The home of Wang Liu.

The man who came in was called Chi Dacong, a fellow villager of Wang Liu from Anqiu, who came to Suzhou a year later than Wang Liu. At first, Wang Liu had taken good care of his family, and his shack was built with the help of Wang Liu and Old Man Wang.

This kid named Chi used to call Wang Liu brother all the time, but he went out to work for a few months last fall and came back proud. He no longer called him brother and often gave him lessons, so Wang Liu didn't care about him anymore.

Seeing this fellow coming to make a fuss again, Wang Liu took the bowl of porridge, slurped it and gulped down two mouthfuls, then said vaguely, "No."

"Why?" Chi Dacong was dumbfounded and said, "I've told you many times that you can always have enough food over there. Isn't it better than your whole family eating wild vegetable porridge every day, and everyone's face is as green as a vegetable leaf?"

"If I say I don't want to go, then I won't go. Don't you understand?" Wang Liu said impatiently.

"Wang Liu, you have a stupid head, don't you?" Chi Dacong was unhappy when he heard it, "I saw that your family was having a hard time, so I came to your house again and again to try to get you to join us, as if I wanted something from you."

People from Shandong speak directly and don’t even notice when they have offended others.

After saying this, he turned around and was about to leave angrily, but Old Man Wang stopped him and said, "Da Cong, what are you talking about? I am completely confused."

"Ah?" Chi Dacong was surprised and asked, "Didn't Wang Liu tell you?"

"No, what did you say?" Old Man Wang looked at his son.

"I think what he said is not right." Wang Liu put down the bowl and said in a low voice: "There is no need to tell my family."

"Why am I so out of tune?" Chi Dacong was anxious when he heard this. He could not leave for the sake of his reputation. He sat on the edge of the earthen kang and told the story loudly to Old Man Wang, asking him to judge.

"Last fall, wasn't there a job in Suzhou? I heard there was plenty of work to do in Kunshan repairing the levee, so I thought about going there to try my luck... Didn't I ask my sister-in-law at the time if I wanted to take my seventh and eighth sisters with me?"

"Your sixth brother won't let me go." Wang Liu's wife whispered.

Wang Liu thought to himself that it was nonsense. It seemed that he started to dislike this guy from that time.

"Go on." Old Man Wang frowned, also feeling something was strange.

"You guys would have missed out if you didn't go." Chi Dacong boasted unconsciously, "I went to the dike and asked, and they accepted me on the spot. Before I started working, they gave me a full meal - a full meal! I had a big bowl of brown rice, but it wasn't enough, so they gave me another big bowl!"

"Wow..." Wang Jiang, the eldest son of Wang Qi and Wang Liu, exclaimed in disbelief.

"In addition to enough rice, there was also a salted herring, very salty, which went really well with rice!" Chi Dacong recalled with great joy. It was obvious that this first meal after arriving in Kunshan had left a deep impression on him.

"I want to eat herring." Wang Liu's youngest son Wang Qing shouted again. Now even his shy second sister secretly swallowed her saliva.

Only Wang Liuda said disdainfully: "You are bragging, aren't you? How expensive is this salt? Can the boss afford to give everyone a salted fish? And it's so salty?"

"Maybe the boss showed mercy that day." Wang Liu's wife whispered.

"Who are you on the side of?!" Wang Liu's nose was crooked with anger, and he felt the grass outside the house turn green.

"Wang Liu, don't be unconvinced. I worked in Kunshan until the end of the year. For three months, I had meat for every meal. If there was no fish, I had bacon. Every few days, I had roast chicken and stewed pork." Chi Dacong patted his chest and said, "I worked hard that day and gained several pounds of weight."

“Listen, does this sound like human language…” Wang Liu sneered.

"I won't tell you!" Chi Dacong rolled his eyes at him and said to Old Man Wang, "Uncle, besides having good food, the wages there are also sufficient. I will send you the pot of oil, the bag of rice, and the bag of salt during the New Year. They are all brought back from Kunshan."

As he said this, he glanced at Wang Liu proudly and said, "My family eats rice for every meal. Don't say you didn't see it."

"Showy." Wang Liu curled his lips. He had obviously seen this before.

"That was last year when they were repairing the dike. Can we have such a good thing this year?" Old Man Wang asked excitedly.

"It's even better this year, uncle!" Chi Dacong said with saliva flying, "After the dike was repaired last year, many flooded lands in Kunshan can be used to grow crops. But Kunkaisi has taken on a large project to repair seawalls for Shanghai and Chongming, and the county can't find anyone to grow crops. This gives us outsiders the opportunity to come to Kunshan and enjoy life."

"Are you looking for someone to farm the land in Kunshan?" Old Man Wang understood.

"That's right! You are a wise man!" Chi Dacong gave a thumbs up and said, "Kunkai Company is now recruiting people to farm the land, and the whole family can go with them. Once you go there, you will have a place to live, and the whole family will be provided with meals. At the end of the year, we will calculate the harvest, no matter how much we harvest, the company and we will split it in half!"

"Ah, so good?!" The Wang family members all gasped when they heard it. The temperature in the originally cold room seemed to drop by two degrees.

"Free meals?" Wang Qi and his two nephews were all excited.

"Of course, and you'll be full!" Chi Dacong knew from the atmosphere that Wang Liu's reactionary stance was doomed to fail. He boasted even more proudly:

"Kunkaisi... just think of yourself as the boss. You have completely different ideas from those landlords. They say that people need to be well fed to have the strength to work. It's not worthwhile to let people go hungry and work poorly just to save some food."

"For this sentence, I am worthy of being a slave to this boss!" Old Man Wang slapped the table and said in a trembling voice: "The landlords are afraid that the animals will lose weight, so they never give the cattle and horses less food. We do more work than cattle and horses, but they are afraid that we will eat more..."

"Yes, uncle, if I didn't think the boss was kind and righteous, would I be able to come back and take my whole family to seek refuge with him?" Chi Dacong curled his lips and said, "If I didn't think that you and Sixth Brother were good to me, would I have asked you to come along?"

"Oh, good boy, don't argue with your sixth brother. He is a donkey. He only knows how to lower his head and pull the mill. He doesn't know how to look up and see the road. He is also stubborn!" Old man Wang helped his youngest son to stand up, walked to Chi Dacong, and held his hand as if he was afraid that he would run away.

Then he kicked Wang Liu on the buttocks and said, "Why don't you come and apologize?"

Wang Liu was a filial son. Although he was extremely reluctant, he still stood up, clasped his fists, tilted his head and said in a low voice, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, it's okay. Just don't be so wary of thieves in the future. Just don't trust me." Chi Dacong forgave Wang Liu with a broad mind.

Old Man Wang was not done with his eldest son. He glared at him and said, "Such a good thing, why didn't you say anything?"

"I'm afraid if I quit my job and go there, if it's not as good as Dacong said... how will our family survive?" Wang Liu whispered.

"Oh my God. If Kunkaisi didn't keep its word, how could it take on so many big projects? Besides, even if you don't trust Kunkaisi, you can at least trust Jiangnan Group, right? The entire Suzhou city depends on them. How could they cheat us ordinary people?" Chi Dacong said with a look of an idiot on his face.

"That's right. Kunshan is next to the capital. If Jiangnan Group cheats someone there, the news will spread to Suzhou, and the whole city will be in chaos." Old man Wang nodded repeatedly. Last year, the civil unrest in Suzhou ended with Jiangnan Group's promise to cover the Suzhou textile industry. This is something that all the people know.

"Besides, if we can't go, let's come back." Wang Qi also interrupted Wang Liu and said, "No one will care if you don't do your job of carrying sacks for a few days."

The family members all spoke one after another, leaving Wang Liu no longer able to object.

So Old Man Wang agreed to go to Kunshan with Chi Dacong! Let’s set off early tomorrow morning!

ps. This is the first of three consecutive updates. Please support me by voting for the guaranteed monthly ticket at the beginning of the month!