The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 177 - 166: Generosity at Others’ Expense

Chapter 177: Chapter 166: Generosity at Others’ Expense

Zhou Daliang cast a resentful glance at him: couldn’t he be a bit more humble? He didn’t follow the procedure at all.

Zhou Silang rubbed his palms together, his gaze tense and meticulous as it moved back and forth between the two bamboo sticks, praying earnestly in his heart, "Great Daoist Lord, please ensure I draw the number one stick!"

Having made up his mind, Zhou Silang closed his eyes, then opened them and swiftly picked one. Seeing the red color at the bottom of the stick, Zhou Silang was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter, "I won, I won!"

The Chief glanced at him and extended the bamboo tube towards Zhou Daliang.

Zhou Daliang regretfully drew the other stick, which had no red at the bottom.

But that’s just luck, and nobody to blame.

Old Zhou exhaled in relief, took a puff from his dry tobacco pipe around his waist, and then said, "Alright, Four, go sign the documents with the Chief later."

Manbao and Bai Shanbao arrived just in time to witness the drawing of lots, joining in the hustle and bustle, now exclaiming excitedly with the children who were watching.

The Chief then gestured with his hand to calm everyone, and the adults quickly pushed their children down to quiet them.

Only then did the Chief say, "This year your village has two Cheng Ding, and the allocation of personal plots doesn’t need to be managed, but the Yongye Fields must be opened up. Each household must provide a laborer. We’ll start gathering to plow and reclaim the land in three days. Village Head Zhou, this task is entrusted to you."

The Village Head Zhou immediately acknowledged, indicating there was no problem.

This was part of a long-standing customary rule, where every family, except those who were widowed or had no next of kin, needed to provide a laborer.

So in the village, the more men a family had, the more advantages they enjoyed.

Take Zhou Dayuan’s family, for example: they had only one son, so they were allotted land just once, and Old Zhou needed to provide just one son’s labor.

But Old Zhou had six sons, which meant he could be allocated the land six times, so his family had to provide labor six times. Talk about a loss, right?

But no matter the loss, there was nothing to be done about it. This wasn’t just a rule of their village, but of the entire county, and even other regions used the same system. These days, organization was more lenient, with the village largely taking responsibility for the new Yongye Fields within it. It was said that in earlier times, to prevent indolence among the laborers, villagers would be sent to work in other villages, and while their food and lodging were accounted for there, they were still squeezed to do much more work.

That’s why no one dared complain about such matters in public.

However, complaining at home was a different story. Ms. Zhang, Zhou Dayuan’s wife, was so upset that, upon returning home, she started banging around in the courtyard, cursing at their hen, blaming it for only laying eggs and being otherwise useless, and that she still had to take care of its chicks.

Bai Shanbao, who was picking up pebbles to play with Manbao on the ground, heard this and curiously asked Manbao, "I think your neighbor talks in a strange way. Besides laying eggs, what else should the hen do?"

Of course, Manbao didn’t grasp the sarcasm in Ms. Zhang’s words either. After thinking it over, she felt there was something unreasonable about her comments, so she began to feel sorry for their hen: "Don’t mind her; Dayuan’s wife is a bit odd. I don’t understand much of what she says. My mother told me that if I don’t understand, I shouldn’t listen. She’s not talking about anything important anyway."

Bai Shanbao nodded but still suggested, "Their chicken is really pitiful. Why don’t we pick some grass for it to eat later?"

"There’s no tender grass now; they won’t eat it," Manbao said. "They only like bugs and vegetables now. Let’s go pick some vegetables for them to eat."

"Okay."

Manbao led him to Zhou Dayuan’s vegetable garden, pointing unquestioningly at the unpicked cabbage and declaring, "Look, there is their cabbage."

Bai Shanbao went over without hesitation and plucked one head. A young wife nearby noticed the scene, her mouth agape, just about to speak when she saw Manbao step forward to help pick, then the two children, holding the cabbage, went to the wall outside Zhou Dayuan’s house, and together they moved a stone, climbed atop it, and scaled the dirt wall.

The walls surrounding farmyards weren’t usually very high and were mostly made of soil or hedges.

Zhou Dayuan’s was a dirt wall. The two children pushed and pulled each other up the wall in no time and started tearing up the cabbage leaves and throwing them to the chickens below, while clucking with their mouths to coax, "Eat up, eat your fill so you won’t be sad when scolded."

The young wife, unable to resist her curiosity, approached them. Seeing her, Manbao greeted with a smile, "Hello, sister-in-law, are you back from the vegetable garden?"

"Yes," the woman replied, her expression somewhat odd as she couldn’t help but ask, "Manbao, what are you doing?"

"Feeding the chickens?"

The young wife asked, "Aren’t those Dalv’s chickens? Why are you feeding them?"

"Dayuan’s wife was scolding the chickens, saying she wouldn’t feed them, and I thought it was too pitiful, so I decided to help feed them."

The young wife couldn’t help but laugh, barely containing her smile as she asked, "Where did you get the vegetables?"

"There, from over there."

"Isn’t that Dalv’s vegetable garden?"

"Yes, and if we’re feeding his chickens, of course we should use his vegetables."

The young wife actually thought this made sense.

She didn’t leave but leaned against the wall to watch them feed the chickens inside. Ms. Zhang heard noises from the yard and upon looking out, saw the two children sitting on the wall, which provoked her to fall backward in fury, her eyes wide as she demanded, "What are you lot doing up there?"

The young wife immediately said, "Sister-in-law, Manbao and Young Master Bai are feeding your chickens with vegetables. They heard you scolding and refusing to feed them, so they felt sorry for the chickens and deliberately picked vegetables to feed them."

Dayuan’s wife then noticed the two children indeed had cabbage in their hands, tearing it up and tossing it down from the wall. Her expression softened a bit as she said, "If you want to feed the chickens, come inside to do it. Why sit on the wall?"

After Manbao shredded and tossed down all the cabbage in her hands, she wiped her small hands and said, "We’re afraid you’ll hit us."

Bai Shanbao nodded as if it were obvious, also thinking the woman was quite fierce.

Manbao turned to climb down the wall, and the young wife below immediately reached out and lifted her down, doing the same for Bai Shanbao. Once they had walked a good distance away, hand in hand, she called back to Ms. Zhang inside the wall with a laugh, "Sister-in-law, those vegetables were plucked from your garden by the kids. I thought you’d scold them for feeding your chickens, so I stayed a bit longer. Now that I see you’re not upset, I’m relieved. You really are understanding."

Ms. Zhang’s face instantly darkened like she was smeared with ink, her anger no less profound.

The young wife, with a covered smile, felt delighted. Her household was also neighbors with Zhou Dayuan’s, and by chance, even their vegetable gardens were adjacent, leading to frequent quarrels over trivial things like who left a hoe in the other’s field or who hoed a bit too far into the pathway. She had stayed just to witness Ms. Zhang’s indignation; finding her thoroughly exasperated, she cheerfully twirled around and left, eager to share the tale with her family.

Ms. Zhang, furious, hurried to the vegetable garden to see for herself and discovered indeed a cabbage had been freshly plucked, not even cleanly, leaving a couple of outer leaves behind.

About to scold, Ms. Zhang suddenly remembered she couldn’t afford to offend Manbao, lest Ms. Qian rip her apart. She then considered scolding Young Master Bai, before realizing he was even more untouchable. Anger congested her chest, with no way to vent it.

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