Chapter 468: Chapter 243 Jealousy_1
The craftsmen and laborers that they had hired were sufficient in number; there was no need for a child like Lian Manman to help with the work. After lingering at the construction site for a while, she headed to the breakfast shop.
Wu Lang and Xiao Qi still remained at the construction site. Although they couldn’t do much work, listening and observing were very beneficial for their future. In some families, generations would live under the same roof, and the chance to be involved in building a new house from scratch, managing big affairs, was rare indeed. Wu Lang and Xiao Qi were males, and as the tenant farmers often said, they would be responsible for upholding the family in the future. They might not be able to learn much now, but what they saw and heard could be of great help in their future lives.
Lian Manman had initially felt a small sense of dissatisfaction with this, but she had grown completely accustomed to it by now. This was the social reality, and she couldn’t change it. Even if a girl was smart and capable, managing all sorts of affairs, these front-stage matters still required a man to step forward. Otherwise, people might praise the woman on the surface, but the words behind her back wouldn’t be so kind, and sometimes, even to her face, there would be unpleasant remarks.
At their current ages, Wu Lang and Xiao Qi were still considered children. In many tenant farmer families, they could only do odd jobs and were not involved in important family matters. Many of these families only taught their children how to work and had no awareness of training them on a higher level.
Lian Manman was conscious of this and made efforts to instill it in Lady Zhang and Lian Shouxin. She encouraged and created opportunities to enhance Wu Lang’s and Xiao Qi’s status in the family, giving them more chances to access and learn those higher-level skills. She didn’t want the two brothers to end up as mere laboring farmers or pedantic scholars. She wanted them to be more capable, more adaptable to society, and to have better lives.
It’s not that Lian Manman had an extraordinarily noble mentality; she did this for others as well as for herself. Whether it was out of emotional or rational factors, she would act the same way.
In any era, a girl with several capable brothers could be sure her path in life would be much smoother. In the era she was living in, this point was an unquestionable truth.
In the breakfast shop, Lady Zhang, along with Lian Zhizhi and Lian Yeye, was busy at work. Seeing Lian Manman arrive, she quickly assigned her a task.
"Manman, hurry up and fetch a bowl, crack some eggs," Lady Zhang called out loudly.
"Alright," Lian Manman replied, went to the side of the basin, washed her hands with the water from the basin, then took an apron from the clothes rack and tied it around her waist before taking a large bowl from the dish rack.
"Mother, how many eggs should I crack?" Lian Manman asked while taking eggs out of the Chinese basket.
"For two tables of people, just crack six," said Lady Zhang after doing some calculations.
Lian Manman cracked six eggs and then quickly began to stir them with chopsticks.
"How is it going over there?" Lady Zhang asked Lian Manman while stir-frying.
"My brothers have just brought back the bricks with the cart, father said that after unloading the bricks and tidying up a bit, they will stop working and come to eat," responded Lian Manman.
"Good, that’s right on time," said Lady Zhang as she adeptly put the cooked dish onto a large plate, poured more oil into the pan, and prepared to cook the next dish.
By the time Lady Zhang was working on the last soup, Lian Shouxin had also finished work and came bustling over with his men. Not all of them entered right away; Lian Shouxin led two men carrying a large bucket of water, then took a few wooden basins outside, where the men squatted, chattering and laughing while washing their hands and faces.
During this brief moment, Lady Zhang, together with the three girls, and Wu Lang helped out, too, arranging two tables with chairs and benches in the breakfast shop.
"Go tell your father and the rest to come eat," Lady Zhang said after everything was ready.
Xiao Qi dashed off, and Lian Shouxin led the men into the shop. Everyone settled down and began to eat.
Lady Zhang, Lian Zhizhi, Lian Manman, and Lian Yeye ate at another table set up on the kang bed-stove in the inner room.
After dinner, everything was tidied up, and it was already dark outside. Most of the hired craftsmen and laborers had dispersed, but two crafters who lived far away simply didn’t go home. Now that the weather was warm, they built a shed on the construction site to sleep in at night, which also conveniently allowed them to keep watch over the bricks and timber on the site.
