Village Chief Li glared at him and blurted out, "If you don't agree, you'd better keep it to yourself!"
He was utterly disgusted by Lu Yancai's wife. Not only was she lazy and good-for-nothing, but she also loved to cause trouble. No matter what happened in the village, you could always find her there.
It was already incredibly hot and irritating today, and she kept popping up, so he couldn't stand it anymore.
"My God! The village chief won't let anyone speak! Didn't you say there was freedom of speech? Am I not one of our villagers?" This time, Ma had a legitimate reason and was more confident. She only shrank back slightly when Village Chief Li opened his mouth, and then immediately stood up.
Liu Yazi still remembered what Ma had said to him earlier, and said sarcastically, "What do you disagree with? Nobody is forcing you to buy or not buy grain."
“Of course my family needs to buy grain! What I’m saying is that the money in our village’s public coffers cannot be touched. If the village runs out of money, what will we be paid with in the future?” Ma asked aggressively, hands on her hips.
She still remembered that there were several hundred taels of silver left in the village. If they were all used to buy grain, how would she exchange her work points for it?
For Madam Ma, with no harvest from the fields and neither she nor Lu Yancai having any skills, there was naturally no source of income. Exchanging work points for silver became her only source of money.
Village Chief Li was so angry at these words that he almost fell over backwards. He pointed at Ma and said, "Stop cursing our village so that it won't earn any money!"
Although Jiang Qinyu said that one hundred taels of silver would be left in the public coffers, does that mean they won't be able to earn money in the future? Madam Ma's words are really infuriating.
“It’s so hot today, how can we make money? Village chief, I’m only doing this for the good of us all!” Ma didn’t think her idea was wrong at all.
Seeing her like this, Aunt Qin pursed her lips and said, "I think some people clearly treat the public funds as their own, otherwise why would they be so nervous?"
The Ma family is really ridiculous. They earn the fewest work points in the whole village, yet they're always scheming to exchange them for silver from the public funds. Aren't they afraid of starving to death?
"What did you say? I..." Upon hearing this, Ma was about to argue with Aunt Qin, but was interrupted by Village Chief Li.
Village Chief Li was too lazy to pay any more attention to Madam Ma and said to everyone, "Just do as A-Zheng's family said. If any of you need to buy grain, come here to register. Tomorrow I will take you to the city to buy it. After the grain from the public treasury is bought, we will tell everyone what we bought and how much of each item we bought. The village accounts are transparent, and you can ask Sister-in-law Lu for an account at any time."
The "sister-in-law Lu" he mentioned was Chen Shi. After Jiang Qinyu left the village, Chen Shi took over the management of the village's public accounts.
After Jiang Qinyu returned, she didn't think about taking over again. After all, Shufan and Pan'er were still in the border town. After finishing Liu Ruyi's matter, she still had to go to the border town to pick them up.
Once the matter was settled, everyone hurried home.
Apart from the Ma family.
No one in the village paid any attention to her words or listened to her. She was so angry that she jumped up and down on the spot and almost grabbed Lu Tianbao to beat him up to vent her anger.
"You'll definitely regret this!" Ma shouted at the backs of the group, still unwilling to give up.
Unfortunately, no one paid any attention to her.
Jiang Qinyu's house was right at the entrance of the village, so she walked back at a leisurely pace.
Hearing what Ma said, she just found it funny.
They now live a collective life based on work points. The most basic requirement is to ensure that there are things in the communal space; money is secondary.
After all, with so many of them, what can't they do to make money?
However, due to the current drought, many businesses cannot operate.
Jiang Qinyu only thought about it briefly before putting everything related to the Ma family out of her mind.
She was going into town tomorrow, not to buy grain, but to inquire about the water supply in other places and whether Wei Chengzhong and his men had repaired the irrigation canals.
...
At dawn the next day, Village Chief Li led the mule caravan from Dingshui Village to set off.
Those who went to buy grain this time were all honest, hardworking, or clever people in the village, such as Meng Tianze, Li Dachui, Liu Erleng, Chen Shao, and Liu Yazi.
"It's so hot today. It's only been a short time, and it's already getting hot." Liu Yazi wiped his sweat several times with the towel hanging around his neck.
There was no way around it; he was sweating so much that he had to wipe it off.
As Chen Shao drove the carriage, he said, "You should be grateful. It's still relatively cool now. Try traveling in the middle of the day!"
"No, no, no, I'm afraid of dying. Let's hurry on our way!" Liu Yazi quickly waved his hand and said.
They had all planned it out for the day: to enter the city before the city gates opened in the morning, to buy grain from the county government's granary, and then to return to the village before noon.
Jiang Qinyu was sitting in the carriage they were traveling in. Hearing the two of them bickering, she glanced guiltily at the several frozen mineral water bottles next to her and didn't say anything.
The weather this year is really strange. The cold snap in early spring made it feel like the dead of winter, and then it immediately turned into sweltering heat. There was no spring at all, leaving people completely unprepared.
Jiang Qinyu felt that the entire twenty-four solar terms were in disarray, and couldn't help but sigh.
How can ordinary people live in such an environment?
"Sister-in-law Lu, are you also very hot?" Chen Shao heard her sigh and quickly asked, "If you're too hot, you should lift up the carriage curtains and window curtains. That will help you cool down."
Jiang Qinyu knew he had misunderstood, but she couldn't explain anything, so she could only say, "No need, I can still handle it."
Chen Shao thought she was afraid that women shouldn't show their faces in public, so he advised, "Anyway, it's just us on this road, so Sister-in-law Lu doesn't need to worry so much."
"Okay, if I really can't stand it, I'll lift the car window curtain." Jiang Qinyu quickly agreed when she saw that he still wanted to persuade her.
As they were talking, the cars in front suddenly stopped.
"Uncle Village Chief, what's going on?" Chen Shao called out from the front.
Village Chief Li quickly called back, "We found two people who have fainted; they seem to have fainted from thirst!"
Apart from Dingshui Village, there is no water source in the surrounding area. If you don't bring enough water when you go out, it's not impossible to faint from thirst on the road.
Upon hearing this, Chen Shao did not ask any further questions.
Village Chief Li had already carried the unconscious person to the roadside and given the two people water.
"Village chief, if they still don't wake up after drinking water, we'll have to take them with us," Li Dachui said in a simple and honest manner.
Village Chief Li was well aware of this. The weather was so hot; if they gave these two people water and then left them here, wouldn't they be dried out by the sun if they didn't wake up?
"Then let's take them into the city first, give them plenty of water, and whether they survive or not depends on their fate." Village Chief Li made the decision after only a moment's hesitation.
Li Dachui quickly replied, "I brought two water bags, which can be given to them."
"Alright, hurry up and load them onto the truck, we need to hurry." Village Chief Li didn't want to say more, he was afraid that if they were late they wouldn't be able to buy any grain.
Jiang Qinyu wasn't surprised at all when she heard that Village Chief Li and his group had brought people along. "Please follow for more updates, please vote, please do everything!"
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