Chapter 74: Long time no see
"Look at this! Look at this!" Wu Houfu grew angrier and angrier as he watched. He grabbed his pipe and started to whip Wu Shouyi. "It's so late and you're still sleeping! Your elder brother is out there desperately trying to find a way out, and you're just lying here like a corpse! I'll beat you to death, you unfilial son!"
The pipe hit him, and Wu Shouyi jumped up with a roar, covering his arm and glaring: "Dad! Are you crazy? Why are you hitting me?"
"What's wrong with hitting you?" Liu was also angry. She stood up and pointed at his nose and scolded, "I've held you in my hands since you were a child, giving you all the good food and clothes, and what's the result? Your eldest brother's family is freezing and starving outside, and you just stuff whatever you have into your mouth and go to sleep after eating! Your eldest brother's family doesn't have a single educated person, but their children can follow their father into the mountains to find food. What about you? Besides asking for it, what else can you do?"
Wu Shouyi's face flushed red from being scolded, and he stiffened his neck and shouted, "That's what they deserve! Who told them to split up the family in the first place? Do you realize how hard it is now? Besides, didn't I go to school? In this desolate mountain area, how can studying earn you a living?"
"How dare you talk back!" Wu Houfu was so angry that his hands were shaking and he almost dropped his pipe. "Once we finish our food reserves, I'll see how long you can keep your stubbornness going!"
Wu Shouyi curled his lips, huddled back into the haystack, and muttered, "If that really happens, don't we still have Big Brother? He can't just watch us starve to death..."
Those words were like a needle, piercing Wu Houfu's heart. He suddenly remembered how, before fleeing the famine, he and his family had taken all the Wu family's food without a word, even slapping his eldest daughter-in-law several times, saying it was "the eldest branch of the family's filial piety." At the time, he hadn't thought it was wrong, actually believing it was natural. But now, seeing the Wang family's fate, watching the eldest family's family live a tough life in the small cave, he suddenly felt that his "filial piety" was like a red-hot iron, burning him.
As Liu continued to rail against Wu Shouyi, the cave gradually grew quieter, leaving only the sound of snowflakes rustling against the walls. Wu Houfu refilled his tobacco and struck a match. Amidst the haze, he gazed toward the cave entrance, his eyes as complex as the wind and snow outside.
Things were definitely different for the Wu family. They were still stuck in the old days, calculating what didn't belong to them, completely unaware that during these snowy days, they could only rely on themselves.
Seeing this, Liu began to feel some regret. Why had she been so determined to drive the eldest son's family out and even split up the family? If she had known this would happen, she would never have let them split up. Liu glanced at her lazy second son with a stern look, her anger boiling inside.
She looked at the women gathered in a circle in the distance, her eyes swirling as she suddenly remembered Aunt Sun and Chen Chunhe's promise to bring ruin to Wu Yuetang's reputation. Why was there no movement now? With that thought, she put down her work and stood up, dragging her already tattered skirt with her.
Liu walked hurriedly over the gravel at the bottom of the cave, moving towards Aunt Sun's tent. Water droplets seeping from the cave walls flowed down the cracks in the rocks, forming small puddles at her feet, reflecting her calculating face.
"Is Aunt Sun here?" As she lifted the curtain, she ran into Aunt Sun and Chen Chunhe huddled together, sharing half a dry, hard wheat cake. Seeing her, they hurriedly hid the cake in their arms. Aunt Sun smiled and said, "Aunt Wu, what's up?"
"I heard about it," Liu glanced outside the tent and lowered her voice. "A while ago, you said you were going to teach Yuetang a lesson. Why haven't you done anything lately?"
Chen Chunhe spat, mud still embedded in the cracks of her fingernails. "Who said there was no movement? Look, I urged the Wang family kid to go begging for food, but Wang Xiaobin didn't even see Wu Yuetang. I won't say anything more, but as soon as I approached, I was glared at by Ye Jingchen. It scared the hell out of me!" She rubbed her red, frozen hands. "That kid had a wolf-like look in his eyes. He really wants to eat people."
Aunt Sun didn't respond, but just stared at Liu: "Old Lady Wu, you suddenly brought this up, I wonder if you have some idea?"
"What else could I possibly think?" Liu tugged at her clothes. "It's just that seeing the Wang family suffer such a setback makes me feel bad. Back then, in the village, which of our families wasn't living better off than Wu Shoutian's? Now, they're enjoying the good life, while we're just eating wheat cakes. How can I swallow this?" She pointed outside the cave. "I just saw that girl Yuetang drying animal skins again. I heard that Ye Jingchen shot several pheasants again. The meat smells so good..."
These words were like a needle, accurately piercing the sore spot of the two people. Aunt Sun rolled her eyes and moved closer to Chen Chunhe: "How about...we find an excuse to go over and take a look? Say we want to borrow some firewood, they can't just give us face."
Chen Chunhe nodded immediately: "Yes! I heard that Yuetang is very particular now, and she has done something warm in the cave. Let's go and take a look, maybe we can find some evidence."
Liu's lips curled up into a smile, and she sighed deliberately: "Don't cause any trouble, Ye Jingchen is very ruthless."
"Cruel?" Aunt Sun slapped her thigh. "No matter how cruel he is, can he defeat so many of us? If a fight really breaks out, with so many eyes watching in the cave, can he still eat us all?"
The three of them huddled together, whispering for a long time. The shadows in the tent cut their faces into pieces, leaving only the occasional words like "take advantage of the night", "find an opportunity", "make her lose her reputation", etc., which slipped into the cracks of the cave like snakes.
In the cave on the mountainside, everyone was having fun. After a few days of hard work, the low-profile floor heating had been installed. After the fireplace was lit, the whole cave was warm and you didn't feel cold even when walking barefoot on the ground.
After finally having some free time, Wu Yuetang crawled into her small tent and entered the space. As soon as she entered the space, she heard the system's wailing complaints.
"Host, you are finally here. I haven't seen you for a long time." Wu Yuetang never expected that this system could act coquettishly and cutely.
Then the system began to show everything it had taken care of for the host. All the farmlands were fully planted, and the medicinal fields were not idle either, not to mention the livestock and poultry areas. The small animals were all fat and big.
Wu Yuetang wandered into the orchard. The fruit trees she had planted earlier were beginning to bear fruit. She casually plucked a pear, wiped it with her sleeve, and took a bite. It was truly delicious, fresh, juicy, and sweet. Sure enough, anything produced in this space must be a top-notch product.
At the end of the orchard, there is a fish pond of about 500 square meters. The water inside is very clear and it seems that the fish fry have not been put in yet.
"System, is this unlocked by upgrading?"
"Yes, the host has already reached level 14. The system saw that the host was very busy, so it took the initiative to unlock it for the host. However, the fry haven't been laid yet."
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