Jinghong Tower

Chapter 456: The Five Tyrants of the Capital (Part )

The family that took in He Xiaojiu was named Zhong. There were six people in the family, including a mother-in-law, two daughters-in-law and three granddaughters.

Yes, there are no male children in this family.

At first, He Xiaojiu thought that all the men in the family were dead. Later, he learned from his granddaughter Sanya that the men in the family were not dead, but had run away.

On the way to escape, Old Man Zhong took all the money and silver in the family, took his two sons, Zhong Da and Zhong Er, and ran away with his grandson, leaving behind all the women and children in the family.

He Xiaojiu soon discovered that Old Lady Zhong hated the youngest daughter, San Ya, and even San Ya's mother ignored her. Although everyone in the family, except Old Lady Zhong, had to work from dawn to dusk, San Ya was the one who worked the most and ate the least, and her clothes were the most tattered.

San Ya is twelve years old. Her two elder sisters, Daya, twenty, and Erya, eighteen, are all old enough to get married, especially Daya. Although there are many unmarried women in their twenties in the capital, in the countryside, girls usually get married at the age of sixteen or seventeen. If a girl is still unmarried at the age of twenty, it is either because there is no male in the family and the girl wants to stay at home to find a son-in-law, or because the family wants to keep her daughter at home for a few more years to let her earn money for the family and take care of the whole family.

Mrs. Zhong was not good-looking, and Daya was like her mother. She was not good-looking, but she was very capable and was as good as men at farming. Therefore, Mrs. Zhong wanted her to stay at home and find a son-in-law. However, although the people in Zhaocai Village were very poor, no one was willing to be a son-in-law, and the young men from other villages did not want to come to Zhaocai Village, so Daya's marriage was delayed again and again.

Although Mrs. Zhong looked pale and thin, her facial features were still pretty. Erya and Sanya all took after Mrs. Zhong, both being pretty and graceful girls.

Therefore, Old Lady Zhong spread the word that if one wanted to marry Erya, one would have to pay at least twenty taels of silver.

As I said before, there was no family in Zhaocai Village willing to spend twenty taels of silver to marry a daughter-in-law, and although people from other villages were rich, they did not want to marry into the Zhaocai Village. Therefore, although Erya was pretty, she was still unmarried until she was eighteen years old.

Because of the marriage of Daya and Erya, the villagers made a lot of sarcastic remarks. Some families who were attracted to Daya's ability gave up the idea when they heard that the Zhong family was looking for a son-in-law. However, the young men in the village who liked Erya could not come up with twenty taels of silver.

On the first day He Xiaojiu moved in, because she arrived at night, the Zhong family had already finished their meal. He Xiaojiu didn't care. She ate the last snack she brought with her and went to bed.

In fact, she wanted to bring more snacks when she left Beijing. She liked to eat red bean pastry, which had crispy crust on the outside and soft red bean filling on the inside. She had loved it since she was a child.

However, the government had clear regulations on what those serving hard labor could carry with them. As for food, it only had to be enough for the journey, no more.

He Xiaojiu only had a piece of red bean cake for dinner. Although he was not full, he could still bear it.

The six members of the Zhong family slept on a big kang. He Xiaojiu slept next to San Ya. Although she was the crown princess, she would go to live in the military camp with her father for a while every year. However, the big kang of the Zhong family was not more comfortable than the wooden beds in the military camp, and was even harder.

In consideration of He Xiaojiu's monthly food ration of 30 kilograms, Old Lady Zhong gave her a quilt.

Don’t underestimate this quilt. There are only two quilts for six people in the Zhong family, and San Ya often doesn’t have enough to cover herself with.

Now He Xiaojiu has her own quilt, and everyone in the family looks at her with envy, especially San Ya.

He Xiaojiu generously invited San Ya to sleep in the same bed with her.

The next morning, before dawn, the Zhong family got up one after another. San Ya got up the earliest. She carefully got out of the quilt for fear of waking up He Xiaojiu.

However, He Xiaojiu couldn't stay in bed either, as she was woken up by Old Mrs. Zhong.

She thought it was time to have breakfast, but she found that the eldest and second daughters had already followed their mothers to work in the fields, and the third daughter was coming back from outside with a bucket of water. The twelve-year-old third daughter was only a little taller than He Xiaojiu, and looked like a child, but she was able to come back with a large bucket of water. Even so, Mrs. Zhong did not look kind to her, and squinted at He Xiaojiu with the corner of her eye: "You are lazy and eat all day long, and you don't even get up when the sun is shining on your butt."

He Xiaojiu looked at the sky. The sun had just appeared and the light was not shining on his butt.

She asked Mrs. Zhong: "Do I have to work in the fields too?"

She actually wanted to go because there was a vegetable garden in the palace and she loved catching insects in the garden the most.

Mrs. Zhong said unhappily, “What do you think?”

San Ya stretched her sleeves and said, "You come with me."

He Xiaojiu wanted to ask, shouldn’t we eat breakfast before going to the fields?

But looking at the cold stove, it was obvious that the other people in the Zhong family had not eaten either. She was a prisoner, so there was no need to ask any more questions.

When they arrived at the field, He Xiaojiu realized that everyone else had brought dry food with them. Each person had a fist-sized black steamed bun, but she and San Ya did not have any.

San Ya comforted her: "It's okay, it's okay, there will be food tonight."

He Xiaojiu.
At first glance, He Xiaojiu didn't look like someone who had done farm work before as she was young. Mrs. Zhong saw her with her hands outstretched and didn't know what she was going to do, so she asked her to follow Daya and learn to work like Daya.

He Xiaojiu found it quite fresh. Although her stomach was growling with hunger, she still worked with Daya.

At this moment, she heard someone calling her: "Ninth sister, ninth sister!"

He Xiaojiu looked in the direction of the voice and saw Dong Jinbao running towards her.

"Baby, why are you here? Don't you have to work in the fields?"

He Xiaojiu looked behind Dong Jinbao and saw two skinny girls standing in the distance, looking over here nervously.

Dong Jinbao looked around, pulled He Xiaojiu aside, and whispered, "I don't know what Boss Qin said to the people here, but the family I went to actually thought that I would be theirs in the future. They don't have a son, and they were so happy to see me that they wanted me to marry their daughter. Now they don't let me do any work, and they even cook eggs for me."

He Xiaojiu.
Dong Jinbao: "Ninth sister, I finally understand. Boss Qin is much more ruthless than Pai Huazi."

He Xiaojiu: "The one who is more ruthless than Pai Huazi is not my brother, but my mother. Do you think my brother alone can bring the five of us here?"

Dong Jinbao touched his head and said, "Hehe, I didn't dare to say it. Sister Jiu is really awesome. Sister Jiu, that family gave me an egg, and I saved half of it for you to eat."

As he spoke, Dong Jinbao took out an egg yolk wrapped in a handkerchief from his arms. The egg yolk had been squeezed and crushed and stuck to the handkerchief.

He Xiaojiu: "I remember you don't seem to eat egg yolks?"

Dong Jinbao: "It's not that I don't eat, I'm just afraid of getting fat. I'm already fat enough, if I eat more I'll get even fatter."

He Xiaojiu: Okay, let’s just assume that what you said is true.

"I'm not hungry, so you should keep it for yourself."

He Xiaojiu was about to return the broken egg yolk to Dong Jinbao when she suddenly felt a chill from all directions. She looked around and saw that several pairs of eyes were looking at her, not at her, but at the broken egg yolk wrapped in a handkerchief in her hand.

Especially the two girls who came with Dong Jinbao, there was desire and resentment in their eyes.

San Ya also looked over here, and He Xiaojiu clearly saw her throat move, that was swallowing saliva. At this moment, He Xiaojiu suddenly understood that Dong Jinbao didn't want to eat the broken egg yolk that she thought was disgusting, but in the eyes of these children, it was a delicacy.

He Xiaojiu stuffed the broken egg yolk into Dong Jinbao's hand and said to him, "If you don't want to eat it, give it to the older sister and younger sister of that family. They are too thin and you can tell at a glance that they are malnourished."

He Xiaojiu learned the word "malnutrition" from her mother. She often said that Dong Jinbao understood what it meant.

Dong Jinbao was a little embarrassed. He ran to the two girls and said something to them. The two girls were timid and no one dared to reach out to take it. It was Dong Jinbao who stuffed it into their hands. The two looked at each other and then quickly ran behind a big tree. When they came out, they only had a handkerchief in their hands.

The elder sister blushed and said to Dong Jinbao, "The handkerchief is dirty. I'll wash it and give it to you."

The egg yolk fragments on the handkerchief were licked by her and her sister. The handkerchief was stained with their saliva, and it was so embarrassing to give it back to them directly.

Dong Jinbao waved his hand generously: "No need to wash it, I don't want it."

The two were startled, afraid that they had heard wrongly: "Such a good handkerchief, you really don't want it?"

Dong Jinbao: "I really don't want it anymore. If you like it, I'll give it to you. If you don't like it, just throw it away."

The two little girls were so happy that they almost jumped up. There were flowers embroidered on the handkerchief. They were reluctant to throw away such a nice handkerchief.

Dong Jinbao never expected that a dirty handkerchief could make them so happy. He turned to look at He Xiaojiu and saw He Xiaojiu staring at them in a daze, not knowing what he was thinking.

When she finished work in the evening, He Xiaojiu was so hungry that she almost fainted. She actually worked all day on an empty stomach.

On the way back, she saw Feng Jingchun, who looked as pale as she did.

She walked over and put her hand on Feng Jingchun's shoulder: "Hey, give me a ride, I'm about to faint from hunger."

Feng Jingchun: "No, we are not familiar with each other, you should go find someone else."

"Where is your brother? Has he fainted from such tiring work? Did you bring any medicine?" He Xiaojiu asked with concern.

Feng Jingchun shook her head, indicating that she didn't know. She was so tired that she had forgotten about her brother.

Her brother is not very active, so he should be made to work more.

When they returned to the Zhong family, they saw San Ya staggering with exhaustion. Old Mrs. Zhong was very disdainful. She opened the locked cabinet, carefully took out the food, and asked San Ya to cook.

He Xiaojiu chanted "Amitabha" in her heart. She could finally eat. She was so hungry that she could eat a whole pig.

Of course, the Zhong family had no pigs to eat, and He Xiaojiu didn’t even get to eat her own rations.

Her ration was corn rice, but she was only given half a steamed bun, the same as what Daya and the others brought to work in the morning.

The steamed bread was hard. He Xiaojiu had no front teeth, so he could only bite it with his back teeth, and each bite was very difficult.

"Where's my corn? Give me my corn and I'll cook the porridge myself."

She doesn't know how to cook porridge, but she knows how to cook it.

Old Lady Zhong snorted coldly: "What corn rice? How can a girl like you deserve to eat corn rice? It's good enough to have some to eat. If you keep being picky, don't eat it."

He Xiaojiu: "What's wrong with a little girl? A little girl is not worthy of eating corn?"

Mrs. Zhong: "It's just not worthy!"

He Xiaojiu: "You were also a girl when you were young, so you are not worthy?"

Old Mrs. Zhong: "Of course not. The rice is for the men in the family. Women can just eat whatever they want."

He Xiaojiu: "It's a pity that all the men in your family have run away. I don't want to eat your rice."

Well, it’s better not to expose someone’s shortcomings. But He Xiaojiu did expose the shortcomings of the Zhong family.

Old lady Zhong was furious and picked up a stick to hit He Xiaojiu: "You little girl, I'll let you talk nonsense, I'll beat you to death!"

He Xiaojiu turned around and ran, all the way outside, and climbed up a big tree, looking down at Old Lady Zhong: "Come and hit me, come and hit me!"

Old Mrs. Zhong was so angry that she hit the tree trunk a few times with a stick, causing leaves to fall all over the ground. He Xiaojiu was still making faces at her.

"If you have the guts, just stay on the tree. If you dare to come down, I will beat you to death!" Old Mrs. Zhong gritted her teeth.

He Xiaojiu: "Give me back my rations!"

Old Mrs. Zhong: "What do you mean yours? The rations are mine if they are given to me, and so are you. You work for my family, and you still want to eat corn rice, bah!"

There was a lot of commotion outside the Zhong family's door, and soon a bunch of people gathered to watch.

"Auntie Zhong, what's wrong? Is it because the little girl we brought home yesterday was disobedient?"

Old Mrs. Zhong slapped her thigh and said, "Please judge for me. This little girl thinks the food at home is not to her liking and insists on eating corn rice. My God, is corn rice something a little girl can eat?"

An auntie curled her lips and said, "Old lady Zhong, what you said is wrong. The rice was originally for this little girl to eat. If your family wants to keep it, you can't just not give her any. This is not the way to behave."

Old Mrs. Zhong cursed and rushed over to hit the aunt: "I will beat you to death for saying such things. You didn't get a chance to buy my rice, but you are jealous of my rice. I will tear your mouth to pieces."

The old lady was not a pushover either. The two of them wrestled with each other and Old Mrs. Zhong was no match for her and was pushed to the ground.

Old Mrs. Zhong simply stopped getting up and sat on the ground howling: "You are bullying me, bullying me because I don't have a man in my family. I have orphans and widows. I can't live like this!"

The onlookers said all kinds of things. Some said that Old Mrs. Zhong was a bad person. With so much rice, what was wrong with her giving some to the little girl?

Some people also said that He Xiaojiu was ignorant and that it was good enough for her to have something to eat, but she was picky. It was obvious that she was a picky person and that you should not marry a wife like her.

More people envied the Zhong family for getting 30 kilograms of corn rice for free, and not just for one month, they heard there would be more for next month.

When these five children came to the village, they heard that they would be given 30 kilograms of corn rice every month. Many families in the village wanted it. They could bring their own food and work for their families for free. Where can you find such a good thing?