Chapter 120 I Picked It Up

Chapter 120 I Picked It Up

Chapter 120 I Picked It Up

Brother Li laughed and said, "Last year, I asked you to go on the boat and go out to sea. You went for two days each time, but Dad scolded you every day for three days of fishing and four days of drying the nets."

Li's mother said cheerfully, "Now there's no need to scold him or even yell at him. He can catch up with the morning low tide. It's been half a month, and he hasn't rested for a single day."

"Hey! Ah Le is really good!" Brother Li turned around and patted him on the shoulder. "Brother, I really never dreamed that you could change so thoroughly."

Li Changle said embarrassedly: "There is no other way. Just like you said, the children are getting older, and it costs money to study and build a new house. If we don't do it now, we will become the poorest family in the village.

In fact, sometimes I also want to be lazy and not go, thinking that if I go one day less, I will earn one day less, so I grit my teeth and get up. "

As they were talking, the mother and her two sons arrived at the edge of the mountain. Some of the Li family's land was wasteland that they had reclaimed before, and some was distributed to them after the land was divided into different households. There were also a few tangerines and bayberries planted on the slope next to it.

Small green oranges the size of quail eggs are already hanging on the orange trees, and they can only be eaten in August or September.

Bayberries are not available for eating until April or May of the following year. He remembered that the bayberries from his own bayberry trees tasted pretty good. He would eat the big ones himself and use the small ones to make bayberry liquor.

The total area of ​​mountain land owned by the four families is only a little over one acre but less than two acres, all of which are planted with sweet potatoes. The ridges and furrows of the sweet potato fields have only been dug once, and the bottoms of the furrows are all new soil.

Going further, there are two hills of land with bamboo racks for melons and beans, and various beans and melons and vegetables planted underneath.

Hanging under the rack are green-skinned winter melons of varying sizes and disc-shaped pumpkins. The largest winter melon is as big as a bucket.

The bushes beside the vegetable field are covered with pumpkin vines and winter melon vines.

Taro, sweet potatoes, ginger and onions are also planted in the corners of the vegetable garden.

Nowadays, people in the countryside have always been self-sufficient in vegetables. The Li family was worried that there would not be enough vegetables, so they planted vegetables in every corner of the land.

There were too many stones in the corners to grow vegetables, so some ramie was scattered there. The hemp ropes used to tie crabs at home and the sacks were woven from the ramie skins.

There are several Castanopsis trees about forty or fifty meters away from the vegetable field, with clusters of white Castanopsis flowers in full bloom.

"Mom, look what Xiaoyang is doing?" Brother Li suddenly pointed at the Castanopsis tree in front and shouted.

Li Changle and Li's mother looked in the direction he pointed and saw Li Xiaoyang holding onto a half-grown Castanopsis tree nearby and climbing up. Standing under the tree were Li Xiaotao and several children from the back alley.

Each of them had a piece of wood on his waist, a wicker hat on his head, and was mumbling something.

Brother Li was furious. "Look, he had a headache and leg pain when he was studying, but now he's running outside in the hot sun and his headache and leg pain are gone."

As he spoke, he began to look for a stick. "If I don't beat him for three days, I'll have to give him a good beating."

"Don't go yet!" Li's mother hurriedly grabbed Li Changping, "If you rush over suddenly, what if you scare him so much that he falls off the tree?"

Brother Li quickly retracted his leg and said, "Wait until he comes down from the tree, then I'll go over."

"I'll go over and take a look." Li Changle walked towards the Castanopsis tree.

At this time, a child saw the three people here and pulled Li Xiaotao, "Tao, your grandma, dad, and third uncle are here."

"Ah!" Li Xiaotao screamed, turned his head and shouted to Li Xiaoyang on the tree, "Brother, come down quickly, Dad is here."

"Stop lying to me, Dad is sleeping at home!" Li Xiaoyang said as he reached out to take the bird's nest on the tree branch.

"Really? If you don't believe me, look over there in the vegetable garden!" Li Xiaotao jumped up and down anxiously. "Come down quickly! Uncle San is coming. If Dad comes and sees you in the tree, we'll be in trouble."

After hearing this, Li Xiaoyang hugged the tree trunk and looked back. He saw Li Changping standing there looking at him. He was so scared that he almost let go of the tree trunk.

He subconsciously slid down a section of the tree trunk, then an idea suddenly came to his mind and he climbed up again and sat on the branch.

"I won't go down. It's so high. Even if Dad wants to hit me, he can't reach me."

"Ah!" Li Xiaotao was dumbfounded.

"Wow! The little monkey climbed quite high!" Li Changle said while looking at Li Xiaoyang on the tree.

Li Xiaoyang looked at him smugly, "Uncle San, tell my father that if he promises not to hit me, I will come down. If he wants to hit me, I will stay on the tree and won't come down."

Li Changle poked him a few times in amusement and anger, "Li Xiaoyang, if you just come down obediently, I can plead for you and let you take less hits!"

He looked at the tree branch that was at least one story high and thought that today's little monkeys are really amazing. They are proficient in everything from climbing mountains to trees to fishing in the water.

Li Xiaoyang shook his head like a rattle, "I still have to be beaten even if I don't get hit twice!"

Before he finished speaking, he saw Brother Li coming over with a bamboo stick, "Li Xiaoyang, come down quickly and eat some firewood! What did I tell you when I left?

You are the eldest, and I told you to be obedient at home and help your mother take care of your younger siblings, but this is how you do it? No wonder your mother is so angry! "

His shout scared the group of children so much that they scattered like birds and beasts, and Li Xiaotao followed them without hesitation.

Li Changle stretched out his hand and grabbed him by the back of the neck, "Little thing, keep running!" Li Xiaotao struggled, "Third Uncle, let me go, I'm done with you!"

Brother Li stepped forward, grabbed his arm, and started beating his butt with the stick in his hand, "Look at you, all covered in grass juice, your mother follows you around every day and never has time to wash it off.

"Ah~Ah...Wow..." Li Xiaotao's voice suddenly changed when he howled, "Grandma, help me! My dad is going to beat me to death..."

Li Xiaoyang, who was on the tree, watched the stick hitting Li Xiaotao's butt again and again, and felt the muscles on his butt tightening.

My butt started to hurt as I sat on the tree branch, so I couldn't help but hold the trunk tighter. I was determined not to go down, and even if I wanted to go down, I would wait until the adults' anger subsided.

If I had known that grandma was going up the mountain today, I would not have come to fight and rob bird nests.

Oh! What bad luck!

"I let you run around all day, I let you not do your homework, and I let you not study hard..."

"Ah~ah~Uncle San, help me!" Li Xiaotao suddenly remembered the last time his brother was beaten. He grabbed Li Changle who was standing beside him and hugged his waist tightly, "Ouch...Ouch...It hurts..."

Li Changle saw that his buttocks, which had a big circle patch on them, were covered with grass juice, and the seams of his trouser pockets were torn.

It looked like it was broken while rolling on the ground during a hand-to-hand combat game.

Looking at the crying little fellow, Li Changle felt guilty and pitiful. He quickly protected him and diverted Brother Li's attention, "Brother, there is another one on the tree!"

Brother Li raised his head with the stick in his hand and pointed at Li Xiaoyang on the tree. "Are you going to come down with me obediently today? Or are you going to wait for me to come up and pull you down?"

He looked at the branch where the child was sitting, then at the tree trunk which was not much thicker than a bowl. He did not dare to actually climb up and pull him down, for fear that the child would really fall.

Li Xiaoyang shouted to the tree: "Dad, if you don't hit me, I will come down!"

"How dare you negotiate with me!" Li Changping pointed a stick at him, "Come down quietly!"

"I won't. Every time you come back I get beaten. You see, Third Uncle never beats Xiao Hai and Xiao Zhou, and Second Uncle doesn't beat them either. You're the only one who loves to beat people the most."

Li Xiaoyang thought of something, "Oh! I remember now, I must have been picked up by you, I want to go find my real dad!"

Li Xiaotao felt that what his brother said made sense. There was an adopted child in their class, and his parents often beat him.

Big Brother Li was both angry and amused. "Okay, okay, go find your real father. Without you two debt collectors, your mother and I will live a few more years."

Li's mother walked under the tree and laughed angrily, "What nonsense are you talking about? Grandma saw your mother give birth to you with her own eyes. Your father is Li Changping. Where can you go to find your real father?"

Li Xiaoyang: "My mother said last time that she found me when she was at the market. I will go to Pan Town to look for me."

Li Changle burst out laughing, "Stinky kid, your mother told you that when she beat you last time, right?"

"..." Li Xiaoyang burst into tears, thinking that he must have been adopted, otherwise he would not have been beaten every other day.

"Mother, why are you talking to him so much? Let him go down to Panzhen to find his father." Li Changping said to Li Xiaotao, "Do you want to find your father too?"

Li Xiaotao shook his head subconsciously, "I'm not going."

"If you don't want to go, come with me to work in the vegetable fields!" Li Changping took his hand and said to Li's mother and Li Changle, "Let's go and let him go find his father."

While speaking, he winked at the two of them.

Li Changle understood immediately and followed him towards the vegetable field below.

"Xiaoyang, come down quickly and apologize to your father."

"I won't." Li Xiaoyang said with his neck stiff.

"Then hold on tight and don't fall down." Li's mother warned him, thinking of leaving quickly and waiting for him to come down by himself.

Li Xiaoyang was dumbfounded when he saw several people walking away without even stopping, and hesitated whether to go down or not.
After going down, should I go to Pan Town to find my father, or go home to be beaten?
Li Changle and his companions arrived at the edge of the vegetable field. Under the command of Li's mother, the two brothers inserted the bamboo poles into the soil, hammered them into the ground with a hoe, and then tied them up with bamboo strips to reinforce them.

Mother Li looked at Li Xiaoyang in the tree worriedly and said, "A Ping, I'm going to call Xiaoyang down. I'm afraid he might fall asleep in the tree and fall down."

"Don't go, mother!" Brother Li hurriedly stopped her, "He won't be able to sit still for two minutes. Look, he's craning his neck to look over here!"

Li Xiaoyang sat on a tree branch, watching several people busy in the vegetable field. He waited for a while, and seeing that they didn't even look at him, he tried to slide down a section, hugged the trunk and looked around, then decided to climb up.

Big Brother Li, who had been paying attention to that side, was so angry that he hit the bamboo pole hard, "You little bastard, if I don't beat his butt in two, I won't be named Li!"

Li Xiaotao touched his butt and thought: The butt is made of two parts, it doesn't matter whether you spank it or not.

It only took a few minutes to fix a few bamboo poles, and then I went to pick vegetables from the bean racks, including cucumbers, eggplants, green beans, cowpeas, and radishes. Finally, I picked a big winter melon to take home and make soup.

(End of this chapter)