Chapter 88: Pink Eye

In order to gather information, Zhang specially rented an ox cart and took several hours to enter the city, and he also had to pay the entrance fee. That was not something he could do.

If others have the leisure to do so, so be it.

As for the information she revealed, she had also thought about it in advance.

For most ordinary people, earning five or six hundred coins a month is enviable, but not enough to make them jealous. Not to mention that they have to work hard with their entire family to earn this little money, which can be said to be using all their strength.

However, if she raised the price, say one or two taels of silver, more people would suffer from conjunctivitis.

A normal family of three could use one tael of silver for half a year if they were frugal. How could others not be jealous of her if she only earned one tael of silver a month?

Under the big sycamore tree at the entrance of the village, Zhang strode over, spread out her hands and said, "Do you have any more melon seeds? Give me a handful."

When women get together to chat, they inevitably eat melon seeds, but not sunflower seeds, but pumpkin seeds.

Even though they are kept for their own family and no family is short of a handful or two, it is still a bit reluctant to ask them to share them with others.

Zhang still had some money left in her pocket, and she was deliberately taking advantage of others. Even if it was worthless melon seeds, she would save as much as she could.

If it were any other day, no one would be willing to give her a handful of pumpkin seeds. But today was different. Everyone was waiting to hear what she had learned, and they all generously gave her pumpkin seeds.

"How did the investigation go?" Wang asked anxiously.

Zhang coughed dryly, found a place to sit down, and said slowly: "I found out that they sell food such as meat and sesame cakes."

“Making money?”

"From what she said, she sold a lot of things, but she didn't make much money. First of all, the county town is different from the town. There must be more rich people. Those rich people are willing to spend money on food. The things they sell are cheap, and those rich people are willing to buy them, but they have to pay stall fees, city entrance fees, and protection fees from local tyrants. After all these deductions, there are only 500 to 600 coins left a month. But Qin Huiyin is not an honest girl. She probably concealed something, so there are still 700 to 800 coins."

"Seven or eight hundred coins, not a small amount."

"The whole family is working and only earns 800 coins. What's the good of that?" Wang said with disdain.

"If it's just a few hundred coins, why don't you find a job? Tang Dafu used to get two taels of silver per month, which was much more glamorous than it is now."

"Does anyone still want Tang Dafu? Except for Tang Dafu, Li Taohua and Tang Yichen, everyone else in their family is a child. Who can work? Tang Dafu and Tang Yichen are definitely not capable of working. No one dares to let Li Taohua, that devil, out to work. By this calculation, it's good for their family to earn 700 to 800 wen." Zhang asked, "You still don't care about 700 to 800 wen, what kind of work do you have in your family that pays 700 to 800 wen?"

Everyone looked at each other.

If they only earned 700 or 800 wen, they would not be so jealous. However, if you ask whether their family has a monthly income of 700 or 800 wen, then they definitely do not have it.

But even so, they still feel that the whole family works so hard to earn this little money, and there is nothing to envy.

"I don't believe it." Wang said, "They bought a lot of things. You don't live next door to them, so you don't know their situation. If they only made that little money, all the clothes they wear would be new. Did they use all their earnings to buy clothes?"

“And the well.”

"Yes, that well cost a lot, too."

"Qin Huiyin is as cunning as her mother. She won't tell you the truth." Wang said, "I think we should see it with our own eyes."

"They are doing business in the county town. Do you still want to go there? If you rent a bullock cart, it will cost 20 cents for a single trip. In addition, you have to pay an entrance fee to enter the city."

"It's not that troublesome." Wang leaned over, lowered her voice, and said mysteriously, "We live so close, why do we need to go so far to get information?"

"What's the point of finding out? The money they earn is theirs, and we can't use it." The youngest wife asked curiously, "Weren't we just curious about what business they did at the beginning?"

Everyone was silent.

Yes! At first they were just curious about what kind of business they did, and then they were curious about how much money the Tang family made. Now, for this curiosity, they racked their brains to find a way to sneak into the other party's house to find out. If this matter gets out, what will happen to Li Taohua with her hot temper?

The more the women thought about it, the more they felt something was wrong.

"We don't want to ask anymore." One of them said, "We are just curious. It doesn't matter whether you know or not. Don't do anything unnecessary."

Li Erniu’s tragic situation is a lesson for us.

Speaking of Li Erniu, ever since she committed that crime, she has been bullied by her mother-in-law all day long, and her son also takes her out on her. Now she cannot touch a penny of the family money, and can only work non-stop like an old ox.

Several women woke up completely.

Zhang and Wang were still hesitating.

Zhang went out of her way to get information, and after finally getting it back, everyone said it was fake news. She was not happy about it, so she wanted to prove that the information she got was correct.

Wang was even more unwilling to accept this. She just wanted to find out how much money Li Taohua made. She hated the laughter and joy next door all day long, and she didn't want to see Li Taohua living comfortably.

The malice of women towards each other appeared inexplicably. Perhaps it was because Li Taohua was too bright and beautiful, and she lived the life that most women yearned for but could not reach.

"Don't you want to make money? Didn't you say before that we would find out what business they are doing so we can follow suit?" Wang continued to seduce.

"Now I have found out everything, but whether it's meat or flour, it costs a lot of money. My family can't afford it."

"Yes, if my child's father knew that I spent money to buy meat and flour, he would definitely divorce me."

…

After Wang returned home, the more she thought about it, the more unwilling she felt.

Just then Tang Mingxiu came back in a coquettish manner, and she scolded her, "Where have you been fooling around again?"

After hearing what Wang said, Tang Mingxiu's powdered face became panicked.

But soon, she discovered that Wang was just scolding her out of habit as usual, and didn't really know that she was out fooling around.

"What are you doing?" Tang Mingxiu said, "I have carried the water you asked me to carry, chopped the firewood, and pulled the weeds in the field, but you can't let me go out for some fresh air?"

"Let me ask you, do you know what business the next door is doing?" Wang asked.

"How should I know? The family next door always looks up when they see me walking. They don't take me seriously at all. How can I still have any contact with them?" Tang Mingxiu said.

"Do you want to know?" Wang asked mysteriously.

Tang Mingxiu: "...what do you have in mind?"

Wang poked her head out to look outside, sniffed the air, and said, "No hurry."

They won't make any preparations in the next two days. They will prepare everything they need to open the store the next day on the day before going into the city. You can't see anything if you go there now.