"Xueying, you don't want to spare them, do you?" The village chief was puzzled.
Not only the village chief was puzzled, but An Dayong, An Ping and others were also confused.
Shen Yu, who rushed over after hearing the news, didn't believe that Wan Xueying would let the father and son off so easily.
As expected, Wan Xueying smiled, then said, "How could that be? They made a mistake, and they must be punished accordingly! It's just that the village needs help building a canal right now, so why not have them help those elderly families or those without male heirs?"
Aren't they lazy and unwilling to work? Then punish them by making them work. Just because their family doesn't need them to work doesn't mean other families can't.
"It's a punishment for them, but it can also help the village. I think this punishment is good." Someone immediately agreed.
"I think this is a good punishment, too. But Liu Laolai and his son are known for being cunning and sly. I'm worried they won't do their job properly, and this will delay the construction of the canal."
"Uncle Wang, you hit the nail on the head," Wan Xueying gave Uncle Wang a thumbs-up. "So the thirty strokes of the bamboo cane they're supposed to receive this time are only suspended. Later, if they don't dig the canal diligently, if they dig one shovel less, they'll get one stroke of the bamboo cane. If they dig two shovels less, they'll get two strokes, and so on. There's no upper limit. If they dig the canal diligently, the punishment will naturally be waived."
After a pause, he continued, "Just now, the village chief said that considering their ancestors were from our village, they were exempted from the punishment of being expelled from the village this time. If they dare to do it again, then I'm sorry, I will send people to expel them from the village without the village chief's order!"
As for these father and son, they will never change unless some harsh measures are taken. I don't ask them to be good, I just hope they will do less evil and return a pure land to the village.
Uncle Wang was the first to speak out, "Xueying, that's a good point! I fully agree!" He then suggested, "If any villagers still try to slack off while digging the canal, I think we could punish them by hitting them with a bamboo stick for every shovelful of dirt they don't dig."
"Brother Wang's addition is good. I also agree with the punishment of Liu Laolai and his son." Another person echoed.
"I agree too!" The rest of the people followed suit and expressed their opinions.
"As a junior, I am just making an immature suggestion. The final decision will be made by the village chief." Wan Xueying really had no intention of getting involved in this matter, but the village chief was too lenient in punishing Liu Laolai and his son.
"Since everyone agrees, I have no objection." The village chief made his final statement.
"Then I'll have to trouble the village chief to take some time to calculate how many households in our village need help digging the canal, and then arrange for them and their son to dig it. Don't bother others, I will send people to supervise them to dig the canal well." Since she made the suggestion, it would be bad to not do anything.
"Then let's make it a deal." The village chief was originally worried about the elderly and families without male heirs, but he didn't expect that the problem would be solved like this.
Liu Laolai and his son were so upset when they heard the punishment! They wanted to be beaten, not dig a canal!
"There is one more thing I need to tell you all." Seeing that everyone was about to leave, Wan Xueying spoke again.
"Xueying girl, do you have anything else to say?" The village chief asked while suppressing a yawn.
"Laolai Liu just said he chose our family because I brought back a lot of food. He also said his family is starving to death, so why can't I give them some food? I think besides him, there are definitely more than one or two people who have concerns about the food I brought back."
At this point, she looked at the crowd, knowing that some people might have this thought but wouldn't say it out loud. So, she continued, "I'm not ungrateful. In the past few years since I left, I've given five kilograms of coarse grain to anyone who's helped our family. If you haven't helped our family, please don't even ask to borrow grain. The grain I brought may seem like a lot, but I brought a lot of people with me too! We need to survive, too!"
It has to be said that her words were both face-saving and helpful, and they also happened to shut up a group of people who wanted to borrow grain.
After everyone left the An family, Shen Yu stayed behind and said to Wan Xueying, "Just now I discovered that someone has been secretly watching our house."
"It seems that what they are looking for is very important."
"I don't know what it is?"
"We'll know soon. But do we really need to take that thing out?" Wan Xueying was a little undecided.
"If we want to live safely in that house without having to be constantly on guard, we have to take control. At the very least, we have to know what it is so we can come up with a better countermeasure."
"You're right," Wan Xueying nodded. "Then let them continue to watch us. We'll just pretend we don't know. But if they want to harm us, we must not show any mercy!"
"You're right. Besides, I've asked Beiwu to hide in the dark and monitor their every move."
"This is best, so we don't have to be caught off guard in the open."
It was getting late, so the two of them went back to their respective residences to rest without chatting for long.
The next morning, the village chief, who had not slept much the previous night, announced the distribution of the canal digging.
That is, each family will dig a canal in the field, and each family will first divide the common land into ten zhang. If it is still not enough, they will divide it again after all these are dug.
The canals in the fields of those who have fled famine are calculated as common land. If these families come back later, they will have to bear the cost of maintaining the canals in the entire village every year to offset the hard work of other families in digging the canals.
The village chief later asked Wan Hesu and Gu Ming if they needed any wasteland to reclaim. There was still a lot of uncultivated land near the mountain in the village. If needed, they would also participate in the canal digging.
Gu Ming asked for two acres of wasteland without hesitation. If there were more, the mother and son would not be able to handle it.
Wan Hesu, Lin Yingnan and Chunjiao knew nothing about reclaiming wasteland and farming. After much consideration, they decided to try working on two acres of wasteland first.
So, their two families also needed people to dig the canal. They also wanted to take this opportunity to integrate into the village as soon as possible, so they gladly accepted it.
Not to mention Wan Xueying and the others, they have more than ten acres of wasteland, so of course they also need to contribute manpower.
When Wan Xueying brought people to carefully inspect the wasteland around their houses, they found that although it was wasteland, it was completely comparable to the poorer land. The village chief really took good care of them.
To this end, Wan Xueying weighed ten pounds of each coarse grain they brought and asked Shen Yu to take people to deliver it to the village chief.
After Wan Xueying asked An Dayong, Su Shi, and An Ping, she fulfilled her promise last night and sent five kilograms of coarse grain to everyone who had helped them. For those who had helped them a lot, she gave them more on top of that.
After this incident, every villager praised Wan Xueying for her ability to get things done.
When they heard that Shen Yu would be serving in the army and was a seventh-rank general, those who had once looked down on the An family changed their attitudes. They praised their family for their good fortune in raising an adopted daughter who was not only the daughter of a wealthy family in the capital, but also grateful and filial to them, and even found an official to support them.
Amidst the envy and jealousy of the villagers, there was also a father and son who cursed Wan Xueying countless times at home. But when Qiu Shi and his men dragged them out to dig a canal, the Liu Laolai father and son were completely timid.
But because they hadn't worked for a long time, the digging started to rot soon after they started.
"Are you sure this section of the canal has been dug?" Qiu Shi asked after he finished inspecting the progress of his own canal and came to supervise Liu Laolai and his son. He found them lying on the ground to rest.
"Yes, we have finished digging it out." Liu Laolai lied with his eyes open.
"I'm asking you two again, are you sure you've finished digging?" Qiu Shi was planning to give them a chance, but Liu Laolai was still stubborn: "Yes, we have."
They knew they would be punished, but they still didn't plan to work anymore. They would rather get beaten than work.
"My lady once said that if you act cunningly, you will be punished. Do you remember?"
"Of course I remember." The deadbeat didn't deny this, nor could he deny it.
"Well, I'll find someone to dig this section of the canal now. Every time they dig a shovelful, you two will each be hit by a bamboo stick. Do you agree?"
Ha, someone helped them dig a canal. The father and son looked at each other and tried to suppress their laughter. Liu Laolai nodded hurriedly and said repeatedly: "We admit it! We admit it!"
"Okay, you wait." Qiu Shi not only called people over, but also asked the village chief for bamboo sticks to punish people who made mistakes in the village.
"Then let's get started." Qiu Shi reminded Liu Laolai and his son.
Liu Laolai and his son didn't even get up, still lying on the ground. Liu Laolai, still holding a piece of weed in his mouth, said, "Okay, we'll take it." He showed his scoundrel spirit to the fullest.
"Alright," Qiu Shi then instructed his two men, "Just follow the young lady's instructions and dig."
"yes."
Liu Laolai and his son were shocked to see that there was someone even more shameless than them.
It was simply because the two men dug too much soil with each shovel, leaving not even a handful.
Qiu Shi didn't care about that. As soon as the two men dug a shovel, he swung a bamboo stick and hit the calves of Liu Laolai and his son hard.
He was strong and knew some martial arts, and he had been practicing very diligently since he was punished for following the exile team to the northern border.
The bamboo stick was used to draw a bloody streak on the calves of Liu Laolai and his son.
They couldn't help but utter a cry of pain. It was pain, not just ordinary pain.
But this is just the beginning.
The two men digging the canal were obviously not satisfied with the first shovel of soil they dug, thinking it was too much. When they dug the second shovel, they used half less soil than the first time.
"That's not right." Liu Laolai protested.
Qiu Shi handed each of the father and son a bamboo stick before explaining, "Don't worry about whether this shovel of soil is a lot or a little. To me, one shovel is enough." In other words, he had the final say.
"You are clearly cheating!"
Qiu Shi raised his eyebrows, "Why are you the only ones allowed to cheat, but not others?"
In Wan Xueying's words, they are scoundrels, and we have to be even more scoundrel than them in order to control them.
It seems that this trick is really effective at the moment.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com