Chapter 12 The opportunity has come!
Hearing my mother talking about the past, Song Lao Er squinted his eyes and sighed, then grinned and said, "Mom, if you were really stripped of your clothes back then, I would be my fifth uncle's son, not Song Lao Han's stepmother's son.
I can eat meat and drink wine every day, so why should I worry about the one or two taels of silver I have to spend on corvée labor?"
Every household had to perform corvée labor. Some people provided labor, but no one provided money. The labor fee for a month was one or two taels of silver.
If Song Lao Er refuses to sign the pledge, it means he doesn't want to work and will refuse to pay the 100 taels of silver.
When he heard his mother say that Song Lizheng didn't dare to let him perform labor service, there was a hint of bitterness in his words.
If you have a father who is the head of the village, you can act like a big shot in the village.
Maybe he could become a minor official in the town like the eldest son of the village head, and he wouldn't have to count money even when drinking wine.
Hearing her son's complaints, Mrs. Gu was also annoyed and said, "I can only blame Song Laohei for not having the courage. I, your mother, was also a flower in my time..."
Little Gu frowned and said, "Mother, please don't mention the past. I heard from my parents that you didn't marry into the village head's family because you thought they were poor and shabby."
She had been having back and leg pain today, and she felt bad when she thought about Song Lao Er beating her for the little bitch.
Besides, these old stories are of no help to the current problem, and what my mother-in-law said is just bragging.
After his daughter-in-law exposed his past, old Mrs. Gu curled her lips and never mentioned the past again.
The most important thing is now.
Song Lizheng said that the town would come to pick up all the people the day after tomorrow morning, so it must be true.
Her rogue behavior might drive away the village head, but it would have little effect on the people in the town. If she continued to cause trouble, she would be punished with a beating.
"Why don't you just pay one or two taels of silver as a labor fee?" Song Lao Er said lazily, half lying on the kang.
Anyway, as long as Song Liyun is sent to the Xue family, he will have fifty taels of silver. Why should he go so far and suffer for such a small amount of money?
"You think one tael of silver is easy to pay? It comes out as soon as you give it a little lip service. Keep it for your grandson to buy a few more pounds of meat to nourish his body." Old Mrs. Gu obviously didn't want to spend money.
"Neither this nor that works, so what do you say we should do?"
Song Laoer became impatient, it was not like his family couldn't afford the money.
In order to avoid corvee labor these days, he even had to avoid people when going to town to drink, which was not pleasant at all.
Little Gu rolled her eyes and said, "I say, have you forgotten that there's another person in your family who's also a strong laborer and can go do corvée labor?"
"You mean Hazel Flat?"
Song Lao Er curled his lips, pulled the quilt under him and made himself more comfortable. Then he yelled at Xiao Gu: "You know nothing, stop talking nonsense. He has a lot of things to do at home and can't go."
"Yes! Let that lame man go." Old Mrs. Gu clapped her hands and shouted.
Besides Song Laoer, there is another laborer in the family.
That is the eldest son of the first wife, Song Zhenping, now 19 years old.
Song Lao Er shook his head: "No, he has a limp, how can he possibly go to perform labor service? Not to mention the town selection, he can't even pass the village head."
Serving as laborer is hard work, so you have to choose healthy and strong men. Although Song Zhenping is old, he has a limp, so no one would want him.
But this is not 100% certain. As long as the people below are perfunctory, the higher-ups can conceal it.
Hearing that she was worried that the headman might not agree, Old Gu's eyes lit up and she said, "I'll go find Song Laohei. If he dares not agree, I'll take off my clothes and lie on his kang."
Song Lao Er chuckled.
In recent years, Song Li has had a high reputation in the village, and his words are powerful, but they are useless when it comes to his own family.
When farming, other families need to queue up to release water, but my family can release water whenever I want as long as my mother takes action. Song Laohei can only be so angry that he jumps up and down.
Although it would save a tael of silver if the lame man was asked to perform labor service this time, Song Lao Er was still a little hesitant.
Now that Song Liyun was going to the Xue family, her previous idea was to tie him up and send him there unconscious.
But now the second girl is willing to go there and will bring some benefits to the family in the future.
Song Lao Er is not stupid.
The second girl agreed to do this, ultimately for the sake of making life easier for the two boys at home.
For the sake of this cash cow, I must not let my mother and the others abuse my two brothers too much in the future.
I have to strike the right balance and not be too agreeable to the second girl. It's really a headache!
During lunch today, the second girl said she wanted to meet the two brothers. I didn't agree, so I said that they could only meet after the second girl went to Xue's house obediently.
So the three of them whispered in the room, discussing how to deal with the corvée labor and how to deal with Song Liyun.
In the side room, the person being talked about slowly withdrew a strange metal cylinder from the wall.
With a wave of his hand, the eavesdropping device was put back into the space. Song Liyun raised his eyebrows and snorted coldly: "So there is still labor service to be performed. It seems that it will not be difficult to leave Song Lao Er."
Originally, she wanted to use her plan of "marrying" into the Xue family to put pressure on them to split up the family and get out of Song Lao Er's control.
Now she knew that she would have to perform labor service the day after tomorrow, and from what the three people said, Song Zhenping should go, it was like giving her a pillow when she was sleepy.
Having made up her mind, Song Liyun sat back on the kang, took out the brothers' suitcases, and began to prepare to leave the Song family.
But all the clothes he bought were rags and tatters, and even the thick coat he wore in winter was filled with reed fluff.
There are small patches on top of the big patch, and it is impossible to patch it again.
In a fit of anger, Song Liyun threw all the clothes into the kang with a dark face.
Besides, Song Lizheng came out of Song Laoer's yard, holding his chest and groaning.
He felt that every time he walked into this yard, he would live ten years less. If he did it a few more times, he would be so angry that he would die.
As soon as he walked out of the courtyard, Song Lizheng couldn't help sighing again: the roadside and the courtyard wall were full of villagers waiting to see him make a fool of himself.
Song Lizheng's face darkened as he pointed at those people and cursed, "What are you looking at? Have you ever seen a mad dog bite a person?"
The man he scolded hugged his shoulders, shrank his neck, and laughed strangely, "Haha, Mr. Village Head, you went to try to flirt with Widow Gu, and got yourself pelted with shit?"
Song Lizheng gnashed his teeth and said, "Get lost! I'm going to the mountains to look for wild monkeys, but I don't want to see that woman. I'm going to talk to that coward Song Laoer."
"Hey! That's not what Mrs. Gu said. She said you are still thinking about her beauty!" Someone said something sweet, and there was a burst of laughter around.
Song Lizheng was so angry that he jumped up and picked up a clod of earth from the ground and was about to hit the man: "Get out! Get out! Get out! What kind of people are you? You can't even listen to human words."
There was laughter all around again!
Just then, two "firewood piles" came from outside the village.
The people who were smiling and laughing just now suddenly stopped talking and looked strange.
The gates on the courtyard wall closed quickly, and those on the roadside slowly slipped away along the wall.
Song Lizheng dropped the clod of earth in his hand and walked towards the firewood pile: "Daping and Xiaoan, you two are collecting firewood again!"
There are about a hundred families in the village, but only Song Laoer's family has the most firewood.
As soon as he entered the yard, he saw a pile of firewood behind the house. The two brothers had chopped down the firewood day and night, preparing to sell it in the city when winter came.
With these piles of firewood, Song Laoer earned another source of income.
If it is a year with heavy snow and the mountains are blocked, it is possible to sell it for three taels of silver, which is enough to buy food for a family.
Hearing someone calling his name, "Da Chaidui" looked up, revealing a dark and thin face, and his two big eyes were full of fatigue.
Song Zhangping asked doubtfully, "Did the village head come from my house?"
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
