Soon, Master Wang's acupuncture session ended, and food was delivered back from the valley.
The village chief and the old men also ate at Li's house, making it a table full of food.
Old Mrs. Li held Jiayin in her arms, and she and Madam Cui ate alone in the room.
Master Wang sat at the table, eating and chatting with everyone, which made the awkwardness and restraint lessened.
When he said goodbye and returned to the city, the corners of his mouth remained turned up in a smile that never left his lips.
As he passed by the commercial street, he remembered the adorable chubby girl from the Li family, so he went into a jewelry store and bought a pair of small agate bracelets.
It's hot in summer, so gold isn't suitable for wearing anymore. The bright color of agate complements the little girl's chubby little arms...
Jiayin had no idea she was going to receive another gift. After dinner, she began to panic as she looked at the villagers filling the courtyard.
Someone must have leaked the news, but everyone in the village knew that wages were due and they all gathered around after dinner.
Whether it's aunts, uncles, or grandmas, almost everyone likes to pinch her cheeks and arms when they see her.
She had just been "harmed" and was now obediently hiding in her grandmother's arms, refusing to leave no matter what.
The old lady was both amused and annoyed, scolding the villagers, "Everyone, please don't pinch my Fu Niu anymore. You all scared her like a rabbit. She's so big and still drooling; it's probably because you pinched her."
The villagers all laughed, "Who told you to have such a cute chubby girl? She was born on the road while fleeing famine, but she's fatter than most rich families!"
Jiayi stepped forward, picked up his younger sister, let her ride on his shoulders, and then went to find Liu Yang to talk to.
Liu Yang, envious, begged to hold Jiayin in his arms.
He is an only child, and what he envies most is that Jiayi has younger brothers and sisters.
Jiaxi and Jia'an watched from afar, as if they felt their younger sister had been snatched away. They ran forward frantically, wanting to lift their sister into a sedan chair...
Jiayin suddenly became a hot commodity, being fought over and fought over, which made it impossible for her to even hear how much silver her family had received.
The village chief and Li Lao Er gathered together, settled the accounts, discussed a few things, and then, tapping his pipe, shouted to everyone, "Everyone, say less and be quiet."
The villagers immediately shut up, staring expectantly at the village chief and Li Lao Er, which made the village chief laugh and scold, "I don't usually see you all so enthusiastic, but as soon as I mentioned distributing money, you all came running."
The villagers exclaimed, "Village chief, we're all out of cooking oil! We're just waiting for the money to buy more."
"That's right, this is the first time we've received our wages, we're so excited."
The village chief waved his hand, signaling everyone to quiet down again.
Li Lao Er then said, "This month, including principal and interest, we have about a thousand taels in our accounts. We have also collected a lot of grain. We will pay the wages tonight and distribute the grain tomorrow."
He patted the work point book and said, "I've discussed it with the village chief. Although it's not the end of the year yet and we haven't settled the accounts, we don't know how much one work point is worth, but it should be more than five coins. So this time we'll calculate it at five coins."
The villagers listened attentively, their minds racing with calculations, trying to figure out how many work points they had and how much money they could earn.
Li Lao Er started by reporting the numbers from each household, including men, women, the elderly, and even children, counting all their work points, and then summing up the total.
Some families have many members who are hardworking and have many strong laborers, so naturally they get more work points.
Some families have fewer members, so naturally their scores are lower.
The crowd listened with a mixture of envy and sighs.
Of course, the most prominent family in the village is always the Li family, with a large population and more members earning high work points.
Li Lao Er earned full work points, followed closely by Li Lao Si and Tao Hong Ying. Zhao Yu Ru and Li Lao San were both strong laborers. Jia Ren had worked for more than half a month before going to school. Jia Yi and Jia Huan also earned work points.
Even Jia'an and Jiaxi worked as apprentices, and the old lady even took Jiayin to the fields to weed occasionally.
With the work points of Uncle Zhao and the others also being consolidated into the Li family, the total score became quite alarming, exceeding two thousand points.
The best of the rest only scored a thousand points, which is more than double the difference.
At this point, every family began to regret not having had more children.
More people means more work, and more work means more money to be distributed.
Soon, Li Lao Er opened the silver chest and began exchanging everyone's work points for silver.
Some families exchanged five taels, some three or four taels, and the least they exchanged was two and a half taels.
The Li family took the lion's share, amounting to over one hundred taels.
In front of the villagers, Old Lady Li divided up the portions for the old men, giving them small change as pocket money and putting the rest in a bag.
"Brother, keep this money for you. When we find good wood in the future, we'll make you some nice coffins."
Uncle Zhao and the others quickly stopped them, saying, "No, we agreed that we eat and wear at your house, so this money should go to your family."
"Yes," the old lady said with a smile, "I've decided to give it to our family to buy a good coffin."
The old men were both amused and exasperated. The village chief also advised, "Just follow the arrangements. Making the coffin early is a good thing. Keeping it at home will also ward off evil spirits. We can make it together when the time comes, and my wife and I can join in the fun."
The other old men in the village also inquired, saying that as they got older, they were more concerned about what would happen after their death and wanted to live a few more years.
According to the old traditions, coffins and funeral clothes should be prepared at home in advance so that they are never needed, thus ensuring a peaceful passing away.
Madam Cui, who had been sitting next to Old Lady Li listening to the commotion, said, "It seems that Brother Liu's business includes timber. When I see him another day, I'll ask him for everyone."
The old men were even happier to hear this, their faces beaming with joy.
After exchanging a few more words, everyone dispersed, busy going home to calculate what to buy with the money.
The Li family finally calmed down, and Old Madam Li gathered her children and grandchildren to talk about the use of the silver.
Jiayin was extremely anxious. She still had quite a few silver ingots in her spatial storage, so she planned to get involved in the new shop.
Having multiple long-term businesses and more say in family matters will gradually and subtly prepare me for a more comfortable life in the future.
But with her family all around, she couldn't do anything rash, so she kept tugging at the old lady's sleeve, calling out, "Grandma, Grandma!"
The old lady chuckled and patted her granddaughter, saying, "Behave yourself, Grandma knows what's going on."
Jiayin finally calmed down, listening to her family members talk with a pitiful expression.
Tao Hongying couldn't bear to see her daughter like this, so she hugged her and comforted her, "Mom will make you something delicious tomorrow, be a good girl and listen to Grandma."
Old Mrs. Li patted her money bag and said to her family, "I've been thinking about it these past few days. Opening a food stall near the academy is indeed a good idea. But these ninety-odd taels of silver are probably only enough for the rent. After adding some tables, chairs, bowls, and chopsticks, and preparing some pocket money, it will be a bit insufficient."
After saying that, she nodded to Jiayin, "Fu Niu usually gets a lot of spare change from Madam Cui and Young Master Ye. She doesn't know how to spend it, so I've saved it all up. It's about thirty taels in total."
“This time, we’ll invest it all in the shop, and we’ll have some left at home, just in case. So, even if we invest 100 taels in the shop, Fu Niu will take 30 taels, and the family will take 70 taels. What do you think?”
Of course, no one objected; they all said, "We'll listen to Mother."
Zhao Yuru touched Jiayin's high ponytail and laughed, "So, the richest person in our family is this girl Fu Niu."
Jiayin immediately raised the gold bracelet on her hand with a smug look, which made everyone laugh.
"Alright," Old Mrs. Li clapped her hands, gesturing for everyone to look over, "Let's talk about how to split the profits in the future, and we need to carefully inquire about that shop, there might be some bad rumors, so we don't get ripped off!"
Third update for today! Here it is! If it's convenient for you, my darlings, please give it a five-star review and urge me to update! I'll work hard to write more!
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