Before anyone else could ask, Xia Xiucai had already opened his account book.
Since Jiang Zhi became the village head, everyone has become very familiar with all kinds of account books.
Especially Xia Xiucai's account books.
For the past month, although Xia Xiucai did not work, Li Laoshi would report in detail every day how many people from each household worked and how long they worked, which Xia Xiucai would then record.
Xujia Village is a bit special.
Jiang Zhi is someone who likes to keep track of everything, Li Laoshi is someone who takes every little thing too seriously, and Xia Xiucai is a simple-minded person who doesn't know how to be flexible.
With just one word from Village Chief Jiang, the two of them did it meticulously.
Everything in the village needs to be recorded. Villagers need to leave their fingerprints every day to prove that they have done their work.
For ordinary families, this is simply a waste of paper.
Perhaps it's true that in one year in Xujia Village, they saw more paper than they had in the previous decades. And then there were the fingerprints and monograms; every single one was meticulously crafted and scrutinized.
Although those were just cheap scraps of paper, who would remember these things so clearly?
Even though all the villagers found it troublesome, this rule was still strictly enforced.
With the ledger in hand, while the house was still under repair, Xia Xiucai crossed out the work points earned by each family for helping each other.
Once all the houses were repaired, the ledger only had two types of people left: those who worked less owed work points, and those who worked more had extra work points. The others had already been deducted from each other, so no one owed anyone anything.
There was another special family, the Shi family, who gave up on repairing their house. They didn't repair the house or do any work; the two brothers were just throwing mud bricks in the fields.
Since Xu Genbao didn't work, he couldn't get any credits, so he was naturally in debt to others for all his work points.
Li Laoshi has the highest score in the village, and he has helped every household.
"Xu Genbao repaired the house for 3 days. He earned 56 points as a senior worker for ramming the earth and 30 points as a junior worker for carrying earth."
Among them, Tian Guijia scored 3 points in the major and 4 points in the minor. Xu Genqing scored 3 points in the major and 3 points in the minor, Wu Yang scored 3 points in the major…”
Xia Xiucai read out the names of everyone who worked at Xu Genbao's house.
No one present objected; this was because they had pressed their fingerprints every day.
After Xia Xiucai finished reading, he stopped talking. He just focused on organizing the data and didn't care how to process it.
Xu Genyou looked at his younger brother: "The villagers who are working are all here, so you can handle it!"
Xu Genbao nodded: "I am grateful to everyone, but I can't repay the wages for you. So I'll just pay you for the work. But since we're all from the same village, I can't give you a high price."
Tian Gui frowned: "Just give us the truth. As long as everyone thinks it's reasonable, they won't try to cheat you."
Upon hearing this, Xu Genbao stated the wages he had prepared: "Two days to repair the house isn't much time, so I'll give the master craftsman twenty coins per cent and the laborer eight coins per cent."
The room fell silent, and Xu Genyou's face immediately turned red: "No, your offer is too low!"
Xu Genbao said with a bitter face, "Brother, you know how hard I work to earn this money. Now it's all been used to buy timber and bricks, and there's no extra money left!"
Earning money outside is hard work, and not only his brother Xu Genyou knows this, but anyone with eyes present knows it too.
During the summer harvest, Xu Genbao was a strong young man when he was publicly beaten. Now, only half a year later, he has lost a lot of weight and almost turned into a middle-aged man with a stubble beard.
Cotton carding is hard work, and Xu Genbao carded cotton by going from house to house in the mountains.
They work from dawn till dusk every day.
At first, I worked in the village that Zhang Juntou's soldiers took me to. The villagers were locals, so I had some influence over them, and everything went smoothly.
Visiting more villages did bring in money, but it also brought more trouble. Not only did you have to endure mistreatment while working, but sometimes you wouldn't even get paid.
Moreover, being in an unfamiliar place, Xiaoju, a young married woman, had to live in constant fear while following him.
Xu Genbao gritted his teeth and worked until the end of the year, but he felt that this was not a long-term solution.
After the New Year, I will have to find another way to make a living, leaving Xiaoju at home to take care of the children and do farm work.
Although he still had more than a tael of money left after getting it back, Xu Genbao wanted to save every penny he could.
But now that his own brother has publicly objected, saying it's too low, he's immediately unhappy.
Don't help your own brothers, help outsiders!
Xu Genyou was honest by nature. Seeing that his younger brother had misunderstood, he anxiously pointed at him and said, "You only saw the two workdays written in the ledger. Who builds a house in just two days? That was done without stopping overnight. Under normal circumstances, it would take at least seven days to ram the walls."
Xu Genyou disagreed, and so did the others.
"If you're short on money, don't mention it. Just pay me back later. You really have a high opinion of yourself!" Xu Gensheng tilted his head and said with a sneer.
The others chimed in, their displeasure evident: "Hey, even if we're poor, we wouldn't look down on ourselves like that."
"Yes! Who would have thought that working all day would only earn twenty coins?"
Tian Gui sighed deeply; this was the reason why he and Xu Genyou looked so unhappy.
The villagers' help in repairing the house is something that can't be measured in money.
If you don't pay, there's still a sense of courtesy; if you pay, there's no courtesy.
Otherwise, the money should be paid directly; otherwise, a lower amount will offend people.
Hearing the villagers' discussion, Xu Genbao also became anxious: "If it's too little, add some more. Twenty coins is too low, so let's make it twenty-five coins. I really don't have any money. You can't force me to borrow money at interest."
The people warming themselves by the fire looked even worse. Xu Gensheng said sarcastically, "Fine, give us whatever you want. We'll talk about the future later. Just don't come looking for us again."
“Yes, we don’t have money for the New Year, but we have other ways. We definitely can’t force you to borrow money at interest,” Xu Genqing said. He was just thinking of borrowing money from Aunt Jiang without having to force her.
Just then, Wang Xiaoju, who had also become dark and thin, ran over and shouted at Xu Genbao, "I just asked my sister-in-law, and Aunt Jiang used to charge fifty coins a day to have someone repair her house and thirty coins a day to have someone cut grass. The prices we set are too low."
Her shout silenced the crowd who were about to turn hostile.
Yes! There's a precedent set by Village Chief Jiang; it can't be twenty coins no matter what.
Xu Gensheng glanced at Wang Xiaoju: "Strange, you can still speak a normal sentence!"
Wang Xiaoju's words really surprised everyone.
Xu Genbao's face flushed red: "Our money..."
He wanted to suggest saving money, but Wang Xiaoju wouldn't let him explain, saying, "Everyone helping us repair our house is an act of kindness, and our older brother helping us repair our house is an act of kinship. If we save money, it's heartless. We can earn more money after we spend it. Trying to save money at home won't work, and it will only offend people!"
Wang Xiaoju spoke the last few words unclearly, with a slight sob in her voice.
She felt bad when she was wronged outside. Several times, when she was sleepy at night, she would just sleep in someone else's pile of cotton quilts. As a result, someone would sneak in in the middle of the night, and she would be woken up by them.
Although the man was scared away, Wang Xiaoju never dared to sleep soundly again, and she would wake up several times every night.
The thought of earning money to repair the house, to earn respect from the villagers, and to be able to hold my head high and show off in town made me willing to endure any hardship.
But when she returned to the village and saw that the house had been repaired, her sister-in-law and mother-in-law said that everyone had worked overnight to finish the repairs. Before she could even express her gratitude, she saw Genbao humbly begging people to save money.
Wang Xiaoju felt a burning sensation on her face, and her heart was filled with mixed emotions.
Nothing is going right. Why is it so hard to live a life where I can hold my head high and have a good life?
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