Aunt Song continued, "In the blink of an eye, twenty years have passed. That child has grown up in the Li family, and Old Li, the shopkeeper, has quit his job and gone home to farm."
He originally had six children, and the adopted one was the third oldest, making a total of seven. Among them were two girls. The eldest daughter married and moved to the next county, while the second daughter was still young and remained unmarried at home.
The five young men were all of marriageable age, but the family was struggling to make ends meet and couldn't afford to marry off so many women at once. Old Li wanted his youngest daughter to marry her third brother, the one they had found.
In this way, the daughter can stay by his side, and the son will also have a wife.
He had a good plan, and his daughter had no objections. She was overjoyed that she wouldn't have to leave her parents. But unexpectedly, his third son disagreed, saying that he only treated his younger sister as a sister and couldn't treat her as a wife.
Actually, Li Laosan had someone in his heart at that time. He had his eye on the second daughter of the Chen family in the village, but the Chen family thought that Li had too many boys and couldn't offer much in betrothal gifts, so they didn't agree to the marriage.
Later, Li Laosan married the youngest daughter of the Li family, and the second daughter of the Chen family also married into the Yang family in the village.
Logically speaking, Old Li was quite generous; he not only raised Li Laosan but also gave him his own daughter. But Li Laosan was a monster! Just because he couldn't marry the Chen family's daughter, after Old Li died, he constantly beat and verbally abused Li's youngest daughter—the beatings were truly horrific!
Aunt Song smacked her lips, shook her head, and sighed.
Qin Xiaoxiao shook her head and sighed, "Isn't this a classic case of the farmer and the snake?"
Aunt Song and Aunt Liu nodded, "That's right, everyone in the village says he's inhuman, taking his anger out on his benefactor's daughter."
Qin Xiaoxiao asked curiously, "Then, what about that aunt from the Chen family? The one who married into the Yang family?"
Aunt Song and Aunt Liu exchanged a glance and whispered, "The widow Yang at the west end of the village is Chen's daughter."
Qin Xiaoxiao was startled, immediately puffed out her chest and straightened her face, "Widow Yang is the Chen family's daughter? Then Aunt Li is..."
This widow Yang was quite famous in the village. It was said that her husband died not long after she got married, leaving her with a son. Her parents-in-law and the eldest son's family lived together, and after she separated from the family, she raised her child alone.
Don't let her raising the child alone fool you; the child is exceptionally well-behaved. He doesn't look like a child from a poor family at all; he's more like a young master from a wealthy family. He's well-fed and chubby, and his manners are impeccable. He always has a smile on his face and is always polite.
After graduating from high school, Widow Yang's son married the daughter of a leader in the county. From then on, he was rarely seen coming back, but every time he did, he would bring back a lot of nice things for Widow Yang, as well as a lot of money.
Therefore, Widow Yang had money to spend without having to work, and was known throughout the surrounding villages as a woman who knew how to raise children well.
But behind her back, everyone knows that she only managed to raise her child so well because of a man. Otherwise, how could a woman raise a child all by herself?
Unlike later times, when women could go out to work and raise their children without men, women in those days relied on men to make a living. They were not allowed to do business or go out to find work. How much money could they earn just by working in the fields?
That's what they say, but no one caught which man Widow Yang was close to. They only heard that Widow Yang had been scolded by someone, but no fight broke out.
Without any evidence, no one dared to speak recklessly, for fear of inadvertently harming someone. Therefore, everyone in the village knew that Widow Yang had someone behind her back, but they hadn't been able to catch her in the act.
So, it's very likely that it was Li Laosan who took care of Widow Yang and her son.
Qin Xiaoxiao was puzzled. Why did he neglect his own wife and children and instead dote on someone else's child? Did he have some serious illness?
Qin Xiaoxiao shook her head and sighed softly.
Being love-struck is a bad thing!
"Li Laosan's wife has been beaten a lot over the years. She's gotten used to it and is numb to it. Last night, Li Laosan must have been beating his wife again."
Qin Xiaoxiao asked in bewilderment, "His father beats his mother like this, doesn't his son do anything about it?"
Aunt Song laughed, "How can we manage? His son has been beaten by his father since he was a child, and he's terrified of it. Every time his father beats his mother, he'd rather stay far away than get close."
Later, after he got married, of course he kept as far away as possible, closing his eyes and pretending he knew nothing.
Qin Xiaoxiao was shocked. "This son is worse than no son at all. If it were me... I would kill him."
First, they killed their father in the middle of the night, then their son; it's a family tradition, and neither of them are good people.
Aunt Liu and Aunt Song sighed, "They say that for a woman, getting married is like being reborn. If she marries into a good family, she'll enjoy a life of happiness. But if she marries into a family that doesn't treat women like human beings, well, she's going to have a tough time!"
As the three were talking, Qin Yue suddenly appeared out of nowhere, ran to Qin Xiaoxiao's side, pointed proudly to a patch of land, and said, "Sister, I've finished my work and got two work points. How about you? How did it go?"
Qin Xiaoxiao glanced down at the land that hadn't been started yet, then looked up at the land that Qin Yue had been working on. "What's the big deal? I can finish this little bit of work in a minute. You can tell the old man to give you all the land. That way you'll get six work points."
Qin Xiaoxiao didn't feel embarrassed at all about asking Qin Yue to help her with chores. Since she was so capable, she might as well do more so that she wouldn't have too much energy to spare and end up causing trouble all the time.
Qin Yue didn't think there was anything wrong with it, and like a complete idiot, she happily went to Qin Feng to ask for work.
Aunt Song and Aunt Liu, who were standing nearby, burst into laughter. "This Qin Yue is still a bit too young. When she gets older, she'll definitely beat you up."
Qin Xiaoxiao didn't take it seriously. "That's a matter for the future. It's too early to talk about it now. Besides, do you think she doesn't know? She knows everything. It's just that the object of her affections is me, and she's happy to help me."
She wasn't really stupid; how could she not know that Qin Xiaoxiao just wanted her to do more work? She knew, but because it was Qin Xiaoxiao, she was willing to help and give all her work points to Qin Xiaoxiao. Because she was her sister, her own sister, there was no need to be so clear about the distinctions, just like how Qin Xiaoxiao would always think of her when she had something good.
"ah!"
Qin Xiaoxiao, Aunt Song, and Aunt Liu didn't say anything more. They wanted to finish the work they had done in the morning so that they could do less in the afternoon because it was too hot. But they hadn't been working for long when they heard a scream from afar.
Qin Xiaoxiao suddenly looked up at the source of the scream, her eyes filled with an unusual murderous intent.
"Xiaoyue!"
Qin Xiaoxiao jumped up and ran wildly toward the source of the shouting.
Seeing this, Aunt Liu and Aunt Song didn't care about anything else and quickly ran forward after them.
Many people in the field heard the screams, and even more saw Qin Xiaoxiao running away. Seeing Aunt Liu and Aunt Song also running, they exchanged glances and started running after her. (End of Chapter)
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