Chapter 2 Beat Him
When Qian had cried enough and had recovered her breath, she opened the chest and took out a box from the bottom. She opened it and showed the money inside to her youngest son and daughter.
Inside were strings of money, quite heavy, and only two small pieces of silver, which were left over from building the house.
The only things she had saved at home were copper coins, and seeing the money, Qian couldn't help but wipe away her tears.
She counted the money, and found that she only had nine taels. The two pieces of silver added up to only one and a half taels.
Qian also took out the money box from the bedside table, which contained money for daily use. This period coincided with the autumn harvest, and the third and fourth sons went to work for the white landlord. After receiving their wages, she had not yet counted the money they handed in and put it in the cabinet for storage.
But this amount of money was not much, and it was counted and strung into strings, one hundred coins in a string, and ten strings made up a string.
Their luck was really bad. There were only six strings of money in the box, and there were still twenty or thirty cents of loose change left at the bottom of the box.
Qian looked at her daughter and then at her youngest son. She heard the screams outside getting louder and louder. She stood up, gave all the money to her youngest son to carry out, and then she held her daughter's hand and went out.
When Zhou Silang saw his mother coming out with the money box, he breathed a sigh of relief and almost couldn't help bursting into tears.
Manbao saw it clearly and was very angry with his fourth brother.
There are also gamblers in the village. The third household from their family is Uncle Zhou San’s. His son lost money in gambling half a year ago, so he brought people from the casino back and sold his wife and children to pay off the debt.
Their eldest niece is two years older than her and is a good friend of hers, so she remembered that gambling is a life-threatening thing. She doesn’t know whether it will cost her own life, but it will definitely cost the lives of her loved ones.
At that time, my father and mother taught my brothers and strictly ordered them not to gamble. They didn't expect that it would be their turn now.
Man Bao was so angry that he rushed forward and stomped Zhou Silang hard on the face.
Zhou Silang cried out, "Little sister, little sister, please don't step on me, I, I know I was wrong!"
Qian didn't stop him, but said to her husband: "The money is not enough, we still need four and a half taels."
Old Man Zhou frowned in sorrow, while Qian looked at her three daughters-in-law and said, "Take out whatever you have at home. It will be considered as a loan from your fourth brother. He will pay it back later."
Xiao Qian, Feng and He went to see their husbands, and when they saw them nod with grim expressions, they took their children back to the house to get the money.
The Zhou family has never divided up. All the money they earn has to be turned over to the public, and all the food and drinks are from the public. Qian and Old Man Zhou said a long time ago that if they wanted to divide up the family, unless they die, they would have to wait until all their children have started their own families.
But Qian also knew that a married son was different from an unmarried one , and he needed to have some money in his hands.
So she has always been very financially flexible. She collects all the harvest from the fields, but she only takes 60% of the money earned by each family through other channels, and gives the remaining 40% to each family.
For example, in the eldest wife's house, Xiao Qianshi worked as a kitchen helper in the school, earning at least a hundred coins a month. Except for the sixty coins that she had to hand over, the rest of the money was hers for the taking.
For example , the second son, when he went to work as a helper in the white landlord's house in his early years, secretly learned some carpentry skills, and he also knew how to weave rattan and bamboo. In his spare time, he could take the things he wove to the market to exchange for some money.
For example, the third son works without sparing any effort, and the manager of the white landlord likes to employ him the most. He is called upon for all the work, so he can also earn some money.
As for the remaining three younger sons, there was no hope for the fourth one as he was lying on the ground. The fifth and sixth were still young and any money they had was either coaxed away by their mother or their younger sister, or they had to ask their second brother to buy candy at the market. Even if they searched through all their clothes, they probably wouldn't find even two cents.
Qian didn't search for them.
The wives of the three families quickly took out their own private money and pooled it together, but it was still not enough, as they were still short of two strings of money.
Qian looked at the head of the family and his sons.
Little Qian was the first to lose patience. She sat down on the ground, patting her legs and saying, "Mom, we really have nothing left. We have taken out all the money we had prepared for my parents to buy cakes for the Mid-Autumn Festival. This is going to ruin our family!"
Qian was so angry that she slapped her and said, "Why are you crying? I'm not dead yet. I've survived the disaster. Are you still afraid of these two hundred coins?"
Manbao thought about it, ran back to the main house, took out a silver lock from his treasure box, and gave it to Qian, "Mom, use this one of mine."
Qian's face turned pale, and she immediately snatched the silver lock and put it in her arms, saying angrily: "I can't give you this thing, this is... this is what your father and mother gave you. The Taoist priest said that your life is precious, and you need something to hold it down. This is to hold down your life."
Old Zhou also said: "I can't give it to you."
The thug laughed angrily, "The longevity lock is more important than your son's life. I say, are you going to give it to me or not? It's almost midnight and we have to go back to the county town. If we can't get back in time, will you pay for our food and lodging for the night?"
The thugs behind him immediately started moving, rummaging and kicking around in the yard, "Pay the money quickly, it's only natural to pay back a debt."
When people from the casino came to his house, they always kept quiet. How could Zhou Dalang allow them to search his house? He quickly went to stop them.
Zhou Erlang and Zhou Sanlang no longer held Si Zhoulang hostage and hurried to help their eldest brother.
Zhou Wulang and Zhou Liulang also followed their brothers forward with boiling blood. Of course, the villagers of Qili Village couldn't bear to see their fellow villagers being bullied, so they also stepped forward to pull the trigger.
It's the first time for the thugs to see so many brothers in the gambler's family. When they saw the villagers surrounding them, they didn't dare to go too far. They just pushed each other politely, but they still couldn't help but get angry.
The village chief sighed when he saw this, and stopped everyone and said, "Okay, it's just two hundred coins, Uncle Jin, I'll lend it to you first, just remember to pay me back later."
After that, he asked his son to go home and get the money.
The money collected from here and there filled up the box. Except for the two small pieces of silver, it was all copper coins. The thugs did not mind and simply counted the copper coins and stuffed them into a bag and carried it on their backs.
He just tossed the broken silver ingots and said, "This silver can be exchanged for more than this amount of copper coins. You should also know that in the bank, this amount of silver can be exchanged for twelve strings of money now, so..."
Zhou Dalang stepped forward and kicked Zhou Silang, then asked, "Are you betting copper coins or silver?"
"Copper coins, they are copper coins."
Zhou Dalang punched him with his fist and asked angrily, "Is it a copper coin? Is it a copper coin?"
Zhou Silang's face was bruised and swollen, and he kept wailing with blood dripping from his nose, "It's copper coins, it's copper coins."
Zhou Dalang kept punching him in the face, and asked with a sullen face, "Is it a copper coin? Is it a copper coin?"
Zhou Silang cried out to his parents, "It's copper coins, big brother. It's copper coins. They cheated you . They cheated you."
Seeing that Zhou Dalang spared no effort and Zhou Silang was beaten like this, the thugs could not help but feel embarrassed, put away the silver pieces, and nodded, "Okay, copper coins are copper coins."
After saying that, he turned around and was about to leave.
Zhou Erlang stood in front of them and asked, "Where is the IOU?"
The thug curled his lips, handed him the IOU, patted him on the shoulder and said, "Family like yours can't afford to be robbed. You'd better keep a close eye on your brothers, otherwise your luck might not be so good next time. In this world, there are many families that have been ruined because of gambling."
The Zhou brothers looked at Zhou Silang unkindly.
Zhou Silang curled up on the ground. When he saw his brothers' gazes, he buried his head and dared not cry too loudly.
The thugs finally left.
Old Man Zhou and his eldest son saw the villagers off with a smile, thanking them for their help, especially the village chief, whom they repeatedly said they would find time to treat him to a meal.
After sending the people away, Old Man Zhou asked Zhou Xiaoliu to close the door, then turned around and picked up the carrying pole to continue beating his son.
Qian was afraid that her little girl would be frightened, so she brought her back to the house ahead of time. However, this was not very effective, because the child kicked off her shoes and climbed onto her bed, lying on the window and looking out, watching her father beating her fourth brother with great interest.
Qian was in poor health. She was sad and tired after all this trouble. She did not stop her daughter and asked her three daughters-in-law to go to the kitchen to cook something to eat. They had not eaten a grain of rice from morning till now. The adults could bear it, but the children could not.
After everything was arranged, he called the little girl over, put the silver lock on her, and said, "Didn't I tell you not to take it off? This is what your parents gave you to suppress your fate. You are not allowed to take it off in the future, understand?"
Manbao said awkwardly: "It's uncomfortable to wear."
Qian thought for a moment and said, "You don't have to wear it at night, but you have to wear it during the day."
Manbao reluctantly agreed, and seeing her mother's distressed face, she asked, "Mom, what should I do with my fourth brother?"
"Don't worry about him. Let your father beat him. He has learned to gamble after only a few years of good life. He deserves to be beaten to death for ruining the family."
Man Bao said: "If he is beaten to death, it would be better to let the casino staff beat him to death. We can also save money."
Qian choked and said, "You kid, your mouth is just like your father's, you are not forgiving at all."
"Hey, is my dad so smart?"
Qian didn't answer her question, but said: "He has to be beaten. If he is not beaten, he won't learn his lesson. If he does it again, how much money can the family afford to let him lose?"
"Fourth brother only remembers to eat but not to be beaten. It's useless to beat him until he is crippled, unless his legs are broken so that he can't walk."
"That won't work. We will have to support him in the future." Qian was also afraid that Old Zhou would hurt his son, so she sighed and shouted out the window, "Okay, if he gets injured, we will have to pay for medical treatment, and we don't have a penny left at home."
The slapping sounds outside gradually disappeared. Old Zhou glared at his son with disappointment, kicked him, and asked the eldest and second sons to drag him back to the room.
Manbao said to her mother in the house: "Mom, I have a good idea. It can punish him without spending any money."
"What's the idea?"
"Let Fourth Brother open up the wasteland, and then let him grow crops on the wasteland. He can use the money he earns to pay back his family and his brothers and sisters-in-law. He owes his family and his brothers and sisters-in-law fifteen taels of silver."
Qian was very confused. "Open up wasteland? Why do you want to open up wasteland?"
Manbao said, "Didn't the village chief say that the government allowed us to reclaim wasteland, and all the land we reclaimed is ours, and we won't be taxed in the first three years."
