Chapter 69

Chapter 69

As the day grew dark, the bustle died down, and Li Mingwei followed the little girl who stubbornly brought her eggs every day back home. The little girl's grandmother stood at the door waiting for them.

She smiled and welcomed them in. This old thatched cottage was very small. As soon as Li Mingwei stepped into the yard, she had already seen all of it.

But even though it was small and shabby, the hosts had kept it very clean, and the various winnowing baskets and farming tools were also tidy and neat.

The old grandmother took the basket full of eggs from the table in the yard and insisted on giving it to Li Mingwei, "Earlier, this girl brought them to you, and you said you didn't eat them and didn't take any, but I know you do eat them, you just don't want to take ours."

"You teach for free and give her so many things. I can see you're about to leave, and I have nothing better to give you, so you must take this."

"Grandmother, I..."

The reason had already been seen through, and Li Mingwei couldn't find a reason to refuse for a moment, so she sighed and accepted it. She took out a small silver ingot from her purse.

"Grandmother, take this."

"That won't do. These were supposed to be yours to begin with, so how could I take your money?"

She refused, so Li Mingwei handed the eggs back, "If you don't take it, I won't take it either."

The little girl hurriedly ran up to block the basket of eggs, anxiously said, "This is different, this..."

After all, she was still young and didn't know what to say for a moment. Her little face was full of panic.

Li Mingwei stroked her head affectionately and took back the basket, stuffing the money into the old grandmother's hand and turning to run away. The two chased her out the door.

"Hey, girl!"

"Auntie!"

She looked back with a smile and said softly, "If you call any more, others might hear it. What if someone gets some crooked ideas..."

Hearing the voices, quite a few people looked over. The old grandmother glanced warily at them, squeezed the silver in her hand tightly, and hid it behind her back, not daring to speak loudly anymore. She could only watch her leave helplessly.

When Li Mingwei returned to the Wang family, she saw the yard full of baskets, eggs and vegetables. Her eyes widened, "Don't tell me these are for me too."

Wang Chunhua was shelling melon seeds leisurely. She glanced at the eggs in Li Mingwei’s hand, "Of course they're all for you. You bought so many things for the kids, they would feel bad not to give something back."

"But we can't finish all this."

"Just take them back and eat them slowly," said Mrs. Wang, coming out from the back yard, bringing two sisters-in-law to help pack things up, "We were going to pick some vegetables for you to take back too. Now it looks like we don't need to."

Li Mingwei didn't notice their twists and turns. She went out to look for Xiao Gang, wanting to comfort him, but unfortunately couldn't find him and could only reluctantly go back to pack up.

That night, Xiao Gang came as usual to bring her hot water. He sat dumbly at the edge of Li Mingwei's bed, unusually serious, "Auntie, do you think I'm suited to studying?"

This...

Li Mingwei answered tactfully, "You can study, you just might need to put in more effort."

Xiao Gang understood clearly. He lowered his head dejectedly, "Mother said if I had ranked first today, she could have tried persuading grandfather and grandmother to send me to school. But instead..."

Only then did Li Mingwei understand what Mrs. Wang was unhappy about. Turned out she had high hopes for Xiao Gang.

She comforted him, "Third place isn't bad though."

"But the first and second place are both younger than me. I..." Xiao Gang suddenly felt useless. He grabbed his head and knocked himself several times. Li Mingwei hurriedly reached out to stop him.

"Don't do that. If you want to go to school then speak properly with your grandfather and grandmother. What's hitting yourself going to do?"

Xiao Gang looked back hopefully, "Auntie, can you help plead for me? If you say it, grandfather and grandmother will definitely listen."

Li Mingwei hesitated.

Wang Chunhua had been eavesdropping outside. She couldn't stand it anymore and directly walked in, scolding, "What plead? You tested like this and still want your auntie to beg for you? If you were capable, you would have tested first place yourself. Let's see who would dare stop you from going to school then!"

Xiao Gang was speechless, "I..."

Seeing the child like this, Li Mingwei felt distressed. She stroked Xiao Gang's head, "Sister, don't say it like that. Xiao Gang is pretty smart, he just didn't test well this time."

Wang Chunhua looked at her sister speechlessly. When Xiao Gang couldn't stand her gaze and left, she explained clearly, "Don't you think this kid's heart is a bit heavy?"

"Huh?"

Li Mingwei didn't understand. What was wrong with a child wanting to study?

"Yesterday when you didn't help him cheat and I pulled him away, I kept staring at him. He didn't look at his books and secretly watched you for a long time from outside the door. I'd reckon he was getting some crooked ideas."

"And now he runs in front of you to act pitiful. How can you go to our parents to plead for him? We can barely scrape together twenty or thirty taels a year. If you open your mouth again they'll think you should pay. He sees you have some money and a soft heart."

Li Mingwei...

She didn't dare believe this was true. But it did seem traceable.