Chapter 107 You make it sound so easy
The worries of Lao Si and Song Chunxue did not come true.
Cheng Yuan was busy eating meat at another restaurant and didn't come to our door.
But Song Chunxue knew that the Cheng brothers would definitely not let the Jiang family have an easy time in the next six months.
The reason she was so timid and fearful in the past was because she was caught between the Li family and the Cheng family, and the Jiang family was looked down upon and bullied by everyone.
But now, she has seen through people's true nature.
If this softie caught in the middle suddenly turns into a prickly hedgehog, will everyone gang up on him and bully him as they used to?
If she becomes fearless and attacks anyone who tries, will they still unite against her?
They won't; nobody wants to be the one who gets stabbed.
Just like Cheng Yuan and his brothers, they were not as harmonious as they appeared on the surface. They secretly fought and cursed each other over a piece of land and a road.
The same applies to the Li family.
As long as you don't make enemies of their entire family and don't escalate things too much, they'll continue to mind their own business.
If Jiang Chunxue were a stubborn, meticulous, and persistent troublemaker, would Cheng Yuan confront her head-on?
Song Chunxue sneered; he wouldn't.
She would make him avoid her at all costs.
After learning his lesson, he would only tell others that the widow from the Jiang family had gone mad and would bite anyone she saw, and that everyone should avoid associating with this crazy woman in the future.
Although Song Chunxue was only thirty-six years old and didn't look that old, to those stinky men on the estate, as long as they couldn't possess her, they would humiliate and slander her to feel better.
In the two years after the children's father left, when the children were still young, very few men in the village ever climbed over the Jiang family's wall.
Cheng's three sons had all been rummaged through, and she had poked them all with scissors.
Li Dazui's three cousins, and a man from the neighboring village who came to visit during the Spring Festival, jumped over the wall on a whim, scaring her so much that she almost chopped off her arm with a kitchen knife, but she didn't get a good look at his face...
No one knows about these things because Song Chunxue and the men who suffered losses will keep quiet about them.
The reason she initially gave Li Guangzheng meat was because he had never climbed over the wall before, and sometimes he would lend a hand when he saw her struggling to pull the grain.
But later, perhaps realizing that she treated him like a human being, he took advantage of her.
Early in the morning, she got up and swept up the fallen leaves inside and outside the yard.
The yellow apricot leaves have a faint bitter taste.
The autumn scenery is desolate, and the weather is getting colder and colder.
After eating something, she heard someone outside shouting, "The officials are here to collect the grain. Is it loaded yet?"
Today, no one in the entire village will be working in the fields; the sounds of busy activity can be heard from every household.
The Jiang family residence was unusually quiet.
Every year when it was time to pay grain taxes, every household would try their best to please the officials in order to pay less grain.
Logically speaking, what's wrong with giving them a meal of meat, asking them to go easy on us, taking less grain, and offering a few smiles?
However, many years later, Song Chunxue realized that this benefit was only for those large families with members working in government offices.
For a small, isolated family like the Jiang family, the officials saw them as easy prey to exploit.
In her previous life, Song Chunxue didn't know until she was in her fifties or sixties that the Cheng family above and the Li family below each paid ten catties less grain per person than the Jiang family every year.
What does ten jin (5 kg) mean?
Before Hongying got married, the Jiang family had six members and paid 60 jin more tax than other families every year.
This doesn't even include the grain that was stolen from those irregular grain measures.
Adding everything up, at least one dan of grain was swindled away by corrupt officials like Cheng Yuan.
How could Song Chunxue not hate, feel sorry for, feel humiliated, and be angry that the grain she painstakingly grew by herself was given to such a person instead of being eaten by herself?
One load of grain is enough for them to eat long noodles with meat sauce for more than ten days.
"Mother, have the officials arrived?"
The fourth brother didn't go herding sheep today; he stayed home to help Song Chunxue pack grain.
"Yes, let's carry the grain out."
The fourth brother wrapped two feet of cloth around his palms to prevent them from getting chafed, but his skin still got scraped after carrying two bags.
He blew on his burning fingers and looked at the old wheat stacked high up. "Didn't they say they wanted new wheat? Old wheat will do too?"
"Last year's wheat doesn't count as old. Most of the rules that Cheng Yuan and his gang talk about are set for people like us who don't like to ask questions. The grain they deliver is mostly five or even ten years old wheat, and then they exchange our new wheat for their own."
Song Chunxue chuckled, "You've been to school, your teachers should have taught you this much, right?"
The fourth brother's cheeks flushed, and he nervously touched the back of his head.
"Hmph, I knew it. You don't cherish the opportunity to study and haven't listened to the teacher's lectures seriously many times." She squatted down in front of the grain sack. "Give me a hand."
The fourth brother helped her carry it, and Song Chunxue went out with a bag of grain on her back.
He followed behind his mother, watching her carry a hundred pounds of wheat on her slender shoulders, feeling guilty and bitter.
He's a boy, and he's not young anymore, but he tried several times to carry it on his back and still couldn't manage it.
"Did Sanwa always help you carry this much grain in previous years?" the fourth brother couldn't help but ask. "Is he very strong?"
“Anyway, he’s stronger than you,” Song Chunxue said as she came in from outside. “We’ll carry this bag out together. The eldest can pay it himself; he can pay two fewer bags this year.”
The fourth brother laughed and said, "Then the eldest brother will be heartbroken. They just had a son, and this year they have to pay grain for three people."
"That's his business." With that, she locked the granary door with two large padlocks to prevent anyone from eyeing it.
Most people in the village used to deliver their grain to the township, but in recent years this has changed. Either officials come to collect the grain from their homes, or they bring it to the township themselves to deliver it.
During the busy farming season, most people would choose to hand over their grain to the officials who would come to their door, who would transport it by horse-drawn carts, saving them a lot of trouble.
Song Chunxue used to think the same way.
But later, people gradually realized that the reason why those officials who were usually idle suddenly went to great lengths, even renting carriages and horses, to collect grain was still because of the grain.
When they came to our door, the grain measure they brought was much larger than the grain measure of the yamen, and they could deduct at least thirty catties of grain from each household.
They are most adept at plundering the people's wealth.
Before long, Li Jingyi and Cheng Yuan, along with three government officials, arrived at the Jiang family's door with large grain measures.
The eldest brother then carried two sacks of grain out of the thatched kiln.
Song Chunxue glanced at him and raised her hand to touch the rolling pin tucked behind her waist.
"Mom, what are you doing with the rolling pin?" the fourth son asked in a low voice, puzzled.
You'll find out soon enough.
She looked at Cheng Yuan, who was scrutinizing her with an air of arrogance, his eyes filled with a chilling glint.
He leaned closer to the fourth brother and said, "If a fight breaks out later, just shout that someone is killing someone. The county government has sent patrols today."
"Huh?" The fourth son was shocked and grabbed her sleeve. "Mother, don't do anything foolish. It's not worth it for a few pounds of grain."
“I dug that up with great difficulty, you make it sound so easy.”
Song Chunxue looked again at Cheng Yuan, who was standing in the distance, pointing and whispering about her with the officials beside him, and her resolve hardened.
If she remembered correctly, a high-ranking official would be visiting incognito today, and this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
As long as she can make a big scene, that scoundrel Cheng Yuan will definitely lose his position as the head of the village.
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