Chapter 3 System
Qian touched her head and said, "It's not that easy to reclaim wasteland. Besides, the grain grown from the wasteland probably won't be enough to pay the tax. Your nephews are still young, and the land at home is enough for farming."
"What should we do? Fourth Brother has made such a big mistake, and we can't kill him. What if he gets free and goes gambling again?"
Qian thought that if Silang did not punish him for such a big mistake, the other sons and daughters-in-law in the family would definitely not accept it. But if he really beat someone up, whether she would be willing to do it or not is another matter. It would cost money to treat the injury, and that would be really heartbreaking.
Qian said, "Okay, tomorrow I'll let your fourth brother go to the fields to open up wasteland."
Manbao was happy then, "I'll go supervise Fourth Brother."
"I think you want to go out and play. There are a lot of snakes and insects in the fields. Don't join in the fun. Just let your eldest nephew and the others go with you."
Manbao: "No, I want to go too."
She used to think her family was pretty good, with enough food and clothes to eat. She had candy to eat every market day, although she didn't like candy very much.
So she just wanted to learn to read before. She felt that learning to read made her happy, but Koko had no books to give her, so she could only give her candy.
She had eaten them before. Although those candies were sweeter than the ones her second brother brought back from the market, she still didn't like them very much.
But now she knew that their family was still very poor and she had to earn money. She was still young and could not work in the fields or go out to work. The only way to make money was to sell sugar.
But because she was always lazy and didn't dig vegetables for Koko, Koko hadn't given her candy for a long time.
By the way, Koko was something that suddenly appeared in her mind. Last spring, she finally memorized the entire "Thousand Character Classic". Mr. Zhuang was very moved and gave her a stack of his own handwritten "Thousand Character Classic" manuscripts.
She happily ran home with the manuscript, and as soon as she got home, Keke appeared. It said that it was a branch of the encyclopedia, in charge of biology, and it was accidentally lost there.
It needs to collect many biological species in order to exchange them for energy in the encyclopedia and leave.
At first Manbao didn’t understand and just thought she had a friend, so she happily told her mother about it.
But Qian thought she was a child dreaming and comforted her for a while.
Manbao was very smart and gradually realized that no one else could see or hear Keke, so she stopped mentioning it and just thought that only she could see and hear this friend.
Koko kept asking her to collect more plants, but Manbao had already dug up all the vegetables in the vegetable garden and even the grass outside the house. It was too tiring to walk to a place that was too far, and she didn't want to go at all.
For the sake of her friend, she reluctantly went to find some grass that Koko had never seen before. However, her family was always worried about her running around outside. Usually, her nephews and nieces could go out to play, but she was always taken care of by her sister-in-law.
At most, you can only play in the village and are absolutely not allowed to leave the village, let alone go to the fields.
Manbao was clinging to her mother, practically rolling on the ground. Qian was exhausted both physically and mentally today. Seeing her daughter like this, she thought she was not young anymore and it was time for her to have fun, so she couldn't bear to keep her in check. She nodded reluctantly and said, "Okay, okay, go ahead, go ahead. But you have to listen to Wulang and Liulang. Don't run around or stay in the sun for too long, okay?"
Manbao happily agreed.
In the evening, I ate a full bowl of rice and rushed to finish the food with my fifth and sixth brothers and nephews and nieces.
Apart from these naive children, the adults' appetites were really poor. The family had finally saved a little money, but it was back to poverty overnight. It would be strange if they were in a good mood.
Old man Zhou took a bite of rice and for the first time felt the food was too much to eat.
Whenever he thought of the fifteen taels of silver, his heart ached and his eyes turned red. Finally, he couldn't help but smash the bowl and beat up his fourth son.
After their father beat up the fourth brother, Zhou Dalang and the others couldn't follow suit and could only eat with a sour face.
Qian and her daughters-in-law ate porridge together. Now that the autumn harvest was over, apart from the men in the family, only Manbao could eat solid food. Everyone else ate liquid food, but the porridge was quite thick, so at least it could fill people up.
But after putting down her chopsticks, Qian said, "We don't have a penny left at home. We're so anxious living like this. From tomorrow on, we won't cook anything solid. We'll just cook something mushy. My dear wife, put less rice in the bowl. Winter is coming soon, and after winter comes spring and summer."
Xiao Qian nodded in agreement.
He glanced at Manbao and asked, "What about my aunt? She's weak, can she eat porridge?"
Qian frowned and said, "Tomorrow you take six pounds of grain to the school. Have the eldest son ask Mr. Zhuang to help. From now on, Manbao will eat lunch at the school. We will buy vegetables from our own vegetable garden. You can just pick two more vegetables every day and bring them over."
Xiao Qian agreed, finished her meal quickly, and cleaned up the dishes with her sister-in-laws.
Manbao felt that was not a good idea and asked, "Mom, what about Daya and the others?"
Qian reached out and touched her head, smiling and said, "Daya and the others are in good health and don't need to eat dry food. You are in poor health, so eat more. Otherwise, if you get sick, your family will have to pay for your medicine."
Daya and Datou have been instilled with such ideas since childhood. Their grandparents told them that their aunt was in poor health and they were not allowed to push her or bully her. They should let her eat more and gain weight so that she would not get sick.
Otherwise, if they get sick, they have to spend money on medicine, and then they will have no money to buy candy.
So since childhood, I had no objection to my aunt following my grandfather and father and eating solid food while they drank liquid food.
And the aunt was also very nice to them. Although she was younger than them, she always gave them candy. They still liked the aunt very much.
So when grandma saw them coming over, they nodded repeatedly, saying, "Little aunt, you should eat more, and we will just eat porridge at home."
"There are still some skewers of corn in the field. We'll go get some and roast them later."
"No, we have to go help Fourth Brother open up wasteland tomorrow." Manbao said, "But we can go find some wild fruits to eat."
Old Zhoutou looked at Manbao and asked, "Open up new land?"
Qian said, "I forgot to tell you that tomorrow we'll have the fourth son go out to open up wasteland. He owes money to the family, so he has to do something to earn some money."
Old Zhou didn't think he could make much money from reclaiming wasteland, but that was fine. He had to find something for the kid to do, in case he got bored and wanted to gamble again.
So he said, "Old Five, Old Six, you all go with me tomorrow. If he slacks off, you'll give him a beating."
Manbao volunteered, "Dad, I'll do it. Brothers Five and Six will definitely not be able to beat Brother Four."
Old Zhou smiled, reached out and touched her head and said with a smile: "Okay, come here, if your fourth brother dares to disobey, you can beat him with a stick."
Manbao was so happy that he seemed to have received an imperial decree. He went to bed early that night and promised Keke in his mind that he would help him find plants he had never found before the next day. He also asked, "You must prepare more sugar for me. I want to sell it."
The system was really worried. The plants recorded by Manbao were all very common. After more than a year, no benefits were seen. Instead, it had to exchange the few points it had left for sugar for her.
She has to change it. It's just a little doll. If there wasn't candy hanging in front of it, she wouldn't play this game with it.
Yes, Manbao has always regarded this as a game and never thought of using it to reach the peak of his life or achieve any extraordinary life goals.
After more than a year, the system's ambitions have been almost worn out. Fortunately, it is bound to the host, so even if there is no energy to support it to leave this space and return to its original plane, it can still keep running.
Just wait until the host is older.
This is the comfort the system gives itself.
At worst, the worst result is that after the host dies, it will just choose a host with greater ambitions.
The system quietly counted its remaining points and calculated how much candy it could exchange for her.
Manbao thought he had made an agreement with Keke, so he pulled his own quilt over to cover himself, closed his eyes and fell into a sound sleep.
The next day, not long after the rooster crowed, there was a sound in the yard. Manbao turned over, arched his little butt and crawled into the quilt to continue sleeping.
Farmers always get up early. Even after the autumn harvest, the land still needs to be rested.
Moreover, Zhou Dalang, Zhou Erlang and Zhou Sanlang all took jobs at the white landlord's house, so they had to go out as well.
When she heard the cries and slapping sounds in the yard, Manbao finally rubbed her eyes and climbed up. Her face flushed as she pushed open the window and saw her father dragging her fourth brother out of the house, kicking him on the butt and sending him out to work. She immediately remembered what she had promised Keke last night.
Without caring about sleeping, Manbao immediately climbed out of bed, put on his clothes, and ran out, saying, "Fourth brother, wait for me, I'll go with you."
Qian grabbed her and said, "No hurry, wash your face first."
Breakfast was not that early, and they had to wait until the sun was halfway up in the sky. Xiao Qian asked her sister-in-law to wash her face, and then gave her a bowl of boiled water. Then she went to get an egg and mixed it up for her to drink.
Manbao drank the egg water with a look of disgust, turned around and ran to chase his fourth brother.
Wulang and the others were standing at the door waiting for her. Egg water in the morning was Manbao's benefit, even Old Zhou and Qian didn't have it.
It is said that my aunt almost died of illness and she survived by drinking egg water. Since then, she has always been loyal to the egg, and no one else's will be left without her.
The family didn't expect Zhou Silang to reclaim any good land, so in addition to the main Zhou Silang, they also sent a group of children to help him.
For example, Wulang, Liulang, Datou and Daya from the first wife, and Erya and Ertou from the second wife.
Wulang is fourteen this year, and Liulang is twelve. They are both grown men. In the words of the villagers, they are ready to get married, and they will be able to give birth to a big fat boy in two years.
Datou and Ertou are both Manbao's nephews, one is nine years old and the other is six years old. Daya and Erya are Manbao's nieces, one is eight years old and the other is seven years old.
There is also Santou, a nephew from the eldest wife's family, who is the same age as Manbao. He also wanted to go today, but was stopped by his mother. He had to take Sanya and Sitou to pull weeds in the vegetable garden.
San Ya is from the second wife, and Si Tou is from the third wife. They are very young, both four years old. The road is difficult to walk on, so they can only pull weeds at home.
The mountain road was rugged and it was difficult for Manbao to walk, so Wulang and Liulang took turns carrying her. There was no need for Silang, as he was injured and it was a great achievement for him to be able to walk to the field by himself.
(End of this chapter)
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