When the pears are green

Chapter 128 Teach a man to fish

When these people saw that Jiang Qian did the same, most of them walked away cursing, leaving only a pair of thin and weak brother and sister.

The brother and sister slowly moved to the edge of the field. The boy lowered his head and told Jiang Qingye, who was resting, the purpose of his visit.

Jiang Qingye's brows were getting tighter and tighter. Although he felt sorry for the boy's experience, this matter was not something he could decide. He said to the boy embarrassedly: "Gou Wa, you have to ask my sister-in-law about this matter. As long as my sister-in-law agrees, there will be no problem. You and my little sister come with me to ask." After that, Jiang Qingye led Jiang Gou Wa and his sister towards Song Li.

Song Li had seen the brother and sister a long time ago. They were there when Jiang Qingzhou's uncle came to ask for mulberry seedlings. Song Li thought they were also here to ask for mulberry seedlings, but she never saw them come forward. It was not until Jiang Qingye took a break that they went to talk to him. It seemed that the two of them knew Jiang Qingye and had a good relationship with him.

The three of them walked up to Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou, and Song Li smiled and motioned for them to sit down and talk.

Jiang Qingye sat on Song Li's right. He pointed to the brother and sister sitting on his left and said to Song Li, "Sister-in-law, these are my friends, Gou Wa and Xiao Mei. They want to ask you if you want to hire someone to do the work. They don't want mulberry seedlings or money, they just want a meal."

Song Li looked at the brother and sister again. Although they were both skinny, Jiang Gou Wa was thinner. Jiang Xiao Mei's clothes were covered with pudding, while Jiang Gou Wa's clothes were full of holes.

Jiang Gou Wa saw that Song Li was just staring at them. He was afraid that Song Li would not agree, so he quickly said, "Sister-in-law, just let my sister have a meal. I don't need it. We can both work."

"How old are you?" Song Li felt a little sad, but she didn't know the situation of the brother and sister, and she didn't dare to hire them rashly.

Jiang Xiaomei, who had been hiding behind Jiang Gou Wa, replied: "Sister-in-law, my brother is thirteen and I am ten. We can both work. My brother doesn't eat much, so let my brother eat. He is strong and can help sister-in-law with more work." After saying that, she looked at Song Li with pleading eyes.

Song Li turned her head away, guessing in her heart that the brother and sister might not have parents, but she still wanted to confirm it.

"Where are your parents? Don't they take care of you?" Song Li asked again.

Jiang Xiaomei's expression was sad for a moment, and then she hid behind Jiang Gou Wa again.

Jiang Gou Wa looked back at Jiang Xiao Mei and answered Song Li, "Sister-in-law, my father passed away three years ago and my mother married someone else. My uncles divided up my family's land and kicked us out two days ago. The head of the village signed a severance agreement for us."

Jiang Xiaomei couldn't help crying when she heard what Jiang Gou Wa said. Jiang Gou Wa immediately became irritated and yelled at Jiang Xiaomei: "Crying, what's the use of crying? Can crying help us survive?"

Jiang Xiaomei stopped crying. She kept wiping her face with her sleeves, staring at Jiang Gou Wa with her red eyes. She was afraid that Jiang Gou Wa would abandon her in the next second.

Jiang Gou Wa looked at Jiang Xiao Mei's expression, slapped himself, then hugged Jiang Xiao Mei and started crying softly.

The eyes of the three members of the Jiang family were red. The experience of the brother and sister was very similar to that of Jiang Qingzhou's brother back then. This was also the reason why the brother and sister did not go to find Jiang Ping's family.

Song Li looked at Jiang Qingzhou, who had been silent, and said softly to him, "Qingzhou, you decide."

Jiang Qingzhou nodded, and said to the still crying Jiang Gou Wa brother and sister: "Don't cry, come to work, three meals a day. However, my work will only be done in a day or two, then you can figure out a way by yourselves."

The crying brother and sister didn't react. They both looked at Jiang Qingzhou in a daze. Jiang Qingye repeated what Jiang Qingzhou had just said.

"Thank you, Brother Dahu, thank you, sister-in-law!" Jiang Gou Wa and Jiang Xiao Mei immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed continuously.

Jiang Qingzhou and Song Li hurriedly pulled Jiang Gou Wa up. It was still some time before noon, so Song Li began to teach the brother and sister how to thin out the seedlings. After the two of them watched it once, they immediately started to work.

When the sun rose to the top of the head, Jiang Qingzhou called on everyone to finish work and go home.

Jiang Qingzhou and Song Li walked in front, and Jiang Qingye and Jiang Gou Wa followed behind. When a villager passed by them, he laughed and teased Jiang Gou Wa: "Gou Wa, you have to be careful when working with this young wife, she is very mean."

"Puh" Jiang Xiaomei spat at the man's feet and quickly hid behind Jiang Gou Wa.

Jiang Gou Wa protected Jiang Xiao Mei and said loudly to the man, "Brother Cui San, I begged you yesterday, but you didn't agree and you kept laughing at us. You said your sister-in-law was mean, but you are not even as good as her."

The man's face turned red, he cursed, "Little bastard," and left quickly.

Jiang Gou Wa looked embarrassedly at Song Li who was looking at them. Song Li smiled and motioned for them to follow.

After returning home, Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou went to cook, and asked Jiang Qingye to take Jiang Gouwa and his sister to rest in the yard.

Jiang Qingye knew that Jiang Gou Wa was very strong, so he took out a slingshot and asked Jiang Gou Wa to shoot at the sycamore tree behind the kitchen.

Jiang Gou Wa took the slingshot, holding it in his right hand, pulling the bowstring with his left hand, and squinting his eyes at a group of sparrows flying past the sycamore tree. He quickly ejected the bullet, and with a whoosh, a sparrow fell to the ground.

Jiang Qingye picked up the sparrow happily. He walked to the kitchen door with the sparrow in his hand and told Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou that the sparrow was shot down by Jiang Gou Wa.

Song Li smiled and praised Jiang Gou Wa, then asked Jiang Qingzhou to clean up the sparrow, and she put the sparrow into the noodles.

After the meal was ready, Song Li asked Jiang Gouwa and his sister to come to the table to eat. The two siblings looked at each other and said that they could eat in the yard.

Song Li didn't force them. She put their bowls on a stool so that it would be more convenient for them to eat.

Jiang Xiaomei looked at the noodles sticking out in disbelief. She carefully sipped a mouthful of the noodle soup, then said to Jiang Gou Wa happily, "Brother, it's delicious. We haven't had enough to eat since Dad passed away."

Jiang Gou Wa touched the top of Jiang Xiao Mei's head and told her to eat quickly. Both of them shoveled noodles into their mouths.

"Brother, there is meat." Jiang Xiaomei used chopsticks to dig out half a sparrow.

Jiang Gou Wa also used chopsticks to dig in his bowl and put the other half of the sparrow in Jiang Xiao Mei's bowl.

The two pushed and shoved for a while, and finally each got half. Jiang Gou Wa listened to the voices coming from the main room, and he thought that when he had the ability in the future, he must thank Jiang Qingye and the other two.

A day later, the work in the Jiang family's mulberry fields was completed.

Jiang Gou Wa and his sister were eating dinner at the Jiang family worriedly. They didn’t know what to do tomorrow.

After dinner, Jiang Gou Wa took Jiang Xiao Mei home with a worried look on his face. When they reached the gate of Jiang’s house, Jiang Qingye called out to him loudly.

"Here you go. I'll lend it to you first." Jiang Qingye handed his slingshot to Jiang Gou Wa.

Jiang Gou Wa looked at Jiang Qing Ye with some confusion. Jiang Qing Ye put the slingshot into Jiang Gou Wa's hand and explained with a smile: "There are a lot of birds over there on the riverbank. You can shoot down the sparrows or those birds. The restaurants in the town collect these things. You can go and try it tomorrow."

Jiang Gou Wa didn't know how to thank Jiang Qingye. He held the slingshot and whispered, "Thank you."

After Jiang Gou Wa and his sister left, Jiang Qingye walked into the yard and said to Song Li, who was watering the vegetables, with a smile: "Sister-in-law, I gave the slingshot to Gou Wa as you asked."

Song Li praised Jiang Qingye for his good work. She told Jiang Qingye: "We can't support them all their lives. They have to rely on themselves in the end. Gou Wa has this ability, so why not let him make a living with it first? It's better to teach a man to fish than to give him a fish!"