Old Mrs. Bai didn't come out from Aunt Hu's house until noon.
In his early years, when Bai Erzhuang was studying, the old man of the Hu family gave Bai Erzhuang a few coins and encouraged him to study hard. In the year when Bai Erzhuang was admitted as a scholar, the old man of the Hu family passed away. Now the Hu family's son is sick and life is quite difficult.
Mrs. Bai thought of the Hu family's kindness and gave the Hu family two taels of silver to give her son medicine.
"Mom, you're back. I want to discuss something with you." Zhen stopped Old Mrs. Bai at the door of the yard.
"What are you in such a hurry for?" Old Mrs. Bai asked.
"I want to tell my family about my past." Zhen said bluntly.
Old Mrs. Bai sighed and said, "It's okay, it's time to let Da Zhuang and the others know about it, sooner or later."
…
Mining in the mountains earns 20 taels of silver a month, 20 jins of rice and noodles, and provides two meals a day.
As soon as Village Chief Zhao announced the treatment of imperial mining, the villagers of Shenshu Village were excited.
You know, it only costs a few hundred bucks to go out and work for a month.
Now I have money, rice and noodles, and I can still take care of the food without delaying the farm work during the busy season.
Young and middle-aged men rushed to climb up the mountain, more actively than when they were hunting tigers.
People on the mountain went one after another and didn't come back until evening.
"Dad, you're back." Xiao Fuyuan saw the white wooden board from a distance, holding a hammer in one hand and a straw hat in the other, and happily greeted him.
"Daughter, look what good things I have brought you." Bai Banbo handed the straw hat to Xiao Fuyuan.
A full straw hat of red cherries.
"I found a cherry tree in the col next to the mine. It's amazing. The drought on the mountain didn't affect the cherry tree at all. It bears a lot of fruits. I picked all the ripe ones for you. I'll pick it for you tomorrow." Bai Banban looked at his daughter's smiling face happily.
"Thank you, Dad." Xiao Fuyuan hugged the straw hat, "Go home and wash it and eat it together."
"What's that, girl?" The white wooden board called out to her from behind.
"Dad picked this for you, you can eat it yourself. Your nephews and the boys are like wolves and they can't get enough to eat, and the Feng family girl has no shortage of them at home." Bai Ban said while rubbing his hands, "You can eat it yourself. , eat by yourself."
Xiao Fuyuan smiled.
She knew her father's little thoughts. He was not encouraging her to eat alone, but purely wanting her to have it all to himself.
After arriving home, Xiao Fuyuan put the straw hat filled with cherries in the room, and then took the handkerchief to the well in the yard.
White wooden board washing face.
Xiao Fuyuan wetted the handkerchief with water, twisted it half-dry, and handed it to the white wooden board: "Dad, please wipe your face."
"Okay, okay, Dad, wipe your face. Girls are better than boys." Bai Banban said cheerfully. He caught a glimpse of Bai Erzhuang and Bai Panmei in the room. The brats didn't say anything when they saw Dad coming from the mountain. He fetched water to wash his face, but it was better for him to be a daughter.
Bai Erzhuang: "..."
Bai Panmei: "..."
"Dad, why didn't eldest brother and fifth brother come down the mountain?" Xiao Fuyuan asked.
"Hey, after all, it's my younger sister who is thinking about me and complains about me when I can't see my elder brother for a while."
Bai Dazhuang walked in from the outside with a dark and gray face, also holding a straw hat in his hand.
Bai Dazhuang was moved. We hadn't seen each other for a long time, but my sister actually missed him so much.
Unlike the two brats Dalang and Erlang.
"Brother." Xiao Fuyuan called sweetly, looking behind Bai Dazhuang, but the fifth brother was nowhere to be seen.
"Your fifth brother will come down later. He is with his master and General Meng."
Bai Dazhuang put the straw hat in front of Xiao Fuyuan's eyes.
Full of purple mulberries.
"Your brother Qingpi and I came down from the mountain and saw a mulberry tree in the col. He didn't notice it. I walked with him to the village before I turned back to pick it."
It turns out that this is the reason why the eldest brother came home late.
"Thank you, brother." Xiao Fuyuan said with a smile.
"Then you can wipe your elder brother's face too." As soon as Bai Dazhuang entered the door, he saw his sister wiping his father's face, and he felt envious in his heart.
Xiao Fuyuan washed the handkerchief and wrung it out. Before she could wipe it with her elder brother, her second brother Bai Erzhuang came out of the room and said, "Sister, you can wipe it with your second brother too."
Bai Dazhuang: "Second brother, you didn't go up the mountain. Your face is so clean, why should you wipe it?"
Bai Erzhuang: "I was sweating just now while reading in the room."
As soon as Bai Erzhuang finished speaking, the fourth child, Bai Panmei, came out of the room and said with a smile: "Sister, please wipe your fifth brother's face too."
Bai Erzhuang: "Fourth brother, why are you here to join in the fun? What should I do if my sister is tired?"
Bai Laosi: "As a young boy, I am thin-skinned and tender-faced, so I can't tire my sister out. I feel sleepy while studying. If my sister wipes my face, I promise I won't be sleepy immediately."
Xiao Fuyuan: "..."
I didn't expect the gentle and elegant fourth brother to be such a naughty fourth brother.
Xiao Fuyuan took the handkerchief and looked at his eldest brother, then his second brother, and then his fourth brother.
The three brothers looked at her with burning eyes.
The white wooden board shook the book in his hand and chased the three sons like sheep: "Go, go, if you have the ability to give birth to a daughter? Go find your wife, my daughter will not serve you..."
Bai Laosi: "Didn't the eldest and second brothers hear what dad said? Go find your wife. I don't have a wife, so I don't need to find one."
Bai Banban looked at the gloating Bai Laosi and said, "Even if you all find a wife, you probably won't be able to give birth to a daughter."
Bai Dazhuang: "..."
Bai Erzhuang: "..."
Bai Panmei: "..."
Whose words hurt the most among the family, and it was naturally their biological father.
Bai Banban was happy when he saw his sons deflated. His sons were not as good as him, and none of them had the fate of his father-in-law.
He seemed to have forgotten that his daughter was not born by himself, but was picked up by someone else.
But it doesn't matter, anyway, she calls him dad sweetly and is filial to him from the bottom of her heart.
The skit about the Bai family's daily struggle for favor has been staged.
After dinner, when the lights for the Zhou family to rest were turned off, the Bai family was summoned to the main room by Mrs. Bai, and even Qiuniang was called.
The atmosphere was quite tense.
Mrs. Zhen was sitting upright with a serious look on her face. Little Fuyuan was nestling next to her. It felt like Mrs. Zhen was about to announce important news.
"Your mother is from the capital. Your ancestors have made great contributions and were named the Duke of the Town..." Old Mrs. Bai spoke first.
Everyone looked at Zhen.
Xiao Fuyuan raised her head and looked at Mrs. Zhen, the mystery in her heart was solved.
But I was also confused as to how my mother, a daughter of a noble family, could marry my father.
There can only be one reason: the family is in decline.
As for dad, Xiao Fuyuan came up with a story about the son of a servant and the daughter of a marquis.
"No, mother, isn't my grandma's house in Lijiazhuang?" Bai Dazhuang asked with a shocked look on his face.
"Your grandma is my mother's eldest maid." Zhen said solemnly, "Your aunt is my concubine. She and I are the only ones in our branch who survived."
Everyone was shocked again!
"... Great achievements will shock the master, but the rabbit will die and the dog will be cooked, that's it." Zhen's expression could not be seen clearly in the light. She told the children exactly what happened in Zhen's house, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
It's pretty much what Xiao Fukuoka thought, the only difference is that Shiroten is not the son of a servant.
Xiao Fuyuan's heart ached when he thought of his mother being sold to a hookhouse by her cousin when she was a child.
She patted her mother's hand with her soft little hands to express comfort.
Xie Chuntao, who was sitting next to Xiao Fuyuan, couldn't help wiping her tears. No wonder her mother-in-law talked and acted differently from the people in the village. She turned out to be a wealthy lady.
It is said that a phoenix that fell into the water is not as good as a chicken. Although it is disrespectful to my mother-in-law to say so, Xie Chuntao can empathize with her mother-in-law's suffering.
"Both my mother and father died tragically in prison. If it weren't for the Bai family, I don't know where I would be living now." Madam Zhen continued, "It was your great-grandmother and your father who rescued me back then. The Bai family also had property and wealth. I sold all the land in order to redeem it, which is why you have lived so many years of hardship."
Bai Ban said from the side: "Why are you mentioning these? My family was even poorer before, and those houses and land were all provided by your mother who did not dislike our poor relatives and supported us."
(End of chapter)
