“What’s a bowl of rice enough? I have so many children!” Gao Shumei retorted, demanding that Village Chief Song give her special treatment because she doesn’t have a husband.
Village Chief Song said irritably, "What do you mean a bowl of rice isn't enough? Did you ever eat rice in the village before?"
Some families, like Gao Shumei, who felt that the Lu family's distribution of grain was unfair, lowered their heads.
They used to grow rice in Dawan Village, but very few households had ever eaten rice.
The rice grown was either used to pay taxes or exchanged for cheap coarse grains to eat for a while longer.
To avoid financial difficulties during the lean season.
"Is this for someone else? Is the water conservancy project being built for the Lu family, or for my Song family?"
Village Chief Song said he was scolding Gao Shumei, but he looked around at everyone and said, "This bowl of rice can buy two or three lives outside. You should be content! If you think a bowl of rice is too little, then get out of the valley and go outside to make a living."
Gao Shumei's face flushed red and then paled, and she stammered, "I'm a widow and orphan, it really hasn't been easy for me. If you don't want to take care of me, you don't have to, but there's no need to scold me in front of so many people, is there? Don't I have any shame?"
After saying this, she was still not satisfied and looked at the Cui mother and daughter beside her, "What about them? We all have to work to get food, what about them?"
Looking at the Cui family, Village Chief Song also showed a troubled expression.
However, he quickly turned stern to Gao Shumei and said, "Don't meddle in things that aren't your business. We have our own plans for how they arrange things."
Gao Shumei glanced at Cui and her daughter with a mixture of jealousy and wariness, then picked up her tools and followed a group of women from the village to dig an irrigation ditch.
The other villagers also chose jobs that suited them and got busy.
The valley was bustling with activity; even Xie Ziang and the other children were busy. The older children were making bricks.
Young children carried baskets and picked wild vegetables in the wasteland.
Jiang Tangtang didn't sleep well last night, but after being woken up, she couldn't fall back asleep. So she took out the dried hemp thread and twisted it with Lu Chenyan to make a fishing net.
The system had tutorials on how to twist hemp rope and make fishing nets, so it wasn't difficult to learn. Jiang Tangtang quickly learned to do it quite well.
She even had the energy to listen.
The only people who were idle in the valley were probably the Cui family mother and daughter.
"Mother, are we going to stay in the valley with these villagers forever?"
Guo Xinyi almost cried as she thought about the hard stone slab she slept on last night, the bushes she went to the outhouse in, and the wild vegetable porridge she ate this morning.
Cui was also confused, wondering what Lu Shiyan's intentions were in bringing her and her daughter into the valley.
But then I thought, it couldn't be worse than what happened yesterday.
She comforted her daughter, saying, "If it weren't for our benefactor's rescue yesterday, we would be dead by now. How could we be suffering in this valley? Being able to suffer is a blessing, it means we are still alive. Come on, let's go help the villagers with some work, so we don't eat their food for nothing."
She looked around and realized she couldn't do any of the other jobs, so the only one that looked easy was the one Jiang Tangtang was doing.
She walked towards Jiang Tangtang with her two daughters in tow.
Seeing an adorable child sitting next to Jiang Tangtang, Cui squatted down and teased, "This child is so cute, what are you doing?"
Lu Chenyan glanced at her, then returned to his own world. She took the hemp thread, gently twisted it with her small hands, and it became a rope.
He only saw Jiang Tangtang do it once before he learned it and started rubbing it easily and skillfully.
He treated this as a game, constantly adding new hemp thread to the rope, twisting it until it was evenly sized and long.
Seeing Lu Chenyan's rudeness, Guo Xuantong's eyes immediately showed a hint of dissatisfaction. "Little boy, my mother is asking you a question. This is very impolite!"
Jiang Tangtang paused the audiobook she was listening to before smiling at Madam Cui and saying, "I'm sorry, my son doesn't need to be disturbed when he's doing things. Please forgive me, Madam."
"Is this how you usually raise your child? You're ruining him, do you know that?"
Guo Xuantong felt that Jiang Tangtang was ill-mannered and completely incapable of raising children. How could someone like that be qualified to marry a celestial being like her benefactor?
If she had married her benefactor, she would never have raised the children the way she did. She would have treated them as her own, nurturing them into the best people in the world.
"Xuantong, how dare you speak like that?" Madam Cui glared at her daughter.
She then smiled and apologized to Jiang Tangtang, saying, "I've spoiled this child. Please don't hold it against her, Madam Lu. Yesterday, thanks to our benefactor, my daughter and I didn't become victims of those Western Rong soldiers' swords."
Jiang Tangtang sized up the mother and her daughters, noticing that Cui did indeed seem somewhat sincere. However, the Guo sisters' faces were full of impatience.
She didn't really want to associate with them, and said expressionlessly, "It was just a small favor, Madam, you don't need to take it to heart."
"Yes, this is a life-saving grace. My daughters and I will remember it forever and repay your kindness for the rest of our lives."
Jiang Tangtang glanced at Guo Xuantong and thought to herself, "No way, she can't accept this kind of repayment."
“My daughters and I don’t know how to do farm work, but needlework is no problem for us. Madam Lu, let us help you!”
Madam Cui smiled and secretly pinched Guo Xuantong, signaling her to behave and not say anything she shouldn't.
Jiang Tangtang felt that the group shouldn't be eating and drinking for free in the valley, so she took out the remaining hemp thread and distributed it among them, letting them twist hemp rope together.
Guo Xuantong made up her mind to show off her skills in front of Jiang Tangtang and let Jiang Tangtang know how powerful she was.
Her needlework master was an old embroiderer whom her uncle had specially invited from the capital; it was said that she had been released from the Marquis's mansion. Back in the mansion, her master often praised her needlework skills.
But once she got started, she realized it wasn't as simple as she had thought.
The embroidery skills her master taught her were completely useless.
The hemp thread wasn't as soft as the silk thread she used to use in the mansion, and her hands started to hurt after rubbing it for a while.
Moreover, even though it looks so simple, she makes it uneven in thickness when she rubs it.
Especially when the two sisters were struggling to rub the dough, Lu Chenyan, a child of just over three years old, rubbed it quickly and well.
Guo Xuantong felt extremely ashamed; she couldn't even compare to a child.
She angrily threw down the rope and ran away.
Cui was extremely embarrassed. After giving Jiang Tangtang a forced smile, she quickly chased after her.
She scolded him with exasperation, "What are you doing? Who told you to sullenly treat Madam Lu like that?"
Guo Xuantong asked, feeling wronged and confused, "Mother, why did you lower yourself to fawn over a village woman?"
Her mother was the wife of a county magistrate.
Even though her father died and she lost her title as the county magistrate's wife, her maternal grandfather's family was one of the wealthiest in Jiangzhou, which was still higher than her status as a village woman.
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