"You didn't do it on purpose? Did your sister deliberately bump her mouth and make it look like a rabbit's mouth?"
Old Mrs. Li didn't hold back her words, scaring her two impetuous grandsons.
Jia'an and Jiaxi couldn't see how serious their sister's injuries were, so they assumed that she would really end up with a three-lobed mouth like a rabbit.
They cried even louder, as if the sky had fallen.
Everyone in the family couldn't help but laugh, including Jiayin, but her mouth hurt from laughing.
She's not a real child; she wouldn't hold a grudge over something so trivial.
So she reached out and ran towards the two naughty boys.
Grandma Li said, "Don't cry, come and hug your sister. Your sister is so good! You all dropped her like this, and she's not even angry."
Jia'an and Jiaxi quickly wiped away their tears and ran forward.
Holding their little sister's chubby body, the two felt even worse.
"Grandma, we will definitely take good care of our little sister from now on."
"Yes, I will never leave my sister behind again."
Despite the pain, Jiayin kissed each of them on the cheek, and the little incident passed.
The family has another source of income, and it's quite substantial.
Everyone, young and old, was happy, and lunch was a very lavish affair.
I stewed a smoked rabbit, stir-fried a piece of cured pork with cabbage, steamed a large pot of mixed rice, and also made egg drop soup.
Jia'an and Jiaxi ate without even looking up.
A bowl of rice is gone in the blink of an eye once it's in your hand.
Zhao Yuru quietly scooped some rice from her bowl and gave it to her son.
You little brat, you'll eat your father out of house and home!
As Grandma Li fed her granddaughter egg custard, she began to ponder what to do next.
Jia'an and Jiaxi are ten years old this year. Although it is their nominal age, they are actually more than eight years old.
The family always has to make plans for their future...
Jia'an and Jiaxi were eating happily, completely unaware that their days of carefree fun were about to end...
At night, the whole village drifted off to sleep.
As usual, this is the busiest time for the Li family.
Watering the fields requires manpower, so tonight, only Grandma Li and her family are at home bundling vegetables.
And there was Jiayin, who was sleeping soundly with drool drool, keeping her company.
Adding water to the irrigation system and harvesting vegetables was exhausting. This little baby was practically working overtime.
Grandma Li was worried about her granddaughter, who had fallen and injured herself during the day.
So she put the two chairs together, making a small cradle. She laid a mattress in the middle, and her granddaughter was placed inside, safe and comfortable.
Occasionally, when she has some free time, she can fan her granddaughter with a palm-leaf fan.
Tonight, besides the green vegetables, there's also a ceramic bowl of cherries.
Jia An and Jia Xi were tying vegetables while drooling.
Grandma Li found it amusing and picked up a few cherries for her grandson to enjoy.
"This stuff is too precious; the money from selling it will be very useful to your family. Just try a taste. After it rains in a few days, you can eat as much as you want."
"Don't worry, we know."
"Yes, we don't steal food."
The two boys readily agreed, and their eyes never looked at the earthenware pot again.
Old Mrs. Li couldn't help but sigh. This damned world, with natural disasters and man-made calamities happening all the time.
In previous years, cherries were so cheap that children would just lie on the tree and eat them freely.
Now it's actually a precious thing!
When Jiayin was picking cherries, she was impatient and picked through them. There were cherry leaves and some rotten fruit in the terracotta basin.
But Old Mrs. Li had no intention of picking and washing them.
This stuff will rot if it gets wet, so you have to wash it and eat it immediately.
The three of them, a grandfather, grandmother, and grandson, worked for most of the night, filling baskets with all the vegetables, and the rooster crowed.
Li Lao Er and Li Lao Si also rushed back from the fields; they were about to set off immediately.
Otherwise, the villagers would run into them if they got up early to fetch water.
The big blue mule worked very hard, so Grandma Li specially prepared a cabbage for it.
After eating heartily, Daqing set off full of energy.
Today, because of the cherries, sales are even better than yesterday.
The mule cart returned when the sun was high in the sky.
The fourteen taels of silver were put back into the money box by Old Lady Li.
The whole family was filled with excitement and joy.
Money was the family's lifeline.
They never imagined that after leaving their hometown and coming to a foreign land, they would have such good days ahead of them!
"Hongying, make extra steamed egg custard for lunch, and cut some meat too. You've been working so hard at home lately, eat well to replenish your energy!"
There was undisguised joy in Grandma Li's eyes, "We're not lacking in these things now!"
Tao Hongying and Zhao Yuru both laughed and responded loudly.
At lunchtime, the family ate with great relish, but the old men next door were completely bewildered.
Is the Li family going to starve themselves? Are they planning to eat every meal they can get?
The old man wanted to ask the Li family, but Uncle Zhao stopped him.
He frequented the Li family's residence most often, and he had some vague suspicions. The Li family must have some way of making money, otherwise they wouldn't be so "wasteful."
They don't need to dig deeper; they just hope the Li family gets better and better.
So, the old men put in even more effort when watering the plants at night.
He also took out his treasured saber, which he had kept for many years, to guard against wild animals coming down from the mountain and damaging the crops.
Because within a radius of dozens of miles, only the Li family's fields still had some greenery.
The rest of the mountains and forests were completely withered and yellow, and the crops of each family were utterly beyond saving.
Everyone remained silent, as if they had been given a poison to make them mute.
They didn't know what to say, or rather, they had nowhere to turn for help.
When I came to the Li family's house to fetch water in the morning, the courtyard was extremely quiet.
No one gossiped, no one joked.
Only the Li family remained busy.
They rest during the day and carry water to irrigate the crops and bundle vegetables into baskets at night.
Earning over ten taels a day, the silver seemed to flow like water, filling the money box in just a few days.
The Li family members were extremely conflicted.
I was hoping it would rain soon and end the drought. Secretly, I also wanted to hold out a few more days so we could earn more money from selling produce.
Jiayin was also exhausted, busy every day with irrigating, cutting vegetables, and picking cherries.
Even so, she still had to figure out what to eat to nourish her family.
She took out a lot of meat from the refrigerator in the courtyard, leaving almost only fish and shrimp.
She even painfully pulled out one of the hens from the yard.
Fortunately, the old hen that had been lying in the hut earlier was very helpful.
Now, more than forty fluffy little chicks have joined the family.
The Li family, young and old, eats steamed eggs, scrambled eggs, stewed meat, and stewed chicken every day, constantly nourishing themselves. But even the strongest of them all, Li Laosi, has become much thinner and darker…
And so, another half month passed.
Finally, one afternoon, a few white clouds drifted in from the sky.
Everyone stared intently, not daring to speak or cover the soy sauce vat with firewood.
The old rule is that you can't fight for rain.
If you rush to do things before it rains, you might scare the rain away.
I don't know if there's any scientific basis for this, but at this moment, we can't afford to make any mistakes.
The entire village was extremely quiet, silent, and heavy.
No one ate dinner; they sat in the dark night, waiting quietly.
Finally, a bolt of lightning ripped through the sky, followed by a sudden, deafening clap of thunder.
Large raindrops pattered down from the sky, hitting the rooftops, the treetops, and the parched fields!
"Waaah, there's hope!"
It's unclear which woman was the first to wail, but that did ignite a mix of anguish and ecstasy in everyone.
Under the cover of night, countless people ran out of their homes, shouting wildly in the pouring rain.
"It's raining! It's raining!"
Some even knelt down and kowtowed frantically, seemingly expressing gratitude for nothing.
The children rushed into the puddle and rolled around in it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com