The clan elders also saw Lao Zhoutou's expression.

Seeing them looking over, Old Zhoutou immediately said: "There is no way, my family is still waiting for rent this year. Don't look at Manbao's salary. Even a handful of vegetables in the capital costs money, even if you don't buy meat."

If you only eat vegetables, that little money won’t be enough.”

The clan elders almost left, so why do you want your whole family to stay in the capital?

But seeing Zhou Man's happy face, and remembering how Qian had arrogantly said that day that Zhou Man had been raised by her and he had to be filial to her, he finally suppressed his words and said nothing.

After returning, the clan elders told the clan leader what happened on the edge of the field.

Patriarch Xia frowned and asked: "Is she telling the truth, or is she lying to us? What does this mean? Are you urging me to give her the rent? Or are you afraid that we will come to fight against the autumn wind in the future?"

"I don't think so. She also knows a lot about farming. She stood in the field and looked at the wheat for a while and then gave us an approximate estimate of the yield. I took a closer look and found that her estimate was privately shared with us.

The estimate is not much different, but that's it. When talking about last year's drought, she said without batting an eye that she wouldn't give up the rent this year to support the orphans and widows and run a clan school."

"Yes, but her uncle is very stingy. If he hadn't kept an eye on her, the land Xu Li had rented would have been donated to the clan."

"Looking at the appearance of the Zhou family, it seems that they are indeed not wealthy in the capital."

"Look at the clothes they are wearing, do they look like they are not rich?"

"If you lose, you don't lose. This is our Xia clan's territory. Naturally, we have to dress well. If they wear poor clothes, who can look down on them?" A clan elder said: "But it's just an official. I heard that the imperial court still wants to dress well."

For those who are issued cotton silk, the cloth they wear does not look like the cloth sold by cloth shops outside. It may be issued by the government."

Patriarch Xia's son also said: "Dad, I heard that the two brothers of the Zhou family changed the door locks of the house yesterday. I heard people said that they wanted to buy some old furniture in the old market to add to it, and they would add it later.

The house is rented out."

Patriarch Xia: "...are you really so poor?"

He looked unconvinced, "Let's not talk about the Zhou family. Look at the clothes and accessories of her and the two young masters of the Bai family. Do they look like they have no money? Don't let her deceive you."

"She is so powerful, why would she want to lie to us?" A clan elder said: "But it is true that she is well dressed, but as an official, she always has to be smarter. She doesn't want to be inferior to others in social interactions.

Not to mention others?”

"As for the two young masters of the Bai family, they are from aristocratic families and they still have some background."

Patriarch Xia came to his senses and asked, "Why are you suddenly talking good things about her? What are you trying to do?"

The clan elders were silent for a while, and then said: "I didn't want to do anything. Didn't you suspect that she had bad intentions? We just thought that maybe she was really in trouble."

Patriarch Xia snorted coldly and said: "No matter how difficult it is, it can't change her ulterior motives. Letting us set up a clan school at this time is completely out of spite..."

"You can't say that. What she said is not unreasonable. There are too few people in the clan who are studying. We didn't have a field to study in the past. Now we have one. My husband's cultivation is enough. The clan takes turns to cultivate that field.

Supply is all there is to it, so why stop the children from making a living?"

"Studying not only costs my husband's money, but also books, pens, ink, paper and inkstones, three meals a day and clothes for all seasons, not to mention building a school. These all cost money..."

"There are so many people in the clan, we can just come out when the time comes."

Patriarch Xia was a little irritated: "Wu Lang and Qi Lang are about to take the imperial examination. As long as they pass the examination, they can try to take the academic examination in three or two years. Even if they fail to pass the Jinshi examination, they can try for Mingke and other examinations."

, when the time comes, the family will need to contribute to the selection of officials and so on..."

But Xia Wulang and Xia Qilang are not their biological grandchildren, so why do they use their own money to provide for them?

They had no choice before, but now they can also send their children to school, right?

Seeing that things seemed to have returned to the original point of the dispute over the past few days, Chief Xia suddenly didn't want to talk.

What makes him even more frustrated is that even his son and grandson don't agree with him. Obviously, they also want their children to go to school instead of supporting their nephews and cousins.

Chief Xia waved his hand tiredly and asked, "Where are they?"

"I went to Xia Yi's house. He said that he is the closest family to him after all, so I had to go and see it no matter what."

Patriarch Xia thought, is that just to make people angry?

Man Bao really didn't mean to irritate people. Even if she went there with this idea in mind, she couldn't show it. Behind her were a large number of young people from the Xia family, all of whom were her cousins, uncles, and nephews.

Although she didn't know any of them.

Xia Yi's home is on the edge of Hongtian Village, with fields in front and several families behind.

When they arrived at the place, Manbao nodded with satisfaction. It was indeed very shabby. There were several mud rooms, and the outer walls were peeling off. There were pits on the yellow mud walls. Some of them could even be seen from the outside.

It's still summer now, and when winter comes, people will definitely freeze to death.

Manbao walked over, sighed as he approached, and asked, "Didn't Uncle Yitang repair houses in the past?"

A cousin replied: "I come back two or three times a year and stay for three or two days each time. Who has the patience to repair it?"

Mainly, who could have thought that Xia Yan's granddaughter would come back alive? Even if she came back, she could actually make the clan vomit out what they ate in their mouths.

Man Bao looked at Xia Yi's house and sighed, and her heart clicked. This was simply prepared for her. No wonder he was always bullied by her biological father.

This is destiny.

When Xia Yi's two sons and one daughter saw Zhou Man and others coming, they all stood in the yard and stared at them with some hatred, not allowing them to enter.

Except for the little girl who was only seven or eight years old, the other two were about the same age as Man Bao, but she looked at their sizes and firmly believed that they were smaller than her, so she asked with a smile: "Are you my cousin?"

The three of them stared at her without answering.

The young people following her saw that she didn't seem to mind, and they liked her even more, so they took the initiative to explain: "They are younger than you."

Among the young people following her, there were many older than her. They had memories of the past, and sometimes the adults in the family would talk about it, so they revealed unabashedly: "Back then, your grandfather said that he wanted to adopt an adoptive person. Yitang

My uncle kept waiting, but he waited until your mother was about to get married before starting to talk about marriage, so they are all younger than you."

Manbao:……

Bai Shan couldn't help but lower his head and laugh out loud.

Man Bao felt a little uncomfortable, so he looked at the yard of Xia Yi's house and found that there was a lot of furniture in the yard. He sighed: "How can this be done? If it is placed in the open like this, no matter how good the furniture is, it will break. Why?"

Not moving in?"

The same young cousin replied: "It's a mess inside. How do you arrange it? I don't know if there are any holes in the ground."
Chapter completed!