"Grandma, don't be sad. Mother would definitely want you to be happy." Gu Lili said, taking out a handkerchief to gently wipe away the tears from the corners of Grandma Li's eyes.
Grandma Li nodded and handed the silver hairpin to Gu Lili.
“These belong to your mother. She hid them here so that you would have something to remember her by when you grow up. You are the eldest sister in the family, so you should keep them safe,” said Old Mrs. Li solemnly.
A few days ago, when she gave Liu Miaoyin the bracelet, she was still thinking about whether the silver hairpin had been taken away by Gu Jingsheng's family, who had no conscience.
Unexpectedly, this happened by such a coincidence today.
Gu Lili nodded and carefully put the silver hairpin away.
After instructing the craftsman to finish building the wall around Master Yuan's house, Gu Lili helped Old Madam Li home.
The house was under construction in an orderly manner, and Uncle Facai also took Zheng Qian from village to village to collect blue crabs.
Because of the rampant infestation of golden apple snails, these mud crabs have grown incredibly large.
Gu Lili has turned misfortune into blessing this time.
Every day, all you need to do is watch the amount of money in your account steadily increase.
This return is several times higher than the initial investment, which made Gu Lili count money until her hands cramped!
Looking at the amount of 200,000 silver coins in her spatial storage, Gu Lili felt so happy she could wake up laughing in her sleep.
Thanks to the government's initial intervention, Uncle Facai encountered no obstacles whatsoever in collecting crabs.
The villagers were afraid of losing money, so they carefully caught the crabs and put them on Uncle Facai's boat.
By this time next year, Uncle Fortune will be able to come and collect crabs again.
After all, a lot of these blue crabs were left to grow in the fields.
The money you earn then will be without any initial investment.
Thinking of this, Gu Lili became even happier.
Uncle Facai finished collecting all the crabs, and it was time to harvest the rice.
Gu Lili's soap workshop also shut down, allowing the villagers to return to harvest rice.
For families with little rice, Gu Lili had already spoken to them in advance, asking them to come and help at her home for twenty coins a day, plus three meals a day.
Therefore, when it was time to harvest the rice, Gu Lili's family had forty or fifty people helping with the harvest.
However, harvesting 100 acres of rice paddies entirely by hand is a huge undertaking.
Zhu the blacksmith made a total of four threshing machines. One was transported to the capital, and Gu Lili bought two more from "Uncle Fortune," so a total of five threshing machines were carried to the fields.
Wei Yin, Wei Yue, and two other secret guards did not return to the capital. Seeing that Gu Lili's family was about to harvest rice, they spontaneously came to help.
None of the villagers had ever seen a threshing machine before, and they all gathered around to watch it with curiosity.
Gu Lili had already taught Wei Yin and Wei Yue, so they demonstrated it to the villagers first.
Seeing the rice stalks so plump and fresh being threshed, everyone exclaimed in admiration and wanted to try it themselves.
However, this is physically demanding work, requiring strong and robust individuals to perform the stomping; those who are too thin definitely cannot handle it.
Wei Yin selected a few of the stronger men and began to teach them, while the rest cut down the rice and handed it to them.
As the rice fell, the granary was full.
Then someone came forward, loaded the rice onto the wheelbarrow that Gu Lili had bought, and took it to the open space to dry.
Because there was plenty of rice, Gu Lili was naturally busy as well.
Although she couldn't operate the threshing machine for long periods, harvesting rice was still no challenge for her.
One hundred acres of rice, harvested by forty or fifty people for three days, still have more than half left.
Gu Lili's hands were already blistered.
However, she dared not stop, fearing that the weather had been bad lately and that it would be terrible if it rained.
Some families, who had less rice to harvest, would come to Gu Lili's house to help after finishing their own work.
It wasn't so strenuous anymore.
"Lili, your threshing machine is used up. Can I use it too?" Chunhua's mother said with a smile to Gu Lili, who was cutting rice.
Their rice is first harvested, then dried in the sun for a day or two before being threshed and threshed.
Watching this threshing machine, it can thresh an acre of rice in no time; it's so time-saving and labor-saving.
Chunhua's mother was already itching to make a move.
Gu Lili raised her hand to wipe the sweat from her forehead and looked at Chunhua's mother.
She really disliked this woman; she always tried to take advantage of others, but she never got anything in return and would even talk about others behind their backs.
Just a few days ago, I told the village head that she was reselling dried goods and had made a lot of money from them.
Gu Lili simply refused to accept it and let them handle it themselves.
As a result, many of the wealthy merchants who came here did not recognize these items, and no matter how hard they tried to sell them, they could not sell them.
Occasionally, someone who knows their stuff will be extremely picky.
They simply don't want mushrooms and dried fish that don't look good.
This has caused a lot of complaints from the villagers, because they could have just dried the fruit and sent it directly to Gu Lili's house to sell.
But now, even if they collect them, they still have to go through the trouble of setting up a stall at the entrance of the village, and there's no guarantee that anyone will want them.
Sending it to Donghai Town would be the same.
Everyone turned their anger towards Chunhua's mother, openly and secretly complaining about her countless times.
“I’ve run out of rice, so of course I can lend it to you, but you’ll have to pay rent, five coins a day,” Gu Lili said with a faint smile.
If it weren't for what happened before, Gu Lili would have agreed without hesitation.
However, having learned from past mistakes, Gu Lili still felt it was important to distinguish between different boundaries.
Upon hearing this, Chunhua's mother's face showed some displeasure.
"Lili, you're already so rich, why are you still charging rent?"
Gu Lili was so angry at Chunhua's mother that she almost laughed. What kind of talk was that?
However, before Gu Lili could retaliate, Aunt Zhang couldn't stand it anymore and jumped in.
"Chunhua's mother, you're a mother of two, and you don't understand anything! No matter how rich Lili is, she earned it herself, what's it to you!" Aunt Zhang rolled her eyes.
Others chimed in, mocking, "That's right, Lili bought this threshing machine with real money, and you have the nerve to use it for free? It's ridiculous!"
"That's right!"
Chunhua's mother gave everyone a chance to vent their pent-up resentment from the past few days.
Those who were nearby all criticized Chunhua's mother.
Chunhua's mother was extremely embarrassed and annoyed, but she couldn't just leave.
After all, Gu Lili paid her twenty coins a day.
"Alright, everyone, let's get back to work. Aunt Chunhua, you should put more effort into your work," Gu Lili said with a smile.
Gu Lili originally intended to use this threshing machine for her own family before giving it to the villagers.
However, priority should definitely be given to those you are close to.
As for others, if they want to use it, they just need to line up and pay.
Chunhua's mother bit her lower lip, remained silent, and continued to cut rice.
Seeing how composed Chunhua's mother was, the others also found it boring and went back to their own work.
Gu Lili was harvesting rice when she heard Gu Huanhuan calling her.
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