Chapter 136

136. Chapter 136: Zhao Wulai Begs for Help

This autumn rain fell for more than ten days and finally stopped.

In the past few days, except for Chunya, who carried a back basket of green grass every day to feed the poultry of Jiang Xiaoxiao's family, the rest of the people who came to work at her house were delayed by this rain.

Liu Dagang and Zhao Youcai were busy baking rice at home and had to go up the mountain to cut firewood in the rain. Zhao Dasao went home to rest temporarily because the kiln couldn't be used due to the continuous rain.

"Sister Xiaoxiao, the rain has stopped, here is your umbrella." Chunya returned the oil-paper umbrella that Jiang Xiaoxiao had previously lent to her mother.

Because of the continuous rain, she was small and it was troublesome to wear a coir raincoat, so Jiang Xiaoxiao simply let her use it all the time. Now that the rain had stopped, she had to return it.

The price of an oil-paper umbrella wasn't cheap. She had only seen young ladies and wives of wealthy families use them in town before. They, the peasant folk, all used coir raincoats.

In the village, coir raincoats were generally woven with coir grass and thatch. These were available in ponds, ditches, or by the river. They were cut during the dog days and spread on flat ground to dry, and then they could be woven into coir raincoats.

Jiang Xiaoxiao took the oil-paper umbrella handed over by Chunya, looked up at the sky that had already cleared, and said: "Sister Chunya, tomorrow, ask your mother to continue to come to our house to watch the kiln."

Since the rain had stopped, the matter of building the house couldn't be delayed. The cement at home was probably not enough, so they had to continue burning lime.

"..." Chunya nodded silently and didn't speak.

"What's wrong, Sister Chunya?" Jiang Xiaoxiao discovered her abnormality, "Did something happen at your house?"

"My father... Zhao Wulai came to find my mother again..." Chunya bit her lip and changed her words, "He said that Widow Xu is pregnant with his child and can't do heavy work, so he wants my mother to go help him harvest the rice..."

Jiang Xiaoxiao: "..."

How can a person be shameless to this extent?

"Then did your mother go?" She asked.

Chunya shook her head vigorously: "My mother won't go, so he stays at our house and won't leave, and scolds my mother for not remembering the old feelings..."

Hearing this, Jiang Xiaoxiao was almost laughed at by anger. A man cheated, fooled around with a mistress until she was pregnant, and finally, after being with the mistress, he still wanted his ex-wife to be his ox and horse. Otherwise, it was not remembering the old feelings. Where did he get the face to say such things?

"Your mother did the right thing." Jiang Xiaoxiao gave Zhao Dasao a thumbs up, "Zhao Wulai has the time to harass your house, he could have harvested the rice. He is just lazy and doesn't want to work, and wants your mother to serve him like before."

The land at Zhao Wulai's house wasn't much, and it was left by his ancestors. In the end, it wouldn't exceed 20 mu in his hands. If he and Widow Xu were diligent, they would have finished harvesting in five or six days.

"Sister Xiaoxiao, you don't know..." Chunya suddenly lowered her voice, "I specifically passed by his fields when I went to cut grass today. Only half of the rice inside was harvested, and the rest was all flooded by the rain and all rotted in the fields..."

After listening to Chunya's words, Jiang Xiaoxiao showed an expression of "as expected."

Previously, a small half of the people in the village didn't listen to the Li Zheng's words to harvest the rice in advance. Zhao Wulai was one of them. The rice in the fields was beaten to pieces by the hail, and he was lazy and didn't want to go to rescue it. It wasn't until almost everyone in the village had finished harvesting the rice and the rain hadn't stopped that he realized the seriousness of the matter.

He hurriedly asked Widow Xu to go to the fields with him to harvest the rice, but Widow Xu was unwilling. It was raining outside, and the ground was slippery and easy to fall. She used the child in her belly as an excuse not to go.

But she was a smart person. She knew that those dozens of mu of rice were the only source of rations for the family, so she instigated Zhao Wulai to find Zhao Dasao to help harvest the rice.

In her eyes, Zhao Dasao was an honest, dutiful, and cowardly rural woman. Since the divorce, she had no source of livelihood and had two daughters to raise. At worst, she would come to help harvest the rice and give her a few jin of grain.

But in the end, Zhao Wulai not only didn't find anyone, but was also driven out.

He didn't understand. Clearly, Zhao Dasao used to be someone who didn't fight back when beaten or scold back when scolded. As long as he opened his mouth slightly, she would do whatever he asked. Now she dared not listen to his words and even dared to take a broom to drive him away!

Zhao Wulai was so angry at the time that he started to beat her. He wanted Zhao Dasao to kneel down and beg him like before, but before he could make a move, he was pulled by Zhao Dasao with a broom and howled like a ghost.

He wanted to fight back, but his strength was not as good as Zhao Dasao, who was used to farm work, and he was beaten and howled.

The people in the village heard the sound and all came out to watch the fun.

He was both ashamed and angry. The woman who used to let him beat and scold her dared to have such great strength. He couldn't beat Zhao Dasao at all, and he was made a joke of. In the end, he could only sneak away.

After listening to Chunya's vivid description, Jiang Xiaoxiao couldn't help but applaud Zhao Dasao's current approach: "Auntie Zhao is doing well! Zhao Wulai is a bully who fears the strong and bullies the weak. As long as your mother is not afraid of him and dares to fight back, Zhao Wulai won't dare to harass your house again."

"That's right, my mother is very powerful now!" Chunya straightened her little chest with pride, her little face full of smiles, "It's just... a pity for so much rice."

Although Zhao Wulai finally went to rescue the rice, it was too late, and more than half of the rice rotted in the fields.

He was reluctant to heat the bed to dry the rice, and even more unwilling to go up the mountain to cut firewood in the heavy rain. The rice he harvested was piled up in the house wet, regardless of whether it was moldy or not.

Jiang Xiaoxiao sneered: "I'll see what he does when it's time to pay taxes."

With the end of this heavy rain, the people in the village also started to get busy.

Jiang Xiaoxiao followed her mother to take the fabric to Qiulian Niang this day, and happened to run into Qiulian Niang about to go out.

"Hey, Xiaoxiao, why are you here? I was just about to find you." Qiulian Niang pointed to the several large sacks of grain bundled in the courtyard, "My family's rice has dried, and I want to take it to town to sell some. I went to borrow the ox cart from Uncle Zhao early this morning, but his ox cart had already been borrowed by people in the village, so I thought about borrowing your carriage to help carry it."

"No problem." Jiang Wei nodded and agreed.

After saying this, she handed the basket containing the fabric to Jiang Xiaoxiao, then turned and went home to pull the carriage.

It just so happened that she also had to go to the carpentry shop in town. The rain had stopped, and the matter of building the house should also be arranged.

Jiang Xiaoxiao turned and handed the basket to Qiulian Niang again, saying: "Auntie Qiulian, there is some fabric in here. Can you help my mother and me make a few sets of autumn clothes? We will pay for the labor."

"It's just a helping hand, what labor money do I need." Qiulian Niang took the basket and gave her a strange look.

Jiang Xiaoxiao smiled and didn't speak. There was a piece of cloth covering the basket, so it was impossible to see what fabric was inside, and there was half a tael of silver pressed under the fabric.

Qiulian Niang turned back to put the basket away, came out, and waited with Jiang Xiaoxiao for a while. Jiang Wei drove the carriage over.

Jiang Wei lifted the curtain, and Zhao Youcai also came out to help move all the sacks of rice that his family wanted to sell into the carriage.