Chapter 2 Beat Him
When Qian had cried enough and had caught her breath, she opened the chest and took out a box from the bottom. She opened it and showed the money inside to her youngest son and daughter.
Inside were strings of money, quite heavy. There were only two small pieces of silver, which were left over from building the house.
The only money left in the family was copper coins. Seeing this money, Qian couldn't help but wipe away her tears.
She counted the money, and found that there were only nine taels of silver. The two pieces of silver added up to only one and a half taels.
Qian also took out the money box from the bedside table, which contained money for daily use. It was the autumn harvest period, and the third and fourth sons went to work for the white landlord. After receiving their wages, she had not yet counted the money they handed in and put it in the cabinet for storage.
But this part of the money is not much, and it is counted and strung into strings, one hundred coins per string, and ten strings make a string.
They were really unlucky. There were only six strings of money in the box, and there were still twenty or thirty coins left at the bottom of the box.
Qian looked at her daughter and then at her youngest son. Hearing the screams outside getting louder and louder, she stood up, gave all the money to her youngest son to carry out, and then she held her daughter's hand and went out.
Seeing his mother coming out with the money box, Zhou Silang breathed a sigh of relief and almost burst into tears.
Manbao saw it clearly and was very angry with his fourth brother.
There are also gamblers in the village. For example, the third family from their family is Uncle Zhou San’s. His son lost money in gambling half a year ago, so he brought people from the casino back and sold his wife and children to pay off the debt.
Their eldest niece was two years older than her and was a good friend of hers, so she remembered that gambling was a life-threatening thing. She didn't know if it would cost her own life, but it would definitely cost the lives of her loved ones.
At that time, my father and mother taught my brothers and strictly ordered them not to gamble, but they didn't expect that it would be their turn now.
Man Bao was so angry that he rushed forward and stomped on Zhou Silang hard on the face.
Zhou Silang cried out, "Little sister, little sister, please don't step on me, I, I know I was wrong!"
Qian didn't stop him, but said to her husband: "The money is not enough, we still need four and a half taels."
Old Man Zhou frowned in sorrow, while Qian looked at her three daughters-in-law and said, "How much do you each have? Take it out. Consider it a loan from your fourth brother, and he'll pay it back later."
Xiao Qian, Feng and He went to see their husbands, and when they saw them nod with grim expressions, they took their children back to the house to get the money.
The Zhou family has never split up. All the money they earn has to be turned over to the public, and all the food and drink are from the public. Qian and Old Man Zhou said a long time ago that if they want to split up, unless they die, they have to wait until all their children have started their own families.
But Qian also knew that a married son was different from an unmarried one, and he needed to have some money.
So she has always been very financially flexible. She collects all the harvest from the fields, but she only takes 60% of the money earned by each family through other channels, and gives the remaining 40% to each family.
For example, in the eldest wife's house, Xiao Qianshi worked as a kitchen helper in the school, and earned at least 100 wen a month. Except for the 60 wen she had to hand over, the rest of the money was hers.
For example, the second son of the second wife secretly learned some carpentry skills when he went to work as a helper in the white landlord's house in his early years. He also knew how to weave rattan and bamboo. In his spare time, he could take the things he wove to the market to exchange for some money.
For example, the third son works without sparing any effort, and the manager of the white landlord's family likes to use him the most. He is called upon to do any work, so he can also earn some money.
As for the remaining three younger sons, there was no hope for the fourth son, who was lying on the ground. The fifth and sixth sons were still young, and any money they had was either coaxed away by their mother or their younger sister, or they had to ask their second brother to buy candy at the market. Even if they searched through all his clothes, they probably wouldn't find even two cents.
Qian didn't search for them.
The wives of the three families quickly took out their own private money and pooled it together, but it was still not enough, as they were still short of two strings of money.
Qian looked at the head of the family and his sons.
Little Qian was the first to lose her patience. She sat down on the ground, slapping her legs and saying, "Mom, we really have nothing left. We've spent all the money we had saved for the Mid-Autumn Festival cakes for my parents' family. This is going to ruin our family!"
Qian was so angry that she slapped her, "Why are you crying? I'm not dead yet. I've survived the disaster. Are you still afraid of these two hundred coins?"
Manbao thought about it, then ran back to the main house, found a silver lock from his treasure box, and gave it to Qian, "Mom, use this one of mine."
Qian's face changed drastically. She immediately snatched the silver lock and put it in her arms, saying angrily, "I can't give you this. This... this is what your father and mother gave you. The Taoist priest said that your life is precious and needs something to hold it down. This is to hold your life down."
Old Man Zhou also said: "I can't give it to you."
The thug laughed angrily, "A longevity lock is more valuable than your son's life. I say, are you going to give it to me or not? It's almost midnight and we have to get back to the county town. If we can't make it back in time, will you pay for our food and lodging for the night?"
The thugs behind him instantly started moving, rummaging and kicking around in the yard, "Pay the money quickly, it's only natural to pay back a debt."
When people from the casino came to his house, he always left it alone. How could Zhou Dalang allow them to search his house? He hurried to stop them.
Zhou Erlang and Zhou Sanlang no longer held Si Silang hostage and hurried to help their eldest brother.
Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang also followed their brothers forward with their blood boiling. Of course, the villagers of Qili Village couldn't bear to see their fellow villagers being bullied, so they also stepped forward to pull them apart.
It's the first time for the thugs to see so many brothers in the gambler's family. When they saw the villagers surrounding them, they didn't dare to go too far. They just pushed each other politely, but they still couldn't help but get angry.
Seeing this, the village chief sighed and stopped everyone, saying, "Alright, it's just two hundred coins short, Uncle Jin, I'll lend it to you first. Just remember to pay me back later."
After that, he asked his son to go home and get the money.
The money collected from here and there filled up the box. Except for the two small pieces of silver, it was all copper coins. The thugs did not mind and simply counted the copper coins and stuffed them into a bag and carried them on their backs.
He just tossed the broken silver ingot at the end and said, "This silver can be exchanged for more than this amount of copper coins. You should also know that in the money shop, this one or two ounces of silver can be exchanged for twelve strings of coins now, so..."
Zhou Dalang stepped forward and kicked Zhou Silang, then asked, "Are you betting copper coins or silver?"
"Copper coins, they are copper coins."
Zhou Dalang punched him with his fist and asked angrily, "Is it a copper coin? Is it a copper coin?"
Zhou Silang's face was bruised and swollen, and blood was dripping from his nose as he wailed, "It's copper coins, it's copper coins."
Zhou Dalang kept punching him in the face, his fist hitting him again and again. He asked with a sullen face, "Is it a copper coin? Is it a copper coin?"
Zhou Silang cried out to his parents, "It's copper coins, big brother, it's copper coins, they cheated you, they cheated you."
Seeing that Zhou Dalang spared no effort and Zhou Silang was beaten like this, the thugs couldn't help but feel embarrassed. They put away the silver pieces and nodded, saying, "Okay, copper coins are copper coins."
After saying that, he turned around and was about to leave.
Zhou Erlang stood in front of them and asked, "Where's the IOU?"
The thugs curled their lips, handed him the IOU, patted him on the shoulder and said, "People like you can't afford to gamble. You'd better keep a close eye on your brothers, otherwise your luck might not be so good next time. There are many families in this world that have been destroyed because of gambling."
The Zhou brothers looked at Zhou Silang unkindly.
Zhou Silang curled up on the ground. Seeing the gazes of his brothers, he buried his head and dared not even cry too loudly.
The thugs finally left.
Old man Zhou and his eldest son smiled and saw the villagers off, thanking them for their help, especially the village chief, whom they repeatedly said they would find time to treat them to a meal.
After sending the people away, Old Man Zhou asked Zhou Xiaoliu to close the door, turned around and picked up the carrying pole to continue beating his son.
Qian was afraid that her little girl would be frightened, so she brought her back to the house in advance. However, this did not help much, because the child kicked off her shoes and climbed onto her bed, then lay on the window and looked out, watching her father beating her fourth brother with great interest.
Qian was in poor health. She was sad and tired after all this trouble. She did not stop her daughter and asked her three daughters-in-law to go to the kitchen to cook something to eat. They had not eaten a grain of rice from morning till now. The adults could bear it, but the children could not.
After everything was arranged, he called the little girl over and put the silver lock on her, saying, "Didn't I tell you not to take it off? This is what your parents used to protect your life. You are not allowed to take it off in the future, understand?"
Manbao said awkwardly: "It's uncomfortable to wear."
Qian thought for a moment and said, "You don't have to wear it at night, but you have to wear it during the day."
Manbao agreed reluctantly. Seeing her mother's distressed face, she asked, "Mom, what should we do about Fourth Brother?"
"Don't worry about him. Let your father beat him. He's only had a few years of good life and he's already learned to gamble. He's a family wreck. He deserves to be beaten to death."
Manbao said, "If he's going to be beaten to death, it's better to let the casino people beat him to death. We can save money."
Qian choked and said, "You kid, your mouth is just like your father's, not forgiving at all."
"Hey, is my dad so smart?"
Qian didn't answer her question, but said, "He has to be beaten. If he's not beaten, he won't learn his lesson. If he does it again, how much money can the family afford to let him lose?"
"Fourth Brother only remembers eating and not beatings. It's useless to beat him up, unless you break his legs so that he can't walk."
"That won't work. We'll have to support him in the future." Qian was also worried that Old Zhou would hurt his son. She sighed and shouted out the window, "Okay, if he gets injured, we'll have to pay for medical treatment. We don't have a penny left at home."
The slapping sounds outside gradually disappeared. Old Zhou glared at his son with disappointment, kicked him, and asked the eldest and second sons to drag him back to the room.
Manbao said to her mother in the house: "Mom, I have a good idea. I can punish him without spending any money at all."
"What's the idea?"
"Let Fourth Brother open up the wasteland, and then let him grow crops on the wasteland. He can use the money he earns to pay back his family and his brothers and sisters-in-law. He actually owes them fifteen taels of silver."
Qian was very confused. "Open up wasteland? Why do you want to open up wasteland?"
Manbao said, "Didn't the village chief say that the government allowed us to reclaim wasteland, and all the land we reclaimed is ours, and we won't be taxed for the first three years."
(End of this chapter)
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