Chapter 62: Chapter 062: Sadness
Translator: 549690339
“Did you all write it down?”
“Yes, we did.” Zhuang Mingliang and the other children obediently responded.
“Good, let’s hurry up and eat.”
Even though his own children were occasionally mischievous, they were generally sensible and obedient, much better behaved than most children.
Zhuang Yonghe always took pride in this.
Mrs. He was also gleefully serving everyone scrambled eggs with chives.
Zhuang Yonghe got the most, then his brothers had equal portions, and finally, after some thought, he gave some of his own portion to Zhuang Mingliang.
These days, he was the one who had worked the hardest.
Among the brothers, they also felt that it was only natural that their eldest brother was busy all the time and they didn’t harbor any complaints.
While this family was in a harmonious bliss, Zhuang Ruman’s household was in chaos.
Zhuang Yuanren had set out to participate in the prefectural examination and had asked for some travel expenses before leaving.
Finally, the family had a scholar, someone who could bring honor to their name, and lead the family with pride. So when Zhuang Ruman and Mrs. Song gave money to Zhuang Yuanren, they were not stingy, giving even more than what he had requested.
They even instructed Zhuang Yuanren to make more friends during the examination in the prefectural city and not to be frugal with money.
Zhuang Yuanren promised, took the hopes of his family with him, and set out on the road to the prefectural examination.
Zhuang Ruman and Mrs. Song spent the following days with lots of sighs.
They were worried about Zhuang Yuanren’s examination.
Although Zhuang Yuanren had always been praised by his teacher and he himself was confident, success in learning wasn’t such an easy task, was it?
Secondly, they were worried about the family’s livelihood.
After giving out this large sum of money, the family’s savings were nearly depleted. No matter whether Zhuang Yuanren passed the examination, the future expenses would not be less than present. The money was flowing out like water.
When Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Qingsui were at home, they were strong labourers, and could finish most of the work in the field. Zhuang Ruman didn’t have to work so hard, and could occasionally find some odd jobs in the town to supplement the family income.
But now without Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Qingsui, Zhuang Qinghe, who was always whining about pain here and there, and Zhuang Yuanzhong, who was too young to be of use, all the work in the field fell on Zhuang Ruman and Mrs. Song.
Busy all day tending the fields, they no longer had time to earn some extra money. The income from the field was not enough to support the family. Zhuang Ruman and Mrs. Song were left scratching their heads, constantly figuring out where to make money.
But one is a typical farmer, and the other is a simple farm woman. Neither had any remarkable skills and couldn’t find a suitable place or method to make money.
Until they found a way, Zhuang Ruman and Mrs. Song could only try to save money on everyday expenses, to save some for Zhuang Yuanren’s future use.
However, under this scheme…
“Mom, why are we eating pickled vegetables again today?”
Zhuang Qinghe, who didn’t get up until late in the morning, frowned at the glaring plate of pickled vegetables on the table. She grumpily sat on a chair and picked at the porridge made of corn grits with her chopsticks: “Corn grits porridge, without even a bit of rice mixed in, how rough!
“And this cornbread made from sweet potato flour, we eat it every day until my stomach produces gastric acid, it’s so uncomfortable.”
“Mom, I’ve been feeling uncomfortable these days. Can you steam some white buns for me to eat?”
They say that we are what we eat. If you eat colored food, you grow to that color. Now, in the spring, when the wind is strong, it’s easy to ruin one’s complexion. Soon it will be summer and she will be tanned again. If she continued to eat this cornbread made from sweet potato flour, wouldn’t she become uglier?
To maintain a fair complexion, she must eat more white flour and rice.
“Are you too uncomfortable because of resting too much?” Zhuang Ruman glanced at Zhuang Qinghe, “If you go to the field more often to do some work, you will feel better everywhere.”
In the past, when she had Zhuang Qingning and her sister, Zhuang Qinghe could be lazy, after all, a daughter should be spoiled, making her more graceful, less like a rustic village girl, and then marrying into a good family, she could look dignified.
But now it’s different. Without people to work for her, if Zhuang Qinghe doesn’t go work, it wouldn’t be right. Zhuang Ruman was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his lazy daughter who shirked work all day.
Zhuang Qinghe had been scolded a lot by Zhuang Ruman recently. Hearing this, she felt very wronged, “Dad wasn’t like this before, now dad only cares about my big brother and doesn’t care about Yuanzhong and me.”
“I can’t even say that my dad doesn’t care about Yuanzhong. Yesterday, I saw dad give Yuanzhong a boiled egg. He just remembered that Yuanzhong is a boy, and I’m the one who’s losing money. So he found ways to reprimand and scorn me?”
Zhuang Ruman did give Yuanzhong a boiled egg to eat yesterday. That’s because Yuanzhong had a terrible stomachache all day yesterday, and he didn’t have a good meal. If he didn’t eat an egg to replenish himself, what would become of him?
His older sister had no sympathy for her little brother and was making a fuss about an egg, how ridiculous!
Besides, wasn’t it normal to favor boys more in the family?
Zhuang Ruman looked at Zhuang Qinghe with a somewhat disgusted gaze, and also glared at Mrs. Song.
You’ve spoiled them. Your pampering is the reason our children don’t have any manners!
Mrs. Song felt nervous as she was glared at, and quickly tried to comfort Zhuang Qinghe, “What are you talking about? Yuanzhong is your brother, even if you had to give your heart to him, it would be fair, why are you nagging about an egg?”
“Your elder brother just went to the provincial city for the exam. The money in the family is reserved for your elder brother’s use. The family is tight financially these days, so just bear with it for a while. Once your elder brother becomes a civil servant, things will get better.”
“Didn’t your mother advise you before? Be careless and you will benefit. Why is it that you forgot it all in a few days? Life should start with hardship and end with a sweet reward …”
“Mom, don’t persuade me anymore. Whether it will be sweet or not in the future, I don’t know, I just know that life is hard now.”
As Zhuang Qinghe spoke, she started to cry, “We eat this every day, what are we becoming? My face is getting uglier!”
“Do you have the nerve to persuade me here? If it weren’t for you driving those two dead girls away back then, there would be people to do the work in the field, and people to serve me, life would be so much better!”
“I heard these past few days that the two dead girls have been doing well with the tofu business since they rented the tofu shop. They sell out of tofu every day, they have made a lot of money. I saw them eating meat yesterday, and a few days ago, I saw them buy fish to eat….”
