Chapter 32

Reaching out to take the pork, Jiang Ze bowed to Li Xinyue: "Thank you, Sister-in-law."

Li Xinyue smiled calmly: "You're welcome."

Jiang Ze did not linger here; he had to hurry home to give this piece of meat to his insane mother and sick grandmother to eat.

In his world, meat was a very precious thing, and he had heard people say that if you were sick, you should eat meat to build yourself up.

He wanted to go home and give the meat to his mother and grandmother so that their illnesses would be cured.

The distribution of meat continued; those who fetched water usually got two to four taels, those who washed the offal got two taels and a share of the offal, those who carried the pig got four taels and some pig skin, the Village Chief got a jin of pork belly, and Hunter Wu got two jin of meat.

Li Xinyue naturally didn't want the pig skin; not to mention that the wild boar's hair was hard and difficult to process, it was also hard to clean after being blown up by firecrackers, but the villagers certainly wouldn't want to waste it.

The reason Li Xinyue didn't want the offal was also simple: it was too complicated to prepare. Although she liked to eat it, she didn't know how to cook it, and rather than wasting ingredients, it was better to give it away to earn some goodwill.

Seeing that the meat distribution was over and Li Xinyue still hadn't called her grandfather, Li Guang felt he was losing face and walked straight up to Li Xinyue.

"Granddaughter! Are you living well here at the Jiang family?"

On the surface, it was a greeting to his granddaughter, but everyone knew it was nothing more than wanting to get some meat. Given how the family had treated Li Xinyue before, it was generous of her not to hold a grudge.

The point was, if these words had come from someone else, it might have been fine, but the crowd, knowing his character, naturally wouldn't believe it.

Hearing this, Li Xinyue was so angry she laughed: "That's a fresh remark. For so many years, you've treated me like livestock; this 'granddaughter' title is a first in eighteen years."

"Hahahaha!"

The surrounding villagers burst into laughter, and Li Guang's face grew increasingly ugly.

The woman in front of him made him feel like a stranger; he couldn't find a trace of her usual submissive demeanor.

Before, when they heard she hadn't died, the Li family had secretly slapped their thighs, regretting selling her off too early. Later, hearing she had argued with Jiang Fu and Jiang Gui, Li Guang naturally didn't believe it.

For more than ten years, she had been a silent person; how could she become sharp-tongued after getting married?

Now it seemed the rumors were true, but no matter what, Li Guang didn't want to lose face like this. Just as he was about to speak, he saw the Village Chief glaring at him with a sour expression.

Don't look at the Village Chief as just a small official, without even an official appointment from the government; in this tiny village, the Village Chief was someone whose word was law.

Li Guang pondered for a moment, dropped a sentence, and left.

"Granddaughter must have some misunderstandings about her grandfather, so I'll come see you another day!"

To Li Xinyue, these words meant nothing less than—this isn't over.

Li Xinyue pretended not to care on the surface, but in reality, she had already begun to think about how to retaliate against him.

She had merged with the original owner's memories, and those hatreds were naturally carved into her memory; she wouldn't feel comfortable if she didn't take revenge for a grudge.

Seeing that this matter had come to an end, the villagers left one after another, clutching their meat and saying goodbye. Those with meat were beaming, while those who didn't get any looked indifferent, though they were secretly scratching their heads and feeling miserable.

After everyone left, Li Xinyue breathed a sigh of relief. No matter what, this matter had passed, but her points were currently basically zero, which left her with no sense of security.

Looking around, the villagers had cleaned the small courtyard thoroughly before leaving, the water vat was full, and the remaining two hundred-plus jin of pork had been moved to the stove.

Li Xinyue only planned to keep a small portion of this two hundred-plus jin of meat and take the rest to Jiangcheng to sell for silver, but there wasn't even a donkey cart in the village, so she still had to think about how to manage that.

Granny Li was walking home; because she helped wash the offal, she had received two taels of meat and was happily humming an unknown tune.

When she passed Jiang Shi's door, Granny Li leaned on the fence and shouted into the house.

"Jiang Shi! Are you home?"

After waiting a while with no response, Granny Li called out the names of Jiang Fu and Jiang Gui one after another.

Finally!

The door opened, and Da Ya came out, smiling and greeting Granny Li.

"Granny Li, is something the matter?"

Granny Li raised the pork in her hand a bit and stretched her head to the side, but because the fence was some distance from the house, she couldn't tell if anyone was inside.

"Oh, it's Da Ya! Where are your grandfather and your father?"

Da Ya's face was like a flower, and her whole body exuded comfort.

"I heard from my grandfather that Great-Aunt's family made money and bought a house in the city, so they went to visit relatives and get to know the place."

Hearing this, Granny Li sighed; it was truly uncomfortable to have pork in hand with no one to show off to.

The observant Da Ya naturally noticed this and pretended to have just seen it, asking about it.

Granny Li's eyes lit up, and she vividly described the ins and outs of the matter.

When talking about the divine thunder from heaven, Granny Li showed a terrified expression as if she had seen it with her own eyes, and Da Ya also cooperated with a look of awe.

Later, when talking about the collective distribution of meat, Granny Li couldn't help but praise Li Xinyue's generosity, while Da Ya expressed regret at missing out on the good event.

After this cooperation, the two chatted quite congenially.

After Granny Li turned and walked away, she secretly sighed that Jiang Shi's sister had actually bought a house in the city.

When Granny Li first married into Da Jiang Cun in her youth, she had met Jiang Shi's sister a few times; she was a diligent and quiet person, somewhat similar to Da Ya's personality.

But after she married out, she was never seen again, and now that she heard the news, it was hard not to feel that time flies.

It was just Jiang Shi's personality—he would latch onto anyone who made money. Since he hadn't seen the person in the village for so many years, the relationship between the two families must be bad, so what was the point of latching on?

Thinking of this, Granny Li felt a bit itchy; she really wanted to see Jiang Shi's hot face pressed against a cold butt.

Eh! I'll ask someone to find out later.

Jiang Da Ya stood in the small courtyard like this, smiling as she watched Granny Li leave until she couldn't see her figure at all.

Turning to walk into the house, Jiang Da Ya's face still held a smile, as if she had hung a smiling mask on her face.

Gently closing the door, a few whimpers came from inside the room, and the smile on Da Ya's face grew even wider.

At this moment, there were eight wooden barrels in the room, each containing a person.

Jiang Da Ya's grandfather and grandmother, father and mother, younger brother, second uncle, and his two sons each had a barrel.

After walking closer, one could notice that their hands and feet were tied, and their mouths were stuffed with enough cloth to ensure it wouldn't be pushed out by their tongues.

Seeing Jiang Da Ya approach, the group scrambled to make "woo-woo" sounds, each with a different expression.

In the morning, Jiang Da Ya had used water with laxatives to make breakfast, and the family, who had just recovered, fell for it again and collapsed.

Jiang Gui clutched his stomach and shouted for Da Ya to find Huasheng, but he didn't expect Da Ya to just walk out of the room and lock it from the outside.