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Chapter 4
Li Fu was hurt by the beating and quickly retracted his hand. At the same time, he glared at her and shouted loudly, "Why did you hit me?"
"Did I ask you to sit down?" Li Yao asked coldly. "Did I ask you to eat?"
Li Fu could hardly believe these words came from his big sister. His big sister had always indulged him and endured him, hadn't she?
"What do you mean, big sister?" Li Fu said. "It was just some chicken meat. Are you reluctant to share it? If you have difficulties in the future, do you still want us to back you up?"
Li Yao was impatient and said directly, "I don't care. Get out."
The single word "get out" completely angered Li Fu. He had never been so aggrieved and insulted by his big sister before.
He immediately stood up, pointed at Li Yao, and started cursing, "You think you're so great just because you have two chickens to eat. You don't even recognize your own family! If your family has any difficulties in the future, I won't say another word to help even if I have to stop using my surname Li!"
Li Yao turned her face to Da Zhuang and said, "Beat him out with a stick."
When Da Zhuang heard this, he immediately took out a long wooden stick from behind the door.
He had been enduring this uncle for a long time. If it came to blows, he would definitely not show any mercy!
"You guys are rebelling against heaven!" Seeing this, Li Fu was so angry that smoke came out of his seven orifices. "Fine, fine. Since you are so ungrateful, don't blame me. From now on, your Wang Er can forget about studying with my brother Li Xian!"
"Beat him!"
With an order from Li Yao, Da Zhuang swung the stick at Li Fu, scaring him into running away cursing.
"From now on, beat anyone who dares to casually break in, especially your grandmother's family. As long as you don't kill anyone, Mother will protect you if anything happens," said Li Yao.
"Ok," they answered.
The children were secretly excited.
Mother finally realized that Grandmother's family only wanted to take their things. Not one of them was a good person!
"Hurry up and eat."
Wild chicken was indeed tastier than farmed chicken.
Because they were small wild chickens, the meat was tender and not gamey. The chicken flavor was very rich, the juices thick. The children ate with continuous lip smacking and finger licking.
The family had eaten chicken before, but it was chicken raised for many years, so the stewed meat was extremely tough. It was not as tender and delicious as this grilled chicken.
Seeing the children fully satisfied, licking their skewers clean, Li Yao suddenly felt a strange sense of accomplishment.
"Mother, I'll go wash the dishes."
"Mother, I'll pour water for you to wash your face."
"Mother, I'll wash your feet."
"Mother, change your clothes. I'll wash them for you..."
...
After dinner, the children took initiative to do their own chores and waited on her like an empress without her direction.
Li Yao happily accepted it all.
Being a mother didn't seem so bad after all.
However, she keenly noticed that something seemed off with Wang Er as he was alone looking at the stars in the yard.
"Da Zhuang, what's wrong with Wang Er?"
Da Zhuang looked at the yard, hemmed and hawed before saying, "Uncle said he won't let him study with young uncle anymore."
Li Yao remembered that Li Fu did say something like that.
But in her opinion, it was not a big deal at all.
There was a saying: the eldest works hard, the second is smart, the third and fourth jump around.
Wang Er had been smart since he was little and liked to study.
Coincidentally, her original body's youngest brother Li Xian could also study. At twelve years old he had become a child student at the county school and was valued by the old teacher, who guaranteed that he would pass the imperial exam in the future.
Two years ago, the original body had Wang Er accompany Li Xian in studying, hoping he could learn something and give the family someone who could read and write. Her shameless fawning on her maternal family also had this reason.
Although it sounded good to say it was accompanying study, to put it bluntly, it meant that Wang Er had to be ordered around, used as a punching bag.
Not only did Wang Er have to endure mistreatment from young uncle, grandmother's family, and young uncle's classmates, but also from the old teacher... It was quite pitiful for the child.
Moreover, he had just been rejected for marriage today, a double blow.
She went to the yard and looked at the starry sky, sitting down next to Wang Er.
"Mother, I'm fine," said Wang Er. "I won't study anymore in the future. I'll just learn farming from big brother."
Wang Er was only 13 this year.
In Li Yao's understanding, children this age should be studying.
But in this world, it was very difficult for children from poor families to study. Being able to study required the utmost effort from the whole family, and even then it might not be affordable.
It was understandable that Wang Er wanted to give up on the path of studying.
"Don't you want to study?" Li Yao asked.
"Now that we've offended Grandmother's family, and young uncle's side..." Wang Er lowered his head and said softly, "They definitely won't let me accompany studying anymore."
"Who said you can't study if you don't accompany studying?" Li Yao said. "Don't overthink. As long as you want to study, I'll make sure you can. You can go to the county school, or I can hire a teacher to teach you at home."
Wang Er was dumbfounded.
Hiring a teacher to come home, wasn't that a bit too outrageous?
Even the rich merchants, low ranked officials, and county magistrates in town didn't hire teachers to come teach at home!
But Mother's words made him feel so reassured.
"Thank you, Mother. I will study hard and repay your kindness in the future."
"Go to bed early. We're going to the market tomorrow."
...
The house had four rooms, a main hall, one room for Da Zhuang and the maid.
Wang Er and Wang San'er shared a room, and Li Yao stayed with Wang Xiao Si in one room.
Although he was the original body's biological child, and Wang Xiao Si was only 7 years old, Li Yao still felt a little uncomfortable.
Plus being in a new environment, she didn't sleep very soundly all night. She got up at the first light of dawn and went to the market with Da Zhuang and Wang Er.
Hewan Village was 20 li from the market town.
The narrow muddy road twisted and turned, barely wide enough for an ox cart. Horse carriages couldn't even get into the village at all.
Of course, no one in Hewan Village could afford a horse carriage anyway.
It took them a full hour to reach the market town.
Li Yao found an herbal medicine shop. Seeing the herbs were all high quality and aged, the owner gave 800 wen.
"Come back with more medicine in the future. I'll give you the fairest price," he promised.
Carrying the heavy copper coins, she went to a noodle shop with Da Zhuang and ordered three bowls of wonton and five steamed buns. On the way out she also bought twenty steamed buns to take home.
Because it was a famine year, grain prices had risen quite a bit. This meal cost 105 wen.
Li Yao didn't mind the money and gave Da Zhuang 500 wen to buy rice, flour, meat, oil, salt, brown sugar, vegetables, and some soy sauce and rice vinegar.
She wandered around the streets, going through every shop in town.
Baichuan County was close to the mountains. Although its location was remote and destitute, its jurisdiction was extremely large. There were a total of 33 villages below it, with a population of over 40,000, the largest among the surrounding counties.
Therefore, Baichuan Town, the county magistrate's seat, was actually quite big with five wide streets running vertically and horizontally. There was no lack of wealthy people in town either.
There were several restaurants and taverns, inns, teahouses, pawn shops, fabric shops, oil mills, wine shops, cosmetic shops, bookstores, pawn shops, blacksmiths, coffin shops...everything imaginable.
Business looked pretty good.
If it wasn't a famine year, it would be even more bustling and prosperous.
Hunting and gathering medicine could only solve the most urgent needs. Li Yao couldn't go into the mountains to dig herbs and hunt every day.
The fastest and most effortless way to make money was still doing business.
She took special note of the food industry.
The food of this era really wasn't very tasty. The cooking methods were simple, the ingredients casual, and very little use of sauces and spices, just the same few cooking techniques over and over.
Even the best He Ji Restaurant in town only had seven or eight signature dishes, completely devoid of innovation.
Therefore, Li Yao decided that her first business would be selling food.