HLnovel Chapter 220: The House Beam
Chapter 220: The House Beam
Time flies. In mid-April, after a spring rain, the busy farming season begins, which is what the traditional calendar calls: nine plus one nine, when cattle are walking everywhere.
Along with the busy farming season comes the day when the Li family has to put up the beams for their three houses.
The family built a large courtyard with three buildings and three entrances, which was the first of its kind in Fushui Village. Old man Li was so happy that he set up a buffet.
Nowadays, the Li family’s stall business is doing well. From time to time, they recruit people from the village to work. The wages are high and the food is good. As soon as the house was built, they started to harvest seaweed.
The sea was full of seaweed. A family could send out a teenager or an old man with nimble legs and feet to catch ten pounds of these in two quarters of an hour. They could earn five cents for a round trip, which was equivalent to what a strong laborer could earn by carrying a large bag at the dock in half a day.
Therefore, it really came true what Li Yuer said. Most of the villagers were not jealous of the Li family. Instead, they hoped that the Li family would be better so that they could get more benefits.
On the day of raising the beam, even Cai Junyi, who had been studying hard outside, returned home.
After a burst of crackling firecrackers, Li Laosan and Li Erlang stood on the roof and scattered candies and steamed buns to the children in the village.
The children were having fun picking up trash in the yard, and their clear laughter echoed in the yard for a long time.
Xiao Huang, who was already half grown, ran happily among the children, wagging his tail happily.
The village chief and clan elders were invited to the table, and Mr. Cai and Old Man Li accompanied them.
The village chief asked Old Man Li to say a few words. Old Man Li grinned and managed to say two sentences: "Everyone, eat well! Drink well!"
There was a cheer from the audience. The reason they came here was to eat and drink well, warm their homes and be happy.
The chefs today are Li Lao Da and Li Lao San. There are ten dishes on each table, including fish, meat and braised seafood.
The greasy Dongpo pork elbow was served on the table. The crispy and rosy color stunned the old people in the village.
"After living for most of my life, I never knew meat could still be so delicious?" an old man sighed.
"The Li family is great! They are all great people!"
Most of the villagers in Fushui Village are relatively simple and honest, and people like the Sun family are rare.
People from the Sun family are here today. After Magistrate Wu and his son were arrested, County Magistrate Wei took over a case in which the common people sued the mine for illegal human trafficking. Of course, County Magistrate Wei was not without any selfish motives.
The mine was a lucrative job, but County Magistrate Wu had a tight control over it, and it was impossible to place anyone there. County Magistrate Wu did not allow his officials to interfere in the affairs of the mine, making the operation very mysterious.
Previously, County Magistrate Wei wanted to take advantage of County Magistrate Wu's absence to extend his influence to the mines, but he ended up hitting a snag.
Because the manager of the mine was sent by the imperial court, he had certain privileges. Except for the county magistrate appointed by the imperial court to assist in mining, he could refuse anyone else at will.
But there was a human trafficking case at the mine, and that fell within his area of responsibility.
Finally, after a fierce struggle between the two sides, it was discovered that the mine manager colluded with County Magistrate Wu, and there was evidence of illegal transactions. Because the manager had connections in the capital, County Magistrate Wei was afraid to touch him, but he used this as a threat. The mine finally agreed to release the illegal traders and agreed to the county government to send people to assist in mining. County Magistrate Wei finally took advantage of this and planted his own people in the mine.
The three Maos of the Sun family were also released, but the eldest Mao had a lame leg, the second Mao had a disabled hand, and the third Mao was frightened to the point of being crazy and in a trance. He always hid in the house and refused to come out.
Some people said that the Sun family was being punished for their evil deeds, while others said that Sanmao was deceived into the mine because he had bad intentions and was with Ma Wu.
In short, the Sun family suffered a serious blow, as four strong laborers were injured at once. Before that, Boss Sun and Mrs. Sun went to the county government to report the case, but not only were they extorted to the point of bankruptcy, but Boss Sun also lost his leg.
Although the Sun family usually acted arrogantly, they had never killed anyone. After the Sun family was blackmailed and lost everything, Sun Dalang had no money to treat his legs, so the villagers pooled some money to help him hire a traveling doctor.
The itinerant doctor's medical skills were pretty good, but after Boss Sun's leg was injured and he was tortured in prison, it couldn't be fully healed and he became lame.
After Sun Mingzhu broke off the engagement with the Cai family, Mrs. Sun was fully confident that she could find a better family. She kept looking towards the town and looked down upon the peasants in the village.
As a result, after consulting several matchmakers and spending a lot of money, he still couldn't find a matchmaker, not to mention a wealthy family in the town, even a decent family in the village.
At first, several families in the town were fooled by the matchmaker. The matchmaker also took the money and made up stories. She didn't say she was fat, but said she was blessed. She didn't say she had small eyes, but said she was focused. She didn't say she had a big frame, but said she had a big butt and was good at giving birth. She didn't say she had a long face, but said she had a face that showed she would live a long life...
In short, the matchmaker's words were deceptive, and she really deceived several families. But after they saw Sun Mingzhu's appearance, they turned around and ran away without even eating.
One family was so frightened that they said, "If I marry her, my son will die if she gets violent with me."
After several setbacks, Mrs. Sun thought of the Cai family again.
The money earned from matchmaking was not enough to make up for the loss caused by the bad reputation and the runaway marriage. Gradually, the matchmaker stopped arranging marriages for Sun Mingzhu.
Years ago, in order to confuse Doctor Huang, the Cai family spread false news, saying that Cai Junyi was seriously ill and went to his grandparents' home.
Mrs. Sun had a nice idea: Even though Cai Junyi is gone, don’t we still have the Li family’s sons?
Mrs. Sun saw that the Li family often went in and out of the town, set up stalls, and wore bright and beautiful clothes. The young men were all good-looking, especially the third brother, who had handsome eyes and eyebrows and a romantic charm. Thinking that her daughter liked handsome boys the most, she came up with an idea.
At first, she shamelessly asked someone to go to the house to mediate.
Before the middleman could finish his words, Zhao rejected him. "The sons of the Li family have their own plans. I am just a cousin. How can I make the decision?"
The middleman wanted to say something else but was ruthlessly sent away by Zhao.
Later, Mrs. Sun waited outside the Cai family's door. When Zhao came out, she acted like an elder and spoke in a commanding tone, using moral blackmail.
"Are you from the Cai family trying to be ungrateful? If it weren't for my father-in-law saving Mr. Cai, you wouldn't even be here anymore. Now you're turning your back on me. I tell you, there's no way! You must give my daughter an explanation today!"
As she said this, Mrs. Sun sat on the ground, slapping her thighs and howling.
The villagers passing by looked at the shameless Mrs. Sun and spoke out in support of the Cai family.
"I say, Granny Sun, do you still have any shame? Your family took the initiative to cancel the engagement, and both parties signed the marriage cancellation agreement. Now your daughter can't get married, and you want to go back to her? How can this be justified?"
"That's right! Besides, Brother Yi is sick and has gone to his grandparents' house to recuperate. Why are you still holding on to him?"
Seeing so many people accusing her, Grandma Sun immediately quit and shouted, "We don't want the sickly Cai Junyi, we want Li Lao San from the Li family."
"Bah!" Aunt Qiu'e spat on the ground and cursed, "It's not enough to harm one person, you want to harm others? What's your relationship with the Li family? Do you eat your rice or drink your water? What's yours?"
There are smart people who saw through Grandma Sun's greed and said, "She just wants to rely on them because the Li family is rich and Li Laosan is handsome!"