Chapter 29： untouchable taboo

Chapter 29 The untouchable taboo

The two naughty boys Jiaxi and Jiaan talked about chopping firewood during the day, and they fell to the ground and chewed a mouthful of mud, which made everyone in the family laugh.

“Giggle!” Jiayin was lying on Mrs. Li’s lap and also laughed at her brother.

Mrs. Li rubbed her granddaughter's cheek, looked at Li Jiaren who was drinking porridge in a graceful manner, and made up her mind.

“I plan to send my children to study in the county town.”

As soon as these words came out, the dinner table suddenly became quiet.

Everyone looked at Mrs. Li in surprise, wondering why she said that.

After all, even if you can’t go hungry these days, studying is too expensive, and the burden is still too heavy for the Li family!

Wu Cuihua was the first one not to agree.

“Mom! How much money does it cost to study? Where did our family get so much money? If you want to support them to study, we can’t survive this life!”

She almost jumped up and made a noise, for fear that she would go hungry if she provided for the children to study.

“Studying is a good thing, second sister-in-law, why are you yelling?”

Zhao Yuru couldn't stand Wu Cuihua's look and couldn't help but say something.

“What a good thing? What a good thing, are you guys paying for it? I have a few pennies left at home, so I can educate my children. Let’s go drink the northwest wind!”

Wu Cuihua didn't know how much money the old lady had, but she only needed a hundred taels to buy the yard and fields, so she guessed it wasn't much.

“Okay, shut up!” Old Mrs. Li glanced at Wu Cuihua with a dark face and shut her down with just one sentence.

“I plan to only send Jiaren to study.”

“Huh?” Wu Cuihua was stunned when she heard this. It turned out that she only sent her son to study!

She glanced at her eldest son, wanting to take back all the words she just said, and laughed twice in embarrassment.

“Mother…mother has the final say.”

It was hard for people to say anything about her, but their eyes were not friendly.

Wu Cuihua quickly lowered her head to drink the porridge, not daring to say another word.

Li Jiaren was even more ashamed of his mother. He put down his job and said.

“Mistress, our family has just settled here and there are many places to spend money. I am not in a hurry to study. I will wait until the family has a harvest next year.”

Mrs. Li is very pleased that her grandson is so sensible, but she will never change her mind about what she has decided.

"If our family wants to truly take root here, this is not enough for the time being. Helping the villagers with some small tasks or buying property are just for the present. If we want our Li family to prosper in the long term, we still need to have descendants studying."

Old Mrs. Li glanced at everyone and saw that they all nodded before continuing.

"Isn't there a saying that says this? If there are no scholars in the family, where will the officials come from? Even if you are not a scholar and you are just a boy, outsiders will have to think twice if they want to bully the Li family.

Jiaren, grandma thinks you are good at studying. Go study, your family can afford it! "

Jiaren really likes reading. As long as he is free, he will definitely find something with words to read, or he will write on the ground with a wooden stick.

This is not only seen by Mrs. Li, but also by the Li family.

 Li Laosan and Li Laosi both expressed their support, "Yes, if Jiaren goes to study, we will definitely be able to afford it with the money we earn."

“Milk, third uncle, fourth uncle…”

There were tears in Jiaren's eyes. He took a deep breath and stood up to salute the elders.

“I will study hard and give our family credit!”

“Good boy!” Old Mrs. Li smiled slightly.

Wu Cuihua saw that her son's study was confirmed, and she grinned from the corners of her mouth to her ears. She took her son's hand and started talking.

“My son is the most obedient, and he will definitely be able to study well. As long as we don’t be like your uncle, who studies to the death of everyone... Oops!”

Before Wu Cuihua could finish her words, Li Laoer pinched her arm hard, which was so painful that she burst into tears.

Just when she was about to scold Mr. Li, she finally noticed that Mrs. Li’s face was as dark as ink...

Wu Cuihua suddenly remembered the taboos at home and immediately panicked.

Before she could make amends, Mrs. Li dropped the porridge bowl with a clang, and the hot porridge bits flew everywhere. A lump fell on Jiayin's exposed arm, causing her to tremble in pain.

But Mrs. Li was obviously in a bad mood, and Jiayin suppressed her silence.

“You heartless piece of shit!”

Li Laoer was afraid that Mrs. Li would become even more angry when she saw Wu Cuihua, so he directly grabbed her arm and dragged her back to the wing to teach her a lesson.

The two sons were still outside. Li Lao Er’s daughter-in-law, who couldn’t be beaten, had a bruised nose and face, so she found a washboard and asked Wu Cuihua to kneel down with half a copper basin of water.

Wu Cuihua made a sad face. Listening to her husband's scolding, her knees felt numb and itchy, as if there were so many ants crawling on her.

Within half an hour, she started crying and begging for mercy in a low voice.

“Boy, I know I was wrong, and I will never talk nonsense again.”

Li Laoer, however, ignored her at all, "When will mother calm down, you will get up."

Wu Cuihua started to cry and struggled to get up, but Li Laoer raised the ruler in his hand, so she could only kneel down.

Originally I thought about my son coming to plead for mercy, but no one came to see me until midnight...

Everyone listened to the scolding from the side room and carefully looked at Old Mrs. Li's face, and no one dared to hold the bowl again.

Jiayin turned her little head and looked around. Seeing everyone in her family wanting to know the reason, she became more and more curious.

So it turns out that her uncle, who has never been seen before, is taboo and cannot even be mentioned?

Jiayin desperately wanted to know her uncle's story, but she couldn't speak. She could only raise her hand to touch Old Mrs. Li's face and coax her.

Old Mrs. Li couldn't eat, so she simply carried her granddaughter back to the house, leaving a table full of people like quails with their necks shrunken.

As soon as Mrs. Li put her granddaughter on the kang, she saw a bright red patch on her little arm.

She quickly went up to take a look, and touched another piece of warm porridge on her sleeve, and immediately understood that her granddaughter had been burned.

But the child didn't cry a word just now. Could it be that he was frightened by her?

Mrs. Li was filled with regret and distress. Why did she forget that her granddaughter was in her arms just now? Why did she throw the porridge bowl?

She quickly picked up her granddaughter, raised her little arms, kissed and blew her.

“Does it hurt Fu Niu’er? It’s all my fault, grandma. Grandma shouldn’t lose her temper. Did she scare us Fu Niu’er...”

Of course she couldn't tell the good news that it hurt, and she couldn't say it. She could only respond with a giggle, hoping that the old lady would blame herself less.

Seeing her granddaughter’s eyes wide open, she stretched out her hand to touch her face as if to comfort her.

Old Mrs. Li felt increasingly uncomfortable, and in the end she hugged her granddaughter and started crying.

Jiayin was held upright in Mrs. Li's arms, her head resting on her shoulder, and she could really feel her grandma's trembling body.

Hearing the suppressed sobs again made her heart aching.

Grandma has always been the backbone of the Li family. When she is a member of the family, she speaks and acts with neatness and is extremely strong.

Fleeing with more than a dozen people all the way, no matter how difficult it was, I never shed a tear.

But I’m crying so sadly right now...

She tried hard to rub her little face against her grandma's face, and also wanted to raise her hand to wipe away her tears.

It’s a pity that my little hands are not very good at controlling them, and in the end it ended up being a slap in the face...

Since Wu Cuihua was taught a lesson by Li Laoer that day, she has been lame for more than ten days, and she no longer dares to talk too much at home.

I was afraid that Mrs. Li would be unhappy and not let her son go to school.

On this day, Li Laosi went up to the mountains to hunt early in the morning.

But he still didn't come back at noon. Mrs. Li was worried that something had happened, so she asked her second son to go out to greet him.

As a result, as soon as Li Laoer arrived at the gate of the courtyard, he was startled. A man covered in blood rushed in from the door, carrying a red deer on his shoulders!

He was about to call someone, but when he took a closer look, he realized that this person was actually Li Laosi!

"Qiu Sheng? Why...how did you end up like this? Are you injured?"

Li Lao Er didn’t know whether to look at Li Lao Si or the red deer for a moment.

(End of this chapter)