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

Chapter 389 Luck

In fact, Jiang Xiaobai had only met Chen Dao a few times, but that did not diminish Chen Dao's sacred status in his heart.

Having heard about Chen Dao's deeds from others, his admiration for Chen Dao was no less than that of any villager in Chenjia Village. He knew that Chen Dao was a person who had compassion for people like them at the bottom of society.

Therefore, when he heard Li Dadan say that these laborers were working for Chen Dao, he knew that these laborers must be treated well, maybe even better than him!

"They are indeed lucky."

Li Dadan looked at the laborers wolfing down their food and nodded in agreement with Jiang Xiaobai's statement. As Chen Dao's uncle, he understood Chen Dao better than Jiang Xiaobai and the others. He knew that Chen Dao was always very generous to the poor. These laborers were obviously poor people, and Chen Dao would definitely not treat them unfairly. This meal was the best proof of that.

Don't think this meal is simple. You should know that these laborers are all big eaters. From what Li Dadan observed, each of them ate no less than five steamed buns. Three hundred laborers would eat 1500 steamed buns. At three copper coins per steamed bun, the total price would be as high as 4500 copper coins, or 4.5 taels of silver.

Although these laborers were in the most prosperous city of Taicang County, it was highly questionable whether they could earn 4.5 taels of silver a day after a hard day's work.

Not to mention, 4.5 liang is just the price of the staple food, steamed buns, not including the meat, fried eggs, and stir-fried vegetables they eat.

"correct!"

Li Dadan withdrew his gaze and looked at Jiang Xiaobai and the other two, asking, "Xiaobai, what do you want to eat today?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Xiaobai countered, "Brother Bold, what kind of dishes are we having today?"

"The staple food is steamed buns."

Li Dadan replied, "As for dishes, there's stir-fried cabbage, scrambled eggs, and stewed cabbage with chicken."

"Give us three steamed buns each!"

Jiang Xiaobai reluctantly looked away from the pot. Stewed meat, scrambled eggs, and stir-fried vegetables were all relatively expensive dishes, which the three of them couldn't afford with their current income.

"okay!"

Jiang Xiaobai and his two companions each took three steamed buns and planned to find an empty seat.

However, after searching around, they found that there were too many laborers and there were no empty tables at all.

Left with no other choice, Jiang Xiaobai and his two companions walked to a less crowded table and asked in a pleading tone, "Brothers, could you make room for us?"

"No problem at all."

Cao Shui and the others sitting at the table quickly stood up to make room for Jiang Xiaobai and his two companions.

The dining tables in the food stalls are all square tables, and the chairs are long benches. Originally, two people could sit on one long bench, but if you squeezed in, three people could sit there without any problem.

"Thank you, brothers!"

Jiang Xiaobai and his two companions sat down side by side, enjoying the soft steamed buns while casually asking, "Brothers, are you from the county town?"

"Yes."

Cao Shui nodded, then asked with a look of curiosity, "My name is Cao Shui, what are your names?"

"My name is Jiang Xiaobai."

"My name is Jin Yin."

"My surname is Li, you can call me Li Lao Er."

"..."

All three, including the laborer and Jiang Xiaobai, were simple and honest men. After exchanging names, they quickly became acquainted.

"Brother Jiang, you're not a villager from Chenjia Village, are you?"

After some casual conversation, Cao Shui asked hesitantly.

It's easy to see from the naming of Chenjia Village that it must have been a village inhabited by people with the surname Chen, while Jiang Xiaobai's surname is Bai, so he obviously doesn't belong to the villagers of Chenjia Village.

"If I were a villager from Chenjia Village, I would wake up laughing in my dreams at night."

Jiang Xiaobai shook his head and smiled bitterly.

Generally speaking, in a narrow sense, the villagers of Chenjia Village refer to the original five hundred or so villagers with the surname Chen from Chenjia Village. In a broader sense, the villagers of Chenjia Village include craftsmen such as Liu Qiaoshou and villagers from Xiaohe Village who enjoy the benefits of Chenjia Village.

However, neither the villagers of Chenjia Village in the narrow sense nor the villagers of Chenjia Village in the broad sense have anything to do with Jiang Xiaobai.

Because he was just a migrant worker who came to Chenjia Village to make a living, his household registration in Chenjia Village had nothing to do with him.

"From what you're saying, Brother Jiang, it seems that becoming a villager in Chenjia Village is very difficult?" Li Lao Er asked thoughtfully.

"It's difficult in some ways, but not difficult in others!"

Jiang Xiaobai explained, "If you are a craftsman with a skill, you can apply to become a villager of Chenjia Village, and you will have a high chance of successfully obtaining residency and having a household registration in Chenjia Village. Your name will be recorded in the Chenjia Village household register."

The so-called Chenjia Village household registration book can be understood as the population register of Chenjia Village. Only those whose names are recorded in that population register can be considered villagers of Chenjia Village and enjoy the benefits of Chenjia Village. Craftsmen such as Liu Qiaoshou are among the outsiders who are recorded in the register.

Currently, the household registration book is mainly managed by Li Zheng, the village schoolteacher. That book is also one of the dreams of countless migrant workers. They desperately hope that their names will be recorded in that book and that they will become true "Chenjia Village people".

"But if you don't have a skill, it will be quite difficult to become a registered resident of Chenjia Village!"

Jiang Xiaobai shook his head and said, "It's very difficult for rough people like us who have no skills and can only do manual labor to become citizens of Chenjia Village. We need to work in Chenjia Village for at least three years and make certain contributions to Chenjia Village before we can become citizens!"

"Is it really that difficult to become a resident of Chenjia Village?"

Cao Shui and the others looked at each other, and they roughly knew what "registration" meant. When a child was born in the Xia Kingdom, the village chief would often come to the child's home to register the child's name, age, gender, place of birth, and current location, and then register it in the household registration department.

This is the household registration system of the Xia people.

In the minds of Cao Shui and others, household registration is not an important matter. After all, no matter where a farmer is registered, he is still a farmer and needs to work hard and cultivate the land.

However, it is clear that the household registration that Jiang Xiaobai mentioned is not as important as their household registration.

Judging from Jiang Xiaobai's tone and expression, he seemed to particularly want to have a household registration in Chenjia Village.

"Brother Jiang, is there some benefit to having a household registration in Chenjia Village?"

Cao Shui subconsciously voiced the question that had been bothering him.

"Benefits? The benefits are huge!"

When the topic of Chenjia Village's household registration came up, Jiang Xiaobai immediately perked up: "This Chenjia Village household registration is a really good thing! Once you have a Chenjia Village household registration, you can immediately buy Chenjia Village's low-priced grain. You only need to pay half the price to buy the same amount of grain. Brother Cao, don't you think that's a great benefit?"

Half-price food?

Cao Shui and the others stared at each other in disbelief. Those grain merchants were bloodsuckers who would devour people without spitting out the bones, yet they were selling grain at half price?

"How could there be half-price food?"

One of the laborers at the same table stared wide-eyed and said, "If the grain is only sold at half the price, won't the grain merchants go bankrupt?"