"His jade pendant is so beautiful. Is Mother planning to pawn it or sell it?" Fan He only cared about how much silver the jade pendant was worth.
“It’s quite nice that the older brother used a jade pendant to repay his kindness; it’s much better than just expressing gratitude verbally,” Fan Hu analyzed pragmatically.
Xinghui reached out to touch the jade pendant.
Shuiqing was surrounded by her children in the middle, their chatter giving her a headache.
She slapped away Xinghui's outstretched hand and answered each question: "Don't worry about it. Heizi can't eat any of the food in the village. He'll come back on his own."
"We won't sell or pawn the jade pendant. Our family has enough money to build a house and enough food to get through the winter. We don't need to sell something that a half-grown child has worn since childhood." Of course, if her family couldn't even afford to eat, she would naturally prioritize filling their stomachs first.
The naturally naive Fan Jiang didn't understand and asked innocently, "Then why did Mother accept this jade pendant?"
Judging from Kuroko's expression, he looks very hurt.
Yan Qiu was the first to react and explained for Shui Qing: "Is Mother worried that Hei Zi might encounter an unkind family in Shanshui Village and suffer a loss?"
Shui Qing smiled but remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.
However, she had a deeper plan.
When Hei Zi went to Shanshui Village, his first choice was definitely a family with good conditions. The most obvious thing was the house. There were only two families in the village with brick and tile houses.
The old village chief was a kind man, but his family was large and he was hardworking and frugal—so naturally he wouldn't spend food to support a half-grown boy to do the work.
The other family, needless to say, was her mother-in-law's and brother-in-law's family.
Hei Zi went to his house, and he won't be able to come back intact, let alone return with the jade pendant!
It's good enough if they don't peel off a layer of skin.
It doesn't matter if the clothes aren't worth much, but if this jade pendant falls into the hands of my mother-in-law and brother-in-law, well, I can't let those two get away with it.
·
Bai Ziqian grumbled all the way.
Upon arriving at the village itself, he discovered that it was even more dilapidated than he had seen from afar.
The thatched huts, scattered here and there, mostly had their thatch turned black, making them look like they hadn't been renovated for many years.
The dirt roads in the village were full of potholes and not easy to walk on.
He took a deep breath and went to the nearest brick house after going down the slope.
Li Changlin opened the courtyard gate, looked at the boy who was about the same age as him, and stepped aside to let the boy into the courtyard.
He strode into the house and explained his purpose to his family.
“That won’t do. A few days ago, we provided meals and even helped peel the water chestnuts. But these days, water chestnuts are becoming increasingly scarce. Your father and the others have gone to pick them from afar. We have enough time to peel them ourselves, so why do we need to hire someone?” Wang Guifen said, frowning.
Thanks to the Fan family this year, they earned up to 90 kilograms of rice a day!
They didn't eat dark flour, but rather cornmeal and millet, which are coarse grains. However, one pound of rice could be exchanged for two pounds of coarse grains. In just over ten days, they earned half of their family's annual food rations.
This would have been unthinkable in the past.
But even if we have a lot of grain, we can't waste it. We don't know what next year will bring, so we can't let the grain go to waste.
She spoke softly to her father-in-law, “Father, we have a lot more grain than usual, but Changlin needs to pay his tuition, buy paper, ink, brushes and inkstones, and he has to take the imperial examinations later. All of these things cost money.”
Our family can't afford to waste a single thing. Even a poor family needs to be frugal on the road; every bit of waste will affect Changlin's future journey to the imperial examinations.
The old village chief, who had previously hesitated, made up his mind in that instant.
He instructed Shang Changlin: "Go and tell him that only your sister-in-law Shuiqing's family in our village might be able to hire people; other families probably don't even have enough food."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
