009, make up your mind! [Please give me some advice if you would like to participate]
009, make up your mind! [Please give me some advice if you would like to participate]
It was already dark outside, and everyone in their family went back to their rooms to sleep.
After taking a shower, Lu Mingfei lay on his small bed, crossed his legs, and shook his feet, thinking about some things at home. He still lived in the same room with his parents and had not moved out to live with his cousins.
The room they lived in wasn't big, only about ten square meters, and was the space for their family of three. A large bed and a small bed were placed in opposite corners of the room, with a dresser next to the large bed. In the corner was a wardrobe and two wooden boxes for storage. By the door were two large baskets used by his father for business, along with a few other miscellaneous items, filling the room to the brim.
The things in the house were tidily arranged, but it still couldn't change the fact that their house was small and crowded.
The crib he slept in was added to the room after he turned one year old. It was made by his father himself, and although it wasn't big, it was enough for him now. Lu Mingfei also wanted his own room, but he knew it was a bit difficult at the moment.
He thought that he was already four and a half years old this year, and would be five after his birthday. He couldn't sleep in his parents' room forever. But there was no room for him to live in this house. He had to move out of his parents' room and move into the room where his cousins lived.
He had been inside the room where his cousins lived before, and calling it a doghouse was already a compliment to them. The room was a mess, like a pigsty, with all sorts of smells and fleas.
Especially the last thing, he was really scared to death!
Lu Youtian was the last one to return to the house. As soon as he entered the room, he saw his son sleeping in the small bed with his legs crossed. His short legs were dangling. He walked over and slapped his son's short legs, warning him: "Why aren't you asleep yet? Go to bed quickly."
"It hurts!" Lu Mingfei quickly rolled onto the bed, complaining that his father's iron sand palm hit him so hard that it hurt too much.
"Like a little girl, so spoiled!" Lu Youtian said to his son, but he didn't bother with his spoiled son. After closing the door, he reminded the child to cover himself with the quilt and go to bed, then walked towards the big bed where he and his wife slept.
Lu Mingfei snorted at his father's back and refused to admit his spoiled words.
Seeing her husband return to the house, Liu Sanniang whispered to him, "Hurry up and rest, you have to get up early tomorrow to go to work with your uncle and others." Speaking of this, Liu Sanniang felt a little uncomfortable. Compared to letting her husband work as a temporary worker in the landlord's house, she naturally would rather let her husband carry a load and go to the city to set up a stall to sell goods.
Working as a day laborer for a landlord wasn't easy. You earned fifty wen a day, working from dawn to dusk. You'd encounter demanding supervisors, not even a break, and your wages would be deducted if you didn't do your job well. Setting up a stall in the city, on the other hand, was just a little harder, but once you got there, you just had to man the stall, sell for half a day, and then go home. The money you earned was easy, and it was no less than what you could earn as a day laborer.
But Liu Sanniang knew in her heart why her family didn't allow her husband to go to the city to sell goods. It was simply because they thought her husband was hiding money every time he went to sell goods. But working for a landlord was different. The family knew exactly how much he was paid for the day. If he brought home a penny short of money, his mother-in-law would come to him and ask for an explanation.
This time, my eldest uncle and second uncle were also there, and I'm afraid none of their wages would go to them. Instead, they would be taken by my eldest uncle and given to my mother-in-law, and then the money would go around and end up in the hands of the eldest wife. Sometimes when she thought about these things, Liu Sanniang felt helpless and amused. She didn't know if this was the case only for her family in Shihua Village, or if every family was like this.
"Well, you should rest too. You'll be up earlier than me tomorrow." Lu Youtian knew his wife would have to get up early tomorrow to make breakfast for them. It wasn't that he couldn't do this job for his wife, but he knew that if he dared to step into the kitchen to help his wife with these chores, she would be the one to get scolded.
So in this family, Lu Youtian himself felt helpless about some things.
Lu Mingfei could hear his parents talking. He felt a little depressed at the thought of not being able to go to the city tomorrow. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to go to the city for a while. Thinking of the jade pendant he had hidden under his pillow, he reached under it and felt something hard. He took it out and it felt a little cold in his hand.
This jade pendant should be worth a lot of silver, right?
But selling something someone gave him wouldn't be... appropriate. Whether it was suitable or not was up to him. It was obvious this jade pendant wasn't cheap, so selling it rashly might result in a loss. Since he wasn't short of money anyway, he might just keep it for now, just in case he needed it in an emergency.
As he folded the jade pendant in his hand, Lu Mingfei's mind was on the situation and future of his family of three in the Lu family. He really couldn't see any hope for the future for him and his son except to work like slaves for the eldest wife. Thinking of this, his heart sank.
It seems that I have to find an opportunity to escape from the Lu family's man-eating den as soon as possible!
There was no more talking coming from the bed across from him, and Lu Mingfei knew the adults over there had gone to bed. It was quiet outside, no one talking or making any noise. He could hear the wind whistling outside the window, and the chirping of insects in the autumn night.
It is gradually entering autumn, and once autumn is over, it will be winter.
Thinking back to the few winters he'd spent in this world, the only word he remembered was "hard." Every winter here was short of food and clothing. Because food was scarce, they only had one meal a day, instead of two. When they were hungry, they could only drink hot water. In their room, the only source of heat during the winter was the kang (kang) on which his parents now slept.
Lu Mingfei remembered that when he was a child, every winter he would be carried by his father to sleep on the big kang. Every night the two adults would wrap him in a quilt and sleep with him in the middle. The two new parents were afraid that their son would freeze to death if they were not careful.
There were so many people in their family, and with so many kangs, if everyone used firewood freely, there wouldn't be enough. So even when they heated their kangs in the winter, they had to use it sparingly, lest they run out of wood before winter was over, which would literally freeze them to death.
Here, it is common for people to freeze to death or starve to death in winter, mostly the elderly and children.
Who says that there won’t be people starving to death or freezing to death under the emperor’s feet?
No matter the world, the rich are always a minority, while the poor are always the majority. Even within Kyoto, the rich are few and the poor are many, and those at the top of the pyramid are always a minority. The situation of the peasants in the villages outside Kyoto is even more precarious. They may be called peasants, but they own no land, having been tenants for generations. Unless one of their descendants manages to change their personal and family fortunes through business or attaining the rank of Jinshi (Jinshi) official, they are destined to remain peasants for generations.
This is also the reason why the Lu family is so eager to cultivate a scholar, just to change the fate of the whole family.
However, Lu Mingfei felt that the Lu family had placed the fate of the entire family on the shoulders of that idiot Lu Zhiyuan, and he didn't know who was the idiot!
With his head full of random thoughts and complaints about the Lu family, he slowly fell asleep...
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