When his father heard that, he was shocked in his heart, "You … The creek is dead? " Hearing this news, he was a little confused. Although he didn"t treat this daughter of his very well, she was still his daughter. When he suddenly heard this news, his heart was still a little unable to accept it."Yes, as you wish. We won"t waste any food in the family." Big River chuckled. In the past, his stepmother had often scolded him for wasting food in the family. These words were deeply engraved in his heart.
Big River"s dad"s face became even more obscure. He rubbed the corner of his shirt and asked Big River in a low voice, "How did the stream die?"
When he was escaping from the disaster, he wanted to take the river with him, but his wife opposed him. She felt that if he brought so many people with him, they wouldn"t be able to escape, so he might as well leave the river with the stream.
He thought about it and decided that it was a good idea, so he agreed.
Only, he hadn"t expected that his son would survive, while his daughter would die.
Although his son was the most important person in his heart, his daughter was still his child. Hearing the news of his daughter"s death, he couldn"t help but feel sad.
"Starved to death." Big River clenched his teeth as he replied. He wouldn"t tell him the truth about how his sister died. He just wanted him to live in guilt for the rest of his life.
If Xiao Lingjie didn"t take him and her sister, they would have starved to death long ago.
What he said wasn"t wrong.
Hearing that, Big River"s father couldn"t help but take a step back. His face revealed a sorrowful expression. When he looked at the hate on Big River"s face, he opened his mouth, but didn"t know what to say.
When the stepmother heard this, she jumped out and pointed at the river while cursing loudly, "Li Da He, look at yourself! Do you look like someone who has nothing to eat? "Huh?" No one believed him.
Her words were spoken very loudly, and the surrounding people all looked over. When they saw that Big River and the others were clean, and did not look like they had escaped, their expressions changed.
When Li Qingling felt it, his heart skipped a beat. Before she left, he wanted everyone to change into tattered clothes in order to not be eye-catching.
However, compared to the others, there was still an obvious difference when compared to the mutterings of the stepmother of the river.
With a cold expression, she took a step forward and stood in front of the river. She looked into the eyes of the river"s stepmother and said, "If the river wasn"t saved by us, he wouldn"t be alive today." After a pause, he taunted again, "A stepmother is a stepmother, bringing her own son with her when she escapes. She left the children in front of her at home without leaving any food, leaving them to fend for themselves.
After saying that, he turned to River Father. "As a stepmother, it is understandable for her to treat her children like this. After all, she didn"t climb out of her stomach, but you? You are the father of River and Creek, how could you do such a thing as an animal? " Li Qingling looked at his father"s flushed face and said, "As expected, if you have a stepmother, then you have a stepfather. These words are not a lie."
Her purpose was to divert the attention of others, to divert their attention to Big River"s parents, not to the children.
Sure enough, the moment the crowd heard, they started pointing at the river and started talking about it. They all felt that this was the kind of people who were heartless to their parents, abandoning their children to escape.
The stepmother was extremely unhappy after being scolded by others, so she spat at the people around her, "What do you want to say? I don"t believe that if all of you were to become stepmothers, you wouldn"t be biased, right? " It wasn"t like he had crawled out from her stomach. Eccentricity was very normal. "Scram, scram. This is my family matter. Don"t be squeaky here."
Her vile att.i.tude had offended a bunch of people.
"Looking at this woman"s ferocious appearance, it seems that no one dares to marry her, so she went to be a stepmother."
"That"s right, even as a stepmother, don"t have such a bad heart! You must know that this person will have his retribution. "
"If you want me to say, then even if the stepmother was fierce, then so be it. This father is so heartless, and this is really a big rumor. Isn"t he afraid that the daughter-in-law in front of him will come up and find him for revenge in the middle of the night?"
Hearing the words of these people, Da He"s father blushed. He reached out his hand to tug at his wife"s sleeve. He wanted her to speak less and not offend so many people.
However, he had never had much of a position in the family, so his words weren"t very useful. Since he was acting like this, his wife would definitely not listen to him.
"Why are you pulling my clothes?" The stepmother glared at her father. She didn"t dare to confront the crowd, so she could only pick a soft persimmon to pinch. "Li Da He, hurry and come over here. What"s wrong with hiding behind this girl?"
"What is it? Could it be that you want to harm us this time? Do you want to try a second time? " Li Qingling"s eyes were wide open as he looked at the Queen Mother in disbelief, as if the Queen Mother was a man-eating villain. "Let me tell you this, with me here, I won"t allow you to hurt the Great River again."
Even if the river were to return to his house later, she had to protect him in front of so many people. She had to let him know that he wasn"t alone, that he had these people backing him up.
The empress dowager was so angry that she was half dead. She took two heavy breaths, pointed at Li Qingling, and started scolding without waiting for a response, "What? You"re protecting Li Da He like this because you have a relationship with Li Da He, right? "
Her words had greatly hurt Li Qingling"s reputation. If Li Qingling did not clarify, everyone would drown her in just one mouthful of saliva.
But before Li Qingling could say anything, Liu Zhimo walked to Li Qingling"s side with a dark face and coldly said: "Aunt, Xiao Ling is my fiancee. If you don"t apologize to her, then we will go and see Old Master Qingtian."
Although they did not place much importance on reputation, they would still resist such serious slander to the end.
He walked out from behind Li Qingling, looked at his with red eyes, and said while sobbing, "Mother, Xiao Lingjie and the others are my saviors. It"s fine if you don"t want to be grateful, but you"re still slandering her. What is your purpose? " If his own mother was here, she wouldn"t have said such a thing.
After all, she wasn"t his own mother, so she didn"t give a d.a.m.n about him.
He looked at his father and took a deep breath. "Father, if you don"t want this son of mine anymore, then just open your mouth. You don"t need to use such methods to insult my benefactor." Li Da He bit his lower lip and continued, "As long as you open your mouth, even if I, Li Da He, starve to death, I won"t be like a beggar who begs to follow you home for nothing."
"You … What are you talking about, kid? I... How could I not want you? " After comforting the river, his eyes turned fierce as they looked at his wife, "Lai Dani, if you continue to speak, let"s see if I can deal with you."
No matter how useless a man was, when he became ferocious, it would be extremely frightening.
When the stepmother saw the fierce look on his father"s face, she became a little frightened. She muttered a few words unwillingly before falling silent.
Normally, at home, Big River"s father would be a bit more cowardly and obedient to her. However, she knew in her heart that once he became fierce, it would also be very scary.
Just like when they were on the way to escaping, those who tried to s.n.a.t.c.h their food were beaten away by Da He"s father.
She could still clearly remember that ferocious appearance!
Big River looked at his stepmother with some surprise. He thought that her stepmother would beat him up and scold him, but he never expected her to be so obedient this time.
The sun had risen from the west, it was strange.
"Da He, come and stand with dad. After you get the food, we"ll go home together."
If he hadn"t said the latter part of the sentence and Big River had heard it, he might have felt moved in his heart. However, with the latter part added on, his heart was in a very bad mood.
If he didn"t have a food leader, would his father still be so good to him?
He didn"t think it was likely.
"No, I"m standing quite well here." "Father, in these past few months, I have been staying in Zhi Moge"s house for free. I feel very sorry, but I just want to return the five cubes of rice to Zhi Moge, which can be considered as repaying him for his kindness, don"t you have any objections?"
Hearing this, Da He"s father"s face changed. Immediately after, he smiled stiffly and said, "No objections. It"s what I should do." Even if he wanted to oppose it, he couldn"t when he saw so many people looking at him.
If he said no, the onlookers would drown him with their saliva.
"No, definitely not. Five cubes of rice is a lifesaver for our family." The stepmother strongly opposed it as she angrily glared at the river, "Look at how Liu Zhimo and the others are doing, they don"t seem like people who are short of food. Why are they giving them food? If you give them the food, you don"t have to go home, you can just go to his house and eat. " Come home without food and you want to eat at home. Don"t even think about it.
It wasn"t like she was her own son. She didn"t want to raise another family"s son for nothing.
"Aunt, are you joking? If my family does not lack food, how could they have come here to collect it? " Li Qingling"s expression was cold, if she did not go back, people would really think that his family had a lot of food, and that would cause trouble for her family.
"Because my family is all children, they are not suitable for fleeing far away. Thus, they escaped to the Matsuyama and hid there. Furthermore, my hunting skills are not bad, so the children can eat some meat paste from time to time. She frowned and looked at the stepmother in dissatisfaction. "But you can"t just slander our family for having food?" If your irresponsible words cause us to be unable to get food, then our entire family will come to your house to eat every day. " Who didn"t know how to threaten people?