The next few days were a period of great hardship for Li Baolai.
Zhou Sui also stopped letting Li Qiuju cook separately every day, and instead asked Zhou Xu to pick up boxed lunches for her to eat every day.
Li Baolai would throw down his chopsticks after one meal, and even dump the rice in his bowl, saying that he didn't eat as well as he did at home, and asked Li Qiuju to stew bones and stir-fry meat for him.
Grandma said that my aunt's family made money from their business, and they can afford to eat meat as their main meal every day.
The moment he slammed down his chopsticks, Zhou Xu didn't even need Zhou Sui to give him a look. He immediately put down his own chopsticks, skillfully grabbed Li Baolai by the shoulder, and half-dragged, half-pulled him up.
“If you’re not going to eat, then go to the side. You’re complaining that the food isn’t good enough. Have you forgotten when we had no food and had to eat tree bark?”
Zhou Xu hadn't experienced it himself, but he'd heard Grandma Zhou mention it several times: in those days of scarcity, even a piece of tree bark was a treasure.
Regardless of whether they eat well now or poorly in the past, their family has only one requirement: no food should be wasted.
Li Qiuju felt a pang of heartache looking at the white rice on the table, but couldn't bear to throw it away. Since Li Baolai hadn't eaten it either, she put it in her own bowl and ate it.
At first, when Li Baolai was scolded, she would say a few words, but now she doesn't say anything at all because Li Baolai has too many bad habits, and even she can't stand them.
"Sigh, what a good child, they're really going to spoil him rotten," Li Qiuju said to Zhou Sui.
Zhou Sui followed her words and said, "It's fine if he didn't come to our house, but now that he's here, we can help him correct his mistakes as much as we can. Mom, you don't need to worry about him. Ah Xu and I are watching over him."
"Tell Ah Xu to be careful; Bao Lai is still a child."
Zhou Sui silently thought to herself, "Thank goodness he's just a child. If he were an adult, he'd be in real trouble."
After missing a meal, Li Baolai finally understood what it meant to be "a man is made of iron and food is made of steel; if you miss a meal, you'll feel hungry."
He himself never went hungry in the Li family, but at this time Zhou Sui came to tell him that there were no idle people in the Zhou family, and if you didn't work, you wouldn't get any food.
He was assigned the task of washing vegetables; if the vegetables weren't washed properly, he wouldn't have dinner.
Seeing Li Baolai's outspoken and furious demeanor, Zhou Sui felt like a wicked stepmother tormenting her child.
A fleeting sense of guilt crossed her mind, but it didn't stop her from watching Li Baolai work.
Song Qi'an hadn't seen Zhou Sui for two days. He went to the shop twice, and both times she said she was at home. This time, Song Qi'an was more careful and didn't rush to the town. Instead, he went to Zhou's house first.
As soon as he reached the intersection, he noticed a furtive figure at the doorway, hunched over and peering through the crack in the door.
Song Qi'an strode forward and quietly approached the figure.
Wang Laizi's eyes were squinting as he tried to get a clearer view of the courtyard. He had barely caught a glimpse of a figure when his neck tightened.
Someone grabbed his collar, forcing him to straighten up. "What are you doing?" a chilling voice rang in his ear.
Wang Laizi turned his head with difficulty and saw that it was Zhao's grandson.
It's him again!
"I'm asking you a question!" Song Qi'an tightened his collar a bit, the fabric choking his neck, and Wang Laizi involuntarily opened his mouth to breathe.
"I...I..." Wang Laizi's mind went blank, frantically trying to figure out how to explain what had just happened.
Suddenly, the sound of crying came intermittently from the courtyard. Wang Laizi had a sudden inspiration: "I heard a child crying in here. Let's see what's going on."
"Tell the truth!" Song Qi'an knew this man wasn't telling the truth as soon as he saw his eyes darting around.
"Really." Wang Laizi felt like he was being strangled and couldn't breathe. "The Zhou family doesn't have any children. I was just curious and went to check out the baby crying."
He insisted that this was his reason, and even reached out to pry Song Qi'an's hand away, saying, "Let go of me, I was just curious to see what was going on."
Crying and screaming did indeed come from the courtyard; it didn't sound like Zhou Sui, but rather like a boy's.
Song Qi'an loosened Wang Laizi's collar, and thinking of what happened on the hillside earlier, he spoke to Wang Laizi with a warning tone.
"Stay away from the Zhou family, otherwise neither I nor the Zhou family will let you off easily if we see you."
Wang Laizi's reputation in the village was enough to make the Zhou family raise their fists against him.
"Cough cough cough." Wang Laizi coughed a few times after gaining his freedom. When he met Song Qi'an's cold gaze, he didn't even straighten up before running away.
The moment he turned around, Wang Laizi's face twisted in pain. This Song fellow had ruined his plans for the second time.
After Wang Laizi ran away, Song Qi'an raised his hand and knocked on the Zhou family's courtyard gate.
It wasn't Zhou Sui who opened the door, but an unfamiliar face.
Before Song Qi'an could even look inside, the chubby boy suddenly darted past him and ran outside, shouting, "I want to go home! I want to go home!"
Zhou Sui had just come out of the house when she saw this scene and immediately called out to Song Qi'an.
"Brother Qi'an, grab him."
Without the slightest hesitation, Song Qi'an turned around and rushed over, catching up with Li Baolai in just a few strides.
His grip was stronger than Zhou Xu's; he practically grabbed Li Baolai's arm to get in.
Seeing that the person had been brought back, Zhou Sui breathed a sigh of relief. If Li Baolai had really run away, she would have had to go through a lot of trouble to bring him back.
Li Baolai was too exhausted to struggle anymore. He hung his head and didn't dare to look at Zhou Sui. Without Zhou Sui saying anything, he wiped away his tears and went back to the well to do his work.
He was washing his clothes when Zhou Sui thoughtfully boiled hot water for him, considering the cold weather, so his hands wouldn't get cold.
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