Li Zhengguo was very fast and finished planting the rice seedlings in the afternoon.
Bored, Tian Jing "chopped" a few piles of stones and waited until Li Rongguo separated his household before transporting them down.
The couple went up the mountain and returned with a puppy. The villagers all understood. They went to the team leader to report.
Team Leader Ou also hurried over to inquire about the situation. Wolves were vengeful animals.
When he heard that it was a gift from the wolf king, Team Leader Ou's mouth couldn't close, "A wolf, a gift from the wolf king?"
"Mm," Li Zhengguo picked up the wolf cub and showed its hind leg to the team leader.
"But, but the wolf king would rather the cub die than give it to humans as a guard dog, right?"
"The wolf king was afraid my wife would skin it, so it offered this cub as a substitute."
The wolf king was afraid of Tian Jing? Team Leader Ou cupped his ear. Did he mishear?
"Team leader, don't worry. The wolf king really can't beat my wife, and even a pack of them couldn't win."
Facing Li Zhengguo, who looked proud of his wife's fighting prowess, the team leader didn't know whether to offer sympathy or congratulations.
After the team leader left the Li family, many villagers gathered around to inquire.
The team leader waved his hand, "It's nothing, it's just a lame wolf cub, an abandoned wolf cub."
Lame?
The villagers' expressions changed.
"Everyone go home, go home. Taking care of your land is the priority."
The team leader sent the villagers away and left with his hands behind his back.
Li Min, who was bold, heard that the new family member was a wolf cub and happily reached out to pet it.
Whimper.
The wolf cub protested. Although it was a lame wolf cub, it was the son of the wolf king and had dignity.
"Minmin."
Mother Li was startled. "Don't touch it carelessly. Wolves, like dogs, recognize people. Wait until it's been here for a while and familiarized, then you can try."
With Minmin's aunt setting the example, Damai and Xiaomai dared not touch it.
Tian Jing rummaged in the storage room and found a broken basket, which she lined with branches and leaves, and placed the wolf cub inside. "This will be your nest."
"Isn't it too simple?"
Mother Li also liked fluffy cubs. She didn't approach, but the wolf cub looked only about a month old. Shouldn't its nest be warmer?
"It's a wolf, it can't be pampered too much." Tian Jing moved the basket into the main hall. "It'll stay in the hall for now. When it grows up, it'll be moved to the yard."
Since her daughter-in-law disagreed, Mother Li didn't say anything more.
However, at dinner, when her daughter-in-law gave the wolf cub a bowl of sweet rice porridge, Mother Li couldn't help but ask, "Doesn't it eat meat and drink soup?"
"No meat. We don't give it meat even when we eat it ourselves. Let it eat vegetarian to avoid the village chickens and ducks going missing and coming to our door."
Vegetarian wolves?
No one at the table believed it, except for Li Zhengguo, not even Xiaomai and Xiaomai.
The wolf cub, which had been hungry all day, licked clean a bowl of sweet rice porridge.
Truly vegetarian? The people at the table were skeptical.
...
The next day, when they went to Uncle Li's house again, Tian Jing and Aunt Li argued for a while, and the two women confronted each other in a corner for a while longer. Li Rongguo finally obtained the household registration book.
He felt as if he were dreaming, unreal.
After getting a certificate from the team office, they also left the village together, three people.
After passing the five-mile bent slope, at the intersection of Lishi Shengzhang team, Tian Jing turned in.
Li Zhengguo continued with Li Rongguo towards the commune.
...
Lishi Production Team was the largest in population, area, and soil quality among the four production teams of Zhonghe Brigade.
The villagers' annual income was naturally the highest. The people of Lishi Production Team were proud, just like Chen Yun, the second daughter-in-law of the Tian family.
The houses in the village were all made of adobe bricks, looking no better than those in Kushan, but the courtyards were large, likely on a five-fen land plot.
Large courtyards, many rooms, and rooms prepared early for the children to marry. Then, four or five generations would not separate, like the Tian family. The three outer production teams were basically like this.
Only in Kushan was there an effort to separate families and households to make the village appear less sparse.
It was now working time. Except for the elderly who could not do farm work and the young who could not do farm work, everyone else had gone to the fields to earn work points.
According to Aunt Li, Tian Jing found the Wu family. Fortunately, the Wu family was at the very back, allowing her to completely avoid people.
Countless seeds were planted, their roots entering the ground behind the house and into the Wu family's courtyard. Soon, a large jar was dug up.
Destroying the underground roots, Tian Jing grabbed the jar and left the Lishi Production Team from the back of the village.
At the highest point of the five-mile bent slope, she finally opened the jar to inspect it.
The contents of the jar shocked Tian Jing. The Wu family was indeed capable.
Not only were there gold bars and silver dollars, but also various gold and silver jewelry, filling a jar that could hold over ten catties.
However, the scale was limited. There were only gold, silver, and silver dollars, not a single piece of jade.
Tian Jing had originally only intended to retrieve Aunt Li's silver dollars from the Wu family.
She didn't expect...
Judging by the conduct of Grandma and Aunt Li Er, she knew how many people these gold and silver had harmed. Even if no lives were lost, who knew if those who lost money had not lost their lives because of it?
And the real Li Rongguo, was his accident or intentional?
After a sermon of compassion for all living beings, Tian Jing decided that she would act on behalf of heaven to take away this gold and silver.
After digging for a while, she brought up the silver dollars from the bottom of the jar, deliberately selecting thirty that were unlikely to increase in value much later.
What if Aunt Li spent them? Wouldn't that be a loss? It was better to keep them for her.
The silver dollars were divided into two pockets. Tian Jing picked up the neatly arranged jar and left swiftly.
...
Li Zhengguo and Li Rongguo returned to the village after five o'clock.
At the gate of Uncle Li's courtyard, Li Rongguo returned the household registration book to Uncle Li. He glanced into the courtyard before turning and leaving, leaving the home that had confined him for thirty years.
Watching his eldest son walk away with his back straight and strides long, Uncle Li's eyes welled up with tears.
Entering the Li family, Li Rongguo showed Mother Li a relaxed smile. "Third Aunt, I am free."
Mother Li's eyes immediately turned red. Her eldest son called her Third Aunt. "Yes, good days are ahead."
A few months ago, Tiantian had comforted her in the same way. Good days had indeed come.
"Yes, as long as I work hard, I will be able to live a good life."
...
Moving out at night, Li Zhengguo insisted on accompanying her. Tian Jing had no choice but to bring her tail to Uncle Li's house.
She gently knocked on the door, and it opened.
Aunt Li had been waiting behind the door with a kerosene lamp.
Tian Jing handed her a cloth bag. "There are only thirty left. You must keep them safe. If the Wu family discovers them, hehe."
Hehe, a ready-made scapegoat.
"Thank you," Aunt Li said sincerely.
Tian Jing gave her one last piece of advice.
"Be more sensible. Your youngest son and daughter-in-law are not good people. You've disheartened such a good eldest son. Think about your mother-in-law's temperament..."
"Hatred has blinded your eyes. Even if it's true, you vent your anger on an honest and diligent junior. What's the difference between you and your mother-in-law?"
"This is the last reminder. In the future, don't bother us, including your eldest cousin's family." Sudan Novel Network
In the night, two shadows walking further and further away, drawing closer and closer.
Watching them, Aunt Li unconsciously shed tears. She felt heartache for the first half of her life and uncertainty for the second half.
Even her youngest son was unreliable. Who could she rely on for the rest of her life?