Chapter 40 Working Just to Lose Money

Just as Zhao Zheng had anticipated, the incident involving the tiger dragging away the hunter from Lesser Mao Village was taken very seriously.

The township magistrate dispatched a patrol officer.

The patrol officer was a local official responsible for capturing thieves and maintaining order, roughly equivalent to a modern police precinct chief.

He had a dark face, broad mouth, and a thick, bushy beard along his jawline. At first glance, he was clearly a man not to be trifled with.

Xu Youde, usually so arrogant and high-and-mighty, stood behind him, bowing and scraping deferentially. "Lord Yao, please take a seat and rest for a moment."

Yao waved his hand dismissively. "I don't have time for that. Are all the men from the small mountain village gathered here? Take a roll call."

Xu Youde nodded hurriedly, pulled out a roster, and began calling out names. The men whose names were called responded one by one.

"Lord Yao, everyone is basically here."

"Very well."

Yao Yingxiong swept his gaze over the crowd, and few dared to meet his eyes.

"I need eighty men to come with me to Pig Snout Ridge to hunt the tiger, and you must bring your own rations!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd instantly grew hesitant. Not only was Pig Snout Ridge far away and dangerous, but they were also expected to provide their own food?

Who would be happy about that?

Noticing the general reluctance, Yao Yingxiong added, "Those who go will be credited for corvée labor. One day will count as ten. Go for three days, and your corvée labor obligation for the entire year will be completely waived."

Hearing this, the crowd was overjoyed and immediately raised their hands. "Lord Yao, I'll go!"

"I'll go too!"

Although Pig Snout Ridge was somewhat dangerous, compared to serving a full month of corvée labor every year, the temptation of just three days was simply too great to resist.

Zhao Zheng, however, had zero interest in this. Since two of his adopted sons had died in battle, the imperial court provided preferential treatment: the loss of one son exempted a family from corvée labor for three years. With two sons lost, he was exempt for six years!

Furthermore, if one wished to avoid corvée labor altogether, it was permissible to buy out the annual requirement using grain or bolts of fabric.

In the blink of an eye, more than half of the crowd was selected.

"The numbers are complete." Yao Yingxiong nodded.

Xu Youde also felt a surge of reflected glory. "All of you, work hard for Lord Yao, and don't disgrace our little mountain village."

As the crowd dispersed, Zhao Zheng turned back toward his home.

Seeing him return, Yang Zhaodi and the other woman let out a collective sigh of relief.

Just then, Zheng Chunmei arrived, dragging Li Erdan along with her.

The little brat wore a reluctant expression, looking extremely awkward when he saw Zhao Zheng.

"Mother, I don't want to apologize to old miser Zhao."

"Who are you calling an old miser? Call him Uncle!" Zheng Chunmei said through clenched teeth. "Let me tell you, if you don't apologize today, don't ever call me Mother again."

Li Erdan was bewildered. Why was his mother taking the side of the old miser? And why had she dragged him over to apologize while his grandmother was away from home?

"Old miser Zhao must have fed my mother some kind of bewitching soup!" Li Erdan thought furiously. Although he was only thirteen, boys his age in the countryside were often already fathers.

His grandmother had also said she would find a way next year to get him a wife so he could become a proper adult!

"Uncle Zhao, I brought Erdan here to apologize to Xiaoe." Zheng Chunmei pulled Erdan forward. "Go on, apologize to Aunt Xiaoe!"

At an age when youths cared most about their pride, Erdan kept his head held high in stubborn defiance. Zhao Zheng, however, had no intention of coddling him. "Forget the apology. I'll just go straight to the village elders and report that you haven't been hauling water for my household these past few days..."

Li Erdan's expression changed drastically. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

This damned old miser Zhao only knew how to run to the village elders. His grandmother was right; he wasn't a man at all.

"Aunt Xiaoe, I'm sorry. I was wrong. I shouldn't have stolen your chickens," Li Erdan forced the words out, though his tone held not a shred of genuine remorse.

Zhao Zheng had never expected this little beast to repent anyway. "An apology alone doesn't settle it. A single chicken is worth twenty cash, so four chickens come to eighty cash!"

Li Erdan turned pale. "That expensive?"

Zheng Chunmei panicked as well. "Uncle Zhao, you didn't say anything about paying money last night!"

"Apologizing is only right, but does eating my chickens come for free?" Zhao Zheng sneered. "Right now, a single egg costs at least seven or eight cash. Charging you eighty cash is only because we're fellow villagers!"

"Uncle Zhao, even if you sold me, I couldn't scrape together that much money," Zheng Chunmei cried out anxiously. "My husband used up all our savings on medical treatments before he died. As a widow with an orphan to raise, I simply don't have it!"

Yang Zhaodi remained silent, while Zhang Xiaoe felt a twinge of pity. However, her sister-in-law had told her a great deal the previous night: they had to make the Li family feel the pinch so that they would never dare bully their household again.

"I don't care about that. Either you pay up, or you work it off at my house. Take your pick," Zhao Zheng said.

"Old miser Zhao, don't push people too far!" Li Erdan shouted angrily.

"Shut your mouth." Zheng Chunmei slapped her son across the backside, then turned to Zhao Zheng. "We can work, but there has to be a time limit."

Zhao Zheng replied, "Day laborers outside make about ten cash a day. Work for a full eight days, and we'll call it even."

"Alright, I agree." Zheng Chunmei nodded.

"Mother, why would you agree? He's clearly bullying us!" Li Erdan was enraged to the point of madness. No, he had to find Ma Dabai and have him step in to teach the old miser Zhao a lesson.

Without another word to Zheng Chunmei, he turned and ran off with reddened eyes.

Zheng Chunmei offered an embarrassed smile. "Uncle Zhao, Erdan is ignorant. Please don't hold it against him."

In Zheng Chunmei's view, what did ten days of labor matter? At the very least, it gave her a legitimate excuse to come to the Zhao household, which meant she could find ways to get a bit more food from them.

To her, this was actually a good thing.

Zhao Zheng nodded inwardly. Sooner or later, he would break this little beast in until he was completely obedient.

"There's some firewood in the kitchen. Chop it later, then mix dirt with water, press it in a mold to make mud bricks, and leave them in the courtyard to dry. I plan to build the courtyard wall higher and build a small shed on the side."

With that, Zhao Zheng added, "I don't provide meals for laborers."

Zheng Chunmei felt a bitter taste in her mouth. She knew the old miser Zhao would definitely try to squeeze her, ensuring she wouldn't gain even the slightest superficial advantage.

Well, she refused to believe she wouldn't manage to get a single piece of meat from the Zhao family!

"Then, Uncle Zhao, what you promised me last night..."

"Chop the wood first, then you get half a bowl of scorched rice and a bowl of meat broth!" With those words, Zhao Zheng set back to work.

Yang Zhaodi handed the firewood chopper to Zheng Chunmei. "Use this to chop."

Zhang Xiaoe happily scampered over to Zhao Zheng's side and whispered, "Father-in-law, I'm so happy!"

Zhao Zheng patted her head gently. "Later, ladle out a bit of meat broth for Zheng Chunmei. Remember to dilute it with boiling water so she can taste the flavor, but make sure she doesn't get full."

"Understood, Father-in-law!" Zhang Xiaoe nodded, feeling as though she had learned another valuable lesson. "By the way, Father-in-law, what are you building here?"

"I'm planning to build a dry latrine behind the kitchen. It'll be more convenient, and we can use the waste to make fertilizer," Zhao Zheng explained.

"That's wonderful! Sister-in-law and I won't have to sneak around anymore."

Zhao Zheng smiled and shook his head. The village was desperately poor; many families couldn't even afford a proper dry latrine, usually just digging a hole in the ground, which was terribly inefficient.

Slightly wealthier households might have their latrines built right next to the pigsties and chicken coops. In his past life, Zhao Zheng had even seen similar setups in certain remote rural areas.

As for why he was building a proper latrine, it was purely out of personal convenience.

He was thoroughly sick of scraping himself with bamboo slips.

Those were essentially thin strips of bamboo or small wooden sticks that, once used, were soaked in water and reused over and over by multiple people.

Even though Zhao Zheng was fastidious and always grabbed a fresh one, it still scraped his backside raw, feeling as though he were being repeatedly assaulted by a succession of coarse wool socks.

And that was only for the relatively civilized folks.

The less refined ones simply used river pebbles, or didn't wipe at all—truly barbaric.

And he, Zhao Zheng, absolutely must have toilet paper!