"Dad, mom, forget it. Today's matter was originally big sister's fault. Not just the flour, look at those shoes, can't you tell if she has a heart or not? And also, last year during the Spring Festival, when we were preparing for the wedding, didn't she take a pair of Guiying's shoes to make up the number? How many people laughed at us? Big sister, you yourself say, aren't you doing it on purpose?" Xia Yu said.

  "Where did I ever see you being generous? You even gave a pair of silver bangles, which I've never seen you wear yourself! I'd like to see what my family's Guiying gets when she marries out. Can you bear to give something good?" Chunyu said.

  "Stop farting around. Can you do that? You came empty-handed, what's the etiquette for that? All you think about is how to get others to spend money on you, even your own mother you can heartlessly take advantage of. Don't think I don't know what's on your mind! With the way you do things, in the future, which good family will want to marry off their children to yours?" Autumn Jade also lost her temper and blurted out.

  "Can I be the same? You all have someone to rely on, who can I rely on? What about my family's children? Don't my family's children deserve someone to want them? Even with three matchmakers and six marriage brokers, isn't it the same?" Chunyu shouted, tugging at her neck.

  As soon as Chunyu finished speaking, Zeng Ruiqing's face turned black and he got up to leave. Zhou Shi scolded: "I'd like to see how your family can live a good life with their three媒 six娉?" "Forget it. If you keep talking, you'll just be nagging each other. Go home." The old man let out a long sigh, feeling indescribable sadness and disappointment, but not knowing who to direct his emotions at, and walked away with his hands behind his back to the front room.

  The storm has passed, and Tian's mood is no longer so high. She had always doted on her eldest daughter, but today she was truly heartbroken, so she didn't pay attention to the crowd and followed Old Master behind him.

  Zeng Ruixiang took the children back home. The whole family was in the hall, and Zeng Ruixiang also asked: "Do you think what I did today is excessive?"

  "Dad, let me say something as the son-in-law. Actually, what grandma just said is unreasonable. My eldest aunt's family came over yesterday. Don't they know that my eldest aunt brought back mixed flour? Why didn't they speak up earlier to exchange it for regular flour? They had to wait until today when we all arrived before saying they want to exchange the flour. Moreover, if we need to spend money to buy flour, grandma can also take out her own silver. She's not short of money, as far as I know, we gave them one or two taels of silver before we left for Chinese New Year, and big brother shouldn't be less than that either, what about second brother?"

  "We also gave one or two taels because when you left, you said a sentence that we can't be less than you, so...". Zi Lu said.

  "The three of us showing filial piety to Grandpa and Grandma's New Year's money is equivalent to Father's annual support fee. I think, Grandpa's life this year will definitely not be bad. Since that's the case, why didn't Grandpa firmly propose buying flour himself back then, but instead had to wait for Father to take out the money?" asked Zifu.

  "That must be thinking that Father would not refuse, and also, after Father refused, there is still my sister's husband to back up. I didn't expect my sister to be so straightforward, she immediately rejected it. My grandfather is probably regretting this now? Why didn't he take out the silver himself?" Zi Xi said with a smile.

  "Look, the children are more understanding than you. They didn't say anything, just to save their grandfather's face. You should also relax a bit, they're not really unable to afford it, they're all waiting for us." said Shen Shi.

  Zeng Ruixiang listened, but it wasn't. He had thought that after so long, everyone would have kept a distance and known better about some things, but they still used this approach to deal with things, which really chilled his heart. Originally, he hadn't even thought about the silver money in Old Master's hands, but was thinking whether what he did today was somewhat excessive, after all, it was a matter of losing face in front of relatives, friends and villagers.

  "It's actually that compared to how our family used to handle things, everyone feels like they've lost face. But ordinary villagers having a birthday celebration isn't much different from this, is it? My grandparents wanted to make a big show in the village but ended up not being able to, and if we're talking about losing face, it's mainly because of these three aunts. After all, what people are discussing is Eldest Aunt's longevity peach, Grandma's shoes, and her headdress." Zi Shou said.

  As soon as Zishou spoke up, Ziqing and several others chimed in, and Zeng Ruixiang's expression improved a lot.

  From then on, Lao Ye Zi and Tian Shi didn't come to Zeng Rui Xiang's house for a long time, probably because the anger in their hearts hadn't dissipated yet.

  Zeng Ruixiang's side was fine, and after two days, Zifuxi packed up his things and headed to the capital. Liu Shi remained at home to rest and take care of her pregnancy.

  Ziying has been busy these days, and the chef at Qingyuan hasn't found a suitable replacement yet. Xiaocyan and Xiaolan are still young after all, so simple meals can barely pass muster, but wanting to eat well is out of the question. So Ziying basically does everything herself or gives directions from the side, occasionally returning to her mother's house to improve their diet.

  Lin Kongping has been going out all the time, and the wasteland has been hired to be renovated. He goes there every day to inspect it, bringing two new young servants, Lin Shan and Lin Feng. These two children are from rural areas, where their family used to farm, but they encountered a disaster year, got sick, and lost everything, leaving only two orphans behind. After returning home, they were busy cleaning up the vegetable field and melon field, which could barely provide enough food for their own family.

  One day, Zhou Yunjiang came to settle the accounts. The wasteland had been reclaimed and all planted with soybeans. Zi Qing thought that they should hire a few long-term workers or buy another two families to raise pigs there, mainly for fertilizer. Lin Kangping had never farmed before, so he naturally listened to Zi Qing's advice. During this time, following Zeng Ruiyu and some old farmers, he actually learned something, knowing that farming is all about fertilization.

  "Hey, Qing'er, I see that rich families in the capital all love to build some kind of estate. Why don't we plan out our family's wasteland and build an estate too? What should we call it? How about 'Qing Estate'?"

  "It's not good, it doesn't sound good, it's not as good as Kang Zhuang. Kang Zhuang means wide and flat, with roads leading in all directions. This is a big road to Kang Zhuang, when we have more money later, let's buy a large piece of land and build a prosperous Kang Zhuang, how great would that be? Let the residents of our Kang Zhuang live a relatively comfortable life ahead of time, it's worth it for them to follow us. Speaking of this, Zi Qing's heart actually had some fervent blood boiling, making this a model socialist new countryside has practical significance."

  "Let's get this land in shape first, then we'll buy up all the surrounding wasteland. However, don't be too impatient, your body isn't fully recovered yet. Also, what do you mean by 'small comfort'?"

  "Having a comfortable life means having enough to eat, warm clothes and a house to live in. I just casually mentioned that the residents of Kangzhuang Village are not living a life of comfort and prosperity?" Lin Kangping heard this and hugged Ziying, praising: "My daughter is still good at talking."

  Lin Kangping first found someone to build a few houses in the middle of the wasteland. They dug a well and built two rows of pigpens, as they had already excavated a pond in the middle. It was also convenient for washing and rinsing things.

  After the pigpen was covered, Lin Kangping and Zeng Ruiyu found two poor households in the village and signed a ten-year contract. They moved here specifically to be responsible for feeding the pigs.

  Zhou Yunjiang still collects some rice bran and rotten vegetables every day to send over, which doesn't take up more than two hours, and the wages are still twenty cents. This is a long-term job that also doesn't interfere with his own family's affairs, so Qiu Yu is naturally delighted.

  On this day, Lin Kangping went out early in the morning. Zi Qing was about to go find Zi Xi and a few others to chat with. Just after changing her clothes, Zhou Shi arrived. Xiao Qing hurriedly supported Zi Qing as she sat down in the front courtyard hall. Zhou Shi's eyes scanned around and said: "Zi Qing, your home is really too comfortable, such a big garden. The flowers and grass are also beautiful, this year's vegetables, fish, ducks, geese and whatnot can also be sold for quite a bit of silver, right?"

  "How much money is this? It's already good if it can support a family of one."

  "That's also true, the place is big and needs a lot of people to take care of it. With such a large garden, you have to put in more thought and effort. If you hire a few more workers, it would be different."

  Zi Qing was taken aback, what is the intention of Zhou's visit? Could it be that she wants to send someone in, but then again, there's no reason for her to send Zi Ping to her own home to do chores. How would she manage at that time?

  "What the old lady said is also true, look, Kangping has bought two more from the countryside to work on the land, and all the vegetable fields and melon fields in the garden have been handed over to them. Really can't keep up with the work, aren't there still Lin An, Lin Fu and a few others?"

  "I've heard that you've got another farm, and every day you have your brother-in-law deliver some pig feed or something, and he gets twenty cents a day. This job is so easy, it doesn't interfere with his other work. If I were to say something, since you've hired so many people, can't you find something for your sister's husband to do? You know that your sister's family is having a hard time, and now she's got another one on the way - how are they going to make ends meet in the future? This past year I haven't had much money left over either, and I still have to support your grandparents. I think you'll always need to hire people, so why not take a look at what Zixin can do?"

  "Ah, I really don't have anyone suitable, my brother-in-law is close by and he used to do this kind of accounting work before. It just so happens that I'm missing someone like him right now. Otherwise, I really can't think of anyone else." Zi Qing had an even worse impression of the woman after overhearing the conversation between Tian's three sisters. She was quite good at pretending to be poor all these years.

  At this time, Zixi brought Liu and Chen over to find Ziqing. The two maidservants behind them were holding children. As soon as Zixi entered the door, she asked: "Sister, why haven't you come yet? We've been waiting for half a day. Hmm, why did Madam come today? Is there something going on?"

  Nothing, just came over to chat with your sister and ask if there's anything I can help your brother-in-law with.

  "Alas, my sister's life is nothing but farming and growing vegetables, what a good life can she have? It would be better for Brother Ping to go find a landlord's family to rent a few acres of land, isn't that better? At least they won't be controlled by others." Zi Xi said.

  Zhou's family saw no play, stood up, and walked away with a swish of her handkerchief. Zi Xi said: "Why be polite to her? We owe nobody anything. By the way, sister, what is that Zhuangzi of yours after all? You and my brother-in-law already have a Qingyuan, why do you need another Kangzhuang? Father at home says it's just your weird ideas."

  "What's all the commotion about? We've just bought a piece of wasteland, let's see if we can reclaim it and turn it into a village later on. By the way, how did you guys end up here? Weren't you supposed to be waiting for me at home?"

  "It's too hot today, it's cooler over here. Your second brother and third younger brother are studying, I'm afraid we'll disturb them if we stay there, so we came to find you. Look, even the kids have been brought along. You should hire a cook, otherwise, with us running back and forth every day, it's not enough trouble." said Chen Shi.

  "It's not like I didn't leave you food to eat, are you guys really leaving?"

  "Alas, you said you're a pregnant woman, how can I bear to do this? I'm not unaware that your husband dotes on you, how dare we trouble you? Can we even eat properly? Your husband will scold us to death!" Liu's wife laughed.

  "What's wrong with me?" Lin Kangping led in a man and woman in their fifties.