Chapter 177 - 169: You Wish to Gain Without Labor
Chapter 177: Chapter 169: You Wish to Gain Without Labor
Ms. Zhang shrugged. "We went too late. We didn’t find any."
Hearing this, Liu and Old Mrs. Bai were so angry they nearly coughed up blood.
Liu shrieked, "How is that possible? I just saw Sister in Law Wu come back with a whole basket of wild vegetables! How could you possibly not find a single one?"
Ms. Zhang gave a cool smile. "Sister-in-law, just because Sister in Law Wu came back with a basket of wild vegetables, does that mean we have to as well? She is her own person, and we are ours. We don’t have her skills."
Liu pointed at Ms. Zhang’s nose and started cursing, "You! You obviously slacked off and didn’t even go! Who knows where you were hiding to cool off. A family of four, and you can’t even compare to Sister in Law Wu, who’s over forty. It’s shameful to even talk about!"
Ms. Zhang said, "You’re right, it is shameful to talk about. A family of nine, and when Zhao Lan and Bai Zhi were here, we had food to eat every day. Now that Zhao Lan and Bai Zhi are gone, this big family of ours doesn’t even have food to eat."
Old Mrs. Bai glared at her son, Bai Erzhu. "Erzhu, you tell me. Did you actually go dig for wild vegetables today or not?"
Bai Erzhu didn’t dare to look his mother in the eye. He looked away, craning his neck as he said, "We went! You all saw us leave. We just went too late and didn’t find anything."
Bai Dazhu had always been a big eater. Having missed two meals, he was already starving. Hearing Bai Erzhu’s words, he seethed with anger. "You have the nerve to say that? You know you have to go early for wild vegetables, yet you went so late! What are we supposed to do now?"
Getting lectured by his older brother, Bai Erzhu’s temper flared. "What right do you have to lecture me, Big Brother? Did you get up earlier than me? Did you do more work? My family at least went out. What about you? Your family just sat around in the shade waiting for a meal. What gives you the right to scold us?"
The courtyard grew lively again as they traded barbs, neither willing to back down. It was all over a single meal, yet no one was willing to put in the effort, only hoping someone else would deliver food right to their mouths.
It was only then that they finally remembered the benefits of having Zhao Lan around. They never had to worry about the farm work outside, and with Bai Zhi handling the three daily meals at home, they had even less to worry about. Now that the mother and daughter had left the Bai Family, everything was different.
Bai Zhenzhu looked at the large family before her, a sense of despair welling up in her heart. Her face was burning hot, but she couldn’t tell if it was from being under the sun for too long or from their pitiful, tragic circumstances.
In order to fill their stomachs that evening, Old Mrs. Bai had no choice but to lead the large family out the door once more. Under the scorching white afternoon sun, the entire family of nine—save for Bai Dazhu, who stayed behind due to his inconvenient hand—all eight remaining members set out, ensuring no one took advantage of anyone else.
Old Mrs. Bai hadn’t done farm work in many years and had even forgotten where her own family’s fields were. On the way to forage for wild vegetables, she saw a stretch of lush, green wheat fields that were growing well. Before long, the green wheat would form heads of grain. As long as they could hold out until then, their Bai Family would be able to eat the food they had grown themselves. At this thought, she gulped. Then, she spotted two fallow paddy fields in the distance and pointed. "Who could be so shameless? How could anyone let perfectly good paddy fields go fallow? In a place like ours, even if everyone in the family died and only one person was left, you could never let the fields lie fallow."
Bai Erzhu glanced at the fallow paddy fields, his brow furrowing slightly, but he said nothing.