Jiang Zhi listened to these words with a smile and remained silent.

The victors are kings, the losers are villains; there are two sides to the story, and history is always written by the victors.

Previously, the original owner was just an ordinary peasant woman, nameless and without any profit, so naturally no one spoke up for her, and she mostly just followed the crowd and stepped on them.

Jiang Zhi is different now; she has fame, fortune, and powerful backers, so the public opinion has shifted.

He who eats another's food is bound to do his bidding; he who takes another's money is obligated to do his bidding.

When the mind is nourished with oil and water, everyone becomes more intelligent and can consider the truth more deeply.

Jiang Zhi has no shortage of money, but she lacks public support.

Even if there are only a few households in front of him, they are all villagers who watched the protagonist grow up, and they are also from the same family. From now on, what they say will be the "truth".

The Xu family members, whose surname was Xu, were each able to receive several hundred coins' worth of oil, salt, and meat, and the outsiders were not disappointed.

Jiang Zhi deposited the remaining several dozen taels of silver into the money shop and declared that this was the Xu family fund.

The first rule states: From now on, any family with a child who is studying well will receive tuition fees from the village, and the child who ranks first in the exam will receive a reward.

Article 2: Whether it is a married daughter or a daughter-in-law, she will receive a three-month subsidy for giving birth, including ten catties of rice, eggs and a large fat hen each month.

Although the quantity of rice and grains is small, it conveys an attitude: this is a benefit exclusively for women in Xujia Village.

The first two points had already made the villagers' hearts flutter; the most expensive part of sending a child to school was the annual tuition fee.

Now, as long as the children study hard, the village can cover the costs, which is a great thing!

There's also the saying that you can get a chicken for free during the postpartum period after giving birth, and even married women get one, which makes people even happier.

From now on, who would dare to say that their daughter or daughter-in-law is a freeloader? They might end up benefiting from it.

If women can benefit from children, men naturally shouldn't be left out.

The third rule is that the family with the most work points at the end of each year will receive a reward from the village.

After deducting the work points deducted from each other, the remaining amount was converted into gold and silver and distributed accordingly.

As for how to earn work points, in addition to helping each other with farm work, they also had to repair irrigation ditches, weirs, and roads in front of each household.

This is the perk for men: if they can't study and can't get pregnant, they can just rely on their physical strength to work.

Work points are earned through work, and money is earned through work!

As soon as the news came out, everyone was eager to get started, and no one was willing to slack off anymore.

Even having children is on the agenda, because more family members mean more work points, and they don't even need to buy chickens for their wives during their postpartum period.

Jiang Zhi didn't feel the pinch at all when she took out the money to spend; it was hush money given to her by Aunt Xu.

Whether he took it or not, Nie Fantian considered him an accomplice.

Since we're already burdened with this responsibility, let's just take it openly and use it to support the whole village.

With everyone as witnesses, it's clear that her whole family was deceived, and Xu Xiaogu is the real culprit.

The idea is good, but with only fifty taels as the principal for the fund, it's obviously not enough to keep going for several years.

In addition to continuing to inject funds out of her own pocket, Jiang Zhi also wants to use this money as capital to start a small business, which will also be a source of funds in the future.

Errui had no objection to the arrangement of the money; he was completely dumbfounded and stunned.

Jiang Zhi had been gone for three days with his men to see the "ghostly" sighting, and he still hadn't recovered from the shock.

He learned that his aunt was living a life of luxury in the city, while his family suffered in the village.

From a young age, my grandparents and father taught me to treat my "cousin" well, to take care of him, and to treat him like my own brother.

At this point, the concept behind those words collapsed.

Perhaps because he had only heard stories of his "cousin" being lonely and pitiful, and his aunt being in unknown danger, Xu Errui felt great sympathy for Xiao Tian.

Even when his older brother died, he did not blame his younger cousin.

But now I know that Xiao Tian not only has wealthy parents, a large house, and servants, but he may not even be the son of my aunt.

My cousin is not a blood cousin.

My aunt lied to my grandparents her whole life.

It caused my eldest brother to die young and left my father with a chronic illness. He would be in so much pain on rainy days that he couldn't sleep all night, and the family always had herbs brewed at home.

Errui tapped his head. Over the past ten years, he had heard his mother complain and scold his aunt countless times, and he only felt that his mother had a bad temper.

He can no longer remember what his aunt looks like, only that his grandparents said his aunt is beautiful and a lucky person.

Even when her grandparents and father were dying, they said that they must find her aunt, treat her well, and take care of her in her old age and see her off when she died.

What about now?

He regretted finding out too late!

Jiang Zhi did not hide Xiao Tian's background from Xu Errui.

Errui is an adult now, and no one is brainwashing him anymore. He has his own way of thinking.

Having left behind my previous environment and family atmosphere, I have gained a deeper understanding of life, and I can now comprehend things that I couldn't understand before.

Especially the mother's hardships and suffering.

After hearing the truth, Xu Errui became dejected and remained silent. Jiang Zhi knew he was in a bad mood and was about to talk to him some more when, before she knew it, he had disappeared.

This greatly worried Jiang Zhi.

Errui and the male protagonist had a good relationship since childhood, and Errui always treated him like a younger brother. Now that he knows it was all fake, he definitely can't accept it.

She searched the village several times but couldn't find him, so she immediately asked Li Laoshi to lead people to search everywhere, including the mountains and the ancestral graves outside the village.

The search went on until midnight, when Liu remembered a place: "Errui's mother, can you check with Darui's place?"

Because he was underage, Da Rui, who died unexpectedly, was buried alone in a remote mountain forest without even a tombstone, and no one has visited him over the years.

As it turned out, they actually found Errui there.

The poor child ran to his older brother's small grave, which was already covered by grass, and wailed until Li Laoshi and the others found him.

Jiang Zhi asked him why he went to the wilderness to look for small graves.

Errui said he didn't want to tell his grandparents and father that his aunt was a liar, so he would let them continue to be deceived.

Let's pretend that my aunt is already dead and never acknowledge her again. But my brother died so unjustly!

If my brother were still alive, he would have understood our mother's predicament much sooner, instead of being as foolish as I am.

Jiang Zhi's eyes welled up with tears. Although Er Rui was a little simple-minded, he had the purest heart.

She cared for and loved everyone in the family, and never doubted even herself, her "mother."

The story of Xu Xiaogu caused quite a stir in the village for a few days, but it was gradually overshadowed by the busy farming season.

The farming season waits for no one; it won't leave anyone to sigh and lament.

Harvesting wheat, threshing wheat, drying wheat—there's a lot of work to be done in the village, and Qiaoyun also goes down the mountain to help.

After Jiang Zhi's family finished harvesting and threshing the rapeseed, they immediately started threshing the wheat.

Threshing wheat is hard work, tiring, hot, and dirty, requiring the entire village, young and old, to participate.

Wheat stalks with ears of wheat were laid out on the flat and compacted ground, and a dozen or so villagers holding flails (with flails) stood in a circle.

The flail, raised high, struck the wheat stalks on the ground inch by inch, again and again.

After the wheat grains were threshed, someone gathered them aside and used a large, coarse-mesh bamboo sieve to separate the wheat stalks and leaves.

The sifted wheat grains still need to be blown away by a shaking winnowing machine (windmill) to remove the husks and clods of earth before they are clean wheat.

Under Tian Gui and his group's arrangement, everyone had a clear division of labor and did things in an orderly manner.

All of these require recording work points, so no one can slack off.

Among a group of disheveled men carrying flails, Qin Shi, dressed in an indigo dress, stood out.

She wore this outfit ever since she returned from the county town, washing it at night and wearing it during the day. She walked through the village with her head held high, just like a proud blue peacock.

Not far away, Li Laoshi was also not taking a break. He was turning a windmill with one hand and sifting wheat grains in the bin with the other.

It seemed to have choked on the wheat ash, as it would occasionally turn its head to rub its nose against its shoulder, taking the opportunity to glance to the side.