Chapter 80: Reborn in the Nineties: The Tyrant Flower Chapter Eighty — Working

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

By the time Chai Youqing, limping along, carried a Chinese elm tree four or five meters long and as thick as a water bucket back to the village, his whole person wore a dazed, sluggish expression.

This tree weighed a full four or five hundred catties.

He carried it a full seven or eight li, resting more than ten times along the way.

Although Chai Youqing had done physical labor year-round and possessed considerable strength, carrying something weighing four or five hundred catties truly exceeded his limit of endurance.

Chai Youqing dragged it with a rope and shouldered one end, stubbornly inching it along for most of the day before he managed to get it to the village entrance.

If you ask why Chai Youqing didn't saw it into pieces first… it was because Chai Youqing felt this log was very suitable for making a house beam.

In this era, building houses used wood for purlins, and roofs were entirely made of wood. And house beams were especially hard to find.

A house beam needs to bear the weight of the entire roof, requiring exceptionally thick wood; poplar wood isn't very good due to its material quality. Chinese elm became the best material for house beams.

However, old Chinese elms are few.

Chai Youqing happened to see a ready-made one today, so he gritted his teeth and dragged it back.

But it genuinely exhausted Chai Youqing… he was, after all, only human, not a machine.

After tossing about for four or five hours, plus not having eaten breakfast, his legs now felt floaty and his walk was unsteady.

Just at this moment, Wang Huirong had already been waiting for Chai Youqing for a long time.

Wang Huirong had searched for a long time before waiting for Chai Youqing at the village entrance; she hadn't expected to catch him just like that. The moment she saw Chai Youqing dragging such a purlin, she began to complain: "My good son, what kind of suffering is this? Why carry such a heavy log? Isn't it tiring?"

"Tiring, yeah."

"Then why still carry it?"

"My family's Chai Mi made me bring it back."

Upon hearing it was Chai Mi's order, Wang Huirong's face instantly turned iron-green, and she started lecturing Chai Youqing: "Are you stupid? Your daughter tells you to do something and you do it? Do you treat her like your own mother?"

Chai Youqing: "……"

"Besides, such a big log, you carry it back, can your body take it? She, as a daughter, does nothing, idles away the day, does nothing but eat and sleep, doesn't earn a single cent — what kind of family can afford to support her?" Wang Huirong said with a pinched, sour expression: "Your wife is sitting the month and doesn't work, yet runs off to her mother's family; your daughter doesn't work either — can this life go on?"

Chai Youqing didn't speak either, just sat on that Chinese elm resting.

"Not that Mother is saying this to you, but Chai Mi is this old already, and your family is short of money now; her mother doesn't earn money, she doesn't earn money either — a family of five, four sitting ladies, can you afford to support them?" Wang Huirong spoke as if thinking of her son Chai Youqing's welfare: "In my opinion, Chai Mi should be sent out to work. In this day and age, how much money can farming make? It's not as good as working. Working requires no capital."

Chai Youqing was already exhausted beyond measure; hearing Wang Huirong say this, his mood worsened further, and he continued dragging the log toward home.

"I'm talking to you!"

"Mother, I feel you're meddling a bit too much. Chai Mi just turned eighteen, and she's a girl — where would she go work?" Chai Youqing said with some displeasure: "If we're talking about working, our family's third son stays home year-round and you don't care. Chai Mi just reached adulthood and you're already pushing?"

"Isn't You De's leg broken?" Wang Huirong defended.

Chai Youqing gave a bitter smile: "You De's leg just broke. But it's been nearly twenty years — he hasn't worked either, and I never heard you, Mother, say You De was in the wrong…"

"How can you not understand good or bad words…" Wang Huirong raged.

However, Chai Youqing had already dragged the log away long ago.