Chapter 57: Deduction of Wages

He didn’t care much about spending the money or not. Even if he gave it to Li Zhuangzhi, it wouldn’t be a significant amount for him now. Things that could be solved with money were easy and simple, so he didn’t bother to do it himself.

It was just that she was so disobedient, and he, like a sick person, was trying to please her.

He was very unhappy realizing this!

Hu Yao “rolled” away to make soup, a rich and fragrant chicken soup that both father and son loved.

The matter of Lin Zhaodi was temporarily settled. Li Zhuangzhi accepted the money from Jiang Han, his attitude changed, and he became respectful again, even more so than before.

A few days after receiving the money, it was heard that he was looking for a matchmaker to find a wife.

Li Zhuangzhi was a gambler and a drunkard, with many vices. How could a normal girl like him?

But in this era, money could do anything. There were countless women who would go for money.

The matter of Jiang Han giving him a large sum of money had been spread around since the day of the commotion. Most people envied him, and inexplicably, Jiang Han gained a reputation for being a good brother.

With this money, Li Zhuangzhi had many greedy people wanting to marry their daughters to him. Not to mention the number of widows who took the initiative to approach him. He had been very proud lately.

Once a man is praised, he starts to become arrogant.

With those other women fawning over him, he had already forgotten about Lin Zhaodi. When he remembered her, he would just curse her impatiently.

Perhaps he was too proud, boasting about Lin Zhaodi being a “slut” while emphasizing that he wanted to marry a virgin. As a result, he ended up marrying a widow.

That widow had slept with countless men, but she insisted that the child in her belly was Li Zhuangzhi’s.

Having no children for many years had been a thorn in Li Zhuangzhi’s side. Even though he wasn’t very satisfied with the widow, he still married her for the sake of the child in her belly.

He saved a lot of dowry money by marrying a widow.

After that, he became even more arrogant, slandering and cursing Lin Zhaodi for being unable to give birth and dragging down their Li family.

But he didn’t know that countless people were privately laughing at him for having a green hat covering his head.

In this commotion, Lin Zhaodi and Xiaoya’s father were subjected to a lot of gossip and rumors. They were constantly being gossiped about in person.

However, Lin Zhaodi had endured so many rumors over the years that she was numb to it. The current situation was actually a good thing for her! She was back with her soulmate, and they could still live a peaceful life behind closed doors.

“Xiaoya, thank you so much, you and Han Ge. We will repay you for that money bit by bit.” Lin Zhaodi was once again grateful to Hu Yao.

Hu Yao looked at her face, still bruised, and gently shook her head, telling her not to worry.

Lin Zhaodi went to Xiaoya’s house and continued to wash clothes with Hu Yao every morning.

Other young wives and aunts saw that Hu Yao was still so kind to her and secretly spoke ill of Lin Zhaodi to her, telling her to stay away from such a woman.

Hu Yao didn’t listen. She could see that they were trying to curry favor with her while speaking ill of Lin Zhaodi.

Li Dahua had even come to show her good graces several times, completely forgetting how she had treated Hu Yao when she was still a simpleton.

Hu Yao didn’t pay any attention to her. She found her annoying and didn’t go out much anymore.

Jiang Han always said she was running around everywhere, but when he saw her not stepping out of the door for a whole day, he said she was like a ghost, never seeing the sun.

Before Hu Yao could get depressed, he sent her to supervise the workers picking tea and calculate their wages.

Autumn tea could be picked. In the past, he had always entrusted these tasks to Liu Jie and Li Zhen, but now he had given them to her.

It was just a matter of walking around, looking, and calculating two yuan and two cents per person. It was very simple. Hu Yao took her small ledger and went.

In the past, Liu Jie and Li Zhen had been arrogant and condescending to her, Jiang Han’s wife, and had been sarcastic to her.

Hu Yao hadn’t seen Li Zhen for a while. After Xu Guangliang’s incident, her brother and her family were also implicated. Her brother had actually done some dirty business with Xu Guangliang in the past, such as abducting women and forcing them into prostitution. Once these things were exposed, her brother was locked up, and he spent most of his life in prison.

When Li Zhen learned that Xu Guangliang had died at the hands of the woman they had found, she understood that it was all Jiang Han’s doing. Her guts were turning green with regret.

Jiang Han didn’t spare her brother, which meant he didn’t give them any face! Li Zhen vaguely suspected that Jiang Han still held a grudge against them for helping Xu Xuzhu frame Hu Yao.

What was the deal about doing business with them after things were done? She had lost her brother, her family was in chaos, and the so-called “doing business with them” was just picking tea!

Li Zhen was full of resentment and hatred, but she could only swallow her anger.

Her family was ruined, and the Liu family’s attitude towards her changed immediately. They constantly scolded her and gave her all the dirty and tiring work that she hadn’t done before.

The tea picking wages were more than two yuan a day. There was no such good job outside. Even though she and Liu Jie were still angry and resentful, they gritted their teeth and did the job.

“Li Zhen, how did you pick this tea? You’re so stupid, even though you’re from the city! I’ve told you so many times…”

“And you, you’re just slacking off. You want us to do more work for you, don’t you? Shameless!”

The workers who had been condescendingly instructed by Li Zhen in the past and had been cheated out of their wages knew about her family’s situation. Who wasn’t sarcastic and gloating about her misfortune?

Li Zhen couldn’t stand being told off by the villagers she had always looked down upon. She immediately glared at them and cursed: “What right do you have to say that to me! Who do you think you are! Pick your tea!”

“What’s all the noise about?” Hu Yao came over and saw the commotion. She walked closer and saw Li Zhen picking tea, which surprised her.

Several aunts who had been complaining to Li Zhen about her immediately started gossiping to Hu Yao, saying how she was slacking off and getting paid, and how she was ruining the tea.

Li Zhen’s face turned even uglier when Hu Yao appeared.

“What’s wrong with you? I haven’t deducted your wages.” Hu Yao listened to the jumbled words and looked at Li Zhen, then at the tea she had picked. She nodded, looking serious and straightforward–>>

She wrote down on her notebook: “Deducted 1.2 yuan.”

This was clearly retaliatory, deducting the same amount that Li Zhen and Liu Jie had cheated from the workers. Li Zhen’s eyes turned red with anger, her teeth clenched.

“Hu Yao, you’re doing this on purpose!”

“Yes, I am.” Hu Yao nodded in agreement.

“…”

Li Zhen trembled with anger, fiercely throwing down the backpack filled with tea leaves: “I don’t care about these two yuan! Only you poor fools would treat it like your eyeballs! I quit!”

She pointed at everyone and sneered, finally pointing at Hu Yao.

“Hu Yao, what are you so proud of? Just because Jiang Han is giving you some attention now, you think he cares about you? I bet you’ll be thrown away like trash by his other women one day!” She cursed viciously, kicked the tea leaves scattered on the ground and left.

Hu Yao pursed her lips, erasing the remaining one yuan of Li Zhen’s wages.