Chapter 607 Treating Women Like They're Not Human!
The story Zhao Da told about the youngest daughter of Old Man Li was truly heartbreaking.
Old Li's family had fled to Chang'an from other places during famine years ago. They originally wanted to seek refuge with an uncle from their clan who had come to Chang'an to make a living. Little did they know that Chang'an was an exceptionally large city, and without a specific address, they couldn't find anyone at all.
Fortunately, the emperor issued a policy at that time, providing relief grain and allocating land outside Chang'an to those who had fled famine, so they did not starve to death.
However, Old Man Li was incredibly fertile, and the Li family was exceptionally lucky, having fathered four sons before finally having a daughter as their fifth child.
However, due to consecutive births and a lack of proper postpartum care, Old Lady Li passed away when her fifth daughter, Li's little girl, was less than five years old. Her lower body even smelled foul when she died.
Originally, Old Man Li didn't want to raise such a little girl anymore. It was the kind-hearted old lady who lived next door to Old Man Li who took her in and raised her for a few months. Then other kind-hearted people in the village took her in and raised her for half a month or a month or so. In the end, they couldn't bear to let such a little girl starve to death.
And so, Li Xiaoni was raised on the charity of many families until she turned one year old.
In the village, there are always more kind-hearted people. They saw that Li Xiaoni was starving. One family gave her half a steamed bun, and another poured her a bowl of thin porridge so thin that you could see your reflection in it. That's how Li Xiaoni survived until she was five years old.
After Li Xiaoni turned five, she followed the other children in the village to the nearby mountains to find wild vegetables and anything edible. Despite her mother's absence, Li Xiaoni stubbornly survived until she was eight years old.
As Li Xiaoni grew to eight years old, Chang'an City began to slowly expand. Only then did Old Man Li have the opportunity to go to the outer three cities with the villagers during the off-season to find work. He earned copper coins to buy grain so that his four young sons could have more food to eat.
Yes, even if Old Man Li made money, he only gave it to his four sons. Li Xiaoni could only sleep in the kitchen where the firewood was stored. Her own meals depended on what she could find to eat each day.
Old Man Li won't support her.
The village chief had spoken to Old Man Li before, saying, "Even if she's just a girl, if you feed her and raise her, whether you marry her off and collect a dowry or sell her to a slave trader, it's still a sum of money, isn't it?"
Old Li squatted on the ground, remaining silent in the face of the village chief's words. When the village chief tried to persuade him to take care of Li Xiaoni, Old Li replied, "I'm useless. It's already a huge struggle for me to support four young men. If the village chief wants to take care of her, he can take Xiaoni to his home himself."
"How much can a little girl like her eat!"
That's your child. Just because she's a girl, you won't raise her?
How could you do this, Father!
Old Li remained squatting on the ground, this time without saying a word, but his attitude was clear: I won't raise them!
The village chief had no choice; he couldn't very well report it to the village head and have the constables from the capital arrest Old Man Li, could he?
No matter what, Old Man Li is from their village. If Old Man Li is arrested, not to mention the four young men and Li Xiaoni of the Li family, even the village chief will likely be scolded and blamed by the villagers. People will say that the village chief has brought shame to the village by doing this, that he is not on the side of the villagers, and that he has lost his place in the community.
Besides, would Li Xiaoni possibly remember the village chief's kindness?
That's not necessarily true.
So the village chief could only tell his wife that if she saw Li Xiaoni, she should give her something to eat, just to make sure she didn't starve to death.
However, with the establishment of the outer three cities, life in these villages outside Chang'an gradually improved, and some people even moved into the outer three cities and became city dwellers.
When Old Man Li came to work in the outer three cities with the village chief and others, he stayed in a large dormitory in the inn in the outer three cities. During the off-season, if people from the countryside could come to the city to work, they would do manual labor, such as carrying bags, transporting wine, or lifting stones.
But as Li Xiaoni grew to be in her early teens, the eldest son of the Li family had already turned fifteen and was ready to get married.
But Old Li's family is so poor they can't even afford to eat, how could they possibly think about getting a wife?
But Li Dalang was truly ruthless; he set his sights on Li Xiaoni, who had just turned ten.
"Father, let's sell Xiao Ni. She's ten years old now and can do a lot of work. Selling her to a wealthy family as a maid will let her live a good life."
With the money from selling Xiao Ni'er, plus the one or two taels of silver we had saved at home, I'll get a wife so she can give my father a grandson.
"The bloodline of Father will be passed down!"
Li Dalang's words stirred up Old Man Li's heart, and he actually took Li Xiaoni to find a human trafficker.
Li Xiaoni followed Old Man Li to see the human trafficker in a daze. The human trafficker treated Li Xiaoni like livestock, touching her all over and even prying open her mouth to look at her teeth.
Li Xiaoni had been suffering from severe malnutrition for a long time, and her mind was slow to react. She hadn't yet realized what the human trafficker was doing.
When she heard Old Man Li haggling with the slave trader, Li Xiaoni finally realized that her father was going to sell her!
Li Xiaoni knelt down like a madwoman and kowtowed repeatedly to Old Man Li, her forehead bleeding profusely. She cried out, "Father, I'll work, I'll eat less, Father, please don't sell me! Please don't sell me!"
Li Xiaoni's desperate cries were truly pitiful to anyone who saw them.
But Old Man Li isn't human; he has no heart.
Old Man Li remained unmoved, still focused on negotiating the price for selling Li Xiaoni with the slave trader.
The human trafficker was used to buying and selling, and seeing Li Xiaoni's actions, she gave up her idea of buying someone.
In the end, the slave trader did not buy her.
Old Li failed to sell Li Xiaoni and received no money. Enraged, after the slave trader left, he went up and kicked Li Xiaoni, who was kneeling on the ground. As a farmer who had done heavy physical labor all year round, Old Li did not hold back in his kick, sending Li Xiaoni flying more than 3.06 meters away.
Li Xiaoni, whose forehead was already bleeding, didn't even have time to react before she was sent flying into the air. When she finally hit the ground due to gravity, her head struck a rock by the roadside.
Old Li didn't even glance at Li Xiaoni. He spat and walked away.
Finally, a woman who ran a tea shop on the street couldn't bear to see it anymore, so she carried Li Xiaoni into the back of the shop and wrapped her head with a cloth.
The woman was kind-hearted and even gave Li Xiaoni some steamed buns to eat.
But day after day, as Li Dalang turned seventeen, twelve-year-old Li Xiaoni could not escape the fate of being sold.
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