18 Adopting Xiao Yu'er

Patriarch Lin said, "This child has it tough. When she was two years old, her father went into the sea to fish and was bitten to death by a shark. Her mother died of a broken heart. Sigh. She ended up falling under the care of her grandparents and uncle and aunt."

But it was obvious that her grandparents and uncle and aunt didn't treat her well. When Lin Wanwan first met her, she was almost naked, covered in a dirty rag, and thin. The meat on her body now was the result of her conditioning over the past half a month.

Although Big Ya and Small Crab were skinny, they were still rather clean. On the other hand, Xiao Ya'er was dirty from head to toe, looking like a war refugee on TV.

In fact, if it wasn't for the Lin patriarch forbidding the Lin family from selling their children, she would have been sold by her uncle long ago. Unfortunately, her aunt had managed to get rid of her in town.

In fact, Patriarch Lin also knew that this child must have been thrown away. After this incident, he punished the youngest son of the Guofu family to kneel in the ancestral hall for a night and warned them that if he ever found out that the child had been sold to some dirty place, they would be expelled from the family.

Lin Guofu's young daughter-in-law, Lin Sunshi, naturally swore that she would never sell her child. If she did, she would die a terrible death, or be struck by lightning.

Now, the child had actually been picked up and adopted by Lin Wanwan, who was from their own clan. This was truly fate. This was the child of their Lin Village.

"Uncle, can I take care of her?" Lin Wanwan looked at the patriarch.

When Patriarch Lin heard Lin Wanwan's words, he couldn't help but hesitate. "Wan, I'm afraid it'll affect your future prospects. You're not young anymore..."

He did not finish his words, but Lin Wanwan understood after thinking about it. With her 22-year-old appearance, she should have gotten married and had children in the Tang Dynasty!

Lin Wanwan made up a lie, "Master once helped me arrange a marriage, but later, because of the war, my fiancé died in battle. I have decided not to marry again! I originally planned to become a nun, but now that I've found my clan, I'll just stay here forever. "

Tang Dynasty was a place where concubines were allowed to exist. She had never thought of getting married and having children here. In fact, in 2022, she was a celibate.

Patriarch Lin was surprised to hear her words.

The Tang Empire was not like the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the early days of the Zhenguan dynasty, the population was struggling. After the war in the previous dynasty, the population of more than ten million households had fallen to less than three million households.

Of course, not all of these people had been killed in the war. Many of them had fled into the mountains to become villagers, while some had fled to the Turks as refugees.

In order to promote the prosperity of the population, the Imperial court had redeemed the people who had left the country and helped the mountain people enter households. On the other hand, it naturally encouraged early marriages and childbirth.

Older young men and women who did not get married over their age would be fined, and there would even be "official showing" to matchmake them. They were also very supportive of widows remarrying. Things like chastity, memorial archway, three principles, and five virtues were not worth mentioning in front of a rapidly declining population.

In the third year of Zhenguan, Tang Taizong issued a decree: Anyone who gave birth to a boy in the first month of the year would be rewarded with a stone.

If you decided to live as a widow, even officials would advise you to marry. After all, this would affect their political achievements.

However, Lin Wanwan had just arrived and was an expert who had lived in seclusion on the mountain, so Patriarch Lin couldn't say much. In the end, he nodded. "In that case, no problem. Come, I'll take you to Guofu's house and let them know. They're overjoyed that you're willing to raise this child."

"Then uncle, please wait for me for a moment. Let me bring Xiao Yu'er over and we'll head over."

She went back and hugged Xiao Yu'er. The little child leaned her head on Lin Wanwan's shoulder. Knowing that she was going back to her grandparents' house, she was very afraid and even lost her enthusiasm to be the monarch of the children.

Sure enough, Lin Wanwan and the patriarch went to Lin Guofu's house, which was located at the foot of the mountain in the innermost part of the village. After explaining their intentions, the other party immediately agreed to the adoption.

The little child was not even seven years old and had not even entered the family tree, so it was too easy to get someone else to raise her.

Lin Wanwan looked at the environment of Lin Guofu's family. There were a few dilapidated houses made of seaweed and stone, and the courtyard was also full of potholes. There were also a few girls hiding behind the door, looking at Lin Wanwan and Xiao Yu'er in her arms.

Lin Wanwan glanced over and saw that the three girls were naked. The oldest girl looked to be about ten years old.

The two boys who were playing with dirt in the yard were wearing clothes, and they were good clothes without patches.

Lin Wanwan frowned slightly. This family seemed to favor boys over girls. No wonder Xiao Yu'er was abused here.

She took out a small gold ingot from her sleeve and said to Patriarch Lin, "Uncle, I'll have to trouble you to hold a clan banquet for me as a gift to officially adopt Xiao Yu'er into my family. The rest of the money used for the banquet will be given to Uncle Guofu as the raising fee for Xiao Yu'er."

These days, if you sold a little girl, you would only get three or four strings of coins. If you were to be a servant, you would only get one or two strings of coins at most. Lin Wanwan's little gold ingot could be exchanged for six strings of cash!

Lin Guofu's family's eyes lit up when they heard Lin Wanwan's words. The young daughter-in-law who had thrown away the Xiao Yu'er, Lin Sunshi, laughed out loud and said all the nice things she wanted to say.

"Stinky... I guess Xiao Yu'er is fated with you, Wanniang. She will be well-looked after. Look at the lifestyles of immortals, wearing a silk dress and eating white rice. In the future, Xiao Yu'er will be a blessed child! It's really like a little mouse falling into a rice jar, so happy that there's no end to it."

"Shut up. You lost the child, and you still wish to flap your tongue? Shut up!" Patriarch Lin shouted coldly. He was very dissatisfied with this Lin Sunshi.

However, the Lin Village was poor. It had been three years since the village last held a wedding. This was all because of his lack of leadership as the Patriarch. He was ashamed and blamed himself. Naturally, he couldn't force Guofu to divorce his wife, so he endured it.

Patriarch Lin said angrily, "Xiao Yu'er is their family's responsibility to begin with. What's the point of paying for her care? They should be the ones paying you! Our Lin Village fishes for a living. The sea is tumultuous, our men are constantly risking their lives, but in the midst of it all, which one of us doesn't raise our wives and children? Even if they all died, the clan would raise them! Their family broke the rules, and it's already a good thing that they weren't expelled."

Lin Wanwan thought about it. It made sense. Why did she have to pay for people like them? She was also angry!

However, she didn't want to take back the money that she had already given out. It had been bought with pepper, and money came easily to her. So, she put up a benevolent front. "Since that's the case, then please put the rest of the money into the clan's public funds, uncle. Consider it my contribution to returning to the clan."

Lin Wanwan wanted to make a contribution to the clan, so Patriarch Lin couldn't stop her. One should always think of their family when they are rich. This was an unspoken saying passed down from generation to generation. One should not forget one's roots. A clan and an individual were bound together, for good or bad.