Zhu Qi squatted under the big tree in front of the door, and his wife scolded him behind him: "Zhu Qi, why did I marry a useless man like you." ”

There is also the pleading of the eldest son: "Dad, I want to go to the state city for the exam." ”

And the daughter's cry: "Dad, I don't want to marry that butcher." ”

And the younger son cried, "Daddy, I'm hungry." ”

He crouched there with his head in his hands, trying to isolate the sounds, as if he couldn't hear them, and the difficulties were gone.

But even if he covered his ears, the voice still echoed in his mind very clearly, tormenting him and stinging him.

Most of the people in Liuzhen are poor.

Zhu Qi is one of them.

His name is Zhu Qi, surnamed Zhu, ranked seventh, his parents are not educated, and he is quite perfunctory to his children, so he took this name.

In front of him, there are Zhu Da's elder brother and Zhu Wu's sister, and the others died before they reached adulthood.

——This world is not only backward in terms of productivity, but also in terms of medical care, and the sanitary conditions are still quite poor.

Zhu Qi's mother is very capable of giving birth, giving birth to a total of nine, but in the end, only these three brothers and sisters grew up.

All are poor.

His eldest brother Zhu Da married his wife and sold half of the family's land.

His wife is his sister Zhu Wu, who married his wife's brother.

The little land left in the family, the two brothers have a share, and each of them only has more than one acre, and they can't even support their lives.

You can only rent other people's land.

If you rent land in Liuzhen and plant it, you generally rent the land of the Liu family.

One acre of land can collect two or three stones of grain, and one stone should be taken out to the Liu family, and the Liu family will take out three buckets to the government in that stone of grain, and they will collect seven buckets themselves.

In the event of a disaster year, the owner is kind and can collect less or no money.

If you don't send that kindness, even if you don't get anything, you can't miss their stone.

- These are all said at the beginning, if you are willing to plant, you can plant, if you are unwilling, there are a lot of people waiting to plant.

Zhu Qi is a diligent person, in order to make his family's life better, he has to rent twenty or thirty acres of land every year to plant.

It's a little tiring to be so tired, but he feels that it's worth it to be able to feed his family.

He had two sons and a daughter, the eldest was sixteen, the daughter was thirteen, and the youngest was five.

Of these three children, several were not raised.

Life was okay, although it was hard, but at least there was a bite to eat, and there was a future worth looking forward to.

He is an ambitious person, when the eldest son was a few years old, he sent him to the private school in the village to study, and this eldest son is also quite competitive, he studies very hard, and the gentlemen in the village praise him as a son, thinking that it is no problem to take a show.

If you are admitted to Xiucai, you can be exempted from taxes and forced labor, and you can also be a teacher and a teacher, and there are too many things that can be done, which is a decent thing for a farmer like him.

If you go one step further and take the exam, you can become an official and a master, which can be regarded as completely changing the fate of the family.

He had put in too much sweat to provide for this son's education, but he still felt that it was worth it.

This year, his son is 16 years old, he has done a good job, and some time ago he passed the county exam and became a child.

The husband who taught his son told him that he could let his son go to the state city to take the Xiucai exam this year.

Mr. thinks that his son has a good chance of being admitted to Xiucai.

However, the time for the exam was approaching, and he couldn't even make up the entanglement of his son going to the state city.

If there were no such troubles in previous years, but this year there was a drought, and the land he planted was extremely dry because of the high terrain and the inconvenience of getting water.

The harvest in the field is not enough to pay the rent to the Liu family.

After working hard for more than half a year, I couldn't get a grain of food, not only that, but I also had to pay it to others, and I had to serve as a servant.

There is a little surplus food at home, but it is not enough to be upside down.

As early as a month ago, I started eating porridge every day.

Everyone in the family was so hungry that their faces were yellow and thin.

A few days ago, he caught two fish, and brought them to the people who managed the field rent of the Liu family, and asked with a smile if he could reduce some of the field rent due to the drought this year, and then he was reprimanded by the people of the Liu family:

"What good things do you think? Renting a field but not paying rent, is there such a good thing in the world? ”

"Today you come to reduce the rent, tomorrow he comes to reduce the rent, everyone don't pay the rent, our family drinks the northwest wind?"

"Why didn't other people ask for rent reductions, but you asked for rent reductions?"

The old man of the Liu family is generous, and when he sees the next kneeling and kowtowing a few heads, he may be able to ask for a reduction.

But the faces of those subordinates were too vicious, and they didn't sympathize at all, and they couldn't see the master of the Liu family, so they were blasted out.

Seeing that the grain in the field was not even enough to pay rent, and it was time for the state city to take the Xiucai exam, he couldn't even make up the entanglement, and the family's food became a problem.

asked his eldest brother to borrow it, and asked him that his fifth sister had borrowed it, but the two families had a hard time and couldn't borrow money at all.

However, a matchmaker in the town heard about this, and found him a family business, and promised his daughter to the butcher of the town, as long as he agreed, he could get a dowry of ten taels of silver, and then his family's problem was solved.

When he got home, he told his wife about it, and was scolded by his wife:

"You're crazy, aren't you? The butcher in the town is in his forties, and his personality is extremely irritable, our Juanzi is only thirteen years old, you promise Juanzi to him, do you want to push your own daughter into the fire pit? ”

Zhu Qi said sadly: "However, if you don't do this, your son won't be able to go to the state city for the exam, and the land rent won't be paid, how can this big family live?" ”

His wife didn't know how to live, so she was so angry that she cried and scolded:

"It's just that you're useless! How did I find a man like you? I married you, I haven't had a good day, and now even my daughter is going to be pushed into the fire pit by you, why are you so ruthless? ”

When this incident came out, her daughter also cried.

The eldest son is still sensible, and after knowing this, he didn't dare to mention the matter of going to the state city for the exam.

But looking at his eyes, it was clear that he still wanted to.

In the past few days, Zhu Qi has spent all his time in depression.

Now I squatted under the big tree in front of the door with my head in my hands, listening to those voices, and my heart was extremely bitter, but I couldn't find a solution.

If death could solve the problem, he would rather die now.

It's just that he is the head of the family, the pillar of the family, no matter how much he complains, he has to endure it, and no matter how much he suffers, he has to support it.

He fell, and the family really fell.

But the problem now is that he is still alive and does not know how to solve this problem.

Just when he was at a loss, he suddenly heard a kind voice ask him:

"Why are you squatting here with a sad face? If you have any troubles, you can tell me about them. ”

Zhu Qi raised his head and looked at it, startled—isn't this the land god who was invited into the land temple of the Liu family yesterday?

Yesterday, the Land Temple opened, and he also took the whole family over, not to watch the excitement, but to have a full meal in the past.

——On the day of the opening of the temple, the Liu family made a statement, and everyone who came to the scene to offer incense could eat for free.

The man standing in front of him now looked exactly like the statue he had seen in the temple yesterday, and even the clothes he was wearing were the same.

The only difference is that the statue is seated, while the person in front of him is standing.

"You...... Who are you? He stammered.

"I am the land god of Liuzhen, Liu Qing."

After saying this, Liu Qing said another sentence that would be widely circulated in Liuzhen in the future:

"In Liuzhen, you have to know one thing, when you have no way out, you still have a way to go, and that is, ask God."