Chapter 50

The spring chill was biting, especially cold at night.

Wang Liu was drunk, swaying as he walked towards home with his hands in his pockets. As he neared his house, he looked in the direction of Song Xingyi's house from afar, filled with resentment.

He felt that Song Xingyi was really stingy, making a lot of money but not willing to take care of their poor neighbors like them. It was just a hundred taels of silver, they had leaked more than that from between their fingers.

To hire someone to dig a lotus pond and only give that amount of money, was it not embarrassing to offer such a meager amount?

Moreover, he had also seen the house of Zhou Guangcai. Although it was still an adobe house, it was solidly built, with good wood used for the beams and even tiles on the roof!

And a row of six large rooms, much better than Zhou Guangcai's crooked and dilapidated four-room house.

That should have been his house!

Wang Liu muttered under his breath as he thought, and when he snapped out of it, he found himself standing at the base of Song's wall.

The Song family usually used a lot of firewood, not only for cooking peanuts but also for boiling wool. The firewood stack in the yard couldn't fit, so they had built a shed outside the yard, piling up a mountain of firewood.

Wang Liu stared at the stack of firewood with his eyes red from alcohol, suddenly turned back home, and then sneaked out shortly after.

He wanted to do something mischievous but didn't dare to set fire to someone else's fields or poison the pigs and sheep. The only thing that could relieve his anger was this heap of firewood.

The flint made a clear collision sound in the night, and the dry firewood quickly caught fire when it met the flames.

Wang Liu stood nearby, laughing coldly, his smile looking twisted in the firelight.

Suddenly, the wind picked up.

The north wind blew sparks to the ground, and the dry winter grass instantly caught fire, quickly spreading into a blaze.

"Fire!! Fire!! Everyone, wake up!!"

Suddenly, voices and dog barks echoed through the otherwise silent village, and everyone rushed out of their homes, carrying buckets and pots to fight the fire.

But the spring was already dry, otherwise, there wouldn't be the saying that spring rain is as precious as oil. The fire, coupled with the north wind, spread recklessly, painting half the sky red!

The villagers worked tirelessly until the late night to put out the fire, ending up dirty and exhausted.

Because it was a northerly wind, the Song family only burned half of the fence wall, but the people in the south suffered. It was fortunate that there weren't many houses to the south of their house, with the closest being the Zhou Guangcai's family, followed by the Wang family.

The Zhou Guangcai family had all moved to a new house, while the old house was burned down to just a frame. However, the Wang Liu family suffered, with two houses collapsing and most of the roof burned.

"Song family, you must compensate for my house!!" Wang's wife cried and rushed over, "You didn't properly watch your firewood, and it burned down my house. You must compensate! So many of our belongings were also burned, so compensation is necessary!"

Song Xingyi coldly watched them, while the village chief anxiously asked, "What's going on? How did a fire break out in the middle of the night?"

Song Xingyi replied, "What else could it be? It's human greed."

Wang's wife sat on the ground, slapped her thigh, cried and cursed the Song family for being unrighteous, alleging that they wouldn't sell their house to them, so they had malicious intentions to burn down their house, kill their family, and drive them away before they would be satisfied.

"Lack of conscience!!" Wang's wife cried and cursed, "Heavenly gods, open your eyes! Why hasn't lightning struck down such people! They want to force our whole family to death!"

She cried, her daughter-in-law cried, her grandchildren cried, and two old people with blackened faces and ragged clothes also cried. The family was chaotic and noisy, but Wang Liu himself was nowhere to be seen.

Suddenly, someone asked, "Hey, where's your old man? He didn't get caught in the fire, did he?"

If only the house was burned, it would be fine, but if someone was killed, it would be a big problem.

The crowd immediately started discussing in a flurry, with someone loudly saying, "Exactly, even if you have money, you can't be so cruel. If someone doesn't sell you the land, you burn their house? What kind of person does that!"

"So vicious, earning money through black-hearted means!"

"That's right, exactly!"

Song Xingyi coldly scanned the crowd and loudly said, "I am also extremely surprised by this matter. The firewood pile in our house has been here for many years, every year piled up, and on ordinary days, nothing happened. Why did it suddenly burn down in the middle of the night today?"

"You just want to kill our whole family!!" Wang's wife cried out, sounding truly aggrieved.

"I really have no interest in your family, but I do know that someone wants to harm our family!" Song Xingyi's voice raised, "You all want to know where Wang Liu is, right? Eldest, bring him out!"

Song Zhicheng responded and shortly after, dragged out a man bundled up like a pig in front of Wang's wife.

Everyone stared intently, and it turned out to be Wang Liu.

"What, what's going on here?" Even the village chief was dumbfounded.

Song Xingyi said, "What's going on? I also want to know what's going on! I'm old, I can't sleep well at night, when I got up in the middle of the night, I saw the fire, so I quickly took my family out. Who knew that as soon as we went out, we saw a figure sitting drunkenly on the side of the road. I picked him up and hey, isn't this Wang Liu? He still had a firestone in his hand."

Wang Liu lit the fire and wanted to go back home. After walking a few steps, the alcohol got to him, so he found a place a little further away to sit down and sober up.

Unexpectedly, he fell asleep all of a sudden, not even aware that he was tied up.

But the fall woke him up. He groggily opened his eyes and saw the collapsed walls of the Song family burning.

He burst into laughter, "Deserved it, deserved it, burn down your house! Letting you be stingy, hehe."

Wang Lao Liu's wife was shocked and quickly went to cover his mouth, "Husband, husband, what's wrong with you?"

Wang Liu shook his head vigorously, laughing, "I burned their firewood pile, hahaha."

Everyone around fell silent, watching Wang Liu laugh crazily from being drunk, feeling extremely shocked. Especially those who had just mocked the Song family couldn't help but shrink back into the crowd, afraid that the Song family would pull them out and scold them.

After laughing for a while, the cold wind made Wang Liu sneeze twice, finally sobering him up. He tried to move his arms and legs, realizing they were tied up, and angrily said, "What the heck, why are you tying me up?"

Wang Liu's wife looked lifeless, just staring at him, tears streaming down her face.

Only then did Wang Liu realize that something was wrong. He looked around and saw a circle of people around him, "What's, what's going on?"

"You old bastard, I'll fight you!" Wang Liu's wife burst into a sorrowful roar and pounced towards Wang Liu, raising her hand and scratching several blood marks on his face.

Wang Liu screamed and dodged, but unfortunately no one came to help him, even his parents just stood there crying with their faces covered, looking extremely upset.

Song Xingyi said, "I wanted to buy your house, and I offered a reasonable price, but you asked for an outrageous amount, saying that your house is a feng shui treasure land, demanding one hundred taels, and even wanted me to send his wife and children to work in my workshop."

There was a gasp from the crowd, one hundred taels! That's enough to build a large brick and tile house! Their few dilapidated houses, how dare they ask for such a price?

Song Xingyi continued, "I didn't agree, in the end, I only bought Zhou Guangcai's house. His family is hardworking and willing, they also supplied me with firewood, so I let them live behind my house and help raise pigs and sheep. But unexpectedly, Wang Liu actually wanted to burn down my house because of this, and burn my whole family to death!"

"Village head, I absolutely dare not be neighbors with such a person. If my family isn't given an explanation, then we'll have to move to the town and set up the workshop there."

The village head was sweating profusely, quickly saying, "Oh my, what are you saying, why wouldn't we give an explanation? Fourth Brother, rest assured, I'll handle this matter."

After speaking to Song Xingyi, he looked at Wang Liu and said loudly, "Our Beihugouzi Village has never had such a lunatic, daring to set someone's house on fire in the middle of the night, wanting to burn people to death! I'll report this to the authorities and have him arrested, does anyone have any objections?"

People quickly shook their heads, who would dare to be neighbors with such a person, who could easily burn down your house, how can you live peacefully?

"Village head, village head! Old Liu just didn't think clearly for a moment, please don't let the authorities arrest him!"

The reason why Wang Liu is called Old Liu is because he is the sixth in line. Several of his uncles also live in this village, but they are all equally poor.

But no matter how poor, if Wang Liu is taken to jail, it would be a disaster for the Wang family, making it difficult for the younger generation to marry in the future. Even if the same generation or older generation goes out, their reputation would also suffer.

His uncles pleaded for him, and Wang Liu's wife, upon hearing this, stopped hitting him and just cried.

The village head looked at them one by one and said, "Feel sorry for him? What should we do then? Right, he burned someone's house and courtyard, he should compensate with silver first."

After this was said, the uncles couldn't help but twitch their mouths, and fell silent.

Relationships are one thing, money is another. Asking them to pay the silver, they would rather not do the favor.

Wang Liu's mother cried, "We don't have any silver in our home, even the few grains we have are probably burnt... Why did I give birth to such a wastrel, why doesn't heaven take me away quickly, why should I suffer like this here!"

Wang Liu struggled and said, "They are fine, aren't they? It was just a fence that got burnt, it can be rebuilt in a day or two. How much is a bit of firewood worth? I'll just go chop more for them!"

Wang Liu's son couldn't help but say, "Dad, you didn't set fire to someone else's house, it's our own house! Today, the northern wind was strong, and it burned down Uncle Zhou's house, even our own house was burnt! Didn't you hear Mom just say that all the grains were burnt?"

"How, how is that possible?" Wang Liu was almost going crazy when he heard this, "How is that possible? How did it burn our house??? I only set fire to their firewood pile at their door, how could it still burn our house !!!"

His son cried, "Why couldn't it? The north wind was blowing strongly, the sparks blew southwards, Uncle Zhou's house was unattended all winter, easily caught fire. Their house is on fire, how could our house be fine?"

"It's impossible, it's impossible, I only burned their firewood pile, how could it have burned our house..." Wang Liu was completely confused, then turned around and glared at Song Xingyi, angrily said, "Is it you? Did you have someone burn down my house, trying to drive my whole family away? It's you, it must be you! Village head, arrest him, it's him!! He burned down my house!"

The village head sighed heavily and said to everyone, "I will report this to the authorities, does anyone have any objections?"

The uncles of the Wang family struggled a bit, and the oldest of them said, "Village head, let's not involve the authorities, alright? He, he's already facing the consequences, isn't he? If you arrest him, how will their whole family survive?"

The village head actually didn't want any involvement with the authorities, but this time it involved the Song family, Song Xingyi had a good relationship with the Wang Yuanwai family in town, everyone in the village knew that. And now many people in the village were working in the Song family's workshop, no one wanted to offend the Song family.

Song Xingyi pretended not to see the glances from the village head and the Wang Liu family, he just turned to his family and said, "It's too cold, you kids should go back and sleep. Leave the eldest and the second with me here."

Song Zhiyuan also hurriedly sent his wife and children back to the house, afraid that they would freeze at this critical moment.

The village chief knew that Song Xingyi did not want to get involved in this matter, so he could only ask the Wang family, "So what do you think we should do?"

The Wang Liu family said, "Just take him to the ancestral hall and have him grind the mill for two months."

Only then did Song Xingyi say, "Burn down the house and grind the mill for two months? So whoever's house he burns down, he just has to grind the mill for two months? Who would agree to that?"

The Wang Liu family became unhappy and said, "Your family is not involved in this matter, right?"

Song Xingyi snorted and remained silent.

The village chief was in a dilemma. No one wanted to get involved in this matter, as it would not end well no matter if he sided with the Song family or the Wang family. After all, they were all villagers who had to see each other every day.

Suddenly, Wang Liu's father said, "I'll sell you that piece of land, and you can build a new house for my family."

Song Xingyi replied, "My family has decided to build a house on the other side of the garden. And I don't want to buy your land. I helped the Zhou family build a house without selling them the land."

Wang Liu's father insisted, "I'll sell it to you cheap. We don't need the house, just the money."

"Dad!" Wang Liu looked at his father in surprise. "If we don't have the house, where will we live?"

Wang Liu's father said, "If you take the house, there won't be any money. Without money, you can't buy food or seeds. Spring planting season is approaching, if the family doesn't farm, how will we eat?"

This old man was still sensible, but he couldn't help but suffer because he had a foolish son, who had caused him trouble as he grew older.

The village chief, with a worried expression, mediated between them and finally reached an agreement. The plot of land would be sold to the Song family, cutting ties with the Wang family.

The Song family would pay twenty taels of silver, but they would not be responsible for building the house. Wang Liu had to grind the mill in the ancestral hall for a full year before being released.

During the busy spring planting season, he could come out to help with the work, but had to return to the ancestral hall afterwards, supervised by the villagers.

In reality, building a few adobe houses in the village only cost a few taels of silver, and if built slightly better, it could cost around a dozen taels. The silver offered to them by Song Xingyi was based on the price he paid to build a house for Zhou Guangcai, showing great generosity.

Wang Liu's attempts had backfired, and upon returning home to see the burnt roof and the blackened house, he couldn't help but burst into tears. What a disaster he had caused - he could have had several good houses to live in, but why did he act so foolishly!

Now the house was gone, food supplies and belongings were all lost, and he was left with just a little silver. What would he do in the future?

There were other run-down houses in the village that could be rented out, for a yearly rent of just a few tens of coins. However, nobody wanted to be his neighbor, afraid that one day he might act irrationally again and set fire to something.

Forced to take action, the village chief had to move his whole family to the most remote area of the village, where a family of hunters used to live. The hunters had made some money and moved south to do business, leaving the house vacant.

Although it had deteriorated due to lack of use, it was built sturdy with plenty of stones, and after some repairs, it was at least habitable.

But living here is far from the village and even further from their own land. But there was no other choice, at least it was three rooms.

After resolving this matter, Song Xingyi returned to his own home, where Li shi had already washed the clothes and was waiting on the heated kang with a fire burning outside, making the house very warm.

He took off his heavy coat and sighed, saying, "I never expected this, never expected to be pointed out by my granddaughter."

Song Dingxiang had previously mentioned that since Wang Liu's family dared to demand such an exorbitant price, if their family didn't buy the house, he would hold a grudge and believe that the Song family was not righteous. Who knows, he might even cause trouble one day, alerting everyone.

Initially, Song Xingyi didn't take it seriously, thinking that they were all villagers and could easily resolve any issues. At most, there might be some verbal insults.

But who would have thought that Wang Liu couldn't resist and actually took action.

Li shi remembered the words of the immortal mentioned by Song Dingxiang and said, "It must be the blessing of the immortal, otherwise, if it had caught on fire, our family wouldn't have been spared. There wasn't even much wind these past few days, so why is it windy tonight? It serves Wang Liu right to have his misfortune."

This incident didn't affect the mood of the Song family.

Their workshop was officially being built, with fences surrounding both areas. One part was used for pickling vegetables, while the other had many jars for brewing alcohol and making canned goods.

But it's not the season for making canned goods yet. The large courtyard was planted with vegetables by Song Xingyi and Li shi, and they could spend most of the day in this vegetable garden, which was very refreshing.

On the side of the lotus pond, several round pools were dug, connected by a small bridge in the middle, resembling several stars surrounding a big moon. Apart from the lotus roots brought from the south, many lotus seeds were also scattered, hoping that this lotus pond would flourish and bring in more business for the family.

Song Dingxiang came up with an idea to build several small pavilions around the large pavilion that was originally built. These pavilions were connected by bridges, some by the water's edge, some on the opposite bank, and some in the water.

They also picked up some large rocks from the mountain and piled them up randomly with sticky rice paste and mud to create a fake mountain, planting moss in the crevices. One of the rocks was smoothed out and inscribed with the words "Peaceful and Far-reaching" by the scholar Bai Shan, which looked quite natural from a distance.

Just as everyone was starting the busy spring planting season, the Wang Yuanwai family sent someone over again.

"My lady has given birth to a son, and the master is overjoyed, so he asked me to bring gifts to each family," the steward of the Wang Yuanwai family said with a toothy grin, unloading many pieces of cloth and several baskets of dried seafood from the carriage.

"Isn't it spring already? My lady said these fabrics are all the rage in the southern regions, adorned with the most delightful floral patterns to craft new spring attire for the young ladies of your household. And these bountiful baskets of the freshest seafood? I saw our family's eldest sister expertly preparing a culinary masterpiece with them in town. They were gifts from admirers, a thoughtful offering to nourish your elder siblings with such delectable treats."

The steward was really good with words, previously addressing the Wang Yuanwai family and the Song family separately, but now calling them "our family's elder brothers and sisters," showing a great deal of affection.

Song Dingxiang was puzzled and after a few questions, found out that the Wang Yuanwai family believed that the birth of their lady's new son was due to the good luck brought by Song Dingxiang. "Last summer, wasn't it Lady Song who sent your uncle scholar to deliver lotus flowers and seeds? My lady said it was a nice gift, showing kindness from our family, and now we finally have a legitimate son. Let the little ones express their gratitude to the older siblings."

Song Dingxiang was speechless and quickly said, "It's just a coincidence. Don't spread such rumors. We are just sharing some joy, we will just go back and fetch some water for the young master."

The steward of the Wang family, sharp-minded as he was, naturally understood what was going on and said: "Young Madam Song, rest assured, there is no falsehood in this matter. What if it upsets the Sending Child Goddess? The master also wishes for more children and grandchildren in the future. If there are new lotus flowers and seeds this year, please be sure to send more."

Song Dingxiang smiled and said, "If we have a lot of them this year, as long as they bloom, I will send some to Wang Daren." She then brought out two jars of meat sauce from the house and added, "Stewed with mushrooms picked from our own place, it goes well with rice. This jar is for Uncle Wang Quan, and this one is for Wang Daren to taste."

"I knew I would definitely benefit from this trip, didn't expect it to be true. The food your family make is absolutely delicious, oh, not to mention, your eldest sister in town makes this peach-flavored pastry that is really fragrant, the whole street is full of peach flavor, makes one drool." Wang Quan chuckled as he took the jam and put it into his own carriage.

Song Dingxiang said, "If Uncle Wang likes it, I will have my sister send you a few to enjoy every day."

"No, no, that won't do. Making money from the food business is hard-earned, how can I take advantage of this? When money needs to be spent, it must be spent." Wang Quan hesitated for a moment and whispered, "Can Young Madam Song give me a pair of gloves? My wife hands are always freezing, can't even move them in winter. I know these gloves are meant for the soldiers in the North, they don't need to be too good, rough ones are fine."

Song Dingxiang frowned and said, "Why didn't you mention it earlier? We have thick wool for knitting scarves. I will knit a thick pair for Aunt Wang, although not as delicate as cashmere, it will be equally warm."

Wang Quan said, "Good, that will do. We can't compete with the soldiers for things, can we? Even the master said that what your Song family is doing is noble and righteous, a good deed. We can't have ill intentions."

Song Dingxiang smiled and said, "Great, coarse wool knits can be beautiful too, plus they can be dyed. What color does Aunt Wang like?"

Before Wang Quan could answer, the sound of a quarrel came from the wool workshop behind them.

——— Author's Note: Song Dingxiang: Don't mess with me, I have the protagonist halo!

I saw a lovely comment providing insight into their previous rural life. I have also experienced rural life before and know that cows are precious and not used recklessly.

In some villages, cows are communal property and are only used during farming season, rested during other times, and not even used for grinding millstones.