northernbook Chapter 38 We're here to work
Chapter 38 We're here to work
"Sister Lu, did you see who it was?" Liu San Niang asked breathlessly.
Lu Tao shook her head and threw down the stick. "I didn't see it."
"They really dared to come!" Liu San Niang exclaimed.
"Luckily we weren't asleep."
Lu Tao let out a breath and sat down outside.
Her arms were sore from hitting so much... she needed to rest.
"There's blood on the ground. What happened?" Liu San Niang looked down to examine the bloodstains on the ground.
Lu Tao raised her hand halfway and then lowered it again. "It was bitten by a monkey, wasn't it?"
"A monkey?" Liu San Niang walked over. "Where did this monkey come from?"
Lu Tao shook her head. "I don't know where these monkeys came from."
"As soon as that person came in, the monkey darted in from outside the yard and bit him."
She wiped the sweat from her forehead. "When Xiang'er and I came out, the monkey had run away, and the person was already kneeling on the ground."
Liu San Niang sat down beside her, "These wicked people! Even beasts couldn't stand it!"
Lu Tao chuckled and said, "Even the monkeys can't stand these beasts!"
The person who came tonight definitely didn't come to steal the recipe for making bean curd sheets; he came to destroy things in their yard.
Compared to monkeys, these people are the real beasts.
These orphans and widows already had a hard time making ends meet.
They're going to cause trouble again!! They're utterly wicked!!
Lu Tao rested for a while and regained her strength.
She stood up and went to the kitchen to get something. "We were saved by the monkeys today, so I'm taking some food to feed them."
She took the leftover steamed buns from the daytime meal; there were five or six left, which she had originally saved for tomorrow morning.
At this moment, she stuck the steamed buns directly into the reeds of the fence and shouted outside, "Little monkeys, thank you for your help, these are for you to eat."
As soon as Lu Tao turned around, she heard a rustling sound outside the courtyard.
She turned around and saw several baby monkeys cautiously approaching the fence.
"Take it and eat it," Lu Tao encouraged.
Liu San Niang stood up curiously...
Under their watchful eyes, several baby monkeys jumped onto the fence, grabbed the steamed buns with both hands, pulled them off the reeds, and then tossed them away...
Several more monkeys came from other directions, and they even knew to break the steamed buns in half and share them with their companions.
"Hey, those monkeys look like they came from your place," Lu Tao said in surprise, pointing to the monkeys that had arrived later.
"they..."
Lu Tao grabbed Liu San Niang's hand, "San Niang, are they really protecting us?"
Liu San Niang stared wide-eyed in surprise. Sure enough, those little monkeys really did come from her.
"That's possible." Liu San Niang looked the monkeys up and down.
“I’ve heard older people say that the animals in the mountains are very intelligent and understanding.”
Her voice was mysterious, "Perhaps...we didn't know when we had done them a favor, and they're repaying us..."
"I've never saved a monkey..." Lu Tao said absentmindedly.
Liu San Niang patted her hand, "It's not necessarily because we saved her on purpose, it might just be... an accidental rescue."
"These little guys are all grateful."
Tian Tian stood behind them, listening to their serious discussion, a grin spreading across her face.
Okay, she doesn't need to persuade them anymore.
They have already convinced themselves.
Lu Tao whispered, "That's all the steamed buns we have for today. Tomorrow, we'll make a little more so you can come and eat them."
The Monkey King, who was enjoying his steamed bun, winked at Tian Tian.
"We did a good job, didn't we?"
Lu Tao then said, "They're responding to me, Third Sister, look!"
Liu San Niang became even more certain, "Sister Lu, they are here to protect us."
*
At Chenshi (7-9 AM), a group of people had already gathered at the village entrance, almost all of them women, each carrying a bowl of porridge.
"Did you hear anything last night?" Zhao Jinhua tilted her head back and took a sip of thin porridge. The wild vegetables she swallowed along with the porridge were too old, so she pulled them out and threw them on the ground.
"I think I heard some sound, but I was fast asleep and didn't hear it clearly."
"Jinhua, what's that sound?"
Zhao Jinhua beckoned mysteriously to everyone, and the women crowded together.
"It seems to have come from the Lu family."
"I heard a man's wails!"
The women exclaimed in surprise, "A man?!"
"Zhao Jinhua, did you hear me correctly?"
"The Lu family are all widows, where would they get any men?"
Zhao Jinhua originally wanted to say that the man went to the Lu family's house because of the Lu family's business.
But after listening to the women around her, she changed her tune, saying, "Oh dear, it's just gossip at a widow's door."
She deliberately winked and acted mysteriously, "I don't know who it is, I only know that the voice... was really loud!"
She looked around; most of the women in the village were there. "But you... none of you had your husbands away from home last night?"
"Isn't it true that no man has inexplicably more... teeth marks, lipstick marks, etc."
"Hahaha..."
"Haha."
Everyone laughed.
Every woman knows when her husband isn't home.
But one person in the crowd suddenly froze...
*
"Oh, someone's coming."
The villagers looked towards the village entrance...
Four women were sitting on an oxcart.
They didn't know the four women, but they knew Zhang Fusheng.
"Hey, are you going to the Lu family's house?" someone asked.
Zhang Fusheng only knew that Tian Tian's surname was Tian, but he didn't know Lu Tao's surname. He shook his head and said, "No."
He then asked the woman behind the oxcart, "Are you related to someone?"
The women shook their heads. "No, we're here to work."
The villagers were astonished. "Work? What kind of work? Where in Qingliu Village can we find any work?"
"Yeah, aren't you guys mistaken?"
"Have you come to the wrong place?"
Zhang Fusheng ignored them and continued pushing the oxcart towards Tian Tian's house.
The villagers followed one after another.
"Does anyone have work available?"
"I do not know?"
“Those women just now said they were here to work, we didn’t mishear them.”
What kind of work do you do?
Someone asked the women directly, "What kind of work do you do? How much are you paid?"
Just as a woman on the oxcart was about to speak, Zhang Fusheng suddenly coughed lightly.
The woman's expression changed, and she immediately fell silent.
"Hey, what kind of work do you guys do?"
"Say it then."
"why are you not speaking?"
“If you don’t speak, we’ll have to go find the village chief. We can’t let outsiders into Qingliu Village so easily.”
"Yes, go find the village chief."
Some people in the crowd turned back and ran towards the village chief's house.
The others continued to follow the oxcart, following and following... unexpectedly, they ended up at the Lu family's house.