In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 902 Luck and Misfortune

At Tie Shou's home, the couple worked together to kill a duck and then plucked its feathers.

After removing the hair, Tie Shou said to his wife, "Honey, I'll take care of the rest. Go find Xiao Cheng and ask him to come over for dinner!"

"okay!"

Iron Hand's wife washed her hands and then went straight to Wu Cheng's residence.

"Auntie, what brings you here?"

Shortly after knocking on Wu Cheng's door, Wu Cheng opened it and looked at his wife, Tie Shou, in surprise. He had just returned from work at Zhang's Department Store and was about to start cooking.

"Xiao Cheng."

Iron Hand's wife said with a smile, "Didn't we buy a chicken and a duck today? We're going to slaughter one tonight to satisfy our cravings. Your Uncle Iron always thinks of you when there's something good happening, and he specially called me over to invite you to eat meat together!"

"No need, Auntie, I'll just have a simple meal at home."

Wu Cheng quickly waved his hand to refuse. These days, it's considered very unpleasant to freeload at someone else's house, let alone eat their meat.

Uncle Tie and Auntie have already helped me a lot, how can I accept their kindness again?

"Hey! It's too much trouble for a grown man like you to cook at home. Come on, let's go!"

Iron Hand's wife didn't care about anything else. She grabbed Wu Cheng's wrist and pulled him towards her home.

"Auntie, really, I'll just eat at home!"

"What's wrong with that! Stop talking nonsense. Don't you consider Uncle Tie and Auntie family?"

"no……"

"That's right! Come with me now."

Unable to refuse the wife's insistence, Wu Cheng was eventually dragged to Tie Shou's home by her.

At this moment, Tie Shou brought out the prepared food from the kitchen. Upon seeing Wu Cheng arrive, he grinned and said, "Little Cheng, please sit down. I've been craving this meat for so long, and today I can finally have some!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Cheng glanced at the duck meat on the table and couldn't help but swallow.

Iron Hand craves meat, and so does Wu Cheng.

Having relied on his older brother since childhood, and losing his only relative at the age of 11, Wu Cheng's life was extremely difficult. Most of the time, he had to eat bran porridge to survive, and meat was a truly unattainable luxury for him.

So when Wu Cheng saw the plate of duck on the table, even though the duck was simply cooked and stir-fried, the aroma almost made him drool.

"uncle."

Wu Cheng forced himself to swallow the saliva that was about to spill, and said, "This duck meat is too expensive, I can't eat it!"

"Valuable my ass!"

Iron Hand grinned and said, "You work at Zhang's Department Store, how could you not know how much a duck costs?"

"Uh……"

Wu Cheng was speechless. Of course he knew that a duck cost 200 coins, but 200 coins was not a small amount.

To put it simply, in the entire town of Shaman, apart from a few families like Tieshou who are relatively well-off, more than 70% of the families cannot afford, or are unwilling to spend 200 coins to buy a duck to eat.

"What 'uh'? Eat!"

Tie Shou placed a duck leg directly into the bowl in front of Wu Cheng and said with a smile, "Look at you, you're so skinny you barely have any meat on you. You need to eat more meat to grow taller."

Looking at the duck leg in the bowl, Wu Cheng's eyes were moved, and tears welled up in them.

He was unfortunate; his parents died when he was young, and his only relative, his older brother, died when he was 11, leaving him to live alone in this cruel world.

But at the same time, he was also lucky. He had a group of neighbors who treated him like family, so that he wouldn't go hungry or cold, and he could feel the warmth of humanity...

"Uncle Tie, Auntie, thank you."

With tears in his eyes, Wu Cheng said, "Over the years, if it weren't for you taking care of me, I don't know if I would have survived."

"Why say all this?"

Iron Hand's wife patted Wu Cheng's head and said gently, "Your parents died early, and your brother died at the hands of the barbarians while protecting the town. If we don't take care of you, how can we have a conscience?"

"Xiao Cheng, stop talking nonsense and eat!"

Iron Hand urged hurriedly.

Upon hearing this, Wu Cheng no longer hesitated, grabbed the duck leg from the bowl, and began to wolf it down.

Seeing this, the Iron Hands couple smiled and began to enjoy the fragrant duck meat.

While eating, Tie Shou casually asked, "By the way, Xiao Cheng! I forgot to ask during the day, how many copper coins do you earn a day working at Zhang's Department Store?"

"Uncle Tie, the wages at Zhang's Department Store are not calculated by the day, but by the month."

Without hesitation, Wu Cheng replied, "The boss said that shop assistants like us can earn 500 coins a month."

"What? 500 coins?"

Iron Hand and his wife both widened their eyes; five hundred coins a month was no small sum.

It is no exaggeration to say that the vast majority of manual laborers in Shaman Town cannot earn even 300 coins a month, let alone 500 coins.

"Why so many?"

Iron Hand asked incredulously.

A monthly salary of 500 coins, and a long-term, stable job, was enough to make more than 90% of the people in Shaman Town envious.

"That's still considered a small amount."

Wu Cheng said with a smile, "My boss told me that in Chenjia Village, even the most ordinary worker can earn 800 coins a month."

"hiss!"

The Iron Hands couple both gasped in shock.

Wu Cheng continued, making a startling statement: "Moreover, the money in Chenjia Village is much more lucrative than the money in our Shaman Town. I heard from the men of the Dongjia merchant caravan that 10 coins can buy a pound of white flour in Chenjia Village. Even if they eat white flour buns three times a day, it wouldn't cost them a month's wages!"

"Does Chenjia Village have a gold mine or a silver mine? They're paying such high wages to the hard-working laborers, and the grain prices are so cheap!"

Iron Hand's eyes widened in disbelief as he said that everything Wu Cheng had said about Chenjia Village was enough to shock him.

"Then I wouldn't know!"

Wu Cheng shook his head, his face showing longing: "But Chenjia Village is indeed a fairyland. I've heard that out of the tens of millions of people in Qingzhou, there isn't one who doesn't want to live in Chenjia Village."

Upon hearing this, Tie Shou and his wife nodded like chickens pecking at rice. The income from hard work in Chenjia Village was so high, and the price of grain was so cheap. Not to mention the people of Qingzhou, even the couple themselves were tempted to go to Chenjia Village to make a living.

However, this is unrealistic. Putting aside whether they can make up their minds to leave their homeland, the hatred they harbor for the barbarians and the two children serving in the Great Wall Army alone make it impossible for them to leave the Barbarian Town.