Just then, the village chief came over from outside to buy cigarettes and, upon hearing this, spoke up:

"What's wrong with that? Now that we're reformed and opened up, don't people in city factories get paid? If they're too busy, they pay others to help. What's wrong with that? It's a good thing. If you're too busy at home, you can also pay others to help."

Everyone nodded in agreement when the village chief said this.

Ye Xiaoxiao seized the opportunity to say, "That's right. I'm too busy, so I'm paying someone to help. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. You're happy, I'm happy, and everyone's happy."

In the evening, after Aying and Zhou Amei finished their work, Ye Xiaoxiao paid them their wages.

"Sister-in-law, we heard that people are talking about you for hiring us to do work?"

Ah Ying and her companion took the money but didn't leave, intending to chat with Ye Xiaoxiao some more.

"That's right."

Ye Xiaoxiao looked outside. It was already dark, and there was no one outside the door.

Her shop usually closes at eight o'clock in the evening. There aren't many forms of entertainment in the countryside these days, and everyone is asleep at night.

"So, are we still going to work tomorrow?"

The two of them only finished half of the work today; they'll have to work another day tomorrow to finish the remaining two acres. Zhou Amei was a little worried.

"Don't worry, things are open now. I could open a small shop. The higher-ups don't care about these things anymore."

The village chief said today that this is normal practice. Anyone can hire someone.

This gives everyone a way to make money, doesn't it? Don't be afraid.

Ye Xiaoxiao comforted Zhou Amei. The girl came from a poor family.

She has no siblings, she's all alone. She has to work hard to save money for herself.

"That's good, that's good. It'll also allow my sister to save some money to find a son-in-law. Hehe." Ah Ying joked.

“Oh dear, Sister-in-law Ying, what nonsense are you talking about? I do want to, but no one wants to come to my house. I did meet someone a while ago, but as soon as he said he was looking for a son-in-law, he immediately refused.”

Zhou Amei was also a little worried. She's 21 this year. In two more years, she'll be an old maid.

These days, girls get married young; many are married at 17.

There are plenty of people who get married and then wait until they're 18 to get their marriage certificate.

[Task: Find a suitable husband for Zhou Amei.]

"Tongzi, aren't you being a bit too nosy? I don't even have a satisfactory partner myself, and you're asking me to find one for her."

Ye Xiaoxiao was furious at the thought that the system was actually restricting her from having a divorce.

It's up to you whether you do it or not; if you don't, I can save on a reward.

The system also acted as if it were completely unaffected by the situation.

Ye Xiaoxiao thought that Zhou Amei just wanted to find a son-in-law, and no one from a well-off family would be willing to marry into the family. From ancient times to the present, marrying into the family has never been a good thing. People will look down on you.

"By the way, I have a cousin who lives on Daqing Mountain. It should be possible to find a son-in-law from there."

Ye Xiaoxiao thought back to the original book, where Zhou Amei's son-in-law came from a remote mountain area.

However, that family caused the Zhou family no shortage of trouble after the marriage, bullying her father because he couldn't speak up and she was a woman.

She took a lot of things back from their house. Her husband was a spineless coward too.

"Yeah?"

Zhou Amei's eyes lit up when she heard this. She didn't have many other thoughts; she just wanted to find a son-in-law who could live a good life with her and be filial to her father.

"Okay, here's what we'll do. You guys work for my family for the next couple of days, and tomorrow your older brother will mind the shop at home."

I went to my cousin's place and talked to her, asking her to see if she could find anything suitable.

The most important thing is that their character is also acceptable.

"That's wonderful, sister-in-law, I really have to thank you."

As Zhou Amei was talking, she tried to return the money she had just received to her sister-in-law.

"I won't accept the money. I can't let my sister-in-law make a wasted trip. Consider it my way of helping her out."

"No way, one thing at a time. I'm still far from certain. Let's wait until things are really looking up before making a decision." Ye Xiaoxiao didn't dare to give a guarantee.

"Then, sister-in-law, I'll come over first thing tomorrow morning. You should bring something back when you trouble them. I'll deliver it tomorrow."

After seeing the two people off, and seeing that there was no one else around and it was getting dark, Ye Xiaoxiao closed the door, tidied up, and prepared to wash up and go to bed.

"You stay home and mind the shop tomorrow, I have to go out for a bit."

Ye Xiaoxiao changed her son's clothes into a light shirt and tucked him into bed. The little guy was wide awake and climbed out of bed in no time.

It's already the end of March, and the little guy is almost seven months old. While other seven-month-old babies are just learning to sit, he can already crawl around on the kang (a heated brick bed).

Li Chenyang also found it quite amazing; his son was incredibly talented. He stood outside, teasing his son.

"Where are you going?" Li Chenyang thought about it and figured he had nothing to do. All the work in the fields had been taken care of, so he might as well look after the shop.

"I need to go to my cousin's house in Daqingshan. Tomorrow you stay home to look after the kids and mind the shop. If you get hungry, just grab a bite at the old house."

Ye Xiaoxiao didn't want to tell Li Chenyang, that big mouth, that she hadn't accomplished anything, lest he go out and brag to others.

Thinking of this, Ye Xiaoxiao decided to take out the milk powder tomorrow and have Li Chenyang make it for her son.

The journey up the mountain was fine for her, but it was a bit of a burden to have her son with her.

We need to be quick to get back. My cousin probably doesn't even have electricity yet, so she likely can't make phone calls.

The next morning, Zhou Amei came over with two jin of eggs.

"Sister-in-law, could you please get two pounds of eggs and a bag of fruit candies?"

No one taught Zhou Amei, but she only heard from Aying yesterday that she couldn't go empty-handed when she went to have her fortune told.

So I thought I'd just take some eggs from home and buy a few other things.

"Forget about the eggs, it's so far away, I reckon the yolks would be shaken out if I went up there."

"Just bring a bag of pastries and a packet of sugar. If you really want to thank them, we can do it properly later when things are more settled."

"What should we do with these eggs?" Zhou Amei asked anxiously.

"Just put them here. I'll take them at 7 cents each. These two jin (1 kg) have 17 eggs, so I'll give you 1.2 yuan. If you want a bag of pastries and a bag of sugar, just give me another 50 cents." Ye Xiaoxiao placed the eggs on the counter.

"Okay, sister-in-law, do you also buy eggs here?"

Zhou Amei thought that they sold eggs for seven cents each in town. If her sister-in-law bought them, they could save the trouble of going to town to sell them.

"Well, I can accept it, but this is our first time, so I'll give you 7 cents each. If you come here specifically to sell in the future, I can only give you 6 cents each."

After all, other people would only pay seven cents, I can't work for free, can I?

Ye Xiaoxiao hadn't actually planned to sell eggs. These days, eggs are all high-quality; nobody uses any feed or anything like that—they're pure free-range eggs. Once she collected them, they could be stored in her system space for a long time without spoiling. So she just went ahead and bought them.

"Okay, I understand."

Zhou Amei thought to herself, why not raise more chickens? She could exchange the eggs for money. After all, she wouldn't have to go to town.