Chapter 705: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 705 Li Xiulan's Attitude Toward Liu Xiaoli

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

She worked until past eight in the evening, the sky pitch black, before the foundation pouring was finished.

Everyone dragged their tired bodies to Wang Changgen's home for dinner.

Li Xiulan had long prepared a table full of dishes to entertain everyone.

After dinner, Zhou Hongwei took his construction team and left.

After the foundation was poured, they had to wait for it to harden naturally before resuming work, and this hardening time was at least one week.

So Zhou Hongwei agreed with Wang Changgen and Li Xiulan to resume work after one week.

Wang Changgen smiled and agreed readily.

But after they left, Wang Changgen wore a sullen face, smoking.

"What's wrong with you? Such a bitter face!"

As Li Xiulan cleared the bowls and chopsticks, she noticed Wang Changgen was acting strange and asked him.

"I have a bad feeling, always thinking this house-building will end up unfinished again."

Wang Changgen exhaled smoke, his tone heavy.

"Ptooey ptooey ptooey! Don't say such unlucky things, work just started, why say this!"

Li Xiulan hurriedly stopped him, and said:

"This time we invited Wu Banxian to calculate, it's absolutely impossible to end up unfinished again, don't imagine things without cause!"

Wang Changgen gave a dry laugh.

He wasn't imagining things without cause.

He felt Liu Xiaoli was an unstable factor.

His intuition told him that if Liu Xiaoli continued staying at the construction site, his house would very likely have accidents.

"Zhou Hongwei said Liu Xiaoli has all sorts of ailments; today I saw her work, she'd rest after not working for a while, her resting time was longer than her working time, I'm afraid she'll collapse at the construction site, then our house will be finished for good."

Wang Changgen voiced his concerns at this time, then asked Li Xiulan:

"Do you have any way to tactfully persuade her to leave, not let her work anymore?"

Wang Changgen felt Li Xiulan knew Liu Xiaoli couldn't do much work and would surely agree with his suggestion to fire Liu Xiaoli.

Unexpectedly Li Xiulan said:

"Why persuade someone to leave? Hongwei-ge told me this Liu Xiaoli is quite pitiful, so old, full of ailments not to mention, divorced several times, and not a single child, just let her stay, anyway a small worker doesn't cost much money, she can't do much work, isn't there Xinghua to cover?"

Hearing this, Wang Changgen's face was full of surprise, his eyes showing blame:

"Doesn't cost much money, but doesn't it still cost money? This money all has to come from us! Aren't you usually stingy with money? Why are you so generous now!"

Li Xiulan truthfully said:

"Back when you went outside to work, all year you didn't send much money back, I followed Dajun Shu, Hongwei-ge and them to do masonry work, back then my waist hurt so much I couldn't do much work, but they still took me in, it was exactly them taking me in that I got through that difficult time, so I can understand Liu Xiaoli's mood, I feel we shouldn't drive her away, she's already suffered enough, you should accumulate some virtue!"

This was indeed an important reason Li Xiulan chose to keep Liu Xiaoli.

Back then she was a rural woman needing to raise three children, just as her mother's death spent all her savings, and the house was only half built, needing money everywhere, it was Lin Dajun and Zhou Hongwei who took her in, giving her a meager economic source.

She understood too well what this economic source meant for a woman.

That might be the difference between life and death.

"That Liu Xiaoli has only worked one day, maybe later her ailments will heal and she can work normally, now you're picking on her and saying you want to fire her, do you have a grudge against Liu Xiaoli?"

Li Xiulan glanced at Wang Changgen, uttering a soul-searching question.

Wang Changgen gave a dry laugh, making excuses:

"What grudge could I have with her? We're not even close!"

Strictly speaking, Wang Changgen and Liu Xiaoli indeed had a grudge.

He hated Liu Xiaoli for two-timing; back then Liu Xiaoli went behind his back to be with Guo Zheng'an, which made him feel resentment.

But actually, when he was with Liu Xiaoli, wasn't he also two-timing?

He had married Li Xiulan and had three children, and still went to Dongguan to work with Liu Xiaoli, that could only say he was actually the same sort of person.

Everyone was half a catty eight taels, shouldn't blame anyone.

"No grudge then let her stay, a woman like her, it's really not easy."

Li Xiulan finally said this, counting as nailing down this matter.

Actually before, when Liu Xiaoli followed Lin Dajun's team to Shangou Village to build a house, she had suspected Liu Xiaoli and Wang Changgen's relationship wasn't simple.

But those were past things, Li Xiulan had long let go.

She no longer had love for Wang Changgen, naturally wouldn't hate Liu Xiaoli because of Wang Changgen's old matters.

She simply felt Liu Xiaoli was pitiful, so was willing to keep letting her do small work.

Time passed in a blink, one week passed, Zhou Hongwei brought his construction team to resume work again.

Liu Xiaoli still worked and rested intermittently, but it didn't affect the project progress, after all Liang Xinghua covered for her.

Liang Xinghua worked very actively, unwilling to rest for a moment; as soon as the work at hand was done, he took the initiative to help with other things.

Zhou Hongwei's look at Liang Xinghua gradually changed from rejection to appreciation.

Several times he even praised Liang Xinghua in front of his nephew Zhou Zhihao:

"If you kid were as active and initiative as Xinghua, what thing couldn't be done?"

Zhou Zhihao just smiled honestly and nodded, not refuting.

He was like a square piece of wood—push him and he moves a little, don't push and he doesn't move at all. After following Zhou Hongwei for over a year, he still hadn't mastered much of the craft.

If you let him build a wall by himself, he'd build it crooked and curved, enough to drive Zhou Hongwei to death.

Days passed, the project progressed day by day, and before long it was the end of April. The house's initial model was gradually taking shape, but Wang Zhanggen kept worrying in his heart that with Liu Xiaoli around, accidents would happen. Yet during this period, nothing unexpected occurred.

One could only say that Wang Zhanggen's intuition, like his eye for people, had always been this inaccurate.

That day Li Xiulan was making lunch for the construction team when her mobile phone rang.

She took it out and saw it was Wang Erhai calling.

"Hello, Erhai, what's wrong?"

"Mom, Mei Qi and I are going back to our hometown tomorrow morning."

"Good to come back. You haven't been back in a long time. They're building a new house at home! You and Mei Qi coming back—is there something you need to do?"

"Mei Qi says we should go back together to worship at the ancestral hall, so she can get pregnant sooner."

"Then come back. Worship the ancestors more, let the ancestors bless you—maybe you really can get pregnant sooner."

Li Xiulan smiled.

Liu Meiqi wanted to get pregnant sooner, and she was naturally happy about it.

Like Wang Zhanggen, she also looked forward to holding a grandson soon.

But Wang Erhai wasn't too happy.

He didn't want to have a child so early. Now was the rising phase of his career, and he didn't want a child to hold him back.

But that wasn't the most important reason. The most important reason was that he simply didn't love Liu Meiqi.

Plus, Liu Meiqi had a terrible personality and picked fights with him at the slightest thing. His patience was nearly worn thin.

Ever since they got married, he had been thinking about divorce.

But Liu Meiqi hadn't committed any principle-level mistake, and he couldn't bring himself to initiate the topic, so he could only muddle through.

At this point Liu Meiqi told him she wanted to prepare for pregnancy and have a child. How could he be willing? But Liu Meiqi insisted on preparing for pregnancy and having a child. If he didn't agree, she'd pick a fight with him. He couldn't take it anymore and could only compromise.

However, getting pregnant wasn't that easy.

Especially for a woman like Liu Meiqi, who used to be a sales champion in real estate. Wanting to get pregnant was even harder for her.

Since the Spring Festival, now nearing the end of April and almost May, she demanded Wang Erhai give her "public grain" every day. Wang Erhai was nearly drained dry by her, but there was still no movement, so she was getting anxious.

She first suspected Wang Erhai was incapable and insisted on dragging him to get checked. The results came back showing Wang Erhai's sperm quality was very good. It was her own problem—she had inflammation, and her uterine wall was thin, making conception difficult.

She said she wanted to go back to Wang Erhai's hometown to worship at the ancestral hall. That way, maybe she could get pregnant.

Wang Erhai said she was neurotic. What connection did having a child have with worshiping at the ancestral hall?

She said she had to worship. If she didn't, it wouldn't do. If she worshiped and still couldn't get pregnant, they'd make other plans.

Wang Erhai was driven crazy by her and could only agree to take her back for a trip.