C76

Article 76. Nameless Dining Hall (26)

In the afternoon, Li Yannian and Lotus had already arranged to go pick forage leaf s from the mountains, and Mao Dou and Zhao Xu were also going to follow along. Seeing that Du Mumei was the only one left at home, she immediately forgot that she was still quarreling with Li Yannian a moment ago, and wanted to follow them up the mountain no matter what.

Li Yannian warned her beforehand: "The mountain is hot and bitter, you probably haven't walked across the mountain road before, right? Don't say you can't walk when you're halfway there, but no one can carry you. If you really can't walk anymore, you can either sit on the mountain path and wait by yourself, or walk back the way you came from, and no one will be with you. You have to think clearly, you have to be able to do it, if you agree, then follow us up the mountain. "

I'm a few years older than you, she thought. Why can't I do what you can? Besides, she had been frightened of being left alone all morning, and this time she was told to stay alone and do nothing. He said angrily, "I have my own feet, so I don't need you to carry me. You can relax now, right?"

Li Yannian laughed: "Don't go back on your words when the time comes."

Du Mumei was so angry that she didn't want to care about her. She was also curious in her heart about the method of plucking the forage leaf they were going to pick. She knew about forage leaf s and they were used to wrap dumplings, but this was the first time she heard that there were people picking these leaves to sell. Du Mumei wondered how much these leaves could sell for, and how much these poor people had to spend on picking them.

No matter what she thought in her heart, they were still on their way. There were several times during the journey, Li Yannian had estimated that Du Mumei's expression looked as if she was about to die. But perhaps it was because the provocation from before was quite useful, but this miss of a Qian Jin actually didn't complain at all and followed them up the mountain.

By the time he got there, the lotus had already plucked the leaves from the two baskets. They were tightly packed. No matter how he looked at them, there were at least three to five hundred of them.

Li Yannian could not help but be shocked: "Sister Lotus, are you here early today?"

Lotus nodded, wanting to say that her mother saw picking leaves more important than raising pigs, so when she sent her up the mountain early in the morning, she saw a new face behind her, one she had never seen before. Judging from her bearing, she didn't seem like a person from their village. She wanted to ask him a question, but when she smiled at him, he turned his head away in contempt. Lotus suddenly felt inferior and didn't know how to put her hands or feet back.

Li Yannian didn't notice this at all, and happily pulled on Lotus's hand. "Sister Lotus, shouldn't we still have time to go back and eat lunch? I brought you a few rice balls, so you should quickly rest and eat something. "

Lotus timidly shrank back, feeling that the girl behind her cousin had a cold and uncomfortable look in her eyes.

"Then I'll sit and rest for a while. Brother Xu, you should sit as well."

Lotus cleared out a clean area, but she was not as afraid of strangers as she was yesterday, so she called out to Zhao Xu.

A sneer came out of Du Mumei's nose, "Brother Xu, you're calling me rather affectionately."

Lotus's face instantly turned completely red. In a flash, it turned as white as paper, causing others to look at it. They were extremely worried that she would faint in the next second.

"What nonsense are you talking about? Brother Xu Zi is a distant relative of ours. My cousin wants to know, what's wrong with it? Do you still need to care about it?"

Li Yannian could not bear to see Du Mumei, this persimmon who liked to bully an honest man, jump up and say something to her. It was not easy for Lotus to become less reserved like yesterday. After hearing her words, how could her heart feel at ease?

Du Mumei was so angry that she jumped up and down, "What did I say? Li Hong Dou, is this how you treat your guests?"

Li Yannian laughed coldly: "Then you still need to act like the customer, if you continue to talk rubbish, we won't bring you down the mountain in a while, why don't you walk around the mountain slowly?"

"You dare?!" Du Mu Mei's face paled as she pointed at Li Yannian and scolded.

"You'll know once you try. In any case, your family's servants will come to the village later, so it's impossible for them to lose it. "

Du Mumei actually believed that she could do this. She lost her temper for a while, walked to the other side and sat under a tree far away from them, kicked the rocks with a dispirited look, and even secretly observed the movements of Li Yannian and the others from time to time. However, after looking for a while and seeing that everyone was ignoring him, she started to feel uncomfortable again. She came over to watch them pick the leaves shamelessly.

"So the leaves that wrapped around the dumplings were grown on bamboo …"

"Eh, how much can you sell this leaf for?"

"Are you planning to pick leaves on the mountain this afternoon?" "That's boring. Brother Xu, let's go over there and play, shall we?"

Du Mumei followed closely behind her, chattering non-stop. Li Yannian had previously paid attention to her, but seeing her never-ending posture, she simply shut her mouth and automatically blocked her ears. Zhao Xu was even more lazy to bother with her. In any case, he was pretending to be a fool right now.

Du Mumei sang for a long time, her saliva had dried up and she was finally bored. She took a glance at the lotus and spoke to the lotus with a condescending tone.

"How much can you sell this leaf for?"

Lotus was a little flattered and replied in a small voice, "100 taels of silver is not a lot. After a day's work, there will also be quite a few pieces of harvest. It is much more valuable than working at home for nothing. Everyone in the village had been collecting leaves these past few days. This area was quite remote and the mountain roads were quite difficult to traverse, so very few people came here. But in a few days, when all the harvests on the mountain were done, the villagers would come over here. "Since there are fewer people here, I might as well pick more if I have the time."

Du Mumei sized her up with a cold gaze. She only asked one question, but Li Hongtao's cousin sister replied her question so many times. She wasn't as bored as he thought. The clothes she wore were just too tattered and looked really shabby. She didn't understand why a girl like Li Hehua wasn't dressed at all. Her hair was messy and it was simply too messy. If it wasn't for the fact that no one was talking to her, she wouldn't even have bothered to look at her.

Her cousin was much better. She was clean and white, dressed neatly, and her eyes were curved when she smiled. Even if she hated her cousin, she couldn't deny it. It was no wonder her cousin was willing to look at her twice.

Thinking about this, Du Mumei almost forgot her purpose for coming to Li Village. However, from the observations of the past two days, Li Hong Dou probably didn't have any intentions towards her cousin. He himself was truly foolish, to be coaxed by his aunt in a few words. It seemed like there was no way Li Hong Dou was going to be an even wife for Cousin Li. Aunt must have used some ingenious method to lure the tiger from the mountain to the east!

Hmph, when she returns home and sees that she isn't going to report this to her mother, if her aunt didn't lie to me, how would I have come to Li Village. How would it be such a coincidence that my carriage would overturn on the way home?

The expression on her face was still gloomy, and she quickly retreated back into her protective shell. She thought to herself that this friend of Red Bean's was also very weird, rather difficult to get along with, just that she did not know which family she came from. Although her clothes looked normal, just from the way she spoke, one could tell that she was not a girl from an ordinary family. If she liked him, she could help him find a job in town.

If she had free money, she could take it back home. Mom probably wouldn't want to marry her so early.

On the other side, Du Mumei regained her senses. When she thought about the inevitable quarrel between her own mother and aunt, she became a little agitated. Even her face warmed up a little because of the lotus flowers.

"You are Li Hong Dou's cousin, whose family are you from in the village? Why is there such a huge difference between your house and Red Bean's? "

Du Mumei's words were actually quite rude, but Lotus was already used to it. She did not bother with the needle hidden in her words and mumbled, "Our Li Family only has three rooms, while Red Bean belongs to the second room. I am from major chamber. My daughter's family is not worth much, so only my second uncle and second aunt dotes on her. "

Du Mumei was immediately displeased when she heard that, "What do you mean 'your daughter's family is not worth much'? Your mother is not your daughter's family, and your granny is not your daughter's family? "It's quite interesting that our own clan is squandering our own."

Li Yannian listened from the side and thought that Du Mumei had finally said something human so he couldn't help but interrupt, "Since it's almost like this for every household in the village, it won't be possible to change your mind in just a few words. You really want to impose your thoughts on someone else. You first have to learn to let others see the benefits of following you. "

Du Mumei was a little confused, "I don't believe that they would dare to not treat Lotus well with the reputation of our Du Family. I will go down the mountain to have a chat with them."

Li Yannian shook his head and laughed: "If you don't believe me, then just go ahead and do it. My ugly words are the front, my Eldest Aunt is not an easy target, it's fine if I were to provoke her, and it would also implicate my cousin to follow you and eat steak. Think about it, even if the higher-ups favor the weaker ones and tell them not to bully them, do they listen to their commands? Wasn't it because they endured it then and took advantage of the fact that the people on top of you could no longer look at them, that the birds had secretly taken care of them? There are so many people serving you, one or two less. Who remembers? "

"It's the same for my cousin. You swaggered over to her house this time to show off your wealth to her, and then went to the manor at night. My Eldest Aunt cannot see the benefits of true gold and silver, so how will the family of a girl be defiled, or be defiled? "

Du Mumei did not expect Li Yannian to say such words. She was stunned in place for a while, and then asked in a low voice after a long while, "Then, what do you think we should do?"

Li Yannian laughed: "Didn't you want to prove that your daughter's family is valuable too? Isn't that easy? Isn't your Du Family just doing business? What kind of shop only caters to female customers and needs female employees the most? "Open more shops for the female shop assistant. The female teacher will double the monthly income from other stores to twice the monthly income. The family that raise the daughter will earn more from the daughter than the son. Naturally, the daughter won't feel like she's worthless."

Du Mumei listened in amusement. "You mean, I opened my own store and asked only the female mister to be there? But what shop am I going to open? "My elder brothers are in charge of overseeing the several businesses in the family, I've never been worried about these …"

Li Yannian could not help but laugh at her: "Look at you, previously you said that your daughter's family was also worth a lot, but the real money in your family, are you not your brothers and your father? "What kind of money are you worth? It's all because your family members have free money, so they're willing to spoil you."

Du Mumei instantly became a little angry, "You make it sound like you're not relying on your family."

Li Yannian shrugged her shoulders, showing her the forage leaf in her hand: "It's not bad that I rely on my family, but I also earn money. Even if I leave my brother, I can still support myself, which is better than you. "Since you were young, do you have a single silver coin for your food?"

Du Mumei was momentarily at a loss for words. She was no longer so sure of what she had previously said.

Lotus didn't understand what the two of them were saying, but she felt that her little cousin was quite amazing. Even the girls from the town couldn't compare to her.

Li Yannian felt that Du Mumei was a very childish girl, so she casually spoke a few words with her without going into depth. Then, she turned around and engaged herself in a battle with Lotus to pick forage leaf s.

She turned her head to look at her demure cousin. Her gentle face still had baby fat on it, but her complexion wasn't too good. It was probably because she couldn't eat her fill or wear warm clothes. Li Yannian sighed in her heart, the women of this era were simply too difficult. She started to worry about Lotus Flower's future marriage. If she could think of a way to help her and look after a good family, that would be great!