Lu Yuning truly couldn’t understand whether Lu Shier was too clever for his own good, or if he was simply missing a screw in his head.
This was obviously the kind of petty trick adults could easily catch, yet he still dared to pull it so openly?
But after thinking about it again, Lu Shier was only eleven years old, in fourth grade and about to enter fifth. Kids at that age really were often overly self-confident and thought they were smarter than they actually were.
With all the commotion outside, Father Lu and Mother Lu naturally couldn’t sleep either. But they had no intention of going out to interfere. Including Grandma Lu and the others—it was obvious they had all heard it too, but none of them got up to open the door and go outside. Only Lu Yuning, whose bed was next to the window, pushed it open and stuck her head out to watch.
Seeing their little daughter like that, Father Lu and Mother Lu couldn’t help laughing. Father Lu lowered his voice and said to Mother Lu, “This child does seem much livelier today.”
Usually, this child was always quiet and silent, with such a soft temperament that Father Lu and Mother Lu had worried about her plenty.
But they were both busy and had little time to look after their youngest daughter. They also never quite understood what was going on inside her little head, so all they could do was try their best to let her eat a little better.
Mother Lu smiled and said, “Maybe she had a lot of fun playing outside today?”
After all, children were basically just about eating, drinking, and playing. Though the family did assign her chores, those chores were really just like play. Grandma Lu would never truly expect her to earn many work points or make any major contribution to the family. Being able to help a little was already good enough.
After all, she was still very young.
With her sharp ears and clear hearing, Lu Yuning: …
But right now, she couldn’t care less about what Father Lu and Mother Lu were saying. She was completely absorbed in watching the excitement next door!
Clearly, the group of witnesses Third Grandma had brought had caught Ninth Grandma completely off guard. Ninth Grandma glared fiercely at Lu Shier, but she still stiffened her neck and said stubbornly, “The biscuits belong to my Fortune Child. She can give them to whoever she wants. No one ever said she had to give one to your Yushan! Hmph, Third Sister-in-law, I respect your seniority and call you Third Sister-in-law, but that doesn’t mean you can be unreasonable! What belongs to my family is ours to deal with however we want—you have no right to interfere!”
Third Grandma had long known what kind of person this clan sister-in-law of hers was. Seeing her now still stubbornly refusing to admit fault and continuing to argue shamelessly, she wasn’t surprised at all.
She couldn’t even be bothered to argue with her anymore. She simply kept raising her voice and shouting—
“Old Ninth, are you coming out or not?! Are you going to handle this matter or not?!”
The people watching immediately thought the same thing—right, Third Sister-in-law had been shouting for so long already, so why hadn’t Old Ninth (Ninth Brother) come out yet?
Ninth Grandma was furious. “Stop shouting! Even if you drag my man out here, I’ll still say the same thing—what belongs to my family is none of your business!”
Third Grandma let out a cold snort. “Fine then. Return the pig grass my Yushan cut for your family!”
“A whole family of cowards! All you know is bullying the weak while fearing the strong, and using dirty tricks! Your hearts are black to the core!”
Ninth Grandma: …
She really hadn’t seen a single extra bundle of pig grass brought back, but seeing how certain Third Grandma was, even Ninth Grandma started to feel suspicious.
Could it be that her own grandson had really cheated them out of their pig grass?
But at this moment, she absolutely couldn’t admit it! If she did, wouldn’t that mean handing people a handle to use against her?
Her eyes rolled once, and she immediately shouted, “What pig grass? Our family never had any pig grass cut by your family!”
Third Grandma laughed angrily. “Go ask your Lu Shier! How many children in the whole brigade haven’t cut pig grass for them?! Day after day, just from work points alone, it’s already no small amount!”
What?!
Ninth Grandma was stunned, because she really had never seen that before!
And besides, Lu Dahong, the pigsty scorekeeper, had always only recorded twelve work points for their family’s pig grass!
Not just anyone in the brigade could cut pig grass. Only families with children between four and ten years old qualified, and only then would the brigade arrange for them to cut pig grass to earn work points.
Ninth Grandma’s family was about the same as Lu Yuning’s family—only Lu Shier, Lu Shisan, and Fortune Child qualified under the rules to cut pig grass. Three baskets of pig grass earned four work points, so three children meant twelve work points.
There were quite a few families like that in the brigade. Honestly, the brigade’s pig farm didn’t even necessarily need that much pig grass. It was mostly just a way to give the children some manageable work to do and count as a form of care.
Families with slightly better living conditions usually didn’t want their own children competing for those work points.
—If the brigade wanted to help, it should first help children from poorer families, right? They didn’t lack those four work points, so why fight others for them?
Grandma Lu was one of those people. She had always disliked taking advantage of things like that.
So even though both Lu Yuting and Twelfth Cousin Lu Yubo from Second Uncle’s family met the brigade’s qualifications, she still had the two grandsons follow the adults to work in the fields instead. Even if they weren’t as good as adults at harvesting grain yet and couldn’t do as much, taking it slower still meant they could earn a few work points.
That was at least better than half-grown kids rushing to cut pig grass, finishing it in no time, and then having nothing to do.
And besides, earning work points in the fields meant you could stand straighter—no one could say it was just because the brigade was taking care of you!
Even if they earned fewer work points, it was still one part labor, one part reward!
Third Grandma’s family was different. Although she was strong-willed and had indeed raised her two children by herself, and now even her grandsons were married and had children, their family circumstances truly weren’t very good.
At the root of it, it was because they had a second grandson studying in university.
Yes—Lu Yushan’s real eldest brother, Lu Yuhui.
Back in 1958, when times were hardest, he had still managed to get into university and was now studying over in Haishi. Third Grandma regularly had to save money to send to him, helping support his studies.
On top of that, in the past two years, Lu Yushan’s eldest cousin and third cousin also needed to get married and build houses, so the family really was tight on money.
Even the few work points from cutting pig grass were something Third Grandma couldn’t bear to give up, so she had Lu Yushan cut pig grass in the mornings for four work points, and in the afternoons he would still follow the adults to the fields to earn a few more.
And Lu Yushan had always been sensible. He knew very clearly that their family had fewer brothers, so they had to work together if they wanted life to improve. That was why he had always been hardworking and willing to help the family.
But he was still a child after all. Seeing Fortune Child eating biscuits he had never even seen before, he couldn’t help wanting to taste one.
He had only wanted to trade for one piece to try.
He could never have imagined that because of one biscuit, Lu Shier would nearly smash him to death!
In Lu Yushan’s mind, he was properly exchanging labor for it—it was a willing trade between both sides. How could it possibly escalate to this?
Even later, when Lu Shier regretted it, got angry, and fought with him—that was just how village children usually handled things.
He truly had never expected Lu Shier to be this vicious!
He had directly picked up a stone and smashed it toward his forehead!
After splitting open his head, he had even dumped him halfway down the mountain and run home without telling any adults to go check on him.
If not for the two boys who were close friends with Lu Yushan, he might have bled to death right there on the hillside.
That was exactly why Third Grandma was so furious!
If it had just been children from both families fighting and everyone ended up bruised and swollen, she wouldn’t have said much. Rural children fought all the time—who didn’t?
But this kind of dirty fighting meant to take someone’s life—this she absolutely could not accept!
Not only could Third Grandma not accept it—even the crowd watching couldn’t accept it.
Now that the whole matter had become clear, everyone felt even more that Ninth Grandma had completely spoiled and ruined that child. How could she still be so stubbornly protective?
They were all relatives from the same clan!
If they could use dirty tricks like this even against family, then who would dare keep close ties with their household in the future?
Who knew—maybe if you said one wrong thing, they’d secretly use dirty tricks on you too!
Things like this—once people started imagining too much, it quickly turned into everyone feeling unsafe.
At this moment, Lu Yuning could clearly see that the expressions of the people around were all ugly, especially since Ninth Grandpa was still hiding like a turtle in its shell, refusing to show his face. That made everyone watching even more displeased!
After all, Ninth Grandpa was the true head of that household. With things having blown up this badly, for the head of the family to stay silent and never show his face—one could imagine exactly what the people in the brigade would think.
But Ninth Grandma wasn’t thinking about any of that.
She only cared about how to reject this whole matter. No matter what, she would never admit it!
Even if beaten to death, she would not admit it!
“You say it happened, so that makes it true? Anyway, I never saw any extra pig grass in my house, and I never saw any extra work points either!”
At that moment, the brigade leader, Great Grandpa, arrived, along with the team leader, Fifth Grandpa. Beside Fifth Grandpa was Lu Yukun—the cousin from Fifth Uncle’s branch who had run to the fields that morning shouting that Lu Yuning had been beaten.
Lu Yuning raised her brows slightly.
Looks like Third Grandma had really come fully prepared to make trouble for Ninth Grandma.
Sure enough, the moment Great Grandpa arrived, he said coldly, “Old Ninth’s family, hurry up and get Old Ninth out here!”
“What kind of nonsense is this? The head of the family can still sit still at a time like this? How exactly does he run his household?”
Ninth Grandma choked on her words immediately.
But facing Great Grandpa—a man who had fought the Japanese, who was said to have been a high-ranking officer in the army, and who later returned to farm because he didn’t want to burden the country after the founding of the nation, eventually becoming the brigade leader after the commune system was established—she truly didn’t dare shout at him the way she shouted at Third Grandma, a martyr’s widow.
Everyone knew Great Grandpa had really killed people in war.
It was said he had even received military honors while fighting the Japanese—some kind of first-class merit or something.
Anyway, just looking at the scar on his forehead was enough to make her tremble inside.
At that moment, Ninth Grandpa inside the house also heard Great Grandpa’s voice and immediately knew things were bad. He hurriedly threw on his clothes while running outside, putting on the appearance that he had just gotten up.
“Aiya, Elder Brother, what brings you here?”
Great Grandpa’s face was stern.
“Hmph. If I hadn’t come, were you planning to hide inside forever?”
“Absolutely ridiculous. Your own family is making such a mess, and you’re already a grandfather—how can you still be this muddleheaded?”
Old Ninth had always been slippery since he was young. Normally that wasn’t such a big deal, but this kind of slippery behavior without any principles was something Great Grandpa absolutely despised.
Fifth Grandpa also looked full of disdain. Pulling his grandson Lu Yukun forward, he said,
“My Yukun told me everything. Old Ninth, your Fu Bao has been using candy and biscuits and things like that to get people to cut pig grass for her. And your Lu Shier even told Dahong, the one recording the work points, that these should be counted as private work points for each household, not public family work points. What exactly is going on here? Explain it clearly to us!”
Oh ho!
Lu Yuning’s eyes lit up.
So there was actually more to this story!
So Lu Shier and Lu Shisan had been coaxing Fu Bao into trading the things Lu Dage sent back for work points, and then secretly recording those points into their own private household ledgers?
Wouldn’t that mean the eldest branch of Ninth Grandma’s family was basically giving money to the second and third branches for free?
Tsk tsk tsk.
That was way smarter than directly taking money from Ninth Grandma—or from the eldest branch themselves.
And equally disgusting.
They were clearly taking advantage of the eldest branch, yet acting like they weren’t benefiting at all.
What talent!
And besides, who would guard against children that young?
Ninth Grandma’s family was similar to Lu Yuning’s family. Their households had been split too, but they still all lived together—completely different from Lu Yuning’s family, where the houses had been properly divided with separate courtyards and even side doors.
They truly all lived in one courtyard, with only one main gate, separated by a few small walls and calling that a division of households.
Back then, Great Grandpa had opposed it.
But Ninth Grandpa and Ninth Grandma had pestered him for a full three years before he finally pinched his nose and reluctantly agreed because he couldn’t be bothered anymore.
People like them—thick-skinned and shameless—were the kind he least wanted to deal with.
This matter might not seem huge, but it couldn’t be let go easily.
Most importantly, it had nearly cost someone’s life.
That was why Great Grandpa had decided to properly teach Ninth Grandpa’s family a lesson.
As for the work points, Great Grandpa didn’t really want to interfere much. It was still their own family business, and he had no interest in getting too involved.
But a warning still had to be given—they absolutely could not keep doing this in the future.
Watching this entire drama unfold truly opened Lu Yuning’s eyes.
She had never expected that something as small as pig grass and a single biscuit could lead to something this complicated.
Sure enough, life in the countryside was far livelier than life in the city.