadas. They roast them in a fire and then eat them.
The Lu family felt there were no outsiders in the valley, so they were all busy with their own affairs. At most, they would remind the older children to take care of the younger ones.
No one expected this to happen.
The Lu family was thrown into chaos.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com