Chapter 181 1/3

When Jin Xiaoye gave birth, it was really difficult.

Li Laogen, being a man, couldn’t take care of her, and all the relatives of the Li family had cut ties with them. The family also didn’t have much money…

Fortunately, Jin Xiaoye’s parents brought Jin Xiaoshu to help, so she wasn’t completely alone.

However, Jin’s father had to work, and Jin’s mother also had to do the household chores… the only one available to help was the ten-year-old Jin Xiaoshu.

But because of this, Jin Xiaoye took special care of Jin Xiaoshu.

“Xiaoye, you’ve suffered a lot.” Li Qingzhi held Jin Xiaoye’s hand. Fang Jinniang had everything she wanted and her husband by her side all the time. What about Jin Xiaoye? Jin Xiaoye was about the same age as Fang Jinniang, and seven years ago, she was really very young.

“It’s okay. There are many people worse off than me. You don’t know, some women in the village have to give birth in the woodshed. Xiaoshu and I were born in the woodshed,” Jin Xiaoye said.

Jin Xiaoye’s grandmother thought childbirth was unlucky, and bloody, and would dirty the bed, so she had her daughter-in-law give birth in the woodshed.

Her parents didn’t have extra bedding to change, fearing that if the bed got dirty during childbirth, there wouldn’t be anywhere to sleep. So they made a “bed” out of straw and pre-prepared diapers in the woodshed for the delivery.

However, after giving birth, her father carried her mother back to the room.

As for her aunt, she didn’t go to the woodshed at all, and her grandmother couldn’t do anything about it.

Her grandmother couldn’t carry her chubby aunt.

The Jin family was like this. Some families were even worse. They not only made their daughters-in-law give birth in the woodshed but also stay there during their confinement period, not giving them anything good to eat during that time.

But such families were few, as doing such things would make them the subject of gossip in the village.

Moreover, unless the daughter-in-law was extremely submissive and completely controlled by her in-laws, she would run away.

In these times, rich men could have multiple wives, but poor men had a hard time finding even one.

Seeing the young wives in other families suffer, the bachelors would try to woo them.

Jin Xiaoye thought of her mother and felt a bit frustrated: “My mother is really too soft-hearted. When she gave birth, it was the hardest. When I think about it, my experience wasn’t that bad.”

According to her mother… after she was born, her grandmother said girls were worthless and refused to help, not even washing the diapers. Her father would come home from work and wash the diapers first thing.

Later, when her mother gave birth to Xiaoshu… Xiaoshu was a boy, but her grandmother still wouldn’t help. Xiaoshu’s diapers were washed by her.

However, Jin Xiaoshu also washed diapers for Li Damao and Li Ermao, so she didn’t lose out.

The reason her mother suffered like this was because her grandmother was biased, and also because her mother was too soft-hearted.

It’s said that when her aunt gave birth to Jin Moli, her grandmother didn’t want to help either. Her aunt cried in the house, accusing the Jin family of mistreating her, and her grandmother, concerned about her reputation, immediately washed the diapers.

As for her, her mother, having suffered during her own confinement, couldn’t bear to see her suffer and started saving eggs for her early on. Her confinement period wasn’t much worse than other women in the village.

Though giving birth to twins was indeed exhausting.

On the way home, Jin Xiaoye talked a lot.

After hearing it all, Li Qingzhi also felt that Jin’s mother was a bit too soft-hearted. With such a character and no support from her own family, it was easy for her to be bullied in the countryside.

If she had married into a harsher family with a bad-tempered husband, she might have been tormented to death.

In these times, there were really too many people living miserable lives.

When they got home, Li Damao and Li Ermao hadn’t gone to bed yet and were playing Five-in-a-Row with Gou Ying.

Li Damao and Li Ermao loved playing Five-in-a-Row and played all the time, learning a lot of techniques. On the other hand, Gou Ying didn’t have much time to play…

When they played with Gou Ying, they always won.

At this moment, Gou Ying had lost again.

But he was still eager: “One more game! One more game!”

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Li Qingzhi sent someone to deliver a letter to Magistrate Gou in the prefectural city.

By that evening, the anxious Magistrate Gou had rushed to the Li family.

On the afternoon of New Year’s Eve, when Gou Ying ran away, Magistrate Gou thought he would return soon. But when Gou Ying didn’t come back and they couldn’t find him, Magistrate Gou was extremely worried.

He almost didn’t sleep that night, and it wasn’t until the next noon when he received the letter from Li Qingzhi that he was relieved and rushed over. When he arrived, he wanted to lecture his son.

Li Qingzhi stopped him and reasoned with him—if he hit the child again, the child might run away to another place. The times were not safe!

Gou Ying was lucky to arrive safely in Chongcheng County, but if something had happened… who would regret it?

Magistrate Gou didn’t dare hit him again. His son’s escape had scared him, but he couldn’t help but complain to Li Qingzhi—his son had been doing well before, but after going to the prefectural city, he had problems again.

In response, Li Qingzhi bluntly said, “Magistrate Gou, why didn’t you send him to the teacher I recommended?”

Magistrate Gou felt a bit embarrassed.

Li Qingzhi continued, “This child doesn’t respond well to harsh treatment. You found him a strict teacher who likes to scold, no wonder he acted out.”

Magistrate Gou was taken aback. Li Qingzhi had told him this before, but he was too busy to remember… With Qian Fugui already at the inn, Li Qingzhi let Magistrate Gou stay.

Magistrate Gou and Gou Ying couldn’t get along, and Gou Ying insisted he wouldn’t go back even if he was beaten to death. Magistrate Gou had no choice but to agree to let Gou Ying stay in Chongcheng County and continue studying with Scholar Li.

Magistrate Gou was busy with official duties, and his wife was pregnant, so they didn’t have time to manage Gou Ying.

Gou Ying stayed, and Magistrate Gou sent three servants over.

One was a study companion around Gou Ying’s age, another was a slightly older, seventeen or eighteen-year-old servant, and the third was the thirty-something son of the Gou family’s steward, trained to be a steward himself and available to handle Gou Ying’s affairs.

Li Qingzhi had the three settle in an empty classroom at the school. Gou Ying would stay with him for now but would eventually move there.

Initially, Gou Ying wasn’t happy and wanted to rent a big house.

But after talking to the students at the school and seeing their living conditions, he agreed.

He could have an empty classroom to himself. Others had to share a room with many people!

And Li Qingzhi said some teachers at Chongcheng Elementary School also stayed at the school and lived in empty classrooms…

He was getting the teacher’s treatment, which was great!

On the day Fang Jinniang gave birth, worried that she couldn’t look after Li Damao and Li Ermao, Li Qingzhi didn’t take them to Miaoqian Village. But in the following days, the two children went to Miaoqian Village early with Jin Xiaoye and Li Laogen to see their newborn sister and returned home only at night.

Li Qingzhi didn’t go with them.

He visited Qian Fugui in the morning, wrote at home in the afternoon, and only went to Miaoqian Village in the evening to have dinner with Jin Xiaoye’s family and bring them home, taking the opportunity to get some exercise.

Most rural people had many relatives and had to visit them during the New Year, but with their few relatives, they only needed to visit Jin Xiaoshu’s family, which was much easier.

On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Qian Fugui quietly left Chongcheng County.

Li Qingzhi had already cured his back injury and dealt with some other issues, but he didn’t mention it specifically.