Originally, Yang Wanwan didn't need to come back. The village had already settled the labor arrangements, and since no one in Yang Wanwan's family could work, they either had to hire someone or pay the village.

However, a situation has arisen.

After careful calculation, the village determined that the three siblings would need to work for 70 days.

Based on a daily wage of 10 yuan, their family would have to pay 700 yuan.

This is a very large sum of money.

Grandpa Yang believes that the route Yang Wanwan and her brother should take is not that long, and they don't need to put in so much work.

Yang Dali is still the village chief. He said that this was calculated by everyone, and as the village chief, he should of course respect everyone's opinion and should not favor anyone.

According to Grandpa Yang, Yang Wanwan and her two siblings would work for about 50 days.

Yang Wanwan doesn't need the extra 200 yuan at all. However, for an ordinary family, 200 yuan is not something they would casually give away.

Most importantly, should their family pay the 200 yuan?

Grandpa Yang has a low level of education and can't explain things clearly when it comes to accounting, so Yang Wanwan wants to attend the meeting in person to listen to his explanation.

When she arrived home by bus, Er Ye was waiting for her at the door. As soon as he saw her, he immediately took Yang Wanwan to the village committee.

The village committee has already started a meeting. At least one person from every household in the village has come, and some people who are not at home have entrusted relatives to convey the final result.

Yang Wanwan sat in the corner, listening to Yang Dali talk on the podium.

After listening for a while, she understood the calculation method and figured that her family would need 52 days of labor. She didn't know how Yang Dali had calculated the 70 days, but she wasn't in a hurry to ask, because this wasn't something Yang Dali did alone; there were several other people from the village committee involved.

When it came time for the final vote, Yang Dali asked everyone if they had any further opinions.

Yang Wanwan stepped forward and said, "Village chief, the number of workdays for my family is incorrect."

Yang Dali asked, "What's wrong with it? What do you know, you're just a kid. Our village committee calculated this several times. Don't think you know everything just because you got into Yucai Middle School. You need to understand that studying is studying, and practice is practice..."

Yang Dali's tough stance made Yang Wanwan wary.

Who gave him this confidence?

After pretending for so many months, are you finally giving up?

"Village chief, let's stick to the facts and stop with the nonsense. You just said that anyone with an opinion should raise it. I only raised my opinion because I listened to you. Are you going back on your word?"

"Whoosh..."

The villagers immediately began to whisper among themselves, surprised that Yang Wanwan was so bold and spoke so shrewishly.

Yang Dali looked at Yang Wanwan with hostility, his eyes filled with anger instead of the avoidance he had shown a few months ago, though he controlled it well.

“This is a village committee meeting, not a place for you children to play.”

"So you mean we're not allowed to speak in our family?"

Yang Dali: "There's no such thing as forbidding you from speaking, but you must have evidence to support your words."

“Of course I have a basis for my calculations. You calculated 70 workdays for us, but I only calculated 52. The basis for the difference is that you overstated the length of the road in front of my house by ten meters, and you calculated it twice.”

“Your house is located at the intersection of two roads. This calculation method is decided by the village committee, and you can’t just calculate it however you want.”

Yang Wanwan smiled, "So, does everyone calculate it this way?"

"Of course!"

"If that's the case, why did Yang Xinqiao's family only calculate it once? Why did Yang Tianbao's family only calculate it once?"

Yang Dali: "Impossible, they calculated both households twice."

"Whether it's nonsense or not, let's calculate it and we'll know. Village chief, do you dare let everyone watch the calculation?"

Yang Dali: "..."

Yang Dali clenched his fist under the table.

Yang Wanwan is absolutely right; the two households' algorithms are different from Yang Wanwan's.

According to Yang Wanwan's calculation, Yang Xinqiao's family would have to work more than twenty extra days. Yang Xinqiao and Yang Dali were close, so Yang Dali deliberately undercalculated for Yang Xinqiao.

Yang Tianbao was the older brother of a village committee member. The village committee member had undercharged his brother, and although Yang Dali knew this, he kept quiet.

There are more than 300 households in the village, but many of them live away from home. Less than 200 households can truly make decisions and keep clear accounts.

Yang Dali usually adjusts his policies according to the situation, and he has established a hierarchy of which households can underreport their numbers and which can overreport their numbers.

Some of the benefits they managed to obtain were shared among the village committee members, a tacit understanding among everyone.

Among those living away from home, some are capable of not caring too much about the money, and even if they know something is wrong, they won't say anything; some have been away from home for too long, and even if they sense something is wrong, they can't come back to correct it; and some don't care about these things.

Therefore, Yang Dali and the village committee members became increasingly daring, doing whatever they wanted.

Like Yang Wanwan, most people were charged twice.

Like Yang Wanwan, Ju Shao was only counted once.

The numbers were enormous, and most people wouldn't be able to see the trickery involved, let alone pinpoint the suspicious activities of Yang Xinqiao and Yang Tianbao's households.

Yang Dali calmly reprimanded her: "Yang Wanwan, you need to have evidence for your actions. It's been announced for so long and no one said anything. Does everyone else not know how to calculate, but you're the only one who does? Everyone's waiting for today's decision to start construction, and you're deliberately causing trouble. Are you intentionally trying to hold everyone back? If we start work now, it will be almost finished by the New Year, and the road will be open next year. If you delay like this, how will we do the work next spring when there's a lot of rain? We can't repair it in spring and summer, and we'll have to wait until October next year to start construction. Can you take that responsibility?!"

Yang Wanwan calmly replied, "My daughter Erye has said this in the previous meetings. Did your village committee listen? Did they take it seriously? Now you're trying to shift all the blame onto me. I won't accept this injustice!"

"Er Ye is just a child. Do I have to listen to everything she says? Does our village committee only care about children's affairs all day long? Do we even get our real work done?"

"According to the village chief, children shouldn't be involved in this?"

"You have your grandfather in your family, why are you involving your younger brother and sister?"

"Village chief, did my grandfather never mention that our family's algorithm was wrong?"

"He didn't say that."

"So, it's all my grandfather's fault?"

Yang Dali paused slightly, then said, "Yang Wanwan, don't try to set a trap for people. This matter is settled now, and nothing you say will make a difference. 'To get rich, build roads first.' This is the village committee's decision, the decision of more than 300 households and more than 2,000 people in the village. It's not up to you, Yang Wanwan, to decide."