Chapter 3: Beating 2
In the time-travel novels I read in my previous life, it was written that time-travel would give one a golden finger, such as space, superpowers, or systems, etc. It would be great if I could drink a sip of the magical spring water that could cure all diseases now. Maybe I also have a golden finger, but I haven't discovered it yet.
So Yi Ke started looking, but he had no accessories on him, so he couldn't use the blood dripping technique to identify the owner. So he just had to use the mantra, "Open Sesame!" No space appeared, and there was no system binding sound. If the formula is not right, try again. I thought about it again and again, and recited all kinds of strange formulas, but I just couldn’t find the so-called golden finger.
When Yike was reciting the formula to test it, the door of the woodshed creaked and a man came in.
"Sister, are you awake?" It was the voice of sister Han Guihua.
"Sister." Yike called out weakly.
"Hey! You're awake! Come, drink some water, and eat this half steamed bun to fill your stomach." Sister Han Guihua was happy that her sister finally woke up.
She had come to see her sister several times, but her sister didn't wake up. She thought her sister was gone and cried secretly for several times.
"Sister, have you eaten? If you leave any for me, there will be none for you." Yike knew that the mother would definitely not leave any food for Xiaocaoer.
"I ate it, seriously! This is for you! Is it still painful, sister?"
“It hurts! It hurts so much!”
"Mom is really something. She always insists that you stole the eggs. Oh, I won't say anymore. I'm leaving now. I'm afraid mom will find out when she gets up at night. Sleep well, sister. I'll get up early tomorrow to make breakfast. You don't have to get up so early. I'm leaving now." After saying this, sister Han Guihua tiptoed out.
The next day, just after dawn, Yang Huaihua was howling in the yard.
"You bitch, you want to die! Why don't you get up to boil water and cook? You actually order your sister to cook. You're a money loser. Are you dead? If you're not dead, get out of here. If you're dead, just throw it into the mountains to feed the wolves."
"Mom, my sister is covered in wounds and is still in a daze. Can you let her rest for a day today? Or should I help her with her work?" The voice of sister Han Guihua rang out in the yard.
"What? Why are you helping her? You're not going to school? You're stupid! What good will it do you if you help her? She just wants to be lazy. Don't spoil her."
"Get up! Didn't you hear what I said?" Yang Huaihua rushed into the room, pulled back the quilt, and prepared to pull Yike up. Han Guihua rushed in and hugged Yike tightly, shouting outside: "Dad, Dad, say something! My sister is going to die!"
Xiao Cao'er's father Han Dajun came in and took a look. Seeing Yi Ke was dying, he said, "Forget it, let her rest for a day."
Yike lay drowsy on the bed, vaguely feeling someone feeding him water and perhaps bitter medicine.
In fact, this was the medicine that her sister Han Guihua secretly asked the village doctor to prescribe, and then secretly boiled it and gave it to her quietly. Otherwise, Yi Ke might really have been transported back to the modern body of her original body.
Yike slept in bed for three whole days. If Yang Huaihua hadn't been afraid of being charged with murder, she would have thrown her into the mountains long ago.
As soon as she woke up, Yang Huaihua didn't care whether her injuries had healed or not, and just let her go to work and earn work points.
The captain saw the skinny Yike wearing tattered clothes with scars all over his exposed skin, and he cursed Yang Huaihua: "Yang Huaihua, look at what you have done to the child? Is there anyone who beats a child like you? Look at her body, there is not a single piece of good flesh. Other stepmothers don't treat their children like this, you are even worse than a stepmother."
Yang Huaihua: "Captain, you can't blame me for this. It was the child who was disobedient and stole the eggs from home. If I don't beat her, she will steal again next time."
Yike: "Uncle Captain, I didn't steal."
The team leader touched Yi Ke's dry and yellow hair and said, "Poor child, uncle knows." The team leader fiercely scolded Yang Huaihua, "Everyone knows who stole it. If you hit a child like this again next time, I will send you to the commune to study."
Yang Huaihua didn't dare to talk back. She glared at Yi Ke fiercely, pretended to cry out twice, and said to the team leader: "Team leader, my stomach hurts a little. I won't go to work today. Let the money-loser take my place."
Yang Huaihua's job today is to dig the ground with other members to plant corn. The digging hole is not even as tall as a hoe.
"Yang Huaihua, if you want to be lazy, then be lazy. What stomachache? You have said this excuse at least ten times."
"That's right. The grass is not even as tall as a hoe. You want her to do your work? Are you kidding?"
"Captain, you can't indulge Yang Huaihua's bad habits. She gets sick every time during the busy farming season."
The members were dissatisfied and accused.
"I'm eating your family's food. Are you born in the year of the dog? Why are you meddling in other people's business?" Yang Huaihua scolded the members angrily.
Yang Huaihua's scolding offended the public, so one member said to the team leader: "Team leader, you are lazy and don't participate in collective labor during the busy farming season. You have a problem with your thinking. Shouldn't you be sent to the commune for education?"
"No, Captain, I'm not in pain anymore and I won't ask for leave." Yang Huaihua went to the tool room to get a hoe and went to work.
"Xiao Cao'er, just follow your aunt to the fields to cut grass." The team leader said to Yike.
"Thank you, captain uncle!" Yike went to the tool room to get a sickle and went to find his aunt.
In this era, the production team's tools were kept in a unified manner, and there were special people to arrange their receipt and delivery. Whatever tools you receive when you go to work, whether they are good or bad, you must return them when you get off work. The custodian will check them against the notebook and also inspect the extent of damage to the tools. If any tools are found to be severely damaged, compensation will be paid.
Yike found her aunt, who had just arrived at the edge of the field. When she saw Yike coming over and the scars all over her body, she said with a heartache, "Poor child, that Yanghuahua is so cruel! Come, Xiaocaoer, you mow beside me. We only need to mow the grass on the edge of the field, so that it won't steal the fertilizer from the crops in the field. Mow slowly, just pretend, and I'll mow your share as well."
"Thank you, aunt!" Yike was still very weak and could not do much work. Mowing the grass was considered easy work, and it was arranged out of the captain's care. If it were up to Yang Huaihua, she would only care about whether the work points were high, and would not care about the possibility that she could not do it.
My aunt-in-law gave birth to many sons, six in total. The first four were strong laborers, so she usually did some easy work, and getting fewer work points would not affect the family's food distribution.
Speaking of food distribution, in that era food was distributed according to work points. The scorekeeper recorded the work points of the members in the work point book every day, counted them after the autumn harvest, and then distributed grain according to the work points. A family's food ration for the year depended on the number of work points.
In Yang Huaihua's family, except for Han Dajun and Xiaocao'er who worked all year round to earn work points, Han Jiabao and Yang Huaihua worked for three days and rested for two days, and could not earn many work points throughout the year, so their family often did not have enough food to eat. In order to save food, only half a steamed bun was given to the original Xiaocao every day. In order to survive, Xiaocaoer had to eat raw wild vegetables, young leaves and grass roots in the mountains for a long time, or catch some insects and mice to satisfy his hunger. In the past two or three years, there has been drought every year and every family has not had enough food. The tender leaves, insects and mice have all been eaten by the adults, and the only things they can eat are some tree bark and grass roots to fill their stomachs. In Yike's memory, in order to prevent the original Xiaocao'er from starving to death, his grandfather would often secretly save half of his steamed bun and give it to the original Xiaocao'er during meals.
Yike learned from his original body's memory that there had been a drought in recent years and there were no wild grasses or vegetables on the ground. The shorter leaves had also been picked up. In order to pick leaves to take home, his grandfather crushed leaves, corn cobs, rice husks, etc. into powder to make steamed corn bread. He and the village members went to the mountains to climb up tall trees to pick leaves from the treetops. He became so hungry that he felt dizzy and fell from the tree and died.
Yi Ke couldn't help crying when she thought about it. Her aunt didn't know that Yi Ke was crying because she thought of her original grandfather. She thought she was crying because of the wound on her body and hurriedly said, "Xiao Cao'er, let's go. Let's stop mowing the grass and go to my house to help you apply medicine."
"No, aunt, I'm not in pain. I'm just crying because I'm moved by you. Aunt, I wish you were my mother." Yiku wiped away his tears with his chicken claw-like fingers.
Aunt: "My child, I also wanted a child as sensible and hardworking as you. It's all because you ran too fast when you were reincarnated. You ran past my door and ended up in Yang Huaihua's house, where you got a stomachache."
Yi Ke: "I will run slower in my next life."
The aunt burst out laughing, waved the sickle in her hand and said, "Yes, yes, let's cut the grass first, you take your time."
The two men began to weed the edges of the field. In fact, there were not many weeds around the fields. It has been dry in the past few years. At least it rained after the Chinese New Year this year, and the crops were finally planted. But it didn't rain again afterwards, so the weeds only grew sparsely, so mowing the grass was really not difficult. But I was injured and the movement was painful, so I had to listen to my aunt and cut slowly.
After getting home from work at noon, Han Jiabao pinched Xiaocao'er's earrings hard until they bled.
"Listen carefully, you little bitch. Next time someone says you stole it, you have to admit it. If you don't, I'll let you be beaten to death. Humph!"
"You are not allowed to eat today, not even half a steamed bun. You have been lazy and not working these days, so what are you going to eat?" Yang Huaihua directly cut off Xiaocao'er's food rations.
"mother--"
"Shut up!" Seeing Han Guihua was about to plead for Xiaocaoer again, Yang Huaihua stopped her directly.
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