Chapter 40: Zhao Xiaodou 3/4

Jin Moli accidentally caught a glimpse of it, and afterwards, she often had nightmares.

Because the young master of the Hong family was a lunatic, and the Hong family claimed it was an accident, in the end, the government only allowed the Hong family to keep the young master under supervision and not release him.

Apart from that, the Hong family only compensated the Zhao family with some money.

But what did that matter? Zhao Xiaodou was already dead.

Zhao Laosan was furious at the time. He was actually a good person all along, but that time, he took a kitchen knife and chopped the person who told him that the Hong family was a good family, and that the young master of the Hong family, although a bit sick, was obedient and easy to take care of.

The person wasn’t killed, after all, he didn’t know the specific situation, but after that, Zhao Laosan’s mind started to go wrong.

He would tell everyone about Zhao Xiaodou’s situation, saying that Zhao Xiaodou didn’t want to go to the Hong family as a servant boy at the time. He cried and begged him while holding onto his legs, but he still forced Zhao Xiaodou to go.

He also said that when he went to see Zhao Xiaodou, Zhao Xiaodou didn’t look right, with injuries on his face, but he was just comforted by the people of the Hong family and didn’t take it seriously…

At that time, besides working in the fields, Zhao Laosan would talk about Zhao Xiaodou all the time. He would cry while talking about it. A few years later, he stopped doing anything and just kept calling out “Xiaodouzi.” When he saw boys aged seven or eight in the village, he would insist on hugging them.

If it weren’t for the fact that Zhao San’s stepson was still decent and didn’t kick Zhao Laosan out, giving Zhao Laosan food every day, Zhao Laosan might have starved to death.

But one winter evening later on, Zhao Laosan shouted that he wanted to go find Zhao Xiaodou and ran out of the house. He accidentally fell into the river and drowned.

Both Zhao Laosan and Zhao Xiaodou had tragic fates. Jin Moli had been staying in Miaoqian Village for the past few years and hadn’t been to other villages, so she hadn’t thought of this matter until now when she saw Zhao Xiaodou.

Li Qingzhi had been watching Zhao Xiaodou play with Li Damao and Li Ermao at first.

But after watching for a while, he found that Zhao Xiaodou was good at taking care of others and was very obedient. He didn’t let the two children go far. So he went back to his and Jin Xiaoye’s room, took a small stool, used the wooden board bed as a table, and started writing Ding Xi’s book.

He planned to copy and modify Zhu Qian’s book while practicing calligraphy. However, he realized that the current environment was not suitable for calligraphy practice.

With that, he started writing Ding Xi’s book first.

Li Qingzhi didn’t plan to practice calligraphy, so he wrote very quickly. By around ten in the morning, when Jin Xiaoye called him to eat, he had already written over a thousand words.

Jin Xiaoye didn’t divide the yellow beans and salted fish, letting people pick them up with chopsticks themselves, but she divided the meat, giving about two taels per person.

Two taels of meat weren’t much, but everyone was very happy eating, each with their own way of enjoying it.

Some people immediately ate the meat first before eating the rice, some ate slowly, taking small bites of rice and meat together, and some didn’t eat any meat at first, leaving it in their bowls until they finished the rice, and then ate it last.

Zhao Xiaodou and Zhao Laosan left the meat until last to eat. Zhao San even divided his own meat in half and gave half to Zhao Xiaodou, asking him to eat more.

“Dad, I’m full with my own portion,” Zhao Xiaodou put the meat Zhao Laosan gave him back into Zhao Laosan’s bowl.

Zhao Laosan wanted to give the meat to his son to eat, but after several attempts, his son refused to eat… He finally happily ate it himself.

After eating, instead of rushing to work, everyone filled their bowls with water and drank while chatting.

Their bowls were oily, and the water poured in had a little oil, making it much tastier than ordinary water.

Li Qingzhi also chatted with them and learned many things he didn’t know before.

As they were chatting, Jin Moli came over and called Jin Liushu “brother” and Jin Dajiang “uncle.”

Jin Liushu was Uncle Jin’s eldest son. He originally didn’t want to help Jin Xiaoye, not because he disliked Jin Xiaoye, but simply because he was lazy and didn’t want to work.

But after coming here and finding that the food prepared by Jin Xiaoye was very good, he didn’t reject helping anymore. Of course, he would still slack off a bit when working, which was unavoidable.

Among the people who came to help this time, Jin Dajiang and Zhao Laosan were the most hardworking, while Jin Liushu and Li Yaofeng were the least hardworking.

Jin Liushu was lazy, and Li Yaofeng couldn’t stand to see Li Laogen living well, so he deliberately did less work.

“Moli, how have you been lately?” Jin Liushu asked as soon as he saw his sister, looking at the house of the Yao family.

“Sister, I’m fine. Aren’t you tired from working?” Jin Moli chatted with Jin Liushu.

“I was not tired at all. Xiaoye was quite generous this time and even gave us meat,” Jin Liushu talked endlessly, saying how good and spacious the house Li Qingzhi was building was.

He didn’t like working, but he had many friends. Sometimes when he went to the county town to do odd jobs and earned some money, he would go to a small restaurant in the county town to eat and chat with everyone, feeling very knowledgeable.

Jin Moli knew Jin Liushu well, so she steered the conversation towards the county town, then asked, “Brother, do you know the Hong family in the county town?”

“I know. They’re a big family in the county town with several shops at home. Their ancestors used to be officials,” Jin Liushu said, “The young master of the Hong family is said to be very smart, and he passed the imperial exam at a young age. He might even pass the imperial examination in the future.”

“Said to be… I heard that the young master of the Hong family is a lunatic and likes to beat people?” Jin Moli said.

“Is that so? I heard that the young master of the Hong family’s brain isn’t working well, but whether he beats people or not, I don’t know,” Jin Liushu said.

“It should be true… The person who told me this said that the young master of the Hong family is fat and strong, and when he beats people, he doesn’t hold back, always injuring them,” Jin Moli also didn’t know how to remind Zhao Laosan, so she just said it like this.