Chapter 127: 127. Chapter 127: Widow Xu's scheming

127. Chapter 127: Widow Xu's scheming

When Zhao Ergou rushed into the kitchen, Widow Xu had already gained the upper hand, riding on Zhao Wulai, pinching his neck and pulling his hair.

"Bitch! Let go, don't hit my father!"

Zhao Ergou rushed over like a little calf, directly knocking Widow Xu to the ground.

"Ouch!"

Widow Xu screamed. This time, she saw red under her body.

Zhao Ergou was stunned.

Zhao Wulai turned over and climbed up, and slapped him with a loud voice: "Little rabbit, who let you knock people like this, that is my seed! Sure enough, it's the same dead look as your mother, with no good intentions!"

Zhao Ergou was scolded stupid, and even more beaten stupid.

He didn't understand, obviously when his father and Widow Xu were fighting, his hand was heavier than him. He just knocked Widow Xu once, and suffered such scolding...

As Widow Xu's screams spread outside the courtyard, the neighbors who were watching the excitement also realized the seriousness of the matter and hurriedly found Dr. Zhou.

Widow Xu was helped back to the inner room by everyone, but Zhao Ergou was pointed at and scolded by everyone: "That is your elder, even if it is your stepmother, you can't treat her like this, she is still pregnant with your father's seed!"

Zhao Ergou was scolded by everyone and couldn't lift his head.

Finally, after Dr. Zhou took Widow Xu's pulse and looked at it, he said it was okay, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Widow Xu was still shouting pain, and her lower skirt was indeed stained red with blood, so Dr. Zhou had to prescribe a few more prescriptions for fetal protection.

Everyone watched from the side, Zhao Wulai had to bite the bullet and pay the money. After the neighbors left, he was so angry that he went to the kitchen and beat Zhao Ergou again.

"Little bastard, who let you knock her for no reason, and wasted thirty wen of money for me!"

Zhao Ergou was beaten, and until Zhao Wulai's anger subsided, he sat

That was a shattered bowl.

"She didn't even...!" Zhao Ergou was so angry that he stood up at once, but Zhao Wulai had already left, and the neighbors were gone too, so no one was there to listen to his explanation.

For the first time, he experienced the feeling of being wrongly accused.

When the news of what happened at Zhao Wulai's house reached Jiang Xiaoxiao's ears, she was reading a medical book; upon hearing it, she simply mimicked her mother's tone and said, "Serves him right."

Liu Dagang, who was smashing bricks with a stone hammer nearby, took a moment to say, "It really does serve him right. Besides, I heard Zhao Ergou saying in the village that she was just faking it and didn't actually disturb the fetus at all."

Jiang Xiaoxiao asked in confusion, "Didn't the villagers say they saw blood?"

"That was from broken porcelain shards poking her backside," Zhao Youcai, who was working silently nearby and never gossiped, spoke up.

Jiang Xiaoxiao: "..."

That could happen?

She had been wondering how Widow Xu could be perfectly fine after fighting with Zhao Wulai like that, yet something went wrong the moment Zhao Ergou bumped into her; it turned out she had been faking it the whole time.

One had to admit, Widow Xu was indeed a woman with methods. By using this incident, she not only wiped away the ridiculous things she had done but also took the opportunity to teach Zhao Ergou a lesson.

She knew that ever since she got together with Zhao Wulai, Zhao Ergou had been resentful of her; this was the perfect chance to teach him a good lesson and let him see clearly who was in charge of this household.

If one thought about it more deeply, if the child Widow Xu gave birth to was a son, then she would probably suppress Zhao Ergou with all her might...

Chunya was feeding the rabbits on the side, silently listening to their conversation, her expression gloomy.

Seeing this, Jiang Xiaoxiao quickly changed the subject: "Hey, Sister Chunya, there's no need to feed the rabbits water today."

Chunya came back to her senses and was stunned: "Why? It's only noon; aren't they supposed to be fed three times a day?"

Jiang Xiaoxiao put down her book, walked over, and glanced at the chopped green grass by her feet—it was all fresh and succulent—then explained: "Rabbits shouldn't be fed too much water, or they'll get diarrhea."

A rabbit's digestive system is unique; its large intestine is very short and cannot hold too much content. Excessive water intake leads to the intestines being overloaded, and over time, the rabbit's digestive tract will be ruined.

Generally speaking, if rabbits are fed dry grass every day, then water should be provided appropriately. But the green grass Chunya had been cutting back these past few days was fresh and full of moisture; the rabbits had already extracted enough water from this food, so one should feed them as little water as possible—just a tiny bit a day is enough.

She had already fed them some ability water in the morning, so they had enough for today and naturally shouldn't be fed any more.

Listening to Jiang Xiaoxiao's explanation, Chunya nodded as if she understood: "So that's how it is. Then I'll feed the three rabbits at my house less water too."

Jiang Xiaoxiao curved her eyebrows.

A few days ago, the rabbits at her house had given birth; out of the twelve rabbits, more than half were females. A single rabbit could produce about 5 to 8 offspring, and with dozens of baby rabbits suddenly appearing, their rabbit hutch was almost out of room!

Originally, she had only promised to give Chunya one rabbit, but later she thought that a single female rabbit couldn't breed, so she simply gave her two—one male and one female—to make a pair.

Later on, there were so many rabbits at home that Chunya could barely take care of them, so Jiang Xiaoxiao simply gave her another female rabbit.

After finishing her talk with Chunya, Jiang Xiaoxiao went to find her mother.

At this moment, Jiang Wei was mixing the bricks, ceramic shards, and powder ground from waste slag from the furnace that she had prepared over the past few days, then adding the fired quicklime in proportion, and finally pouring in water to stir.

As Jiang Wei stirred continuously, the sticky cement gradually took form.

Jiang Xiaoxiao's eyes lit up; the texture of this cement was almost the same as what she had seen in the modern era. Her mother had succeeded!

However, Jiang Wei was not very satisfied.

She casually took a brick, coated it with cement, and stuck it to the wall to test it. Once the cement dried, she used some force and was still able to pry the brick off.

Jiang Wei frowned and shook her head: "... The viscosity and strength are not enough."

"..." Jiang Xiaoxiao sighed helplessly. She actually felt that this level was already quite good; after all, not everyone could have such great strength as her mother.

In this era, most families just used mud bricks to build walls—they would make wooden frames, mix in water, mud, sand, and straw... that was how they made bricks for building walls. Unlike her family, which not only used high-quality blue bricks to build the house but also used cement as an adhesive.

The strength of a house built with this cement and blue bricks was already comparable to modern construction. Judging by her mother's intentions, she was probably trying to build a base building as indestructible as those in the apocalypse?

But one had to consider the materials available in this era; there were no steel bars or concrete here...

"Mother..." Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at the materials all over the ground, recalled the encyclopedia she had been reading these past few days, and said thoughtfully: "I read in a book that you can grind these materials repeatedly; the finer they are ground, the higher the strength." (End of chapter)