As for Xiejia Village, Xie Baotian and his group were immediately surrounded by people who came out to find water as soon as they entered the village!
Of the hundred or so households in the village, eighty are surnamed Xie. Most of those still living in the village are members of the Xie clan, and all the families are related. When they saw Xie Baotian and his group, they immediately called them "uncle" and "elder brother" in a friendly manner, begging for water and food to survive!
At this point, although Xie Baotian and the others didn't want to give it, they had no choice but to accept it. Although they spoke softly, if they didn't give it, who knew what they might do when they were in dire straits!
So, in order to ensure a safe journey out tomorrow, Xie Baotian distributed three water hyacinths and cut off half a sheep for everyone to divide among themselves. Then, while they were dividing the sheep, he took his family home!
The Xie family has been without water since last night, but they still have some grain, which was bought with Xie Yushu's dowry money!
The dowry of ten taels of silver was used to buy three catties of coarse grains with six taels. Having survived in poverty, they were especially grateful for the silver. Although they knew that grain was more important, they couldn't bear to spend all the silver on grain. These past few days, every time they cooked, the whole family would only put in a handful of rice, and the porridge they made was so thick that you could see your reflection in it!
Every time the Xie family matriarch and Xie Yushu's mother, Madam Lu, ate, they would think of how Xie Yushu had married a cripple for the sake of this rice to survive, and they would eat almost every meal with tears in their eyes! They would save every bit of rice they could!
Even so, more than half of the three pounds of rice had been eaten, and after a day of thirst, I couldn't even shed a tear!
The mother and her children were sighing on the kang (a heated brick bed) when Xie Baotian and his group rushed in in a panic!
Madam Lu and Madam Wang, Xie Baoshu's wife, hurriedly ran out to meet them.
"You're back, everyone!"
"Did they find water? And they even went hunting!"
"Shh! Let's go inside first!"
Madam Lu and Madam Wang understood, so they quickly shut up, took the things from the adults and children, and went into the house together.
The family consisted of Old Mrs. Xie, Mrs. Lu, Mrs. Wang, and Mrs. Wang's ten-year-old twin children, Xie Yumin and Xie Tianzhao.
As soon as Xie Baotian entered the house, he immediately opened the water gourd and gave it to Old Madam Xie and Madam Lu. Xie Baoshu also gave Madam Wang and the two children a water gourd.
He cut off another piece of roasted wild boar meat for the group to eat to tide them over.
While Grandma Xie and the others were eating meat and drinking water, Xie Baotian and Xie Baoshu hid three water hyacinths and the remaining forty or fifty catties of roasted pork in the cellar. The cellar was warm in winter and cool in summer, and almost every household in the countryside had one. In summer, it could be used to chill some fruits and vegetables, and in winter, it could be used to store radishes, cabbages, and the like.
However, most families have their cellars in the yard, but the Xie family, because they have been bullied for many years, would always try to take advantage of anything good that Xie Baogui's wife, Zhu, knew about. So, the old lady Xie had no choice but to have her two sons secretly dig a cellar in the house to hide things, right under the cabinet!
Xie Baogui is Xie Baotian's cousin, the eldest son of clan chief Xie Dafu, Xie Yujiao's father, and the next clan chief!
Just like his father Xie Dafu, he's arrogant and has no respect whatsoever for his widowed aunt, Old Madam Xie!
When Xie Baotian's father had just died, Xie Dafu wanted to sell Xie's mother to a wealthy landlord for thirty taels of silver to bring good luck. If Xie's mother hadn't threatened to commit suicide, and if she hadn't had two sons, Xie Baotian and Xie Baoshu, she would have been forcibly sold by Xie Dafu!
The sale failed, and Xie Dafu and his wife felt that they had wasted thirty taels of silver. They couldn't stand the old lady Xie no matter how they looked at her. They often used the attitude of an elder brother who was like a father and an elder sister-in-law who was like a mother to scold the old lady Xie at will. With such an elder leading the way, his children and grandchildren naturally looked down on the old lady Xie's children and grandchildren. That's why Xie Yujiao could bully Xie Yushu and Xie Yumin so naturally!
Xie Baotian and Xie Baoshu are honest and simple people. Over the years, they have been forced to become a little more cunning and know how to hide things!
Xie Tianlin and Xie Tianming chattered on and on about what had happened in the mountains over the past two days to Old Madam Xie and the others. Hearing that Xie Yushu had gone into the mountains to find water and even got into a fight, Madam Lu cried again. When Old Madam Xie heard that Xie Yushu had secretly learned martial arts from her in-laws, Old Master Lu, she sighed deeply.
"It's all my fault for being too strict with the children! Yu Shu is so sensible; she didn't show it at all. It's amazing that she could have endured Xie Yu Jiao's temper for so many years! Sigh! It's all my fault for being so incompetent!"
"Mother, you can't blame yourself for this. Your eldest uncle is the clan chief, and your aunt is your sister-in-law. They have the right to put pressure on you. They are mean-spirited, and there's nothing you can do about it! Fortunately, the children are all grown up, and things will get better!"
Xie Baotian offered a calm piece of advice: the clan leader is still the clan leader, and his uncle is still his uncle. The clan leader and his family still like to seek a sense of existence and superiority from them. He didn't know if things would get better in the future, but he wanted to persuade his mother first.
After the family had eaten and drunk their fill and chatted for a while, they started a fire to roast the remaining half of the sheep. In such hot weather, the only way to keep the mutton was to roast it into jerky!
Before they had even finished baking half of it, Xie Dafu and his wife arrived with their three sons and daughters-in-law!
Seeing the family gathered around roasting meat, Zhu said in a sarcastic tone...
"Hey! Second Aunt, it's so nice not having a man in charge! You can enjoy the good things yourself! No need to be filial to the elders or dote on the younger generation! You can eat the meat yourself!"
Upon hearing this, Old Madam Xie's face stiffened, and Xie Baotian and the others also changed their expressions!
Xie Baoshu had a rather quick temper, and stood up to speak.
"What are you saying, sister-in-law? We hunted this game with the children, and the first thing we ate when we got home was for my mother and the children. How is that being unfilial to our elders and unloving to our juniors?"
"Oh! Brother Baoshu, are you saying that only your mother is an elder? Your uncle and aunt aren't elders? Aren't your nephews and nieces your juniors? We're brothers from the same bloodline! What, now that your second uncle is dead, you don't want to acknowledge your uncle and aunt anymore?"
Ma, Xie Dafu's wife, also spoke up.
"Second son's wife, you've been so ignorant. Your second son has been dead for so many years, and you and your widow have relied entirely on us to take care of you so that you can live a peaceful life in this village. If it weren't for your eldest brother being the head of the Xie family, how could you, a widow without a man, have a peaceful life?"
Not only did they not give us a smile, but they didn't even bother to send some meat to their nephews and nieces. It seems we, their elder brother, have raised a whole bunch of ungrateful wretches all these years!
After Ma finished speaking, Xie Dafu raised his chin and snorted, giving Old Madam Xie a look as if he was waiting for her to grovel and give them gifts.
Grandma Xie trembled with anger at their arrogant, robber-like attitude. In the past, she would have swallowed her anger and given them half of the goods to settle things, but now her whole family depended on these things to survive! If she gave them away, would she let her family starve and die of thirst?
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