After entering the courtyard, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law stopped walking. Li Dahua shouted in a trembling voice: "Mom, are you home? I came to see you."
There was no movement in the room and no one came out.
He shouted again: "Mom, I didn't mean to burn you last time. I came to apologize to you and brought Xiaocao with me."
Zhao Xiaocao glared at Li Dahua in dissatisfaction and asked her what she was doing. It wasn't her who was being burned.
Still no movement.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law looked at each other. Zhao Xiaocao whispered, "Maybe grandma and Qin Nian are out."
Li Dahua grinned with relief: "Xiao Cao, we are fools. We waited behind the firewood pile for so long, but we didn't expect that they left so early.
Hurry up, finish the job and then we can go. Do you have the axe with you?"
"I have it with me. It's in the backpack."
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law entered the room and found no one there. Li Dahua's eyes first went to the old cabinet at the end of the kang.
There were two quilts stacked on the cabinet and a big lock on the cabinet door. Apart from that, it was clean and empty.
After all, it was stealing. Li Dahua's voice was shaking: "Hurry up and take out the axe."
After saying this, she got on the kang.
Zhao Xiaocao was also shaking. He put the backpack on the ground, bent down, took out the axe from it, and handed it to Li Dahahua.
Li Dahua knelt on one knee on the kang, raised the axe, and hit the big padlock on the cabinet door.
With a "click", the big padlock shook twice, but it was intact. The way it hung on the cabinet door seemed to be mocking Li Dahua's stupidity and shamelessness.
"Your grandma's bastard, look at your little naughty look, can't I deal with you, a broken lock?"
Li Dahua raised the axe higher and hit the padlock again - still intact.
When he hit it for the third time, except for a few places where the cabinet door was cracked, the lock was still intact.
"Mom, please try harder, Qin Nian and grandma will be back soon."
Li Dahua glared at Zhao Xiaocao and said, "You said it was easy, but you still need to use some strength. If I had the strength, could I not use it?
When you went back to your parents' home, you brought a basin of broken rice bran. If you had brought some cornmeal, I would have had more strength."
After saying that, Li Dahua put the axe on the kang, spat into her right hand, and rubbed her hands together: "Look at this time."
She picked up the axe and swung it at the padlock.
"Bah."
The padlock was smashed and fell onto the kang. The man stared at Li Dahahua with crooked eyebrows, as if mocking her stupidity and shamelessness.
Li Dahua didn't care about the lock. She hurriedly opened the cabinet door, knelt on the kang, stuck out her big butt, and reached into the cabinet.
She took out a skirt, which belonged to her mother. She had seen Mrs. Li wearing it when she was very young. Now it was covered with patches.
Li Dahua was stunned and quickly threw the skirt behind her. She lowered her head to look inside and continued to take things out.
He pulled out a small round winnowing basket made of thin bamboo strips without a beam, which contained a thread board, a pair of scissors, a few pieces of old floral cloth, and an unfinished shoe.
"What's the point of putting a broken dustpan in the cupboard?"
Li Dahua grumbled and kicked the small dustpan behind her. The cabinet was dark and she couldn't see where the silver was, so she could only continue to search.
On the left, take out a handful of air.
On the right, there is still a handful of air.
Li Dahua lowered her head and looked inside. She reached into the cabinet from the waist up and felt every corner of the cabinet with her hands, but there was nothing.
Li Dahua stepped out, sweating profusely.
"My mother is the same, but she only has a few taels of silver, where did she hide it?"
Li Dahua was mumbling to herself as she stepped out of the closet when she suddenly heard someone talking behind her:
"What are you two ghost soldiers doing here?"
Li Dahua turned around and saw Mrs. Li standing at the door, looking at her with a pair of cold eyes.
Li Dahua and Zhao Xiaocao were frightened out of their wits.
The first thought was to run.
Li Dahua was in a hurry to get off the kang, but she had already been hit on the back by Mrs. Li with several sticks, and was screaming in pain.
Zhao Xiaocao wasn't much better off, as he was also hit with two sticks.
Mrs. Li was so angry that she yelled, "You are so young and you have learned to steal.
You can't afford to live, right? If you can't afford to live, just die. How can you do such a shameless thing? "
After beating Zhao Xiaocao, he beat Li Dahua.
Zhao Xiaocao took the opportunity to escape.
Li Dahua was beaten so hard that she cried out in agony: "Mom, I was wrong. I didn't want to steal the silver. My mother-in-law and Qin Rongsheng forced me to do this."
After being hit a few more times, Li Dahua finally found an opportunity and escaped from the house.
Zhao Xiaocao ran very fast, leaving only a blurry figure.
After being scalded by Li Dahahua last time, Mrs. Li no longer had any affection for Li Dahahua.
This time when she got the chance, she really took ruthless action.
Li Dahua was hit by her and cried for her parents, with a bloody head.
Seeing Li Dahua running away howling, Mrs. Li did not chase after her, but snorted coldly:
"Based on my understanding of you beasts, how can you not hide the silver?"
Last night, Mrs. Li put the eight taels of silver and the previous twelve taels of silver into a cloth bag.
She handed the bag to Qin Nian: "Xiao Nian, take it to the warehouse and find a place to hide it.
Let’s not talk about others for now. Once the Qin family knows that you are engaged, they will definitely take advantage of me being out and about to steal the money.”
Qin Nian had come into contact with the Qin family several times and knew their character. She took the cloth bag containing the silver and turned to go to the warehouse.
What warehouse is there to hide in? There is already a ready-made space. Qin Nian threw the small cloth bag into the space.
Not to mention the Qin family, no one could find it except herself.
Early this morning, Qin Nian and Geng Feng went up the mountain. The weather was so hot, they wanted to see if the land was short of water.
If there is a shortage of water, you have to water it so that you can have a good harvest in the fall.
Mrs. Li makes shoes at home.
Ye Meizi came over and sat on the edge of the kang to chat with Mrs. Li:
"Auntie, Zhenhai went out for a walk just now and heard from the villagers that the imperial court has sent people to provide disaster relief.
It seems he is a prince. After Zhenhai came home and told me, he went out to inquire again. "
"Oh, that's great! If the imperial court really sends people to provide disaster relief, we can distribute relief grain.
We, the disaster victims, will be able to survive.”
Mrs. Li couldn't sit still any longer: "Meizi, shall we go to the headman's house and ask around?"
"Okay, let's go find out."
Mrs. Li put her things in simple order, went downstairs to put on her shoes, and followed Ye Meizi to the headman's house.
Not long after the two men left, Li Dahua and Zhao Xiaocao came and entered the house to look for silver.
Suqin and the head of the village were not at home. Li Pozi and Ye Meizi stood on the roadside and chatted with the villagers for a while. When they came back, they blocked Li Dahua and Zhao Xiaocao in the house.
Only after beating Li Dahua until her head was bleeding did the grief and anger in Mrs. Li's heart finally dissipate.
Looking at the broken padlock and the axe thrown on the kang, she felt mixed emotions.
How could the daughter she had raised with all her effort become like this?
Mrs. Li didn't think that it was hunger that caused Li Dahua to do this, she thought it was human nature.
People with bad human nature can do anything even if they are not hungry.
Mrs. Li was quite emotional: The Qin family has many people, but only Xiao Nian is a human being, the others are all animals, including Li Dahua.
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