Chapter 55 What kind of suffering is this in the world!
What kind of suffering is this!
He couldn't bear it!
He couldn't dig enough holes, so he didn't understand how there were so many fruit trees to plant?
Besides, it's OK to plant them when the spring comes next year, so there's no need to rush for half a year.
But what did Aunt Shuiqing say?
"Build a nest tomorrow, and if the winter comes and the nest is not built, the cuckoo will freeze to death;
We must build a nest before winter comes and be well prepared."
Bai Ziqian sneered, not at the correctness of this statement, but he agreed that it was right to prepare in advance.
Rather, he thought that Uncle Fan was nearly 30 years old and had not even passed the examination for a scholar, and his family of seven still lived in a small thatched house. It was ironic for such a person to say this.
At such an old age, what did you do before?
If you had worked hard earlier, you would at least live in a brick house now.
Bai Ziqian looked at Shanshui Village not far away, where there were two brick houses.
Uncle Fan's family, who live in thatched houses, have good food and good cognition, so wouldn't it be better for those who live in brick houses?
He didn't have high requirements, as long as the food was similar to what Aunt Shuiqing cooked, and as for the work, as long as he did half of Uncle Fan's, it would be fine.
The donkey of the Bai family also needed to be given a break, but in the Fan family, he had a hard time even taking a breath!
He decided that he would go to work for a good family! Maybe he could even get paid.
When he thought of the wages, Bai Ziqian was very excited.
He packed up and came to Shuiqing - in fact, he didn't need to pack anything, he only had one set of clothes when he came, and he could just change them back.
Shuiqing looked at the arrogant and high-spirited boy in front of him, and asked casually: "Have you decided?"
"Water flows to the low places, people go to the high places, Aunt Shuiqing, you have to understand, right?" Bai Ziqian thought that Aunt Shuiqing felt that she had treated him, a worker, unfairly, and he was leaving, and now he was upset.
"Okay, but since we've been together for ten days, I'll tell you that the food in the village is not as good as my family's." Shui Qing gave a friendly reminder.
However, Bai Ziqian's kindness sounded more like a way to make him stay, so he refused to give up!
If people living in thatched houses can have such food, how can people living in brick houses be worse than her?
Besides, the dishes cooked by Aunt Shui Qing are just delicious. Compared with the four cold dishes, twelve hot dishes, and several stews and desserts at home, the dishes are too few.
Well, although he ate all of them, if there was a family with good food and more dishes, he would naturally choose that family.
Bai Ziqian was silent for a while, thinking of the lifesaver in front of him, and took out a jade pendant with a smooth, warm and white texture from his arms and handed it over.
"Aunt, I can't repay your life-saving grace by working as a helper. This jade pendant I have worn since I was a child is worth a hundred gold. It is my heart, please accept it."
They can also build a big house with this jade pendant.
Bai Ziqian thought that Aunt Shuiqing would simply refuse or at least politely refuse.
Unexpectedly, she was so straightforward and accepted it very straightforwardly.
"Goodbye!" He thought angrily, in her eyes, his life is not as important as a jade pendant?
Shuiqing didn't care, and touched the smooth and shiny jade pendant in her hand without raising her head and said, "No need to send it."
Bai Ziqian became more and more angry, turned around and walked away without mercy.
After Bai Ziqian walked away, Yan Qiu and others gathered around Shuiqing.
"Mother, are you really not going to care about Heizi?" Yan Qiu asked with a hint of doubt.
"His jade pendant is really beautiful, are you going to pawn it or sell it?" Fan He only cared about how much silver the jade pendant was worth.
"It's good that big brother uses the jade pendant to repay the favor, which is much better than verbal gratitude." Fan Hu made a more pragmatic analysis.
Xinghui stretched out his hand to touch the jade pendant.
Shuiqing was surrounded by a circle of children in the middle, and the chattering made her headache.
She slapped back Xinghui's hand and answered them one by one: "Don't worry, Heizi can't eat any food in the village, he will come back."
"The jade pendant is neither for sale nor for pawn. Our family has money to build a house and food to deal with the cold winter. It's not to the point where we need to sell a half-grown child's personal belongings since childhood." Of course, if she couldn't even afford to eat at home, she would naturally focus on filling her stomach first.
Fan Jiang, who was innocent, didn't understand and asked naively: "Then why did mother accept this jade pendant?"
Heizi looked very hurt.
Yan Qiu was the first to react and explained for Shuiqing: "Are you worried that Heizi will meet a dishonest family in Shanshui Village and suffer a loss?"
Shuiqing smiled but didn't say anything, which was considered as tacit agreement.
However, she had a deeper plan.
When Heizi went to Shanshui Village, his first choice would definitely be a family with good conditions. The most intuitive thing was the house. There were only two families in the village with brick and tile houses.
The old village chief is a kind person, but his family is large and hardworking. Naturally, they will not spend food to raise a half-grown boy to work.
The other family is her mother-in-law and her eldest uncle.
If Heizi goes to his house, let alone the jade pendant, even the clothes on his body will not be intact!
It's good enough if he doesn't peel off a layer of skin.
It doesn't matter if the clothes are worthless, but if the jade pendant falls into the hands of the mother-in-law and the eldest uncle, hehe, anyway, it can't be cheap for those two.
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Bai Ziqian snorted all the way.
When he came to the main village of Shanshui Village, he found that it was even more shabby than what he saw from a distance.
There were thatched houses in the east and west, and the color of the thatch was mostly black, which looked like it had not been renovated for many years.
The dirt road in the village was bumpy and not easy to walk on.
He took a deep breath and came to the nearest brick house after going downhill.
Li Changlin opened the gate of the yard, looked at the boy who was about his age, and stepped aside to let the boy enter the yard.
He walked into the house quickly and explained his purpose to his family.
"That won't work. If it was a few days ago, I could help peel the chicken head rice with the food provided. These days, the chicken head rice fruit is getting less and less. Your father and others have gone to pick them far away. Our family still has time to peel them. Why do we need to hire someone?" Wang Guifen frowned and expressed her opinion.
This year, thanks to the blessing of Fan Er's family, their family earned more than 90 kilograms of rice a day!
Their family does not eat black noodles, but coarse grains such as corn flour and millet, but one kilogram of rice can also be exchanged for two kilograms of coarse grains. After more than ten days, they actually earned half of the annual food rations for the family population.
This was unthinkable in the past.
But even if there is a lot of food, it cannot be wasted. We don't know what the situation will be like next year, so we can't waste food in vain.
She said to her father-in-law, "Dad, we have a lot more food, but Changlin needs to pay tuition, buy paper, ink, brushes and inkstones, and take the exam later. Which one doesn't need money?
We can't waste a single bit. We are poor at home but rich on the road. Every bit of waste will affect Changlin's future on the road to the exam."
The old village chief had been unable to make up his mind, but he made up his mind at this moment.
He told Changlin, "Go and tell him that only your sister-in-law Shuiqing's family in our village can hire people. I'm afraid that other families don't have enough food."