This time, no one interrupted Li Ping'an. He successfully explained the general meaning of the conversation with Caoya, and finally said: "It's up to you to decide how to deal with this matter. Caoya's refusal is very firm. She It’s impossible to abandon those six children, and they probably don’t want to drag us down.”
"Dad!" Zhang Xiaoshan looked at Zhang Yu with pleading eyes. In fact, he didn't have to come to discuss it, but when he thought about meeting Caoya but not being able to bring her back, he didn't dare to face Taohua, and naturally he stayed around Taohua. He couldn't help it, so he came together.
Zhang Yu shook his head gently towards Zhang Xiaoshan. He had no say in this matter. Although Caoya was the biological sister of his unmarried daughter-in-law, Caoya's surname was Chen after all. How could she be the same as the Chen clan members in Xiaochen Village? It's not like we are related to each other. If he can make the decision, those named Chen can also make the decision, just like Chen Song, the current head of Xiaochen Village, which exists in name only.
"Er Lin, Brother Song, what do you think?"
Li Erlin muttered: "Forget it if we haven't met her. Now that we have met her, there is no reason to ignore her. We won't be short of a few more free mouths. If we go forward a few days, there should be a county town that will open the city gate. I am here I still have some money, so as long as I can go into the city, I can buy some rice."
"Since Erlin said so, then take them with you, and I will persuade the others. You don't have to worry." Chen Song then expressed his position.
The next thing to consider is how to find Cao Ya and persuade her. It is not difficult for Zhang Yu to find people in the mountains as long as there are traces, so he leaves it to Zhang Yu. Of course, Zhang Yu will not refuse. , after all, Caoya is also related to his family.
As for how to persuade...it's better to wait until Cao Ya is found and adapt to circumstances. There is no reason why they, so many adults, can't handle a little girl.
Then they dispersed, and Chen Song talked to other people who could make the decision about the matter, and specifically pointed out Li Erlin's attitude.
Li Erlin was basically the one who came up with ideas and made decisions along the way. Everyone was convinced and gradually relied on Li Erlin. Especially Li Erlin's last-ditch attack on the injured mob that night made them fear Li Erlin.
Since it was Li Erlin who agreed first, and having more mouths had nothing to do with them, everyone thought about it and said they had no objection.
So Chen Song went to Li Erlin and explained everyone's attitude. When he was about to walk away, he was stopped by Li Pingan.
"Uncle Asong, I have a question."
"What's up?"
"It's about Cao Ya. I remember that the fire in her house last year had just burned out. Everyone privately said that it was Cao Ya who set the fire. Then suddenly the noise disappeared. When the officials came to ask, everyone said it was Cao Ya. There was an accidental fire, do you know why?”
"This is what happened," Chen Song sat down and sighed, "there was indeed such a sound at that time. After all, people were killed in the fire and the house was burned down. However, Taohua and Zhaodi's things were taken out, and Cao Ya was born again. There were no dead people, no corpses, and before the fire, that bastard Chen Jin said he wanted to buy Cao Ya to a brothel to exchange for money to pay off gambling debts. The timing was so coincidental, it was impossible not to suspect Cao Ya.
The fire was indeed started by Cao Ya. The night after the fire, Tao Hua and Zhao Di went to my house and told the truth. They cried and begged my father to help and not let the government arrest Cao Ya..."
Cao Ya didn't want to be sold to a brothel at first. If she had to be sold, she would rather be sold to a wealthy family as a rough servant, or sold to other families as a daughter-in-law like Tao Hua, but her father Chen Jin wanted to sell her for more money. , insisting on selling Cao Ya to a kiln.
For this reason, Cao Ya was imprisoned in the firewood shed without food or drink, hoping to force Cao Ya to agree.
On the first day she was locked up in the woodshed, Caoya heard Zhaodi's cry and saw her five-year-old brother, who was cared for by his parents, holding a small burning log through the crack in the door. The stick was burning Zhaodi's hair. Zhaodi was seven years old at the time. Of course, she couldn't let her brother burn her hair like this. She was crying and hiding.
The younger brother chased her and insisted on burning her, and then accidentally fell down and cried. Her parents came over after hearing the sound and scolded Zhao Di indiscriminately. Zhao Di tried to explain, but it was okay if she didn't explain. When my mother heard this, she immediately grabbed Zhaodi and asked her younger brother to burn Zhaodi...
Seeing Zhao Di being burned to the point of crying loudly, Cao Ya's eyes were about to burst. She banged the door like crazy and begged her parents to stop. In order to protect Zhao Di, she agreed to be bought into a brothel.
She successfully rescued Zhaodi, and talked to Taohua and Caoya for a long time that night, and told Taohua to take Zhaodi with her when she went out to work tomorrow.
Some things, in retrospect, were already obvious.
Taohua thought Caoya asked her to take Zhaodi out of the house because she was worried that Zhaodi would be bullied at home. Caoya talked to them so much that night because she was about to leave home and couldn't bear to leave them.
It wasn't until the fire started that she understood Cao Ya's true intention.
So when she heard what the villagers were talking about, she hurriedly took Zhaodi to the village chief's house, told them the inside story, and showed them the burn marks on Zhaodi's body, just to prove that Caoya had no choice but to suffer. I begged the village chief and the clan elders not to let the government arrest Cao Ya.
It is not uncommon for people in the village to favor boys over girls, but there is no case like this in Taohua's family for several generations. The village chief, clan chief and fellow villagers have said it countless times, but Taohua and their father Chen Jin do not know how many times they have said this. He didn't take it seriously, and Chen Jin was a bad gambler and always attracted some second-rate people. Not only did his own reputation become extremely bad, but the reputation of Xiao Chen Village was also affected.
Remembering that Chen Jin's father died while protecting the village clan, everyone endured it again and again. However, when they saw the scars on Zhao Di's body, Chen An, who was still the village chief at the time, was so angry that he died when he thought of Chen Jin. He pulled the eldest mother, who almost fainted out of breath, and immediately agreed to Taohua's request. He and the clan leaders suppressed the matter and classified it as an accidental fire.
Of course, the officials were not so easily fooled, but after all, Chen An's youngest son Chen Bai was working in the county government, and Xiao Chen Village was a branch of the Chen County Wei family. Moreover, it was classified as an accidental fire, so they lost a lot of work. You can feel relaxed and sell yourself favors at the same time, so why not do it.
"You don't know, when my mother and Haita's mother saw Zhao Di's injuries, my mother's eyes were red when she came out, and Haita's mother was holding Zhao Di in the room and crying. My mother also said, Cao Ya did a great job. If Chen Jin and the others were not burned to death, Zhao Di might have to suffer a lot more torture at home without her two older sisters to protect her. That kid Dayong was so bad when he was young. Hand, he will be a bad guy when he grows up, it would not be a pity to burn him to death."
Dayong is the little brother of Taohuacaoya and the others, the son that their parents have been waiting for for a long time. After the fire last year, Li Ping'an felt sorry for this child. He had to endure the pain of being burned alive at a young age. But now after hearing what Chen Song said, just like what Chen Song said just now, I don’t know whether it was the old lady’s original words or his words. Anyway, even if Dayong’s crime did not lead to death, it would not be a pity to die.
As for Chen and Jin, Li Ping'an couldn't help but feel that they should go to hell even if he had no memory of his previous life.
He witnessed with his own eyes that without their scumbag father and eccentric mother, Taohua and Zhaodi's life had really improved over the past year or so.
