Zhou Ger came over to help and told Zhao Ger that the daughter-in-law of the Ge family had been beaten by her mother-in-law last night.
The old woman had returned from Zhao Ger's place feeling utterly defeated and unable to sell her chilies. Seeing her daughter-in-law upon arriving home, naturally she wasn't in a good mood.
Previously, when she picked chilies to sell to Zhao Ger, adding it all up, she had earned more than five hundred copper coins.
In just over a month, she had earned that much. Old Madam Ge had been overjoyed.
People in the village didn't have much income. If they wanted to earn silver, it was either by selling grain or by selling some vegetables and eggs laid by their own hens. Although men could look for odd jobs in town during the farming off-season, everyone went. With over a dozen villages, several hundred people, and only one Fu'an Town, the odd jobs were limited. Her husband and son often couldn't find work.
This was mostly the situation in the village. Earning silver wasn't easy.
He Daleng's family was considered passably well-off in the village, but this 'passable' just meant that while others ate two meals a day, his family ate three, and could steam two sweet potatoes for breakfast. But ever since they started supplying chilies to Zhao Ger, their income had allowed them to buy meat every few days. Previously, everyone envied the Liu and He families. Later, when Zhao Ger's business improved and he could offer the same opportunity to others, everyone was immensely happy.
Having tasted sweetness, some people asked Zhao Ger if his chili sauce business would continue. If so, they planned to dedicate more land to chilies next season.
Zhao Ger assured them that he planned to run the chili sauce business for the long term. However, if Fang Zichen had good luck next year and passed the imperial examination at the county level, they might have to move to Yuanzhou for the provincial examinations.
Everyone thought about it, discussed it, and still decided to plant them. Yuanzhou was far from the village, almost a day's journey, but it didn't matter. They could coordinate to pick on the same day, and then entrust the village chief to deliver them. It was doable. After all, chilies weren't like eggs, they were easier to transport.
Now that Zhao Ger refused to buy chilies from their family. Next year, when every family planted and earned income from their chilies—within two years, they were afraid their families would become the poorest families in the village.
Old Madam Ge was already fuming. When her daughter-in-law saw her return with the unsold chilies, she tried to slip away into her room.
This wa clearly a guilty conscience.
Old Madam Ge grabbed her daughter-in-law and asked if she had been spreading malicious gossip about Zhao Ger.
When the daughter-in-law hesitated, Old Madam Ge pinched her arm sharply. "Will you speak, or must I force it from you?"
Under this pressure, the daughter-in-law broke down in tears and confessed everything that had happened at the threshing ground the day before.
Old Madam Ge was so angry she almost exploded.
Hearing the story, Old Madam Ge finally understood the true reason for Zhao Ger's anger. She had interacted with Zhao Ger a few times before and knew his temper was quite good. His fury this time was entirely due to her daughter-in-law's venomous, bone-piercing words.
Even if Zhao Ger really had committed adultery, his circumstances were different now. They should be currying favor, not offending him like her daughter-in-law had.
Old Madam Ge, unable to swallow her anger, took a broom from nearby and beat her daughter-in-law.
Zhao Ger heard about it but didn't comment.
The last batch of chili peppers amounted to almost over a thousand jin. Zhao Ger purchased several hundred more jin of garlic, then invited Aunt Liu, Uncle Liu (ger), and his daughter-in-law to come help chop the chilies.
[1 Jin = approximately 0.5 kilograms.]
He also hired two other people to handle the garlic.
These two women were introduced by Uncle Liu. They were quite hardworking and didn't talk much, unlike some of the tactless people he had encountered while purchasing chilies before, who had asked him how the chili sauce was made, both directly and indirectly.
In Fu'an Town, hired laborers usually got twenty to thirty coppers per day. That was the price for men. For women and gers, it was lower. Zhao Ger paid them twenty-three coppers per day, including one meal at noon. He asked Zhou Ger to prepare it, which was just steaming some buns.
Guaizai needed to drink some bone broth every day. The family wasn't short on bones. Zhao Ger asked Zhou Ger to use the bone broth to cook a pot of congee, a warm bowl in winter provided substantial comfort.
Although there were no lavish feasts with big fish and meat, for villagers, white flour buns were already extremely rare.
After giving these instructions, Zhao Ger took the child to town.
Lin Xiaoxia family had been settled by Fang Zichen in the shop. Yesterday was rushed, and Fang Zichen hadn't had time to explain. This morning, there were rice and flour in the kitchen, but Li Yanmei didn't dare to touch them without permission. She called Jiaojiao and went together to find Li Da.
Just as they reached the door, her sister-in-law spotted her first.
Because of Lin Xiaoxia, Li Yanmei had borrowed a sum of silver from Li Da a while back. Her sister-in-law hadn't been happy about it.
In her view, what Li Da earned should belong to her husband. He had lent it to Li Yanmei, and now that Li Yanmei's entire family had been sold into servitude, that silver was like a meat bun thrown to a dog—most likely, it wouldn't be coming back.
She snorted and spoke to Li Yanmei with sarcasm, saying a married-off daughter hadn't helped her natal family one bit, but instead came back to gnaw on her parents' bones. Having such a daughter was just bad luck.
Li Yanmei pressed her lips together and didn't speak.
Li Da was surprised to see her. Since she was no longer at the slave broker, he assumed she must have been sold. After reprimanding his daughter-in-law briefly, he led Li Yanmei into the room.
"Where's Xiaoxia? Isn't he with you two?"
"He is with us, it's just... he was too embarrassed to come," Li Yanmei said.
Li Da breathed a sigh of relief: "Together is good, together is good. As long as the family is together, it's okay to suffer a bit and work hard. Which master's family were you sold to?"
"Young Master Fang bought us," Li Yanmei said.
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