Chapter Thirty-Four: Strike

  Those two peddlers thought it was just a pretty little girl talking to them and didn't take it seriously.

  "Little girl, do you still recognize the Sun family in Qingfeng County?" one of them asked with a smile.

  "Are there many families with the surname Sun in Qingfeng County?" asked Lian Wan'er intentionally to get them to talk more.

  As expected, the two traveling merchants saw Lian Mian'er speaking in a daze and found her adorable, so they couldn't help but laugh, and their guard against her dropped even further.

  "There are many families with the surname Sun in Qingfeng County, but the richest and most famous one is the Sun Lianren family. Little girl, what do you think the Sun families in Qingfeng County do?"

  What she was doing, of course, was to confirm whether this Sun Lianren was the person that Lian Shouren had originally arranged for her to go to. It seemed that these two thought she was inquiring about another family with the surname Sun.

  "I know Liu Jia San Ya." Lian Man'er said, she didn't know what the poor little girl from the Liu family was called, but she knew that girls from rural families were always named according to their birth order, Da Ya, Er Ya, and so on. "I heard she married into a Sun family in Qingfeng County and is living a happy life, is it the same family you're talking about?"

  The two peddlers exchanged a glance.

  "Who introduced you, little girl, do you know?"

  "I heard it's a Yang surname, said to be speaking for his sister's husband's family." Lian Man'er said.

  "That's probably it, Yang Chengfeng only has one younger sister, and she was given to Sun Lianren as his fourth wife." the traveling merchant said.

  Lian Man'er bit her lip, that's all. Since it's a rich and noble family, where would they marry a child bride? A child bride would be willing to give so much silver, and come all the way from afar to find someone. It turns out that what is called a "child bride" is just something Lian Shouren and his wife made up, the Sun family wants a little girl to accompany their son in death, they want their son to have a companion when he goes underground. That money was paid for a life.

  "His father......" Zhang's family listened stupidly for a long time, suddenly let out a mournful cry, and then his body went soft and fell from the stool to the ground, paralyzed there.

  "His mother..." Lian Shou immediately went to support Zhang Shi.

  Zhang closed her eyes tightly, and suddenly knew the truth, couldn't bear the blow, and had already fainted.

  Lian Man'er rushed forward, pinched Zhang Shi's people, and after a while, Zhang Shi slowly woke up. As soon as she saw Lian Man'er, she immediately hugged her into her arms.

  "Man Er, my Man Er......" Zhang Shi wailed loudly.

  Lian Zhi'er and Wu Lang also understood what was going on, and they both started crying. Xiao Qi was still a bit confused, but he knew it wasn't good news, so he cried too.

  The whole family cried together, attracting many passersby to stop and watch.

  Those two itinerant merchants were somewhat at a loss.

  "What's going on, what's going on?" Even if they were relatives of the Liu family, they shouldn't be crying so miserably. A traveling merchant asked Little Seven: "Little brother, what kind of relatives are you to the Liu family?"

  "We don't know any Liu family, our surname is Lian, we are from Sanshiliyingzi." said Xiao Qi.

  "What's going on?" The peddler was astonished, "What are you crying about?"

  "This isn't Lian Jia's fourth son," someone in the crowd who had come from Sanshilipu recognized Lian Shouxin, "Hey, isn't that their family's little daughter? A few days ago she hit her head and was unconscious for several days, they said she wouldn't make it. It's said that before that, she was going to be sent to the neighboring county to become the daughter-in-law of some Sun family..."

  The two peddlers understood the implication and were afraid of causing trouble, so they quickly settled their accounts and prepared to leave.

  Lian Shouxin's eyes were red as he grabbed one of them.

  "Big brother, I'm asking you, is what you said true?"

  "What did we say? What were we talking about?"

  "Is it true that Sun Lianren's family had a child bride for their youngest son just to be buried with him?"

  A peddler feared trouble and hastily denied it.

  "Isn't it true? This matter is not a secret in Qingfeng County either." Another one guessed that Lian Man'er was the little girl who was originally to be sold to the Sun family, and couldn't help but look down on them. "What were you doing at that time, and now you want to clear yourselves?"

  "It seems like it was their eldest brother who did this outside." said someone who knew the inside story.

  In the countryside, houses are close together, and you can say that the sounds of chickens and dogs can be heard from one house to another. There is almost no such thing as privacy. Whenever something happens in a family, even if they want to keep it secret, soon everyone in the village will know about it. This town is only a few miles away from the Thirty Mile Post, and people from the village often go to the town, so many people know each other, and even some of the villagers' family affairs are known by people in the town.

  Those two itinerant merchants heard this and didn't dare say another word, hastily turning around and fleeing in a cloud of dust.

  The peddlers left, but the crowd did not disperse and were all discussing it. The tea vendors also heard the two peddlers talking and couldn't help but add oil to the fire as they retold the story.

  Lian Shouxin, after all, was a grown man, and he was the first to calm down, helping Zhang Shi up.

  Zang Shi just hugged Lian Man Er and refused to let go. When someone tried to talk to her, she ignored them and just cried stupidly and persistently.

  There were also people who later heard just a few words and became indignant.

  "Now you know how to cry and can't bear to part with it? How come you could bear to give it up back then? Were your eyes dazzled by the silver?"

  "Not her own daughter, probably stepmother."

  "This is a biological child, and the Liu family is also a biological child. I know their family, with many children, so poor that they can't afford to eat from one meal to the next. Three hundred taels of silver are enough for several sons to marry wives and buy a few more acres of land, and this life will be worry-free."

  "Is this family like this too?"

  "Don't wrongly accuse the poor person. I heard from our aunt who married into their 30-li village that it was done by Lian's eldest son while he was away. You don't know their family, this fourth couple are honest people, but they were completely controlled by their elderly mother."

  "That matter of spending money to save a life, did their family's old lady also know about it and just kept it from the couple?"

  "I don't dare say that."

  "It's about the same."

  Lian Shouxin listened to the crowd's gossip, feeling only a buzzing in his ears, and forced himself into the blacksmith's shop.

  "Feng big brother, I'm leaving. The ones that are fixed, I'll take back with me now, the ones that aren't fixed yet, I'll leave here, and I'll come back tomorrow to pick them up." Lian Shouxin said to Feng Tiejiang.

  Feng Tiejian also knew what had just happened in the shop.

  "I've fixed them all for you." Feng the blacksmith looked at Lian Shouxin with some sympathy and handed him several farm tools.

  "Feng big brother, how much is this in total?"

  "It's still the same price, you can estimate it yourself, one hundred and ten coins." Feng Tiejiang said with a smile.

  Lian Shouxin took out his purse and poured out all the money that Zhou Shi had given him. He counted it, but there was only eighty wen.

  "Feng big brother, I only brought eighty cents, otherwise, you can take this money first, and I'll leave two iron hoes as collateral. I'll send over the owed money tomorrow."

  Feng Tiejiang's gaze at Lian Shouxin became even more sympathetic. Peasants would rather freeze and starve themselves, but they were willing to spend money on farm tools. Moreover, most old peasants could estimate how much it would cost to repair them and would bring enough money with them. It was rare for someone to bring not enough money to the blacksmith's shop to repair their tools, and someone like Lian Shouxin who was short by so much was even rarer.

  "Keep it," said Feng Tiejiang as he took the money, "you take it all and when you have time to go into town, just bring some back for me, no rush."

  Lian Shouxin hurriedly thanked Feng Tiejiang, gathered up the sickle and iron rake, and put them on the board cart. Zhang's legs were still weak and she couldn't walk. Lian Zhier and Wu Lang supported Zhang and helped her sit on the cart. Zhang was dazed and still crying, refusing to let go of Lian Man'er.

  Lian Shouxin pushed the cart, and there were good people following not far or near, all the way until they left the town, this was when everyone dispersed. Lian Shouxin's footsteps also slowed down, as if his two legs were carrying a weight of thousands of gold. Zhang Shi had already cried hoarsely, on the road, everyone tacitly maintained silence.

  The journey of thirty-four li was completed after all.

  "How come you're back at this time? Don't you know how much work there is to do at home? You want to exhaust me, an old man, with your talk. Black-hearted one, do you know what's good for you?" Zhou Shi was standing in the courtyard when she saw Lian Shou Xin return, and Zhang Shi was still sitting calmly in the carriage, which made her furious.

  No one paid attention to Mr. Zhou.

  Lian Shouxin stopped the car, Zhang Shi hugged Lian Man'er, and several children supported Zhang Shi, going straight back to the west wing house without even looking at Zhou Shi.

  Zhou was so angry that he fell over backwards.

  "This is where the corpse was hit, went to the town once, and got a long-haired disease. Whatever the adults have, the children also have it. Look at that one...". Just as Mrs. Zhou was scolding, she saw Lian Shouxin put down his cart and walk over.

  "Your elder brother has come back ahead of time and is calling for your wife to hurry up and cook dinner. She must have had enough of her outing for the day." said Zhou Shi to Lian Shou Xin.

  Lian Shouxin stood in front of Zhou Shi with a gloomy face, without saying a word.

  Mrs. Zhou's heart skipped a beat. She knew the temperaments of her several sons, and Lian Shouxin had always been smiling from childhood to adulthood, with the most gentle temperament. This gloomy face was still the first time it appeared on Lian Shouxin's face.

  "Fourth brother, what's wrong with you? You've gone mad?"

  At this time, the voices and laughter of Lian Shouren, Lian Huaer, and Lian Xiu'er could be heard coming from upstairs.

  Lian Shouxin felt as if his heart had been pierced by a sharp knife.

  "I want to talk to Big Brother." Lian Shou Xin rushed directly into the upper house.

  Zhou Shi habitually wanted to scold him, but felt that something was off and hurriedly followed him into the house.

  In the west wing room, Lian Man'er helped Zhang Shi lie down on the kang. She saw Lian Shouxin enter the upper house and originally wanted to follow him immediately. She wanted to seek justice for Lian Man'er. But thinking again, Lian Shouxin was the man of the house, the pillar, he had a duty to protect his daughter-in-law and underage children.

  Lian Shouxin and Zhang were not only heartbroken for their daughter, but also realized they had been deceived and betrayed by their own family members. It was time for Lian Shouxin and Zhang to directly face the abnormal family relationship of the Lian family and the humiliation and betrayal from their loved ones.

  "Daughter, have a drink of water." Lian Man'er handed Zhang Shi a bowl of water. She wanted Zhang Shi to moisten her throat so that she could say something later on.

  Zhang took a sip of water and was about to speak when he heard Lian Shouren's excited voice coming from upstairs.

  "Fourth brother, where did you hear this rumor and falsely accuse me!"