Li Lingyun smiled and nodded, "Really, from now on, follow your brother, and he'll cover you."
Zhao Wenwu scoffed and turned his face away, "Following you, I might as well not go out. You should first think about how to avoid trouble with the Li Family brothers."
Those two weren't to be trifled with; it would be strange if they could tolerate Li Lingyun taking over ten taels of silver from their family.
"Don't worry, I can handle it." Li Lingyun heard the hint of warning in his words and found it somewhat amusing that a fifteen-year-old kid was worrying about adult matters.
He didn't realize that in this era, fifteen was already the age for marriage.
The reason he himself only married at eighteen was to observe mourning for his grandparents, and also, Li Chengcai didn't want him to marry early, so it was delayed until now.
If his grandparents hadn't arranged the marriage with Anning's family before they passed away, Li Lingyun estimated he wouldn't have found a wife for another two years.
Zhao Qinghe quickly came out with a string of keys.
Li Lingyun took the keys, thanked him again, and then turned to leave the Zhao Family.
He first went to the Sun Family to take a look. The courtyard was quite large, but because no one had taken care of it, the vegetable garden was overgrown with weeds.
Opening the door to the main house, in the westernmost room, there was a bare dirt kang.
The middle was the main hall, and the tables, chairs, and benches inside had all been moved out, leaving nothing.
The rightmost side should have originally been a bedroom, but now it was also empty.
Not only that, the dirt kang in this room had collapsed.
Leaving the main house, to the right, near the main gate, there was an adobe house, where several bundles of firewood and two broken back baskets were piled, which should be the woodshed.
Beside the woodshed was a small path built along the wall, leading to the outhouse at the end. Not far from the outhouse, there was also a livestock shed built against the courtyard wall.
On the left was a kitchen, also made of adobe.
Li Lingyun was very satisfied with this small courtyard; although the 'software' was lacking, the 'hardware' was truly excellent.
After a preliminary understanding of his new home, he locked the main gate and returned to the Li Family.
The Li Family father and son had already gone to the fields. Only Liu Shi and Xiao Qian Shi were home. Seeing Li Lingyun return, Liu Shi said irritably, "You quickly take your wife and leave our house. Our house doesn't welcome you."
If she wasn't afraid of being cursed by the villagers, she would have long ago driven Anning, that jinx, out of the house.
Before Anning entered the house, Li Lingyun was as obedient as a cat. As soon as she entered, this wolf cub immediately became assertive.
She wouldn't believe it if someone said this had nothing to do with Anning, that vixen.
Xiao Qian Shi also looked at Li Lingyun with resentment in her eyes.
Originally, her father-in-law had promised to buy Xiao Jun writing brushes, ink, paper, and an inkstone, but after Li Lingyun's scene at noon, her father-in-law said Xiao Jun should practice writing with a sandbox and wooden stick first, and they would buy the writing supplies later.
Other children had paper and brushes, but Xiao Jun didn't, which hurt the child's self-esteem so much.
It was all Li Lingyun's fault; if it weren't for him, Xiao Jun wouldn't have to be so shabby.
Li Lingyun didn't know Xiao Qian Shi's thoughts. If he had, he would definitely have enlightened her that young children who just started school all practiced writing with sandboxes, and only when they recognized more characters would they practice on paper.
However, even if he told her, Xiao Qian Shi probably wouldn't believe him.
Li Lingyun looked at their increasingly ugly faces, threw down a "We're leaving now," and returned to his room.
Inside the room, Anning had already tidied up the bed and was pulling weeds from the base of the wall.
Seeing Li Lingyun enter, she paused slightly, then continued with her work.
"Don't pull them anymore. We're not living in this room. Pack up; we're moving."
"Moving?"
Hearing Li Lingyun say they were moving, Anning was a little surprised.
She knew the situation of the Li Lingyun Family. When his grandfather sent someone to the An Family to propose marriage, her stepmother, seeing that the Li Family was willing to offer ten taels of silver as a betrothal gift, immediately happily agreed to the marriage.
But a few days after the Li Family paid the betrothal gift, the two elderly members of the Li Family died after eating poisonous mushrooms.
At that time, Liu Shi even came to her house to ask for the betrothal gift back, saying that since the elders of the family had passed away, Li Lingyun had to observe mourning and could not marry within year 3. She didn't want to delay Anning and came to break off the engagement. As long as the An Family could return the betrothal gift, Anning would be allowed to remarry.
How could her stepmother be willing to return the silver? One must know that the bride price for daughters in nearby villages was at most four or five taels, and it was almost unheard of for a family like the Li Family to give ten taels.
For the sake of the silver, her stepmother said that Anning was already a member of the Li Family and could not marry anyone else. Since Li Lingyun had to observe mourning for year 3, she would raise Anning for another year 3 and wait for Li Lingyun to finish his mourning before marrying her.
Liu Shi had no choice but to return empty-handed.
Because of this engagement, Anning paid more attention to Li Lingyun. In the past two years, she had heard countless times that Li Lingyun was weak and timid. She never expected that he would dare to separate from the Li Family and live alone?
Was he not afraid that the Li Family would disagree and beat him up again?
Li Lingyun saw her lack of reaction and teased, "What, you don't want to leave here?"
Anning then came back to her senses, shook her head, stood up, and turned to pack the things on the bed.
Actually, there wasn't much to pack.
When she married, she didn't even have a change of clothes, and Li Lingyun wasn't much better off. Although there was a large trunk, it only contained one set of patched clothes.
On the bed, there was a straw mat, covered with a sheet full of holes, and a thin quilt.
These were also Li Lingyun's private possessions.
Anning rolled up the sheet and quilt and put them into the trunk, then rolled up the straw mat, and then straightened up to look at Li Lingyun.
"You carry the straw mat; I'll carry the trunk."
Li Lingyun put the bundle in his hand into the trunk, hoisted the trunk onto his shoulder, and walked out.
Anning saw him carrying the heavy wooden trunk out the door and quickly picked up the straw mat and followed him.
Liu Shi and Xiao Qian Shi stood in the courtyard, watching the two with cold eyes. After they left, the main gate was slammed shut with a bang.
The Sun Family was on the other side of the river. Li Lingyun met many villagers on the road, and they were all very surprised to learn that he was moving.
Some were surprised that he was separating from the Li Family to live alone, and others were surprised that he only had so little luggage.
When he reached the bridge, Li Lingyun saw Zhao Wenwu standing not far away, looking at him.
After he crossed the bridge, Zhao Wenwu walked forward and awkwardly said, "Let's carry it together."
"Okay." Li Lingyun smiled, put the trunk on the ground, swung his arms, and the two carried the trunk towards the Sun Family.
Anning quietly followed behind the two.
On the way, Li Lingyun said to Zhao Wenwu, "Thank you, Xiao Wu, for helping. Although there isn't much in this trunk, it's quite heavy to carry."
Zhao Wenwu was a little happy inside, but he said proudly, "I wasn't doing it for you. I was afraid you'd get hurt by the trunk, and then my father would have to buy you medicine."
Li Lingyun smiled and said nothing.
This child was so awkward; he clearly wanted to help him, but he used his father as an excuse.
Upon arriving at the Sun Family, Zhao Wenwu put down the trunk and left. Li Lingyun and Anning began to clean the house.