"Little girls, are you picking mulberry leaves?" Li Xue walked over and asked.
When the two little girls saw someone coming, they stopped what they were doing.
“This is our family’s mulberry grove. A few days ago, my father fell from the tree while picking mulberry leaves and broke his leg and arm. He can’t get down on the ground. My mother has to take care of my father, so she asked us to come and pick mulberry leaves.”
But we can't climb trees, and we can only pick a little bit each day, which is not enough at all. Our silkworms at home are going to starve to death.
Seeing the look in the eyes of the two little girls, Li Xue immediately felt sorry for them. She looked up at the tall mulberry tree.
There were many mulberry leaves on the tree, but it was necessary to climb up to pick them. Li Xue decided to help the two little girls.
Li Xue looked at the guards beside her, and they immediately understood and prepared to climb the tree to pick mulberry leaves.
Li Guang felt it was inappropriate to have several girls climb the tree to pick mulberry leaves. He thought he was a man and this was something he should do himself. With that in mind, he stepped forward.
"Leave this to me. How can we let the older sisters climb the tree?"
Several guards turned to look at Li Guang. In their eyes, Li Guang was just a frail young man who used to be too tanned and looked like a cowherd. Now he was fairer and looked like a scholar, and had become much more handsome.
The men were all top-notch guards selected by Li Xue, and their skills were extraordinary. Climbing a tree to pick mulberry leaves was nothing to them.
Li Guang was just a weak scholar; could he possibly climb such a tall mulberry tree?
While the others were wondering, Li Guang had already taken to the air and jumped onto the mulberry tree. He leaped and walked between the trunks like a monkey, waving his arms to pick mulberry leaves.
At this moment, mulberry leaves fell like snowflakes, and the two little girls were overjoyed. They began to pick up the mulberry leaves on the ground and put them into their bamboo baskets.
This scene left the guards dumbfounded. They had never expected Li Guang to have such skills, something they could not have accomplished on their own.
No wonder the princess brought Li Guang with her when she went to Jiangnan. It turns out that Li Guang was a hidden master in Narcissus Village. How come we didn't discover him all this time?
Li Xue looked up, watching Li Guang pick mulberry leaves with great joy. She wasn't surprised at all by Li Guang's behavior; the chasing game he played with Yu Hong that day was much more exciting than this.
Before long, the two bamboo baskets were filled with mulberry leaves, and they couldn't hold any more.
The little girl looked at Li Xue and said softly, "Sister, there are enough mulberry leaves, the basket can't hold any more."
Li Xue and several guards were so focused on watching Li Guang picking mulberry leaves that they didn't realize the bamboo basket was already full, so they called out to the tree.
"Li Guang, that's enough mulberry leaves, come down now."
“Yes, Princess.” After saying that, Li Guang jumped down from the tree and began to examine the mulberry leaves in the bamboo basket.
The two bamboo baskets were already full, but the two little girls were still picking up mulberry leaves from the ground and putting them into the baskets.
The two little girls didn't stop until they had completely filled both bamboo baskets.
"Thank you, sister. Thank you, brother."
The two were very happy to have picked so many mulberry leaves, as their silkworms would now have mulberry leaves to eat.
But they soon ran into a problem. The two bamboo baskets were full of mulberry leaves and had become quite heavy. The two little girls were too small to carry them.
"Don't worry, little sister, we'll help you take it back," Li Xue said.
"Thank you, sister." The two sisters were very grateful.
Two guards carried bamboo baskets on their backs and had the little girl lead the way to their house.
The little girl's home was not in the town, but in a small village next to it. When the group arrived at the little girl's house, they found a woman standing anxiously at the door.
"Mother, we're back!" the two little girls exclaimed excitedly.
At this moment, Li Xue and the others had arrived in front of the woman, and two guards placed two baskets of mulberry leaves on the ground.
The woman looked at Li Xue and the others and the mulberry leaves in the basket with surprise, as if she understood something.
“Mother, the mulberry leaves were picked for us by my older sisters and brothers. The baskets were too heavy for us to carry, so they brought them back to us.”
So that's what happened. The woman was very moved and quickly invited Li Xue and the others to come inside and sit down.
Originally, Li Xue was going to return immediately after dropping the little girl off at home, but she felt that the little girl's family situation was very special, so she went inside to take a look.
The house was small and simply furnished, but several large bamboo drying trays in the main hall caught their attention.
These bamboo drying trays occupied most of the space in the main hall, and the group of people, a little curious, went over to take a look.
The drying tray was full of silkworms, which were already half a finger long. Because they hadn't eaten mulberry leaves for a while, they lay motionless on the tray.
The two girls were quick and efficient. As soon as they got home, they began to spread the mulberry leaves they had picked on a drying tray.
The silkworms, which had been motionless just moments before, immediately climbed onto the mulberry leaves and began to devour them, soon filling the room with a rustling sound.
Li Xue had never seen a silkworm before, and she was a little scared when she saw such a long, white worm.
Silkworms are not caterpillars after all. After watching for a while, Li Xue was no longer afraid and began to touch the silkworms with her fingers.
At this moment, the woman boiled some water and invited Li Xue and the others to drink it.
The group was indeed a bit thirsty, so they sat down at the table.
"The child's father fell from a tree a few days ago while picking mulberry leaves, breaking his legs and arms. He's been bedridden ever since," the woman said.
"Why didn't you find a doctor to take a look? Your hands and feet are broken, you must see a doctor," Li Xue said.
"I saw a doctor, and he said that since the bone was broken, there was nothing he could do. I could only wait for the bone to heal before I could walk again."
However, he will definitely be left with a disability, and he may not be able to climb trees to pick mulberry leaves in the future. It seems that he will not be able to raise silkworms in the future.
"All the savings I've painstakingly accumulated over the years are gone now. How will we live from now on?"
The woman sighed and continued:
“If we don’t raise silkworms, how will our family live? This time, thanks to your help in picking so many mulberry leaves, it’s enough for the silkworms to eat for two days.”
There are still more than ten days until the silkworms are ready to be sent up the mountain. In these ten days, the silkworms' appetite will increase, and if we can't gather mulberry leaves, what will we use to feed them?
After the woman finished speaking, she began to wipe away her tears. What she said was the truth; even in the prosperous south, there were families living in poverty.
Since I've come across this situation, I might as well help them out and get through this difficult time first.
Just as Li Xue was about to say something, the woman spoke again.
Two months ago, my husband went to Lianqiao Water Town to buy silkworm eggs and met an old Taoist priest.
The old Taoist priest told him that he absolutely could not raise silkworms this year, but things would be fine after this year, and he could raise them however he wanted afterward.
But my husband didn't believe him at all, thinking the old Taoist was a fraud, so he ignored him until he fell from the tree while picking mulberry leaves, at which point he remembered what the old Taoist had said.
If I had listened to the old man's advice and not raised silkworms this year, this wouldn't have happened. Now, thinking back, I deeply regret it.
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