But I arrived a little late and missed what was said earlier. I only started listening from the beginning, when they talked about building the schoolhouse and the female accountant.
Fan Qian's face was gloomy and ugly.
My second brother not only provided the bricks and tiles for the school, but he also taught the village children to read and write, especially the girls.
He doesn't care that his four nephews are still crammed into three brick houses; instead, he goes to take care of the children in the village who are not related to him by blood.
Furthermore, he even took the initiative to teach them to read and do arithmetic. If that's the case, why did his daughter Zhao Di have to exchange black masks with his family in the first place? Anyway, there was no tuition fee, only a meal provided, but then it would cost twelve taels of silver!
Twelve taels of silver a year, what is a thousand catties of black flour?
He eats rice and wheat flour every few days.
Fan Dazhu and the others also heard this, and they gritted their teeth.
They're all grown up now. When they were little, their second uncle liked to teach them to read and do arithmetic, but reading and learning characters is boring and tedious, so how could they persevere?
Back then, we even mocked my second uncle, saying that he had studied for so many years but hadn't even achieved any official rank, and only earned a few dozen coins a day for copying books, while they were destined to make a lot of money in the future!
All I remember is that my second uncle gave them a deep look back then, and then he never taught them again.
Now look what's happened, my second uncle has gone off to teach these kids in the village!
They also want to hire the best students as accountants, paying them one or two taels of silver a month, but they're all grown up now, can they still learn?
And they don't have any children either; Uncle Er is just squandering his wealth and wanting to go to outsiders.
Xu Laosan, with his sharp eyes, saw Fan Qian's family approaching and quickly shouted, "Hey everyone, make way, make way! The family who borrowed the ox is here, and they're the main force!"
The men turned around and saw the family listening to dinner next to each other at the courtyard gate, so they made way for them.
One donkey is equivalent to three people in a day, and one ox is equivalent to five people in a day!
Even so, every household still wanted to borrow oxen, because an ox could plow five acres of land a day! It was fast and cost-effective.
However, Fan Qian was Fan Jin's own brother after all, and he had agreed to the conditions of paying the wages in lieu of payment. How could they fight over it? Although Fan Jin's father was gone, his mother was still alive. If things got out of hand, what could Fan Jin, as the son, say?
These people need to be more discerning and avoid causing trouble for Fan Jin.
Fan Dazhu's face darkened under the intense gaze.
These people are taking advantage of the Fan family and acting all innocent. Without his second uncle, they're useless, yet they still dare to make fun of them.
Besides, the idea that one cow is equivalent to five days of work is only true for outsiders like them. They and their second uncle are family, so how could one cow really be equivalent to five days of work?
Li Wen told Fan Qian and the others that Fan Jin needed to buy bricks and tiles for his workshop the next day, emphasizing that it was very urgent.
Fan Qian frowned and said impatiently, "What can we do in such a hurry? My fields are in a hurry too; only five mu have been paved so far."
Ever since they suffered from potato poisoning, they've been forced to drink feces and bitter medicine, which has caused them to vomit at the mere mention of potatoes. So they don't grow potatoes at home; in fact, potatoes are a taboo word in their household, and they can't even be mentioned.
Winter wheat requires the fields to be prepared. Although this saves the trouble of plowing, digging, carrying, and transporting the soil is still not easy. With the addition of oxen, only the transportation task is eliminated; the rest still needs to be done by themselves!
Li Qiang asked in surprise, "That shouldn't be the case. We were able to plow three mu of land before, and now we've cultivated dozens of mu of land and planted potatoes. How come you only have five mu?"
"That's right, you six laborers plus an ox, it's been more than a month, how come you only have five mu of land?"
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