Chapter 22 Jinjiang First Release Chapter 22 His brother’s strength is comparable to…
However, after Fang Shu met Yu Qinglong at Doctor Mo's house, he returned and there was no news of him.
Zhou Yuehua and Yu Dayou knew their youngest son had personally discussed the matter with Fang Shu. While they secretly felt reluctant to see their child marry off, they still hoped for a marriage with the Fang family when all else counted. But after waiting and waiting, the Fang family hadn't responded, leaving them feeling anxious.
Yu Qinglong was the only one who truly didn't care, as he didn't believe the Fang family would agree to his request. His request was quite unreasonable in this day and age, and not everyone would accept it.
He guessed that Fang Shu was either still fighting with his family these past few days, or perhaps he had already compromised. Otherwise, there should have been some new news, but there wasn't. If there was no news, then it probably wasn't going to work.
Gradually, he no longer thought about it.
He turned his attention to the construction of the waterwheel. He found a piece of stone in the Nan River that was particularly suitable for the base. He felt that it only needed a little processing, so he asked Yu Qingjia to help him move the stone.
The family had neither cows nor cars. The two families in the village that had cows were busy with farming and could not borrow them, so the two brothers had to carry the goods back by hand.
As Yu Qinglong walked along the road, he memorized what his master had taught him and occasionally chatted with his elder brother.
The eldest brother asked, "Didn't your second brother say before he left that he would be back in about ten days?"
Yu Qinglong said yes. When Yu Qingye left, he said he'd be able to get all the wood needed for the waterwheel in seven to ten days. But now, half a month has passed and he's still nowhere to be found.
"Will something happen?" Yu Qinglong asked his elder brother.
"I don't think so. If something's wrong, there will be news." The eldest brother said, "Wait two more days. If he doesn't come back, let's go to the town and check."
"OK."
Yu Qinglong finished his words and found the stone. It was about fifty centimeters long, twenty centimeters wide, and ten centimeters high. It was by the river, so it could be retrieved without even entering the water. The stone, which looked a bit like a giant inkstone when it wasn't lifted, was perfectly flat underneath. It looked like something custom-made to support a waterwheel.
Yu Qingjia lifted it up and found that it was quite heavy, but not so heavy that he couldn't lift it.
When they arrived, they brought a sack. Yu Qingjia wrapped the stone in the sack and tied it with rope to prevent it from getting rubbed when he carried it.
Yu Qinglong said, "Brother, let's lift it together. Don't we have sticks?"
When they came, they were worried that it was too heavy for one person to move, so they not only brought sacks and hemp ropes, but also brought a piece of wood as thick as an adult man's upper arm. They thought that if it really didn't work, they could hang the stone in the middle and have two people carry one end each.
Yu Qingjia said, "It's not that heavy. Big brother, carry it for a while. When you get tired, we can carry it together."
Yu Qinglong said no, they should lift it together so that no one would get tired. But Yu Qingjia laughed and said, "You are not as tall as my brother, and if we each carry one end, you will be more tired. Besides, you are my younger brother, and you are my older brother, so why would I let you help me move it? No, my brother can carry it by himself. If I hadn't been afraid that I had found the wrong one and didn't know it was so big, I would have come here alone to carry it back for you."
Yu Qinglong watched the man carry the stone onto his shoulders and stand up with a flick of his wrist.
He was indeed half a head shorter than Yu Qingjia. Although he was tall, it was just his family's genes; no one was short. He was tall, but his older brothers were taller.
Yu Qingjia walked ahead, carrying the stone. Yu Qinglong held the stick upright, using it as a staff.
When the two of them had walked almost half the distance, the elder brother stopped to wipe the sweat off his face and rest for a while.
Yu Qinglong said, "I'll try to carry it later."
The eldest brother said, "You can't carry it."
Yu Qinglong felt like no one could say anything about this thing without having tried it themselves. He'd picked it up when he'd first found it. It was heavy, but not so heavy he couldn't lift it. It was just far from home, so no one else was trying. But he figured carrying it for a distance shouldn't be a problem.
So he tried to lift the stone, gritted his teeth and lifted it up, and he actually lifted it up.
Yu Qingjia: "..."
Although this is my younger brother, it is still surprising to see that he is as strong as a man.
Yu Qinglong said, "Let's go, big brother. I can hold on for a while."
Yu Qingjia scratched his head, suppressed his shock and said, "Then if you get tired later, remember to tell big brother."
Yu Qinglong said yes, and told his elder brother not to forget the stick. Then he walked ahead, and his elder brother followed beside him, glancing at him from time to time: "Can you really do it? Don't hurt your back like Mr. Fang did."
Yu Qinglong said, "Brother, do you expect me to teach you something? Besides, I can do it. He's just too skinny. I carry water every day. How can a scholar like him compare to me?"
Here, a strong body is paramount and more important than anything else. Strong immunity and a healthy body are the greatest guarantees. Secondly, physical prowess is crucial. Security here is far superior to that of modern society, and as a young man, this is even more important. Therefore, he never shirks his work, treating it as both labor and exercise.
Yu Qingjia said, "Look at it this way. Scholars are different. They can tell the good from the bad. My little brother will be able to be both civil and military in the future. He must have seen it."
Yu Qinglong said with a smile, "I like to hear that. But don't tease me, brother. I really have no energy when I laugh."
The two brothers chatted from time to time and walked towards the village together, exchanging hands when they were two-thirds of the way there.
Before I even reached the gate, I suddenly saw a figure walking down the road east of the village. He was hunched over, had a slight limp, and walked slowly, limping. But his figure looked familiar.
"It seems to be my second brother?" Yu Qinglong stopped smiling.
"It's true! Let's go check it out!" Yu Qingjia put down the stone and ran to the east end of the village. Yu Qinglong followed quickly.
When the two brothers ran closer, they saw that it was Yu Qingye.
Yu Qingye came back from the town, carrying a large sack, with some semi-finished wood products faintly visible from the opening of the sack.
This is not the key point. The key point is that his leg was obviously injured, and there were many bruises on his face. It was obvious that he had been in a fight.
"Second brother, how did you get this injury?" Yu Qinglong asked him, while helping his eldest brother take over the things he was carrying on his shoulders.
"It's okay." Yu Qingye straightened up slowly without the weight on his shoulders. He exhaled and endured the pain as he said, "Little brother, please see if these things I made can be used later. If there is any that can't be used, we will quickly find a way to make up for it."
"Is there someone in the workshop who is giving you a hard time?" the eldest brother asked Jue.
"No, I just tripped while moving some wood. I'm fine now."
"How can he be alright? Are you still injured? How about I ask my master to take a look?" Yu Qinglong was worried. It had only been a few days since he'd recovered from his fight injury, and his second brother was injured again. And it was obvious that his second brother's injury was much more serious than his.
"It's really okay." Yu Qingye patted the wound a few times after saying this, "It doesn't hurt anymore."
Yu Qinglong and Yu Qingjia remained silent.
How could it not hurt? I just knew it hurt, but even if it did, I wouldn't be willing to spend money on medicine.
Yu Qinglong and Yu Qingjia carried the things into the yard. The eldest brother went to move the stones back. At this time, the eldest sister-in-law also came out and saw the black and purple bruises on the second uncle's face. She hurriedly asked, "What's wrong with the second brother?"
Yu Qingye said, "It's okay, sister-in-law, don't ask. Is there anything to eat? Please make me something to eat."
Zhou Jian'er hurried to work, and the three brothers put the things into the woodshed.
The tools they used to make the waterwheel were all placed here, along with some firewood, farm tools, and other miscellaneous items. Yu Qinglong cleared a space and moved a stool for Yu Qingye to sit on. "Second brother, tell me honestly, is this related to the Li family?"
"No," Yu Qingye said dully, "I did kowtow, but I told you it's not a big deal."
"How can it not be a problem?" Yu Qinglong lowered his voice, his tone involuntarily becoming a little harsh. "If you don't tell me who it is, how can we solve this problem? If we don't solve it, we'll probably suffer the consequences in the future. Look at me, what's the point of enduring all these years? I still get bullied."
"Is it Zhao Laosi?" Yu Qingjia asked.
"No." Yu Qingye licked the wound gently with his tongue, "It's Yu Qingfa."
"Yu Qingfa?"
"Well, he got some hooligans from town to cause trouble at the workshop, disrupting the work." Yu Qingye's mouth was cut, and speaking sometimes hurt, so he spoke slowly, taking a deep breath. "These hooligans are always causing trouble in the town, and the masters and workers in the workshop don't dare to offend them. At first, everyone thought they were trying to collect some land tax, but then they found out they only came to cause trouble when I was working, so everyone realized they wanted to force the master to drive me out and not let me continue to work there as an apprentice."
"It seems it's because I beat him up last time and then went to Yu Qingxi to suppress him and he's not happy about it," Yu Qinglong said. "I've gotten you into trouble, brother. But aren't there any local officials to take care of it?"
"Those thugs are habitual offenders. The police won't care unless they get something in return."
"What do the workshops say?"
Yu Qingfa said nothing.
The people in the workshop usually took good care of him, so the owner didn't immediately say he wanted to drive him away. And Yu Qingfa obviously didn't have that as his intention.
Yu Qingfa wanted him to take the initiative to send his brother to Li Dajia's or Zhao Laosi's house, otherwise he would have no chance of continuing his studies in the carpentry workshop.
But he couldn't bring himself to say such words. He couldn't possibly let his brother follow Zhao Laosi and Li Da, so why bother saying them out loud and make his brother feel guilty and upset?
He would never do anything to push his brother into the fire.
Yu Qinglong guessed it himself.
"Second brother, when you came back, you didn't bring back the baggage and belongings you brought with you. Didn't the owner of the workshop explicitly say that you must leave? Then Yu Qingfa has some conditions, right?"
"No." Yu Qingfa said, "I couldn't bring back so many things at once, and I was anxious to finish the waterwheel, so I brought them back first."
"Yu Qingfa wants you to send me out?"
"No, I..."
Yu Qingye was a little confused. His brother's reaction was so fast that it made his brain unable to process.
Yu Qingjia then said, "It seems that the Third House is determined to make trouble for us. Then can we use the same method as before?"
Yu Qingye asked, "What method?"
Yu Qingjia explained how the third branch of the family had insisted on finding a bad marriage for Yu Qinglong, forcing him to go to Wende Academy to seek "help" from Yu Qingxi. He told his second brother, "At worst, we can go find Yu Qingxi again. Since he cares about his reputation at the academy and the old lady treats him like a baby, we can't just ignore him, right?"
Yu Qingye said: "That seems to be the case."
Yu Qinglong said, "It's useless. Brothers, do you think the Third House really hopes that Yu Qingxi will succeed?"
Yu Qingjia said, "I don't really expect it. The old lady gave a lot of money to the second wife because of Qingxi's studies, and the third wife has been jealous for a long time. But Qingfa is a man who doesn't study, so we can only watch. It's impossible for the third wife not to be annoyed with the second wife."
When the old lady married into the family, she had quite a bit of private wealth. She had been drawn to the old man's good looks despite being a farmer, and that's why she married him. The Yu family had some land left by their ancestors, so they could get by. But her own wealth was the main reason she received so little when they split up the family.
Although it was true that the old man and the old lady treated them harshly, people outside did not talk about it much, mainly because everyone knew that the old lady had some self-discipline when she married into the Yu family.
Now most of the money is used for Yu Qingxi's studies, and the third house is unlikely to be satisfied.
Yu Qinglong said, "The Second and Third Houses don't get along, so the Third House isn't afraid of us making a scene. On the contrary, they're hoping we'll make a scene. That way, Yu Qingxi won't be able to continue studying, and the Third House won't suffer any losses. They might even get more of the old lady's money in the future. So if we go to Yu Qingxi again, the old lady will continue to handle this matter, but I'm afraid the Third House won't back down."
"But the old lady is in charge of the money," Yu Qingjia said. "If she doesn't give the third wife money, will she still dare to make trouble?"
"If the old lady could really manage her money, the people in the third house wouldn't be so bad."
Yu Qinglong discovered that his second uncle was a glutton, a whore, and a gambler. He didn't think he was a good person. He had originally planned to wait until they had a break before causing trouble for him, and he hadn't intended to do anything too harsh. But now, it was clear that he couldn't just be friendly.
"Big brother, take care of the second brother. I'm going to go to the fields." Yu Qinglong said, "You guys stay at home for the time being. Don't go anywhere for now."
"What are you doing in the fields?" Yu Qingjia asked.
"I'm going to go get Second Aunt. She should be working in the fields right now. Remember to tell her when you see her later, Second Brother."
Yu Qinglong explained to Qingye and then left.
Second Aunt Ye Meihua and Third Aunt Zhang Baodan had different personalities. Zhang Baodan was vulgar, stingy, and just as lazy as Third Uncle. But Second Aunt was different. Ye Meihua was deeply concerned about her children's education, and both she and her husband were hardworking.
When Yu Qinglong found the field, the woman was indeed working. She was planting soybeans in the dry field, and Second Aunt was weeding them. Several rows of soybeans were neatly arranged.
She heard footsteps and threw the weeds in her hand onto the grass pile next to her. "Qinglong? Why are you here?"
Yu Qinglong said, "Second Aunt, I'm afraid my brother Qingxi won't be able to finish his studies."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
