Gu Datian looked at his parched lips, his eyes full of confusion. "Didn’t we just get water yesterday? Did you spill it all?"
Li Cuicui, who was sitting to the side, sneered, "Your Brother Dash has such a compassionate heart. He gave all his water away to help others."
Since yesterday, Li Cuicui had prevented her other sons from giving them water, so the three of them hadn’t had a single drop all day.
"What? Who’d he give the water to?" Gu Datian scratched his ear, suspecting he had misheard.
Gu Dashishi felt his vision blur. If he didn’t get so water soon, he wouldn’t be able to hold on. "Give so water first. We can talk about it later."
He finally understood. In the past, he thought Li Cuicui was just feisty on the surface, but her true strength was her ruthlessness. She was cruel not only to others but to herself as well.
For more than a day now, she had not only stopped him and his sons from asking her other sons for help, but she had also refused water herself, even turning away the children who brought it to her.
"Fourth, if you give your brother that water, I won’t be responsible for it."
The mont Li Cuicui spoke, Gu Dashishi suddenly felt like he was about to faint. His mouth was so dry that every word he tried to speak pulled at the scabs on the corners of his lips.
Gu Datian was the first to soften, handing over the bamboo tube that had been tied to his waist.
Gu Dashishi grabbed it like a lifeline, uncapped the bamboo tube, and began to gulp it down.
"That’s enough, stop!" Gu Datian’s heart ached at the loss. Forgetting all about brotherly affection, he reached out to snatch the tube back.
Having seized his chance, Gu Dashishi refused to let go, clutching the tube with both hands. Gu Datian panicked and yelled for his sons, "Ming Chun! Ming Xia! Hurry, co quick! Your uncle is stealing my water!"
Li Cuicui sneered and muttered, "Serves him right," before turning to walk toward Ancient Wen Heng.
"Mother," Jin Qianqian said, looking at the old woman with so concern. She wanted to try and persuade her again. "Don’t..."
"Give the water. I need a few sips. I can’t hold on much longer."
Jin Qianqian chanically handed the water to her, not daring to ask any questions.
"Mother, I have water here too," Gu Yuantu said, offering his as well.
But Li Cuicui didn’t even glance at it. She took a few more small sips before handing the bamboo tube back to Jin Qianqian.
"No need. I’ll co to you next ti I’m thirsty."
"Mother, you don’t have to be so harsh with Father and the others. If everyone is a little more frugal, we can get through this."
Gu Yuantu had barely finished speaking when Li Cuicui pulled out a wild vegetable ball and stuffed it into Jin Qianqian’s hand. "Use this to pay for the water. Whether it’s your father or anyone else who cos to you, these are the terms."
Jin Qianqian was confused. ’Why is the old woman going to such lengths?’
Just as she was hesitating whether to accept it, Ancient Wen Heng reached out from the side, popped the vegetable ball into his mouth, and took a big, fierce bite. His mouth full, he complained with disgust, "This stuff is so dry and tough. It’ll just make need more water."
"You dare complain?" Li Cuicui put her hands on her hips. ’This Seventh is really asking for a beating. He should take a look at his own situation. Is rice bran any better than this vegetable ball?’
Ancient Wen Heng picked out a small stone, his expression exaggerated. "At least drinking water won’t break my teeth. A few more bites of this, and all my teeth will fall out.
"Mother, next ti you make these, can you pick out the rocks? Look, this little stone is almost as thick as my finger."
Li Cuicui slapped away the hand Ancient Wen Heng was using for his comparison and scolded him with a laugh, "A beggar complaining about sour food! If we had water, I could whip you up ten or eight dishes so delicious you’d swallow them teeth and all."
Seeing the old woman finally break into a smile, Ancient Wen Heng felt a bit better himself. "Then I’ll be waiting. Waiting for my mother to conjure up those ten or eight dishes for ."
Li Cuicui thought about their current situation and sighed. "You’d better just close your eyes and go to sleep. You can have anything you want in your dreams."
Ancient Wen Heng put on an exaggerated expression. "Oh, Mother, you rembered what I said to tease soone else the other day, and now you’re using it on ! How am I supposed to make fun of anyone else now?"
"You’re such a rogue," Li Cuicui said, bursting into laughter. The other brothers watching from the side were stunned.
"That Seventh is getting more and more glib-tongued. He coaxed Mother into a good mood that quickly?" Gu Yuanmu’s voice was tinged with a complex emotion. ’Didn’t I used to be the one to cheer her up? I never thought Seventh would be an even better sweet-talker than . Just look how happy he’s made the old woman.’
"Isn’t that a good thing?" Gu Yuanjin said with a sigh of relief. ’When the old couple bicker and fight, it’s always us sons who suffer the most.’
"Gu Yuanjin, you and your brothers had better give us an explanation today! Look what your father did! He drank more than half my bamboo tube of water. How could he be so wasteful?" Gu Datian stared at his nearly empty tube, wanting to cry but having no tears. He had to find a way to get compensated.
Gu Yuanjin and the others had seen the whole farce. Before they could speak, Li Cuicui stepped in front of them. "Fourth, didn’t I warn you before you gave him the water? I said we wouldn’t acknowledge this debt. You did it of your own free will. You can’t bla us."
"How can you not acknowledge it? Big Brother is the one who drank the water! Sister-in-law, you can’t be so shaless!" Gu Datian’s heart pounded with panic. Until they found a new water source, this was his lifeline.
"Aunt, what about your water?" Gu Mingchun, knowing his father was a clumsy speaker, took over.
Li Cuicui didn’t hide anything. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd of onlookers, she laid bare the foolish things Gu Dashishi and Gu Yuanlei had done. She finished by saying, "You’ll have to settle this with that father and son. After all, your older cousins have already split from the family."
Gu Mingdong said, "But a father’s debt is a son’s to pay. You can’t just let our family suffer the loss, can you?"
"A father’s debt is a son’s to pay, that’s not a problem. But isn’t there still the youngest one? He can repay this debt." Li Cuicui pointed to Gu Yuanlei in the distance, who was still fawning over Lan Ying.
Gu Mingchun imdiately shook his head. "How would that work? Didn’t Gu Yuanlei give all his water away? What does he have to compensate us with?" ’Are they trying to get out of this?’
"Well, there’s nothing to be done then," Li Cuicui said, spreading her hands with a helpless look. "Why don’t you go beat up your uncle? He’s the one who caused this ss, so it’s not wrong to go after him."
The troublemaker, Gu Dashishi: "..."
After going back and forth, Gu Mingchun and his family had no choice but to compromise. The owed water would be deducted from Gu Yuanlei’s share when a new water source was found and distributed.
＆
It was ti for the critical water distribution again. Jin Qianqian looked at Ancient Wen Heng with so worry. "Senior, this is the last of it."
She had been pouring out this drinking water from bottled mineral water, one bottle at a ti. If the drought didn’t ease up soon, she would be completely out of options.
Ancient Wen Heng said, "It should be soon. We can’t be too far from Shangjing. If we’re a bit more frugal, we should be able to hold out."
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