There was no way to tell the reason why brothers and sisters fought. It was just that they didn't like each other, and when their heels bumped into each other, they had to fight with their lives on the line.
However, it was usually the big one who suffered. Why? Because the big one would give in and have a sense of propriety. However, the small one might not have a sense of propriety and would attack with all their might.
Right now, Four and Five were in such a situation. One wanted to give in and the other wanted to fight with all her might.
Li He entered the courtyard. Wang Yulan was washing vegetables in the courtyard. She seemed to be used to the two sisters fighting and only said, "Let go."
In the end, none of them let go, so she simply ignored them.
Li He didn't say anything and squatted at the door to smoke.
They could do whatever they wanted. After playing around, the two of them still squeezed into the same bed at night and were as good as one person.
Four said, "Let go."
Five grabbed onto Four's sleeve tightly and refused to let go. She was shorter than Four and couldn't kick her, so she used her nails to dig into her hand. Then, she started to curse. She cursed all eighteen generations of the Li family's ancestors.
"My mother is your mother and my milk is your milk. Who are you scolding?" Four was anxious.
"I'm scolding you, I'm scolding you."
Four was furious. He used all his strength to pry open her wrist and pushed her to the ground.
Five was stunned for a moment on the ground. She quickly got up and looked left and right. When she saw the fire tongs leaning against the wall, she ran over and grabbed them, wanting to rush towards Four.
Li He was shocked and hurriedly hugged Five from the back, "You've grown up. Is hitting people with fire tongs a joke?"
"Who told her to hit me?" Lao Wu swung his fire tongs at Li He, who was behind him.
Li He grabbed her wrist and snatched the fire tongs away. His expression immediately changed as he lifted the back of her neck. "Your real skin is itching, right? I haven't cared about you for the past few days. Do you think that I'm easy to talk to?"
Five was suspended in midair, and he began to cry again. "You guys are just biased."
"Fine, you want to be like your fourth sister, right?" Li He let go of her. "That's easy. When your fourth sister was in the first year of middle school, she earned four dollars a week. Now that you're earning ten dollars a week, think about it. In the future, you'll only earn four dollars, okay?"
"That's different," Old Five called out loudly.
"How is it different?" Li He asked.
Five replied, "Either way, it's different."
Li He said, "I think it's the same. I'll give you four dollars a week in the future so that your Fourth Sister won't say that she's biased."
Four's face was full of schadenfreude, and he happily helped Wang Yulan wash the vegetables.
"You're cheating! You said you'd give me ten dollars!" Five cried for real this time. She didn't cry now, but if it really became four dollars, she would have nowhere to cry. Ever since her family's financial situation improved, the pocket money in her hands had never stopped. Whether it was the children in the village or her classmates in school, they all liked to surround her. Who wouldn't like pocket money and snacks? The sugar-coated bullet was always successful.
She thought about it. If it really turned into four pieces, her prestige would plummet!
Although four yuan was a huge sum of money, it couldn't be compared with ten yuan!
Li He threatened, "It depends on your performance. If you perform well, I'll still give you ten dollars. If you don't, I'll give you four dollars."
"Really?"
"Really."
Five stopped crying and thought about what to do.
She decided to first go the route of kinship with Wang Yulan. She wanted to let Second Brother Li know that he didn't have the final say in this family. Even if he didn't pay, he still had his biological mother.
Unfortunately, she didn't understand her biological mother. Wang Yulan originally felt that giving ten dollars a week was a bit too much. She only went to school five days a week, which was equivalent to spending two dollars a day. It was simply a waste. If it wasn't for her second son's repeated instructions, she wouldn't have given so much money.
Now that her second son said four dollars, it was exactly what she wanted. How could she still listen to her youngest daughter's nagging? She just kept saying, "Be content, be content."
Five was discouraged. Thinking that this unexpected disaster was caused by Four, she didn't have a good attitude towards Four. At night, she didn't want to sleep in the same room with Four no matter what.
However, there were only a few rooms in the house where she could sleep. Wang Yulan and her husband shared a room, so she couldn't go there.
She was a little afraid that Li He would sleep in the same room, but she wouldn't go over to find trouble.
The remaining room was for the two sisters.
She went to coax Li Pei and went to his house to sleep at night. She thought that there were many empty rooms in her third brother's house.
Little Li Pei was also six years old and knew everything. He wouldn't be willing to let little aunt sleep with him. Little Aunt's slap really hurt!
Duan Mei quickly hugged Li Ke and held Li Pei's hand. She turned around and left. She didn't dare to answer her little sister-in-law's words. She didn't want to cause trouble for herself.
Five had already said that she wouldn't sleep with Four. Seeing that there was no place to sleep, she could only go back to her original room to sleep. However, she refused to sleep with Four in the same bed. She picked up a blanket, rolled it up, and crawled into it.
Four was naturally even happier that she didn't have to trouble him.
Li Yan ran over to Li He early in the morning and said, "My father wants me to continue studying again. I'll go back to school when school starts."
"That's good. Study hard and you'll have a bright future. If there's homework you don't understand, you can ask your fourth sister." Li He also hoped that she would have a way out. For a child from the countryside, the best way out was to study. Leaving the countryside sounded a little cruel, but it would be like this for the next few decades. Only in the city would there be more opportunities.
Li Yan nodded heavily. She came to ask Four about homework when she had nothing to do.
Four wasn't stingy. He gave her all of his previous reference books, textbooks, and notes. He also taught her some learning methods, most of which he learned from Li He.
Li He asked, "Your brain works fast, right?"
Fourth Bro said, "The swallow is going to suffocate, so it's better to put in some more effort.
Li He was helpless. He could only help this much. When it came to learning, one had to rely on oneself.
Li Pei's white butt was stuck out at the intersection. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get out.
Li He asked, "Is she constipated?"
"She took some bug medicine yesterday. It's probably blocked," Wang Yulan said, very experienced. Then, she took the medicine and dripped a few drops on Li Pei's butt.
The medicine was usually used to deal with the dry and lumpy stool of children. Most village clinics had it, and it was a common and necessary medicine.
After a while, a puddle came out.
Li Pei said happily, "Bugs, bugs."
Wang Yulan said, "I told you long ago that she didn't eat well every day. She must have bugs, but her mother didn't believe me."
Li He endured the nausea and looked at it. It was a roundworm disease. The long worms that came out looked like earthworms.
As long as one came from the countryside, it would be strange if they didn't have this thing in their stomach.
Roundworms were one of the most common parasites in the human body. At this time, the sanitation in the countryside was poor. Chickens and ducks were everywhere, and there was feces everywhere. It was normal to infect children.
There were often people who woke up early every day to pick up cow and pig dung and dry it to make fire.
Also, many people used the water from the river. The old wells in the village couldn't provide enough water for so many people.
There were also many people who had wells. After all, it was so close to the river. There was water in the low-lying land with a few shovels, but they could only reach shallow water. When it rained, the water in the well would still be muddy.
When the water was brought into the tank, it had to be put in alum so that the impurities could settle. This was the most common way of purifying water in the countryside.
The sanitation situation was still worrying.
Li He said, "Let's dig a new well."
Wang Yulan said, "It's not like it can't be eaten. Why would we dig a new one?"
"Listen to me." Li He still had to look for Li Fucheng. He didn't know any of the people who dug the well. Only the old man was familiar with these things. Of course, Li Zhaokun might know, but Li He didn't want to talk to him.
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