Lang Ying was unaware that she had become the envy of many of the left-behind mothers in the village. Her family hadn't set up many beehives this year, and it was a bit late; it wasn't honey harvesting season yet. However, Jiang Yu and his family, understanding the heavy burden on their two children, had arranged for her to help package the honey during this period.
Although it wasn't as profitable as when I was making smoked fish, earning 80 yuan a day was still quite a lot in the countryside.
Lang Ying cherished this temporary job. While Shan Yan and the others were harvesting honey, she was also busy, helping with cooking, taking care of the children, and so on. She was a great help to Jiang Yu.
Spring honey is thin and difficult to preserve, so the freshly harvested honey should be sold as soon as possible.
Jiang Xiaoman also hired several hardworking and clean left-behind mothers from the village, asking them to come to his place in the morning after dropping their children off at school to help pack honey and deliver packages.
Like Lang Ying, they work from 8:30 in the morning to 4:00 in the afternoon. They are asked to take their children home and settle them down first. They come back at 6:00 in the evening and work until 9:00. This way, they can take care of their families and earn enough for a day's wages.
Seeing these left-behind mothers spending all their time with their families, children, and elderly relatives, Jiang Xiaoman finally understood why many private companies were unwilling to hire stay-at-home mothers, and why so many women had to quit their jobs to become full-time mothers after having children... It wasn't that they didn't want to work and earn money, but that life simply didn't allow it.
Fortunately, his honey bottling job wasn't something he had to rush, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to take care of these mothers left behind in the countryside.
When you're rushing to meet a deadline, who would expect you to run back home at noon to cook and feed your child, and then run back to school in the afternoon to pick them up?
But Jiang Xiaoman can do it here!
After all, who can blame him but the unknown time management master, Boss Jiang?
He had noticed when he asked Lang Ying to help make smoked fish that rural mothers with children had it really tough. Often, they would be working when a phone call would come from home, either because the child was crying, or because they needed to cook, or because they needed to feed the pigs... It was as if the whole family would starve to death without them.
Jiang Xiaoman knew their difficulties, so on their first day of work, she created a special "work schedule" for them—
He doesn't intend to implement a strict eight- or ten-hour workday like factories in the city; he's implementing a segmented system.
From 8:30 AM to 11:30 AM, three hours;
From 1:30 pm to 4:30 pm, three hours;
From 6 PM to 9 PM, three hours;
The workday is 9 hours long. If you work on time for all hours, you will be paid 100 yuan. If you are late or take leave, you will be deducted 10 yuan per hour.
Lang Ying went from being a worker to a team leader, responsible for the day's performance evaluation.
Actually, if you buy a machine for filling, although you will have to spend a lot of money to purchase the machine in the short term, it is still cheaper than manual labor in the long run.
But Jiang Xiaoman never thought about buying a machine, at least not for the time being.
At the very least, before these mothers left behind in rural areas are able to earn a living by beekeeping and growing tea, he needs to provide them with as many job opportunities as possible.
And now it seems he didn't suffer too much of a loss. Sun Zheyuan had told him that if poverty alleviation projects like beekeeping cooperatives and specialty agricultural product cultivation could consistently employ members of local impoverished families and solve the employment difficulties of impoverished households, they could later apply for other welfare policies, such as low-interest loans or one-time special subsidies.
But nobody knows this!
Now, the villagers, especially the mothers left behind in the village, regard Jiang Xiaoman as their own brother!
No, he's even more reliable than my own brother.
After all, many of them married into such a poor place as Langshan Village because their families needed to save up for dowries for their older and younger brothers. The poorer the place, the higher the dowry, which was essentially a one-time buyout. In order to get wives for their older and younger brothers, their families naturally had to sell them.
If a brother had any conscience at all, how could he just stand by and watch his sister be pushed into a pit of fire?
Unexpectedly, while her brothers from her maternal family were unreliable, Jiang Xiaoman, her sworn brother, always thought of them.
"Oh! If Xiaoman were our village's women's director, wouldn't that be wonderful!" In the warehouse, several women wearing dust masks chatted while filling honey containers.
"Pfft~ You've got to be kidding me! I've never heard of a male women's director in my entire life!"
"I was just venting! Xiaoman is so busy right now, how could she have time to run around mediating between neighbors all day long?"
"Stop talking about mediation! It's better not to mediate at all. Before there was mediation, if my husband hit me, I could hit him back five times out of ten. Now, if my husband hits me, I can't fight back. Fighting back would only escalate the family conflict. Pah! Who hit me first anyway?"
"In my opinion, Yingzi is the smartest. She left Erming, a man who's never home all year round, as soon as possible! Look at all the women in our village who are raising children now, Yingzi is the most carefree!"
As the group of women chatted, they somehow started talking about Lang Ying's ex-husband, Jiang Erming. Remembering how Lang Ying had always taken good care of them as the group leader, the women couldn't help but give Jiang Erming and his seemingly kind but actually ruthless parents a good scolding.
I wonder which of these sisters-in-law has awakened the curse skill.
Just two days after they finished cursing Jiang Erming, the family slunk back to Langshan Village under the cover of night.
I heard that Jiang Erming had to be carried back.
What's going on?
For a moment, the villagers didn't want to sleep anymore; they wished it would be dawn immediately so they could rush to Jiang Erming's house to see what was going on!
Soon, the villagers learned why Jiang Erming and his family had returned to the village looking so dejected...
"Hey! Have you heard? That Jiang Erming was carried back with his kidney cut off!"
What is that?
The villagers were shocked when they heard this earth-shattering gossip.
Jiang Youtian sneered and walked past the gossiping crowd.
He knew all along!
Even wealthy families in the city, if they wanted to find someone to father the illegitimate child in their daughter's belly, would at least find a city boy with a clean background.
How could she possibly be interested in Jiang Erming, a divorced man from the countryside?
There must be an ulterior motive behind this!
Jiang Erming was indeed deceived.
He has always been afraid of hardship and fatigue since he was a child, and he was unwilling to work in a large factory with strict management. He always worked in small workshops in the provincial capital, going to whichever workshop offered the highest wages.
Unexpectedly, the small factory he found last year had such good benefits. Not only did the boss pay for the employees' collective physical examinations, but after the examinations, the boss's eldest daughter even confessed her feelings to him.
Jiang Erming was initially hesitant to believe it, after all, she was the boss's daughter!
Later, he learned from his girlfriend that because her younger brother had been in poor health since childhood, her family wanted her to find an honest and reliable man. It wouldn't be considered marrying into her family, but rather that she would have to help her in-laws manage their business after marriage...
Moreover, his girlfriend was a few years older than him, making it difficult to find a partner in the city.
The boss thought Jiang Erming was quick-witted and good-looking, so he suggested that his daughter try dating him.
Jiang Erming got a little carried away at the time, and even felt that he was at a disadvantage by agreeing to the marriage.
After all, his girlfriend was several years older than him, and she even had a younger brother!
And so, Jiang Erming started dating this rich second-generation girlfriend named Hou Tingting, and at the suggestion of his future mother-in-law, he quickly returned to his hometown to complete the divorce procedures with his wife.
Then, something even more flattering happened—before the Lunar New Year, his mother-in-law said she wanted to discuss the wedding banquet with his in-laws and asked him to invite his parents over. She also said she would take their whole family on a trip abroad!
This thrilled the three members of the Jiang family, who had never been abroad before!
Jiang Erming's parents proudly showed off in the village, then sold off the pigs, chickens, and ducks that no one cared for, locked the gate, and packed their bags to go to the city to stay with their wealthy in-laws.
Unexpectedly, this trip led them into the Hou family's trap.
Chapter 164
The Jiang family went to neighboring R country with the Hou family of four. They were very excited at first, even though they weren't used to the food. After all, it was going abroad!
Jiang Hongyi and Lang Liugu were so eager to stop and take pictures under every road sign they could find, planning to take them back and show them off to the villagers.
Even Principal Jiang Baichuan from Langshan Village has probably never been abroad.
Unexpectedly, on the morning of the third day, the Hou family took them to a new place. It was only then that Jiang Erming realized that there was one more crucial condition for becoming the Hou family's son-in-law.
That is, Jiang Erming must "voluntarily" donate a healthy kidney to Hou Tingting's younger brother, who suffers from uremia...
At this point, the Hou family hadn't yet dropped their pretense. Hou Tingting wept bitterly, begging Jiang Erming to save her only brother. They truly had no other choice; the hospital queues were endless, and they couldn't just watch their brother die.
Her father, Mr. Hou, repeatedly assured her, saying that the hospital had said that a person has two kidneys, but only one is used normally, while the other is completely useless!
If he is willing to donate this useless kidney to his son, after returning to China, he will immediately buy a large house in the provincial capital for Jiang Erming's family in full, and also give his parents 500,000 yuan in cash as their future pension!
When Jiang Hongyi heard that he could get 500,000 yuan, he immediately wavered.
On the contrary, Aunt Lang, who only has one son, Jiang Erming, was worried that donating a kidney might shorten her son's lifespan.
Later, the doctor hired by the Hou family brainwashed the Jiang family, repeatedly using various medical data to prove that a person can eat, drink, and excrete normally even with only one kidney, and that it would absolutely not affect their lifespan or fertility...
Jiang Erming couldn't bear to part with his rich second-generation girlfriend, Hou Tingting, and he was also tempted by the house worth millions that President Hou had promised. In addition, he secretly checked on his phone and found that donating only one kidney didn't seem to have any impact. So, he gritted his teeth and signed the organ donation consent form.
When he entered the operating room, the doctor joked with him, saying that even if he couldn't do heavy physical work after donating a kidney, he would be a rich man's son-in-law, with servants to serve him meals, so he wouldn't need to do any work himself.
These words made Jiang Erming very happy. He dreamed that after returning to China, he could hold a wedding with Hou Tingting. At that time, he would be Hou's son-in-law. Even if his father-in-law was doing it for his daughter, would he dare to ignore him?
...
Of course, President Hou wouldn't abandon his son-in-law.
The premise is that Jiang Erming must also have the ability to actually marry Hou Tingting first.
Because Hou Tingting's younger brother couldn't move after the surgery, the Jiang family stayed with the Hou family in a foreign country for a full half month!
Having finally returned to China, Jiang Erming looked at his well-recovered brother-in-law and thought himself a great benefactor of the Hou family, someone the entire Hou family would have to fawn over from now on. But then, his gentle and kind girlfriend suddenly found herself with an "ex-boyfriend"!
The ex-boyfriend's family was said to be involved in the underworld in the provincial capital. When he heard that his ex-girlfriend was pregnant, he insisted that the child must be his. He led his men to surround the Jiang family of three in an alley and beat them up. Before leaving, he made a threatening statement, telling Jiang Erming not to be delusional and that if he dared to come to the provincial capital to harass his fiancée again, it wouldn't just be a beating next time.
Jiang Erming was unwilling to accept this, and with a bruised and swollen face, he went to complain to his future father-in-law.
To everyone's surprise, Boss Hou, who was usually so decisive and resourceful in the factory, suddenly became timid and wouldn't even let him through the gate. He told Jiang Erming through the window that his daughter's ex-boyfriend had supposedly stabbed someone before and had even been to jail, and that his family didn't dare to mess with him.
His girlfriend was also watching through the window, crying and urging him to run away quickly and not let her get him involved...
Jiang Erming felt that something was not right.
However, before he could figure it out, several thugs drove up in a van and forcibly took his family of three back to Langshan Village.
They didn't know where Langshan Village was. When they saw houses in the distance, they stopped the car and shoved the three of them out.
Jiang Erming's family didn't even have time to pack their luggage for the trip into the city. Just like that, it was like a bizarre dream. When they woke up, they had nothing to show for it, and their son had inexplicably lost a kidney!
Aunt Lang immediately started yelling that she was going to call the police, but her husband slapped her twice to tell her to come to her senses.
“If you call the police now, they’ll only be in jail for a few days at most. These thugs aren’t afraid of anything. Once they get out, our whole family will be finished!”
Even wealthy families like the Hou family wouldn't dare to provoke such people, let alone the powerless mountain folk.
Even now, the Jiang family of three still refused to believe that they had been deceived by the Hou family, insisting that it was just bad luck for them. They never expected that Hou Tingting would have an ex-boyfriend who was involved in the underworld!
"Erming, tell me, is the child in Tingting's belly yours or her scoundrel boyfriend's?" Aunt Lang had always wanted a grandson, and the thought that Hou Tingting might be pregnant with the Jiang family's grandson made her heart ache!
Jiang Erming remained silent.
He's a little uncertain now.