Chapter 217 Chapter 216: The Picked-up Baby
Yang Chunyan and a few others broke off the last two acres of corn cobs, chopped down the corn stalks, tied them up with straw ropes, carried them to the roadside, and took them back on the way home.
Li Qiuyue looked at the corn cobs in the basket on her back and said, "This year, the money earned from selling young corn is higher than that from selling corn seeds in previous years."
Yang Chunyan nodded and said, "Next year, more people will plant early-maturing corn."
Zhang Xiuxiang looked at the bean stalks on the edge of the field and said, "The green bean rice is ready to eat. How about we get some green bean stalks and go back to shell the beans and grind them into tofu pudding?"
Zhao Huifang pulled up a nest and took a look. "I'll pull this one back from the field later. Tofu pudding made from fresh beans tastes better than from old beans!"
Zhang Xiuxiang picked up the hoe and said, "Why do we need to pull the beans? Let Xiaoru, Xiaowen, and Jiakang pull them out from the wasteland and carry them back to shell the beans. We can also work for an extra hour."
The four sisters-in-law walked through the pumpkin field and went to the barren mountain behind.
Some of the bushes on the mountain have been cut down, and the ground has been pried into holes everywhere, leaving only the particularly large rocks.
Zhao Huifang looked at Yang Chunyan with a smile, "From now on, this place will belong to our family."
"Well! It's such a large piece of land. I will be busy in the future." Yang Chunyan felt happy when she thought that this piece of land would belong to her in the future.
When Zhou Huaian saw the four people coming, he said with a smile: "Look, our female army is here."
Zhao Huifang smiled and said, "The youngest one is doing well now. He can even push such a heavy cart."
Zhou Huaian glanced at Yang Chunyan with pride, "That's right, pushing the chicken bus to Ning'an every other day is not in vain."
"Let's go. Let's make two more trips while the women's army is coming." Zhou Huaishan and Zhou Huaijun carried a basket of stones and walked down the mountain.
Zhou Huaian also followed, pushing the chicken cart.
Zhang Xiuxiang called Zhou Xiaoru and two other people who were playing in the mud on the barren hillside. When the kids heard that they were going to pick beans and grind them into tofu pudding, they dropped the mud and ran away.
"Grinding tofu pudding! Let's eat tofu pudding tonight!"
Yang Chunyan looked at her private plot at the foot of the mountain and thought that after the house was repaired, she would dig a well on the mountain like she did in her previous life, so that she could install water pipes to bring water from the mountain to the foot of the mountain.
Seeing the four people coming up, Zhou Huairong smiled and asked, "Are you going to carry it on your shoulders, or do you want two people to carry it?"
Zhao Huifang picked up a bamboo basket and said, "It's hard to carry it, so let's just use the bamboo basket to carry it."
"Okay!" Zhou Huairong took it and put the stones into his plow bag. "It's easy to pry up the big stones, but the small stones are difficult. I can only pick them up slowly after plowing them out."
Yang Chunyan: "Brother, don't throw away the small stones. Pile them together and use them to pave the road."
"Yes." Zhou Huairong agreed readily.
Li Qiuyue put her hands on her hips and looked around, feeling happy but also worried, "How long will it take to open up such a large area of land?"
Zhao Huifang: "Take your time. We need to fix the house first, and then we can clean up this place slowly after we move in."
Zhou Huairong smiled and nodded, "It will be convenient if we move here. After dinner, we can just take our hoe and go up the mountain."
With the help of four women, things went much faster. Seeing that there were not many stones left, Zhou Huaijun and Zhou Huaishan also put down their baskets and helped pry the stones.
After the sun went down, Zhao Huifang and Yang Chunyan went back to help Zhou's mother cook, while Li Qiuyue and Zhang Xiuxiang stayed to help with the housework.
Yang Chunyan and her partner were walking back with corn on their backs. Just as they turned onto the field road, they saw Li Xiaoping running in front of them, followed by an angry Li Wu. Behind the father and son were a few children who were watching the fun.
"Stop right there, you son of a bitch. You may be shameless, but I still have some dignity."
Li Xiaoping: "It was Jihong who stole the money. My stepmother always wrongly accused me. The money I paid for school was from selling herbs at Grandma Chen's house."
Li Wu quickly caught up with him, grabbed his arm and lifted him up, "Come on, I'll go with you to ask the Zhou family. If the money wasn't earned from selling herbs, I'll chop off your hand."
Li Xiaoping kicked his legs, struggled non-stop, and cried out at the top of his lungs: "I didn't steal the money, it was from selling herbs..."
"How dare you talk back!" Li Wu slapped him, "You are a small thief, a big thief, I don't care who you are!"
Yang Chunyan and Zhao Huifang could no longer bear to watch, "Li Wu, how can you beat a child like this?"
Li Wu turned around and saw that it was two people. He put Li Xiaoping down and said, "I was just planning to go to your house to ask if my Xiaoping had ever sold herbs to you?"
Yang Chunyan glanced at Li Xiaoping, whose face was full of tears, and said unhappily, "I have sold it, and I weighed it for him. I just heard him shouting that it was the money from selling herbs. Why didn't you ask clearly before beating him?"
Zhao Huifang mocked, "That's right! Li Wu, if you beat him like this, people who don't know would think you picked up Xiao Ping."
Li Wu said with a bitter face, "Mrs. Zhou, you don't know, my kid is getting worse and worse. He often uses the family's money to buy food at the agency store. I don't care if he develops the habit of going to other people's homes to get money. Others will scold me for not disciplining him well."
Li Xiaoping stepped back in front of Yang Chunyan and the other man, looking at him with his neck stiff, "I didn't take the money from home, it was Xue Jihong who took it, and what I hid was the money I earned from selling herbal medicine."
"How dare you talk nonsense!" Li Wu said and raised his hand again.
Li Xiaoping ran behind them and said, "You are not my old man. You didn't beat Xue Jihong when she stole money, and you didn't care if my stepmother didn't give me food.
I have to cut grass for pigs every day before I can go to school. Other families have girls cutting grass, so why doesn’t Xue Jihong do it? "
Li Wu was so angry that his already dark face turned as black as the bottom of a pot. "If you dare to talk nonsense again, I will beat you to death."
Li Xiaoping glared at him. "I'm not lying. You refused to pay the school fee, so I went to dig herbs and sell them to pay the teacher. I hid the remaining money in my shoes, but my stepmother found it and she accused me of stealing the money."
The more he spoke, the sadder he became, and he burst into tears, "Mom, mom, I want my mom..."
"You..." Li Wu raised his hand and put it down again.
Yang Chunyan patted Li Xiaoping on the shoulder and looked at Li Wu. "Xiaoping came to sell herbs the other day and my mother and I weighed them for him. He said he picked those herbs when he was cutting grass for pigs. The child is still young, so let's talk it over nicely."
Li Wu said awkwardly, "That's good. I was just afraid that he would learn bad things." He then looked behind the three of them and said, "Cui Fen, his aunt said that the money was earned by Xiao Ping from selling herbs."
Zou Cuifen didn't know when she stood behind the others. She didn't respond to Li Wu's words and just looked at Li Xiaoping gloomily:
"Xiaoping, when did you see Jihong stealing money? I tell you, you can't talk nonsense without evidence. You can't afford to ruin Jihong's reputation."
Li Xiaoping was so scared that he jumped between the two of them. "She stole it. If you don't believe me, let's go to the sales agency and ask her if she often goes there to buy food."
Seeing this, Li Wu jumped off the ridge of the field, walked over and reached out to pull Li Xiaoping, "Okay, now that we have made it clear, come home with me."
Li Xiaoping grabbed the strap of Yang Chunyan's backpack and said, "I won't go back. If I go back, you will beat me to death."
(End of this chapter)
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