This god is really evil

Chapter 8 Grandpa's Wine

Hearing this, Hu Yue'e couldn't help but look at Li Lin with reproach.

How did I let my younger brother hear it?

Li Lin waved his hands and smiled casually:
"You are just a little kid, why are you asking about the family expenses? Don't worry, I have you all, and I won't let you miss out on your tuition."

As he spoke, he took a rag to brush off the dust on his body and walked into the house.

Li Yan hurriedly followed in, looked at Li Lin and said solemnly:
"Brother, if you don't explain it clearly today, I won't study anymore."

I'm not reading it anymore anyway.

Li Lin looked at his brother's face which was childish yet mature, and suddenly felt that his brother's eyes had become much tougher, as if he had grown up overnight.

He smiled slightly and said with some relief:
"My little brother has grown up. I wonder how happy grandpa will be to hear this..."

Li Yan frowned and said:
"Big brother!"

Actually, we are about the same age.

Li Lin said: "Okay, since you insist on listening, then I will tell you about our family's expenses."

Hu Yue'e, who was busy preparing the meal, glared at him and said angrily:

"The boss!"

"Yue'e, it's alright," Li Lin waved his hand, "I'm already sixteen years old, I'm not a child anymore, I can also comment on family affairs."

He smiled and said to Li Yan:
"Some time ago, I borrowed forty taels of silver from Diao San of the bank."

Li Yan couldn't help but frown. Weizi Town was a big town with all kinds of businesses. Diao San from the money shop was actually a loan shark. It was said that there was a clerk from the Qinghe County government behind him.

The lowest interest rate is 90% out and 13% back.

For an ordinary family, four or five taels of silver are enough for a year's expenses. My family never has any spare money. My eldest brother borrowed forty taels, and I don't know how much he has to pay back!
The key point is, what does Big Brother need so much money for?
Li Lin then said with a smile:
"A few days ago, I met Master Ji from the academy at the pharmacy. Master Ji praised you for your intelligence and said that you are a good student. He said that the head of the county's official school will be accompanying an important person to our Weizi Town in the next few days, and will also visit the academy in the town."

"Master Ji said that if we can seize this opportunity and make the schoolmaster happy, we can go directly to the county school to study! Of course, he is the schoolmaster of the county school, so we have to show some appreciation to him. So I gave Master Ji twenty taels and asked him to take care of it."

Hearing this, Li Yan couldn't help but feel awe-struck.

This Master Ji was the manager of the private school. In his memory, when he was studying in the private school, the schoolmaster was extremely snobbish. He took good care of those who came from wealthy families, but would often beat, scold and humiliate the poor children like them.

Even when Li Yan went to refund his tuition fees, the other party was sarcastic.

I didn't expect that this guy would dare to cheat Li Lin out of twenty taels of silver even though he knew he had dropped out of school!

That's twenty taels!

Li Lin worked as a clerk in a drug store. He worked very hard but only earned five cents of silver a month. Six taels of silver a year was considered a high salary in the town. Even if he did not eat or drink, he would have to save for four years to earn twenty taels.

However, seeing Li Lin's happy expression, as if he was certain that his younger brother could go to the county school, Li Yan could not bear to say it out loud.

Upon closer inspection, although this elder brother was only in his thirties, just a few months older than himself in his previous life, he already had a lot of white hair on his head, and wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and on his forehead, and it was obvious that he was very busy in his daily life.

Having been cheated out of twenty taels, Master Ji would certainly not admit it. Given his family's financial situation, it would be extremely difficult for him to collect the debt. Exposing the matter to his brother and sister-in-law would only cause more troubles. He had to resolve this matter himself.

Then he laughed and said:

"Brother, I will study hard and enter the county school! What about the remaining twenty taels?"

Li Lin nodded slightly, happy for his brother's understanding, then stood up, waved his hand, and said:

"Come with me, little brother."

The two brothers left the main room and entered the firewood room next door. Li Yan was familiar with the place and moved away a bundle of firewood, revealing a cover with a handle on the ground.

Pull open the cover and a cellar appears.

Li Lin walked in first holding an oil lamp, and Li Yan followed closely behind.

After entering the cellar, I saw some clay jars and pots in this space of only a few square meters, which contained some pickled vegetables.

In the middle is a large vat that is as high as a person's chest.

Li Lin took out a paper bag from his bosom and opened it. A smell of medicine wafted out from inside. These were some medicinal residues that he had collected while working in the pharmacy. In total, there was only a small handful.

Carefully pouring the residue into the jar, and stirring it with a wooden stick beside it, Li Lin then stared into the jar in a daze, holding the lamp.

Li Yan also looked into the tank. Although it was not the first time he had seen it, he still felt indescribable weirdness in his heart.

In a full tank of reddish-brown potion, there was a person sitting cross-legged!

This was an old man with white hair and beard. His skin had turned white due to being soaked in water. His eyes were tightly closed. He looked like a corpse. This was the grandfather of the Li Yan brothers.

According to the memories obtained by Li Yan, three years ago their grandfather was afflicted with "sleeping sickness", also known as "dream plague", and has been sleeping ever since.

Before he woke up for the last time, he left a prescription and asked the two brothers to follow the prescription and soak him in a jar with some precious medicinal materials as the base.

But in Li Yan's opinion, this thing was just a traditional formaldehyde. He had seen many corpses of victims when he was handling cases in his previous life, so he naturally understood that there was no way this cheap grandfather would wake up again.

Leaving that recipe before dying will only cause trouble to your descendants. Otherwise, is it possible for an old man to use it to make wine?
Grandpa brewed the wine? Lao Deng brewed the wine, and the more you drink, the better it gets? Someone has to dare to drink this.

Originally, the Li family had more than a dozen acres of thin land. They were not small landlords but they were rich peasants. However, in order to buy medicinal herbs to make medicine for grandfather to "cure his illness", they gradually sold the land and all the valuable things in the house.

Li Lin definitely could not afford those precious medicinal materials just by working as an assistant in the pharmacy.

Li Lin looked at the grandfather in the jar and said with a smile:

"A few days ago, my grandfather came to me in a dream and told me that he needed some herbs urgently. I bought the remaining 20 taels of herbs at the shop and threw them into the jar. Last night, my grandfather came to me in a dream again and praised me for being filial."

Li Yan couldn't help but feel nervous and looked at Li Lin with some worry.

The mental state of this cheap brother is really worrying.

When people are under too much pressure, they often have hallucinations and use them as spiritual sustenance.

Naturally, he didn't believe that his grandfather, who had been dead for three years, would appear in his dreams.

As if sensing Li Yan's nervousness, Li Lin looked at his grandfather, who was pickled with medicinal herbs in the jar, and his eyes softened. He said:

"Don't worry, little brother. I'll figure out a way to get the money. I'll go to Tuo Mountain to collect herbs in a few days. As long as I find the King of Medicine Ginseng, I'll get a reward of 120 taels of silver, and the money issue will be solved naturally. You must study hard and don't let Grandpa down... Otherwise, when Grandpa wakes up, you'll blame me."

Li Yan nodded.

You have to agree to it and do what you have to do.

After visiting Grandpa, the two brothers came out of the cellar, and Li Yan said:

"Brother, the teacher said he would help me with my lessons tonight. There is also dinner at the cram school. I have already paid for it, so I can't waste it. I'm going."

Li Lin smiled and nodded, telling his brother to focus on his studies but not to work too hard. He also gave him ten cents and asked him to buy a meat bun the next morning.

Li Yan agreed, walked out of the house and walked away quickly.

"Brother, why don't you eat dinner before leaving? I just fried an egg!" Behind him, Hu Yue'e rushed out from the kitchen and shouted loudly.

Li Yan walked quickly forward, turned around and waved from afar:

"Sister-in-law, I'm going back to review my lessons. Don't worry, the cram school will provide you with meals!"

As we were talking, we had already turned the corner of the alley and could only vaguely see my sister-in-law waving at us from the door.

After leaving home, Li Yan went to the market and spent a hundred coins to buy some odds and ends. Finally, he immediately walked quickly towards the charity cemetery.

The charity cemetery and his home spanned the entire Weizi Town. By the time he arrived at the charity cemetery, it had already fallen dark.

Just in time for dinner at the charity cemetery.

Niu Ma was like a piece of wood at this time, sitting at the table eating. He looked absent-minded, as if his heart was dead.

There were some nosy apprentices whispering nearby, saying that after Niu Ma worked hard to finish the odd jobs, he practiced meditation for half a day, but there was no progress at all, and he looked like a lost soul.

Of course Li Yan understood that Niu Ma was already heartbroken.

He immediately grabbed two potatoes and a rough, sour sorghum flour pancake, ate it with two pickled radishes, and then Li Yan went out under the cover of night.

He ran straight to the mass grave not far away and found the tombstone without any words on it of Niu Ma's father.

Turning his head to look around and making sure that there was no one else, Li Yan dug a shallow hole in front of the tombstone and buried the prayers and ritual methods he had written today, along with the package of things he bought at the market.

Then he took out the brush that was still stained with human fat, drew a circle on the ground, and wrote a few words.

After doing all this, he quickly came to a big tree nearby, climbed up in no time, and hid himself in the tree canopy.

Then he looked quietly at the wordless tombstone below and waited patiently.

This time, before midnight, a figure appeared from the edge of the cemetery.

Niu Ma came to kowtow.

(End of this chapter)