Arriving here, Jiang Nuan truly experienced the hard life of farmers.
However, despite being busy, Jiang Nuan thoroughly enjoys this kind of life.
It's not that I'm a scumbag who likes to suffer, but rather that creating the future step by step with my own hands is worth it, even if it's tough and tiring.
What's more, she has a group of very lovely people behind her.
Just as the meal was finished, Lai Zi arrived right at mealtime, asking, "Auntie, do you have any meat?"
“No,” Jiang Nuan said irritably, “How can you eat meat for every meal? It’s better to have a light breakfast.”
"The meat smells so good, especially the venison," Lai Zi said, rubbing his hands together. "Auntie, do you have any more venison? Let me try some. I haven't had it much."
Yesterday, as soon as I got back to the county town, I was busy apologizing to my brothers. I drank both jars of wine without leaving a drop, and the oxcart had to be delivered back by the restaurant.
Fortunately, Xiao Liu is easy to take care of and doesn't require any attention.
I just got back and heard that they made venison yesterday, but unfortunately I wasn't there at the time, so I rushed over to mooch some.
“Brother Lai,” Huang Xiaosan said with a wicked smile, “you need to replenish your energy so early in the morning, you seem a bit weak.”
"Get lost," Lai Zi punched Huang Xiaosan. "I was just craving it. The restaurants in the county town are rip-offs. They charge two taels of silver for a plate of venison that's only half a jin. It's too expensive. I only dare to eat it once or twice a year as a treat."
You can buy raw meat yourself, but the problem is you can't cook it well.
When it comes to cooking skills, restaurants are definitely better. What I make myself is nowhere near as good as what they make. Only Aunt Wu is good at cooking, and she doesn't care about restaurants at all.
“Breakfast is all ready and you’re only telling me now,” Jiang Nuan said with a strange look. “It’s late. Let’s eat vegetarian food. Eating too much meat is not good. Let’s cleanse our stomachs first.”
“This is the only way,” Lai Zi said, gulping down a bowl of porridge before speaking. “I haven’t had venison in a long time, and I’ve been craving it. If my cooking skills weren’t so bad, I would have taken the raw meat with me.”
"Let's not talk about that, let's get down to business," he continued. "The county wants us to speed things up and verify the corvée labor records by March. We'll probably be busy soon."
“How could this happen?” Jiang Nuan asked, puzzled. “The corvée labor this year is already very heavy. If we speed it up, won’t this be driving people to their deaths?”
“There’s nothing we can do about it,” Lai Zi explained. “Our county magistrate is just a low-ranking official. He’s incredibly powerful in our eyes, but in official circles he’s the one who gets bullied. He has to do whatever his superiors tell him to do, or he’ll lose his job.”
He'd been in Ping'an County for four years. While he hadn't achieved anything particularly remarkable, he hadn't committed any major offenses either. He occasionally took small bribes, but he wasn't the kind of person who lacked discretion. He wasn't a good person, but he wasn't a bad official either. He hadn't intended to harm the people. This year's corvée labor was a fixed order from above, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Our village is doing well,” Jiang Nuan said thoughtfully. “At the current pace, it can be completed in about ten days. If the weather is good and it doesn’t delay things, and everyone puts in extra effort, it should be finished in seven or eight days. It will definitely be completed before March.”
“We need to hurry up to be on the safe side,” Lai Zi explained with his eyes down. “The orders from above change three times a day. Who knows if they’ll shorten the time again? There’s nothing major happening in the village right now, so let’s all go to work. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can rest easy, and save ourselves from having to worry every day.”
Just two days ago they said it would be completed by mid-March, but yesterday they immediately posted that it must be completed before March.
There's still some time now, but things could change in a few days, and we wouldn't even have time to catch up.
When the time comes, the county magistrate will be in trouble, and they will suffer the consequences as well. Not a single person will be able to escape the corvée labor.
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