Rebirth in Famine: She Thrives by Lucky Space

Chapter 1200: Up the Mountain

Jiang Xinyu directly washed two sections of big yam, peeled them, sliced them, and put them in the steamer.Tonight she was going to make yam cakes for the kids, it was just a pity there wasn’t any glutinous rice flour, otherwise they’d be even stickier and tastier.

The filling would be brown sugar and peanut, that way it’d be fragrant and sweet. Really satisfying to eat.

"What do you two think about opening up a plot by the river to plant rice?"

The two of them had no idea; they’d only ever seen rice paddies. Beyond that they knew nothing at all.

"Call Old Han and tell him to find glutinous rice seed and rice seed. When spring comes we’ll give it a try. It’s close to the river, when the time comes we’ll just dig irrigation channels to water it."

The two of them didn’t care either way, they just did whatever work they were told to do.

"Xiao Jiang, you’re not going back?"

Jiang Xinyu let out a sigh. "Shi Xian and Tingting are still too little, so I won’t go back."

It really wasn’t very realistic to have two kids that small ride the train.

Feifei came back carrying five little knives. She tried them at home and felt they made it too easy to cut your hand, so she could only go slowly.

Whenever they had the chance, the whole family would sit down to shell chestnuts. After being wind-blown and sun-dried, they were much easier to peel than when they’d just brought them back.

That night the whole family couldn’t stop praising the yam cakes.

"Xiao Jiang, tomorrow we’ll keep going to dig yams."

Jiang Xinyu had no objections; this time she just wouldn’t go up the mountain herself. If they were willing to go dig, so much the better. Who would ever be afraid of having too much food? Even though they knew they wouldn’t go hungry anymore, they still instinctively stored up food. They’d all been scared by hunger.

Over at Li Yunqiang’s house, though, a war had broken out.

The trigger was dinner. Today Liu Cuilan didn’t feel like moving, so all they had at home was cornmeal porridge.

She hadn’t gone to work today, so she could get by on this, but the second son had gone to the warehouse to work. Even if he had slacked off, it was still physical labor. When he saw this kind of dinner, all his pent-up dissatisfaction exploded.

"I work hard all day and this is what I get to eat at night?" He was extremely unhappy now. He felt Dad was an accountant so his job was easy, Mom was always "three days fishing, two days drying the net," all light work too. His eldest brother went without saying—he’d heard there was almost no work at the pesticide factory these days; he just sat around all day. The two younger brothers had the easiest jobs of all, just going to collect corn cobs.

Only he was hauling sacks in the warehouse. Only his work was the hardest.

Because of Xiang Dong’s lack of cooperation these past two days, Liu Cuilan had been angry the whole time. Hearing the second son’s words, her temper shot straight up.

"Eat if you want, if you don’t then leave it. I slave over you lot every day with food and drink and you still pick and choose."

"And what house isn’t like this? You’re the one idling around all day. You’re always saying I don’t make progress—well if you’re like this, aren’t I just taking after you?

Starting tomorrow I don’t feel well either, I’m not going to work either."

Li Yunqiang just sat there drinking his porridge, and his earlier impulse to beat the second son up vanished when he heard what the boy said.

Yes, taking after what he sees. But when you traced it back, it was still his own problem. He was the one who had let this mother and son develop such habits.

"You little bastard. I gave birth to you, raised you, and now you’re dragging me into this?"

"Gave birth and raised me? Did you raise me? From when I was five years old, what work in this house haven’t I done? You strut around like some big miss, waiting for the five of us men to serve you. You say something like that and don’t feel the least bit ashamed?"

Li Shuzhi was completely beside himself with anger. Now he didn’t care anymore.

The two youngest were so scared they didn’t even dare eat. Xiang Dong set down his bowl and chopsticks. "Second, how can you talk to Mom like that?"

"Hmph. You can stop acting like the good guy too. Sure, I’m not as filial as you, not as capable as you. Isn’t that just to set you off by comparison?

Just because you’re so good, all the good things in this family are yours. That formal job was clearly something assigned to our family. Why should it be yours?"

Xiang Dong now understood what his second brother meant.

"It’s because I was old enough and you weren’t. They didn’t want you."

"Hmph, that was just to fool me, the idiot. Isn’t Qiangzi the same age as me? Didn’t he also go to work?"

Listening to the second one’s words, Li Yunqiang could hardly fail to understand now.

"Get out. From now on you can live or die on your own."

"Why should I? This is my home too." Li Shuzhi’s eyes were bloodshot. At this point he didn’t care about anything anymore. He knew he’d get beaten anyway, so since that was the case, he’d vent all the resentment in his heart.

"Your home?"

"Yeah. You gave birth to me and raised me. That makes this my home."

Li Yunqiang fell silent. Liu Cuilan had thought her man would stand up for her, but she hadn’t expected this.

Seeing that Li Yunqiang wasn’t saying anything, she instantly burst into loud sobs. "All these years, I won’t say I’ve been a beast of burden for this family, but I did give birth to you and raise you. You’re not afraid of getting struck by lightning for this? You unfilial brute."

Li Yunqiang still said nothing. He just finished his dinner, same amount as usual, not a bite less.

He had already figured it out and made up his mind.

He saw the two youngest just sitting off to the side, not moving, not daring to eat.

"Since that’s how it is, we’ll split the household today. I’ll take the east room, your mom takes the west room, Xiang Dong will stay with me. There are three wing rooms, you brothers each get one."

The whole family was dumbfounded, especially the two youngest—this meant they were being split off too? But how would they eat in the future? They were terrified. With red eyes they looked at Li Yunqiang. "Dad."

Now Liu Cuilan was scared stiff too. If they split and she ended up separate?

Xiang Dong let out a helpless sigh. "Dad, we can’t do that. Third and Fourth are still too young."

"I know, so I’ll support them until they’re fifteen, but for now they’ll be split off.

As for the second, he’s already grown. He can arrange his own life. Consider all this my raising you.

There’s a thousand yuan in the house. We’ll split it by headcount: each of you gets a hundred and sixty-six.

The grain will also be divided into six portions. When we get the cash bonus this time, the eldest and second can each take their own share."

"Why? The eldest gets the same share as me, so why don’t I have a job?" Li Shuzhi loudly demanded of Li Yunqiang.

"You want a job?"

"Why wouldn’t I?"

"Fine, then you don’t get your share of the money. I’ll use it to buy you a job.

But from the house you’ll only get grain and a room. As for money and everything else, none of it will be yours.

Think it over yourself. If you agree, we’ll call your second uncle over and write it up today.

From now on, you don’t have to support me in my old age. As for your mom, that’s your duty as sons. You all still have to support her."

Li Shuzhi’s brain was spinning fast. He figured that once he had a job he wouldn’t be living in the village anyway, so what did it matter if he had a house here or not?

As for the matter of elder care, since Dad was saying he didn’t need him, he’d only have to support Mom, and the four brothers would be doing it together. That wasn’t a big deal.

"Fine, I agree."