Chapter 008: Divide up Family Property and Live Apart (1)
Chapter 008: Divide up Family Property and Live Apart (1)
Du Shi chased to the left of Lei Tie and Qin Mian would hide to the right of Lei Tie. Since he began to drink the spiritual spring water, his body had already recovered to 80% and not only he became stronger, but his responsive rate also became higher.
From the beginning, Lei Chuntao didn’t come out and stood by the window as she looked out. Since Qin Mian came to Lei Household, he had been gloomy and silent. This was her first time seeing his…. ‘lively’ look, which showed clearly that he deliberately teased mother. Seeing one escaped so easily and the other caught up so breathlessly, she didn’t get angry, but thought it was funny as well as feeling helpless. Mother too, always tried to make life difficult for Qin Mian. Although she also felt uncomfortable about having a male sister-in-law, Qin Mian had already entered the family and could not leave because of the fortune teller’s words. Since they’re a family, wasn’t better to be in harmonious than fighting every day?
“Stop for me!” Du Shi hated Qin Mian for not giving her a bit of face. She was angry and rushed to him, but Qin Mian still avoided her.
Lei Tie watched Qin Mian come and go nimbly, a glimmer of surprise and smile flashed in his eyes before it disappeared. He stood straight to protect the person behind him and faced Du Shi, “Mother, if the prey not to be sold, give two silver taels to buy clothes.”
To take money out of Du Shi’s hand was like plucking out her flesh. She stopped, took a breath and nonchalantly said: “It’s easy to say, but where do I get the money? It’s time for your fourth brother to marry a wife, have the betrothal gifts prepared? Your little sister hasn’t been betrothed yet, but has the dowry prepared? And your fifth brother doesn’t need to spend money for school? Eldest, you have to be considerate toward mother, too.”
Lei Tie once again said: “This prey will be sold tomorrow.”
Du Shu’s face was so gloomy that she could drip water. “What should we do for autumn harvest if you sold it? Forget it, you can sell it if you want, but I will deal with all the prey you hit in the future.”
Lei Tie: “Talk about it later.”
Du Shi wore a stony face as she furiously stormed into the house.
Lei Xiangren looked disappointed. He couldn’t help but take another look at the venison and after a thought, he caught up with Du Shi, following her into the main room and closed the door.
“What are you doing lurking and sneaking around like a ghost?” Du Shi hit him hard on the arm and stared at him in rebuke.
“Mother, as long as you can calm down, your son will let you hit some more.” Lei Xiangren smiled and stretched out his arm.
Du Shi was immediately amused by him, patted him lightly, “What are you doing following me in?” This was her first son, whom she loved dearly, how could she really hit him?
“Mother, have tea.” Lei Xiangren took the teapot and poured her a cup of tea. He sat down beside her and lowered his voice for fear of being heard. “In fact, I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time. Since you don’t like big brother, why don’t you just make him move out and leave it go at that? You won’t be upset if you don’t see him.” In fact, Du Shi found troubles for Qin Mian every day and he felt it was noisy. As soon as he returned home, he hardly had a quiet time.
“You don’t think I want to?” Du Shi moodily said, “But there are so many places to spend money in our family. Eldest can work and also skilled in hunting. If I really make him move out, are you going to the work at home? Are you going to bear the expense burden of your two younger brothers and the only younger sister?”
Lei Xiangren quickly shook his head. “How can your son have such a great ability?”
“What’s more, he’s been away from home for ten years, so he should have some savings.” Du Shi’s tone was very plain, seemed as though she didn’t care, but the mood of determination to win in her eyes revealed her mind.
Lei Xiangren was happy, but then he felt a bit unsure. “Didn’t he give father twenty silver taels when he came back?”
“Heh, I don’t believe that he only earned twenty silver taels in ten years. Taking out twenty silver taels in one shot, I see ——” Du Shi noticed that Lei Xiangren’s eyeballs mulled about and she suddenly regretted telling him all these things. She waved her hand and stood up. “It’s just my guess. Let’s not talk about that. Go and see if dinner is ready.”
Qin Mian didn’t go to dinner. Du Shi said that he wouldn’t be given dinner and so he didn’t go. Otherwise, it would be another fighting. He disdained fighting with a woman every day and was too lazy to mind about her. If the worst came to the worst, he could secretly eat some snacks in the space.
When people didn’t pay attention to him, he came out of the yard and wandered slowly into the distance. The sun would set, the sky in the West would be warm and yellow, the people in the field would come back home, the whole village would be quiet, which was suitable for him to think: what could he do to let Lei Daqiang and Du Shi take the initiative to make them move out?
There was no one on the road. Qin Mian trotted along the side of the road without hesitation. He ran for some distance and then ran back. While thinking about it, he exercised by the way. Running for half an hour and doing pushed ups for half an hour every day were bound to strengthen the body. He always thought that the body was at most 12 years old, but later he knew that it was actually 14 years old. At the age of 14, he was only about 1.3 meters tall, so now he was stunted. Fortunately, he was young, there was enough time to make up for it.
Qin Mian calmly analyzed. Although Lei Daqiang was the family head, he only cared about the works outside, and other things were basically managed by Du Shi. So the key to move out was Du Shi. There was no doubt that Du Shi held no feelings for Lei Tie. Qin Mian was sure that Du Shi also wanted to separate Lei Tie from this family. There must be other reasons why she didn’t do that, besides being afraid of being gossiped by the villagers.
Excluding Lei Xiangzhi, whom Qin Mian had not met up to now, Lei Tie was the tallest and strongest of the four brothers in Lei Family. For peasants who relied on physical strength to eat, this was a strong and free labor force.
Besides, there was money. Qin Mian analyzed this point from Du Shi’s saying: I will deal with all the prey you hit in the future. Qin Mian saw the deer. The arrow hit the deer’s neck, killing it with one shot. This showed that Lei Tie’s bow technique was very good and there would be no less prey from now to autumn harvest. No matter whether in modern or ancient times, meat would not be cheap and there must be a lot of money if sold. Du Shi wanted to keep all this in her hands, not for money. Why? Besides, there were three children in Lei Family who had not married. Betrothal gifts and dowry had always been valued in marriage, especially in ancient times. Lacked of betrothal gifts, whose family’s girl was willing to marry? Lacked of dowry, the girl would have no confidence when she went to her mother-in-law’s house. She might be looked down upon by others. Therefore, Qin Mian’s analysis showed that Du Shi probably wanted to make money from Lei Tie as much as possible for Lei Xiangli, Lei Xiangzhi and Lei Chuntao. Lei Tie gave more, while she gave less. Good schemes.
If he wanted Du Shi to take the initiative to divide up the family property and live apart, there were several ways….
Qin Mian’s brain was spinning fast when his wrist was suddenly clenched tightly and a deep voice sounded in his ear.
“Where are you going?”