Chapter 6: Don't Eat for Free
How do you know that person?
Mo He was quite surprised that her younger sister, who had never had any friends since childhood, actually knew someone in another village and seemed to have a good relationship with him.
“He’s the one who gave me the candy.” Molly didn’t mention that they met in the mountains.
"He's so generous." Mo He didn't suspect that Zhao Jian'an's approach to Mo Li was ill-intentioned. She had already inquired with the village head of Xiaonan Village, and Zhao Jian'an was a soldier, definitely a good person. His kindness to her sister was probably out of pity.
"But we're new here, so please tell your sister before you go out, and don't wander off."
"Yes, I know."
Back at Zhao Shangxun's home from the brigade office, Mo He took over the task of turning over the vegetable garden, while Li Xiaoju rushed out, saying, "I'll go and call Shangxun back right now. You two hurry up and get your marriage certificate."
Li Xiaoju was quick, bringing Zhao Shangxun back in less than twenty minutes. She jogged ahead, while Zhao Shangxun limped along, struggling to keep up.
Zhao Shangxun wasn't very tall, just over 1.7 meters. His skin was a sun-tanned bronze, showing that despite his limp, he had done a lot of farm work. He wasn't ugly, but his brows were furrowed with wrinkles from years of frowning. Perhaps due to his disability and unhappy life, he exuded a lingering gloom.
Zhao Shangxun was sizing up Mo He, and Mo He was also sizing up Zhao Shangxun.
Molly noticed that her sister looked calm, as if she were evaluating a product, while Zhao Shangxun seemed much shyer, with two blushes on her bronze face.
"Don't just stand there, go back and change into clean clothes, then take the documents to town to get your marriage certificate," Li Xiaoju urged.
The peach wood chest that Mo He had brought from home was still under the eaves. Li Xiaoju told her to put the chest in her room first and go change her clothes. Molly wanted to go with her, but Li Xiaoju stopped her.
"Your sister and brother-in-law are going to town to get their marriage certificate in a bit. You stay home and help me till the vegetable garden." Li Xiaoju's gaze fell on Mo He's slightly shorter left arm. "Your hand—"
Molly pulled her sleeve up, revealing her left palm, which was missing three fingers.
"Oh dear, how can you do farm work like this!" Li Xiaoju exclaimed.
Molly remained silent.
"No wonder your parents don't want you." Li Xiaoju pouted. "My family doesn't support people who just want to freeload."
"Don't worry, Auntie, you don't need to take care of him, I will." Mo He called out from inside the house.
Li Xiaoju's face stiffened, and she glared fiercely at Molly.
“We agreed on this two days ago. I’ll bring my younger sister with me when I marry into the family. I’ll take care of her and won’t be a burden to you.” Mo He said as she buttoned her clothes as she walked out of the house. She had changed into a dress with fewer patches and had her hair tied in two neat braids, looking pretty and radiant.
"If you change your mind, I'll take my sister and leave right now."
Li Xiaoju opened her mouth, but before she could speak, her son interrupted, "Mom, Xiaohe's sister is my sister too. From now on, we're all family, and I'll help Xiaohe raise her sister."
"Let's all raise them together. Alright, it's getting late, you should hurry up and set off."
Even though she was unhappy, Li Xiaoju had no choice but to accept it for the time being. Her son had finally found a wife, and she couldn't let the duck that was already in her mouth fly away. As for Molly, she would just find an opportunity to get rid of her.
In the afternoon, Li Xiaoju was turning over the vegetable patch, and Molly was behind her using a stone to break up the clods of soil. Aside from a small piece of meat she'd eaten that morning and a bowl of water Li Xiaoju had brought her, Molly hadn't eaten anything else that day. Her stomach was rumbling, but Li Xiaoju seemed not to hear it, continuing to work diligently.
Li Xiaoju didn't pack up her tools and go home until the entire vegetable patch was turned over. "Let this patch dry for a bit, then we'll plant the vegetables first thing tomorrow morning. Molly, go start a fire, we'll cook dinner."
The Zhao family's dinner was the same as the Li family's dinner: wild vegetable soup and wild vegetable pancakes.
"Since you're here for the first time, let's have something nice to eat."
When Li Xiaoju mentioned eating something good, she meant adding two spoonfuls of kudzu root powder to the wild vegetable pancake.
Kudzu root powder was indeed a good thing at this time, but the Mo family didn't have any.
Dinner was ready, and Mo He and Zhao Shangxun returned.
"Wash your hands quickly and come eat." Li Xiaoju smiled broadly.
Li Xiaoju made four pancakes, three larger and one smaller. She gave the smaller one to Molly.
Upon seeing this, Mohe frowned and swapped his cake with Molly's.
"Thank you, sister," Molly said.
Seeing this, Zhao Shangxun frowned. He tore off a small piece of his pancake and put it into Mo He's bowl. "You're too thin. Eat more."
Mo He also thanked Zhao Shangxun.
"Half a piece isn't enough for you!" Li Xiaoju said angrily, pointing at Molly with her index finger. "She's just a kid, she doesn't do any work, it's a waste for her to eat too much."
“I did work today too,” Molly retorted.
"Is that considered working? It's like a child playing in the mud," Li Xiaoju said dismissively.
"Then please don't ask me to help tomorrow."
"Go up the mountain to collect firewood tomorrow."
"knew."
That night, Molly ate a pancake and drank three bowls of wild vegetable soup.
Li Xiaoju's brow remained furrowed all night, further solidifying her resolve to drive Molly away.
Mo He and Zhao Shangxun shared a room, while Mo Li and Li Xiaoju shared another. There was only one bed in the room, and Mo Li slept close to the edge of the bed, with half an arm's length between her and Li Xiaoju.
As Li Xiaoju began snoring, Molly's consciousness slowly began to fade.
Before dawn the next day, Li Xiaoju got up and woke Molly up as well, asking Molly to boil water while she went outside to plant the vegetables.
When the water boiled, Li Xiaoju came back and sprinkled a handful of powder mixed with grass roots and tree bark into the water, along with some dried wild vegetables. After sprinkling, she took the grass root powder and dried wild vegetables back to her room and locked them in her small cabinet.
Breakfast consisted of a bowl of wild vegetable porridge for each person. Molly's bowl still contained less porridge than the other three, about one centimeter less in height.
Mo He's expression turned sour upon seeing this, but he ultimately said nothing.
"After we finish eating, the three of us will go to work together. Molly, go up the mountain to collect firewood," Li Xiaoju instructed.
“Molly is new here and not familiar with the mountains,” Mohe disagreed.
“It’s just behind our mountain, not far, you can see the village. We’re running out of firewood, and we need to go to the fields to earn work points. We can’t expect her to do nothing while we come back exhausted after a long day and have to go up the mountain to chop firewood.” Li Xiaoju’s tone left no room for negotiation.
Mo He knew that her younger sister couldn't just stay at home doing nothing, eating for free. Her sister had done things like gathering firewood when she was at the Mo family's house, and it wasn't difficult for her, so she didn't mind. She just reminded her, "Don't go to places that are too far away."
Xiaonan Village is surrounded by mountains, and has even less arable land than Mojia Village.
It had just rained, and the whole team was busy turning over the soil. Everyone, young and old, went to the fields, and Molly didn't encounter many people along the way.
Ji Hefeng's house was located at the foot of the mountain, a few dilapidated houses standing there alone. According to Zhao Jian'an, the original owners of the house were a couple who fled here more than ten years ago. They had no children or relatives and starved to death in their home a few months ago. Their bodies were only discovered after they began to decompose.
After the couple died, the house became the property of the production brigade. Now it has been bought by Ji Hefeng and belongs to him.
Molly stared at the rooms, her eyes filled with envy; she also wanted her own house.
But she didn't have two hundred yuan.
She doesn't have a single penny!
After more than a year of drought, there was plenty of firewood on the mountain. Molly would carry a load back in the morning and another load in the afternoon. Li Xiaoju wouldn't give her a sickle, so she had to break the firewood with her hands and stomp on it with her feet, making a mess of the firewood, which she piled up in a corner of the yard. Li Xiaoju then gave her another lecture, but Molly ignored it completely.
The relief food was finally distributed on the third day after they arrived in Xiaonan Village. Li Xiaoju was the one who received it, and she also took Molly and Mohe's share back with her. In the end, Li Xiaoju locked them all in the cabinet.
That evening, Molly ate sweet potato and wild vegetable porridge. The sweet potatoes were cooked until soft and tender, smooth and sweet. She didn't need to chew them; she just sipped them with her tongue and let them slowly flow into her stomach.
It's delicious.
This was Molly's first time eating sweet potatoes.
Li Xiaoju: "Tomorrow I'll plant some sweet potatoes in the vegetable garden. Sweet potatoes are a good thing; the leaves, vines, and fruits are all edible, so nothing is wasted."
Mohe: "We'll also plant some potatoes. Potatoes can be a staple food, and we won't get heartburn if we eat them every day."
Li Xiaoju: "Then let's plant them all. Get up a little earlier tomorrow, and we'll go to breed them together."
Over the next few days, Molly went to the mountains to collect firewood every day, carrying two loads of firewood home each day. Soon, the corner of the Zhao family's courtyard was piled high with firewood.
On this day, Molly carried firewood past Ji Hefeng's house as usual.
"Molly~"
Someone at the door waved to her. Molly turned her head and met Zhao Jian'an's smiling face with his big white teeth. "Come in and sit for a while."
Molly glanced at the sky. The sun had already set, leaving behind a trail of rosy clouds. It was still quite bright, and the work in the fields hadn't ended yet. There was no one home either, so there was no need to rush back.
“I’ve passed by here these past few days, and the gates have always been closed,” Molly said.
Zhao Jian'an: "I'm in the county taking care of Hefeng. Hefeng was discharged from the hospital today and is back home now. Hefeng, Hefeng, look who's here—"
Ji Hefeng lay in bed with his leg in a cast. He was thinner than when Molly last saw him. He had stubble on his chin and dark circles under his eyes, indicating that he hadn't been resting well lately.
Ji Hefeng merely lifted his eyelids, glanced at Molly indifferently, and then lowered his eyes again.
"Alright, we've seen him, so let's not disturb his rest any longer. Let's go outside and talk." Zhao Jian'an led Molly to the kitchen and poured her a bowl of well water. "You go to collect firewood every day?"
“Yes, I go every day. Aunt Li said I can’t earn work points, but I can’t do nothing either, so she assigned me the task of collecting firewood.”
How many do you collect in a day?
"Two loads."
Can we pick up more?
"Okay, but my sister said you don't need to pick too many. If you're too capable, people will make you do more, and that will be very tiring."
"Pfft—"
Zhao Jian'an laughed heartily, "You're so honest. How about this, you collect a load of firewood for us every day, and I'll give you ten cents for each load, how about that?"
Even a penny isn't a small amount; a grown man in Xiaonan Village earns only two or three cents a day in work points.
Firewood is free; you can collect a load of firewood and bring it down, which can be done in two or three hours.
Zhao Jian'an gave this job to Molly out of pity and a desire to help her.
"This is something only you and I should know. Don't tell a third person."
He worried that if the silly girl went back and told everyone everything, the money she had worked so hard to earn would end up in someone else's pocket.
Molly nodded emphatically. "Yes."
As soon as Molly left, Zhao Jian'an went back to his room. "That young lady has had a tough time, so be nicer to her."
Ji Hefeng remained unmoved. "I'm like this with everyone."
Zhao Jian'an sighed, "Fine, I understand. If you don't like her, I won't bring her to you. I thought you were both pitiful people, that you could sympathize with each other and find comfort in one another—"
"Stop!" Ji Hefeng's face darkened. "You want me to feel sorry for a child? Are you out of your mind?"
She is sixteen years old.
"They're children too."
"Go cook, I'm hungry."
Ji Hefeng didn't want to waste any more words with him.
"I have to go back to my unit in a few days. What have you thought about the suggestion I made to you?"
"No, I won't consider it. There's no need to hire someone to take care of me. Just have your mom serve me a portion when she cooks, and I'll pay for it."
“My family eats wild grass and tree bark. You need nutrition right now, so this won’t do.”
"So what if it doesn't work? Do you have other food?"
"...I've already had some food mailed by a friend, it should arrive in a couple of days."
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