You are unlucky and I am tough

Chapter 118 Exile to the Sandbar

The coroner performed an autopsy and found that Cheng Dafu had indeed died of a wound.

Cheng Dagui was the deceased's elder brother. He made a big fuss and insisted on suing Zhao Daya for murdering her husband. After County Magistrate Zheng sent his legal advisor to visit the villagers, the case became clear with both witnesses and evidence. Zhao Daya was sentenced on the spot to 40 strokes of the cane and exiled to Shazhou to do hard labor.

Shazhou is a bitterly cold place, with heavy snow falling half of the year, but it has the largest copper mine in Daliang. Many criminals sentenced to exile would go to Shazhou to mine and die without being able to return.

When the verdict came out, the whole village was shocked. Zhao Daya fainted on the spot from fright, and someone who had married into Zhaojia Village ran to tell her the news.

Zhao Daya's family rushed over, crying and begging for mercy, and the three children also knelt on the ground and begged.

However, with the law in place and the family of the deceased refusing to give up, County Magistrate Zheng upheld the original verdict. In the end, no one could stop the bailiff from taking Zhao Daya away.

In the next few days, Chengjia Village was never quiet. The Cheng Daming brothers hurriedly arranged a funeral for Cheng Dafu. During the burial, Zhao Daya's family came to make a fuss, and people from several nearby villages knew about it.

Finally, there is the question of what to do with Cheng Dafu’s land, house, and three children.

The oldest of the three children is only fourteen years old, and the youngest, Cheng Pingshun, is nine years old. According to the rules, when the parents are not around, the children are left to be taken care of by relatives.

But Cheng Dagui only wants Cheng Pingshun, and says that all the houses and land in his family belong to Cheng Pingshun.

More than 900 coins were found in the house, and Cheng Dagui wanted to take it all away, saying that all the money belonged to his son.

After arguing for a long time, Cheng Lizheng was so tired that he said he would raise all three children together if they didn't divide the land.

But Cheng Dagui insisted that everything in the house belonged to Cheng Pingshun, and girls were not eligible to inherit. He was asked to raise two girls and bring them home to find someone to marry them off immediately.

Cheng Dafu’s youngest daughter is only twelve years old. How can she get married?

Finally, Chen couldn't stand it anymore and took the two little girls back home. Cheng Dagui took Cheng Pingshun away and took away all the land, houses and nine hundred coins with confidence.

After this incident, Chengjia Village finally returned to peace. Each family was busy drying the rice, and those who planted early began to harvest the soybeans in the fields.

At noon that day, Cheng Shuang came to Cheng Daming's house to deliver the money from selling sauerkraut. The restaurant weighed the total of 208 kilograms, and the settlement was 5 taels and 2 cents. Cheng Daming's family had been busy with a funeral for the previous two days, so the money was delayed until now.

Having already given one tael, Cheng Shuang put four taels and two cents on the table. The original price was twenty cents per catty, and she did not make any profit from the difference, so she calculated it at twenty-five cents per catty.

Chen took the money and looked at Cheng Shuang gratefully. "Thank goodness you thought of me while you were making money. I borrowed five taels of silver from the village head for the funeral. This money is just enough to pay it back."

Cheng Shuang looked at the two little girls who were helping to turn the rice in the yard, "Auntie, are you really not going to bring anything back with these two children?

Why don't they give any land to the two children?"

Chen sighed helplessly, "Aren't all girls destined to have such a hard life? I accept it. Zhaodi and Laidi are already in their teens. I'll raise them for a few years. When they grow up, I'll prepare some dowries and find them to marry into good families. That'll be worthy of them calling me aunt."

"Besides, these two children are quite hardworking. Since they came back with me yesterday, they have been helping me with work. It's worth it for me to raise them."

Who could have thought that a good family would be broken up in just a few days? She couldn't bear to let Cheng Dagui marry them off to anyone he wanted, even though they were relatives.

Cheng Shuang looked at Chen with a little more admiration in her eyes. In this era, it was really rare to find a woman like her who was kind-hearted and not biased towards boys.

She thought for a moment and asked, "Auntie, the autumn harvest is over. Does Uncle Daming have any work to do?"

Chen shook her head. "Not yet. He's preparing to go out and look for work after the Mid-Autumn Festival."

"Then why don't I teach you how to make braised pork."

"Braised meat?" Chen asked doubtfully, "Are you talking about the business run by the headman?

Was that made by your church head?"

Cheng Shuang nodded and briefly explained the way of cooperation with Cheng Lizheng's family, saying that she could teach her how to do it and cooperate in the same way.

Chen waved her hands hurriedly, "No, no, how can I compete with the headman's family for business? The daimyo and I have hands and feet, and two more mouths won't make them hungry."

Cheng Shuang pulled Chen to sit down. "Listen to me first, Auntie. The village head's family sells in the county, so you can go to the town to sell. Even if you all go to the county to sell, it won't have any impact. There are many restaurants in the county, and Uncle Cheng only supplies three of them."

Chen still didn't dare to agree, "Then you can do it yourself, wouldn't you make more money that way? It would be more of a loss for me."

"I'll tell you the truth, auntie,"

Seeing Chen's embarrassment, Cheng Shuang pursed her lips and said, "Qing Lang and I can't bear the hardship of getting up early and going to bed late day after day, and now our family is not short of money, so we are looking for someone to cooperate with us.

You are helping us make money by doing this. We don't have to do anything and just wait to get paid every month. How can we be at a disadvantage?"

"So that's how it is." Chen was shaken. Who wouldn't want a job that could make money?

She thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll discuss it with the child's father tonight."

"Well, then auntie, come find me anytime you decide."

After Cheng Shuang finished speaking, she stood up and left. On the way back, she passed by Cheng Dafu's house. Looking at the empty house, she couldn't help but feel a little sad.

But after a few days she had already adjusted herself. Just like Wei Qinglang said, every action has its consequences. If Zhao Daya hadn't been so petty and cursed in front of their house again and again.

Cheng Dafu not only broke into her house to steal things, but also shamelessly used her recipe to make money.

If it weren't for these conflicts, Cheng Dafu might not have died and the family would not have broken up.

But there is no if, everything is their own fault, this world is different from the previous life.

She needs to change her mindset, live her life well and follow her inner moral code.

As for those unworthy people and things, respect their fate and let go of the desire to help others.

After returning home, Wei Qinglang and his younger brother and sister-in-law were sorting grain in the yard. They poured all the grains in the small bags together. Some of them were not completely dried yet, so they poured them into bamboo baskets and put them in the sun to dry.

The autumn harvest in the village has ended. I don’t know when the villagers discussed it, but they started delivering food yesterday, saying it was to express their gratitude to Cheng Shuang for treating their illnesses. Each family sent ten kilograms, which adds up to more than a thousand kilograms.

Before the Mid-Autumn Festival, government officials would come to collect taxes. Although their land did not grow crops, they still had to pay taxes.

According to the calculation that Daliang's land yields 300 kilograms per mu, if they pay one-tenth of it, their family will have to pay 150 kilograms of grain for their five mu of land.

After deducting the tax from the grains sent by the villagers, there are still more than 900 kilograms left, and more than 700 kilograms left after shelling. The family does not need to buy any more grain until the end of the year.

Cheng Shuang entered the yard, closed the door, and started to help. She poured a bag of undried rice onto a bamboo plate, thinking that threshing would be a problem with so much rice.

In the original owner's memory, hulling the rice was done by placing it in a stone mortar and pounding it with a pestle. This was labor-intensive and inefficient. It would be great if they could think of some other way to increase efficiency.

While thinking about something, I was about to put the bamboo plaque on the temporary rack I had built yesterday when a hand reached out and took the plaque away.

Cheng Shuang was stunned for a moment, then stood up and looked at the tall figure in front of her with a complicated mood. Ever since Wei Qinglang took the initiative to hug her that day and she didn't refuse, the atmosphere between the two of them became a little strange.

How should I put it? It was a little awkward, so she had been avoiding being alone with him these past few days, but going on like this wasn't a solution.