Chapter 261: Chapter 261
The Gong Tao who stayed in the Northeast had no idea that Gong Qiang and his wife were causing such an uproar for him. He was too busy caring for his daughter at home to have any time to deal with unrelated people.
"Ni Zi, why are you so exhausted?" Gong Tao, who had finally finished his work early and returned home to rest, discovered that his daughter was still napping.
This puzzled Gong Tao, as normally this time was for his daughter to be studying, not sleeping.
"Is Ni Zi more tired lately?" The first thought that came to Gong Tao was that his daughter was tired. "In my opinion, in such hot weather, there’s no need to work so hard at school."
The family’s current condition wasn’t too bad, so there was no need to work so hard. "As for building the house, I think we’ll plan for that the year after next, let’s forget about it this year."
Cai Meina was quite surprised to hear that the matter of the house would be postponed.
Although living here was okay, it ultimately wasn’t their place. They worked so hard to make money, wasn’t it because they wanted to have a place of their own?
"I always feel like my family over there is going to keep causing trouble. Don’t we always cry poor? If the old man suddenly comes again, how are we supposed to explain this house?" Gong Tao was now very wary of the Gong Family over there, trying to prevent any more trouble.
Why had the Gong Family fallen into such a sorry state, with people unable to unite, if not because each person only cared about their immediate family, with Zhang Lan always trying to extort money from the children to give to Gong Qiang? With that, how could anyone expect people’s hearts to come together?
If they found out that his family was living comfortably in the Northeast, Gong Qiang could foresee what their future days would be like.
"What if they shamelessly come here to live permanently?" Gong Tao didn’t want to think of his parents in such a way, but given their character, it was very possible.
"If they live here long-term, will our days be easy?" Just having them here for a few days already frustrated Gong Tao; it’s fortunate their peak earning season passed, otherwise, who knows how much they’d lose.
Cai Meina, upon hearing this, thought, well then, they still couldn’t build their own house. For now, they were living on borrowed ground, so they had a reason to send Gong Dajiang and others packing, but if it was their house, how could they evict them?
"Let’s just do it this way," Cai Meina said regretfully.
Actually, Gong Tao didn’t think about the house for another reason, "We just came to the Northeast, we even borrowed grain from the team before. If we build a house now, what will they think?"
Back then, they spun a tale about giving all their money to their parents, arriving in the Northeast without a penny, and it was true too—they genuinely came to the Northeast with very little money.
"We can’t be too conspicuous; who can easily build a house?"
"Even if the cost of building here isn’t that high, it still won’t do." After experiencing the incident with Cai Ming, Gong Tao was extra cautious.
Even a job could make people envious, and if people knew about building a new house, who knows how much trouble it would invite in the village.
"I’ve seen it in the village. Quite a few families have just ordinary houses, only repairing the roof slightly each year." This was also something Gong Tao had to consider.
Gong Ruini was actually awake, but her body felt sore, and she didn’t want to move, so she quietly listened to Gong Tao and Cai Meina speak.
Gong Ruini had been contemplating how to persuade Gong Tao not to build the house, and she didn’t expect that because of Gong Dajiang and some external factors, Gong Tao would give up the idea of building it.
This was the best approach, and Gong Ruini breathed a sigh of relief, but would Gong Dajiang truly come?
In reality, this ’wolf is coming’ legend had been looming for a long time, and Gong Ruini was becoming a bit impatient.
"Will Grandpa come?" Gong Ruwen lowered his book and asked with concern.
"I don’t know, but you need to be careful." Gong Tao recalled a serious issue, "You’ve all been doing very well selling herbal medicine—will people talk about it?"
The old man at home wasn’t someone easy to fool; he would wander around the village, and the topic of selling herbal medicine was a big news, with many kids out there doing it to earn money. Gong Tao doubted they could hide it from the old man.
"We don’t talk about it; Er Gouzi said if we talk too much, people from other villages will find out."
"What if they come to grab the herbs too?"
"Dad, actually, they’re worried that once their lives get better, other relatives will come knocking." Gong Ruwen always thought his family’s relatives were troublesome enough. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novel-fire.net
He didn’t expect that his friends’ families also had similar relatives, which made Gong Ruwen relieved.
"That’s good." Gong Tao didn’t expect to keep it all under wraps, just hoped that when Gong Dajiang arrived, he wouldn’t pay attention to it.
At Red Flag Brigade, the kids were enthusiastically conducting the herbal medicine harvesting activities. Although everyone planned to keep it under wraps, there were so many herbs on the mountain, but the collection station only bought so much; how could they handle more competition?
According to the village’s thinking, even if they couldn’t complete all the tasks on the order list, they couldn’t let people from other villages have the chance to learn, so countless meetings were held to make sure everyone understood clearly.
In consideration of mutual benefits and not wanting to become the village’s enemy, even those with relatives nearby decided not to say anything.
As for the kids most likely to leak the secret, since a portion of the herbal earnings was set aside for them to stay in school or buy snacks, even though they were kids, how could they leak the secret when it benefited them?
Hence, from the village chief to the party secretary to the venerable elders in the village, they all came out to discuss the matter with Zhan Jing, leaving Zhan Jing with no choice but to agree.
Seeing the helpless face of Zhan Jing, Gong Ruini understood her feelings, as did Zhao Gang, Zhan Jing, and Gong Tao. They all roamed around the nearby villages, and the people were friendly to them. If they found out there was such a profitable opportunity, how would they feel? Would they hold it against Zhan Jing?
The problem was living in this village. Naturally, one could only prioritize the village’s interests; it was just a fact that there weren’t many ways to earn money, otherwise, they wouldn’t be eyeing such hard-earned cash.
"Forget it; let’s push it to the village when the time comes; they’ll speak for us." Zhao Gang and the others never intended to reveal the herbal medicine issue, but with the village setting such a tone, it felt variously wrong.
"Mom, it’s okay; they don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, let alone us. People from these few villages all have marital ties." Zhao Xuran felt it was his own mother overthinking things, and since those people didn’t need to consider these issues, they shouldn’t either.
That’s the reasoning, but some herbal medicines need preparation, and can it be done without Zhan Jing’s support?
Gong Ruini could only hope the situation wouldn’t escalate too much.