"Mom, you’re here at our place, is there something going on?"
Second Lang’s wife still hadn’t forgotten the chicken that Song Yuanbao had taken last time, her heart still ached as if it was bleeding, afraid her mother-in-law was here again to cut off her meat.
The moment Second Lang’s wife gave a slight bend, Granny Song knew exactly what she was up to. Initially, she really hadn’t thought of taking anything, but with this reminder, she thought, why not take something if it’s being offered?
Granny Song glanced at their chicken coop, "I was thinking, Third Son has been working hard for his county exam these days, you as the Second Brother and Sister-in-law may not be able to contribute much, but at least I could take a chicken to get some meat."
Second Lang’s wife genuinely felt like crying, "Mom, you might as well just cut my flesh directly."
The egg-laying chicken she raised with such effort over half a year, what had it done to deserve this?
Granny Song glared at her, "Look at that chubby face of yours, can I even swallow that?"
Second Lang’s wife: "..."
Watching as her mother-in-law took away yet another old hen, Second Lang’s wife’s heart felt like it had been dug out, "Mom, at least leave me a bite."
"Don’t even think about the meat." Granny Song tossed her a line, "In a while, I’ll have Fangniang bring you a bowl of soup, you’ve gotten this far and you’re still thinking about eating meat, feeling your face isn’t swollen enough?"
Second Lang’s wife’s eyes rolled upwards, nearly fainting from anger.
After Song Erlang had a doctor come to reduce her swelling and apply medication, Song Fang indeed sent over a bowl of chicken soup.
Second Lang’s wife felt so blocked inside that she couldn’t swallow a single bite.
Song Erlang coaxed her for a long time to no avail, his patience ground down completely, "I say, enough already, isn’t it just a chicken? Didn’t Mom say it’s to celebrate Third Erlang’s success in his county exam? About Third Erlang studying, we can’t do much to help, isn’t giving him a chicken to boost his strength a good thing?"
"Good what’s good?" Second Lang’s wife kicked him, "Of course you don’t feel sorry, it wasn’t your chicken that’s gone."
"But it’s not like we’re giving it for nothing!" Song Erlang said, "Think about it, if Third Erlang can keep passing exams and becomes a Scholar or something like that, the family land taxes will be all exempted, wouldn’t we benefit from it?"
Second Lang’s wife suddenly quieted down.
Seeing she was listening, Song Erlang continued, "I heard a Scholar exempts eighty mu, and a Scholar Candidate exempts four hundred mu, four hundred mu! Our family’s fields combined don’t even reach that amount, so wouldn’t any extra fields be rented out? If they really are, how much grain would we collect in a year? Turned into money, it could be dozens of taels of silver, right?"
"Even if it’s dozens or hundreds of taels, it still belongs to Third Lang’s family, what’s it got to do with us?"
"You can’t say that." Song Erlang was already set on his plan, "If Third Erlang rents out fields to others, he charges them. With his own brothers, wouldn’t he waive that? Since there’s no tax to pay, later I’ll tell Dad and Mom, Third Erlang is busy with his studies, can’t manage the field work, and to ease the burden on the folks, let’s have the few mu from Big Brother’s house transferred to us. With a yield of three to four hundred jin per mu in a year, we could sell quite a lot of money!"
What he said wasn’t wrong, but Second Lang’s wife still felt uneasy, "What if after we work hard to grow the grain, then Dad and Mom reach out for it?"
"Can’t you just grab a couple more chickens to shut them up?"
"That does make sense."
As Second Lang’s wife spoke, something else occurred to her, "What if Third Erlang doesn’t pass?"
"You and your crow’s mouth, can’t you wish something good for him?" Song Erlang was genuinely frustrated with her.
"I was just thinking, nothing has gone smoothly for him these past years..."
"Isn’t it going smoothly now?" Song Erlang said, "Third Erlang used to just have bad luck, but now his luck has come, no stopping it. If he goes up and becomes successful, we’ll enjoy the soup and meat. That’s a good thing. I’m warning you, Mom’s smart, if you dare to make a fuss, she can smack you even more puffed-up than you are now."
Second Lang’s wife’s plump face seemed to hurt even more at those words.