Chapter 40: Zhao Xiaodou 2/4

Seeing this, Li Ermao also passed his rice crust over, saying, “Brother, I’m also full.”

Zhao Xiaodou, upon hearing this, accepted the rice crust from Li Ermao.

The Zhao family also ate two meals a day, and Zhao Xiaodou hadn’t eaten anything since he got up!

The freshly cooked rice crust was fragrant with the aroma of rice and a hint of crispness… He felt very satisfied eating it, and after finishing, he took his two brothers to play.

Since returning home, Li Qingzhi hadn’t been eating four bowls of rice in one meal anymore.

It’s not that he couldn’t afford it, but eating like that was a bit scary.

Now, he only ate two bowls per meal, the same amount as Jin Xiaoshu, showing a lot of restraint.

But eating like this, he always felt a bit unsatisfied… Holding the remaining rice crust in his hand, Li Qingzhi ate while watching the three children play nearby.

Zhao Xiaodou had a very good personality. When his dad asked him to play with Li Damao and Li Ermao, he took care of the two younger boys everywhere, without showing any impatience.

Zhao Xiaodou knew some games that Li Damao and Li Ermao hadn’t played before. As for Li Damao and Li Ermao? They had been going to Zhu’s house with Li Qingzhi every day recently. Li Qingzhi was afraid they would be bored, so he taught them some games.

They even had a set of wooden Go pieces. Li Qingzhi bought the cheapest Go pieces from the store, of course, they didn’t know how to play Go, only backgammon.

The three children were having a great time, and Li Qingzhi, watching them, also felt very happy.

“Ah Qing, I’m going to pound rice.” Li Laogen said to Li Qingzhi, and they went to borrow a stone mortar from the Yao family next door.

They hired people to work for them, and with the daily consumption of rice increasing, Li Laogen had to pound more.

“No trouble, Dad.” Li Qingzhi said.

Li Laogen grinned, “No trouble at all.”

Li Laogen happily went to pound the rice, and the other workers also gradually arrived at Li’s house.

Building a house wasn’t considered hard work for these workers. They chatted while working, talking about various things in the village, and occasionally peeked into the kitchen.

Jin Xiaoye bought meat yesterday with the intention of stewing dried tofu, but later Jin’s mother said that stewing soybeans would be tastier, so she changed her mind to stew soybeans.

The soybeans were soaked yesterday, and early in the morning, Jin’s mother stewed them together with pork. The aroma wafting from the pot was so enticing that it made the workers salivate, and they even worked a bit harder when building the earth walls.

After stewing the soybeans and pork, Jin’s mother began to cook rice. During the cooking process, following Li Qingzhi’s request, she also steamed a bowl of salted fish and some vegetables.

“Why steam salted fish when we already have meat…” Jin’s mother couldn’t understand it, but she didn’t want to oppose it and could only cook according to Li Qingzhi’s request.

Next door, at the Yao family’s house, Jin Moli smelled the scent of meat wafting from the next door, feeling somewhat uncomfortable.

Her life had been better recently.

On one hand, after Yao’s father stopped supporting his son’s education, he occasionally bought some meat for the family to eat. On the other hand… Yao’s mother was afraid that Jin Moli would run back to her natal family, so she dared not scold her as harshly as before.

If she drove her away, it wouldn’t be easy for Yao Zhenfu to remarry, so even if Yao’s mother was angry, she had to endure it.

However, although life was comfortable now, Jin Moli’s mood was very bad.

Before, even though she had to work and didn’t have meat to eat, she still lived better than Jin Xiaoye next door. Moreover, as long as she thought that Yao Zhenfu would become a wealthy man in the future… even if Yao’s mother scolded her constantly, she still felt content.

But now… Yao Zhenfu stayed in his study all day and didn’t even want to go out. Could he still become a wealthy man? Jin Moli felt very uneasy.

And there was Jin Xiaoye.

Jin Xiaoye rowed her boat outside every day, which must be very hard, but seeing Jin Xiaoye enjoying it so much, and seeing the Li family eating well every day… Jin Moli felt depressed, as if a heavy stone was pressing on her heart.

Jin Moli carried a basket to pick vegetables in her own backyard. Just as she stepped out, she saw Li Laogen pounding rice.

She really disliked Li Laogen, but pretending not to see him, she continued walking forward, and then she saw Zhao Xiaodou.

Jin Moli’s heart skipped a beat, and her face turned pale.

In her previous life, at this time, Jin Moli had already remarried and lived in the village where Zhao Xiaodou was.

She remembered that it was almost a year later when something happened to Zhao Xiaodou, and it was very tragic.

When Zhao’s family recruited Zhao Laosan to marry into the family, they had agreed with Zhao Laosan that Zhao’s family’s land would be inherited by Zhao Laosan’s stepson in the future.

After all, those lands originally belonged to Zhao’s family.

Because of this, Zhao Laosan began to plan for Zhao Xiaodou very early on. It seemed that around this time, Zhao Laosan learned that a wealthy family surnamed Hong in the county wanted to find a servant boy for their young master, so he sent Zhao Xiaodou over.

For rural people without money or land, working as a servant boy in a wealthy family was actually a good way out. Not to mention anything else, those servants in Zhu’s family didn’t go hungry and lived better than many rural people.

Zhu Qian had been sent to a wealthy family by his father to work as a servant boy for several years. After a few years, he even saved up enough money to start his own business.

When Jin Xiaoye was penniless, she also went to work as a laborer in a wealthy family.

Zhao Laosan sent Zhao Xiaodou to the Hong family to work as a servant boy, hoping that Zhao Xiaodou could eat well, dress warmly, and grow up well there. Maybe he could even gain the favor of the master and become a steward or manager in the future.

However, the young master of the Hong family was actually a lunatic who would hit people if he was slightly dissatisfied. Zhao Xiaodou was brought there to take care of him and was beaten all over.

The Hong family probably also frightened Zhao Xiaodou… Zhao Laosan visited Zhao Xiaodou once, but Zhao Xiaodou didn’t dare to tell him about being beaten.

Then Zhao Xiaodou was accidentally beaten to death by the young master of the Hong family.

That was not all. It wasn’t until several days later that the people in their village learned about this. When they went to inquire about it, Zhao Xiaodou had already been buried, and when they dug out the body, it looked so tragic.