Chapter 55: A strange family

The man who took us home was called Lai Shun. Strangely, he said he didn’t have a surname.

If he doesn’t have a surname, then that’s it. Because Ruoxue had said before entering the village that we shouldn’t ask any strange questions, let alone just not having a surname.

Lai Shun’s family was very poor. His home was one of the poorest, not even having a thatched roof, but only a house made of tree bark.

The house had two rooms, one was a bedroom and the other was a kitchen with a living room and a bedroom.

“Since you’ve paid, you can stay in this room,” said Lai Shun, pointing to the bedroom with three beds. It was good that the room outside was a dormitory, because it wasn’t very convenient for Ru Xue and me to live there.

I’m a person who has been wandering outside for a long time, and although this room is filled with a sour and musty smell, I can still make do with it. I just don’t know if Ling Ruxue, a clean and delicate young lady, can make do with it.

Surprisingly, Ling Ruxue was very calm and didn’t show any sign of disgust. She just casually shook off the dust and sat down on the bed. She said to me, “Don’t mind their personality. They are actually very pitiful.”

At this point, Laishun and his wife said they were going to find their children to come home for dinner, and there were only three of us in the room, so it was convenient to talk. I heard that Ling Ruxue was going to tell me something, so I said, “What kind of personality? Lazy, love to take advantage, thick-skinned personality? This doesn’t matter. This kind of personality can’t be called a bad person, and I don’t care. But why are they pitiful?

Ling Ruxue looked at me, resting her chin in her hand, and said after a moment of silence, “Chen Chengyi, you are a very sentimental person, so the decisions you often make seem to be annoying because they are too reckless. However, you learned a lesson a few years ago, and I think that although you seem reckless this time, you actually have deeper thoughts, right?”

Ling Ruxue didn’t answer my question, but asked a very irrelevant question, which made me stunned. I felt that she seemed to know me very well. The lesson she learned a few years ago was about Brother Sheng? Thinking about this, my heart ached a little, but I didn’t need to hide anything from Ling Ruxue, since she seemed to have guessed what I was thinking.

I lit a cigarette and leaned casually against the bed before saying, “It’s true, I wasn’t reckless this time, but I had no choice. I didn’t plan to be a messenger of justice from the start, to destroy the evil fortress. I just went to the fortress to exchange hostages. They’ve been watching me, haven’t they? So I went to them. As long as they captured me, Su Rou and Qin Huai would be meaningless to them, and they could return home safely.”

Ling Ruxue nodded, as if she had already thought of this answer. She said, “What about you? Have you ever thought about your own safety?”

“Me, hehe…” I spat out a puff of smoke and said, “Some people value life more than any other feeling, while others value feelings more than life. I say I’m the latter type of person. I’ve never thought about myself. Do you believe it? Do you think I’m great?”

Ling Ruxue shook her head and said, “You must have thought about it, because you knew they wouldn’t kill you, but you didn’t dare to take the risk. You ran away and ignored them. So, that’s why you had to go, right?”

I looked at Ling Ruxue in surprise. Everyone thinks I’m a reckless young man, immature. How does she know me so well? After a long silence, I said, “Yes, I can’t rely on my master and uncle for everything. Besides, my master hasn’t had any news so far, and my uncles seem to have important things to do. I dare not gamble with the lives of Su Rou and Qin Huai, but if I go myself, I can still buy some time. At least I am a descendant of the Shan family, and I can protect myself in a critical moment. Since you know what I am thinking, I only hope that you can bring Su Rou and Qin Huai back safely.

Ling Ruxue still had her hand on her chin, but this time she seemed to be deep in thought and didn’t answer anything.

I couldn’t help but ask, “Ling Ruxue, it seems like you know a lot about me?”

“Hmm?” Ling Ruxue turned her head and nodded, obviously just trying to placate me. I was about to ask again when the Laisun family returned.Taoist priest

Dinner was eaten in the “multi-functional” room in Lai Shun’s house. I was surprised that Lai Shun’s poor family had so many children. I counted eight children, the oldest of whom looked no more than six or seven years old, and the youngest was still a baby.

Isn’t there family planning? How can a family be allowed to have so many children? This is shocking. The children’s faces look to be in line with their ages, but because of malnutrition, they are a little short.

However, if I am not mistaken about their ages, then the facts are puzzling, because some of the children look almost the same age, but their faces are very different. Could it be that Lai Shun has two children a year? Is that possible?

Moreover, I don’t think these children look like the couple.

Could it be that they adopted the children? This is even less logical. Why would they adopt so many children?

My eyes were filled with doubt, but Ling Ruoxue gave me a wink. I understood. No matter how doubtful something was, I shouldn’t ask any more questions.

So I ate my dinner in silence. There was nothing to choose from for dinner, just potatoes cooked in the oven. Since I had paid the so-called meat money, there was also a pot of meat and bone soup. There were a few big bones in the soup, but not much meat.

Huigen didn’t eat meat, but he did eat the stewed potatoes with relish. I nibbled on the potatoes while drinking the broth with just a little salt, and found that it actually tasted pretty good.

Ling Ruxue was afraid that Huigen would choke, so she poured a bowl of water for him. But when I looked at the other children, they were all eating the potatoes like they were starving, so there was no need to worry about choking. I could see a hint of reluctance in Ling Ruxue’s eyes.

Among the children, there was a little girl who was especially cute. Although her face was dirty, her big, bright eyes could not be hidden. She was eating potatoes while staring at the broth in front of me. Then she said to Laishun’s daughter-in-law, “Mom, it’s so nice to have guests at home. Usually we can only eat one potato at a meal, but now we can eat as much as we want, and we can even eat it with the broth.”

Hearing this, the other children all agreed, but the woman, who looked very old, said impatiently, “Just eat, what’s the big deal? After all, they’re just like pigs, they just need to gain weight, who cares what they eat?”

“How can you talk to a child like that?” I couldn’t help but say. Yes, I really couldn’t understand why this woman would say such things! Compared to my parents, she was not at all like a mother, and how could she call her own child a piglet?

The woman was unhappy all of a sudden, threw the potatoes in her hand away, and pointed at me and scolded, “You are a stranger, so you can speak without thinking. What else can they do besides eating? What else are they but pigs? What do you say?”

I was furious, but at this moment, Ling Ruyue put her arm around my shoulder and shook her head gently.

Looking at the woman who was throwing a tantrum, I suppressed my anger and took out 200 yuan from my pocket and threw it to Laishun, saying, “Go cook the meat and give it to each child. Is 200 yuan enough?”

Lai Shun, who had been watching the show with a happy expression on his face, suddenly saw two hundred yuan in his hand. He then grabbed his wife by the arm and said, “Don’t be so stubborn. Hurry up and cook the meat. You have to feed every child.”

When the woman saw the money, she stopped being so unruly and obediently went to cook the meat. I saw her go to the backyard and I guessed that she was hanging the meat in the well like my mother did when I was a child. After a while, she came back and was actually holding a small bowl of meat in her hand. I saw with my sharp eyes that it was venison.

Could it be that Laishun was still hunting? I was a little puzzled, and found that the village was like a thick fog. I didn’t ask any more, but gently touched the little girl’s head and gave her the broth.

How do these children survive? Do they live on three potatoes a day?

What kind of village is this? I looked at the old Laishun and the dirty, pitiful children and felt that I needed to ask Ling Ruxue for an answer.