Chapter 302: You're Wrong
After a loud shout of "Giddy-up!", the white horse accelerated from a slow trot to a gallop.
Riding the horse on the way home, Wang An felt very refreshed; at the very least, his mind was clear.
That was just how Northeast China was in this era: if you weren't satisfied, you fought; once the fight was over, you dropped it.
Of course, you were perfectly free to retaliate, as long as you could win the fight—then there was no problem.
However, in Wang An's case, it could only be considered a tit-for-tat, because Wang An only dared to cause trouble for the person involved and didn't dare lay a finger on Qi Xiaoshan's family.
Only by doing this could he remain in the right.
If Wang An had dared to beat up Qi Xiaoshan's entire family, then no matter how capable he was, he probably wouldn't have been far from death.
Everyone has one head on two shoulders; who's afraid of whom?
When Wang An arrived home, Sun Dafu was already examining Wang Yi's leg.
After a while, Sun Dafu finished his examination and reached the same conclusion as Wang Dazhu.
Upon hearing this, the whole family felt relieved. Furthermore, Sun Dafu had brought a pile of herbs and told Liu Guilan to decoct them into a medicinal soup for Wang Yi to drink, saying it would help his leg heal faster.
To be honest, many prescriptions from this era were incredibly powerful; even someone who didn't know medicine could cure many serious illnesses just by following the prescription to gather the herbs.
In fact, in his previous life, before entering the "fence," Wang An had studied Chinese medicine.
Of course, he had simply found a few people to collect folk prescriptions and then imitated certain people by developing "miracle waters" or "miracle medicines" to sell; it was merely a superficial study.
Simply put, he just wanted to make money!
So, while Wang An didn't understand it himself, the people he hired reached the conclusion that many powerful prescriptions had miraculously vanished!
As for exactly how they vanished, that remained unknown.
After entering the "fence," the thing Wang An regretted most was that he hadn't focused on researching "miracle water" or "miracle medicine," but had instead continued the idiotic business of trafficking firearms.
One must realize that things like "miracle water" were incredibly lucrative businesses; the profit margins were practically ninety-nine percent.
Although trafficking guns was also high-profit, the former was legal and compliant.
Most importantly, even if something actually went wrong, you wouldn't be arrested and lose your freedom!
After Sun Dafu finished instructing Liu Guilan on brewing the medicine, he turned to leave.
But how could such help be free? Moreover, Sun Dafu had brought so many herbs.
The family wanted to keep him for a meal, but Sun Dafu refused no matter what.
Helplessly, Wang Dazhu gave Sun Dafu a bear paw and two pieces of bear flank meat. After some polite declining, Sun Dafu bashfully took the items and left.
It had to be said that as a village head, Sun Dafu was indeed a bit better than Niu Yiqun.
However, now that land had been allocated to individual households, the power and role of the village head were truly limited.
After seeing Sun Dafu off, the family went about their business—those who needed to cook cooked, and those who had chores did them.
Wang An sat beside Wang Yi and recounted the process of getting revenge for him.
Wang Yi was extremely happy upon hearing this, but unfortunately, when he laughed, it tugged at his bruised face, causing him to constantly make "hissing" sounds as he sucked in cold air from the pain.
Looking at Wang Yi's miserable state, Wang An could hardly suppress the urge to laugh, but laughing in front of Wang Yi would be quite inappropriate, so Wang An found an excuse to go outside.
After Wang An left, only the two little girls remained by their second brother Wang Yi's side.
Looking at their second brother's face, which no longer looked human, the two little girls pouted and wiped away tears. This scene perfectly embodied the phrase "deep sibling affection."
Wang Xiaoli occasionally muttered, "Let's see them bully Second Brother again, I'll let Big Brother beat them to death."
Perhaps in Wang Xiaoli's heart, her eldest brother was invincible.
During dinner, Wang An mentioned that people would come to deliver the bricks and tiles tomorrow, which greatly surprised Wang Dazhu's couple and Mu Xueqing.
Because in this day and age, regardless of what you bought, you had to find a way to get it yourself; it was a matter of "buy it or don't," and the concept of delivery simply didn't exist.
Thus, after his surprise, Wang Dazhu asked in disbelief
"You told them to deliver it, and the factory director actually agreed? You didn't ask that Wu Dong for help again, did you?"
Hearing this, Wang An chuckled and explained the situation at the brick factory and the process of buying the bricks.
After Wang An finished, the whole family was even more shocked, though the direction of their shock seemed to have veered off course.
Because after listening, Liu Guilan immediately stared with wide eyes and asked, "So just to build a house, you bought 900,000 bricks? Are you trying to build a palace?"
Wang An laughed and said, "Mom, you're wrong. I'm not trying to build a palace; I was just thinking of building a Prince's Manor."
Hearing Wang An's words, the whole family, including Liu Guilan, was stunned for a moment, and then Mu Xueqing burst out laughing.
Immediately after, Wang Dazhu and Wang Yi also laughed, though Wang Yi forgot about his face and once again hissed in pain from the laughter.
Liu Guilan naturally reacted immediately and couldn't help but laugh and scold
"You brat, teasing your mother every single day."
But immediately following that, Wang Dazhu frowned and asked, "With all these bricks, even counting the sheds and pens, you can't possibly use them all, can you?"
Wang An took a bite of food before saying nonchalantly, "I forgot to mention, 100,000 of these bricks are for my father-in-law."
Mu Xueqing paused upon hearing this and instantly felt something was wrong. She looked at Wang An and was about to speak, but noticed the strange expressions of her parents-in-law.
From Wang An's earlier explanation, Wang Dazhu and Liu Guilan already knew the prices of blue and red bricks.
Furthermore, both of them knew how to do math, so the couple subconsciously glanced at each other and tacitly agreed not to mention the irrationality of the matter.
Because in the Northeast, or rather in the vast majority of rural areas, a married-off daughter is like spilled water.
As a son-in-law, helping the father-in-law's family is only natural, but giving away a sum as large as 3,200 yuan for free was still very unreasonable.
The reason it was 3,200 was because there was an additional 200 yuan for shipping.
One must realize that 3,200 yuan in this era could be called a fortune without any mistake.
A formal employee would have to work for over seven years without eating or drinking to save that much!
Moreover, Mu Hua and his wife had a son.
If they didn't have a son, then Wang An's action would have been understandable to Wang Dazhu and his wife, because a son-in-law is half a son!
After glancing at everyone, Mu Xueqing hurriedly said to Wang An
"Xiao An, this brick money cannot come out of our family's pocket. You and Xueli have earned quite a bit; it's not like he has no money, let him pay for it himself."
Regardless of the outcome, Mu Xueqing's words were perfectly placed and clearly stated her position.
Even if the money ended up being spent by Wang An in the end, at least Wang Dazhu and his wife would feel much more comfortable internally.
Once Mu Xueqing finished speaking, Wang An immediately noticed his parents' expressions.
This left Wang An somewhat helpless, because something that seemed like a small matter to him had almost caused unpleasantness.
However, after thinking about it, Wang An felt he had oversimplified the problem.
Many things are like this, especially matters involving two different families.
But Wang An's greatest virtue was his selfishness; anything that made his own family unhappy had to be corrected.
Father-in-law, mother-in-law, or brother-in-law—if they had to pay, they had to pay.
In other words, Wang An had to get this money, and he had to demand it righteously.
His wife said it, so there was no mistake!
Thinking of this, Wang An said with a smile, "Mm-hmm, he must pay for it himself. He's the one getting a house; if he doesn't pay, who will?"
Only after Wang An spoke did Wang Dazhu and his wife smile happily.