Zhuang Keqing gave his newborn brother a nickname, Aman, which meant happiness. After hearing the name, Qin Manzhi repeatedly agreed and said that when Aman grew up, he would ask the scholar from the next village to name him.
A nice name.
Now Aman is still young and only drinks milk every day. However, Qin Manzhi has worked in the fields and suffered from malnutrition over the years. There is really no milk. The little guy is still wrinkled two days after he was born. Zhuang Keqing wants to borrow more.
I brought back some rice grains so that I could make some rice soup for my brother to drink.
"Mom, I'm going out for a trip. You can just stay home with your brother." Zhuang Keqing tied a headscarf on her mother and opened the door a little, so that the room would not be so stuffy.
"Ke'er, are you going out to borrow rice?" Qin Manzhi knew very well that the thick porridge she was drinking now must have been borrowed by her daughter. Before, there was only fine chaff left at home.
"Well, Aman doesn't have enough to eat, so we can't go on like this." Zhuang Keqing nodded and left.
"etc."
With one hand on the door, Zhuang Keqing turned around. She saw Qin Manzhi opening her mouth and about to say something, but was interrupted by a sudden shouting from outside.
"The banker's widow, come out!"
The mother and daughter looked at each other, neither knowing what was going on. Qin Manzhi wanted to get out of bed, but Zhuang Keqing stopped her. She shook her head at her mother and motioned for her to lie down while she went out to take a look.
"Where are the people! This banker has killed every living person!" The visitor kept yelling angrily, causing Aunt Liu next door to come out of the house to take a look.
Zhuang Keqing opened the door and walked into the courtyard, where he saw an old woman with droopy eyebrows and droopy mouth standing at the door with her hands on her hips. It seemed that if she didn't come out, the other party would rush in regardless.
"Mother-in-law, my mother is in confinement. What can I do for you?"
It seems that the person who came here is evil, but Zhuang Keqing is not stupid. Before he can figure out the reason, it is better to lower his attitude first.
"Your father killed my farm and ruined my family's feng shui. How can you compensate me?" The old woman didn't take it seriously when she saw a little girl. She asked for compensation and even asked for two taels of silver.
.
As soon as she opened her mouth, Zhuang Keqing knew that it was the one who had suffered. Originally, she was planning to find a way to compensate the other party, but she didn't expect that this old lady could ask for a price so much. Two taels of silver? The farmer's family has been busy for a year and they don't know if they can earn it.
For two taels of silver, she really dared to speak.
She was furious, but she didn't pinch her neck and argue with the other party. She just lowered her head and shrugged her shoulders and started to cry. While crying, she sobbed and said that she had no money, and waited for the old woman to continue scolding her.
"Why cry? No matter how much you cry, you still have to accompany me! The good paddy fields of my old Li family can produce three hundred kilograms of good millet every year!"
"You gambler died in my field. You are so unlucky that you will die. The money you asked for from the master will not go out of your family!"
"The head of the household was so frightened that he couldn't get up from his bed. Your family also has to pay for the medical expenses!"
The old woman shouted at the door at the top of her lungs, but Zhuang Keqing didn't reply. Instead, she shook her shoulders and covered her face with her sleeves, looking like she was about to lose her breath from crying.
This old woman was very angry, her voice was extremely loud, and she kept yelling and cursing. Now it happened to be the afternoon break, so she attracted all the neighbors around her.
"Isn't this Mrs. Liu?"
"Yeah, why is she here?"
"You still don't know? Then Zhuang Da will die on her farm."
"Hey, it's going to be difficult this time. Who dares to offend Mrs. Liu?"
The people around talked to each other and stood in a circle around the dealer's yard.
Mrs. Liu has been scolding the whole village for many years, without any panic at all. She kept using bad words in her mouth, which made everyone in the village frown.
When Zhuang Keqing saw that the audience was all in place and she could start performing, she shook her sleeves and rubbed her eyes, revealing her peach eyes.
"Mother-in-law, my father has passed away. It's hard for children to say anything, but I think he definitely didn't mean to fall down on your property."
"He must have known that my mother had given birth to a son for him. He was so happy that he came back at night. He didn't expect it..." Zhuang Keqing covered his face with his sleeves again and started to tremble. "I didn't expect it, so he went like this..."
"I haven't even met my brother."
Speaking of this, everyone saw the girl bursting into tears, and felt pity in their hearts.
Indeed, this Zhuang Da has been married for so long, and his temperament changed drastically because he didn't have a son to be looked down upon by others. This time his wife gave birth to a boy. If he came back alive, wouldn't he be able to change that?
Because of the problem of gambling, the family will not be able to live a prosperous life in the future?
"If he doesn't see his son, it's nothing to do with me. That's because he's not blessed! And he's ruining my family's feng shui!" Mrs. Liu continued to talk to the dealer, asking the banker to pay for it.
But after hearing her unsympathetic words, the people around them all thought that this old woman was crazy for wanting money. Originally, it was understandable that she came to ask for money, but the lion was too open-minded, but now, the girl's father is gone, and the whole family
The good life that the family of four was supposed to have is gone. Now there is only a widowed mother with two children. Isn't it much worse than you? You have the nerve to ask for money, and you want so much when you ask for it. It's just bullying.
Everyone was just watching the fun, but now they looked at Mrs. Liu with inexplicable disgust.
"If you want money, ask for money. It's so unkind to say that!" Someone nearby said this, obviously in response to what Mrs. Liu just said.
Mrs. Liu jumped up and asked the man to refute: "What's so unhuman? I shouldn't pay compensation if someone dies?!"
The man ignored her at all, and started pointing at her with the neighbor next to her. Mrs. Liu was so angry that she scratched her hair.
"Mother-in-law, you may not know the situation in my family. My father was addicted to gambling and there was no grain of rice in the house. My mother had an emergency delivery and I delivered her baby. Now my brother Aman has no milk. All the rice I use to make porridge is the same.
I borrowed it from Aunt Li next door."
"Indeed, Keer came to borrow some old brown rice from me yesterday. I wanted to give her new pounded rice, but she refused to take it." Aunt Li lived nearby and knew the family's situation better, so she told the truth about the situation.
, which made people around him sigh.
"I just had a baby and I had to borrow rice porridge. How can I live like this?"
"I just said it can't work without a man in the family."
"What you said, if her man hadn't been so stubborn, she wouldn't be like this."
The conversation quickly went wrong, and Mrs. Liu stood in the middle and was very angry. It was obvious that her family was the one who suffered, and she died in her own land, why couldn't she come and make some compensation?
"I don't care if your life is sad or not, you have to help me make money anyway!" After saying that, Mrs. Liu sat down on the ground and started crying. "My old man was so scared that he was still lying on the bed and couldn't get up.
, I can’t even pay for the medicine! The feng shui of my good paddy fields is also bad~ How can I have the face to meet my ancestors~”
This was when things started to get messy. Zhuang Keqing hid behind his sleeves and watched with cold eyes, letting the other party cry and fuss, not answering at all, and even cried harder himself.
Everyone around listened to Zhuang Keqing's self-narration, and saw that the little girl was thin and frail, with bone marks protruding from her shoulders even if her coarse clothes were hung. They were sobbing and out of breath, which was really pitiful.
Look at Mrs. Liu who is acting wildly on the ground. She is full of curses and has a loud voice. She is not tall but is very stocky. Her face is glowing red at this moment (she is angry), so she does not look like someone whose family is poor and cannot afford medicine.
Coupled with the reputation of being a shrew over the years, there was no house in the village that she had not scolded. Now when everyone looked at her, they felt that this old guy was even more disgusting.
"Mrs. Liu, please keep a line in your behavior so that we can meet each other easily in the future, but don't push people too hard."
"That's right."
"You are clearly bullying others, how can you have the nerve to make trouble here?"
"You're so old, it's embarrassing."
Even though Mrs. Liu had seen many storms and waves over the years, she had never been surrounded by so many people and was called out by name. She was so angry that she was speechless.
"Uncles and aunts, Keqing thanks you for speaking up for me, but my mother-in-law also has her own difficulties and has no choice but to be so rude. Please don't talk to her like that." Seeing that the heat was good, Zhuang Keqing added another handful of firewood.
"This kid is really kind-hearted and sensible."
"Yes, he has been bullied to the point of being bullied, and he still helps Mrs. Liu speak up. There is nothing to sympathize with for such a person."
The onlookers stopped criticizing Mrs. Liu for a while, and instead praised Zhuang Keqing.
"Mother-in-law, how about this? After my family has raised enough funeral money for dad's burial, I can raise your share later, is that okay?"
Probably because she had never experienced such pressure from public opinion, Mrs. Liu completely lost her composure. She yelled and cursed regardless, but she just wanted money. "You little girl, why do you pretend to be a good person? Get money now!"