"Now that the lock is gone, things will be much easier! Let's see how your man takes over!" Chen Guang'an spat fiercely and said.

"Honey, do you have an idea?" Liu Meixiang asked excitedly, her mood improving considerably at the thought of the meat and vegetables and the twelve coins she would receive each day!

"Wait here, I'll go make you some food!" With that, she turned and headed towards the kitchen!

"Heat some vegetable buns for your man, and plenty of sorghum flour too! Otherwise, he won't have any strength!" This woman is so stingy; all he eats is vegetable buns, wild vegetable rice, and wild vegetable porridge. Can those things really fill him up?! Chen Guang'an never considers that he's brought home only a few coins these past few days. Liu Meixiang worked hard to earn those few coins from her small business, and she was planning to save them for Shuanzi!

No matter what Liu Meixiang is like, she's undeniably good to her son! Shuanzi is already eight years old, and in a few years he might be getting married. All of that costs money!

Hearing Chen Guang'an's voice, Liu Meixiang didn't even stop walking. She thought to herself, "Doesn't this sorghum flour cost money? Wouldn't it be better to eat meat, vegetables, and rice at someone else's house?" She wouldn't add extra flour; she had to save her food for her son!

Over here, He Xing and the others carried the food buckets to the construction site.

Qin San Niang and Liu Shi arrived carrying a large bucket filled with radish soup! It was lunchtime when they served the meal.

Gu Qingshan and He Yingyuan were supervising the construction site, so that Old Man Wang could ask them for advice if he needed any. Even Da Wa'er voluntarily joined the work team, helping to move stones, dig soil, and do whatever he could.

Although He Yingyuan was not as strong as Gu Qingshan, he was still a man, and he and Luo Huan were sweating profusely on the spot!

Qin San Niang admired him quite a bit, after all, many scholars in those days were lazy and ignorant of farming! Take the youngest son of the village head's family, for example. Although he was also a student, he was already over twenty years old and still had to be supported by his parents. It was only because his family was relatively well-off that he was considered a young master in the village. Otherwise, if an ordinary farming family had such a young master, it would be a recipe for exhaustion for his parents!

On the contrary, my eldest child, the second child, and Azhi are all diligent!

Look, those children are helping the older child pile up the stones they dug up! These are all admirable qualities that should be upheld!

Qin San Niang never believed that it was right to only be good at studying but not to understand social etiquette and basic life skills!

Humans are social animals; how can they exist outside of society? Especially in ancient times, if one passed the imperial examinations or even the highest level of the imperial examinations, one would most likely become an official. However, becoming an official was not the ultimate goal; rather, it was merely the beginning of one's life. If one did not know how to adapt, one would only be a bookworm who knew how to read and write essays. How far could one go on the official path? How successful could one be? It would be a blessing if one did not implicate nine generations of one's family!

Seeing that they had already prepared the meal, Gu Qingshan greeted Old Man Wang, then put down his shovel, nimbly jumped onto a boulder, and shouted,

"Brothers, you've worked hard this morning. My family has prepared a meal. Take a break and have some food!"

After washing their hands, everyone came over to get their meals. After eating, my older sister had some soup; just go get it yourself, it's all you can eat!

When everyone heard that there was soup to be had, they cheered and praised the family for their generosity!

The place where they worked was not far from the stream. The men went directly to the water to wash their hands, and then picked up their own large bowls to put the water in. All of this had been prepared in advance.

Qin San Niang's family didn't have that many bowls and chopsticks either. The village head had already told them in advance that they should bring their own bowls and chopsticks!

The bowls and chopsticks in each household are not mixed up, as they all have words engraved on them!

Bowls and chopsticks were also important assets for poor families. Each family had a fixed number of bowls and chopsticks, and they could not be easily thrown away.

Everyone lined up carefully, holding their large bowls with utmost care, afraid that they might accidentally spill their family's assets!

Seeing the neat line, Qin Sanniang couldn't help but sigh, "Wow, people these days are really well-behaved! Look at how this line is! I didn't see anyone pushing or shoving. It's much better than I imagined!" If she knew they were doing this just because they were worried about the bowls breaking, she would definitely be both amused and exasperated!

"Oh my, there's meat?! There's meat! Thank you, host, this food is wonderful!" the man who served the first meal exclaimed happily.

He was quite happy when he saw He Xing serve him a large spoonful of food, because the food was bubbling with oil, showing that she had put a lot of effort into it. But what surprised him even more was what came next: there was actually a big piece of meat in the dish!

"What? There's meat too?" The other men were overjoyed when they heard the word "meat"!

This family is so honest! Not only did they pay their workers a high wage, but they also prepared meat and vegetables. Look, besides the meat and vegetables, there's even a spoonful of pickled eggs—that's also a meat dish! Because there are eggs, and eggs are a good thing, two coins each!

"Don't worry, everyone. Everyone will get some meat! The boss knows what's going on, and there are plenty of eggs and pickled vegetables too! We need to make sure everyone is well-fed and has the energy to work!" Wang Guixiang had received many favors from Qin Sanniang, so she naturally treated her as one of her own and praised her generously.

"Gui Xiang is right, everyone don't rush. After you finish eating, come and line up here to get some soup. There's plenty!" Qin San Niang said with a smile. These people have all worked hard, as you can tell from the deep foundation pits they dug, which are half a person deep!

She is never stingy with kindness shown to those in her family.

"Hey, our food is really good today! Did you all hear that? Line up, don't rush!" The speaker was Chen Jincai, the eldest son of the village head, and also Zhou's husband!

The men who had gotten their food gathered in small groups, found a place to sit down, and began to enjoy their meal.

Looking at the rice in their bowls, everyone was quite impressed. The food was so good! It must have cost several coins. The white rice mixed with sorghum was piled high, topped with steaming cabbage and large chunks of lean and fatty meat. The stir-fried eggs with pickled vegetables were very appetizing. This dish alone was enough for them to eat a whole bowl of rice.

Some people, thinking of their wives, children, and parents at home, couldn't bear to eat meat. They quickly found clean leaves, wrapped the meat up, and put it in their chest pockets, intending to take it back for their families to taste the meat! They were content with sorghum rice and pickled vegetables, which contained meat and were even better than what they ate at home during the New Year!

Chen Suotou was one of them. Despite his simple and honest appearance, he loved his mother dearly. He even broke off half of the sorghum rice to give to his mother when he got home that night!