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

Chapter 28 The Villagers' Gathering

"Cheng-ge, eat more so you'll have the energy to work later."

Li Ping smiled and added another bowl for Chen Cheng, who took the bowl and gulped it down in one go.

"one more bowl."

"one more bowl."

"one more bowl."

Chen Cheng had quite an appetite; he ate nearly half of a large bucket of porridge before reluctantly putting down his bowl.

He could actually eat some more, but the porridge in the wooden bucket was almost empty. He couldn't very well ask Li Ping and He Cuilian to cook more, could he?

Although he wasn't quite full, Chen Cheng was still very satisfied. He couldn't eat so much at home.

"Cheng-ge'er, your big belly..."

Chen said jokingly, "I wonder how your mother managed to raise you!"

Hearing this, everyone nodded in agreement. Chen Cheng's appetite was extraordinary, and it was hard to imagine how Liu Yan, a widow, had managed to raise him and five other children to this day.

"hey-hey!"

Chen Cheng smiled憨厚ly, not minding Chen Da's teasing, and turned to Chen Dao, saying, "Brother Dao, have you finished eating? Shall we start working?"

Having eaten until he was about 70% full, Chen Cheng felt full of energy and couldn't wait to get to work.

"Brother Dao, we've eaten our fill, now give us some work!"

The Chen brothers, Chen Shi and Chen Mu, also spoke up, showing their positive attitude.

You can't afford to be lazy. You finally found a job that lets you eat your fill, and if you lose it because of laziness, the loss would be huge.

Chen Dao glanced at his dilapidated house and said, "Let's tear the house down first! We can keep the good timber to build a new house, and burn the bad timber as firewood."

"it is good!"

Everyone responded in unison and then began to work.

Chen Dao watched the five busy people quietly for a while, then said to Chen Da, "Uncle, could you please keep an eye on things for me? I have some things to take care of back home."

"Go!"

Chen Da nodded.

Back at Chen Da's house, they saw Chen Fei and Chen Tiedan playing with Xiao Hei in the front yard. Xiao Hei was running ahead, giggling, while the two little rascals chased after it, seemingly tireless.

Crossing the front yard, Chen Dao entered his temporary room, took out sappanwood flowers and chicken heart grass, mixed them together and crushed them into juice, then carried the bowl of juice to the front yard to feed the chickens.

Chen Dao first placed the bowl between the two chicken coops. After the six chickens finished eating the broth in the bowl, he scattered some grain around the chicken coops and let the six white-feathered chickens eat.

Then Chen Dao waved to Xiao Hei: "Xiao Hei, come here."

Upon hearing Chen Dao's voice, Xiao Hei immediately abandoned its two playmates and ran happily towards Chen Dao, rubbing its neck feathers against Chen Dao's calves.

"Brother~"

"Brother Dao~"

Chen Fei and Chen Tiedan also ran over to greet Chen Dao.

"Xiao Fei, Tie Dan."

Chen Dao smiled and patted the two children's heads. "Go play! Your brother has things to do."

The two children ran off in a flash.

Chen Dao then took out a pound of sorghum and a pound of wheat bran from the house to feed Xiao Hei.

"Giggle!"

Little Black is also a gluttonous chicken. Once it has food, it forgets its owner and happily pecks at the grains that have been scattered on the ground.

"They really forget their master once they have food to eat."

Chen Dao smiled and shook his head, then went to the chicken coop to observe the two eggs inside.

Chen Dao had some knowledge of the incubation time of eggs. Generally speaking, it takes about 20 days for an egg to incubate. At this time, the two eggs in the chicken coop had only been incubating for one day, so it was obviously impossible for any chicks to hatch.

"Twenty days is still too long, and..."

Looking at the white-feathered chickens with yellow feathers showing in the coop, Chen Dao figured that based on his past experience with chickens advancing, all six chickens would probably be able to advance into yellow-feathered chickens by the day after tomorrow.

Therefore, it would be somewhat unprofitable to hatch more white-feathered chicken eggs.

"Instead of hatching white-feathered chicken eggs, it's better to wait until the white-feathered chickens evolve into yellow-feathered chickens before hatching them."

Thinking of this, Chen Dao immediately reached into the chicken coop and took out two eggs from under a hen.

"We can use these two eggs for dinner tonight."

Chen Dao put the two eggs in his room, planning to take them out and cook them as a snack later that night.

After leaving Chen Dajia's house, he returned to his own construction site and helped with whatever work he could.

The sun gradually rose higher, and the weather warmed up a bit.

Many villagers who heard the commotion came out of their homes and came to the vicinity of Chen Dao's house to see what was going on.

"What are they doing at Daoge'er's house? Why are they tearing down the house?"

An old man looked at Chen Dao and the others who were busy and asked.

"I know I know."

Unable to contain her gossip, a woman said, "Dao Ge'er's family plans to demolish the house and rebuild it."

Upon hearing this, the onlookers couldn't help but gasp in astonishment.

"These days, people can't even get enough to eat, how come Daoge'er's family can afford to build a house?"

"With this money to build a house, we'd be better off buying more food!"

"What if the rice farmer's family has so much grain they can't finish it all?"

"..."

It's no wonder the villagers were so shocked. Building a house was such a rare thing these days. With everyone struggling to get enough to eat, building a house wasn't an urgent matter for them, no matter how dilapidated their existing house was.

"You know a hammer!"

The woman who had spoken earlier rolled her eyes and said, "Dao-ge'er's family doesn't lack food at all. I heard that Cheng-ge'er and the others who came to help were given food, and it was even enough to fill them up!"

Meals provided?!

Upon hearing this, all the villagers watching looked on with envy.

"They really provide meals? And they'll make sure you're full?"

"Wow! Did Daoge'er's family find gold? They're so rich!"

"Dao Ge'er's family is incredibly wealthy! Not only do they provide meals, they even provide enough to eat!"

"Won't that big-bellied Chen Cheng eat Dao Ge'er's family out of house and home?"

"You'd be better off asking me for help than the Chen brothers! I eat far less than them!"

"..."

The villagers watching were green with envy. In Chen Dao's view, a job that only provided food was no different from exploiting labor, but in the villagers' view, this job... couldn't be better!

They could eat their fill every day just by doing some manual labor, saving their families a lot of food. They never even dared to dream of such a good thing!

For the villagers, physical strength is something they can recover with a good night's sleep and is practically worthless. But working for Chen Dao is a real way to get a full meal.

Looking at Chen Cheng and the others working busily on the construction site, the villagers' eyes were full of envy, wishing they could replace Chen Cheng.

"No, I have to go ask Brother Dao if he still needs any help!"