On the way to escape famine, my parents divorced

(Thanks to Gusu Huazhang for voting for 1 monthly ticket.)
"Hey, that's not right, how could I tell that?"

Li Shiyue looked at Li Qiutian strangely. She really couldn't tell what was wrong with Li Chunli. She only saw that Li Chunli was well dressed, with a silver hairpin in her hair, silver earrings on her ears, and a pair of thin silver bracelets on her hands.

Li Qiutian's cheeks turned red due to Li Shiyue's questioning. She didn't know what to say, so she turned to look at Zheng Meiniang next to Li's mother.

"When your mother was young, my father sent her to learn the craft from a medicine woman, and when I was young, my father sent me to learn from a midwife.

Later, my mother passed away, and my father couldn't run the meat stall by himself. I didn't think about waiting until I got married to become a midwife, so I picked up a knife and learned how to kill and butcher pigs from my father.

But I haven’t forgotten what the midwife taught me. When your sister was little, I told her that I also taught her how to look after the women who came to my stall to buy meat.”

Li Shiyue raised her hand and touched Li Qiutian, then said to her with a smile: "Sure, sister, you can do this too!"

They have said what they have said about Li Chunli. After all, she is just someone else's girl and has nothing to do with them. Even if they knew about it, they would just let it go.

Instead, it was Zheng Mei Niang who said these words at the end: "Since she was able to catch up with the carriage and follow it to the palace, it was destined to be like this.

Although being a slave means serving others, it is a royal palace after all. To be honest, the maids in the palace should live better than common people like us.

If you give up something, you will gain something. "

After talking about this, everyone started to discuss the deed in their hands with great interest. When the spring comes next year and the soil becomes soft, how should they clean the land, how should they build the house, and how should they start their own business? The whole family talked non-stop and the lights in the house were not turned off until late at night.

Life in a farmer's home is never idle, even in winter.

Just to take care of the two horses at home, I have to feed them three times a day. If I miss a meal, they will make "hmmmm" sounds.

There was also the donkey that the family had bought earlier. Two nights ago, heavy snow crushed the roof of the donkey shed, and Li Shiyue, who was alert while sleeping at night, heard it. She got up in the middle of the night to rescue the donkey and repair the roof of the shed that was collapsed by the snow.

It is cold in winter. After the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, the day is extremely cold. To exaggerate a little, your butt will be frozen even if you go to the toilet to pee.

Li Shiyue also thought of a way to take care of the two horses. He found wooden boards to reinforce the stable and lit a fire in the stable to keep the horses warm.

During the last few days of the twelfth lunar month, Li Shiyue drove his donkey cart to Zhao You's house next to Sunjiayao to inquire about buying bean cakes.

When we arrived, we found that the entrance to Zhao Youjia's village was quite lively, with many carts carrying large livestock parked on the roadside.

After asking someone, Li Shiyue found out that at the end of every year, if you buy ten bean cakes from Zhao You’s family, you get one free. If you buy a hundred, you can get ten extra.

Everyone rushes to buy bean cakes at the end of the year. After all, who wouldn’t want to get one more?

Letting Shitou wait in line in front, Li Shiyue found an old man smoking a pipe on the side of the road with his hands in his sleeves, and took out a handful of fried beans from the cloth bag on his waist and handed it to him.

The old man put down his pipe, looked at the fried beans in Li Shiyue's hand, and asked when he saw Li Shiyue's smiling face, "Where did you come from, young lady?
What does this mean?

Li Shiyue took the fried beans and placed them next to the big rock where the old man was sitting. She took another handful and ate them while asking the old man, "Father-in-law, I am a new resident of Liujiatun.

Hey, this is your first time here, come and ask something.

My mother fried these beans with sugar, so they have a sweet taste. Try it."

The old man never hits a smiling person, not to mention that Li Shiyue was polite and handed over a handful of fried beans first. What's more, Li Shiyue's questions were not something that he couldn't answer, so the old man talked to Li Shiyue while crunching the beans.

What Li Shiyue was asking about was the two brothers Zhao Youtian and Zhao Youcai who tried to rob her and Li Qiutian with short sticks that day.

The two men did not lie, they were really from Zhao You's family, and their parents were really both dead, leaving only an old grandmother in the family who made a living by farming two acres of inferior land.

The two brothers did have their own land, but after paying taxes and money for seeds, there was nothing left at the end of the year, and they just had enough to fill their stomachs.

Therefore, these two brothers, who are in their twenties, have not yet married.

After Li Shiyue asked the old man about the two brothers' homes, she saw that the stones were almost lined up, so she bowed to the old man and went over there. The old man was still shouting from behind, "Young lady, why are you asking about them?"

Li Shiyue turned around and smiled at the old man, "It's the beginning of spring, and my family is building a house. I want to hire someone to do the work. I met Brother Youtian in the county before, so I wanted to ask him about it while I was here to buy bean cakes."

After spending a large sum of money to buy half a truckload of bean cakes, Li Shiyue got on the truck and directed Shi Tou to go to Zhao Youtian and Zhao Youcai's homes.

Li Shiyue's two horses and a donkey certainly could not finish eating up half a cart of bean cakes, so she also brought some in for Li Wangshui's mule.

Even the third dog was brought back by Li Shiyue. He said that next year he would go to the cattle and horse market to buy a mule for his family to use.

The residence of Zhao You's family seemed to be more compact than that of Liujiatun. After turning in, Li Shiyue saw the tall Zhao Youtian chopping wood in the yard from a distance.

After parking the car outside and asking Shitou to watch the car, Li Shiyue arrived at the door and shouted "Hey!" to Zhao Youtian.

Zhao Youtian looked over in the direction of the sound, but was so frightened that he nearly dropped the axe in his hand. He screamed "Ah" and fell to the ground with his butt slumped.

The old grandmother in the house heard the noise and hurried out of the house with a hunched back, asking, "Youtian, what's wrong? What's your name?"

When the grandmother saw that Zhao Youtian had only fallen down, she asked, "What's wrong? You're a grown man, you fell down, and you don't even know how to get up?"

The old grandmother turned her head and saw Li Shiyue standing at the door with a smile on her face.

"Who are you looking for, young lady?"

The old grandmother was about to come to the door, and Zhao Youtian, who was sitting on the ground, was so frightened that he jumped up, took two steps forward to stop the old grandmother, and then perfunctorily told the old grandmother that he knew Li Shiyue and asked the old grandmother to go into the house and pour a bowl of hot water to entertain the guests.

The old grandmother's eyes were full of disbelief in what Zhao Youtian said. How could her grandson get to know another girl?
However, since the visitor is a guest, he still needs to be given a bowl of water.

Seeing the old grandmother smiling at Li Shiyue and going into the house, Zhao Youtian looked as if the sky had fallen and kowtowed to Li Shiyue, begging for mercy.

"Auntie, please spare my life!
We never dare to do bad things again!
Really! I swear to God, it’s true.”

Zhao Youtian raised his fingers upwards, as if he was about to swear, but Li Shiyue laughed at him.

She interrupted Zhao Youtian's oath and said to him with a smile: "Your cousin is here? Why didn't I see him?"

"Youcai went to the clan leader's house to do odd jobs. The clan leader took care of us and allowed us to have work right at our doorstep and earn a few copper coins."

Li Shiyue nodded, and without saying a word, he took out a piece of silver from his pocket, about two taels.

"Before the spring ploughing next year, my family will build a house and we are looking for workers. You and Zhao Youcai will come to my house to work. This is the deposit.

Find me a few men in your village who can work honestly, and two women who love cleanliness and can cook.

The price is the same as working in the county town, meals are provided, and wages can be paid on a daily basis.

But you two will only be paid half the money for your work, and you have to compensate us sisters for scaring us that night.

If you disagree, go see the official."

Zhao Youtian stared at Li Shiyue blankly. He couldn't believe what Li Shiyue said. Before he could react, his grandmother came out of the kitchen holding a bowl of hot water.

Li Shiyue directly threw the silver coins to Zhao Youtian, then smiled at the old grandmother and said, "Thank you very much."

Li Shiyue took two sips and then took the bowl to give some to Shitou who was watching the car outside.

After returning the bowl and bowing to the old grandmother, Li Shiyue got on the car, turned the car around and drove towards the village entrance. (End of this chapter)