Zhou Quan nodded. "I also have my doubts, so I won't allow him to enter the new village."
Li Mai thought for a moment and asked, "So what are your plans for the village? Will our dyeing workshop continue to operate? Will the flower planting continue?"
She had originally planned to have the villagers who wanted to make money repair the road before the New Year, after the sacrificial ceremony, so that the road from the village to the town could be properly repaired and smoothed out, and the horse-drawn carriages could run faster.
In particular, sections of the road that would be flooded by rainwater would be paved with stone slabs, making it easier for everyone to travel. In addition, there is a long detour, and she wants to build a road that goes directly through the mountain and to a place not far from the town, so that it will save half an hour of travel time from the village to the town.
However, that road definitely won't be finished before the new year; it will take at least another year. Let's take advantage of everyone's less busy time to fix it.
However, given the current situation, Li Mai suddenly felt that it might not be necessary. If they wanted their family to have a better life, they could simply bring their parents-in-law to town to live with them.
Suddenly, she realized that there was nothing in the village that they would miss; they would just come back to pay respects to their ancestors during festivals.
When Li Mai asked that question, Zhou Quan understood what she meant.
“Let’s see how things go tomorrow. Most of the villagers are honest. Like you said, I’m also wondering if someone is instigating Zhou Chun to come back and oppose us,” Zhou Quan said in a deep voice.
“Alright, let’s adapt to the situation. But I’m a little worried about leaving my parents in the village. How about we bring them to the town to live with us in the winter? As for the dye shop and village affairs, you can make more trips on horseback. We can also hire a few more people and train some managers. In the future, we can have the managers come to the village more often.”
When Li Mai thought of Zhou Chun, she remembered how he led people to break into her house to steal silver and even blew incense to seduce her, and how Zhu Zhu was almost kidnapped and something bad happened to her.
These things are all related to Zhou Chun's family, and she absolutely will not allow such a thing to happen again.
Li Mai knew that their arrangements and plans would have to change again.
The next day was October 19th, the day of the grand sacrificial ceremony for the Zhou clan in Zhoujia Village. Early that morning, the men of the Zhou clan would take some offerings up the mountain to the ancestral graves of the Zhou clan to pay respects to their ancestors.
Actually, everything had been going smoothly until everyone finished paying respects to their grandfathers and elders and was about to leave. At Zhou Chun's father's grave, Zhou Chun and his son knelt down and wept bitterly. Zhou Chun confessed to his father that he had been wrong before and had served a year in prison. He knew he had made a terrible mistake and decided to be a good person from now on. He begged his father, grandfather, and ancestors for forgiveness.
Many people watched him from afar, listening to his cries, and some were moved to tears.
Zhou Quan, Zhou Lin, and Zhou Lei, the three brothers, glanced coldly at each other before turning and heading down the mountain.
Old Man Zhou, Uncle Wangcai, and Uncle Lincai stood together, glanced at the other side speechlessly, let out a low snort, and then went down the mountain.
They were up until late last night because of this thing before they finally got home to rest.
The clan chief explained to most of them that Zhou Chun wanted to return to the village and live there, and also wanted a new courtyard. However, most of the villagers disagreed, especially those who worked for Zhou Quan's family. They all knew what Zhou Chun's family had done to Zhou Quan's family. Even a fool would know that Zhou Quan would not allow the village to take in such a person.
Besides, he's a black sheep; he's been kicked out of his ancestral home. How dare he come back?
The consensus was that we should not accept it.
Uncle Lin and Uncle Wang glanced at Old Man Zhou and shook their heads. "I don't know what those elders are thinking."
Old Man Zhou snorted coldly, "You guys should also be careful, there might be something fishy going on behind the scenes."
Early in the morning, Li Mai and Zhou Quan went over and told them what happened last night and their plans for the future. Old Man Zhou and Zhao were very angry when they heard that the clan elders actually wanted Zhou Chun's family to come back.
However, they were just expressing their opinions; they couldn't influence the decisions of the clan chief and elders. But, Li Mai said, they couldn't afford to offend them, so they could avoid them. At worst, they would just stay out of the village.
Old Man Zhou and Mrs. Zhao felt a little sorry for the money they had spent on this trip to the village.
Li Mai said it wasn't a big expense, since their roots were here, and their dye shop would still need to be kept running. Besides, their house would always be there, they just wouldn't live there often.
The two elders agreed, knowing that the clan elders wanted to accept Zhou Chun back. They felt a bit disgusted and resentful, never expecting that they would accept someone like that back.
As for planting flowers, Li Mai said that they would do it if they could, and if not, they would forget about it. They could buy some land on the outskirts of town and hire people to plant them themselves, which would be close to town.
Li Mai opened a flower shop simply because she wanted to start a wonderful business for Xiao Tao.
She could tell that Xiao Tao was very interested in refined things, such as playing the piano, playing chess, painting, and so on. Now that the family was not short of money, she also wanted to hire some teachers for her so that she could learn. Of course, she had to spoil her own little sister.
After the men of the Zhou family came down from the mountain one after another, they gathered in the small square outside the ancestral hall, talking in small groups or discussing what offerings they had made.
Of course, the offerings from each branch have already been delivered into the courtyard of the ancestral hall, and are being watched over by members of each family.
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