“When we sent Qiao Mei to Qiao Zhuang’s house, we did give them a sum of money and even left them the house. We have done everything that was possible.”
“Whatever happened after that was all Qiao Zhuang’s family’s fault. You can’t blame our Li family. Mei Mei’s grandfather, you have to make a clear distinction about this.”
At this point, Sun Ying also nodded.
Qiao Qiang was completely not interested in listening to her shirking her responsibility. These two people did not feel any sense of guilt at all, even until now. Did they think that just by giving Qiao Zhuang some money and the house, they could leave Qiao Mei in the lurch?
What a joke!
“I don’t want to talk about the past with you. I want to ask you, why are you here at the Qiao family house today?” Qiao Qiang continued to speak with a cold expression.
“If you are here today to take a look at Mei Mei, then you can go back now. Your village is only an hour and a half’s walk from here. If you go back now, you can still have lunch at home.”
After Qiao Qiang finished speaking, he became even angrier.
The distance could be covered by an hour and a half of walking, but the Li family members had not even come to visit Mei Mei once. It was really too much of them.
Old Madam Li and Sun Ying could not sit still anymore. The two of them hesitated for a moment before they decided to speak.
“It’s like this. We heard that this village is in the bean sprout business now? The earnings are more than 10 dollars a day. Is that right?”
Sun Ying’s eyes were bright as she looked at Qiao Qiang and spoke.
It was so profitable to be able to earn more than 10 dollars a day. After all, they could barely earn 40 to 50 dollars a year as an average villager. Moreover, even to make that small amount of money, they had to do very tiring work every day.
In the village, regardless of whether they worked or not, they had to use up the village’s work points because they needed to buy food to survive.
Work points were the points given to a person by the village based on the amount of labor and time that one put in. With these points, one could get one’s salary at the end of each year.
However, based on how the work points were distributed, it averaged out to everyone getting very little.
When the Li family heard that a factory had been set up in Datian Village and that almost every family that produced bean sprouts could earn more than 10 dollars, they became very excited.
Qiao Qiang did not speak when he heard this.
Sun Ying then looked at Auntie Dong.
Auntie Dong just turned her gaze to one side. She did not respond affirmatively but she did not deny it either.
The fact about setting up a bean sprout factory in the village was supposed to be a secret. However, it was difficult to control loose lips in the village. In addition, many villagers’ daughters-in-law came from other villages and they might have also spilled the beans when they visited their parents’ homes back in the other villages.
It was impossible to hide the news.
Just as the villagers were feeling worried, a strange thing happened. No matter how the daughters-in-law from other villages taught their families to use the same method to grow bean sprouts, the bean sprouts they produced were never as good as those made in Datian Village.
The bean sprouts produced at the other villages were not bitter and astringent, but they did not look good either. Naturally, the supply and marketing cooperative did not want to buy these.
This piece of news surprised everyone.
However, there were also rumors that the bean sprouts growing in Datian Village were so fresh because the water quality in the village was good.
Auntie Dong’s behavior seemed to have confirmed this matter.
Old Madam Li finally could not sit still. She walked up to Qiao Qiang and begged, “Child’s grandfather, I’m going to shamelessly ask you for a favor today. Please talk to the village officer, Zhao Liang, and let him know that our Li family wants to move to this Datian Village.”
“The water quality in this village is good, so the bean sprouts grown here are of good quality as well. If we move to our Datian Village, we can also help Qiao Mei, right? It’s not easy for a girl to be pregnant alone.”
Qiao Qiang did not even look at her. He picked up the tea on the table and drank it as he said, “Don’t even think about it.”
It was a very heartless statement.
He rejected the request in a very direct and blunt manner.