Ms. Niu and Ms. Ma kept saying bad words, and that made everyone else also laugh. They all started to gossip loudly.
Ms. Fang was so furious inside her heart but she said calmly, “Don’t worry, sisters-in-law, the spring was discovered a couple of days ago, and it is still running right now.”
Ms. Ma snorted and said timidly, “I am just reminding you out of kindness.”
Ms. Fang showed a falsed smile. “Oh, thank you very much for the reminder!”
The spring remained active, no matter how much the outsiders expected it to run dry.
The work was done in the evening.
The clear water ran through the brick-built hidden passage and went into the pool in the yard. The pool was filled with water until it leaked out through the hidden passage.
Soon the soil and sand were all filtered through, and the water filled up the pool, clear and clean.
In order to prevent dirt from easily falling into the garden, the two pools in the garden and the backyard were built to be three bricks higher than the ground and were square, making it clean and easy to use.
The whole family got so happy seeing the pool of water.
After dinner, they got down to their own buisness. Second Uncle and Third Uncle came with weird looks on their faces.
That Qiao Xuan had hired some people to help with the land was leaked out, and Second Uncle and Third Uncle both heard about the news. Both of them were feeling really annoyed inside their hearts. Moreover, when the spring was discovered in the yard, they felt even more distressed. They came over to make complaints.
“Brother, you are isolating us! Twenty wen a day, you would rather give them to others than to us!”
“Yes, it is so hurtful!”
“You are even trying to hide it from us. But for the leakeage, we would not have known about this at all!”
“You are always talking about being the same family!”
“Well…” Eldest Uncle was confused but smiled. “Don’t get mad, you must have been mistaken! They are just here to help us, and we offer them lunch, but no salary. We will help them back when they need help in the future!”
Third Uncle was annoyed. “Now, you are even lying to us!”
“No…” Eldest Uncle called Shao Yunduan and Qiao Xuan over asked them about this.
Shao Yunduan thought for a while and threw a quick look at Qiao Xuan. “We did not talk about salary before, but they were doing a lot of work, so Ms. Qiao offered the salary when she felt very guilty.”
Second Uncle and Third Uncle turned to Elder Uncle and showed a ‘look-what-I-said’ expression on their faces.
“Then, we can ask our sons to help you. You have to pay them too!”
Shao Liulang (Sixth Son) was the only child of the third section of the family and he was studying in the school. Hence, Third Uncle said, “I will be there too.”
Qiao Xuan smiled. “It would be great if you want to offer help. But Second Uncle and Third Uncle, we are a family, aren’t we? We can’t take money from each other, can we?”
“True…” Shao Sanlang could not help but mumble. “We helped you so many times, but you never pay us anything, not even food!”