Xiaoman's sudden return from Laoyun Cliff Mountain made the whole family very happy.
Xu Dazhu, leaning on his crutches, said, "I thought you would stay in Jincheng Prefecture for the New Year. How's Xiaotian's matter going?"
While busy killing chickens, Xiaoman's grandfather also said, "Xiaotian seems more sensible than before when he came back this time. He's also very polite to your aunt. He really learns to be smarter when he goes out."
Xiaoman naturally told the Nie family about their affairs. When she mentioned that Xu Xiaolan and Du Baolin had an affair that angered the Nie family to death and that they even swapped children, the family was both angry and heartbroken.
Grandma Xiaoman shook her head and sighed, "Alas, Xiaotian is pitiful. Grandpa and Grandma Errui were honest people their whole lives, but they only favored Xiaolan, and in the end, their pampering led to trouble. As the old saying goes, a poor family raising a spoiled child will inevitably cause problems!"
After saying that, he started rambling on to Grandpa Xiaoman about the people in the village who had already passed away.
Xiaoman no longer mentions the past.
Aunt Jiang once said that people should look forward and not dwell on those who have left or the roads they have traveled; that's a waste of time.
Aside from some snacks she brought from Jincheng Prefecture, Xiaoman took out ten taels of silver and gave them to Chunfeng: "Sister-in-law, this is from the Nie family. Please save it for me."
Chunfeng manages all his money.
When they were building their house, the two brothers invested all their money in the house in the village.
But Xu Dazhu and his wife didn't move into the village, so Xiaoman said she would pay back the money her brother and sister-in-law had given her.
In fact, the Nie family gave Xiaoman one hundred taels of silver. Xiaoman heard that Nie Fantian had spent a lot of money in the army, so she lent the silver notes to Nie Fantian and only told Jiang Zhi about it afterward.
Jiang Zhi didn't blame him for being generous on his own initiative. She just said not to tell the family for the time being, because a hundred taels of silver was too much, and not everyone could afford to lend a hundred taels of silver to others so easily.
If you want to be a decent person in public, you have to be a dog in private. Even if the male protagonist has cheat codes, he still needs money to back him up.
When she handed the five hundred taels of silver notes to Nie Fantian, she could see his predicament. Even though she didn't want to accept them, she still took them.
Xiaoman lent out 100 taels of silver, and then borrowed 10 taels from Aunt Jiang to give to her family, planning to find a way to cover the shortfall later.
Consider this money given by Nie Fantian, so that I won't have trouble answering when my family asks if the Nie family has compensated me for the medicine after I was stabbed.
When they saw that the Nie family had given them ten taels of silver, Xiaoman and the others were satisfied. They didn't think much about anything else, as long as Xiaoman returned safely.
The family spent the New Year on the mountain.
Although Errui's family was gone and Li Laoshi was missing compared to last year, Tian Gui and Tian Tao came up the mountain to pay their respects on the second day of the Lunar New Year, even before Errui, despite the slippery mountain road. It was still quite lively.
Although Peppa didn't get to see Jiang Zhi return to the mountain during this holiday, she still finished a whole bowl of porridge, which didn't affect her comfortable sleeping in the warm wooden house at all.
Sigh, the kids are all grown up now, they're not clingy anymore!
Once Lunar New Year's Eve is over, it will be the start of a new year. As previously agreed, each village will send people to study on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.
However, due to the heavy rainfall this year, it started on the 20th of the twelfth lunar month and continued to drizzle until the fifth day of the first lunar month without stopping.
It's cold and wet, and the mud is everywhere, making it difficult to walk. If it rains again by the fifteenth of the first lunar month, the training course will have to be postponed to mid-February, which will be the perfect time to learn about fertilizer bulb seedling cultivation techniques.
On the fifth day of the first lunar month, before the college students arrived, Magistrate Zhang arrived ahead of time.
The people of Xujia Village have a deep impression of this "high-ranking official".
Whenever she saw him, a tall man, walking around the village, Pi would hide inside her house, fearing that the magistrate would come to her house for a meal.
Last year, Magistrate Zhang was amazed by the twenty mud-walled houses in Xujia Village. This year, Xujia Village has changed again.
A section of gravel road was paved in the village. Although it was wet from the rain, the gravel road was not muddy when walking on it. It was just a short section.
Just like the street in front of the county government office, it only has a section of stone-paved road.
"Village Chief Jiang, how can you spare so much labor to pave the road?" Magistrate Zhang asked. It's not right to indulge in pleasure and exploit the people!
Jiang Zhi glanced at the clerk beside her who was holding a small notebook and preparing to take notes, and said with a smile, "We have to thank Director Song for this."
Last year, our corvée labor involved clearing silt from the riverbed. Chief Song allowed our village to bring back these stones each day during our service. We worked hard to pave this road so that we wouldn't get stuck in the mud.
Magistrate Zhang was very satisfied: "Song Junheng did a very good job with the corvée labor this time. Pear Blossom Town is the best among the several towns."
He had already visited Lihua Town when he passed through it. The cleaned riverbed was now storing water, which should make it more drought-resistant in the summer. Song Junheng, the head of the pavilion, deserves praise.
Seeing that Xujia Village had managed to use those pebbles to decorate the fields, setting off the green wheat seedlings along the roadside and the neat vegetable gardens, as well as the tidy bamboo groves, earthen houses, and fences, Magistrate Zhang couldn't help but want to compose an essay.
Now that someone wants to learn from this, the vegetable gardens and house fences along the roadside have been specially arranged to enhance their appearance. Needless to say, they look beautiful. After Xia Xiucai's bamboo fence was painted white, he even painted orchids with ink, which made it even more sophisticated.
Amidst the misty rain, bamboo fences, and green tiles, and the varying shades of orchids, anyone who sees it slows their pace, lest they disturb the mad immortal inside.
At this moment, Magistrate Zhang wanted to compose a poem, but Jiang Zhi had no habit of standing in the cold wind and rain to listen, so she quickly said, "Your Excellency can take another look at our workshop, which is also paved with pebbles."
The mosquito coil workshop was only started in April, and Magistrate Zhang has not yet seen it.
At this time, the workshop had not yet started work. The thatched shed was empty except for ten stone tables and bamboo tubes. It was very simple, and he couldn't figure out what it was for.
However, the ground was paved with river pebbles by the villagers, making it smooth and clean.
The pebbles were carefully selected and are all the same size, making them more comfortable to walk on than the roads outside.
There are also water channels and ditches outside.
The ditch was just an ordinary earthen ditch, but the edges were lined with fist-sized pebbles, making everything look neat and tidy.
Magistrate Zhang was a worldly man, accustomed to the pavilions, towers, carved beams, painted rafters, and the beautiful landscapes of the Xu Family Village. He saw through Xu Family Village's little trick.
The fields and earthen houses here are different from those in other villages; they are built to be comfortable and beautiful.
The outhouses of dozens of households were all covered with straw curtains, and the chicken coops and messy piles of firewood were all moved away. Ordinary farmers would not care so much; it was obviously done on purpose.
Village Chief Jiang is a woman, and she is used to managing the household, so it's normal for her to have requirements for these details, Magistrate Zhang thought.
Actually, he was wrong. This wasn't Jiang Zhi's request. At least, it wasn't that everyone was barely making ends meet and she was trying to force everyone to do things she couldn't do.
This is thanks to Xu Changming.
When this old man saw that the last time Jiang Village Chief He Fang came, so many people came that there wasn't even a bench to sit on, and even defecating and urinating were crowded, so he had to do it right there in the public courtyard.
Normally, it's common for farmers to casually squat by an open latrine, but these are strangers, and they're all men.
With so many young women, wives, and children in the village, Xu Changming felt ashamed and didn't dare to leave his house. He felt that Xujia Village had really lost face in front of outsiders.
Upon hearing that dozens of people from other villages would be coming to learn during the first month of the lunar calendar, he immediately demanded that those families whose outhouses and pigsties were located outside the village build an additional thatched shed for them.
If anyone defecates in the open again, he will chase them into their house and point at them, calling them shameless.
As a result, all the outhouses in the village were fenced off and roofed, and those filthy things could no longer be seen.
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