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Chapter 106 The parents on the road to escape 4

Yuan Xi sat on the stone pier and encouraged his granddaughter to dig in the soil with a loving face.

Xiuxiu was young, but she also knew that her grandfather was praising her. Listening to the compliments, she gradually lost herself and waved the stick vigorously with her little hands, which was very impressive.

The third daughter-in-law planned to go to the kitchen to boil some water, but when she saw her disgraced daughter digging in the yard and her dirty clothes, she suddenly felt itchy on her palms and needed her little buttocks to cure it.

She wanted to call someone over, but her father was also there. The grandson and grandpa were playing quite well, so she hesitated for a moment.

Yuan Xi noticed her as soon as she came out, and she couldn't afford to have her beard cut off again this time.

Yuan Xi touched her granddaughter's little head with a loving look on her face, turned around and pretended to find the third daughter-in-law, and asked, "What's the matter with the third daughter-in-law?"

"Dad, it's okay. I'm going to the kitchen to boil some hot water."

"Oh, then go ahead." Don't even think about cutting off the beard.

"it is good."

The third daughter-in-law glanced at her daughter, hesitated to speak, but endured it. Forget it, it's a good thing for the daughter to be liked by the old man.

Out of sight, out of mind, she turned to the kitchen to heat some hot water and boil more water to wash the mud monkey later.

Xiuxiu heard her mother's voice, stopped moving, turned around and saw only her back.

"mother."

"Xiuxiu, be good, your mother is going to the kitchen to boil water. Come on, you can continue playing."

When Xiuxiu heard this, she turned around and forgot about her mother, becoming a happy digger.

boom!

Yuan Xi heard different noises and thought to himself: "It's not easy, we finally dug it out."

She pretended to be confused: "Xiuxiu, what's wrong?"

"Grandpa, the stone is hard." As he spoke, tears welled up in his eyes, as if he wanted to cry, "I can't dig it, ugh~"

"Xiuxiu, if you don't cry, can grandpa help you dig it?"

Yuan Xi held her hand holding the wooden stick and led her to dig hard a few times. The strength of an adult is incomparable to that of a child, and the lid of the earthen jar was exposed after two clicks.

He sensed that there was no one else around. He dug out the jar immediately, filled it back with soil, then walked into the main room holding his granddaughter in one hand and the jar in the other.

"Xiuxiu, go to the kitchen and ask your mother to come over."

"Oh."

Xiuxiu responded obediently, then walked to the kitchen to find her mother on her short legs.

After a while, the third daughter-in-law came to the main room with Xiuxiu in her arms.

"Dad, are you looking for me?"

"Go next door and see if the second brother is at home. If he is, please come over and tell him that I have something important to see him."

"Okay, dad, I'll go right away."

"You go alone, leave Xiu Xiu here, I'll watch."

"Okay, Xiuxiu, listen to your grandfather's words, you know?"

"Uh-huh."

Xiuxiu nodded her little head.

Upon seeing this, the third daughter-in-law put her daughter down, looked at the earthen jar on the table, and went to invite someone with some confusion.

The jar looked like it had just been dug out of the soil. It was dirty. Why did Dad put it on the table? The image of my daughter digging dirt under the sweet-scented osmanthus tree flashed through my mind. Could it be that my daughter dug it out? Seeing that my father was so solemn and wanted to invite his second uncle over, could he have dug up some treasure?

Then she denied it again, thinking that she had thought too much. There was no coincidence in the world. The osmanthus tree had been in the Zhang family for so many years, but her daughter had to dig out the treasure.

next door.

Zhang Yuanlin is calculating his family fortune with his old wife.

"Hey, it's already November, and another year is about to pass. Our family can save a few copper coins this year, hey."

He took a long puff of homemade dry tobacco sadly.

"What will happen to next year's taxes?"

"Isn't it still early? There's still more than half a year left, so you're starting to worry about this now."

"You have long hair but short knowledge. You don't have to look at what the situation is now. Year after year, taxes are getting heavier and heavier. In the past, you had to pay 50% of the grain harvested from the fields. In the past few years, it was changed to 55%. Last year Yeah, 60%. How do you know how much the officials will charge next year?"

"There are other miscellaneous taxes. The officials above have one idea every day. They must collect this tax today and that tax tomorrow. A while ago, a family in Tianjia Village next door got married. On the happy day, the government officials came to the door and said that their family had no money. They were not allowed to get married after paying the marriage tax, and they beat and robbed them, so they just ransacked them and left."

"What a crime! Another marriage tax appeared out of nowhere. They are really a bunch of bandits."

Zhang Yuanlin patted his old wife and said, "Okay, please keep your voice down."

"What's wrong with me scolding my old lady in my own home?"

"If the people don't fight with the officials, they should be careful in their own homes. If you are used to scolding, what should you do if you say it smoothly in front of outsiders?"

"Okay, then I'll be mute."

Zhang Yuanlin, who was glared at, said helplessly: "Look at you, I didn't say anything, I'm angry again."

He took a puff of cigarette depressedly, "By the way, let's get rid of the few chickens at home and sell them. If they can't be sold, we'll kill them for meat. It'll be a good time for the family to make up for themselves."

"Don't look at me like that. Yesterday, the patriarch said that a government official from the county came over and asked what chicken and pig taxes the county magistrate would charge. If the patriarch's son had not been friends with that government official, how could our village have been able to advance in advance? Once we know the news, we can make time to deal with everything that needs to be done.”

"We can't live like this anymore. Those officials are trying to force us common people to death."

Seeing his old wife crying, Zhang Yuanlin felt uncomfortable. He comforted her a few words, but no one was in the mood to talk anymore, and the room was silent.

The homemade tobacco leaves in Zhang Yuanlin's pipe were burned out, and he was not seen taking two puffs.

After a long time, he suddenly asked: "How much savings does our family have?"

"Three coins (one thousand coins), five coins, and a hundred and twenty coins."

On the table, the bundle was open, with three strings of copper coins, five broken pieces of silver, and some copper plates. He looked at it and sighed, "What should we do next time? We can only take one step at a time."

The imperial court-sponsored servitude generally required one person per household. Private servants could pay five taels of silver per person to replace the servants. Since the Zhang family was not officially divided, only one person was required. Many people died every year as slaves. The brothers felt sorry for their children and always paid to replace them. The slaves at the beginning of this year had already emptied the Zhang family's fortune.

The couple was worried about the next time they had to go to prison.

The arrival of Xiu Xiuniang broke the couple's melancholy.

"Third brother, do you want to see me for something? Then I'll go over and have a look. It just so happens that I also have something to tell him."

The door on the wall was indeed very convenient. Zhang Yuanlin quickly reached the main room next door and saw Yuan Xi playing with the children in the room.

"Third brother."

"Second brother, sit down."

Yuan Xi asked people to sit down, turned around and asked the third daughter-in-law to hold Xiuxiu and go to the door to watch and not let anyone else get close.

"Third brother, why are you so serious?"

"Second brother, do you still remember that your grandfather once said that our family used to be a wealthy family?"

Zhang Yuanlin thought for a moment before digging out the matter of sesame seeds and rotten millet from the depths of his mind.

"It seems like this is happening, what's wrong?"

As long as you have an impression, the next thing will be easier to handle. Yuan Xi continued: "My grandfather also said that there is a treasure in the house, but I have never found it."

Zhang Yuanlin laughed when he heard this, "Third brother, I also know about this. Isn't that grandpa's bragging? My father was also worried about it back then. After searching for a long time, he found a hidden compartment on the beam, but there was nothing in it. Later I heard Grandfather said that there are two ingots of gold in the secret room, and he had already spent them during the imperial examination in his early years."