Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 561 White-Eyed Wolf

Song Ying was silent for a moment. When they were young, the adults didn't talk much about the story of Shen Zhuangyuan. She didn't even know that the archway of Zhuangyuanfang was awarded because of Shen Zhuangyuan.

It was only in recent years, after the Shen family moved back, that Shen Zhuangyuan's reputation became widely known among the younger generation.

Qian thought for a moment and said, "Is she dead? Otherwise, how could she not be informed? She is the biological sister of Shen Zhuangyuan. If it weren't for her, how could Shen Zhuangyuan continue his studies?"

Mrs. Li disagreed: "She married far away and became an official's wife, enjoying good food and drink every day. How could she die earlier than us?"

Song Ying quickly joined in: "What's her name?"

"Hehua is very capable. Their father died a long time ago, and their mother had a miscarriage and was injured, so she couldn't do heavy work. She basically planted and harvested their crops by herself. She even did the corvée labor for the top scholar!"

It turns out her name is Lotus, and Shen Zhuangyuan called her Xiaolian...

Concubine Lian's words surfaced in his mind, and Song Ying recalled what he had overheard: "You called me Xiaolian, and everyone in the mansion called me Concubine Lian, constantly reminding me of what I had been through, yet you told me to live a good life?"

Could it be that Xiaolian was her stage name in the brothel?

Shen Zhuangyuan was worried that if he called her by her real name, someone with ulterior motives would follow the clues and find out their true relationship, so he still called her by the brothel name?

Song Ying felt a chill in her heart. It was already difficult for her to forget the life in such a devilish den, and her own brother reminded her all the time that she was a lowly brothel girl. This was a huge torture for a girl who grew up with etiquette and morality.

The older generation including Mrs. Li started talking, and they talked about the past of the Shen family.

Rongshu Village is poor and remote. The Shen family has few members and is often bullied in the village. It can be said that they don’t have any friends at all.

After Shen's father died, his mother became timid and was bullied even more harshly by the villagers.

For example, one year when it didn't rain during the rice planting season, a family whose fields were a little below the Shen family dug up the ridges of their fields and diverted the water from the Shen family's fields to their own fields.

No matter where you look, this is a very immoral act and they will be cursed by the whole village. However, because this family dug up the ridge of the Shen family's paddy field, not only did the villagers not scold that family, but other families adjacent to the Shen family's paddy field also followed suit.

Seeing that her family was about to collapse, Hehua changed her good nature and ran to the houses of those who had dug up her family's ridges. She chased them and scolded them, then picked up a hoe and dug up all the ridges of their fields.

Some of these people's homes also had paddy fields adjacent to theirs. Once they were dug up, the fields below were almost flooded, and some water flowed directly into the river.

The whole village was very angry. The village chief led the way to his house to ask for an explanation. Hehua took a kitchen knife and threatened that if they forced her family to live, she would chop anyone she saw. She didn't care about her death, but she must take a few more people with her on her road to the underworld.

It is said that the strong are afraid of the powerful, and the powerful are afraid of the desperate. In this situation, the people of Rongshu Village retreated and could only gather people to dig canals to divert water from the river.

Of course, the Shen family had no share. The flooded fields of the Shen family were irrigated by He Hua, who carried buckets of water on a shoulder pole.

Later, when the government was building a government road, it called for people to perform labor service. Without a second thought, the village chief was the first to recommend Shen Zhuangyuan.

Shen Zhuangyuan was a weak scholar. In order to study since childhood, he was never asked to do any housework. How could he bear the hardship of corvee labor?

But his family could not afford the money to exempt themselves from labor service, and no one in the village could lend them money.

Finally, Lotus went to ask the police to let her perform labor service in place of her brother. The police agreed but asked that the work should not be delayed, so Lotus had to do more work than the men.

Moreover, she was a woman, and it would be detrimental to her reputation to rest with a bunch of men at night, so after finishing her work, she had to rush home and then rush over early the next day.

Some people in the family behind her couldn't stand it anymore, so when they reached a certain section of the road, people from the nearby village invited her to live in their village.

When she arrived near Xinghua Village, she lived in the home of Grandma Sun San. Grandma Sun and her daughter-in-law were both widows, and the only male in the family was Uncle Sun, who was still a baby at the time.

The Shen family had no other income, and relying solely on farming could not support a scholar. Gradually, they had to sell their land, and finally sold it all. The family then moved to the city and made a living by washing clothes and collecting night fragrance from lotus flowers.

After the autumn harvest, they would work as rice millers, pushing the stone mill to husk the millet for the wealthy families.

Although it was very hard, he was finally able to support Shen Zhuangyuan's studies and his family's life.

Later, I heard from her mother that she had married far away.

To sum up, Song Ying felt very upset. Shen Zhuangyuan could be said to have been supported by Hehua, but in the end he pushed his sister, who paid for his studies, into the devil's den. This is a real ungrateful person.

Moreover, since Shen's mother was still alive at that time, the decision to sell the lotus should have been made by the two of them together.

How devastated and desperate He Hua must have felt when she was sold by her own mother and brother.

"Speaking of which, He Hua's later aggressive personality was quite similar to Yan Xing's, but she wasn't as lucky as Yan Xing to be able to open her own shop and make money."

Li's words brought Song Ying back to her senses. She let out a light breath to ease the depression in her heart.

"Isn't she blessed?" Qian disagreed. "Her brother is the top scholar, and she herself is an official's wife. If this is considered unlucky, then there are very few blessed people in this world.

She was not very smart, but I remember that she was very skillful with her hands. She even taught a woman named Sun in Daya Village to weave dingding cats, crickets and butterflies with bamboo leaves, and they looked just like the real ones.

If she had Yan Xing's brain, she could make some money by weaving and selling it, and maybe even open a shop like Yan Xing!"

"Have you ever seen a shop that specializes in selling little gadgets like this? You're really creative!"

Ding Ding Cat is a dragonfly.

Weaving dragonflies and butterflies out of bamboo leaves, a woman surnamed Sun, in the dim light of a lantern, Aunt Lian examined the bamboo dragonfly over and over again, her voice a bit ethereal...

Song Ying suddenly had an idea and blurted out, "Did that woman surnamed Sun marry into Daping Village?"

Li and Qian were both stunned for a moment. Qian frowned and said, "It's been a while. I need to think about it."

Mrs. Li had already figured it out and said, "It seems that she married into Daping Village. I think her husband's surname is Zhang. Hey, how do you know this?"

Qian and others also reacted and looked at Song Ying in surprise. At her age, she shouldn't know these things.

Song Ying pursed her lips and said, "When I went to Daping Village for a medical consultation, I met a grandmother named Sun. The bamboo dragonflies she made were very realistic."

"You're still going to such a far place to see patients?" Qian was surprised, and then she earnestly instructed, "You're a girl. From now on, let your senior brother go to see patients who live in remote places like this."