Traveling through the mountains and farming

When the work was over that day, Lin Wan called everyone over and prepared to settle the day's wages on the spot.

The three people from Uncle Li's family said on the spot that they could not take the house away and had to move out. This was the old man's wish and they dared not disobey.

Others also said they would not accept any payment because Lin Wan was leading them in selling ice jelly.

But Lin Wan knew that everyone's life was not easy. It was difficult for them to have enough food every meal. It was truly rare for them to make the decision not to ask for wages.

Lin Wan was moved by their sincere and simple behavior.

But building a house is not a matter of one or two days, it takes about a week, and she had already said that she would not provide meals and would pay with labor wages.

She couldn't take such a big advantage, and she felt that favors were the hardest to repay.

So, with her insistence, the wages were finally paid out.

She also packed the remaining ice powder in bamboo tubes for everyone to take home. She carefully packaged the ice powder and handed it to everyone.

Starting from the evening of that day, the villagers spread the news that Lin Wan's family was well paid for building the house, with high wages, meals after lunch, and even packing up meals after work.

Li Changren returned home later than usual this evening.

On his way home, he was stopped by several groups of villagers, who asked him if Lin Wan paid him a lot for building the house and if he was helping.

When they heard Li Changren say, "I don't know, I don't have time to help," they all showed an expression of "as expected."

How could he help build the house when he could divide the family property so ruthlessly?

At this time, at the home of the second branch of the Li family, Zhang was visited by her two sisters-in-law from her natal family, who asked her whether the treatment for building a house for Lin Wan's family was as good as the legend said, and whether she could arrange for her two brothers to work for Lin Wan.

Zhang was also confused when asked. She hadn't gone out in the afternoon and didn't know what had happened.

And she didn't hear Uncle Li say last night that she would get paid for helping Lin Wan build the house. If she had known, she would have let Li Changren go.

After dealing with her two sisters-in-law, she went out to make some inquiries. Seeing that what everyone said was very detailed, she felt that it should be correct.

She couldn't wait for Li Changren to come back to discuss it, so she ran to Uncle Li's house and asked him why he didn't tell them last night that there would be wages for building the house.

When Uncle Li heard this, he laughed out loud, "Others get paid, but we in the Li family don't ask for any."

He had just returned home and heard that three of his family members had gone to help build the house and got paid. He got furious and asked Li Changyi to return the money to Lin Wan immediately.

Li Changyi also executed the order very well. When he arrived at Lin Wan's house, he put the money on the table and ran away. He was afraid that he would not be able to return home if he did not return the money.

He moved quickly, as if he was afraid that if he stayed for even a second longer, there would be some serious consequences.

Uncle Li pretended not to notice that Zhang was here to earn money, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Is Li Changren free tomorrow? Are you going to help?"

When Zhang heard that the Li family was helping for free, she immediately faked a smile and said, "How can I have time? I'm not afraid that the new daughter-in-law won't be able to manage the household and spend money without knowing how to manage it, so I came here to ask about the specific situation."

Her smile was somewhat hypocritical, and there was a hint of unnaturalness in her words.

Uncle Li lowered his eyebrows and said in a cold voice: "Since the family has been separated, how she manages the family is her business, and you don't have to worry about it."

"You're right. I'm cooking porridge on the stove at home. I won't disturb you." After saying that, Zhang turned around and ran away.

Aunt Li next to her sighed when she saw this, "Tsk tsk~ After all, she is not her biological mother, and this father has become her stepfather. It might be a good thing that Li Changren did not go to help."

At the same time, she was thinking that Zhang and the others didn't know yet that Lin Wan was making money by selling ice jelly, and she didn't know what would happen after they found out.

On the side of the second branch of the Li family, Zhang came back from Uncle Li's house. As soon as she entered the door, Li Changren asked:

"There's a rumor in the village that the Lin family hired people to build their house at a high price. Is it true or false?" There was a hint of curiosity and doubt in his eyes.

Zhang pouted with some dissatisfaction and said, "I just asked my uncle. The Li family helped for free, but the others were paid."

"Are the wages of other people really that high?" Li Changren approached Zhang and continued to ask.

Zhang shook her head and replied, "My uncle meant that since we have separated, we should not worry about how the Lin family will run the family. From what he said, I don't think he was going to tell me."

Li Changren said indifferently: "If you don't want to say it, then don't say it. Good or bad has nothing to do with us."

In fact, what he was thinking was that Lin Wan and the others only had the five taels of silver from the family division, and how they spent it was none of his business. He would not get involved, and when it was all spent, they couldn't expect to blame him.

~

Lin Wan had no idea about this. She was completely unaware that the scene of her family's first day off work had quietly set off a huge gossip storm in the village.

She was sitting there quietly, her eyes fixed on the money that Li Changyi returned. Her brows were slightly furrowed, silently thinking about how to repay this favor.

We can't let people work for free and not even eat. This is really unacceptable.

Besides, Uncle Li’s family had just started making some money, so they probably wouldn’t want to spend it all on food.

Thinking of this, Lin Wan had an idea. Since they didn't want money, she could give them the ingredients.

She could deliver meat dishes to the Li family every day to replenish their nutrition and physical strength, but it was not convenient for her to go to the butcher shop in Taohua Village to buy meat every day.

Li Chongle looked across the table at Lin Wan, who was frowning, and couldn't help asking:

"Sister-in-law, are you having problems?"

Hearing Li Chongle's question, Lin Wan came back to her senses.

She calmed herself down and then told the two siblings what she was thinking and the inconvenience of buying meat.

"We have fish every morning, we can send some over." Li Chongle immediately gave a clever suggestion.

Lin Wanze looked puzzled and asked, "I see there are a lot of small fish in the river, why is no one in the village catching them?"

Li Chongle explained with a smile: "It's because the fish is too small and takes too much effort. Also, it takes a lot of oil to cook the fish well, so no one wants to catch it."

Lin Wan continued, "I guess your great-uncle's family won't be willing to use oil, so don't waste it when you send it over."

Li Chongle shrugged and said, "It won't be a waste, it will just taste terrible."

Lin Wan nodded thoughtfully, and then said, "Then we'll make it and send it over, but we can't send fish every day. We can ask Uncle Dashan to help bring meat on market day. We have to think of other ways."

After saying that, she fell into deep thought again, thinking about other ways to solve this problem.

The brother and sister also quieted down and fell into thought together.

"It would be great if big brother was here. He would go into the mountains to hunt rabbits, pheasants and the like, and sometimes even wild boars." Li Ke chatted from the side.

She missed her elder brother, who used to go up the mountain to hunt and down the river to fish, and secretly provide them with meals. At that time, they would not go hungry because of her elder brother. She didn't know when her elder brother would come back.

Yes, there are pheasants in the mountains. Lin Wan knows how to make a trap to catch pheasants. One summer vacation in modern times, she followed her grandfather to the mountains to pick wild fruits. When she saw pheasants, her grandfather taught her on the spot. She learned it on the spot and even caught a pheasant.

Thinking of this, Lin Wan immediately asked the two siblings if they knew where there were pheasants nearby.

"We have them in the mountains of our village," Li Chongle replied.

"Yes, there are some in the mountain behind our house. My eldest brother hunted them there before." Li Ke's attention was immediately attracted, and she added excitedly.

"Okay, you lead the way. It's not dark yet and there's still time. We should quickly set the trap in the back mountain and then we can collect it tomorrow morning." Lin Wan said decisively.