Her childhood experience made it difficult for Hu Qingqing to rely on Qin Guihua as her mother. She was repulsed by Qin Guihua's teachings on her daily life and did not want to become someone like her mother, but she could not get rid of her influence.

Hu Qingqing's personality looks a bit similar to Xueya's, but in fact she is far less decisive and ruthless than Xueya. Sometimes she wants to act according to her own ideas, but she still hesitates before doing so.

Just like Qin Guihua urged her to settle down as soon as possible, she expressed her thoughts to Qin Guihua more than once, but every time she saw Qin Guihua crying worriedly for her, she wondered if she had gone too far and should not harm her mother.

Worried and sad.

Compromising again and again cannot really solve the conflict, it will only deepen the conflict, making both mother and daughter unhappy. Today's anger has completely exploded, which is not necessarily a bad thing. They both need to reflect on it.

After venting hard, Hu Qingqing's mood improved a little. Qin Xiaoxiao fetched a basin of water and gently scrubbed her tear-stained face.

"I'll do it myself." Hu Qingqing was embarrassed, took the handkerchief and said in a hoarse voice: "When grandpa and grandma ask about it later, don't mention the quarrel between me and my mother."

"Well, I just said that you came to me for fun and you want to stay at home for a while." Qin Xiaoxiao responded and then suggested: "Tomorrow I will go to Zhuangzi to collect rent. You can come with me and take a look.

.”

Hu Qingqing's eyes flashed with something strange, and she nodded without hesitation: "Okay, I'll go."

Qin Xiaoxiao thought of what Liujin said, and decided to find out if it was true, so she stared at her cousin's face, not missing her every expression: "Sister Qingqing, didn't you think it through before and didn't reject my sister-in-law's arrangement?

A blind date?"

Hu Qingqing's face was slightly stiff, and she wrung her fingers unconsciously: "Xiaoxiao, I, I..." She secretly looked at her cousin's face, and two blushes gradually hit her cheeks: "I don't know how to tell you,

You will definitely laugh at me."

Seeing this, Qin Xiaoxiao knew what was going on: "How did you know I would laugh at you if you didn't tell me? Well, if you don't want to say it, forget it. Tell me when you want to say it."

When Hu Qingqing heard this, she no longer hesitated, took her hand and said: "You are my best sister, I shouldn't have kept this matter from you, but I was confused before and didn't tell you in time.

"

Qin Xiaoxiao secretly breathed a sigh of relief and moved closer to her: "We are such old people, it is normal to have our own little secrets. If you are willing to tell me, I will listen carefully and won't tell anyone."

Hu Qingqing relaxed and listened carefully to make sure there was no one outside. She blushed with embarrassment and whispered: "I, I have someone I like, and I want to marry him as my wife."

Qin Xiaoxiao's eyes widened and she pretended to be surprised: "Sister Qingqing, are you telling the truth? When did it happen? Who is this person? When did you meet? Does he like you too?

Did you tell me when I would come to your house to propose marriage?"

Hu Qingqing was stunned by this series of questions. She had not planned to go into details at first, but subconsciously replied: "It was just two months ago? He is from the city. I met him when I went to the market in the city.

He, he likes me too? He even gave me a hairpin."

When she said this, a sweet smile appeared on her face, which made people want to laugh together.

Qin Xiaoxiao did not smile, but said tactfully: "Cousin? You have only known each other for two months? Do you know him and his family's situation?"

Hu Qingqing was afraid that she would misunderstand her sweetheart, so she hurriedly said: "Xiaoxiao, he is a good person, he is definitely not lying to me, really!"

Qin Xiaoxiao: "..."

She smiled helplessly and comforted her excited cousin: "I didn't say he was a bad person. I just felt that two months was too short. It is difficult to understand a person thoroughly. His true appearance may be different from what you see.

.”

Hu Qingqing shook her head and said firmly: "Xiaoxiao, others may do this, but Brother Li will not!"

Then, she told how the two met.

That day, she went to the city to sell eggs with several girls of the same age in the village. Unexpectedly, she met some scoundrels. The scoundrels wanted to buy their eggs. They deliberately found faults in the eggs in order to lower the price and tried to force them to buy them for half of the money.

Naturally, she refused and started quarreling with some scoundrels. Those scoundrels were so shameless that they deliberately tried to pull things off with her, hoping to take advantage of the girls.

A few little girls were no match for a few rogues, and they were soon surrounded by them and teased them wantonly. There were many people watching at the time, but no one came forward to stop them.

Just when several girls were about to despair, Brother Li, whom Hu Qingqing called "Brother Li", rushed out and knocked several rogues to the ground with one against four, helping them get out of the predicament of being humiliated in public.

"Xiaoxiao, at that time I wanted to thank Brother Li and give him all the remaining eggs, but he refused to take them. In the end, he was so pestered by me that he had no choice but to ask me to do him a small favor. As a result,

He took me to the market for a walk."

At this point, Hu Qingqing smiled again: "He is really a good person who shows kindness without repaying it. Even now I don't know what I have done to help him."

Qin Xiaoxiao nodded. According to Sister Qingqing, this person named Li is indeed good. But she was still worried and asked: "Did you look for him or did he look for you later? Who else did you have contact with?"

Know?"

"I didn't look for him, and he didn't look for me. I met him on the street accidentally." The smile on Hu Qingqing's face became sweeter. She hugged Qin Xiaoxiao's arm and said, "Do you think he and I are the same?"

It's like the song in the opera, 'We are destined to meet each other thousands of miles away'?"

Qin Xiaoxiao had never been in love before and could not understand her feelings for Brother Li. She nodded casually: "Probably so."

As long as it's not a bad fate, that's fine.

Hu Qingqing became even happier and said shyly: "Tomorrow I will accompany you to collect the rent. If I have time, I will take you to see him secretly. If you see him in person, you will know that what I said is not an exaggeration at all. He is really a person."

a good person."

Qin Xiaoxiao just had this idea and agreed: "Okay, I will call Brother Chen later and ask him to go to the farm to help tomorrow, so it doesn't matter if I am not there.

The two stayed in the room talking for a long time, and when they came out, dinner was already cooked.

At the dinner table, Mr. Qin really asked. Hearing Qin Xiaoxiao say that the Hu siblings came to play with her, he didn't ask any more questions.

Others asked their siblings to live in peace and go back whenever they wanted, but Liu Jin was so happy that he wanted to stay until the end of the year before going back.

After the meal, Qin Xiaoxiao said that she would ask Chen Feng to help collect the rent tomorrow. Naturally, Qin Shan would not object and went to the old house to mention it to Chen Feng on her behalf.

Chen Feng responded immediately and said there was no problem.

The next morning, everyone set off after breakfast. Qin Shan and Chen Feng sat outside to catch the carriage, while Qin Xiaoxiao and Hu Qingqing sat inside. Liu Jin continued to be his follower and was the first to climb onto the carriage.

The small farm is located in a place called Laoniu Village on the outskirts of Le'an. Although it only has more than 50 acres, it is all high-quality fertile land and is connected in an excellent location. There is sufficient water for irrigation, as long as there is not a severe drought.

The harvest will not be bad even if there is a big flood.

Two years ago, Zhuangzi came under Qin Xiaoxiao's name, and she rented it directly to nearby villagers. The rent was 2.5% per acre, which was half a percent less than other households, so the tenants were rushing to rent.

The horse-drawn carriage drove slowly on the narrow village road.

Liu Jin opened the curtain and looked at the scenery outside with interest. Looking at the dilapidated adobe houses and grass sheds not far away that could be reached by the wind, he said with some disappointment: "It's not that we are closer to the county seat.

The richer you are, I think it’s not even as good as our village.”

Hu Qingqing rolled her eyes at him: "Aren't you talking nonsense? The fields they cultivated were all rented from the landlords. After paying the rent, only 50% of the remaining grain was left as a meal, and the rest was put into the grain depot.

, how much better can life be."

Liu Jin groaned and said in disbelief: "Why is this happening? They are already very pitiful without any land, but they have to hand over all the remaining grain. Can they still survive?"

"I don't know, ask your cousin."

Liujin stared at Qin Xiaoxiao with his elbows on his thighs, resting his chin on his hands as if listening to the story.

Qin Xiaoxiao did not smile, but talked about the history of Laoniu Village in a low tone.

The people of Laoniu Village, whose real surname is Chu, are the descendants of the founding father of the dynasty who held the iron book of alchemy. The founding father was upright and loved soldiers as much as his son, but his only son regarded wealth as his life.

The founding father made a lot of money and was very corrupt.

The key is that this person is still the Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs and is in charge of the world's grain tax. He is no different from a mouse that fell into a rice vat.

In the twelfth year of Tianyuan, the imperial court sent troops to resist the foreigners who repeatedly invaded the border. During this period, the Ministry of Household Affairs needed to continuously mobilize grain and grass to send to the front line. However, who would have thought that the huge grain depot was empty, not even a mouse in it.

Due to the lack of timely supplies of food and grass on the front line, the 50,000-strong army faced the enemy with empty stomachs. In the end, they were defeated and captured. They were trapped and killed outside the country overnight. Their skeletons have not yet been returned to their hometown.

Reports of the battle were reported back to the capital, causing a great shock to the government and the public. It is said that Taizu was so angry that he vomited blood and ordered the Ministry of Punishment to conduct a thorough investigation, and then the Minister of Household Affairs of the Chu family was found.

The only son caused a huge disaster, and the founding father knew that even if he killed the nine tribes, it would be difficult to atone for his sin. Before the Ministry of Punishment came to arrest the person, the old founding father took a knife and personally cut off the head of his son who was lying on the ground and begging, and then carried it

It brought the iron certificate of the alchemy book into the palace to meet the saint.

No one knows what the Founding Duke said to Taizu. Afterwards, the Founding Duke committed suicide, and all nine Chu family members were sent to Laoniu Village, which was named by Taizu himself. They were forced to farm like Lao Niu for generations, but they never had permanent land.

.

This nearly century-old story not only fascinated Liu Jin, but Hu Qingqing also listened with gusto. When they heard the thrilling, sad and angry parts, the siblings widened their eyes and opened their mouths to exclaim, with the same expressions.

When he finished listening to the story, he smashed Liu Jin and smacked his lips: "No wonder they are so poor that they don't even have their own land. It turns out that our ancestors have done great evil."

Hu Qingqing knocked on his forehead and took the opportunity to teach him a lesson: "So people should behave uprightly and not do bad things, otherwise they will harm others and destroy themselves, and even future generations will suffer."

Liu Jin shrank his neck and nodded repeatedly: "I will definitely not do anything bad!"

The three siblings did not deliberately lower their voices. Qin Shan and Chen Feng outside the carriage also listened to the history of Laoniu Village.

"Tsk, if I had known this, Zhuangzi shouldn't have bought it here." Qin Shan was quite annoyed and said to Chen Feng, who didn't know what he was thinking: "The entire Laoniu Village is full of descendants of the Chu family, even if they redeem themselves,

After so many years of sin, it can't offset fifty thousand lives, don't you think?"

The corner of Chen Feng's mouth curled up, revealing a hint of sarcasm: "The only son of the Chu family is the one who committed the most serious sins. It is their branch that should atone for his sins. How can those side branches who have not been favored by the Duke's government be innocent?"

Qin Shan thought it made sense and sighed: "Well, I can only say that they are unlucky. They did not reap the benefits and misfortunes came from the sky. This is fate!"

Fate? Chen Feng sneered and said nothing.

Not long after, the carriage drove into Laoniu Village and stopped in front of the village chief's house.

The village chief's house is an adobe house with only three rooms. It looks much neater than the shabby houses around it. The roof is also covered with tiles. It is also the only house covered with tiles in the entire Laoniu Village.

In the event of extreme wind and snow, this narrow and dark house can barely provide shelter for the villagers whose roofs were crushed or blown off.
To be continued...