There is indeed such a rule in the village rules of Lantang Village. The village chief even has a village chronicle passed down from generation to generation at home, and the village rules are clearly written in black and white.
Other nearby villages were similar, but only the most strict villages would actually do this. After all, everyone was from the same village, so they might have some kinship, and they saw each other every day, so it was hard to bring oneself to drown someone alive. Usually, they would just give them a beating and pay some money, and the most severe punishment was to expel them from the village.
Fortunately, since Zhao Youdang took over as village chief, such a thing has never happened. Shen Zhigao is the first one!
Aunt Guixiang was also annoyed by Old Lady Shen's scolding, so she brought out the village rules and said: Didn't you say we were unfair? Then let me show you what fairness is. If we really follow the village rules, we will do it, and no one can say anything!
Seeing that Aunt Guixiang was really annoyed, the Shen family members who had not shown up for a long time after Old Lady Shen threw a tantrum suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
Shen Zhigao squeezed out of the crowd and pulled Shen's mother to leave: "Mom, why are you here? The meal at home is not ready yet, and Dad is anxious!"
He pretended that he had no idea what was going on and that he was just here to ask Old Lady Shen to go home and cook. He dragged Old Lady Shen up despite her struggles and then said to Zhao Youdang, "It's all a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. We didn't know my mother was here, and my father was very angry at home. We can't do this anymore." He was very scared at the moment and felt a little resentful towards Old Lady Shen: It was fine to go to Miao and Shen Qing to make trouble, but it would be a good thing if she could get some meat. But how dare she scold Wu Guixiang as well? Was Wu Guixiang someone who could be easily provoked?
If Wu Guixiang continues to bring up the village rules, he would not want to be drowned in a pond or driven out of the village, let alone beaten with a stick!
He blamed Old Lady Shen more and more for causing trouble.
Zhao Youdang snorted coldly, but did not let him get away with it. Old Lady Shen scolded his wife and now she was blaming him. Wasn't this just trampling on his face?
He is not like some men who don't take the wife in the house seriously. When the wife is scolded, he doesn't say a word, as if speaking for a woman is too shameful. Scolding his wife means that she doesn't take him seriously and doesn't respect him. People have given him face like this, if he defends Shen Zhigao again, wouldn't that be a shame?
"The village is making vermicelli recently. You go to the workshop and grind it for ten days. Don't even think about being lazy! From now on, no one from the Shen family is allowed to come to Miao Qing'er's house. If I see you again, no matter who from your family comes to cause trouble for them, you will first be punished with forty strokes of the cane according to the village rules!"
Shen Zhigao complained in his heart, but he didn't dare to say anything at this moment, so he had to agree. The villagers were very happy: in winter, every household would make sweet potato vermicelli and stew it with cabbage and sauerkraut, which tasted especially good!
The first step in making vermicelli is to wash the sweet potatoes and grind them into pulp. This is hard work! The village has a public stone mill. Every day, families line up to use it to grind grain and sweet potato flour. The village paid for a house and a yard, which became a small workshop. After grinding, the pulp can be filtered and dried in the yard.
Now Zhao Youdang punished Shen Zhigao by making him work in the workshop for the villagers for ten days.
Isn't it better to have someone else grinding the mill than to do it yourself? Even those who have already made sweet potato vermicelli secretly regretted it and planned to make more this year - if you don't take advantage of this kind of bargain, you will lose out! They all praised Zhao Youdang: "The village chief handled this matter fairly and kindly. If Shen Zhigao and Widow Li had been allowed to get away with their dirty deeds, wouldn't the villagers follow suit in the future? What would happen to our village then!"
"Oh, I'm too embarrassed to visit relatives in other villages recently! It's so shameful. When a village has such a person, the whole village is ashamed!"
"What are you talking about? My son was just about to get married. He had originally proposed a guy from Xiahe Village. Everything was going well, but after this incident, the guy's family refused to do it! They think our village has a bad atmosphere and will treat the guy unfairly. What do you think is going on? Now that the village chief has punished Shen Zhigao, I'm going to ask the matchmaker to spread the word. Our village is not that unreasonable!"
"Okay, okay, everyone go away, go back and wash the sweet potatoes quickly, and get ready to go to the workshop early tomorrow. Everyone keep an eye on it, if Shen Zhigao is lazy, just come and tell me!" Seeing Shen Zhigao pulling the still unconvinced Shen Lao Niang away, Aunt Guixiang also helped Miao: "What are you going to do? Are you going to continue selling the meat, or take a break and talk about it tomorrow?"
The others wanted to buy meat, but seeing Miao's miserable appearance with tears all over her face, they also said considerately: "Go back and have a rest, we'll talk about it tomorrow! We'll come back tomorrow morning, the meat will be fine if it's left overnight, maybe it can even be frozen!"
Since the buyer said so, Miao nodded in agreement. However, when it came to meat, she suddenly remembered something and slapped her thigh: "Oh, my braised pork with pickled mustard greens is still steaming on the stove!"
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