In the Great Qianchao, on the outskirts of Kyoto, the morning light was hazy, and at the foot of the mountain, with a loud rooster crow, the smoke rose from the small bend village, and gradually became sound and colorful, like an ink painting slowly coming to life.

In the dilapidated courtyard at the end of the village, Mo Liniang walked out of the house while pulling her hair, she was a delicate little lady, but because of her livelihood, she had to wear her brother's old blue clothes and dress herself up as a little scholar.

There was a low cry in the main room, Li Niang hurriedly pushed the door in, walked through the hall to the front of the brother's room and knocked lightly on the door, heard the word in, and then entered it.

On the kang sat the elder brother Mo Shubai, Shubai had lung disease for more than a year, and his condition has been recurrent, which is all because the medicine money is not handed, and he can't take medicine well, the family's money was exhausted as early as when his mother Ji was seriously ill, and the six acres of land that the family got have been sold for four acres, and finally the mother still died, leaving the newly adult Shubai and the young Li Niang and Qingyuan, now Li Niang is ten years old, and Qingyuan is only three years old.

With the last two acres of dry land left, Shubai refused to sell it for his own treatment anyway, and the income in the field was barely enough for the family's rations, and the money for his medicine came from the Mo family's private school.

The private school was created after his father Mo Wenxin was admitted to Xiucai, and there were students admitted to Xiucai in the second year of the opening of the museum, and the Mengtong of the whole village studied here in the heyday, and later Mo Wenxin was admitted to the time when he was raised, and even the students in the town came to apprentice, but unfortunately Mo Juren was blessed, and he met robbers on the way to Beijing to catch the exam, and he went out in high spirits, but he came back silently.

As soon as the Ji family saw Mo Juren's corpse, he immediately gave birth to three sons, Qingyuan, and then got confinement disease, and after two years, he finally left.

It's early summer now, Shubai is still wearing an old jacket, holding a thin Qingyuan in his arms, the three brothers and sisters have inherited the good looks of Mo Juren and Ji, but they are all undernourished, they look yellow and thin, and they are not very good.

Seeing Li Niang come in, Shubai sighed, "Qingyuan had a nightmare again." ”

"Oh, Qingyuan is good, the second sister will take you out to play." Li Niang said and stretched out her hands to Qingyuan, the unkempt boy sobbed and threw himself into her arms, and his ribs could be clearly felt through the two layers of clothes, he was really pitiful.

Shubai took a handkerchief and wiped Qingyuan's snot and tears, and suddenly felt an itch in his throat, so he coughed.

Seeing her brother lying on the kang and coughing heartbreakingly, Li Niang panicked in her heart, Qingyuan stopped crying, and looked at her brother with a frown, because he was afraid, his two little hands were clenched tightly.

Finally, Shubai stopped coughing, and when he found the second sister and third brother panicked, Shubai reluctantly smiled and said with relief: "Don't be afraid, the eldest brother will be fine slowly." ”

"Then, I'll go boil some hot water for my eldest brother to moisten his throat." Li Niang said and walked out of the room quickly, Qingyuan leaned on her shoulder and waved to her brother.

"Big brother, wait for me to boil water for you to drink."

"Okay, thank you Qingyuan."

Shubai smiled, and when the figures of the second sister and the third brother disappeared, he could no longer support it, and he fell weakly.

"Nope! I can't die! If I die, Li Niang and Qingyuan will never survive. The strong belief forced Shubai to desperately suppress the violent cough, he tried to open his mouth wide to gasp, and massaged his chest with his hands, when Li Niang brought Qingyuan to bring him hot water, he had regained his composure, and smiled lightly.

Seeing that her brother was in good condition, Li Niang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but her frown was not stretched, and there was only the last half bowl of cornmeal left in the tank.

Li Niang cooked the cornmeal, first sent a bowl to her brother, and then divided half a bowl to Qingyuan, and finally left her with only two or three mouthfuls, she hurriedly drank it, and went into the room to visit her brother, and found that her brother was not in good spirits and was groggy, so she persuaded him to sleep, and let Qingyuan accompany him, and Mengtong's class was taught by her.

As a little lady from a family, Li Niang is of course literate and hyphenated, she has read most of the books in the study, and it is more than enough to teach Mengtong in the village, but it is just ......

Li Niang opened the wood door and stood beside the road, waited for a long time, and saw that the sun was rising high, and only then did a small figure rush out of the village and rush towards this side.

"It's coming!" Li Niang was in good spirits, she couldn't help but straighten her spine and tense her little face, her father and brother both said that as a teacher, you should pay attention to your own image.

When the child ran to the vicinity of Mo's house, he slowed down and moved almost step by step to Li Niang.

This Li Changfu is very sturdy, tiger-headed, there is an ox cart at home, his father Li Da Niu farmer drove passengers when he was free, the family was okay, and the Mo family's private school fees were also cheap, and the Li family wanted to find a background for the younger generations, and the name Changfu was given in vain when he entered the museum.

It's just that today's Li Changfu is not good news.

After a while, Li Changfu drooped his head, with a face full of guilt and left, from today onwards, the Mengtong in the village will not come to the Mo family private school to study, Li Changfu passed on the message, first, the parents are worried that Mo Shubai has been sick, and secondly, the parents are very dissatisfied with Li Niang's frequent substitute teaching, afraid that the children will be taught badly by her.

The messenger Li Changfu brought the last bit of thought to the villagers, two catties of cabbage and two eggs, Li Niang looked at the things in her hand, sadness came from it, and tears blurred her eyes instantly.

The private school has no income, the corn planted in the two acres of dry land will take two months to harvest, there is no copper plate at home, the three mouths have to eat, and the eldest brother has to take medicine, what should she do!

Li Niang set her eyes on the village, do you want to ask her grandfather for help? If she could, she would rather never set foot through that door again for the rest of her life!

Li Niang is ten years old this year, she remembers the situation of the separation three years ago, she knows it when she is a child, but she really didn't expect that as soon as her father went, her brother failed to be admitted to the school and ate rice, and her grandmother could sweep the orphans and widows of the big house out of the house.

The reason is really good, saying that the second uncle Mo Wenrui wants to do his best to prepare for the exam, and then enter the Shi, which requires a huge amount of money, in order not to drag down the big house and the third room, he tearfully separated.

On the surface, the old man Mo is very fair to divide the family, the three sons each get six acres of land, and the third uncle is an adopted son is no exception, but the third uncle has not yet married, and his share of the field is temporarily managed by the old man, and the house is not given to him.

Ji didn't say anything at the time, and moved to the old house with three children on the day of separation, and then slowly analyzed the reasons with Li Niang.

Although the Mo family is a poor family, three generations of cultivation and study, the old man stopped at Xiucai, and can no longer go further, until the age of forty before giving up the road of the imperial examination, but the eldest Mo Wenxin is outstanding, and he was admitted to the school at the age of fifteen.

At that time, Ji knew that his time was short, and he also thought about it in his heart, so he did not question the old man, but accepted this unfair treatment very calmly.

Li Niang has read a lot of books, and she has been carefully taught by her mother in the last two years, so although she is young, she also understands that it is best for the big house not to have anything to do with grandma and the second room, those people are not good people.

With her mother's earnest teachings flashing in her mind, Li Niang raised her sleeves to wipe her tears, carried the cabbage and the eggs back to the kitchen to put them away, and then went back to the house to embroider a handkerchief.

Li Niang's embroidery skills are passed on from Ji's, her embroidered handkerchief embroidery workshop is willing to pay eight dollars to buy, Ji once said, not to sell their embroidery as a last resort, now, it's really time to have to go.

The private school is completely devoid of students, and before working in the field, it may be possible to make a living by selling embroidery.

Li Niang moved a small bench to sit under the eaves, with a sewing box at her feet, and there were three plain handkerchiefs left over from practicing embroidery skills a few years ago, Li Niang took a piece of bandage, picked a few silk threads and split them, took off a patina thimble from her neck and put it on her fingers, and embroidered it at will.

A few stitches, embroidered on the shape of a magnolia flower, Li Niang embroidered handkerchief does not need to look at the pattern, because her brain is printed with her mother to teach thirty patterns, and she herself also has a painting foundation, design a handkerchief pattern is easy, this is the gap between the poor lady and the ordinary village woman, she not only embroiders good skills, the handkerchief pattern is novel and chic, can be sold for eight Wen, people can only sell five Wen.

Li Niang is very serious in her work, and the livelihood of the whole family is on this bandage, and her spirit is so concentrated that she doesn't notice the passage of time, until Qingyuan's cry wakes her up.

"Woo, second sister, come quickly, big brother is not good."

Hearing Qingyuan's cry, Li Niang's heart flickered, and the embroidery needle pierced her fingers, she couldn't care less, so she quickly pulled the needle, threw it with both hands, and rushed towards the main room.

At this time, a bead of blood flowed onto the thimble, and in a flash, the blood bead was actually absorbed by the thimble, and then more blood oozed out, all of which were swallowed by the thimble one by one, and Li Niang didn't know about this at all.

Li Niang rushed into the room and found that the eldest brother was unconscious, his forehead was hot when he touched it, and it was hot when he touched his hands and feet, which was a fever and fainting.

Fortunately, there is still a pair of antipyretics prepared at home, Li Niang hurriedly went to fry and feed her brother, and then stayed by her brother's side with Qingyuan, and from time to time used a warm water handkerchief to wipe her brother's head and face, and when it was dark, my brother finally returned to normal body temperature, and he was awake.

"Second sister, you're hungry." Qingyuan patted his little belly and looked at Li Niang pitifully.

"Second sister, let's cook, wait a minute." Li Niang took the basin out and splashed it in the yard, there was no rice and noodles at home, so she chose the little cabbage to make soup, and then beat an egg and steamed egg custard, and the family of three shared it and ate it to deal with it.

In front of Qingyuan, Shubai didn't say anything, just glanced at Li Niang with worried eyes from time to time, Li Niang pretended not to see, washed the dishes and boiled water, washed Qingyuan and stuffed him into the quilt, and slapped him asleep, so he told his brother the news brought by Li Changfu.

Shubai was silent for a long time before he said, "The day after tomorrow in the market, brother will go and set up a stall." ”

Xiucai set up a small stall, not to sell goods, but to write a letter on behalf of others to make a contract and the like, selling his knowledge, and many scholars whose family conditions are not very good earn money to subsidize their families.

Li Niang nodded in agreement, "Tomorrow, I will go to the embroidery workshop in the town to sell two handkerchiefs, and the proprietress Cui Shi said that one piece can be sold for eight cents, and if you get the money, you will come back with some rice and noodles first." ”

Shubai was silent for a while, then nodded and said yes, he lowered his eyes, Li Niang couldn't see anything, and her brother didn't blame her for selling her skills and showing up, she was very happy.

Everything was discussed, the brother and sister washed and rested, Li Niang was overly worried, she couldn't sleep after tossing and turning, and felt that the moonlight through the window was particularly dazzling, so she simply got up and pushed open the window, looking at the moon and praying silently.

"God, Li Niang is about to hold on, please give me a way to live."

"As you wish!"

"Ah......h