Chapter 182 181. Contradiction Transfer
“Only for you to grow?”
Lei Li glanced at Gui Fulang, seeing his eager expression, and smiled slowly, "Isn't it a waste of your talent to have you farm for me? How about this, I'll let you be the steward? Five taels of silver a month, how about that?"
"Five taels?!"
Gui Fulang was so surprised and delighted that he couldn't stop laughing. He even lowered his voice and said, "Brother Li, are you serious? Are you really going to let me do this job? Five taels of silver a month?"
"That's natural."
Lei Li patted his shoulder and said with a smile, "When have I ever lied to Uncle Gui?"
"That's not the case."
Gui Fulang was smiling like a flower.
Although he and Lei Li had always been at odds in the past, Lei Li had never given him a good face. When a conflict arose, he would just fight directly without bothering to lie to him. Now he wanted to hire him as a manager, and since so many people had heard it, it must be true.
But although Gui Fulang was happy, the other people in the village were not happy.
With so many people here, many of whom have close ties with the Lei family, why is Gui Fulang the only one in charge? And he's paying them five taels of silver a month!
There are four managers in the village. Lei Jingsheng is in charge of the chili garden, Liu Xiaocao is in charge of the chili factory, and the two brothers Niu Dashu and Niu Ershu are in charge of delivering goods to the village, mainly delivering chili peppers and vegetables to Sichuan restaurants.
If they wanted an extra manager or an extra business, they should have chosen one from the village. How could they have directly chosen Liu Guihua as their husband? They were not convinced!
The villagers started arguing about whether they should send Li Chengcai to see the officials, and then turned to whether Gui Fulang should be the manager. However, Gui Fulang was extremely strong and could not be at a disadvantage against a group of people alone. He scolded them all back.
The central idea is just one -
It’s not your family that’s hiring a housekeeper, and it’s not you that’s being hired as a housekeeper, so it’s none of your business!
As the quarrel went on, Li Chengcai, who was lying on the ground and ignored by everyone, was unlucky enough to be stepped on a few times by the people above. No one knew who stepped on him, but the pain made Li Chengcai cry out.
"Stop talking, stop talking!"
The village chief was inside trying to mediate.
Lei Li was watching the excitement outside with great interest. He grabbed Liu Xiaocao, who was about to go in and argue, and said, "Tell your Niu Ershu to drag Li Chengcai to the backyard, gag him again, and send him to the county government office tomorrow morning."
"It's simple."
Liu Xiaocao nodded and told her husband Niu Ershu. Niu Ershu glanced at Lei Li and asked hesitantly, "Li Chengcai...will he have to stay in prison for several years?"
"That's not the case."
Lei Li saw Niu Ershu's concerns. He thought that if Li Chengcai was sent to jail for several years just for "stealing some fruits", the villagers might gossip about the Lei family and think that the Lei family was dishonest and cruel.
The villagers had not seen much of the world and had no idea what the West and South Asia were like. When they heard Lei Li say that four tomatoes cost fifty taels, most people would think he was cheating them so that he could put Li Chengcai in jail.
——Just like what Lei Li thought back then, only a fool would spend ten taels of silver to buy a chili pepper.
Liu Xiaocao has the best relationship with the Lei family, so she definitely couldn't stand it and started a quarrel with the villagers gossiping. In the end, she was very angry and hurt herself.
"You know I have a good relationship with Lord Xu. I'll tell Lord Xu to lock Li Chengcai up for a few months and let him do some farm work to learn his lesson. When he gets out, he should behave himself and not do any petty theft."
"That works."
Niu Ershu nodded in agreement.
He is a pragmatic and conscientious person. He can't stand Li Chengcai's laziness and stealing, but after all, they grew up together. It would be best if Li Chengcai could fall hard and go to jail to reform.
Being a down-to-earth person and working hard, having a stable job to earn some money, repairing the house, getting married and having a baby, this is the serious thing to do.
Zhou Yi felt sorry for the tomatoes he planted, so he picked up the sacks of tomatoes early to prevent them from being trampled. Seeing that Lei Li had given instructions, the two of them went home while the villagers were not paying attention.
Tonight was a farce.
After returning home, the Lei family still had to pick out the good tomatoes. The scene of Sanliuzi's mother and her group knocking on the door just now woke up the whole family. Fortunately, Xiao Shengjiang was sleeping at Xiaobao's place tonight.
Seeing that the half-ripe tomatoes were also picked, Lei Dashan and Liu Ye'er felt very distressed.
The two old people had been frugal for most of their lives, and almost all of their work was digging for food in the fields. They hated to see people wasting crops and food, so they couldn't help but scold Li Chengcai.
Half of the tomatoes in the sack could not be eaten and had to be fed to the chickens. The seeds of the rest could only be removed tomorrow. It was too late today, so the family went back to bed.
—
Lei Li and Zhou Yi got up early in the morning, and together with Liu Xiaocao and Niu Ershu, they took a bullock cart to send Li Chengcai to the county government office. They greeted the clerk in charge of the county jail and told him to "take good care of" Li Chengcai before leaving.
Now few people in the village care whether Li Chengcai goes to jail or not. They are all discussing whether the Lei family should start a new business and whether they should grow the red fruit.
Some people also ran to the Lei family to ask Lei Dashan and Liu Yeer.
"How should I know?"
Lei Dashan said in a gruff voice, "Whether or not this business works is up to my brother Li and his son-in-law. Whether or not you can do it is not my business. But I'm making this clear today: anyone who dares to run wild or do something bad on my land will not earn a penny!"
"If you don't make money, there are plenty of people who want to! There are also Liujia Village and Silihe Village next door!"
Lei Dashan is a very pragmatic and kind person. He has rarely had a quarrel in the village for decades. This time he looked so angry.
It seems that the fruit is indeed very important, and it should be the Lei family’s new business.
Everyone in the village thinks so.
Little did they know that Lei Dashan was simply worried about the food. Stealing a few dozen would be fine, but stealing a sack in such hot weather would spoil it in a few days! He even stole half-cooked food. If it tasted bad, would he just throw it away?
In the past, when he was penniless and starving, if anyone dared to steal his unripe rice or half an acre of land, he would just hit them with a hoe and kill them all!
In any case, the people in Sanlihe Village were a little panicked. When they saw Lei Li and his companions returning to the village, they immediately surrounded them. They were very warm and enthusiastic, and promised that nothing would happen to the Lei family's land again.
"Thank you all for your hard work, aunts and uncles."
Lei Li agreed with a smile, but actually didn't agree to anything. However, the villagers saw that he was friendly and kind, and didn't have any hardship against him because of Li Chengcai's matter. They felt relieved that it was a done deal.
Everyone kept a close watch on the Lei family's three acres of tomato fields, fearing that someone would mess around and the Lei family would really hand over the business to the neighboring villages.
As a result, the work efficiency in the pepper garden and pepper factory has also increased. Everyone is very efficient, and it seems that the people in the neighboring villages are more capable than ours.
The tomato theft came to an end.
As time slowly approached December, the tomatoes prepared for the winter still couldn't withstand the cold. They were frozen to the point of not blooming and looked half dead.
It was also cold in winter, and the tomatoes harvested previously could last for a while, allowing the Lei family to eat hot tomato hotpot.
Meng Luo knew that the Lei family had tomatoes, and it was not fun to live in the county town alone, so he took Mei and Qing back to Sanlihe Village and went to the Lei family to eat and drink all day long.
Mei Yuqing is a bit arrogant and would not bow down for a few pieces of silver, otherwise she would not have rejected Meng Luo for so long. But she is not a bad person, she is just aloof and quiet.
The first time Mei Yuqing was taken by Meng Luo to the Lei family as a "guest", she looked a little cold, but she was very polite and there was nothing wrong with her words and actions.
——None of the Lei family members knew what etiquette was. Seeing Mei Yuqing being so serious and polite, the two elders of the Lei family felt a little restrained.
But soon, the two elders found that Mei Yuqing was a nice person, just shy. They treated him as their own junior and warmly invited him to eat and drink at the dinner table, which made Mei Yuqing a little overwhelmed.
Mei Yuqing calmly looked at the Lei family, then at Meng Luo's naive and talkative appearance, thinking, what good friend? Is he really not his brother? He is so shameless that he even steals the fruit from the children.
"What's wrong?"
Meng Luo had just taken a bite of the cherry tomato he had asked from Xiao Shengjiang when he saw Mei Yuqing looking at him. He immediately ran over and handed the tomato to him.
"Xiaoqing, this is sweet. Here you go!"
"……Thanks."
Mei Yuqing met Meng Luo's smiling eyes, paused, and then took the tomato fruit, which was only the size of a finger, and whispered, "Aren't there other fruits on the table? Why do you want to eat other people's children's?"
“He picked the sweet ones!”
Meng Luo couldn't wait to show off to Mei Yuqing, thinking he was really smart. "The fruit picked by little ginger is sweet. I'll let ginger pick it first. After he finishes picking, I'll eat the one in his hand. This way, everything I eat will be sweet!"
"I learned this from Lei Li!"
“…”
Mei and Qing looked at Lei Li, who was using the same method to trick children into giving them things, and thought, they are indeed good friends.
As time went by, Mei Yuqing discovered that Meng Luo was not visiting at all, but simply wanted to eat and drink for free, and even brought himself to their house. He felt embarrassed and seeing that the Lei family didn't care much, he brought some gifts every time he went back.
Lei Li didn't have any particular favorites, such as the toys for Xiao Shengjiang, the wine for Lei Dashan, and the cloth for Liu Ye'er, but his husband Zhou Yi liked to cook and eat, so he asked someone to sell wild animals and send them to the Lei family.
What a coincidence.
A hunter in the town took advantage of the fact that winter had just begun and the weather was not so cold, so he hunted a sika deer and wanted to sell it in the county town. However, he was intercepted by Mei Yuqing's men when he arrived in the town.
The last time he ate the sika deer was a fluke, as Lei Li scared the fawn to death.
This sika deer was the hunter's real skill. He shot the deer in the hind leg and then lured it into a trap, breaking its front leg.
Lei Li killed the deer skillfully, skinning and removing the meat and bones. Mei Yuqing, who was talking to Liu Ye'er and Meng Luo in the house, glanced at it inadvertently and was stunned when she saw the scene.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing him looking outside, Meng Luo followed his gaze and said with a smile, "Lei Li used to be a butcher. He was very good at killing pigs and chickens. He was very fast and could cut the meat just right. If he said one jin, it would be one jin."
“…That’s really impressive.”
It was a little beyond Mei Yuqing's imagination.
He had been in the theater since he was a child, and even after he became a star, he still went on stage to perform. He had never even bought meat himself, let alone such bloody scenes as killing deer and pigs.
Looking at...
It's quite thrilling.
Mei Yuqing remembered that he had said before that he wanted to commit suicide, and he was afraid that he would not be able to do it as soon as he picked up the knife.
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