Exile with Storage Space: Family Fortunes in the Barren Lands-Chapter 565 - 526: Small Body, Big Thoughts (1)

Guoguo pursed her lips, her face tense, looking as if she wanted to laugh but didn’t dare to.

"Grandpa Gui, are your legs sore from walking? Let me give you a massage. How about your old man’s entertainment? I’ll help you tap your back." Guoguo walked over and tugged Uncle Gui’s hand.

Her big, dark eyes looked at Uncle Gui with a pitiful sincerity.

Uncle Gui was amused and laughed, "Such a scheming little rascal, this kid. What will she be like when she grows up?"

He picked Guoguo up and plucked the piece of grass from her head, tossing it away. "Let’s go home. If your dad sees you’ve snuck out again, he’ll surely spank you."

Guoguo tugged at Uncle Gui’s beard, "Dad only spanks Jingjing, not Guoguo, because Guoguo is well-behaved."

Uncle Gui laughed heartily, "Yes, yes, Guoguo is good. But if Guoguo sneaks outside again, that’s not good."

The grandfather and granddaughter walked into the house, and Li Xingmao just happened to come to the door.

"Guoguo ran outside to play again?" Li Xingmao asked sternly as he walked over.

Guoguo looked at Uncle Gui.

"Ah, ah, she didn’t go too far, just picked some flowers right in front of the house," Uncle Gui winked at Guoguo and said with a smile.

Guoguo grinned widely and pounded Uncle Gui’s shoulder with her fist.

Li Xingmao took Guoguo into his arms and looked at her sternly, "There are bad people on the road outside, you can’t run off alone, do you hear me? If you want to play outside, stay with Uncle Gui or other adults."

"Mm." Guoguo nodded.

Li Xingmao set Guoguo down on the ground, ruffled her hair, and fixed her dress. "Go play with your brother; Dad and Uncle Gui need to discuss the fields."

"Yes, Dad." Guoguo scampered off.

Li Xingmao and Uncle Gui talked about the fields.

It’s another spring, and half of the family’s twenty acres have already been tilled and sowed with various seeds.

Some fields have winter wheat, and others need proper arrangements to plant cotton seedlings.

Before coming to this village, Li Xingmao had never farmed.

The crops planted last year were partly taught by the villagers, and since Chai Eying married him, Li Xingmao usually sought guidance from Uncle Gui.

Uncle Gui and Li Xingmao went to the fields to assess them and discussed which crops to plant.

Li Xingsheng was not working; he rested at home, having escorted Li Yu En back and was exhausted.

Li Xingmao didn’t call him, letting him rest.

Li Yu En was catching up on sleep in her room.

Guoguo sneaked some meat from the kitchen and went to the back yard’s shed, which used to house the ewe. After the leopard arrived, Li Xingmao tied the ewe in the yard and gave the leopard the shed.

"Big Flower, here." Guoguo tossed a piece of pork in front of the leopard.

The leopard was dozing, opened its eyes to glance at Guoguo, and began to eat happily.

After watching the leopard finish, Guoguo dusted off her skirt and returned to the yard.

In the South Courtyard, Li Jing was playing alone on a rocking horse.

He played on his own and then Guoguo’s.

Li Jing saw Guoguo approaching and waved, calling her, "Guoguo, let’s play together."

But Guoguo was not interested in rocking horses. She shook her head, "I’m going to Grandpa’s schoolhouse to play."

Li Jing furrowed his little brows, "I don’t understand."

The youngest child in the schoolhouse was five, but Li Jing was only a bit over three.

He couldn’t understand the lessons Prince Luling taught.

When Chai Tianlang was at the Li Family’s house, the three kids were curious about school, so they listened to lessons together. Except for Guoguo, who listened intently with wide-open eyes, Jingjing and Chai Tianlang found the lessons baffling.

After going two or three times, they no longer went.

Because Prince Luling’s rules during lessons were no noise, no sleeping on the desk, no eating, and no staring at any particular child in the schoolhouse. They had to sit upright for half an hour, which was really uncomfortable.

Jingjing had no desire to play at the schoolhouse.

With nothing to do, Guoguo was bored stiff and said, "I’m going."

"Then you go," Jingjing said as he continued to play on the rocking horse.

Guoguo picked up her little chair and sneaked into the schoolhouse through the back door.

Without a textbook, she sat beside the last child in the row and borrowed his book to read.

This was a child about ten years old, with a plump, dark face, looking tiger-headed and savvy. He often saw Guoguo run in to read others’ books and wasn’t surprised. He even moved his book closer to her.

All the text on it made him wonder if Guoguo could understand it.

Prince Luling saw Guoguo attending lessons again and smiled knowingly before continuing the lesson.

Today’s topic was arithmetic for the older children.

This plump kid was terrible at math, counting on his fingers, unable to solve two-digit subtraction.

Li Yuzhu and Li Xing’an Mu Yuanxiu made the blackboard, on which Prince Luling wrote ten arithmetic problems with chalk.

Out of the ten children learning arithmetic, more than half were done and checking their answers, two slower ones were only missing two problems, but the boy with the chubby dark face hadn’t completed even one problem.

He scratched his head, bit his fingers, pulled his pant legs, almost on the verge of tears.

Because Prince Luling was strict in teaching, homework had to be completed before going home every day.

On his way home, there was usually a big black dog wandering around; he didn’t dare walk that way alone, and always went to and from school with classmates.

If he was left behind, he would have to go home alone, and he was too scared.

Guoguo was anxious for him too.

But she couldn’t speak, if she did, she would be tugged out by Grandpa Prince Luling, even though she was his favorite child, causing trouble in class would make him turn his back on family ties.

Guoguo thought for a moment, quietly tugged his sleeve, and wrote a number with her right hand on her left hand.

The boy with the chubby dark face: "..." couldn’t understand, what is she saying?

Guoguo was anxious.

She grabbed a pen, wrote a number on her hand, and pointed to his notebook.

The boy with the chubby dark face finally understood, and copied the numbers Guoguo wrote into his notebook.

With such assistance, Guoguo helped him complete all ten arithmetic problems.

Prince Luling corrected them, all correct.

The boy with the chubby dark face was very pleased and showed his secret picture book to Guoguo.

During break time, some children went to drink water, others went to the restroom.

Guoguo still sat in her chair, checking this one’s homework notebook, looking at that one’s calligraphy practice.

One child wrote a character incorrectly, Guoguo pointed to the booklet, the child suddenly realized, and hurriedly corrected it.

This was a transcription, one hundred characters, luckily the mistake was caught at the eighth character, otherwise, if the entire assignment was wrong, not only would their palms be smacked, but they would be punished to write three times over.

The child looked at Guoguo gratefully.

Guoguo was quite proud, giggling.

.

The middle-aged couple driving the ox cart hadn’t caught Guoguo, but continued driving the ox cart toward Taohua River Village.

"What a disappointment, such a lively girl, how could she let her get away, I’ll surely catch her tomorrow," grumbled the tuft-haired middle-aged man bitterly, "I reckon that girl, when caught, can sell for at least twenty taels of silver."

The thin-faced woman lifted the curtain and looked in the direction of the Li Family’s house, "Dear, this place only has one house, that girl is probably from there."

"Who cares whose home she’s from, it’s easiest to coax such a little girl, we’ll come back here tomorrow. By the way, buy some food, I refuse to believe we can’t coax her," the tuft-haired man said.

"Spending money again." The thin-faced woman was reluctant about money, grumbling.

"If you don’t want to invest, you won’t catch the prey," the tuft-haired man glared at her, "Just coaxing a child, how much can it cost? Spend a few dozen coins on food and toys, then earn twenty taels back, isn’t this a profitable business you can’t figure out?"

The thin-faced woman clutched her money pouch, "I don’t have much silver coin, use yours instead."

The tuft-haired man cursed, "Darn woman, didn’t I give you over a thousand coins yesterday? How come it’s gone again?"

The thin-faced woman retorted, "Pfft! When I married you, there was no house, no land, no money! Not a single wedding gift you gave, this cash compensates for the bride price! Twenty taels worth of bride price, how much have you repaid?"

"Repay twenty taels silver bride price? Ayoyoyo, which part of you is worth twenty taels of silver? Damn, makes me laugh to death," the tuft-haired man laughed.

The thin-faced woman was furious, her face turning blue, "Shameless! You climbed into my bed and refused to get off last night, and now you say I’m worthless? Fine, don’t come to bed with me tonight."

"Damn it, you eat my food, live in my house, what’s wrong with climbing in bed with you? Stubborn woman!"

The two argued, as tempers flared, the tuft-haired man simply stopped the ox cart, dragged the thin-faced woman out, and started hitting her.

This thin-faced woman wasn’t soft either, she jumped up and retaliated.

The couple began fighting by the roadside.

At this time, someone approached, impatiently shouting, "Fight somewhere else, don’t block my path!"

The couple turned and saw it was a tall middle-aged woman approaching, with a young woman who looked similar beside her.

Both had fierce expressions.

The tuft-haired man then noticed that their ox cart was parked right in the middle of the road, blocking the passersby.

The tuft-haired man let go of his wife and went to push the ox cart back in line.

The tall and short pair of women rushed towards Taohua River Village.

The younger woman said, "Mother, Shuangcheng is determined to be a live-in son-in-law now? He doesn’t even let you see your grandson, it’s too much!"

"The Liu Family doesn’t let me see my grandson, so I’ll take him back, my grandson of the Hu Family, how could he be added to the Liu Family’s genealogy and carry their surname? That shameless Liu Laoda!" the middle-aged woman cursed.

The tuft-haired man rubbed his chin, snatching a child?

Whose child?

The tuft-haired man’s eyes spun, deciding to follow for a look.