Chapter 90

90 Instructor
Madam Liu pulled Chen Baozhen home. The village chief sat in the central room with a livid expression. Madam Liu anxiously pushed Chen Baozhen into the central room. “Go, talk to your father properly. Tell him you won’t do such stupid things again.”
Chen Baozhen stood at the door with her head lowered. The village chief shouted at her, “Kneel down.”
Chen Baozhen knelt in front of the door. The village chief looked at her and roared bitterly, “Little beast, this is the first time someone has come looking for me, asking me to discipline my girl in my decades of life. You’ve embarrassed my Old Chen family. I’ll beat you to death, you embarrassing thing.”
The more the village chief spoke, the angrier he became. He picked up the broom by the door and hit Chen Baozhen. The village chief was panting from the beating. Chen Baozhen knelt there, neither admitting her mistake nor begging for mercy. She did not dodge and allowed the village chief to beat her up.
Madam Liu’s heart ached when she saw this. She rushed over and grabbed the village chief’s hand. She kept begging, “Stop beating. Baozhen already knows her mistake.”
The grievance and resentment in Chen Baozhen’s heart rose like a tide. She thought It’s fine if you don’t want to accept it, but why do you have to humiliate me like this? Since you care so much about that bitch Li Yu, don’t blame me for being ruthless.
Chen Baozhen secretly made up her mind to join forces with Ye Lianggong to deal with Li Yu the next day.
When the village chief saw Chen Baozhen hanging her head and kneeling on the ground silently, he thought that she realized her mistake. He threw away the broom and pointed at the courtyard door. He said to Madam Liu, “From today onwards, lock her in her room and don’t let her leave this courtyard. Hurry up and find a suitable family to betroth her to.”
“Got it, got it.” Madam Liu kept answering and pulled Chen Baozhen into the room.
When Madam Liu saw Chen Baozhen’s disheveled appearance, her heart ached as she helped her tidy up. “Baozhen, just listen to me! I think Butcher He’s kid is quite good. Butcher He also likes you, so I’ll agree on your behalf.”
Chen Baozhen looked up at Madam Liu and said coldly, “I can agree to it, but you have to promise me something.”
Madam Liu did not expect Chen Baozhen to change her mind so quickly. She was stunned for a moment before revealing a happy smile and saying gently, “I’m your mother. If you have anything to say, just say it! Do you want more dowry?”
Chen Baozhen looked at Madam Liu viciously. “That man by the stream today has a feud with that bitch Li Yu. You heard what he said. He’ll be waiting by the stream the next day to join forces with me to deal with that bitch Li Yu. Let me out. I’ll come back obediently after discussing with him.”
Madam Liu shook her head and refused. “Xiaoyu isn’t even afraid of you. Listen to me and find a family to marry. Don’t make your father angry again.”
“If you don’t help me, I’ll die for you to see.” Seeing that Madam Liu didn’t agree, Chen Baozhen picked up the scissors in the string basket and pointed the scissors at her throat.
Madam Liu was so frightened that she almost fainted. She staggered forward to snatch the scissors. Chen Baozhen gritted her teeth and stabbed the scissors into her flesh. Blood seeped out. Madam Liu was so frightened that she hurriedly agreed. “Alright, I promise you.” Chen Baozhen put down the scissors and looked at Madam Liu with a comfortable smile.
Madam Liu felt like her heart was being stabbed. How did this child become like this?
Everyone helped Li Yu and Zhou Jia move the house and bade farewell. Zhou Jia still didn’t know that he had provoked a romantic mess. He excitedly pulled Li Qing to choose a cloth to make training clothes.
Li Qing glanced at Zhou Jia. “Sir, you’re already so old. Can you still practice martial arts now?”
Zhou Jia knocked on Li Qing gently. “Good kid, Sir is only 29 years old. How dare you think that Sir is old? I’ll punish you by having you take the cloth to Auntie He.”
Li Yu and Zhaodi made the bed and came out. Zhaodi smiled and said to Li Qing, “Ah Qing, you study and practice martial arts. Do you want to be a general who knows both martial arts and literature?”
Li Qing hugged the cloth and puffed out his chest. “I want to be a scholar with both brains and brawn.”
Zhou Jia nodded and praised, “Your ambition is not bad, but you have to remember that if you want to achieve your dream, you have to spend more effort than others to achieve it.”
Li Qing bowed and replied, “Sir, Ah Qing will remember.”
Li Yu rolled her eyes at Zhou Jia worriedly. “Will you put too much pressure on him?”
Zhou Jia looked at Li Yu in disapproval. “Xiaoyu, don’t worry. As a man, he should have ideals and ambitions. We can’t let him muddle through.”
At night, the three families ate a housewarming banquet together. Li Mei had a comfortable smile on her face. “We’ve finally settled down. Everyone, live well in the future. When Ah Qing is successful in the future, we’ll take root here and go back to move your parents’ graves here.”
“Yes, Aunt,” Li Qing replied with a bow.
At dawn, the next day, Zhou Jia and Li Qing were waiting in the courtyard for Li Yu to come out.
Li Yu took the sandbag Auntie He had helped make and came out of the house with a smile. She handed the sandbag to the two of them. “Let’s train our strength first before starting to teach moves.”
“Oh.” The two of them took the sandbags. Li Yu taught them to tie the sandbags to their calves and ran outside with them. The three of them ran along the stream towards the foot of the mountain.
After running for almost an hour, Zhou Jia was panting and could not run anymore. Li Qing smiled at him and said, “Sir, I said that you’re old and your bones are hard, right?!”
Zhou Jia gritted his teeth and quickened his pace. “Kid, look, Sir will catch up to you immediately.”
Li Yu ran to the two of them and looked at them. “Look at me and follow me. Let’s try our best to breathe through our noses and adjust our rhythm. We’ll run two steps and slowly breathe in through our noses. Then, we’ll run three more steps and try our best to exhale with our mouths. This way, we’ll slowly get used to it.”
After Zhou Jia and Li Qing adjusted their breathing with Li Yu, they felt that their throats were not so uncomfortable anymore and their speed increased.
Half an hour later, the three of them returned to the courtyard. Li Yu practiced military boxing and demonstrated it to the two of them. “This is a boxing technique that my master taught me. I don’t know what kind of boxing technique it is. I just feel that its movements are not fast. Its offensive and defensive capabilities are not bad. I’ll teach you two this boxing technique.”
“Yes,” they said in unison.
Li Yu pulled Zhou Jia and gestured. “The first move is to twist the arms and break the wrists. When the enemy wants to attack our chests, we use our right palm to press down on the enemy’s arms. Tight…” Zhou Jia watched as Li Yu’s long eyelashes trembled slightly. He smelled a faint dark fragrance. Suddenly, blood surged up his nose and flowed down.
Li Qing exclaimed, “Sister, Sir’s nose is bleeding.”
Li Yu looked at Zhou Jia worriedly. “Let me see. I didn’t touch your nose just now?”
Zhou Jia ran into the house with a red face and covered his nose. Li Qing hurriedly followed him in. Li Yu looked at Zhou Jia and seemed to understand something.
After a while, Zhou Jia walked out with a red face. He didn’t dare to look Li Yu in the eye. “I’m fine. Continue teaching.”
Li Yu looked at Zhou Jia and raised her eyebrows. She smiled secretly.
After the meal, Zhou Jia brought Li Qing and the bags to Tongzhou City. Li Yu brought the long-term workers and the men from the village to scatter the winter wheat on the 100-acre wasteland that had been opened up later.
Li Mei was busy processing backpacks and travel bags with a group of women.
Xiao An had burned a lot of charcoal in the forest and piled it up in the woodshed. He borrowed an ox cart to pull the charcoal to town. A catty of charcoal could be sold for a copper coin, and he could earn a few hundred copper coins per gathering.
When the men in the village found out, they also learned how to make charcoal and chose to sell it in the nearby town.