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

Chapter 187 Confinement

Mrs. Zhu sent chicken and duck eggs over every now and then. The villagers saw it, but no one said anything.

Only Aunt Zhu pointed at the eldest brother Zhu angrily, "It's all because of you, you idiot! Not to mention your mother sending gifts every few days, do you know how much money she gave to the fourth brother? Two taels of silver, just for your fourth brother's wife's confinement!"

Boss Zhu pushed her away impatiently: "I'm stupid? Aren't you stupid? Who is it that goes around saying bad things about my mother? Who can't raise a child well themselves and still blames my mother!"

"Zhu Datian, what do you mean? Now you can say that all the things you did before don't count, right? Pah, you are such a coward as a boss!"

The eldest son of the Zhu family and his wife had a quarrel. Most people in the village just watched the fight and no one tried to stop it.

Over the past six months, because the Si family has opened both workshops, most of the women who did not open a workshop took the seeds back to plant crops and raise poultry. They also collected the down of ducks and geese, dried them, and then sold them to the Si family. They didn't know what the use of it was, but the Si family was happy to accept it, so how could they not sell it?

As a result, the women in Songji Village and even the two neighboring villages became more assertive. After all, the people working in the Si family were basically only women, and women earned much more money than men.

Even some families who had daughters were no longer as disgusted as before. They happily said that they would send their daughters to learn to read and work in the Si family shop in the future.

But of course, there was no Aunt Zhu among these people. The Zhu family had a hard time. Every family had become wealthy, but theirs was the poorest, even poorer than the two bachelors at the entrance of the village.

Zhu Daniu is usually domineering in the village and is hated by everyone, but because Aunt Zhu is strong and Zhu Daniu is still young, no one bothers to care.

It's different now. After all, everyone knows that Zhu Daya's death was not caused by Mrs. Zhu, but by Zhu Daniu. Even though he was young and ignorant at the time, there were too many people in the village gossiping. What good things could they say about a child who killed his own sister?

In addition, the Zhu family was so poor that the villagers, who lived a good life, unconsciously felt a little disgusted with their family, and those gossipy people were even more sarcastic.

As a result, Boss Zhu and his family didn't even like to go out.

Aunt Zhu went to the vegetable garden to pick vegetables and saw a group of people not far away, talking to Fourth Aunt, all of them were full of compliments.

"Your son-in-law is hardworking and capable. He does his own work and also rushes to do his two brothers' work."

Fourth Aunt said cheerfully, "His brothers are busy, so he doesn't have much to do in the village. He just lends a hand. His brothers and sisters-in-law are all good people. Look, he always comes home with bags of things to buy for them. My daughter is being well taken care of; the baby weighed almost six kilograms when she was born!"

"That's right, Mrs. Zhu is worried that your daughter won't have anything to eat, so she makes soup every few days and sends it to the fourth son's house."

Fourth Aunt smiled and said, "My daughter is lucky to have such a good mother-in-law. Now the family has no worries about food and clothing. Seeing them living a good life, we, as the elders, are also happy. Speaking of which, the people in your Songji Village are really good. I saw several families planning to rebuild their houses."

Everyone was talking at once, starting from Zhu Laosi's family and talking about how every household in the village was living a good life now, and they were all very happy.

Aunt Zhu's face darkened even further, and she couldn't help but spit. "Now it seems that the old woman is treating your daughter well, but that's because your daughter gave birth to a boy. If it was a girl, do you think she would even go and take a look at her?"

Fourth Aunt Zhu had a grudge against her mother-in-law before, after all, it was her own daughter who died. But Fourth Aunt Zhu was not an ignorant person, as she had come into contact with Mrs. Zhu before. It was not easy for a woman to lose her husband at an early age and raise several children. If she was not strong-willed, she would have been bullied to death long ago.

So Fourth Auntie raised her eyebrows and said in a cold voice, "They say justice is in the hearts of the people. Everyone knows what kind of person my mother-in-law is. The girl from the Si family spends half the day with my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law treats her like her own granddaughter and never shows any dislike."

Aunt Zhu retorted, "That's because the Si family treats her well and gives her money."

"So you also know that when someone treats you well, you should be grateful. I thought you didn't know. If you were to ask who your mother-in-law was best to, don't you have any idea? Your Daniu is your eldest grandson, and she raised him single-handedly. She worked hard to raise you children and manage the household. How do you, as her son and daughter-in-law, repay her?"

Aunt Zhu's face turned paler and paler.

Fourth Aunt rolled her eyes and said in a loud voice, "We are all women, with sons and daughters. We will have wives in the future. If we marry a woman like you, we will have no place to cry."

Everyone burst into laughter and scolded Aunt Zhu. Aunt Zhu was so embarrassed that she stopped picking vegetables and went home in shame.

Fourth Aunt's basket was stuffed with a lot of vegetables, and she went back happily to cook for her daughter.

October is harvest time, and every household is busy working in the fields. This year, the Si family has rented out their land, so they don't have to worry about it. Most of the able-bodied women in the village work in workshops and shops, so the busy work in the fields can only be done by men.

The men were busy and very happy thinking about the good life they were having.

There were also those short-sighted men who complained that working in the fields every day was too tiring. If they split up the family property, they wouldn't even have a hot meal when they returned home. Seeing their wives returning from the workshop in clean and respectable attire, not looking tired at all, they became resentful.

"The family has been so busy these past few days, how can your workshop have so much work? Go ask for leave tomorrow and go back to work after this busy period is over."

Si Muyan originally didn't care about these things, but when she heard that more and more people were making a fuss, she simply spread the word.

"The workshop's work schedule doesn't wait. If you don't want to work anymore, go to the accounting office to settle your monthly wages and leave. Second sister and little sister, go to the village head uncle's house and ask Auntie to go to the nearby villages and ask. Didn't several people recently ask if our workshop is short of staff?"

This meant that someone was going to be replaced, and the men who were planning to ask their wives to take leave immediately shut up.

Working in a workshop is a lucrative job. The division of labor is clear. You only have to work for four hours a day and can come back at noon and in the evening. The money you earn in a month is equivalent to what men would earn from working as laborers in the market.

Who would be willing to leave if they can enter the workshop and do a good job?

Si Muyan added, "Construction time is secondary, quality is the most important. I don't care what happens when you go back, but if you don't have enough energy while working for me, I will also replace you!"

So those men who planned to let their wives work in the workshop during the day and go to the fields to harvest at noon and at night also gave up the idea.