Chapter 154: All Must Die

Over in Longquan Village, Foreman Lu was indeed trustworthy. Early the next morning, he brought his little apprentice to the door, ready to measure the dimensions and calculate the costs.

Du Ruo let Zheng Qinghe accompany them to chat, while she and Zheng Shi were busy in the kitchen with Chunhua.

Soon, dishes were served on the table one by one.

Eight hard dishes: salty, fresh, and non-greasy twice-cooked pork, thick white fish head and tofu soup that tasted great, rich and delicious stewed chicken with mushrooms, plus a few seasonal vegetables—it was simply enough to make one's eyebrows fresh!

Foreman Lu was fine; he had seen the world, so his eating was relatively restrained.

That little apprentice hadn't practiced as well as his master; he ate so ravenously that he almost choked and rolled his eyes.

"Why are you like a starving ghost reincarnated? If others didn't know, they would think I, as a master, usually abuse you and don't give you food." Foreman Lu kicked the little apprentice under the table, not in a good mood.

The little apprentice's mouth was bulging, and he laughed cheekily, "This can't be blamed on me, Master; it's really too delicious."

"It's okay, it's okay. I'm very happy that the little master likes our family's food." Seeing that Foreman Lu was about to scold him again, Du Ruo immediately used public chopsticks to pick a piece of meat into his bowl, smiling, "Come, Foreman Lu, you eat more too."

Foreman Lu said thank you.

Actually, he was just putting on a show, lest the employer feel that the little apprentice was eating too much and had no upbringing.

But honestly, Du Niang Zi's craftsmanship was too good, even better than the chef at Zui Meng Ju. She was worthy of being the one who created the heavenly fresh match.

The meal was enjoyed by both host and guest.

After drinking tea, Du Ruo led Foreman Lu to the house foundation, bringing Zheng Qinghe and Jiang Cheng along.

Jiang Li was too busy, and she was a little daughter-in-law. It wouldn't be appropriate for her to show her face when a bunch of shirtless men came to build the house.

So after the specific details were discussed, the subsequent construction would have to rely on Zheng Qinghe to keep an eye on it.

As for Jiang Cheng, this child was not good at diplomacy, but he was most familiar with the territory, just right to be a guide.

After all, it was the house of his former wicked master, where he had lived for several years.

As soon as the group walked to the Clear Water Pond, they ran into Lin You Tian.

Lin You Tian was strolling on the village road with his hands behind his back. Seeing Du Ruo and the others, one eyebrow raised high and then fell, asking, "Jiang Li's family, who are these? Where are you going?"

Du Ruo admired his thick skin. The two families had already fallen out so badly, yet he still had the nerve to come up and talk.

However, he was the village chief, and it was normal to ask a few questions when seeing suspicious strangers. Du Ruo replied indifferently, "Oh, this is the foreman I invited to help me build a house."

Build a house? Lin You Tian immediately put on a lecturing tone.

"It's not that I'm talking about you, Jiang Li's family. There are several bricklayers in our village. Why must you give money to outsiders? Could it be that your Jiang family's Second Branch has become rich and looks down on us poor fellow villagers?"

He glanced at Foreman Lu, especially lingering for a few seconds on the long scar on Foreman Lu's face. "Besides, how do you know if outsiders are good or bad? What if they have bad intentions? What if they are a liar?"

Du Ruo was speechless.

"This doesn't need to trouble you, Village Chief. Even if I'm cheated, it's my business; I'm willing."

She smiled without warmth. "Actually, speaking of bad intentions, you can reflect on yourself, don't always think about other people's sons-in-law, thinking about digging other people's walls."

Lin You Tian: "..."

Truly a dog biting Lu Dongbin, not knowing good hearts!

Just as he was about to mock her, he saw that Du Shi had already led people away, not paying attention to him at all.

Unable to catch his breath, Lin You Tian's face sank, and he turned to walk toward his home.

His wife, Lin Auntie, was feeding chickens in the courtyard. Seeing her husband return with a big face, she asked casually, "What's wrong? Who provoked you?"

Who else? Apart from that old immortal Jiang Clan Head in the village, it was those rabbit cubs in the Jiang family's Second Branch who were always against him.

"Where is Shuang'er?" Lin You Tian didn't answer but asked about his daughter.

"She's in her own room." Lin Auntie looked into the room and then lowered her voice. "She's embroidering a wedding dress..."

Hearing this, Lin You Tian became even more irritable, walking back and forth with his hands behind his back. "Shuang'er is already eighteen, and she will be nineteen after the new year. It's time to get married."

Lin Auntie snorted. "It's all because of you, insisting on letting Shuang'er recruit a son-in-law. Now it's good, dragged into an old girl."

"How can you blame me?" Lin You Tian was unconvinced. "If you want to blame someone, blame that ungrateful thing Jiang Li. He knew our Shuang'er liked him, but he insisted on acting coy and refused to marry in. If he had agreed readily at the beginning, we would have been holding our grandson by now, and there wouldn't be so many things."

Lin Auntie didn't care about the grandson; she only felt sorry for her daughter.

"Then what do you say we should do now?"

Lin You Tian thought for a while and made up his mind. "Shuang'er's lifelong event cannot be dragged on any longer. Like this, you go to Matchmaker Hua's house tomorrow and ask her to find a suitable one for our Shuang'er. You tell her that our daughter likes good-looking ones, at least not worse than Jiang Li. In addition, they must be healthy, without illness or disaster, so that they can help our Lin family open branches and scatter leaves."

"No!" Lin Auntie threw the wild vegetables in her hand into the chicken flock and put her hands on her hips. "Shuang'er said, she would rather die than marry anyone but Jiang Li! Do you want your daughter's life?"

"Jiang Li, Jiang Li, I only know Jiang Li!"

Lin You Tian couldn't help but raise his voice, exasperated. "Is it that I don't want to? It's that Jiang Li doesn't want to!"

He pointed in the direction of Gu Doctor's house. "Just now I saw Du Shi leading people toward that side, saying they are going to start building a house! Their family is rich and powerful now, and Jiang family's Erlang has taken the county's top scholar. Do you think our daughter still has that possibility with Jiang Li? Impossible, give up this heart!"

Lin Auntie was stuck.

Yes, people didn't want it when they were poor, and it was even more impossible now that they were rich.

Unless...

"Her father, actually, why must we insist on the recruitment clause? We are all in the same village and close to each other, so we can arrive with a shout. What's the difference between recruiting and not recruiting? As for passing on the family line, let Shuang'er have a few more children when the time comes, and coax Jiang Li well, let one of the children take the mother's surname, isn't that it?"

Lin You Tian stroked his beard and didn't speak, but he didn't refute it either.

This looked like something that could be discussed.

Lin Auntie then added fire. "You think about our daughter's stubborn temper again. If she sets her mind on something, eight horses won't pull her back. If we force her to marry someone else, what if she really can't think of it and does something stupid? We won't be able to regret it by then."

Lin You Tian also began to worry, but he still had rationality.

"Okay, even if I agree not to recruit a son-in-law and let her marry, Jiang Li can't marry either.

People already have a wife, and that Du Shi is not an ugly monster anymore. Now that appearance is not worse than our daughter's. Moreover, Du Shi's father is an official. Jiang Li can't possibly divorce his wife and remarry, right?"

"It's impossible." Lin Auntie laughed, a dark light flashing in her eyes. "However, if Du Shi dies, it's a different matter."

She turned into the room and rummaged out an oil-paper bag from the cabinet.

This bag of rat poison had been waiting for too long.

Isn't Du Shi going to build a new house? When the time comes, there will be many people and many mouths, which is a good opportunity to take action.

Killing Du Shi alone is far from enough. Jiang Li's mother-in-law, those younger brothers and sisters who hold him back, and that skinny dog that is easy to spoil things, none of them can run away.

All must die! ===== CHAPTER 155 =====