Chapter 56

Li Changlin apologized and explained his family’s decision.

Bai Ziqian hesitated. Just as he was about to turn and leave, Li Changlin called out in a daze and suggested, “You should ask the family up on the high slope.

That’s my cousin Shuiqing’s home. She’s a really good person. In our village, probably only her family would hire someone.”

Bai Ziqian paused.

Then, shaking his head, he walked away.

He had just come from Aunt Shuiqing’s house, and she hadn’t said a single word to keep him. If he went back now, wouldn’t that make him even more despised?

He couldn’t believe that in such a large village, those living in brick houses were less generous than those living in thatched cottages!

Li Changlin watched the boy’s figure head toward the brick house of the Fan family. He frowned but could do nothing about it.

Sun Jinhua’s courtyard gate was open. In the past, there were a dozen hens, and the gate was often closed. Now, with the hens gone and the ducks in the water, there was nothing valuable in the yard, so there was no need to close the gate.

“What do you want?” She eyed the boy entering the courtyard with suspicion.

Bai Ziqian bowed in greeting and repeated the explanation he had given at Aunt Shuiqing’s house.

“Tsk tsk, look at your clothes. They’re made of good fabric. Did your parents kick you out? Or did you steal money or clothes from your master’s house and get chased out?”

“A little kid like you, with no strength but a big appetite, who would want to keep you around?”

“You sure know how to pick a time. It’s not even busy farming season. Farmers don’t have much work now, so keeping you would just be a waste of food.”

…

Sun Jinhua criticized Bai Ziqian, making him seem utterly worthless.

From childhood, he had been pampered by everyone. Even his always picky and difficult grandmother treated him kindly.

When he was outside, people saw him as the only son of the Bai family and were afraid he’d get hurt, always catering to his wishes.

He had thought that working hard every day at Aunt Shuiqing’s house was already the hardest thing, but compared to this sharp-eyed woman in front of him, Aunt Shuiqing’s silence was the greatest respect she could offer!

Seeing the boy lower his head after her scolding, Sun Jinhua glanced at his fine clothes, her eyes twinkling, and sighed, “Alright, you look pitiful. You can stay for now.”

Bai Ziqian suddenly looked up, thinking he had misheard.

“What? Don’t you want to eat? I’m telling you, our Shanshui village is very poor. There’s probably no other family willing to feed and keep an idle person.” Sun Jinhua sneered, her tone full of contempt and self-satisfaction.

Bai Ziqian nodded eagerly.

All he needed now was a place to stay and food to eat.

Sun Jinhua scrutinized him and asked, “What work can you do?”

Hearing this question for the second time, unlike the first time when he was confused, Bai Ziqian puffed out his chest and answered confidently, “Washing clothes, cleaning and washing dishes, weeding the vegetable garden, hoeing, digging pits…”

“Alright, alright, that’s nothing special. Everyone can do that.” Sun Jinhua interrupted impatiently.

She then called toward the house, “Sanzhu, bring a set of your clothes.”

Turning back to Bai Ziqian in the yard, she said, “Hei Zi, right? How can you work in good clothes like that? You’ll ruin them.

Go change, and in the afternoon, you’ll join your main master and second master in fertilizing the fields.”

“Main master, second master?” Bai Ziqian repeated blankly.

Sun Jinhua scolded him impatiently, “Why are you so slow-witted?! Our family is feeding and keeping you, aren’t we your masters?

Aren’t my sons your masters? Go on, change your clothes. We’ll have lunch soon, and then you can work after eating!”

Fan Sanzhu originally didn’t have many sets of clothes. Now, out of nowhere, one of his sets was missing, and he was pouting so much he could almost hang an oil can from his lip.

He didn’t dare to get angry at Sun Jinhua, but he certainly dared to be mad at the person wearing his clothes.

He grumbled sarcastically, “Come on, my lord! It takes three reminders to get you moving, huh?”

Bai Ziqian’s face flushed red and then pale, his grip on the clothes tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

When it came time for lunch, the whole family looked at Bai Ziqian with displeasure.

Fan’s mother knew that her daughter-in-law took in the boy for his fine clothes, but thinking about the extra food they had to share still soured her mood. She reluctantly said, “Here, take it, go eat.”

Bai Ziqian found the old woman’s voice familiar but couldn’t remember where he had heard it before.

Just as he was about to recall, he was stunned by the food in front of him.

“What, too hungry to think? Hahaha,” Fan Dazhu mocked.

“Is this what you eat? Isn’t there anything else?” Bai Ziqian asked with difficulty, looking at the bowl of black mush with a few floating leaves.

“We don’t just eat this; we have black bread too!” Fan Erzhu announced proudly, raising his head.

“No rice, meat, or eggs…?”

“Dream on! Nobody eats meat and rice unless it’s a festival.”

“I’d love to eat them too, but we have to see if we have any.”

“Go around the village and ask. Besides the old village chief’s family eating coarse grains, who else has it better than us!”

“Our family has a lot of good fields, so even when it’s not busy farming season, we can have some dry food. Keeping you, a freeloader, if it were any other family, they wouldn’t even consider it.”

“What’s there to complain about? Look at yourself, so frail. Are you worth the food you eat?”

The whole family taunted him one after another, making Bai Ziqian grip his bowl so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Fan Qian slammed his chopsticks down and sternly reprimanded, “Enough! Can’t you keep your mouths shut while eating? Hurry up and eat so you can work in the fields afterward.” He was relieved to have someone to share the workload and didn’t want to scare him away.

Everyone fell silent, rolling their eyes at Bai Ziqian before starting to eat.

The Fan family didn’t have a table—Hu Shuiqing had chopped the previous one in half, making it irreparable.

They didn’t have spare money to buy another, and now they didn’t bother with dining etiquette.

Everyone held their coarse ceramic bowls and black bread, finding a spot to squat and eat.

Bai Ziqian was used to squatting to eat, but drinking the harsh black mush was something he couldn’t get used to.

It was terrible!

It felt like countless sand grains were scraping his throat, causing a fine pain.

Occasionally, he would swallow a piece of husk that wasn’t finely ground, making it feel like swallowing a sword.

“Son, how’s that matter going?” Fan’s mother asked between slurps of the black mush, smacking her lips.

Fan Qian responded confidently, “Don’t worry, Mother. My cousin has already talked to that classmate that Second Brother mentioned. In a few days, we’ll expose him!”

Fan’s mother grunted in satisfaction, smacking her lips again, “Good, that Hu Shuiqing is too much. Feeding such good bran to the chickens.

She even wanted to give me bran to eat. She’s going to have a rough time soon. Son, make sure to teach them a lesson!”

Hearing Shuiqing’s name, Bai Ziqian suddenly remembered where he had heard the old woman’s voice.

On the first day he was rescued, while lying on a cart, in a daze, he had heard Aunt Shuiqing arguing with this voice.

This meant that the family he was with now was Aunt Shuiqing’s mother-in-law and elder brother-in-law’s family…