frightfiction Chapter 599 Putting myself in their shoes, I couldn't accept it either.
Chapter 599 Putting myself in their shoes, I couldn't accept it either.
But since we haven't reached that point yet, we don't need to go through that hardship.
After all, land reclamation is not something that can be done overnight, and it is not compatible with the current level of productivity.
Lin Chang'er declined, "Uncle, I know you mean well, but I have other considerations. The land in the village will be very useful in the future! I want this hillside. Can you help me ask the elders in the village if they can sell this hillside to me, and how much they can sell it to me for?"
Seeing that she insisted, Zhou Hai didn't try to persuade her any further and nodded in agreement, "Okay, then I'll go ask for you."
Lin Chang'er and Madam Huo strolled around the fields again before heading back.
On the way, Madam Huo brought up the matter of the Princess of Zhenbei again.
She said, "Chang'er, my sister has a hard life. If anything goes wrong, please help her out."
Lin Chang'er said, "I, Aunt Gu, am straightforward and not the type to hold grudges. However, if the Princess wants to acknowledge the child, she will definitely need to provide proof."
Madam Huo said happily, "So, you don't object to the two children recognizing each other as family?"
Lin Chang'er paused, then said solemnly, "Madam, I won't stand on ceremony with you. To be honest, I can't make the decision about the two children."
"I was nominally their stepmother, but I only took care of them for about half a year until they were five years old."
“Back then, I was forced by my family and had no way to survive. The Gu family used all their wealth to save me. My two children were also raised little by little by the Gu family members who saved food from their own mouths.”
After pausing for a moment, he pointed to the surrounding area and said, "To be honest, our village looks quite nice now. Just six months ago, this whole area was just barren land, and the elderly and children in the village would have trouble walking."
"The men were all pale and thin, and at mealtimes, there was rarely any smoke coming from the chimneys."
"You might not have a good idea of what I mean..."
No matter how unsatisfactory things were, Madam Huo was a noblewoman from the capital, so she probably didn't have any real feelings about going hungry.
"Xiao Niu's mother, Sister-in-law Xiao Hua, used to be our neighbor. Her husband died along with the father of the twins. The government gave them two taels of silver as compensation, but her in-laws tried every means to take it away."
“She was a woman with a child, and she didn’t have any skills to make a living. At that time, our family had just started to do business. One day, I came back from closing up shop in town, and Xiao Niu ran to our house crying and said that his mother had fainted.”
"Later I found a doctor for her. The doctor said it was because she was hungry. I clearly gave her steamed buns that day, but she was afraid that the calf would go hungry, so she didn't dare to eat a single bite herself."
"Later I let her help out. The pay wasn't much, but I would provide a late-night snack for the night shifts. I didn't force them to eat at our house."
“As you know, adults always worry about their families. That’s how it used to be in our village. My eldest brother, Gu, was lame and couldn’t do heavy work. My second brother was thin and couldn’t do heavy work either. You can imagine what the Gu family was like back then.”
“In this kind of world, it’s not easy to support yourself, let alone raise two children.”
"Therefore, I cannot make decisions for the Gu family, nor do I have the right to ask my Aunt Gu for information on behalf of the Princess."
"Madam Huo, do you understand what I'm saying?"
Madam Huo remained silent for a long time before finally sighing, "I understand. The Gu family loves their children and has never neglected the girl. Otherwise, my sister would have died long ago. They raised her to be five years old, and suddenly someone comes along and says, 'This is my child, you have to give her back to me.' Putting myself in their shoes, I couldn't accept that either."