My sister became the empress, but I'm still growing vegetables and raising chickens

Mrs. Zhang put her hands on her hips and sneered, "This is what your family deserves. Your brother always does things like this because you've spoiled him. Today, he just broke his leg. If we don't do anything, won't he be killed tomorrow? Besides, I've heard that your family is making a lot of money in business now. Twenty taels is a piece of cake for you."

"You're talking nonsense. My family runs a small business, and the hard-earned money is just enough to support our family. How can it be easy?"

Mrs. Zhang rolled her eyes: "Your family eats meat every day!"

The rest of my sister's words got stuck in her throat.

They do eat meat every day, but they have been eating more vegetarian food these past two days. However, there are still some meat dishes that they cook. Although they don’t eat them, my eldest sister, second sister, mother and youngest brother still eat them.

Moreover, stewed meat and roasted meat will have an oily aroma, which can be smelled as long as you get a little closer to the Si family.

It's so obvious.

The other people in the village originally thought that the twenty taels that Mrs. Zhang asked for were too much, but just this one sentence made them so jealous that their eyes turned red.

"Yes, the Si family eats meat every day. I've smelled it several times when I passed by."

"Not only did I smell it, but last time my son passed by, he came back and pestered me, crying and making a fuss, saying that he didn't want to be my son and wanted to go to the Si family to be my son."

"That's right, if a family can eat meat every day, then they are rich, right?"

The villagers worked tirelessly, facing the earth and back to the sky. When things were tough, they toiled harder than anyone else. They occasionally did odd jobs to earn a little money, but even if they had extra money, they wouldn't spend it carelessly.

As for eating, it is good enough to be full. During famine, people cannot even get enough food.

They consider it a luxury to eat meat once a month, so how could they possibly cook meat every day?

"Also, the situation changed a while ago, didn't it? I heard that everyone in the Si family made new clothes, and they all bought them from ready-made clothing stores. They didn't even make them themselves!"

It is rare to make new clothes. Every household in the village wears new clothes for three years, old clothes for three years, and then mends them for another three years.

That's not all. Clothes for the whole family, young and old, are made for the adults. When they're torn and can't be worn, they're cut up and made for the younger ones. The same goes for children's clothes. When the older children can't wear them anymore, they're given to the younger ones, and then passed down to the next generation, until they're really worn out, and then...

Just use it as a rag.

But after several years of good harvests, most people have some extra money, so it is not uncommon for them to buy one or two new clothes for their families.

What’s strange is the ready-made clothes!

How much does a ready-made garment cost? Who would be willing to spend that much money to buy it? They would just buy the cloth and make it themselves.

"Not only did they get ready-made clothes, but I heard that even Mrs. Zhu, who worked for his family, got new clothes!"

Everyone's eyes fell on Mrs. Zhu who was standing next to Aunt Jin. However, she was not wearing any new clothes because Mrs. Zhu was reluctant to wear them.

But she did have a new dress, and when she heard everyone say that, she lowered her head embarrassedly.

After a long pause, the younger sister finally retorted, "That's all I can buy. It won't cost me much, and I'm broke right now. How can I possibly come up with twenty taels?"

She felt guilty, so she was weak inside and only managed to refute him reluctantly, and her momentum was not as strong as before.

Mrs. Zhang put her hands on her hips and refused to listen to her arguments. She rolled her eyes and said, "I don't care. Twenty taels of silver, not a penny less. Otherwise, just wait. My husband and the three older men will capture your Xiao An and beat him until his legs are broken!"

After saying that, she twisted her fat body and walked away.

After such a commotion, most of the villagers just wanted to watch the show, and the little sympathy they had before was gone.

After all, the Si family now makes money, has meat to eat, and has new clothes to wear.

The younger sister went back angrily, not daring to shout loudly for fear of waking up her elder sister and Xiaoxiaer. She walked straight in, pushed open the younger brother's door, and said in a low voice, "Brother, why don't you come out now? You've caused such trouble today, I'm really going to beat you to death!"

But my younger brother is not at home.

Mrs. Zhu was extremely anxious and asked, "I think Xiao An seems to have run up the mountain. What should I do?"

The younger sister said impatiently: "When encountering problems, he only knows how to run away. What a useless thing. Let him be!"

But when dinner came, there was still no sign of him. Aunt Jin was extremely worried and said to her younger sister, "The young master is missing. What if he encounters something on the mountain? Why don't I go up the mountain and look for him?"

"He's just trying to scare us. Doesn't he think he can get away with it if he runs away? Leave him be, he'll come back when it gets dark!"

In order to save oil lamps, the villagers always eat dinner early, clean up the house after dinner, and wash and rest early before it gets dark.

Because the Si family had to get up in the middle of the night to make porridge, everyone went to bed earlier and had dinner earlier.

But today, it was obvious that no one was in the mood to eat. On the one hand, they were worried about their younger brother, and on the other hand, they were worried about the twenty taels of silver they had to pay as compensation.

Si Xingzhi sat in the corridor in a daze. Several children came to look for him, but he sent them away.

The rice that had been harvested earlier had now been threshed and dried, and was collected in bags. Someone brought them over now, and when they saw him like this, they all shook their heads.

Even in a good year, if all this grain was sold, it wouldn't be worth twenty taels of silver.

The food was already placed on the table in the main hall. Seeing everyone like this, the younger sister said unhappily, "What's going on? Do you still want to live like this? Come and have dinner. After dinner, Aunt Jin and Mrs. Zhu will go wash the rice. Dad, you gather the rice and firewood!"

A few people came over slowly and looked at each other in confusion.

Just then, a familiar female voice was heard: "What happened?"

Everyone looked up and saw Si Muyan standing by the small door leading to the back.

The younger sister was full of things on her mind and was trying her best to take care of the household affairs. When she saw her elder sister get up, tears welled up in her eyes.

"Sister, are you okay?"

Aunt Jin hurried to help Si Muyan, reached out and touched her forehead, and breathed a sigh of relief: "The fever is gone, that's great, thank God."

Si Muyan sat at the table, frowning as she looked at the dishes on the table: "Why are you eating this?"

Apart from a vegetable and egg soup, there was no meat at all.

Mrs. Zhu immediately went to the kitchen and brought over some fried meat, a small portion, and placed it in front of Si Muyan: "Yes, Yan girl, eat quickly."

Si Muyan understood at a glance that this was made specially for her and no one else in the family could get it.

Forget it. The idea of ​​thriftiness is deeply rooted in their minds. They won’t understand that eating meat is to ensure the body’s needs. They just think it is to satisfy the desire for food.

Let’s talk about it later.

Si Muyan looked around again, frowned, and asked, "Where's my little brother? Why isn't he here for dinner?"

"At the Second Miss's place."

"I went out to collect firewood."

"Your mother just had something to do, so Xiao An went to... accompany..."

"Feed the chickens and ducks."

Four people said four sentences, and then fell silent.