Chapter 47 Chapter 47
Some villagers who came back from the county town came to the Yu family specifically and told them that Old Man Yu had been ill for several days. Mr. Yu and his wife were extremely worried.
Old Mrs. Yu did not force Chen to stay in the village to work, and urged her to go to the county town to take care of her sick eldest son.
Chen had been eager to go to the county town for a long time, mainly because life in this village was really unbearable.
Not only does she have to take care of the housework, she also has to do the work in the fields.
You know, since she married into the Yu family, she has never done any work in the fields. She thinks she is the daughter of a scholar and is different from those country women. How could she do such hard and tiring work?
Every time Chen saw her two sisters-in-law, Liu and Wang, who were tanned and old, she felt lucky that she didn't have to work in the fields like them.
Her husband is a scholar, she gave birth to two smart sons, and her family is very supportive, so who would dare to ask her to work?
Who would have thought that after the family split up, she would actually go to work in the fields like those country women?
Now all the adult men in the eldest family are in the county town, leaving Yu Jingzong as the only ten-year-old boy. Even if he were asked to work in the fields, he wouldn't be able to do much, not to mention that he has never done farm work since he was a child and doesn't know how to do it at all.
Although Mr. Yu and Mrs. Yu will help, it is not enough for only the two of them to do it.
So Chen was also called to work in the fields, leaving Yuqin to do the laundry, cooking, and feeding the chickens and pigs at home.
Because the two pigs of the Yu family were to be kept until the Chinese New Year to be slaughtered, when the family was divided up, it was decided not to divide the pigs first and wait until the Chinese New Year to slaughter them.
In this way, the two pigs in the backyard were fed by the three families in turn, with each family raising them for ten days.
The first half of each month is fed by the first room, the second half by the second room in the middle, and the third half by the third room in the last half, and so on.
Yuqin had never done this kind of work before. Not to mention cooking pig food, she couldn't even feed pigs.
Every time she saw the two smelly pigs in the pigsty, she felt disgusted and was even afraid that they would come over to her for food, as she always felt that they might bite her.
Because they didn't know how to do it, the two pigs were so hungry that they kept squealing. Naturally, the old lady started scolding them again, and in the end, Chen was the one who did it.
After finishing her work in the fields every day, she also had to cut grass for pigs and chop firewood...
At the end of the day, Chen was busy like a top, dizzy and disoriented. How could she care about the manners of a scholar's daughter?
She had never understood so deeply how hard life was for the country people.
In the past, the Yu family had indeed treated her too well. Even if she stayed in the village, someone else would do the work in the fields and at home, and she only needed to concentrate on raising her daughter and younger son in the house.
Chen feels that her life is worse than death every day and she can’t go on any longer.
When she accidentally looked at herself in the mirror, she discovered that the tanned and haggard woman in the mirror seemed to have aged ten years in an instant, and she finally collapsed.
She always felt that she was different from her two sisters-in-law. She lived a leisurely and refined life and was an elegant person. She really looked down on her two dark and rustic sisters-in-law. They had been worn out by life and looked like unfeminine people at all. They were really not worthy of being in the upper class.
She never thought that one day she would become one of them.
Chen couldn't bear the thought of this result.
Chen has been looking forward to going to the county town these days. She doesn't want to stay in this village which is dirty, messy and has endless work to do.
When Chen learned that Boss Yu was ill, her first reaction was not anxiety but happiness, as she finally had a reason to go to the county town.
Not only her, Yu Qin and Yu Jingzong were also very happy. They couldn't wait a moment and immediately packed up to go to the county town with their mother.
Old Madam Yu stopped Yu Qin and Yu Jingzong and said, "Your mother can go to the county town alone, what are you two going to do?"
Yuqin held the bundle and whispered, "Grandma, I'm worried about Dad. I want to go take care of him."
Yu Jingzong followed up by saying, “I have to take care of Dad, too.”
If it were in the past, when Grandma Yu heard this, she would be extremely happy and think that the two children were filial.
But at this moment, she said with a sullen face, "What do you mean by taking care of me? Your mother can take care of me alone, how can you take care of others? Besides, the houses in the county town are so small that they can't accommodate so many people. You will only cause trouble if you go there! Okay, just stay in the village."
Brother and sister: "..."
In the end, only Chen went to the county town.
She looked back at the two children who were looking at her eagerly, and her heart ached. However, the old lady had changed. She was no longer as tolerant and loving to them as before. She could not take them to the county town with her, and could only let them suffer for the time being.
Chen cruelly withdrew her gaze and left quickly, very quickly, for fear of being called back halfway.
It wasn't until she arrived in the county town that she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
When Chen arrived at the house in the county town, her two sons opened the door. They both looked haggard, as if they had not rested for several days.
She felt very distressed seeing this, and wondered how they had been getting by these days without her as their mother.
Sure enough, she should have come to the county town earlier.
Yu Jingde and his companions were extremely happy to see Chen.
They haven't had a good rest for a long time since Boss Yu fell ill. In order to take care of the sick Boss Yu, they can only ask for leave from the private school and stay at home to take care of him.
I don’t know if it’s because Boss Yu is sick, but his temper has become very weird. Sometimes when he’s taking medicine, he suddenly gets furious, pours the medicine on them, and curses at them.
"Mom, Dad has changed. He's very prone to anger." Yu Jingli frowned and said, "My brother and I didn't do anything. He suddenly got angry and scolded us and told us to get out."
Sometimes the curses were very harsh, as if they were his enemies.
Yu Jingde had a gloomy face and was extremely puzzled by his father's moody temper.
Chen's eyes dimmed slightly, and she knew why Boss Yu was like that.
But she had no choice. She knew how strong her husband's self-esteem was. He claimed to be a scholar and had always been superior to others in the Yu family. Everyone had to listen to him, which also made him develop a noble and arrogant character.
All of a sudden, he was forced to kneel down, and the Yu family was even split up because of this incident, making him lose face in front of his entire family. How could he bear this?
She was not at all surprised to learn of his sudden illness.
Chen said to her two sons, "I know you have worked hard. Take a good rest and don't delay your studies."
The two brothers nodded, and their mother's arrival finally made them feel relieved.
They didn't know that the Yu family had split up yet, so when they greeted their mother, they asked, "Mom, why didn't Qin Niang and Zong Ge'er come to the county town with you?"
Every time Chen came to the county town, she would bring her youngest son and daughter with her.
In her words, a family should be neat and tidy.
Although the house in the county town is a bit small and cannot accommodate the whole family, Yu Jingzong can live with his two brothers, and Yu Qin can go to her maternal grandparents' house and live with her cousin from the second branch of the Chen family. This way they can still live in a spacious place.
Chen's face stiffened slightly, and after a moment's thought, she decided to tell them about the division of the family property.
Both the Yu Jingde brothers were dumbfounded.
"Why are we suddenly splitting up?"
Chen briefly explained the reason for the division of the family, and naturally skipped the scene where the eldest son Yu was forced to kneel by Yu Li, so as not to upset her two sons.
Mr. Yu also warned them not to tell them about this so as not to affect their studies.
Despite this, the Yu Jingde brothers were still very angry, and the target of their anger was naturally Yu Li.
"How could she do this? It's really too much to leave my mother. She is already married. How can a married woman come back to her parents' home to divide the family property? What is she thinking?" Yu Jingli said angrily.
Yu Jingde frowned, his eyes dark, "No matter what, she really shouldn't do this."
As they said this, they felt a little regretful that they didn't go back with their parents a while ago. If they had gone back, they would definitely not allow Yu Li to make trouble in her parents' home. They would definitely let her know that a married girl should abide by the rules and her parents' home is not a place for her to act unruly.
Nor will it allow the Yu family to get to the point of splitting up.
Chen looked at the innocent looks of her two sons and didn't know what to say.
If they knew how powerful Yu Li was, they probably wouldn't have said that. Suddenly, they felt fortunate that their two sons didn't go back with them that day, otherwise, given their tempers, they would have been beaten, and Yu Li might have broken their legs on the spot.
Thinking of this, she shuddered and said quickly, "Don't provoke her. You must not provoke her. Do you understand?"
The two brothers were puzzled, but their mother was so serious that she even asked them to swear an oath, so they had to agree reluctantly.
Then Chen went into the house to visit her sick husband.
When she saw Boss Yu looking as haggard as an old man, she was shocked.
In the past, Boss Yu was a very particular person. Even when he was working as an accountant in a rice shop, he still acted like a scholar so that people could tell at a glance that he was a man full of knowledge. Unlike now, he looks decadent like a greasy old man.
Chen's mouth moved, and he realized once again how much the separation of the family had affected him.
She took a deep breath and just opened her mouth to say something when Boss Yu, who was lying on the bed, angrily kicked her out.
"You are here to laugh at me, too, right? Get out of here! Get away from me—"
Chen came out of the house in a panic, feeling very angry.
Faced with her two sons who were looking at her with concern, she didn't know what to say. She comforted them with a few reluctant words and told them to go rest while she went to the kitchen.
No matter what, at least she returned to the county town. She didn't want to stay in that broken village for a moment and never wanted to go back.
-
Boss Yu was ill for nearly half a month.
He was going to stay sick, hiding in his room, not seeing anyone, until the rice shop owner sent someone to visit him and told him that if he continued to be sick, they would have to hire another accountant.
How could Boss Yu dare to continue being sick? He finally got up from the bed, got himself ready, and went to work in the rice shop obediently.
Working as an accountant in a rice shop, he earned nearly three taels of silver a month, which was enough money to support his family. Without this job, he would not even have the money to rent a house in the county town, let alone support his two sons in studying for the imperial examinations.
After Yu Lao Da cheered up and went to work, Chen had no intention of returning to the village. She stayed behind on the grounds that her two sons were in the key to their studies and she wanted to stay for a few more days to take care of them.
As for her daughter and younger son who stayed in the village, although she was worried, she thought that they were already old and there were old ladies and old men at home, who would not let anyone bully them or let them starve, so she didn't care about them anymore.
Unexpectedly, a few days later, she saw her youngest son in the county town.
Chen, who had just returned from shopping with a basket of vegetables, was shocked when she saw her youngest son and asked, "Zong'er, why are you here?"
Yu Jingzong said aggrievedly: "Mother didn't come back, so I came to find you. I came on Wang the boat."
Over the years, he often traveled between the county town and the village with his mother and knew the route well. Since his mother didn't bring him here, he would come by himself. Anyway, Wang the boatman knew him and wouldn't charge him for the boat fare.
Chen was choked and had no choice but to take him home.
In the evening, Yu Lao Da and his two sons came back. They were also surprised to see Yu Jingzong. They learned that he came to the county town alone. Yu Jingde and his brother were very angry.
He was a child and it was dangerous for him to come to the county town by boat alone. Even though he was familiar with the road, it was still dangerous. What if he was kidnapped by a beggar?
That night, Yu Jingzong was taught a lesson by his two brothers.
Yu Jingzong looked aggrieved and said angrily: "You have no idea how miserable I am in my hometown. Every day I eat pickled vegetables and drink watery bean porridge, while my second and third uncles eat meat from time to time, and grandma refuses to buy meat for us..."
At the end of his speech, he started crying out of grievance.
Yu Jingde asked: "Didn't Second Uncle and Third Uncle send you some meat when they were eating?"
Although the family has been divided, there are still elderly people at home, so we have to send some meat to our grandparents to eat, otherwise it would be really unfilial.
"What are you sending? They won't send anything!" Yu Jingzong wiped his eyes, "They all look down on us now. It's all because of Li Niang, the troublemaker. If she hadn't forced Dad to kneel down..."
"What?!!!" Both Yu Jingde and his brother were stunned.
What does it mean to force their father to kneel down? ! !
**
Although it is not certain how much silver the study will have, Yu Li feels that it will definitely not be a small amount.
Thinking of the family savings, she felt at ease and was more generous when buying things.
She suddenly understood why Zhou and Fu Wenxiao were willing to spend money on firewood. With Fu Wenxiao's rate of making money, it would be fine if he didn't open a business, but if he did, he could make a living for three years.
No wonder they are not stingy when it comes to spending money.
Of course, she still didn't agree, thinking that she could do these things herself and there was no need to spend money to buy them.
Every night, when Yu Li put the money he earned into the box, he would count the money inside to see how much was in his savings.
Although she buys a lot of things every day, she doesn't spend it all every time. Most of the time there is some left.
As the saying goes, if you have money in your hands, you will not be worried.
Yu Li understood this principle very well now. Now that she had money in her hands, she could buy and eat the cakes and pastries that she could not afford before, piece by piece, being very generous.
She had a vague feeling that her awakening period would soon be over.
Fu Wenxiao saw her sitting there counting money, squinting her eyes and listening to the sound of copper coins and silver ingots colliding, and he couldn't help laughing.
She seemed to like the sound.
She looks like a money-grubber, but she looks cute when she does this kind of thing.
"Li Niang, it's late, why aren't you sleeping yet?" Fu Wenxiao reminded.
Yu Li said "I'll be right there" without even turning his head, still counting seriously.
After counting, a while passed and she was satisfied as she swept all the silver into the box and put it in the cabinet.
Fu Wenxiao was sitting on the bed with his hair loose, wearing a single white garment and a thin quilt covering his waist and abdomen.
He looked at the girl who had climbed onto the bed and said, "Does Li Niang like money very much?"
Yu Li glanced at him and said, "No one would dislike money, right?"
Money can buy a lot of things. Ninety percent of the problems in this world can be solved with money. As long as people live in this world, they cannot do without money.
Unless you don't need to eat, drink, defecate or urinate, it doesn't matter whether you have money or not.
Fu Wenxiao thought for a moment and said, "You're right. No one doesn't like money." He didn't know what he was thinking about, but a sarcastic smile appeared on the corner of his lips, and he sighed softly, "There are so many things that money can do..."
Yu Li couldn't help but look at him and felt that the smile on his face was not so pretty anymore.
Normally, when he smiles gently, he is quite pleasing to the eye.
Now this kind of smile is a bit sharp. Although the person is still good-looking, the aura is not so friendly and seems very cold.
Fu Wenxiao came back to his senses and saw her staring at him, so he smiled at her.
It turned into that gentle and beautiful smile again.
Yu Li thought about it, and realized belatedly that he seemed to have a lot on his mind. He was about to die, and with so many worries, he must be mentally unhealthy. I'm afraid his condition will get worse.
Thinking of this, she comforted him with a rare sentence, "If you have anything that makes you unhappy, you can tell me."
If you say it out, you will feel better and won't feel uncomfortable holding it in. Otherwise, you will become a abnormal person one day.
This is what we learned in psychology class, that people should vent their emotions appropriately and not waste them internally. Her way of venting was to chop off the head of an alien species with a knife, which was particularly stress-relieving.
Fu Wenxiao was a smart man and quickly understood what she meant, feeling a little amused and helpless.
He did not refuse and said, "Okay."
When he was about to leave this world, perhaps he could talk to her and allow himself to say a final farewell to this world.
Fu Wenxiao thought about it, closed his eyes, and his consciousness slowly sank into the darkness.
In the middle of the night, Fu Wenxiao suddenly woke up.
The fingertips of the hand on my neck were a little rough and not soft, but very warm.
Although I woke up with a start, I didn't break out in a cold sweat like before. Instead, I felt like I was used to it.
"Leaving mother?"
In the dead of night, Fu Wenxiao called out softly.
He felt the hand slowly withdrawing, revealing a sense of guilt, and the person who had come close to him to choke him also slowly retreated.
"Well, it's not dawn yet, you continue sleeping..." Yu Li said vaguely, and stepped back to distance himself from him.
Fu Wenxiao responded first, then said, "Li Niang, is it not good to always pinch my neck?"
He asked in a very tactful way, but it was also a way of making the matter clear.
In the darkness, Yu Li said nothing.
When he thought she had fallen asleep, her voice rang out again: "I will try my best to control myself." She really did control herself, and every time she reached out her hand, she would resist the urge to be ruthless.
She added, "I'll try to get used to it in the future."
Fu Wenxiao raised the corners of his lips as if smiling, and closed his eyes in the darkness.
"It's okay, I don't blame you." He said gently, "You are a good girl, I know it."
Yu Li secretly buried his face in the pillow, feeling a little guilty.
Despite this incident, Yu Li still slept soundly in the second half of the night and got up on time.
After working for most of the day and getting paid, Yu Li bought a lot of things in the county town. Among them were some wild fruits that were brought to the county town by people from nearby villages. They were picked in the mountains. She picked all the sweet ones to please Fu Wenxiao and comfort him after the fright he received in the middle of the night.
On the way back, Yu Li discovered that someone was following her.
She ignored him and left the city as usual.
Shortly after leaving the city, they came to a deserted place. Yu Li turned around and looked at the men who were following her.
The way these men are dressed, you can tell they are second-rate people. They have no legitimate jobs and specialize in stealing and doing shady things.
Seeing her suddenly stop, the men who had followed her all the way out of the city were stunned at first. They didn't expect that she didn't run away, as if she was waiting for them here.
They walked over and looked at Yu Li.
Two months had passed since she came into this world. Yu Li was no longer as skinny as she was at the beginning, but compared to the average person, she was still too thin. However, she had a good foundation, and her facial features gradually revealed some of the youthful beauty that a young girl should have.
In the eyes of these men, although Yu Li's appearance was not the best, it was enough to make them have evil thoughts.
Meeting their eyes, Yu Li, who originally didn't want to do anything, suddenly felt that he could do something.
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