“Let me make this clear in advance: No matter whose herbs we take later, in the end, the money will be divided equally among everyone. That means each household will get fifty-nine wen. If someone ends up having none of their herbs taken, while another household has almost all of theirs taken, and then you complain about the money distribution—well, if there are any more good opportunities to make money in the village in the future, that person won’t be included. Got it?”
This had to be made clear ahead of time. If anyone dared to cause trouble later, his father and the elders wouldn’t let it slide easily. It was better to prevent any future difficulties in managing the village.
“Clan leader, elders, village head, rest assured—we absolutely won’t have any complaints!”
“Right, right, right! No complaints from us!”
The attendees all loudly guaranteed their agreement.
“Alright, then. Everyone go home and prepare your herbs. Also, call back anyone who went up the mountain to dig for herbs.”
The village head waved his hand, dismissing the crowd. Then, along with a few cousins, he helped escort their respective “family mascots” home.
As they walked, the village head grumbled:
“Dad, I know you’re the clan leader and you have the Lin family’s best interests at heart. But you can’t just forget about me, your son. I am, after all, the village head of Lijiagou. Can’t you at least discuss things with me? Don’t leave me as the last to know about everything, alright?”
He hadn’t even heard about the herb-digging trip up the mountain until last night—from his own wife. During the day, he had been busy searching for water sources and springs in the mountains.
Because he was running up the mountain every day, he’d come home every evening, eat dinner, and crash straight into bed. So, when Yue Jiuyue and Lin Chaonan came by last night to discuss the herb situation and the solution, he only found out about it this morning when his wife stopped him at the door.
And that was how that impromptu village meeting came to be.
So, how should he put it? The village head felt like nothing more than a loudspeaker. He didn’t have to manage anything in the village—whenever a decision was made, someone just told him to go out and announce it. The rest of the time, he was basically useless.
“Hey now, you can’t blame your old man for that! Yesterday, when the herb-digging was announced, we sent the boys door-to-door to spread the word so no one would miss out on making money. And as for discussing the herb sales last night—well, you can’t blame your dad for that either. Who told you to fall asleep so early?”
With that, the clan leader shook off his son’s support, clasped his hands behind his back, and stepped into the house.
Village head: …
(︶.︶)
The clinic would only accept five hundred catties of herbs. One by one, those who had gone up the mountain to dig herbs returned home. They carefully selected the herbs that weren’t damaged, cleaned them thoroughly, and arranged them neatly. Then, they brought them to the clan leader’s house, where the best-looking hundred catties of each herb were chosen. Two men loaded the herbs onto a wooden cart, and with the village head leading the way, they set off for town.
Dr. Li hadn’t expected the herbs to arrive so quickly. Even more surprising was that Lin Chaonan’s family had shared the news with the entire village. He had learned over the past couple of days just how poor Lin Chaonan’s family was—a widowed mother had struggled to raise four children, and they were so poor they couldn’t even afford a single full meal.
Yet despite that, they had still shared this rare money-making opportunity with the whole village. Dr. Li didn’t know whether to admire the family’s sense of righteousness or to think they were simply foolish.
But regardless of whether the family was righteous or foolish, one thing was certain: the children of such a family were reassuring. At the very least, they wouldn’t do anything like betray their teachers, forget their gratitude, or turn their backs on those who helped them.