She turned around and smiled at the children, comforting them: "Don"t be afraid, big sister won"t let you go hungry."The children nodded in succession. In their hearts, their elder sister had always been very powerful. They believed that their elder sister would definitely not let them starve to death.
Seeing that all the children trusted her so much, Li Qingling smiled.
She gave some instructions to the children and was ready to go to the town to see if Fumanlou had opened the door.
Liu Zhimo was worried that she would go alone, so he decided to go with her. Knowing that she couldn"t beat him, Li Qingling nodded.
The two of them also instructed the children to stay at home and to lock the door. They didn"t open the door carelessly, and only left on foot after seeing the children responding.
In two years, they had been in town, rushing straight to the Fumanlou, and when they saw the door to the Fumanlou open, their eyes lit up.
They won"t starve...
They quickly walked into the Fumanlou, and the moment they saw the shopkeeper, they revealed smiles.
"storekeeper uncle, long time no see." Li Qingling smiled and greeted his.
Hearing the familiar voice, the shopkeeper raised his head, and saw Li Qing Lin standing in front of him. He laughed: "Miss Xiao Ling, long time no see." He had originally planned to head to Ox-Head Village in two days to see if Li Qingling and the others could return. Who would have thought that even though he hadn"t gone yet, Li Qingling and the others had come looking for him.
From the looks of it, they were living quite well, and did not seem to be having a hard time.
When Li Qingling saw that the shopkeeper wasn"t skinny in the slightest, the smile on her face became even more p.r.o.nounced, "When did storekeeper uncle return? The last time I pa.s.sed by, Fumanlou"s door wasn"t even opened! " This was really the heavens helping her, the heavens did not have a path for them!
"I arrived last night. I had originally planned to visit you two days later, but who would"ve thought that you two would come at such a time. This will save Uncle some time."
Hearing the shopkeeper"s words, Li Qingling raised his eyebrows and smiled as he thanked him.
The shopkeeper curiously sized her up and asked, "Where have you been these past few months?"
He had seen people fleeing for their lives. All of them were thin and sallow, and their clothes were tattered. They looked like beggars.
Compared to the past, Li Qingling was only a little thinner. Basically, he had not changed much.
He really didn"t seem like a refugee.
With regards to this matter, Li Qingling felt that there was nothing much to hide, so she gave a brief summary of what had happened in the past few months.
Of course, he had hidden the matter of how he saved the old man and Liu Zhihao.
After the shopkeeper heard this, he was a little impressed. He could think of such an idea, he was really intelligent. No wonder Master told him to take care of his family when he came back.
"No wonder you don"t look like those refugees. So you ate wild game for months?" He smiled and teased, "I wonder why Miss Xiao Ling came to find uncle today?"
He wouldn"t visit the Three Treasures Palace when he had nothing to do. If he couldn"t even see through Li Qingling"s little thoughts, then he would really be the owner of the Fumanlou.
Her heart skipped a beat, Li Qingling knew that he wouldn"t be able to hide it from the shopkeeper. She opened her mouth a little embarra.s.sedly: "Coming to find storekeeper uncle today, is indeed to ask for something." She took a deep breath and continued, "To be honest, storekeeper uncle said that Ox-Head Mountain collapsed last night and buried my house. Since all the food in my house was gone, I came to find Uncle to borrow some."
"What?" Even someone as calm as the manager was shocked when he heard Li Qingling"s words, "Did Niu Tou mountain collapse? No one"s hurt at home, right? "
"No, luckily we ran fast, so everything was fine." Li Qingling thought about what happened last night, and his heart was still thumping hard. If not for her nightmare, he feared that …
Hearing that it was fine, the manager calmed down. "It"s good that you"re fine. As for those things, they will be able to be earned back in the future." If they were gone, then everything was gone.
Li Qingling laughed and said, "I was thinking the same thing. It"s just that since it"s a little difficult, I can only come to the storekeeper uncle to seek help." If she knew that such a disaster was coming, she wouldn"t have brought the food from Matsuyama back. If she didn"t bring the food back, then they wouldn"t have come asking for help.
The thought of the food buried under the cellar made her heart ache.
This was truly a man, not even the heavens knew what to do. Who would have thought that such a move would come?
"That"s easy to say, how much food does Miss Xiao Ling want?" The more he interacted with this girl, the more he felt that this girl was very intelligent. She directly asked to borrow food, not silver.
Seeing that the shopkeeper was willing to lend them the food, Li Qingling finally relaxed a little.
She had only come to the Fumanlou to try her luck, to see if the owner of the Fumanlou was willing to lend them food or not. If she was unwilling, then there was no way she could force him to lend it to her.
Thus, Fumanlou"s shopkeeper gave her face.
"I want a hundred catties of food, can I borrow it?" Li Qingling said this calmly. She had planned to split the profits after Fumanlou opened her business, and at that time, if she did not return the food, she would be able to pay with silver, "I can sign a contract with storekeeper uncle, I won"t go back on my word."
She still had this little bit of credit.
Hearing this, the shopkeeper thought for a moment before nodding. "I can lend you one hundred pounds of food, but there isn"t much here, so I can only give you ten pounds of food. The remaining eighty pounds will take a few days before I can give it to you." The food here had long since been transported away. Now that they had reopened the door, they still needed to bring the food back.
Moreover, he had to report this matter to his master.
Hearing that, Li Qingling had no objections on this matter, so he nodded his head.
As long as he could borrow food, he would be fine even if he was delayed by a few days.
The shopkeeper saw that Li Qingling had nodded and went to instruct the waiter. He then took out the twenty catties of food and gave it to Li Qingling.
At the same time, he handed twenty taels of silver to Li Qingling.
"This …"
"I"m lending it to you guys to buy a pot. If you don"t have the grains and the pot doesn"t boil, then that"s not good."
His heart suddenly moved, Li Qingling unrestrainedly accepted it, and directly bowed to the shopkeeper, saying "Thank you."
All the people who had helped them, she would never forget their kindness for the rest of her life.
The manager waved his hand, smiling as he spoke.
What he did was a simple task. Presumably, even if his master was here, he would do the same.
After nagging the shopkeeper for a while longer, Li Qingling and Liu Zhimo finally rejected the shopkeeper"s offer and walked out of Fumanlou.
"If only I hadn"t used all of that silver to sell food, I wouldn"t be in such a sorry state now." The more Li Qingling thought about it, the more he became upset. That was all they had, and once again, they would have to start anew.
Liu Zhimo changed his hand to hold onto food, then extended out his hand to hold onto Li Qingling"s hand, smiling as he comforted her, "If you had not used that money to buy food, we would have already starved to death in Matsuyama, how would we have had the chance to say such words here?" He couldn"t bear to look at her, so he took all the responsibility on himself. If it wasn"t for her, his entire family would have been wiped away a long time ago, "You, are just thinking too much. As long as our family lives together in peace, we will make that money sooner or later."
In the past, their family had nothing. Now, they were only starting from the beginning. What was there to be afraid of?
Li Qingling tilted his head and glanced at Liu Zhimo, then narrowed his eyes and laughed, "You"re right, I"ll start from the beginning, there"s nothing to be afraid of."
In the past, she could earn that much money, but in the future, she could also earn that much money, or even more.
She secretly made up her mind that she must quickly earn back the money. Otherwise, the children at home wouldn"t be able to attend school.
She didn"t want to delay them.
Seeing that she had thought it through, Liu Zhimo finally smiled.
"Let"s go, hurry up and finish buying things and go back home. It"s too late, the children should be worried."
"Hmm …" Li Qingling nodded.
The two of them bought everything they needed before heading back.
As soon as they returned home, the children saw that they really did return with the food, and they all revealed excited smiles on their faces.
"Big brother, where did you get this food?" Liu Zhiyan looked at the grains, the pots and pans on the ground, and asked while knitting his brows.
After going through so many things, this child seemed to have grown up overnight, so he would put his heart into thinking about so many things.
Liu Zhimo did not plan to hide it from the children, so he told them directly.
Their children couldn"t make them look like children who didn"t know anything about the world. They had to let them know that it wasn"t easy to grow up in this family.
"The reason why Big Bro told you all these things is to let you all know that this family is not easy. I hope that everyone can unite together and support this family." Although he wanted to hone these children, he didn"t want them to shrink too much, so he explained, "Big brother, do you understand what you mean?"
"Understood …" The three boys nodded seriously.
The two little guys looked at this and then at that and also understood in a childish voice.
Looking at his brothers and sisters, Liu Zhimo smiled warmly and gave them a few more words of encouragement, telling them to do whatever they had to do.
When Liu Zhimo was teaching his children, he would usually not interrupt.
When he was finished and the children had dispersed, he said, "What are you going to tell them? I don"t want them to worry. " In her heart, the children were still too young to bear so much of a burden.
Liu Zhimo saw through what she was thinking, "They"re not young anymore, they should know about these things." The little girl didn"t even think about it. She was still very young, "Don"t worry. Children aren"t as weak as you think. Don"t worry too much about them."
Li Qingling thought for a while, then sighed. From that day onwards, she would think of all sorts of ways to earn money to restore the living conditions in her family.