Chapter 227 Reluctant to Part
The fourth brother came back carrying two fish.
"Mother, what's wrong?"
He glanced at the woman dressed in flamboyant clothes beside him. Her face was as withered as an old cucumber, and she looked older than his mother.
Hearing Aunt Yao's explanation, he couldn't help but sneer, "Whose old hag isn't kept in the backyard? Coming here to gossip, isn't she?"
"Regardless of whether we know Lord Xie or not, even if we are just poor farmers from the countryside, is it wrong for us to live in this courtyard by the grace of God?"
He gave a half-smile and a half-smile to the defiant man in front of him, "If you bully my mother, I may not have anything else, but my mother has four sons. You should think it over. So what if your man is very powerful? Let's see who has the last laugh."
Aunt Tian, who had been scolded, trembled with anger as she pointed her fingers. "You young man, I already apologized to your mother, and she still slapped me twice. Look how swollen my face is! What more do you want?"
"You provoked me first, and you spoke so rudely. You just think we're inferior, so I hit you. If we can't be good neighbors in the future, then we should talk less when we meet. If you dare to speak rudely again, I won't be the one to do it."
Knowing she was in the wrong, Aunt Tian turned around and walked into the yard, saying, "Fine, you're really something, getting so many people to bully me."
Yao Man shouted at the closed door, "It's hilarious! You were the ones who bullied us first, and now you're blaming us and acting like you're in the right."
The fourth brother left a fish at home and pulled a cart to the street.
Seeing the carriage parked by the street, he couldn't help but ask with a smile, "Aunt Yao, are you really going to give us the carriage to move our things? Aren't you afraid of getting it dirty or damaged?"
"The fourth brother is right. Farmers' stuff is all dirt, which will damage your horse-drawn cart. We have a donkey cart, which will suffice."
Yao Man laughed and said, "What's the big deal? If it gets dirty, we'll wash it; if it breaks, we'll fix it. Anyway, we won't get much money from selling it."
"Alright, then I won't stand on ceremony." If it gets dirty or damaged, I'll just pay for it or buy it directly.
Song Chunxue thought to herself, anyway, she has the money to buy a car now.
“My servant is called Xiao Liu. Have him drive the carriage for you.” Yao Man said, urging them, “Hurry up and go. Come back soon.”
Song Chunxue took out two guokui (a type of flatbread) and handed them to her, saying, "I know you can't make flatbread, so you can make do with these."
"No need, no need. You have a lot of things to do at home. I can just buy it myself." Yao Man pushed her forward. "I'm waiting for you to come back and help me with my business. We must make more money to annoy those gossipy people."
Seeing how genuinely Yao Man cared for her, Song Chunxue felt a warm glow in her heart.
"Okay, wait for me to come back."
*
Just after noon, they returned to Lijiazhuangzi.
The Taoist priest was feeding the chickens in the coop when he saw them arrive and couldn't help but smile.
He patted the dust off his clothes and said, "You've finally arrived. You must be so busy at home. I really don't know how my junior brother managed to get by before."
Song Chunxue laughed, "Now you know how powerful I am."
"Hmm, there's work everywhere you look, you just can't stop. You're really something." The Taoist priest noticed the carriage outside the courtyard gate and asked curiously, "You've really made something of yourself, buying a carriage and hiring people?"
"No, a friend lent it to me and also lent me someone else."
The fourth brother waved the fish in his hand and said, "I bought it for the Taoist priest. Thank you for watching over our house."
The Taoist priest's eyes lit up. "Wow, they can even afford to buy fish to eat. They know how to manage their money."
He took the fish and said, "I'm best at cooking fish. Today, I'll show you how to do it."
"Okay, then senior brother, go ahead and make the fish. I'll get ready." She looked down and stroked the two puppies, noticing that they had grown a bit more.
When the fourth brother returned Li Dazui's donkey cart, he was inevitably questioned about whether they had bought a horse-drawn carriage.
Li Dazui also told Lao Si that in the past two nights, the Taoist priest must have taught a lesson to several people who wanted to steal and take advantage of others, and warned them to be careful.
The fourth brother handed him a guokui (a type of flatbread), saying, "Thank you, Uncle Big Mouth. I never realized it before, but now that I'm moving away, the person I'll miss the most in this village is actually you, Uncle Li."
Li Dazui laughed, but his eyes suddenly welled up with tears.
He saw his fourth son out of the yard, saying, "You little rascal, you've gotten quite the way to talk now."
“From now on, you sons must be good. Now that your mother has money, you must not be lazy or think about living off the little money your mother has. A real man should stand tall and live by his own abilities. If you only think about taking money from your mother, that's all you'll ever be.”
Li Dazui said earnestly, "You are the most resourceful among your brothers. Sanwa is reliable, but he is stubborn and doesn't know how to adapt. You need to prove yourself and strive to be ahead of others, unlike your eldest brother."
The fourth brother turned to look at Li Dazui and said, "Uncle Dazui is right. I've got it. Go back inside and eat. The soup and rice won't taste good if they get cold."
"Sigh." Li Dazui watched Lao Si's back from the doorway. The teenager couldn't walk properly and would jump up and grab the apricot tree branches when he bumped into them.
His son got married in May and didn't return until April.
He's still alone at home.
Another family has left this village, and he will have one less place to visit and chat.
He gently closed the gate to the courtyard, wondering if he should get a dog.
The cat is too wild; it's never home.
He has a dog, so he has company.
But thinking about it, I decided against it. The dogs in the village would bite if they weren't leashed, but if they were leashed, they would be even more pitiful than him.
He picked up his chopsticks and gave a wry smile. Actually, being alone is quite nice.
...
The Taoist priest's braised fish was incredibly delicious, a world apart from the fourth brother's.
The food was delicious and visually appealing. The four of them cleaned the fish bones thoroughly and ate it with great relish, along with the dough dumplings.
After the meal, Song Chunxue asked the elder, "We'll be farming for the next few days, so you don't need to stay with us, senior brother."
The senior brother nodded, "I'm going out for a stroll tomorrow; someone has invited me to visit their ancestral graves."
Having been exposed to the sun all the way, Song Chunxue was exhausted and settled Xiaoliu down.
After leaving the east room, she fell asleep immediately.
The fourth brother and the Taoist priest still slept in the west room.
They shared what they had seen and heard over the past two days.
Since Li Dazui had already mentioned that someone would climb over the wall at night, Lao Si wasn't too surprised and fell asleep while chatting.
The Taoist priest sat cross-legged on the kang (a heated brick bed), and suddenly opened his closed eyes.
He pinched his fingers again and again, but thankfully, there was no definitive conclusion.
He was at ease as long as his junior brother's future path remained unchanged.
Then, he closed his eyes and sat down to meditate peacefully.
The two dogs lay on the ground with him, and every now and then they would run out to check on the sounds outside.
They came in again shortly afterward, the two puppies snuggled together, occasionally flicking their ears, and drifted off to sleep.
In the north room, an hour later, Song Chunxue woke up from her dream.
The sky was clear and bright, and the wooden rafters on the roof had faint black wormholes, and the dry air had caused the rafters to crack a little.
Actually, she used to live in this house too.
Just before the wedding, the eldest son said that the house was spacious, but the windows in the west room were too small, and he was afraid that his wife would find the house too dark after she married him, so he changed it.
From now on, she will live in the north room of the fort.
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