Aunt Li looked at it again and again, and finally couldn't resist. She peeled off a grain of rice, bit open the husk with her teeth, and the plump, round rice grain was slowly revealed.
Aunt Li was both delighted and furious.
"Indeed, indeed! The Shen family's rice is truly excellent!" Aunt Li laughed heartily, but quickly reverted to her usual sarcastic expression. "Damn it..."
Everyone in the village had harvested, but the Li family alone still had only a pitifully small amount of rice.
We're all from the same village, so why can other families have a bumper harvest just because of a few casual words from a loser?
When others advised her to consult the Shen family before, she was extremely disdainful. What could a little kid who hadn't even grown up yet possibly say make sense?
But now, the whole village has a bumper harvest, and the Shen family has an even bigger harvest. The rice piled on the ground that hasn't been threshed is worth more than everything in her family!
That's not fair.
Aunt Li gripped the rice in her hand tightly, glancing around at the success of others, which was incredibly glaring.
She's a money-loser, she's a money-loser after all. She clearly has the ability, and the whole village helped her. Does she think she's the only one from the Li family?
Now look what's happened! His family is the most desolate in the entire Xinghua Village. Isn't this just making him a laughingstock?
Aunt Li suspected that this girl was doing it on purpose, and was not at all like the kind, innocent and cute girl that others said she was. She just didn't want his family to have a good life, so she was so eager to help others!
With the autumn harvest almost over, how could his meager amount of rice possibly last his family for a year after paying the grain tax?
After a long silence, Aunt Li glanced around nervously, making sure no one was around, then quickly pulled two handfuls of rice from the stack and stuffed them into her clothes.
Crouching low, he was about to lift his leg and walk away when he looked back at the rice stack that had been slapped twice but was still barely visible. He gritted his teeth and opened his arms to hug it tightly.
The Shen family has so much rice, they don't need this much, they definitely won't notice.
The Li family is already in such dire straits, their daughter-in-law is gone, and the harvest is poor. The Shen family has so many benefactors helping them, why not leave her a way to survive?
Aunt Li struggled to carry a large bundle of rice from the field onto the path beside it. She was carrying so much that she could barely see the path beneath her feet.
As night deepened, Aunt Li could only rely on her memory to discern the path beneath her feet as she prepared to go home.
"Stop right there! You rice thief!"
Startled by the shout, Aunt Li nearly fell over. Perhaps feeling guilty, a layer of cold sweat immediately broke out on her back.
After finally regaining his balance, he was suddenly hit by something and fell flat on his back, scattering the rice he was holding all over the ground.
"My rice!"
Aunt Li frantically tried to sweep the rice that had fallen to the ground with her arm, but Shen Jialuo, furious, tried to snatch the rice from her hand.
"You thief! You rice thief! Give me back my rice!"
"This is my family's rice, what are you doing!"
Lili carried a small oil lamp and squatted on the ground, searching around. Sure enough, she found a few different ones and quickly went to look at the roots of the rice that had been cut.
The cuts at the base of the rice plants were messy and extremely irregular.
Sure enough, this is their rice!
When rice is cut with a sickle, the cut at the base should be smooth.
But she remembers clearly that everyone was threshing rice on the rice beds and was so exhausted that they decided to save it for tonight.
While everyone else was busy moving baskets, Shen Jialuo noticed a few stalks of rice that had been overlooked and hadn't been cut down in a corner. She quickly took a sickle, cut them down, and placed them on top of the rice stack.
Because Shen Jialuo was exhausted at the time, and his small sickle wasn't very sharp, it took him a long time to cut it off, resulting in an uneven cut.
Unexpectedly, Aunt Li actually stole rice when it was late at night and no one was around!
Lili held the few stalks of rice and said angrily, "You're lying! This is our family's rice!"
By the moonlight, Aunt Li could see clearly that the two people in front of her were just two children. What was there to be afraid of?
Aunt Li dodged Shen Jialuo, rolled her eyes, and went to pick up the rice on the ground, muttering, "Two unlucky bastards, they scared the old lady half to death."
Shen Jialuo was furious: "You dare to steal our rice!"
Shen Jialu rushed forward and grabbed the rice from Aunt Li's hand. Aunt Li raised the rice high, so no matter how much Shen Jialu jumped, she couldn't reach it. With a burst of strength, Aunt Li kicked Shen Jialu: "You little brat who's in the way, get the hell away from me!"
Shen Jialuo was only five years old, and he couldn't withstand Li Da Niang's kick. He was kicked into the field next to the ditch, flattening a patch of wild grass.
"elder brother!"
Lili didn't care about the rice anymore. She put the small oil lamp on the ground and rushed over to help Shen Jialuo.
Aunt Li grunted and quickly piled up the rice on the ground.
Shen Jialuo clutched his stomach, sweating profusely from the pain. Lili pulled open his clothes and saw that his stomach was covered in bruises.
Lili felt so sorry for Shen Jialuo that tears were about to fall. She carefully helped him up, gently blew on the wound a few times, and coaxed him, "Brother, don't be afraid, it doesn't hurt. Lili will blow on it for you."
Lili's breath really did make it less painful. Shen Jialuo sobbed as he looked down at his sister breathing on him.
Afraid that the two boys' noise would attract attention, Aunt Li finished stacking the rice and was about to leave when she heard Lili's soft voice. She suddenly remembered the humiliation she had suffered these past few days because of the Shen family and this little money-loser, as well as the bride price that had cost her so much money, which was now gone!
She's lived this long, and everyone gives her some leeway. Ever since that damned Shen Lili came along, she's never had a good time.
The more Aunt Li thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt. She didn't think at all that all the cold treatment she received was because of her own actions, and that her daughter-in-law deserved what she got for her own sins.
Seeing that no one was around, and apart from the moonlight and the small oil lamp on the ground, no one knew what they had done.
Aunt Li's gaze fell on the irrigation ditch beside her. The ditch was now connected to a newly dug underground river, and the water level was very high.
Aunt Li slowly walked over to the two children, hugged the rice tightly, and stretched out her feet.
Lili sensed something and suddenly turned around. She saw Aunt Li's somewhat ferocious face just an arm's length away from her. The dim light of the small oil lamp shone on Aunt Li's face from below, making it look even more eerie.
"Holy crap!"
Lili was startled, and then she saw Aunt Li raise her leg. Lili screamed that something was wrong, and lunged at Shen Jialuo to fall backward, avoiding Aunt Li's foot.
Aunt Li's plan failed. The two people's exclamations seemed to wake her up. Aunt Li realized what she had just been thinking. Startled, she turned around and tried to run away.
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