Zhao Si's wife was very eloquent, and the onlookers actually found her words to be quite reasonable.
Liu's angry eyes turned to Zhao Ergou, who was standing to the side trembling. She pulled Zhao Ergou over and said, "Ergou, tell me, is this true or not!"
Zhao Ergou was on the verge of tears; he hadn't personally said he would give the land to his uncle's family to cultivate.
He was starving during those days when there was no food at home, and his aunt brought him food for a few days. After spring arrived, he was told that he would help with farming, but Er Gou didn't take it seriously.
Who knew that my uncle and aunt would now claim the land as their own?
But the seeds in the field all belong to my aunt's family, what should we do!
Zhao Ergou's face turned red with frustration, and he stammered, unable to speak.
Seeing her son's disappointing behavior, Liu was so angry that she punched Zhao Ergou twice.
Zhao Dagou also came over to persuade them, "Ergou, say something. Did you promise to give this land to your uncle's family? Now that our mother is back, what will our family eat if we lose the land?"
Everyone was waiting for Zhao Ergou to speak, but this dog always proved useless at crucial moments, letting them down.
Among the crowd, Widow Zhang, returning from work at the mine, also witnessed this scene.
She couldn't help but blurt out, "Oh, I'm all too familiar with this kind of drama. Didn't my husband's brother and sister-in-law take away my land in the same way? My family had twenty acres of land, and his brother and sister-in-law took it all."
"Liu, I'm more pitiful than you. I don't even have a child, so it's only right that my brother and sister-in-law took those twenty acres of land!"
The thought of this made Widow Zhang angry. She glanced at the bloodsucking uncles and nephews in the crowd and felt extremely resentful!
Zhao Si's wife glared at Zhang the widow but didn't say anything.
Hearing Zhang the widow's words, Liu felt emboldened. She looked at Zhao, the village head, and asked righteously, "Village head, you be the judge, whose land does this belong to?"
Zhao Tingzhang looked at Zhao Si and his wife with a stern face. “Ergou is still a child. It’s a good thing that you gave him food out of pity. He will remember your kindness in the future. Back then, your mother divided the family property and gave each of you brothers ten acres of land. If she knew in the afterlife that you brothers were fighting like this, she would be heartbroken.”
“I’ll decide. This land still belongs to Big Dog and Little Dog.”
He Tiantian wholeheartedly agreed with Zhao Tingzhang's words. These days, those who try to take advantage of others should be severely punished!
Zhao Si and his wife probably started plotting something as soon as Zhao San left.
"What! This is unfair, Pavilion Chief! Those ten acres of land are planted with my family's seeds!" Zhao Si's wife's eyes widened, extremely dissatisfied with the outcome.
“That’s right, we did all the tilling and planting. If we have to give it all back, I’ll pull up all the crops in the field!” Zhao Si said angrily.
Zhao, the village head, interrupted sharply, "Nonsense!" Uprooting the crops at this time would be a waste of food!
"After the harvest, the crops in this field will be divided among the Big Dog family, giving your family 30%. This will be considered compensation for your hard work in planting and tilling the land."
Zhao Dagou thought this was a good idea, so he agreed, saying, "Chief, I'll listen to you. I'll personally deliver the grain to my uncle's house during the autumn harvest."
"No! Thirty percent is too little, it has to be fifty percent!" Zhao Si's wife was furious and couldn't swallow her anger.
A collective gasp rippled through the crowd. Good heavens... fifty percent! This Zhao Si woman's appetite is far too great; she's utterly heartless.
"Shut up! Thirty percent is the most we can go. The crops still need fertilizing, weeding, and the autumn harvest... There's still a lot to do. Thirty percent is fine. If you're not satisfied, I won't interfere anymore. Do whatever you want!" Zhao Tingzhang said resolutely.
Liu Shi could accept this result. "Chief, I have no objection."
"Zhao Si's wife, thirty percent of the grain is not a small amount. Be content!"
“Yes, if this continues, you won’t get anything. If Zhao San comes back later, it won’t be good if the brothers quarrel over this again.”
Voices of persuasion rose and fell among the crowd.
He Tiantian was stunned by this scene; indeed, the power of the masses is great.
Zhao Si and his wife also shut up. They agreed to take 30% or 30%, saying that their family had really suffered a great loss in this matter.
Do you really expect Zhao San to come back? He committed the heinous crime of stealing government funds! Don't even dream about it!
He Tiantian and Sister-in-law Yulan continued walking home with the children. "Sister-in-law, look at this, what's the point of having so many sons? They're fighting over the inheritance and it's so shameful."
He Tiantian still can't accept the patriarchal mindset of this era, and she gets angry every time she thinks about it!
"This is nothing. The year before last, the Shui Wang brothers fought over the family property and it even went to the government office. It's just that the old woman and old man died so suddenly that they didn't even have time to make arrangements for their funerals."
On this bright and sunny day, Zhao Tingzhang began organizing the village's able-bodied men to start building houses.
Building this house is a huge project and a sacred thing.
Early in the morning, Zhao Tingzhang gathered all the villagers, young and old, to pray for blessings. Those households in the village who needed to build houses all contributed money to hire a shaman from the county.
He Tiantian's family wanted to build a house, so they had already paid the money.
Two coins per family, not much.
He Tiantian, heavily pregnant, also came out to see the sights, as she was quite interested in ancient feudal superstitions.
The shaman was dressed in brightly colored, tattered clothes. She wore a hat with pheasant feathers stuck in it. The shaman was probably over fifty years old. She held a banner in one hand and a bell in the other, circling the old locust tree at the village entrance while chanting incantations.
The villagers standing to the side all had solemn expressions and closed their eyes.
He Tiantian didn't dare to be different, so she stood in the crowd and closed her eyes to pray as well. However, she couldn't help but peek through a crack in her eye.
The "ding-a-ling" of the bell rang for a long time before gradually subsiding.
All the villagers opened their eyes, and Zhao Tingzhang stepped forward respectfully and asked, "Great Immortal, what does the deity say?"
The sorceress glanced at Zhao Tingzhang, then closed her eyes again, feigning profundity. After muttering to herself for a while, she slowly said, "Tomorrow is an auspicious day; it is suitable to break ground."
The villagers were overjoyed to hear this, exclaiming, "Great! We can build houses now!"
"Yes, we need to get the head of the household back tomorrow and ask for a few days off from the mine. The house needs to be built as soon as possible; we'll only feel at ease once we have a house."
"My family is finally going to have a house! I'm so excited!"
Standing in the crowd, He Tiantian was also very excited; she was about to have her own house.
She'd already planned it all out; she wanted to build her ideal new house. It would have a doghouse, a chicken coop, and a yard…
Plant a pomegranate tree in the yard and some flowers on the wall, and you've got the perfect idyllic rural life.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
