Chapter 29 Staying or Leaving
The family sat in the main room for a long time before Wang finally spoke first: "Yongxing, go and pack your things, and take Chongniang with you to Lijia Village."
Lijia Village is the home of Li Chongniang. It takes more than an hour to get there by horse-drawn carriage, and at least two or three hours to walk.
We probably can't leave by carriage now; we can only walk to the neighboring village first, and then take a carriage from the neighboring village to Lijia Village.
Although it's a detour, at least it ensures the safety of Li Chongniang and the child in her womb.
Li Chongniang was taken aback when Wang Shi asked her and Chen Yongxing to leave. "Mother, aren't you leaving with us?"
“That’s right! Mother, we’ll go together!” Chen Yongxing said confidently.
Chen Yongnian and Chen Yongliang watched without saying a word.
“We can’t all leave together like this. You and Yongxing can only leave at night! And Qiqi and Yongnian, you take Pingping and An’an and leave at night as well. Don’t stay in the village!”
Wang had seen villages ravaged by plague before, and she didn't want to see her loved ones fall there again.
Chen Yongnian paused, then asked, "Mother, what about you?"
Wang smiled slowly, her eyes suddenly reddening. "I'm not leaving. I left my hometown during the last plague, but I'm staying this time. This is the legacy your father left behind, and I want to protect it for him."
Chen Yongliang was not assigned to leave. He knew that someone had to stay, and he was willing to stay, leaving the way out for his two older brothers.
"No, we'll go together!" Chen Yongxing said, raising his voice a few decibels.
Li Chongniang immediately stopped him, and when she turned her head, she saw that Chen Yongxing's eyes were already filled with tears.
The family argued endlessly about leaving, and no one was willing to compromise.
The three brothers always felt that they were a family and could not leave each other to survive, let alone abandon their mother. That would be unfilial!
Li Chongniang only asked one question from beginning to end, and did not speak again, nor did she indicate whether she would leave or not, but she had the idea of leaving in her heart.
She's still young, we can't let her life be wasted here!
She's pregnant, and as long as she lives, the Chen family will continue to be ruined!
Pingping and An'an sat to the side, listening to the adults arguing, but they didn't understand what they were arguing about.
Wan Qiqi secretly pinched Pingping, who burst into tears, stopping their argument.
"Waaah... Mother, why... why..."
"Pingping, be good, Pingping, don't cry anymore, Grandma and Uncle will stop arguing!" Wan Qiqi didn't give him a chance, picked him up and put him on her lap to coax him, while rubbing the place where she had just pinched him.
The words stuck in his throat.
He wanted to ask his mother why she pinched him.
But Mom hugged him! Mom used to only hug my little sister.
Then everyone realized that they shouldn't have discussed this issue in front of the child.
Wan Qiqi then spoke up, "Mother, we can't leave, not just because some people in the village are stopping us, but more importantly, we can't let the plague be carried out!"
She put Pingping down and said in a deep voice, "Mother, the plague is contagious, and some people don't show symptoms in the early stages. If one of us gets infected and sneaks out, won't we infect others?"
Li Chongniang was somewhat dissatisfied, "Sister-in-law, are you cursing us to get the plague?"
Chen Yongxing tugged at Li Chongniang and hurriedly explained, "Sister-in-law, Chongniang didn't mean anything by it."
Wan Qiqi didn't care; she was used to Li Chongniang's personality. She continued, "Sister-in-law, what I mean is, if you get infected and go back to your parents' home, and your family gets infected too, are you really not bothered at all? If you think that's impossible, then I'll find a way tonight to send you back to Li Family Village."
Li Chongniang hesitated for a moment, but still insisted, "I don't believe it, I want to go back!"
She knew very well that there was nothing wrong with her body, but she still had some hesitation.
If she really gets sick, she won't be the only one who dies!
Wan Qiqi didn't say anything more to her, and said to Madam Wang, "Mother, we won't leave. We'll stay here together and get through this. Didn't you survive the plague back then? I believe we can do it this time too!"
Wang never expected that the person who resolutely stayed would be Wan Qiqi, the one who had once despised this family so much.
She nodded. "Okay! Everything will be alright!"
Wan Qiqi felt that she couldn't just sit and wait to die. She needed to make some preparations before the plague broke out on a large scale, such as stockpiling money and food.
Thinking of this, she immediately made arrangements, asking Chen Yongxing to fetch some water from the well further away in the village, while she, Chen Yongnian, and Chen Yongliang went up the mountain to dig for some wild vegetables.
The key point is that she wants to catch more crabs to sell at the market so she can save more money to buy rice and medicine!
Without hesitation, Wan Qiqi carried a small bamboo basket and went up the mountain with her two brothers.
Because of the plague outbreak in the village, very few people are going up the mountain now. Even halfway up the mountain, I didn't see many people.
Wan Qiqi found the same stream again.
Upon closer inspection, it can no longer be considered a stream; it's more like a small river!
The river water was churning and extremely turbid.
Many crabs were washed ashore, lying on their sides.
Wan Qiqi quickly filled a basket to the brim, exchanged it for money at the mall, and continued picking.
Several hours later, Wan Qiqi had collected and sold all the crabs she could see, and she began to turn over stones.
Upon seeing the leeches on the rocks, she was so frightened that she took several steps back. Remembering the snake she had encountered before, she was so scared that she quickly left the stream, not even wanting the crabs anymore!
Wan Qiqi walked up the mountain path and soon saw the two brothers.
Chen Yongnian's basket was already full of wild vegetables, and he was chopping them with a machete, while Chen Yongliang was bending over and pulling wild vegetables. The division of labor was clear.
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