The two naughty boys Jia Xi and Jia An talked about chopping firewood during the day. They fell down and chewed a mouthful of mud, which made everyone in the family laugh.
"Chuck!" Jiayin was lying on Mrs. Li's lap and also laughed at her brother.
Mrs. Li rubbed her granddaughter's cheek, looked at Li Jiaren who was eating porridge in a gentle manner, and made up her mind.
"I plan to send the children to study in the county town."
As soon as these words came out, the dinner table suddenly became quiet.
Everyone looked at Mrs. Li in surprise, wondering why she said that.
After all, even if you can't go hungry these days, studying is too expensive, and the burden is still too heavy for the Li family!
Wu Cuihua was the first to refuse.
"Mom! How much money does it cost to study? Where did our family get so much money? If you want to provide for them to study, we will not be able to survive!"
She almost jumped up and made a noise, for fear that she would provide for the children to study. , she would have to go hungry.
"Studying is a good thing, second sister-in-law, what are you yelling about?"
Zhao Yuru couldn't stand Wu Cuihua's look and couldn't help but say something.
"What a good thing? What a good thing, you and the third family are paying for it? How much money is left in the family? They all study for the children. Let's go drink the northwest wind!"
Wu Cuihua didn't know how much money the old lady had in her hands, but she wanted to buy a yard and a field. It was just one hundred taels, she guessed it wasn't much.
"Okay, shut up!" Mrs. Li glanced at Wu Cuihua with a dark face, and silenced her with just one sentence.
"I plan to only send Jiaren to study."
"Huh?" Wu Cuihua was stunned. It turned out that she was only sending her son to study!
She glanced at her eldest son, wanting to take back all the words she just said, and laughed twice with an embarrassed look on her face.
"Mother...Mother has the final say."
It was hard for everyone to say anything about her, but their looks were not friendly.
Wu Cuihua quickly lowered her head to drink her porridge, not daring to say another word.
Li Jiaren was even more ashamed of his mother. He put down his job and said.
"Mom, our family has just settled here. There are many places to spend money. I am not in a hurry to study. I will wait until the family has a harvest next year."
Mrs. Li is very pleased that her grandson is so sensible, but she has already decided. I will never change my mind.
"If our family wants to truly take root here, this is not enough for the time being. Helping the villagers with some small tasks or buying property are just for the present. If we want our Li family to prosper in the long term, we still need our children and grandchildren to study."
Mrs. Li glanced at everyone and saw that they all nodded before continuing.
"Isn't there a saying that goes like this? If there are no scholars in the family, where will the officials come from? Even if you are not a scholar and you are just a boy, outsiders will have to think twice if they want to bully the Li family.
Jiaren, grandma thinks you are good at studying. . Go study, my family can afford you!"
Jiaren really likes reading. Whenever he is free, he will definitely find something with words to read, or he will write on the ground with a wooden stick.
Not only Mrs. Li, but also the Li family saw this.
Li Laosan and Li Laosi both spoke in support, "Yes, Jiaren will go to school, we can definitely afford it with the money we earn."
"Nai, third uncle, fourth uncle..."
Tears welled up in Jiaren's eyes, deep in his eyes. Taking a breath, he stood up and saluted the elders.
"I will study hard and help our family!"
"Good boy!" Mrs. Li smiled slightly.
When Wu Cuihua saw that her son's study was confirmed, she grinned from ear to ear, took her son's hand and started talking.
"My son is the most obedient, and he will definitely be able to study well. As long as we don't be like your uncle, who studies so hard that no one else can... Oops!" Before
Wu Cuihua could finish her words, Li Laoer quickly pinched her hard. The pain on her arm was so painful that she burst into tears.
When she was about to scold Mr. Li, she finally noticed that Mrs. Li's face was as dark as ink...
Wu Cuihua suddenly remembered the taboos at home and panicked.
Before she could make amends, Mrs. Li dropped the porridge bowl with a clang, and the hot porridge bits jumped everywhere.
One of the lumps landed on Jiayin's exposed arm, causing her to tremble in pain.
But Mrs. Li was obviously in a bad mood, so Jiayin held back and remained silent.
"You heartless thing!"
Li Laoer was afraid that Mrs. Li would become even more angry when she saw Wu Cuihua, so he directly grabbed her arm and dragged her back to the wing to teach her a lesson.
The two sons were still outside, and Li Lao Er couldn't beat his daughter-in-law, who had a bruised nose and a swollen face, so she found a washboard and asked Wu Cuihua to kneel down with half a copper basin of water.
Wu Cuihua made a bitter face. Listening to her husband's scolding, her knees felt numb and itchy, as if there were so many ants crawling on her.
Within half an hour, she started crying and begging for mercy in a low voice.
"Lao Er, I know I was wrong. I will never talk nonsense again."
Li Lao Er ignored her at all, "When will you get up when your mother calms down?"
Wu Cuihua started to cry and struggled to get up. , Li Laoer raised the ruler in his hand, and she could only kneel down.
I originally thought that my son would come to plead for mercy, but no one came to take a look until midnight...
Everyone listened to the scolding from the side room, carefully looked at Mrs. Li's face, and did not dare to hold the bowl again.
Jiayin turned her little head and looked around. Seeing that her family members wanted to know the reason, she became more and more curious.
So her uncle who has never been seen before is so taboo that he can't even mention it?
Jiayin desperately wanted to know her uncle's story, but she couldn't speak. She could only raise her hand to touch Old Mrs. Li's face and coax her with babbling.
Mrs. Li couldn't eat, so she simply carried her granddaughter back to the house, leaving a table full of people like quails with their necks shrunken.
As soon as Mrs. Li put her granddaughter on the kang, she saw a bright red patch on her little arm.
She quickly went up to take a look, and touched another piece of warm porridge on her sleeve. She immediately understood that her granddaughter had been burned.
But the child didn't cry just now. Could it be that he was frightened by her?
Mrs. Li's heart was full of regret and distress. How could she have forgotten that her granddaughter was in her arms just now? Why did she throw the porridge bowl?
She quickly picked up her granddaughter, raised her little arms, kissed and blew her.
"Does it hurt Fu Niu'er? It's all grandma's fault. Grandma shouldn't have lost her temper. Did she scare us Fu Niu'er..."
Of course Jiayin couldn't say it hurt, and she couldn't say it either. She could only respond with a giggle, I hope the old lady will blame herself less.
Seeing her granddaughter's eyes wide open, she stretched out her hand to touch her face as if to comfort her.
Mrs. Li felt more and more uncomfortable, and finally she hugged her granddaughter and started crying.
Jiayin was held upright in Mrs. Li's arms, her head resting on her shoulder, and she could really feel her grandma's trembling body.
When she heard the suppressed sobs again, she felt extremely painful.
Grandma has always been the backbone of the Li family. When she is in charge of the family, she speaks and acts with neatness and is extremely strong.
Along the way, I escaped from famine with more than a dozen people, and no matter how difficult it was, I never shed a tear.
But she was crying so sadly now...
She tried hard to rub her little face against her grandma's face, and she also wanted to raise her hand to wipe away her tears.
It's a pity that her little hands weren't very responsive, and in the end it ended up being a slap in the face...
Wu Cuihua was lame for more than ten days after being scolded by Li Laoer that day, and she no longer dared to talk too much at home.
She was afraid that Mrs. Li would be unhappy and not let her son go to school.
On this day, Li Laosi went up to the mountains to hunt early in the morning.
But he still didn't come back at noon. Mrs. Li was worried that something had happened, so she asked her second son to go out to greet him.
As a result, Li Laoer was startled as soon as he arrived at the entrance of the courtyard. A man covered in blood rushed in with a red deer on his shoulders!
He was about to call someone, but when he took a closer look, he realized that the person was actually Li Laosi!
"Qiu Sheng? You...how did you end up like this? Are you injured?"
Li Lao Er didn't know whether to look at Li Lao Si or the red deer for a moment