Chapter 27 Seeing the Essence Through Phenomena
"Even if Hua Qingmei's parents want to push the blame on you, they won't succeed. This matter has nothing to do with you." Huo Beixi continued.

Hua Xiali stared at him with her eyes wide open. She thought he meant "Don't be afraid, I'm here", but he actually meant this. She laughed at herself. What was she expecting? In this world, besides her family, who else would care about her?
Slowly retracting his hand, Hua Xiali stood up and moved his limbs to ease his embarrassment, "Huo Beixi, thank you for today. It's getting late, you should go back and rest early!"

Huo Beixi looked at his empty hands and felt a little lost for a moment. Then he withdrew his hand awkwardly and coughed, trying to cover up his embarrassment.

Then he returned the teacup to Hua Xiali and said, "The tea is delicious."

Hua Xiali took the teacup and thought silently in his heart that tea with spiritual spring water would naturally taste good. After all, spiritual spring water could make everything more delicious.

Her parents and brother-in-law haven't drunk this good stuff yet, but he drank it first.

Hua Xiali stuffed the flashlight into Huo Beixi's hand. After closing the gate, he rested his forehead against the door panel, as if suppressing something. After a while, he turned around and went into the house.

She fell asleep in the chair in the evening and did not have dinner. Now she felt a little hungry, so she went to the kitchen to heat up the food. After eating, drinking and washing up, she went back to her room to rest.

After lying down, she stared at the ceiling in a daze and fell asleep after a long time.

The next morning, after having breakfast and taking care of Hua's father with Hua's mother, Hua Xiali went out with a basket.

There was a large bamboo forest at the river bend. She had never seen anyone eat bamboo shoots since she was a child, so all the bamboo shoots in the forest were hers now.

When she went to dig sand before, the river was too wide and there was no bridge, so she could not cross at all. The only way she could go was downstream. The river downstream was narrower and the water was shallower. There were also several large rocks in the river, forming a road for everyone to cross the river. The villagers also came here to wash their clothes.

Hua Xiali came to the place downstream where people were washing clothes. There were a few aunts in the village washing clothes here. When they saw Hua Xiali carrying a basket, they asked curiously, "Xiali, what are you going to do so early in the morning?"

"The vegetables in the field haven't grown yet, and there's no vegetables to eat at home. So I wanted to come to the back to see if there are any wild vegetables and pick some to take home to eat." Hua Xiali smiled faintly.

She wanted to keep silent like Hua Qiuli, but the aunts in the village were very combative. If you kept silent, people would say you were uneducated and that there was something wrong with your parents. In order to protect your family's reputation, you just said a few nonsense words!

"If you want to pick wild vegetables, you can go to the fields. Now we have amaranth and bittercress. Shepherd's purse and mugwort have already grown old and are blooming." said an aunt.

Hua Xiali smiled and nodded, "I see. I'll go over here and take a look first."

Afterwards, Hua Xiali left the place of trouble and walked towards the bamboo forest. The bamboo forest was about ten minutes' walk from here. She hid in the bamboo forest and picked bamboo shoots, and no one could see her.

When she arrived at the bamboo forest, Hua Xiali squatted down and carefully broke the bamboo shoots. She put the broken bamboo shoots directly on the ground. When there were so many, she put them directly into the Lingquan space.

After picking bamboo shoots for several hours, Hua Xiali was exhausted, with sore waist and numb legs. She felt that picking bamboo shoots was a waste of time. If she didn't pick them while they were fresh and tender, they would all grow into bamboos after this season. Hua Xiali sat on the ground, feeling a deep sense of powerlessness.

After drinking a cup of spiritual spring water and regaining her strength, she continued to pick bamboo shoots. As long as she could make money, she would not back down, and she would not choose to back down just because of the hardship.

You know, in her previous life, she had suffered enough in order to raise her children. What was this little bit of hardship now?

She had to rush to her fourth uncle's house in the afternoon, so Hua Xiali didn't spend too much time picking wild vegetables. She picked them for several hours, and only went back with the basket when it was almost time for lunch. However, there were some water spinach in the basket. After all, she told others in the morning that she was picking wild vegetables. If she didn't bring some wild vegetables home, wouldn't others think too much?
This is the case in the countryside. Everyone is particularly concerned about other people's affairs, and someone will know about the slightest movement. Unlike city people, they don't even know their next-door neighbors' names, let alone pay attention to their daily lives.

At this time, most people were having lunch at home, so I didn't meet anyone along the way. However, when I was about to enter the village, I met a boy who was sitting on the grass beside the ridge, looking up at the distant sky.

Hua Xiali knew this boy. His name was Lu Xiaozhi and he was twelve years old. When he was young, he was the cutest boy in the village. When he was a teenager, he was the most handsome boy in the village. It could be said that he was the best-looking boy in their Huazhuang village group.

But his parents have passed away, and now he lives with his grandparents. His grandparents keep a close eye on him and don't even let him go to school. Village cadres have visited his home many times but have returned empty-handed.

Others thought that his grandparents valued him and were reluctant to let him go, but Hua Xiali, who had lived another life, was able to see the essence through the phenomenon.

It wasn't that his grandparents were reluctant to let him go, but they had lost their son and daughter-in-law, and they had no security. They were afraid that their grandson would grow up and fly away, and no one would take care of them from then on, so they wanted to break his wings so that he wouldn't even have the chance to fly.

They only think about having someone to take care of them in their old age, but they don’t think about what will happen to this grandson who knows nothing after they pass away.
However, in his previous life, Lu Xiaozhi did not let his grandparents have their way, because he chose to resist their oppression and exploitation by leaving.

At that time, Hua Xiali was living in Wang Liang's house, taking care of two young children alone and having to deal with his troublesome elder sister-in-law and parents-in-law. He didn't know about these things. It was not until several years later that he learned about the child's misfortune from the villagers. When everyone talked about this handsome little boy, they all shook their heads and sighed with regret.

They all said it was such a pity, that if they waited another two years they would grow up and be able to go out to work and earn money to support themselves.

Seeing that Lu Xiaozhi didn't notice him, Hua Xiali quickly used the basket to transfer two bamboo shoots out of the Lingquan space, and then walked towards Lu Xiaozhi.

"Lu Xiaozhi." Hua Xiali shouted.

When Lu Xiaozhi saw that it was Hua Xiali, he stood up from the grass and looked at Hua Xiali awkwardly, "Sister Xiali."

He is a polite child.

(End of this chapter)