Chapter 82: Benefits

Jin Xiaoye helped Jin Dajiang and his wife tidy up and set up their bed before leaving the Jin family with Li Qingzhi and their two children.

It was winter now, and the intermittent croaking of frogs and chirping of cicadas had disappeared. It wasn’t easy to encounter snakes either. Li Qingzhi let the two children walk behind him, while Jin Xiaoye walked at the back.

Usually, by this time, Li Damao and Li Ermao would have already gone to sleep, but today they were still awake… Both of them were quite excited and asked, “Dad, what does splitting up mean?”

Li Qingzhi explained briefly.

Li Damao and Li Ermao exclaimed, “We don’t want to split up!”

“We’ve never split up!”

“Alright, you don’t have to split up,” Li Qingzhi smiled. He had already made up his mind that when the two children got married and had children of their own, he would give them some money to start their own households.

People who were married should shoulder their responsibilities. If they were always suppressed and controlled by their parents, they probably wouldn’t achieve much.

The four of them returned home, and Jin Xiaoye turned on the light. She asked the two children to go to bed first, and then she and Li Qingzhi went back to their room and recounted everything that had happened today. “Although we suffered a bit of a loss, in the future, Xiaoshu’s life will be easier, and my parents will have less work to do. It’s quite good.”

Li Qingzhi also said, “Yes, your father will have to go to the dock to cook now. After this is over, I’ll ask him to go to the county town with me for tea. He’s getting old and should enjoy some leisure.”

“Alright, I’ll tell Xiaoshu later,” Jin Xiaoye said.

Jin Dajiang, who was mentioned by Jin Xiaoye and Li Qingzhi, was still a little dazed at the moment.

Today, he had encountered too many things.

And… how did the family suddenly split up? Jin Dajiang lay on the bed for a long time, unable to fall asleep. Then he suddenly remembered something and got up to check the pocket of his cotton jacket.

“What’s wrong?” Jin’s mother hadn’t fallen asleep yet.

Jin Dajiang handed her two cold eggs. “I brought back two eggs and forgot all about them… You can have them.”

“You eat them. You have to work, so you should eat more,” Jin’s mother said.

After a moment of silence, Jin Dajiang said, “Actually, I didn’t do much work today. I just helped with cutting some vegetables, but I ate a lot of meat…”

Today’s experience in the kitchen was too special for Jin Dajiang!

On his way home, he kept thinking about having a good talk with his wife, but he didn’t expect that as soon as he got home, there would be a quarrel.

It wasn’t until now that Jin Dajiang explained everything, finally saying, “I didn’t expect Ah Qing to actually know the county magistrate, and the county magistrate even calls him ‘nephew’…”

Jin’s mother was stunned too. Wasn’t her son-in-law too amazing?

Jin’s father muttered again, “I didn’t expect to earn two taels of silver in a month and also have to divide the family… Mother gave me one hundred and twenty taels of silver, and I don’t even know where to put this money. It would be great if I could buy land fields…”

As they spoke, Jin’s father and mother fell asleep involuntarily.

That night, the other villagers who went to build the dock also mentioned the situation over there to their families, saying they ate well and that Li Qingzhi actually knew the county magistrate.

“This Li Qingzhi is extraordinary!”

“He used to just copy books for Mr. Zhu, but he could bring home delicious food every day. He’s really amazing.”

“We can’t afford to offend him in the future.”

“We can’t offend Jin Xiaoye either.”

…

After working all day, those villagers were not so averse to building the dock anymore, but nobody in Jin Dajiang’s family wanted to work.

The village chief did mention that those who worked could have meat today.

But while the poor cared about that piece of meat, Jin Liushu and his family didn’t care. Although Grandma Jin didn’t usually give them good food, they would secretly buy meat and cook it. They weren’t as eager for meat as Jin Dajiang.

Like Jin Liushu, when he used to work in the county town, he could earn thirty to forty wen a day. Since he didn’t have a family to support, he would spend all that money on good food. It was definitely better than working at the dock.

“I can contribute money, but I won’t go to work at the dock,” Jin Liushu said.

Jin Sangshu glanced at his elder brother and said, “I’ve already been a few times. It’s your turn, eldest brother.”

Jin Zaoshu immediately said, “Mother, I’m still young! Eldest brother hasn’t even worked yet, why should I go?”

They were all unwilling to go and were eager to find someone else to replace them, but the village chief said they had to send one person.

In the end, it was Aunt Jin who made the decision, “This time, the eldest will go. Eldest, I’ll give you one tael of silver.”

Jin Liushu: “…”

Early the next morning, the villagers of Miaoqian Village gathered at the village entrance. When they saw Jin Dajiang and Jin Liushu coming together, they approached Jin Dajiang one by one, asking about Li Qingzhi’s situation and the division of the Jin family.

Jin’s house was quite lively last night. Some nearby families heard the noise, and besides, there was the village chief…

After deciding to divide the family, Grandma Jin was afraid that outsiders would know about their assets, so she asked the village chief to leave. However, even so, the village chief knew about the division of the Jin family. Before Jin Dajiang arrived, he had already told others about it.

Jin Dajiang wasn’t a talkative person; he just smiled and said, “I don’t know much about Ah Qing’s situation, as for the division… it’s already done.”

He didn’t say more.

Although Jin Liushu was lazy, he was clever, so he didn’t mention the specific amount of money they got. However, he did mention things that the villagers would inevitably know, such as them getting nine acres of land fields and, after compensating with silver, their old house was given to them.

The villagers looked sympathetically at Jin Dajiang.

Previously, they thought Jin Dajiang was lucky to have a capable brother like Jin Dahai. But their sympathy disappeared quickly when they realized that Jin Dajiang only got so little from the division.

However, soon, their sympathy vanished.

Jin Dajiang’s son, daughter-in-law, and daughter can all earn money, and even the son-in-law knows the county magistrate. Why should anyone feel sorry for him?

Before the family split, there was plenty of work for the Jin family to do, but now that they’ve split up… in the future, who knows, maybe Jin Dajiang could live as comfortably as Li Laogen did!

As soon as Jin Dajiang left, Jin Xiaoshu and Fang Jinniang got up.

Jin’s mother had been waiting at the door and walked over to them when she saw them, handing them a heavy cloth bag and two eggs. “Xiaoshu, this is the silver our family got. Take it. Your dad brought back two eggs yesterday. Each of you take one to eat…”

Jin Xiaoshu didn’t know what to say for a moment.

After thinking for a moment, he took the silver and hid it in the house, then said to his mother, “Mom, I’ll take the silver. I want to buy a boat of my own. You keep the eggs. I don’t need them! Oh, my sister said earlier to invite you to dinner at her place.”

“Huh?” His mother quickly refused, “I’ll eat at home. How can I go to my daughter’s house for a meal?”

“If my sister wants you to go, then you should go. When the rations are distributed, I’ll bring our share over.” Jin Xiaoshu said.

“But… your sister’s family eats so well…”

Jin Xiaoshu thought for a moment and said, “Mom, my brother-in-law is going to see the county magistrate today. He’s too busy to watch the house, so he wants you to come over and help cook and look after the kids.”

Hearing this, Jin’s mother said, “Then let’s go quickly? I’ll go cook for him.”

Li Qingzhi knows the county magistrate, and he found such a good job for Jin Dajiang… Jin’s mother really wanted to do something for her son-in-law.

“Let’s go,” Jin Xiaoshu said.

“Alright!” Jin’s mother happily followed behind Jin Xiaoshu.

Before getting married, Fang Jinniang hadn’t interacted much with Jin’s mother, and after getting married, she was out every day… She and Jin’s mother weren’t really familiar.

She had been worried all along, afraid that Jin’s mother might have some opinions about her.

But now… her mother-in-law was really easygoing, totally different from her own mother.

When the three of them arrived at Li’s house, Li Qingzhi was frying eggs.

He had pulled some garlic sprouts from the field and made a large bowl of garlic leaf fried eggs.

In addition to this, he also steamed pickled vegetables and salted fish.

Eating white rice early in the morning, plus three dishes… Jin’s mother was amazed!

When Li Qingzhi saw that she wasn’t taking any vegetables, he served her some eggs. Then Jin’s mother was a bit unsure, thinking about giving the eggs to the two children.

“Mom, you eat by yourself. They don’t lack food,” Li Qingzhi said.

This was someone who knew the county magistrate! Jin’s mother lowered her head obediently and ate. After finishing the meal, she eagerly started to clean up…

Li Qingzhi asked Jin’s mother to make fried rice with vegetables for lunch. While making the fried rice, he added some vegetables and said, “Mom, thank you.”

“Not a problem at all,” Jin’s mother immediately responded.

So Jin’s mother stayed at Li’s house, while Li Qingzhi and the others took a boat to the county town.

Li Qingzhi didn’t go to see Magistrate Gou today. Instead, he went to see Zhu Qian. Yesterday, Zhu Qian was a bit busy, and they hadn’t had much chance to talk.

Today, he went to see Zhu Qian to ask him to pay more attention to those laborers.

“Uncle Zhu, Hong Hui told Wu Baichuan to target my wife. You know about this. Now that the magistrate is building the dock, he and Sun Juren will probably do something. We must be careful.”

Zhu Qian nodded. “I’ve arranged for quite a few people to keep an eye on the dock, and my men are in charge of the mess hall. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Uncle Zhu, we still need to be careful… How about this, Uncle Zhu, when they’re eating, you arrange for someone to read Magistrate Gou’s stories to those laborers, and then tell them the benefits of building the dock for Chongcheng County. Let these laborers feel like they’re doing something good…” Li Qingzhi slowly explained.

At this time, ordinary people were living aimlessly. If you provide them with some entertainment, let them eat a little better, and tell them that they are doing something very important…

In this way, these people wouldn’t reject building the dock. And when they all stand with Magistrate Gou, it would be difficult for Hong Hui and Sun Juren to find someone to infiltrate.

And if Zhu Qian really did this, those laborers would surely be very happy.

This was also him fighting for their benefits.