NCCnovel Chapter 268 Joining the He Family
Chapter 268 Joining the He Family
Murong Chen looked at the steaming pot in front of him, his brows tightly furrowed, his face full of anxiety and helplessness.
He raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, and with a hint of frustration in his voice, he shouted to Murong Ling'er beside him: "Mother, at this rate, we can't make ten kilograms of salt a day!"
After working for a whole morning, the sun was already high overhead, but there was only a shallow layer of salt in the bucket, less than three pounds. Murong Chen was filled with frustration and worry. How could he live if this continued?
Looking around, the other convicts who came with him also had sad faces and were sighing.
At first, when everyone heard Manager Mo asking everyone to hand over ten kilograms of coarse salt every day, they didn't feel much pressure. But when they really started doing it, they found that this task was as difficult as climbing to the sky.
The whole morning passed by in a hurry as they kept adding firewood, stirring, and watching the brine evaporate, but the harvest was pitifully small. Everyone looked at the little salt in their buckets and felt like crying but had no tears.
Murong Ling'er was observing everything silently from the side, her eyes firm and thoughtful.
After a moment, she stood up, dusted herself off, and said, "Let's go back and have dinner first, and then we'll think of a solution this afternoon."
After saying that, she took Murong Chen's hand and walked towards the stone house.
As soon as he entered the stone house, a cool breeze hit his face, making Murong Chen, who had been exposed to the scorching sun for a long time, feel comfortable all over. He breathed a sigh of relief, and the red parts of his face that were sunburned were no longer so hot and painful.
At lunch time, Murong Ling'er was busy on the simple stove. After a while, two bowls of steaming rice, a bowl of tender steamed eggs, and a refreshing and delicious cold cucumber salad were placed on the table.
Perhaps because he had expended too much energy working in the morning, Murong Chen had an unusually good appetite. He devoured a full bowl of rice in no time, burped loudly, and looked very satisfied.
Just as the two of them had cleaned up the dishes, footsteps were heard in the yard.
Murong Chen had sharp ears and immediately recognized the footsteps of Uncle Chu. He hurried out to greet him with a smile on his face: "Uncle Chu, you are here!"
Chu Lingfeng walked into the yard and was shocked by the coolness of the house. He was stunned for a moment before he came to his senses. He handed the basket in his hand to Murong Chen and said with a smile: "Chen'er, look at what this is?"
Murong Chen opened the basket curiously, and his eyes widened instantly. Inside was a big bowl of tempting mushroom stewed chicken. The chicken was tender, the mushrooms were fresh and fragrant, and the food was steaming hot and fragrant. He almost drooled at the sight.
"It's still hot! Call your mother out to eat together." Chu Lingfeng looked at Murong Chen's surprised expression, his eyes full of love.
Murong Chen swallowed his saliva. Although he was very greedy, he still shook his head sensibly: "No, Uncle Chu, we just had lunch."
He knew in his heart that this stewed chicken with mushrooms must have been sent from Longmen City by Uncle Lin Yu and his men with great effort. It was really not easy to send it from such a far place.
Murong Chen was about to return the basket to Chu Lingfeng, but Chu Lingfeng stopped him and said, "Keep it for you and your mother. Don't be polite."
Murong Ling'er walked out of the house at this time and happened to see Murong Chen bring the basket of stewed chicken with mushrooms to the table.
She raised her eyebrows slightly and looked at Chu Lingfeng. Chu Lingfeng didn't mention the mushroom stewed chicken, but got straight to the point: "Miss Murong, I went to see the other groups this morning. They all had one pot per person making salt. If we had more pots, we would have no problem making ten kilograms of salt a day, and completing the task would be much easier."
Murong Ling'er nodded, but her expression remained solemn. "Yeah! I've thought of that, but we won't be given these pots for free. Plus, with so many pots, we'll need a lot of firewood. We might have to go deep into the mountains to find enough firewood. We need to think it over carefully."
……
The scorching sun was high in the sky, scorching the deserted salt field. The sea breeze carried a salty and astringent smell, making people feel uneasy.
Chu Lingfeng frowned and squatted beside the salt pot with Murong Ling'er, watching the salt grains gradually precipitating out of the pot. They looked at each other and understood each other's thoughts.
Making three or four pounds of salt might be possible for them, but making ten or fifteen pounds was extremely difficult. There were only two of them, and they could not cope with the task just by going far away to collect firewood.
"This is clearly a deliberate attempt to make things difficult for us," Chu Lingfeng whispered, a hint of anger in his voice. "Salt-making is already time-consuming, and with such stringent requirements, it's hard not to suspect that the He family's young master is behind this."
When mentioning the young master of the He family, Chu Lingfeng suddenly remembered the news his subordinates had reported before.
He hesitated for a moment, but decided to tell Murong Ling'er: "Sun Ying became the He family's young master's lover the day after she landed on the island. If she comes to see you in the future, you must be more careful."
Murong Ling'er looked calm after hearing this, without any surprise. The He family had already taken refuge with Concubine Rong, so it was not surprising that Sun Ying had taken refuge with the He family. Moreover, with Sun Ying's beauty, it seemed reasonable that she was favored by the young master of the He family.
However, she secretly wondered in her heart, would Sun Ying, now with a backer, turn against the Chu and Huo families? This was still an unknown.
However, Murong Ling'er didn't take this matter too seriously. It would be best if everyone lived in peace. If anyone dared to cause trouble, she would definitely not show mercy.
When going to work in the afternoon, Murong Ling'er walked straight to Mo Yiqi, who was responsible for distributing tools, and asked for two more pots.
"The rent for a pot is two taels of silver a month," Mo Yiqi said lazily without even raising his eyelids, as if he was talking about something very ordinary. "Do you want to rent it or not? If not, then get out of here and don't waste my time here!"
Murong Ling'er sneered inwardly when she heard this. Isn't this clearly a robbery? But she remained calm on the surface. With a "pa", she slammed four taels of silver on the table and said, "Bring me two pots."
Her generosity surprised everyone around her. Seeing this, several people from the Huo family followed suit and took out four taels of silver to rent two pots.
The other convicts all looked at them sideways, not expecting these newcomers to be so courageous.
However, everyone knew that with Murong Ling'er around, she would definitely not sit idly by as long as someone dared to take action against them.
With three pots cooking at the same time, everyone was busy until the sun was setting before they managed to collect ten pounds of coarse salt. They handed the salt over and only got seven centimeters in return.
Seven centimeters can only be exchanged for two kilograms of brown rice. Although it is not much, at least you won’t starve to death.
The new convicts completed their mission on the first day, and a rare smile of satisfaction appeared on Mo Yiqi's gloomy face.
But when Huo Jianjie handed him ten kilograms of coarse salt, his face instantly darkened again.
"Today is the first day, so I'll only deduct six work points from you, and you won't get any brown rice."
Mo Yiqi's voice was cold and threatening, "But starting from tomorrow, if you still don't pay 15 kilograms of salt, according to the rules, each of you will receive ten lashes from me!"
After saying this, his sinister gaze swept over Chu Lingfeng and Huo Jianjie, as if warning them not to challenge his authority easily.