Three people, one big, one small, and one tiny, started a digging contest. The big one and the small one were digging very seriously, but the tiny one got covered in mud.
Fortunately, the lakebed is now dry, otherwise the little girl would be covered in mud and water. Getting dirty is secondary; getting her frozen would be a disaster. It was late spring, April, and although it was already the beginning of summer, the weather was still a bit cool.
She has a golden touch; she can buy medicine from the mall for a common cold or fever, but being sick still causes suffering.
The loach was dead.
The crab was dead.
The clam was dead and contained no pearl.
Yue Jiuyue gave up. She stood up, pounding her aching back, cracking her neck, then pulled up the little girl who was still playing with clods of dirt, and said to her:
“I’m going home. It’s almost noon. Why aren’t you going home yet? Doesn’t your grandma care? Hurry up and go home. Give me the hoe, I’ll take it home.”
"Auntie, could I borrow this hoe again? We'll take it home for you right away."
Her grandma would worry about her? She'd probably worry that she didn't do any work that day!
As for the hoe, she will return it, but not now. She wants to dig up more pearls while no one is competing with her for it!
"Okay then."
Yue Jiuyue ignored her, took Xiaoman'er's dirty little hand, and climbed ashore to support the family.
Why not hold it?
First, she was tired from working and her back hurt; second, Xiaoman'er was too dirty, and she disliked her.
"Eldest daughter-in-law! Eldest daughter-in-law! Man'er's mother!"
Before Yue Jiuyue even entered the house, she began calling for the newly appointed housekeeper, Liu Shi. Only after seeing Liu Shi emerge did she extend the small hand she was holding and say:
"Quickly change Xiaoman'er's clothes. Look how dirty she is, she looks like a little kitten."
Madam Liu smiled gently, picked up the little girl in her arms without any sign of disgust, and asked softly:
"Oh my! Did Little Man go out to play in the dirt with your grandma?"
"Yes, and my older sister too."
The little girl happily replied.
Liu ignored the last four words and continued to ask:
"Is that clod of dirt fun?"
"Fun!"
...
"Sister-in-law, well, our village was saying we needed to pool our money to buy water from Xishan Village next door to irrigate the fields, but my family hasn't saved up much money. We can't just watch our crops die of drought, so I thought I'd come to your house to borrow some money first. I'll pay you back after the autumn harvest when we sell the grain!"
“Chao Dongniang, I, I mean the same thing.”
"Um, I'm here to borrow money too."
Several women of similar age and generation to Yue Jiuyue exchanged glances, struggling for a long time before one of them finally couldn't help but reveal her purpose. The others followed suit, all of them wanting to borrow money.
Yue Jiuyue frowned. Actually, she had thought of this when she heard her eldest brother mention that the village was going to pool money to buy water from the neighboring village.
However, she thought that given her less-than-harmonious relationship with the village, these people wouldn't be able to borrow from her; they should be borrowing from the village chief.
Unexpectedly, they all made a pact to come to her house together to borrow money.
“I do have money. But it doesn’t grow on trees. Besides, this is the third year already, and the water must be ridiculously expensive. If you come to borrow money, other families will surely come to borrow money too. Even if my family had mountains of gold and silver, we couldn’t possibly lend that much money to so many families.”
As the head of the family, Madam Liu quickly shut them down.
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