Jin Erniu got up early in the morning and hurriedly went to fetch water.
As soon as they stepped outside, they encountered Jin Wang's wife, Zhao Shi, who was bent over, carrying a bucket of water, and following closely behind Jin Erniu: "Erniu, did your family make some money? You're so happy, you're even humming a tune as you walk. What's wrong? You can't even see your auntie?"
Jin Erniu turned and glanced at Zhao Shi: "Of course, my wife is pregnant again, how could I not be happy?"
Originally, Zhao wanted to find a reason to see how much money Liang Shuyan had earned and what nice things she had bought. After all, they were family, and it was still acceptable to ask her for a living.
When the topic of having children was brought up, Zhao's face immediately fell: "What? Didn't you already have Beibei? How come you're pregnant again?"
“My mother said that our family has enough to eat and wear now, so we can have as many children as we can. Auntie, are you not planning to have any more? Oh dear, in this world, having both a son and a daughter is like being a living god. At least you can die peacefully and have a good account to your ancestors, right?”
Jin Erniu had never known how satisfying it was to gossip before, but now he finally did. When he saw Zhao's face turn pale and then purple, he felt incredibly pleased.
Zhao snorted coldly, inwardly cursing, "What's there to be so smug about? So what if you gave birth to a boy? You don't even know if this one will be a boy or a girl, or even if it will survive."
Potatoes are in short supply now. People in ancient times didn't grow them much. Liang Shuyan has almost plundered all the potatoes in the village. She needs to broaden her horizons.
After learning the news, Zhao went home, put down the bucket, and went straight to Liang Shuyan's house. She started arguing with Liang Shuyan about the dried potatoes.
"Sister-in-law, can you be a little more generous? Look, you've almost used up all the dried potatoes in the village. Who has any left? Chunyan went through so much trouble to find these dried potatoes, and the children haven't had time to eat all day. Isn't the money you're giving too little?"
Upon hearing Zhao's words, the people queuing behind her all glanced at her. Although they had some reservations, they dared not be the first to raise the issue. After all, they were all from the same village. If Liang Shuyan hadn't needed potatoes to make jelly, they would have fed those potatoes to the pigs, which would have been a complete waste. At least they could get some money from them, which was already a great relief to them.
But since Zhao had taken the lead in bringing up the matter, they naturally stood by and watched. If the price was raised, they would be happy to earn more. If they disagreed, it would be the gossipy Zhao who would suffer. Zhao didn't have good relationships with people in the village, and they wouldn't offend such a living god of wealth in the village for her sake.
Liang Shuyan cleared her throat: "In that case, forget it. We've already harvested all the dried potatoes in our village, so I wasn't planning on troubling everyone. I'm going to find a few people to go to other villages to buy them, even if the price is a bit higher. Thank you all!"
Upon hearing this, everyone looked at each other. If Liang Shuyan hadn't needed these dried potatoes to make jelly, they would have used them to feed the pigs. Where would they have made any money? Now, because of Zhao's words, such a good way to make money had suddenly disappeared. Everyone turned their attention to Zhao.
“Auntie Dashan, look, this is something Zhao herself said. None of us have complained about the small amount of money. Just because we're all from the same village, please let us continue doing this work.”
"Besides, the wasteland in the village is enough to keep your children busy. If you really want outsiders to go to other villages to collect dried potatoes, it's more cost-effective to leave this to us. Besides, my two children are free right now, so how about we let them go and search around the villages?"
"Two coins. Some people think that's too little, but we don't think it's too little."
Zhao was immediately embarrassed: "Hey, how can you people be so ungrateful? I was just proposing a price increase for everyone's sake, but I didn't expect you bunch of ingrates to turn around and attack me. Don't you have any conscience?"
"Conscience? If you say you have a conscience, even a ghost wouldn't believe it. I'm telling you, second brother's wife, how has your sister-in-law always helped you? And now that she wants dried potatoes, you're raising the price at this crucial moment? Are you even human? Even outsiders in the village haven't mentioned this, but you're the first to stand up and demand a price increase!"
The old lady of the Jin family was the first to stand up and gave Zhao a good scolding.
"Mother, I... I was just saying it casually. Besides, my sister-in-law earns so much money, why would she care about giving us such a small increase?"
"Shut your filthy mouth, you black-hearted bastard. If you think it's cheap, go find somewhere more expensive and go there. Don't come here and embarrass yourself."
Liang Shuyan hesitated for a moment and said, "Forget it, Mother. Anyway, I can't afford the price from the second son's family. Let's just tell Chunyan to stop sending them to us!"
Zhao stammered in anger, "Sister-in-law, we're all family, why be like this? Let Chunyan pay this price, okay?"
Liang Shuyan looked at her mother-in-law before saying, "If it weren't for your sake, Mother, I wouldn't want anything Chunyan sends me in the future!"
"Yes, sister-in-law!"
After circling around for a while, everyone left.
Erniu rested and then mentioned Zhao Shi, whom he had seen while fetching water. He shook his head and said, "Mother, my second aunt is really something. Today she asked me why I was so happy, and I told her about my wife's pregnancy. She was so angry that she didn't say a word. Now she's plotting to make us raise the price of dried potatoes. She's really cunning."
"Oh, by the way, now that your wife is pregnant, whoever sees something going on around the house has to do it. No passing the buck, understand?"
Knowing that her belly was not cooperating, Zhang casually said, "Mother, let me do some of the housework. I don't really have anything to do anyway."
Liang Shuyan noticed her eldest daughter-in-law's mood and said, "What are you saying? Aren't you doing business with your mother? We haven't had enough dried potatoes lately, so everyone has been clearing the wasteland on the mountain and cleaning up the weeds in the wheat fields."
Jin Dashan sighed and whispered to Liang Shuyan, "Mother, look at my wife, she just feels bad that she didn't give our Jin family a son."
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