Chapter 3 Refusing to Acknowledge Father
"Mother, what are you doing?" Erya stamped her feet in anger. "Where's the money from selling the pig? Didn't you promise to make me new clothes for the New Year?"
Daya was usually the most prudent and sensible, but she was also confused at this moment. Upon hearing this, she pulled her aside and said, "Let's go home and talk about it first, so as not to make fun of us."
San Ya was stunned. She looked at her noisy second sister, then at Xiao Yan in Lu Qiniang's basket, with a bewildered look on her face.
Everyone pointed and asked questions.
Lu Qiniang said to everyone cheerfully, "I'll treat you in a few days, don't forget to come and have a drink."
She brought the man into the house, and Daya quickly closed the door to block the inquiring eyes outside.
Lu Qiniang's house consists of three main rooms and an east wing.
There are three main rooms, and she occupies the main room. The east room belongs to the maid. She is a grown-up girl now and deserves her own room.
Erya and Sanya live in the west room.
The east wing is used as a kitchen and also for storing miscellaneous items. There is a shed on the west side, with an empty chicken coop underneath.
In fact, in addition to these three rooms, she also has a row of more than a dozen pig pens, all at the back, which are all her property.
But now it's empty, there are no pigs.
Lu Qiniang put Xiao Yan on the broken locust wood chair in her room.
Xiao Yan leaned weakly on the back of the chair, looking like he could slide down at any time.
Erya was still thinking about her new clothes and was resisting her stepfather. She was the first to speak out: "Mom, you said you wouldn't get married! I can't call him dad!"
There was also some resistance on Daya's face.
Daya asked softly, "Mom, what's going on? Why did it suddenly..."
Lu Qiniang picked up the cup on the table and drank a glass of water without caring whether it was cold or not. After sighing, she said, "He is General Xiao Yan, the Breaker of the Enemy. He is now in trouble and worth five taels of silver. I have exactly five taels of silver on my body. Tell me, should I save him? And does he deserve to be called 'Dad' by you?"
She wanted to slap her thigh right now.
Why is it five taels?
Even if it was half an ounce more, she could comfort herself that it was not that she didn't want to save him, but that she was powerless.
As a result, all the money she had was taken away, and she was redeemed just in time.
How to spend this New Year!
The three girls were stunned.
Daya was the first to kneel down and kowtowed to Xiao Yan respectfully. Although it was a little difficult to speak, she still said with difficulty: "Thank you for saving my life, but, but..."
She couldn't say "Dad".
Erya, who was the most stubborn, stamped her feet and kowtowed reluctantly. "The silver should have been given to us. Mother, I won't shout."
Only Sanya was extremely excited: "Dad, Dad, Dad! Mom said Dad went to a very far place. I thought Dad was dead, but it turns out he is still alive!"
Erya pulled her and said, "Are you deaf? This isn't our father. This is the one our mother bought!"
Lu Qi's mother put her hands on her hips and cursed, "What do you mean by bought? Since he has come into our house, whether you shout or not, he is still your father!"
Xiao Yan never expected that he had originally decided to fight to the death, but not only did he not die, he also became a widow.
And he is the father of three girls of this age.
He is only twenty-four years old this year.
A star born out of misfortune, yet suddenly has a wife and a daughter?
God has been really kind to him.
"Da Ya, go cook some sweet potato porridge. Put less rice in it. We need to save that little bit for the New Year," Lu Qiniang ordered. "Er Ya, go boil some water. I'll give him a bath later. He stinks. San Ya, go see if Sister Zhao, who's preparing the banquet, is here. If she is, tell her I'm looking for her."
The three daughters had different thoughts and all went out.
Lu Qiniang took off her dirty outer clothes and threw them into the bamboo basket, then calmly walked to the wooden basin to wash her hands.
"My name is Lu Qiniang. My short-lived husband's surname was Zhang. He died during the war in the northwest," she said calmly. "It's been nine years."
She was a child bride of the Zhang family. When she was thirteen years old, her husband Zhang Heyao was forcibly conscripted into the army and died in the Battle of Anxi a year later.
In that battle, the Central Plains suffered a crushing defeat, with more than 30,000 casualties.
No body was found, and not a penny of compensation was received.
Xiao Yan silently calculated in his mind that Lu Qinniang should be twenty-three years old this year.
But looking at her, she clearly looked like a servant, with a lot of fat on her body, and I would have thought she was thirty years old.
"A poor person's life is worthless, and dying is meaningless. The Zhang family wanted to sell me out, and I fought them for two years. When I finally couldn't stand it anymore, you took over and led the troops to the northwest."
Xiao Yan ordered his men to count the number of people according to the roster and to obtain compensation for the dead and wounded soldiers, including those whose bodies were not found.
"I got fifteen taels of silver," Lu Qiniang said, her face calm as she recounted those old memories, as if she were telling someone else's story. "No one was willing to adopt a son for me, so I used the silver to buy a son. But in the end..."
She suddenly smiled, her dull eyes suddenly sparkling like stars. With a look of pride, she held up three fingers and said, "It turned out that a boy costs fifteen taels of silver, and a girl costs three taels. I spent six taels to buy two, namely Da Ya and Er Ya."
She was beaming with joy, as if she had made a fortune.
"I took out another five taels of silver to bribe the head of the Zhang family, and finally decided that Daya would marry a son-in-law when she grows up."
"Sanya was abandoned right after she was born and left at my doorstep."
She felt sorry for him, so she stayed.
"...Looking back, if you hadn't been the one to uphold justice and recover the fifteen taels of silver, there would have been no fate between the three of them and me. I probably wouldn't have been able to endure being sold off."
Therefore, Lu Qiniang was sincerely grateful to Xiao Yan.
For her and the three girls, Xiao Yan was like a resurrection.
So despite gritting her teeth, Lu Qiniang still took out all her belongings and bought Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan was shocked.
What are his achievements?
He just did what he was supposed to do.
How could he have imagined that among thousands of soldiers, there was one man's wife who would save him a few years later.
"So you don't have to be afraid," Lu Qiniang said, "I deliberately said I would bring you back to give birth to a son because..."
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