Chapter 61

Fan Erzhu was furious and pointed at Bai Ziqian, cursing, “Do you know whose food you’re eating? Be careful, or you’ll get beaten to death when you get home!”

“Heizi, come here. You are my family’s servant, so you should stand with us,” Fan Dazhu said, hands behind his back and frowning, shouting at Bai Ziqian who was beside Hu Shuiqing.

Sun Jinhua stared at the white jade in Shuiqing’s hand, thinking to herself, “Heavens, how much silver is this worth? Must be a good few taels, right?” She swallowed her saliva and then, with a stern face, confronted Shuiqing, “Is this jade pendant Heizi’s? You should give it back to him. How can an adult take something from a child! Besides, Heizi eats and drinks at my house; we are the ones raising him, so everything he has should be under my care!”

Shuiqing had no affection for this sister-in-law. She was still surprised by the boy’s help and the information revealed in his words. Hearing Sun Jinhua’s statement, she smiled and retorted, “Oh? Did your family sign a contract of sale with Heizi? How much silver did you pay for his sale?”

Sun Jinhua was taken aback. A contract of sale? Pay for the sale? She frowned deeply, almost able to squash a fly, and awkwardly replied, “These days, providing food and drink is hard enough. Who still needs to pay for a contract of sale? That’s just a rich family’s trick to exploit people!”

Shuiqing laughed. Selling someone isn’t exploitation, but paying for them is? This sister-in-law of hers would say anything for her own benefit, regardless of how shameless it sounded.

“Jinhua, when you tried to sell your two nieces before, you didn’t mention it was a rich family’s trick to exploit people.”

“No contract of sale, just giving food—doesn’t that make him a hired hand? Beating him? Beating him to death? What arrogance.”

“In our village, even the old village chief can’t afford servants. Her family has servants? They should feed themselves first!”

“Servants or not, it’s already good enough that we don’t become servants ourselves.”

As soon as she said this, everyone present, except for Sun Jinhua’s family, laughed.

Indeed, Shanshui Village was remote with few fertile fields, mostly barren land. There weren’t many opportunities for odd jobs, and in the past, many people had sold their children to rich families as servants when times were tough.

Fan Mother had sold her fields and land, and her family had fallen to the point of eating black bread like everyone else. They couldn’t even afford cornmeal, and it had only been a few years since they had enough to eat. And now they were claiming to have servants?

“Jinhua, although the recent years have been good with good harvests, you should save more grain. How can you rely on good weather every year? Saving more grain is always wise. If there is a disaster year, you won’t have to sell your children to avoid starvation.

Your four boys, with your ten-plus acres of land, can handle all the farming with the three of you adults. Stop talking about having servants,” Granny Xu advised earnestly.

Sun Jinhua’s face turned red from being laughed at, and she snapped back at Granny Xu, “Oh, don’t think you can give advice just because you’re old. We have eighteen acres of good land and plenty of wasteland. Disaster year? Even if there’s a disaster year and you all starve, my family will be fine!”

With his mother backing him up, Fan Dazhu came alive, “Why do you care if we have servants or not?”

“So what if there’s a disaster year? Even if there is, the heavens will give us some harvest. We’ll just live a bit harder. And there’s always the government. The officials rely on us people for their achievements. How can they let us starve?” Fan Erzhu retorted.

The older folks who had lived through famine fell silent.

Young Erzhu hadn’t experienced it, but their lack of reverence for the heavens was troubling. In famine years, even a harvest wasn’t enough. With so many mouths to feed, watching the grain diminish daily was heartbreaking. Relying on officials? Natural disasters were scary, but the subsequent human-induced disasters were even more disheartening. Relief grain never reached the common people…

Fan Mother, having experienced famine, knew its horrors. She shouted at her grandsons, “Alright, alright, stop talking nonsense! Spit it out, say bad luck words won’t come true, good ones will!”

Dazhu and Erzhu didn’t take their grandmother’s words seriously and didn’t comply, but Fan Mother didn’t really blame her precious grandsons. After several years of favorable weather, even if not a bumper harvest, there hadn’t been any reductions. It was unlikely that the next year would suddenly turn bad.

Fan Mother turned to Shuiqing and said, “Second son’s wife, give the jade pendant to Heizi so we can take him home.”

Originally hoping to expose the second family and let the eldest take over the business, she would also benefit. Now, with the business ruined and having an extra mouth to feed in Heizi, she was displeased, but she was willing to take Heizi back for the jade pendant.

Bai Ziqian tugged on Shuiqing’s sleeve and softly asked, “Aunt Shuiqing, I want to stay with your family. Would you still be willing to take me in?”

He knew that in Uncle Fan’s family, Aunt Shuiqing was the one who made the decisions. Uncle Fan’s agreement meant nothing without Aunt Shuiqing’s approval.

Shuiqing smiled and said, “Sure, there are plenty of pits that need digging in the back hill. If you’re willing to dig, you can stay.”

Bai Ziqian’s eyes immediately sparkled with joy. “Great! I’m willing to dig!”

Digging pits was good, he thought. It would build his strength, and there was a sense of accomplishment in digging big, round pits to plant fruit trees.

Seeing that the matter was settled, Shuiqing turned to Fan’s mother and said, “Heizi says he wants to stay with us. You can go back now.”

Sun Jinhua was displeased and was about to start cursing, but Shuiqing spoke first, “There’s no contract of sale or money exchanged. It’s just food. Whoever provides food gets the labor.”

Sun Jinhua, unable to argue, muttered something about “ungrateful wretches” and left.

Fan Damu’s family had quietly slipped away when Zhao Fugui left. Now that Heizi’s matter was settled, Fan Qian and his group also left dejectedly.

Seeing the situation resolved, the people who had come to help Shuiqing quickly bid their farewells and left—they still had mushrooms to gather!

Although Bai Ziqian had only been away for a few days, it felt like a lifetime to him.

“Aunt Shuiqing, Uncle Fan, thank you for still being willing to take me in,” he said gratefully.

Shuiqing’s thoughts were simple. Heizi’s actions weren’t a betrayal. They had saved him, and he had given a jade pendant in gratitude. While he ate and drank at their home, he also worked. If he thought the outside world was better and wanted to explore, then he should go. If he found it wasn’t as good and wanted to return, they didn’t forcefully take him back; instead, he helped them.

Oh, it seemed Heizi wasn’t really Heizi but Bai Ziqian. But that didn’t matter. The most important thing was, “It’s good that you’re back. Now, go to the back hill and start digging!”

Digging was hard work, especially after it rained. The yellow clay would stick to your legs, and it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that even your hair would end up with bits of mud.

Fan Jin, with a warm smile, made no mention of the past events and simply said, “It’s good that you’re back.”

Bai Ziqian’s eyes filled with tears. Returning to the straw hut was more thrilling than returning to the high walls of the Bai family estate.