"You bastard, how could you say something like that..."

Lin Tao never expected that his childhood friend would say such despicable things.

If she lays her hands on his wife, isn't that just cheating on him?

Unexpectedly, Shuanzi touched his sore face and, instead of being angry, laughed:

"Think it over. I only have value if I like your wife. Ten yuan a night is a good deal for you."

Lin Tao didn't know how he got home.

After he returned home, he went to the north wing to check on Lin Zhoushi, but smelled a foul odor of urine and left.

He called Ma Huijuan back to his room.

"What are you doing? I need to go back and take care of the milk!" Lin Tao was hot and cold towards her, and she couldn't figure out his tricks, so she might as well stay in Lin Zhou's room.

Lin Tao got angry at her attitude, pinned her down on the bed and roughed her up. After he finished, he lit a cigarette and said:

"Shuanzi wants to see you tomorrow night, please treat him well for me."

As Ma Huijuan put on her clothes, she coldly replied, "I know."

I could roughly guess what was going on, because after Shuanzi slept with her last time, he said he wanted to sleep with her every day.

I never expected this day to come so soon.

......

The autumn harvest has arrived, and the wind rustles through the bountiful rice paddies.

Everyone began a new round of busy work.

After Lin Chen went to work, Jiang Ning and Wang Xiufen stayed home to wash and clean the quilts. The hot and humid weather would soon be over, and it was time to take out the thick quilts to wash and air them out.

Nowadays, quilts don't have covers. The quilt is laid out on the bed, then the quilt core is laid on top, and finally the quilt cover is placed on top. The three parts are then sewn together with needle and thread.

"Mom, I think we could make a duvet cover with only one opening at one end and a zipper. That way, washing the duvet cover won't be so troublesome," Jiang Ning suggested.

Wang Xiufen pondered for a moment, then smiled and said, "This is a good idea. You're really good at thinking."

The two were talking and laughing when a woman spoke from the doorway:

"Excuse me, is this Lin Chen's house?"

Wang Xiufen's heart skipped a beat. Why was a woman coming to see Achen?

Upon asking at the door, it turned out to be Liu Fang, the prospective daughter-in-law who had mentioned wanting to buy the Tang suit that Jiang Ning had worn.

"How did you find your way here?"

Wang Xiufen couldn't help but wonder, since the villages were connected by crisscrossing paths, it wouldn't be easy to find someone's house without someone to guide you.

Liu Fang smiled and said, "Sister Meili brought me here. She went back to her parents' home a while ago, and I persuaded her for a long time. She came back after thinking it through, and brought me here. I want to ask you to make a wedding dress for me."

Jiang Ning quickly brought her a chair and poured her some water: "You and Luo's eldest daughter-in-law are from the same village?"

"That's right, it's the neighboring Phoenix Village, but I'm about to marry into another village."

After answering Jiang Ning's question, Liu Fang turned her head to Wang Xiufen.

"Aunt Wang, what do you think of this fabric? Can it be made into a Tang suit?"

As she spoke, she opened a floral cloth bag in her hand and took out a piece of light red silk fabric embroidered with peonies. The fabric was heavy and of good quality.

Wang Xiufen took it, touched it with her hand, and replied with a smile, "Miss, this fabric must have cost a lot of money. If you're making a Tang suit, the color doesn't quite match. You could consider making a short top and a skirt."

Liu Fang listened and said she didn't understand, so she found paper and pen and used simple lines to outline the clothes.

Jiang Ning didn't quite understand at first, but after seeing the diagram, she immediately grasped the meaning:

"Mom, this kind of clothing seems to have a special name, called 'Hefu'."

Wang Xiufen chuckled awkwardly: "Is it called Hefu? I've only ever seen my grandfather make it."

Liu Fang was overjoyed when she saw the design and nodded eagerly.

"Okay, I'll make the rice-patterned clothing. I should have enough fabric. Here's a dollar and fifty cents for the labor fee."

Jiang Ning didn't expect Liu Fang to be so straightforward as to pay the labor fee first.

However, thinking about the groom's attire, she reminded him, "Will your future mother-in-law know that you're making the wedding dress? Also, if you're making the traditional Chinese wedding dress, your husband's clothes should ideally be a long robe and mandarin jacket, or a dark-colored Zhongshan suit, so that they match."

Last time, her future mother-in-law wasn't this generous; she shouldn't let her come knocking on the door asking for money later.

Liu Fang immediately smiled and dispelled her concerns:

"Don't worry, I paid for this dress myself. A woman only gets married once in her life, so I should be happy!"

Phoenix Village is relatively wealthy, and she has several older brothers, so she can afford to spend this amount of money.

Given this, Jiang Ning was naturally happy to see her mother-in-law's first order secured.

She asked Liu Fang to sit for a while, then walked towards the Party Secretary's house.

The village secretary never notified her, so she didn't dare to accept the order immediately.

When they arrived at the village secretary's house, Lin Fugui and Gao Qiang, along with other village officials, were having a meeting to discuss family planning matters.

It is said that this year's family planning fine plan has been released, and Chayuan Village has been allocated two quotas.

In fact, family planning has been advocated for many years, but people's desire to have children remains strong. As long as there are women of childbearing age in the family, there is no way they will not have more children than allowed.

The authorities aren't strictly controlling things right now; they're just assigning quotas to lower levels.

There's always a way around a policy. Instead of pinning the two quotas on any one or two individuals, the village made all families with more children than allowed to contribute the fine.

For each child born in violation of the one-child policy, a fine of fifty yuan is imposed, which is then distributed among more than ten families, so each family only needs to pay four or five yuan.

When Gao Qiang saw Jiang Ning coming over, he joked with her, "Jiang Zhiqing, when are you going to have a baby?"

Jiang Ning took out cigarettes from his pocket, handed one to everyone, and said with a smile:

"I responded to the national call to marry and have children later in life."

After everyone else had received their cigarettes, only Lin Fugui remained. She gave him the entire pack and asked directly:

"Secretary Lin, what's the matter of opening a tailor shop that I told you about last time? Is there any progress?"

Lin Fugui knocked a cigarette out of the pack, struck a match, lit it, took a deep drag, and said:

"Our brigade cadres unanimously agreed and submitted a report to the commune, but the commune has not yet responded."

Jiang Ning was unhappy inside, but her face still showed a bright smile:

"This is also a good thing for the commune. If the tailor shop does good business and pays more money to the brigade, it will reduce the burden on the commune and make up the money for replacing the plow and harrow every year."

Other communes have already been exploring various ways to make money on the side; we should dare to be pioneers too!

As Gao Qiang listened to her rambling on, he turned to the cadre next to him and smiled:

"These educated youth from the capital are really something else. They're knowledgeable and bold. You don't know, last time they even had a drinking contest with a commune member and knocked him out. Looks like we need to take bigger steps this time."

At his suggestion, Lin Fugui agreed to let her operate on a trial basis for a month, and then officially set up the tailor shop after the commune's approval was issued.

Jiang Ning smiled and thanked him. As she was about to leave, Gao Qiang pulled her aside and quietly reminded her:

“Ma Huijuan complained to me that Lin Qiao was reading world classics. Could you remind the child to be careful not to get caught?”