Li Xiao’er listened to the constant knocking on the door, and reluctantly moved his steps to the front of the courtyard. When he was about to open the door, he thought about putting his head on the door, listening to the movement outside, but there was no more sound, and the door opened silently.
“Why did it take so long to open the door?”
When Li Xiao’er heard Li Changfeng’s voice, he was instantly revived with blood! “Second brother! Second brother!” Xu Qing looked at Li Xiao’er’s excited look, and resisted not reaching out to touch his head.
Li Xiao’er let the two of them in, and immediately closed the courtyard door. Li Changfeng noticed this and didn’t say anything, but frowned a little more.
“Everyone is busy in the fields, and the kids also went out to find their friends to play with. I am the only one at home, not to mention how boring it is.”
Li Xiao’er tugged at Xu Qing’s sleeve and complained, Xu Qing did not stop him, but he was surprised that he could stay at home so peacefully, “You can also go out for a walk.” Li Xiao’er shook his head melancholy, ” My good friends are all getting married, so I can’t disturb them.”
Xu Qing remembered that Chen Hong and Li Xiao’er seemed to have a good relationship, “What about Chen Hong?”
Hearing this, Li Xiao’er’s face was almost wrinkled, “He is also preparing to marry, you don’t know, he is actually going to marry the poorest Zhou family in our village!” Li Changfeng immediately roared when he heard Li Xiao’er’s remarks and said, “is this how you talk!”
Li Xiao’er stuck out his tongue and immediately quieted down. Xu Qing gently pulled Li Changfeng, and Li Changfeng’s face became slightly better, “is it his own decision, or his family’s?” Li Xiao’er thought about it, “he made it himself, saying that the Zhou family son is good at reading and writing, so he told his family and they agreed, so Chen Hong is also preparing for marriage these days.”
Since everything has already been decided, Xu Qing felt it’s inconvenient to ask more and motioned Li Changfeng to hand over the gifts to Li Xiao’er, “these are for the family, and this is for you. We just built a new house, and still got things to do at home, so we won’t stay any longer.”
Li Changfeng nodded, “Help us give it to Ama and Dad.” When Li Xiao’er heard that the two were leaving, he felt a little flustered, “wait, wait, there’s something I wanna say.”
When Xu Qing and Li Changfeng heard Li Xiao’er’s hesitant tone, they felt that there was something in it, Li Changfeng sighed, “Tell me, what happened to the family.” Li Xiao’er also looked a little depressed, “if it’s not the third brother.”
It turned out that after Li Laosan was invited several times to teach the young students who were about to take the imperial exam, his old hunger came back again. He was hinting that he wanted to take the exam again, but now there are fewer family members in the family. Li Changfeng was already married out and about to welcome his first child, and Li Xiao’er is at the age to discuss marriage, where can the family be able to come up with extra money to support this “ambitious” third young master Li!
Especially the eldest Li’s wife, he is even more unhappy. He has already criticized the third family, but he never thought that the third Li would still want to eat rice with a cheeky face! Of course, he could only compose a few sentences in his heart, but he didn’t dare to say it out loud.
Who knew that a few days ago, Li Laosan’s wife and Li Laoda’s wife had a quarrel. Li Laoda’s wife was older and had more fire power. As a result, the more this was done, the harder Li Laosan’s wife fought. The young people didn’t know the severity, grabbed a stone, and threw it at the other side, and scratched the corner of Li Laoda’s wife’s eyebrows. Please read this on ho lo lo novels, alright?
(T/N: Li Laoda = Eldest Li)
It wasn’t a big wound, a little further away is the eyes, but the eldest Li’s wife started to make a fuss, “As a result, the third brother got into a fight with the eldest brother,” Li Xiao’er paused, “the third brother also said that the eldest brother’s eldest son was not smart, there’s something wrong with him, and…” What he said later was so disrespectful that Li Xiao’er couldn’t even say it.
“This is really…” Xu Qing didn’t know what words to use to describe this Li Laosan, no matter what, it was his nephew, how could he say such a thing, he was still a scholar.
Seeing Li Changfeng’s expressionless face, Li Xiao’er was a little unsure of what he was thinking. When he was about to ask Xu Qing for help, Li Changfeng said, “Don’t worry about this, father will have an opinion. Let’s go first.”
“But the third brother…”
Li Xiao’er never thought that Li Changfeng would go home just like that after hearing this. He originally thought that when the second brother came back and heard about it, he would stay. Li Changfeng didn’t have to guess what Li Xiao’er was thinking, “What can you do if I stay, you have to understand, I’m no longer the same as the eldest brother and the third brother in this family. I now have my own home, a home that completely belongs to me, your second brother.”
Xu Qing didn’t interrupt, Li Changfeng could just come forward and talk about this matter with the Li family, but he believed it would be meaningless to say anything.
Li Xiao’er opened his mouth, but found that he had nothing to say, he could only watch Xu Qing and Li Changfeng rode away in the donkey cart.
“Why are you staring, hm?”
The couple drove back home. On the way, Li Changfeng felt that Xu Qing had been staring at him. Xu Qing was not embarrassed to be caught but asked directly, “You don’t like to take part in the matters over there. “
Of course Li Changfeng knew what Xu Qing meant by “over there”, “I’m the one who “married” into your family, and what matter to me is the matter of our family of three. What others do, I don’t care, and I don’t want to either.”
Xu Qing raised his eyebrows and pointed at the back of Li Changfeng’s head: “The married daughter-in-law doesn’t have all day, can you drive faster?”
Li Changfeng looked at the rising sun, “You are pregnant, so you can’t be tossed. It’s still early in the afternoon. Are you afraid of getting sunburned? Come on, take my clothes to cover for a while.” Driving the donkey cart with one hand and pulling on his clothes with the other, Xu Qing quickly stopped him, “Alright, alright! I can still hold on for a while, don’t do such a thing!” After all, he is also a man, he is just afraid of heat stroke.
In the days that followed, the couple was both happy and sad. The happy thing was that almost every day, people came to ask for the carving of “wooden dolls”, and most of the orders were of nanmu, which means they have income every day! Even if you don’t do farming, you can eat meat every day! It makes the villagers jealous.
While things were going well for Xu Qing and Li Changfeng, the whole village, town, or even the common people are worried because the rain has stopped.
The children in the hot village went into the river to fight the heat playing in the water, but the faces of the adults were sad. The crops in this field are growing at a good time, and the sun has been shining bright. After a long time, the crops will be dry. If it is dry, the life of the peasants will become harder.
Xu Qing hid in his room to avoid the heat. It was too hot today, and he would sweat every time he walked. Li Changfeng went to the field three or four times a day these days, carrying the water from the river to the fields and the vegetable garden.
“Knock, knock, knock.”
“Is Brother Qing at home? It’s Xie Yu.”
As soon as Xu Qing heard the knock on the door, before he got up, Xiaobao rushed towards the gate of the courtyard in high spirits. He is also in a panic these days, even though there are many people coming to ask for the dolls at home, Xiaobao didn’t relax because of this. Xu Qing repelled Xiaobao and opened the hot courtyard door against the scorching sun on his head. Outside the door were Xie Yu and Lin Fangliang dressed in light clothes.
“Come in, it’s hot outside.”
Xu Qing pulled Xie Yu and greeted Lin Fangliang to enter the door. Just when he was about to close the courtyard gate, Li Changfeng came back. He poured some herbal tea for the guests, and gave Xu Qing a cup of warm boiled water.
Lin Fangliang drank a few sips of herbal tea to quench his thirst, with a slightly heavy expression on his face, “The price of food in the town has gone up.” As soon as these words came out, everyone’s heart sank, and after a long time, Li Changfeng sighed, ” I hope there will be some rain this day.” Otherwise, the food will become more and more expensive, the farmers will have no grain in their fields, there will be no food to pay taxes, and there is no money to buy food, such days…
“Everyone, don’t think so badly. The God changes his face very quickly. Who knows if there will be rain tonight,” Lin Fangliang felt that the atmosphere was a little heavy, so he immediately said some jokes, trying to ease everyone’s heavy hearts.
Xie Yu shook his head, “I think we still need to make some plans. We come back this time to discuss with Ama and father whether we should go to the town to buy some grain, or when the harvest is not big, take advantage of the grain now. The price of the grains is not too high yet, it is always right to buy some and save.”
Xu Qing nodded, his mood became heavier and heavier with the continuous scorching sun, there was rice and meat in the space, but it was not something he could take it out casually, he looked at Li Changfeng, who knew Li Changfeng was also looking at him, “Buy, use our donkey cart, pull a few carts back, not only to pay the tax grain, but also to buy the grain to eat before we can harvest crops next year!”
“Okay, well, we’ll go and tell Ama and father about this. After an hour, we will meet at the end of the village!” Lin Fangliang and Xie Yu felt that Li Changfeng’s idea was appropriate for the long-term, so they immediately decided to go back to discuss and meet later.
After Lin couple left, Xu Qing and Li Changfeng returned to the room. Xu Qing took the opportunity to rummage in the cabinet and took the opportunity to take out their money box from the space, put the box on the bed, and after he opened it, he looked at Li Changfeng, “Before we had one hundred and thirty-seven taels. These days, more people came to buy carved dolls, earning eighty-eight taels. We now have a total of two hundred and twenty-five taels.”
Li Changfeng took out fifty taels, closed the box, and handed the money to Xu Qing, “Fifty taels should be enough.” It wasn’t a big deal of money for them. Of course, no one would spend so much without blinking an eye. Li Changfeng would rather buy more than let Xu Qing and his child go hungry on days when there may be no harvest.
The Translator has something to say: My roommate got Covid, and I think I have it too. Feeling so weak and feverish. If the updates are slow these days, please know that I’m recovering (。•́︿•̀。)
Btw, this chapter is sponsored by FC. FC gave so much kofi that I lost track of how many chapters that got unlocked, so everything from now on will be sponsored by FC lol .. thank you, dear ◝(ᵔᵕᵔ)◜