Chapter Sixteen: The Mother-in-law and Daughter-in-law Meet

  When they returned home, the bricklayers had already started demolishing the old house. The Second Bull helped the two elderly people down from the oxcart and called out for Huang Shi to come and receive her parents. Huang Shi came out and greeted them with a "Dad, Mom." Lin Laojie smiled slightly on his face and responded.

  Madam Zhao responded faintly, and Lin He, San Ya, and Xiao Bao also followed with a "Grandma, Grandpa." Madam Zhao walked past Huang Shi and came over to look at Lin He, San Ya, and Xiao Bao beside her. She stroked Lin He's head and said, "Er Ya is getting prettier as she gets older, but doesn't often come to see Grandma and Grandpa?"

  Then she pulled over Xiaobao and said "Xiaobao is so big now, grandma hasn't seen him for a long time, I miss him to death."

  Lin He could see that this grandmother was still gentle and amiable to them, but her attitude towards her mother-in-law was not so good. It seems that the relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is not good.

  Zhao saw that the old house on the other side had started to be demolished, and immediately began directing people to work. "Old man, go help Er Niu move things, Old Second's daughter-in-law is standing there doing what, it's time for lunch, start making lunch, I'll watch over here for you, you go do your thing." Huang responded with a sound.

  Actually, Huang's family has arranged for Zhou and Xu to start cooking early on the other side, and we should be able to eat soon. Lin He also followed Huang to cook on the other side. The lunch arrangement is very rich, with two large buns per person, and those who are not full can eat wowotou to fill up.

  The dishes were also stir-fried cabbage with fatty meat, and chili pepper stir-fry with cured pork. In addition, some fresh wild vegetables were picked to make vegetarian dishes. Two meat dishes and two vegetable dishes, each table had a big bowl of each dish, which was considered quite good food in this era.

  It's rare to see meat dishes in this era, and this meal even has two meat dishes, as well as white steamed buns. Zhou Shi and Xu Shu also said that the food was too good, and if it continued like this, the cost of food would be a significant expense.

  Lin He didn't think so, treating others with kindness will be reciprocated, especially in ancient times. Lin He felt that building a house was a troublesome thing, and the most basic thing was to let people eat their fill every day, besides, it wouldn't save much money anyway.

  People here don't eat dinner at night, so Lin He didn't plan to cook and just prepared a few pastries and some melon seeds as snacks.

  When it was time for lunch, the workers were surprised to see that the food provided by the owner's family was so abundant. They had never seen any household provide such good food for their workers before. At most, they would occasionally see a few pieces of fatty meat in the dishes, which was already considered a luxurious meal.

  The owner of the house actually gave out two meat dishes and two vegetarian dishes, all in a large bowl, and the staple food was white steamed buns, which is better than the food in many workplaces.

  Zhao saw the lavish dishes at noon and immediately frowned, calling Huang over to say "You're a spendthrift daughter-in-law! These workers are all paid labor, there's no need to make such a big fuss about their meals. Is your family made of money? Poor my son, he's out in the wind and sun every day, how did he end up marrying someone so wasteful?"

  Although Huang's heart was not happy, she thought that after all, it was her mother-in-law, and it wasn't good to talk back, so she just said: "Mother, these workers are working hard too. Er Niu said to let the workers eat a little better, they will work faster, if the house is finished early, this money will also be saved."

  Actually, it was Lin He who said that, but Huang Shi knew that if she said it was Lin He who said it, her mother-in-law would probably blame her for believing a child's words, so she deliberately said it was Er Niu who said it.

  Zhao listened and indeed looked a bit better, thought for a moment "What Er Niu said is also true, but tomorrow doesn't need to be so good."

  Huang nodded and didn't say anything, then went to invite people to eat.

  Most of the bricklayers are men, so the men surrounded two tables to eat, and women cannot eat at the same table as men, so they all gathered in the kitchen to finish their meals. The dishes in the kitchen were the same as those outside, only women and children were not allowed to sit at the table.

  After a meal, the food was hot and steaming, the two tables outside had almost finished eating, the white noodles were also eaten up, leaving only some Wonton heads. Huang Shi planned to save them for his family to eat when they got hungry in the evening. After finishing their meal, the workers went back to work.

  The two oxen were allowed to rest and would go again later, but no one was willing. Everyone knew that the master's family had provided such good food, if they didn't hurry up and work hard, it would indeed be ungrateful to the master's family. Rural people are all honest.

  Originally, it was supposed to take two days to dismantle the old house, but with everyone's efforts, it was done in one day. On the way back that night, Lin He also asked Huang Shi to bring out a plate of pastries and some melon seeds snacks, there were not many pastries, each person could get about three pieces.

  Lin He noticed that some people ate them on the spot, while others secretly stuffed them into their pockets to bring back for their children. Those who put them in their pockets wouldn't take any more from the plate themselves. Lin He saw this and thought it would be better to give these pastries to the foreman tomorrow, saying they were tea snacks for the workers, so that those who wanted to bring some back for their children could save face.

  In the evening, Lin He and his family had some of the leftover mantou and dishes from noon. At that time, people usually didn't eat at night, but Lin He said he was tired all day and would be hungry at night, so Huang Shi made some food.

  At night, they all lived in the house of the eldest uncle. The eldest uncle's house was not big either. Huang Shi brought a few small ones to live in one room, Er Niu brought Da Bao to live, and the remaining room was left for the two old men to live.

  Before going to bed, Zhao called the two cows into her room and whispered something to them for a while, but it's unclear what they were talking about, probably nothing good.

  Lin He thought it was a bit strange, her mother Huang Shi was a good woman, hardworking and filial, loving to the elderly and children, not a gossip, should have gotten along well with her sisters-in-law too. She had given birth to several kids already, but that grandmother seemed to obviously dislike Huang Shi, however Lin He didn't dare ask directly, in case it made Huang Shi unhappy.

  Huang said to Lin He, "Er Ya, today is the first day, our food will be a bit particular. I think tomorrow's food doesn't have to be so good, just do it like other people's households."

  Lin He disagreed and continued, "Mother, don't mind what Grandma says. Look at the food we prepared for our family today, those workers are also satisfied. Today they worked faster than usual, you want others to work hard for you, but you should also give them some benefits, right? Tomorrow noon, let's still prepare according to today's quantity."

  But that spicy stir-fry with cured meat can also be replaced with other dishes, and we can make some non-vegetarian dishes like radish stewed with meat, which is all good. The workers will eat well, work faster, finish early, and we can move into the new house earlier too.

  Huang thought that Lin He's words were also reasonable, so he agreed. He planned to tell Lin Erniu tomorrow whether the food allowance would still be according to today's standard or not. Today, the workers worked quickly and everyone saw it. If they finished early, the loss of food allowance would be made up for. The workers should work harder when building houses, thinking that the house would be more solid in the future.