Chapter 90 089. "Which is better, chestnuts or thunder chestnuts?"
The pepper planting went smoothly.
The seedling raising and transplanting, as well as the weather were all very kind, with no sudden gusts of wind or heavy rain.
Lei Li called Xiaohua, who was selling flowers, over, ostensibly to be her instructor, saying that Xiaohua had grown five-color peppers before and should have some experience and skills in growing peppers.
But Mr. Hua was not happy.
Without Xiaohua to grow and buy flowers for him, he had no money to spend, so he didn't want to let Xiaohua go. But when he heard that Lei Li would give him monthly wages, he changed his mind and bargained down to one or two taels of silver a month.
"Since I've spent a lot of money to hire Xiaohua to work for me, she has to live with me and look after the pepper garden day and night. Even if you're her father, you're not allowed to come to Xiaohua casually."
Lei Li squinted at his old man and snorted coldly, "If you kill my chili pepper and delay my business worth thousands of taels, you will pay for it."
"I dare not."
Hua Lao Dad is a greedy but timid person. When he heard this, he shook his head and said,
"Since Xiaohua is working for Boss Lei, she's naturally Boss Lei's person. How can I, as her father, delay Xiaohua..."
He had a bulging purse in his arms, which contained thirty-six taels of silver, which was Xiaohua's three-year salary, and also equivalent to the money Xiaohua would get from selling her body for three years.
But what does it matter if I can’t see my daughter for three years?
This month, he earns more than the men working in the county. Xiaohua can’t earn that much even if she buys flowers every day.
Besides, Xiaohua will only be fifteen in three years. If Lei Li doesn't want her anymore and can't make money from her, he can still find someone to sell her to, or no, marry her off and earn some betrothal money.
Old Man Hua was calculating in his mind, and he looked at Xiao Hua with a little more favor. He was about to give her a few words of advice as usual, "Be smart when you follow Boss Lei. Don't be like a wooden man at home, not even able to read his instructions."
As he said this, he subconsciously wanted to pinch Xiaohua's arm. Xiaohua lowered her head timidly, not daring to hide, but was suddenly pulled by someone.
"I don't care what she does at home, but she is my employee now."
Lei Li frowned and stopped Xiao Hua behind him, warning her coldly, "From now on, everything Xiao Hua owns belongs to me. If you dare to pinch or scold Xiao Hua again and delay my work, you must return the silver, not a penny less, and compensate me for my losses."
"This is written in black and white in the contract. Even if I go to the officials, I am in the right."
"I understand, I understand..."
Old Man Hua smiled and agreed, and wanted to defend himself, but he saw Lei Li directly pulling Xiao Hua out of the door and hurried to see them off at the door.
"Xiaohua, do your job well for Boss Lei and listen to him. If you make him angry, I'll tell you what I'll do when you get back... Ouch!"
Lei Li still couldn't help it.
He turned around and kicked Hua Lao Di before turning back, pulling Xiao Hua's hand onto the ox cart, and said, "Follow me and work hard, learn well, I won't treat you unfairly, understand?"
"Know."
Xiaohua was a little timid when she saw another tall man on the ox cart, but she knew that Lei Li was a good person and that the people he brought with him should also be good people. She nodded obediently and said,
"When I was buying flowers, Brother Li would often come to buy flowers, give me steamed buns and buns to eat, and even give me copper coins, and told me not to tell Dad."
"Brother Li is a good man."
Although Xiaohua didn't know what she could do or what Lei Li had to do, she believed in Lei Li.
"That's good to know."
Lei Li patted Xiao Hua's head in satisfaction and said, "Follow me from now on. Your father won't bully you anymore, and you won't have to buy flowers, cook, and wash clothes for him every day."
"Don't be soft-hearted and come to your father. You're always thinking about your father. He's a man, he can't die no matter what."
Xiaohua nodded obediently.
Knowing that another tall man was looking at him, he felt a little embarrassed and moved closer to Lei Li. He couldn't help but glance at Lei Li and the man out of curiosity.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you, he is my husband, Zhou Yi, you can call him... call him sister-in-law."
Lei Li pointed at Zhou Yi and said deliberately with a sly smile, "He likes people to call him sister-in-law."
Zhou Yi: “……?”
He glanced at Lei Li and saw that Lei Li was smiling wickedly and cunningly, like a cat that had done something bad and was unruly, with a look of displeasure on its face as if it was not going to accept being hit.
It makes your heart itch with laughter.
Zhou Yi looked away uncomfortably and said to Xiaohua gently, "You can call me whatever you want. I'll listen to your brother Li. You can call me... call me sister-in-law."
"Sister-in-law."
Xiaohua didn't suspect anything and called him out obediently. Then she asked Lei Li in a low voice, "Brother Li, I remember you were my brother, so why are you calling him my sister-in-law?"
"Will he be able to give birth to a baby like other sisters-in-law?"
As she spoke, Xiaohua looked at the tall and strong Zhou Yi, with a puzzled and curious expression. She couldn't imagine that such a person could be pregnant.
Lei Li couldn't help laughing. He looked at Zhou Yi and laughed out loud.
"Maybe it really will? Don't you think so, Aunt Zhou Yi? Aunt Zhou Yi?"
“Yes, yes.”
Zhou Yi was amused by his laughter and didn't argue. He just followed his words and said, "Brother Li is right. If you really have a baby one day, just don't give it a random name."
"What?"
Lei Li snorted, "I always think carefully before choosing names, right? Look at Da Zhuang, Hei Sha, Bai Sha, which name doesn't sound good?"
"You just take advantage of the fact that they can't speak."
"You can speak, you think it's not nice? Which one is not nice?"
"Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"
"The truth."
"It's not as nice as your name."
"That's not the answer."
Lei Li was delighted to hear this and even hummed, "My mother gave me my name. Who asked you about it?"
"You didn't ask."
Zhou Yi said, "I wanted to answer it myself."
"I know."
Lei Li hummed, but curled her lips in pleasure, and asked him again, "What's so nice about my name?"
“Catchy and powerful.”
Zhou Yi explained seriously, "And don't you think it sounds delicious? Lei Li Lei Li, it has both thunder and chestnuts."
"When I hear thunder, I think of spring bamboo shoots during the Waking of Insects season. When I hear chestnuts, I think of chestnut stewed chicken, sugar-fried chestnuts, and braised pork with chestnuts. They can also be used to make snacks, such as chestnut, lotus seed, and water chestnut syrup, chestnut cake, and chestnut biscuits..."
"Really?"
Lei Li's joyful smile turned into a half-smile, "You like chestnuts so much?"
“Chestnuts are delicious.”
“It’s delicious…”
Lei Li stretched out the ending of the tone, covered Xiao Hua's ears, and suddenly moved closer to Zhou Yi, whispering in his ear, with a low voice and a smile.
"Which is better, chestnuts or thunder chestnuts?"
“…”
Zhou Yi suddenly stuttered.
He glanced at Xiaohua, covered her clear and innocent eyes, kissed Leili quickly, and whispered,
"you."
—
Xiaohua didn't know what was going on.
When her eyes saw Brother Li and Sister Zhou Yi again, Brother Li smiled beautifully and kept talking to her. Sister Zhou Yi didn't say much along the way, but her ears were very red, so she must be happy too, right?
But after more than two months of observation, Xiaohua felt that something was strange between them.
Brother Li likes to laugh and seems like a good person, but he likes to bully Sister Zhou Yi.
In the pepper field, he wanted to bully Zhou Yi's sister-in-law, so he deliberately stuffed pepper leaves into her mouth and caught insects to scare her, although she was not frightened.
At home, he would bully Zhou Yi's sister-in-law and make him cook for him every day. He also wanted him to eat snacks, toast, and sweet soup. He had to cook a lot of things for a long time, but he wouldn't eat them because they were too sweet, so he had to let Zhou Yi's sister-in-law eat them.
Brother Li would say a lot of incomprehensible words, leaving Sister Zhou Yi speechless, but her ears and sometimes her face would turn red too.
He would also bully him in places where no one was around and push Zhou Yi's sister-in-law behind a tree. His sister-in-law clearly told him not to do that there, not to lift his clothes, and not to touch him randomly, but Brother Li didn't listen to anything and even bit his sister-in-law's mouth, neck and ears.
The bite is so red.
Xiaohua didn't quite understand why Brother Li, who was so gentle to her, would treat Sister Zhou Yi like this, but she knew that after being beaten and bullied, there would be red and painful marks on the body.
Zhou Yi's sister-in-law also has it.
There are many more.
Xiaohua could see red marks on Zhou Yi's sister-in-law's face in different places every few days.
And he always hid it in his clothes, but no one seemed to see it, or if they did, they knew that Brother Li was bullying Sister Zhou Yi, but they just laughed and no one helped him.
Why?
Xiaohua felt very strange.
But Xiaohua decided to help Zhou Yi's sister-in-law. She asked her sister-in-law if the wound on her body hurt and whether she wanted her to find some herbal medicine to apply on him.
When she was beaten by her father before, she found some herbal medicine on the roadside and applied it to the wound. It was her former puppy who taught her how to do it. It was very effective and the wound healed quickly after being applied.
But Zhou Yi's sister-in-law's ears turned red again. She didn't say whether it hurt or not. She just said, "Don't ask so many questions, kid. Just study hard, eat and sleep well."
Xiaohua could only nod obediently.
But she was not too reassured. After discovering that Brother Li had bullied Sister Zhou Yi again, she mustered up her courage and whispered to Brother Li,
"Brother, can you please stop bullying my sister-in-law? He has so many red wounds on his body."
When Brother Li heard this, he laughed very hard, as if she had said something very interesting. He laughed for a long time, until his stomach hurt. Then he asked her with a smile,
"Who told you that I bullied my sister-in-law? Did my sister-in-law tell you?"
"Auntie didn't say anything, no one said anything."
Xiaohua shook her head. "I saw it myself, Brother Li. Why did you bully my sister-in-law? She's always been very kind to me."
She thought for a moment, "Is it because my sister-in-law isn't pregnant?"
Brother Li laughed again.
He was so happy that he was out of breath. He even called his sister-in-law over, touched her face, and asked him with a smile, "Our Xiaohua said I was bullying you. Do you think I was bullying you?"
"Did you let Xiaohua see something again? I told you not to do that outside..."
Zhou Yi's sister-in-law glanced at her, but before she could finish her words, her ears turned red again for some reason, and she glared at Brother Li.
Then he patted her head and said, "Brother Li didn't bully me. This is just a game between adults... well, children shouldn't learn it."
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