Aunt Wang stamped her feet and said, "Xu Xingchen, stop talking nonsense. Ask around in Sanwan Village and see if I'm that kind of person."
Xu Xingchen spread his hands and said, "We'll know if it is true or not after a body search."
At this time, Auntie Fatty stepped forward and searched Auntie Wang's body with Zhou Xiaoniang. As expected, they found the ten taels of silver that they had stolen from her.
Aunt Wang's true face was also exposed to the villagers.
People started cursing.
Aunt Wang was so ashamed that she ran home with a red face, leaving Zhang Tiansheng alone to bear the dissatisfaction.
Once she left, many things became much easier to handle. At least no one came out to find fault with Xu Xingchen anymore.
The money was divided smoothly into many small portions.
Seeing that Xu Xingchen didn't leave any for herself, Auntie Pang reminded him, "Xingchen, you divided it all equally! You should have left a little more for yourself, at least a few taels!"
Xu Xingchen smiled and said, "That's not necessary. I'll take whatever everyone else takes."
Her appearance was in stark contrast to Aunt Wang just now.
No matter how harshly people scolded Aunt Wang, they are praising her even more now.
After receiving their own money, people dispersed, and Xu Xingchen and Jun Haoyue also returned home. She had originally thought that the money she earned from selling embroidery and insecticide would at least make her life more comfortable! But she never expected that after just a few days of good times, it would be time to collect the head tax!
The officials checked every household and if they saw any male children in the family, they would collect more taxes.
They were holding knives in their hands, and Xu Xingchen had no choice but to pay the money even though he was dissatisfied.
The silver just flew away.
Afterwards, she did the math and found that the remaining money was barely enough to keep her fed, and that was until the wheat harvest came! Then, when the harvest came, she would have to pay taxes again.
She looked up to the sky and sighed, "These days are really sad!"
On this day, Xu Xingchen's only comfort was that in the afternoon, Menduner brought back a bag of smoked bacon.
She took out some bacon and green peppers to make a delicious dish, and called Jun Haoyue back to taste it, and was praised by him.
Xu Xingchen was finally happy again.
Although she had less money, with all this bacon, life wouldn't be too hard. After dinner, she started packing the bag of bacon, but suddenly, she stopped.
There are only two people on her side, and they paid so much in head tax, so other families must have paid just as much!
For example, if a family has many children, how can they live even if they pay the money?
Xu Xingchen was touched and found a rope to divide the bacon into several portions.
At this time, Jun Haoyue, who was in charge of washing dishes, finished his work and walked towards her. Seeing this scene, he was very confused: "Why did you separate the bacon? Is the quality different?"
Xu Xingchen buried his head in his work, saying as he distributed the food, "There's nothing wrong with the bacon. I just wanted to share it with others."
She told Jun Haoyue about her thoughts just now.
Of course, not all of it was distributed to the entire village. There was only so much bacon, and it definitely wasn't enough for the whole village! She wanted to share it with families with children so that the children could have a better meal.
There was a hint of tenderness in Jun Haoyue's eyes, and he took the initiative to help.
"I'll help you divide it up. Is this basket big enough for the bacon?"
He brought over a basket.
Xu Xingchen took a look and found that it was a little small, so he changed to another bamboo basket. After dividing the things equally, the two of them took the bacon to distribute to other families.
They had no other thoughts and distributed the bacon according to distance, so Aunt Pang's family received it first.
Looking at the bacon, Aunt Pang was very moved.
She had a large family, and after paying the head tax, she had very little money left. She could barely keep herself from starving! Now that Xu Xingchen had brought the bacon over, it was a relief! She felt embarrassed to accept the bacon for free, so she took a few vegetables from home and insisted on giving it back. At first, Xu Xingchen didn't want to accept it, but Aunt Fat chased her out to give it to her.
The commotion here attracted the attention of many people in the village, and many eyes looked over here.
Xu Xingchen had no choice but to accept the cabbage and send the bacon somewhere else.
Zhou Xiao's parents naturally also received it.
They gave a bag of rice in return, and other families either gave sauerkraut or fruit. Xu Xingchen didn't care about the value of the gifts, he just thought of them as a small token of appreciation from others who didn't want to take them for free.
Before long, all the bacon was distributed, and she clapped her hands and prepared to go back.
At this moment, Jordan Chan came over and asked, "Why isn't there any in my house?"
Xu Xingchen was stunned for a moment.
At this moment, Jordan Chan put the blame on her: "Xu Xingchen, you are really clever! You use bacon to win people over. No wonder people always speak up for you!"
Her voice was loud and many people heard it, but no one stood up.
They also felt that Xu Xingchen was unfair!
Seeing that they were on his side, Jordan Chan spoke even more excitedly: "Either you don't distribute the bacon, or give a little to every household, so that it won't be considered as winning people over!" The other villagers responded and asked Xu Xingchen to go home quickly and take out the remaining bacon to divide it equally.
Aunt Fat ran over when she heard the news.
She angrily accused Jordan Chan: "The bacon belongs to Xingchen's family. What does it have to do with you? Why do you ask them to share it equally?"
"How can you be so shameless!"
Shuanzi also arrived and helped explain, "It's not what everyone thinks. Xingchen just felt sorry for the children and gave us some bacon. She didn't have any other intentions, and she wasn't trying to win people over. Please don't misunderstand her."
It turns out it’s for the children!
The villagers who had just followed Jordan Chan in making trouble all shut their mouths.
No matter how shameless these adults are, they cannot steal food from children!
Seeing that the situation had changed, Jordan Chan wanted to escape.
However, Xu Xingchen was one step ahead of her and blocked her way: "We only have so much bacon at home. After sharing it with the children, there won't be much left. But if you insist on eating it, I can also share some. But the prerequisite is that you have a child first. That way I have a reason to give it to you. Otherwise, it would be a burden to you."
When the villagers heard this, they all laughed, and some praised Xu Xingchen for his kindness.
However, Jordan Chan couldn't hear those words because she had already slipped back home.
Xu Xingchen and Jun Haoyue took their things back home.
The other villagers gathered together and discussed gossip as usual, but this time the topic of their gossip was Xu Xingchen, and many of them said good things about him.
"From now on, let's not make up stories about Xingchen and her cousin anymore. It's boring!"
"Isn't it? She's so kind-hearted that she even shares her food with the children. I can't do that if it were me."
"Who dares to say that she is just trying to make things difficult for me?"
People started talking about it, and whenever they mentioned Xu Xingchen, they would give him a thumbs up. As a result of this incident, Xu Xingchen's reputation in the village became better and better.
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