“Aunt, please keep me here; I promise to work hard.”
Helen was a bit clever; when Maria’s sister-in-law offered her buns, Helen didn’t listen and instead rolled up her sleeves to work.
Maria’s sister-in-law couldn’t just kick her out.
She also had her suspicions; could it be that her sister-in-law was worried about her and her husband running the shop, deliberately bringing in a spy from the Whitaker family?
Maria’s sister-in-law’s surname was Rogers, Rogers Lucia.
The snack shop was doing well, with cash flowing daily through Rogers Lucia and her husband. Especially during the half month Maria was back in Larkspur Village, Rogers Lucia and her husband had made some money. Rogers Lucia wished her sister-in-law would stay in the countryside forever and never return; holding onto Maria’s Snack was like having a golden goose.
With such suspicions, Rogers Lucia found it hard to tell Helen to leave.
Maria thought her sister-in-law was really not clever; she couldn’t be the bad guy and refuse Helen. Rogers Lucia could just brush her off with a few words, right? If it weren’t for her brother Jude, why would she have called Rogers Lucia to help?
Whitaker Albert had come a day earlier than Maria. He had gone early in the morning to purchase the ingredients needed for the snack shop. When he returned and saw Helen, he thought for a moment and decided to keep her.
Helen was lazy and greedy, but she was still a Whitaker.
The sign of the snack shop was Maria’s, and Whitaker Albert knew the reason but still felt a bit uncomfortable. His brother-in-law Jude was a bit of a leech, and by keeping Helen, Whitaker Albert also gave Jude and Rogers Lucia something to think about—by a twist of fate, Helen ended up staying in the snack shop to help. Although Whitaker Albert kept his niece, he was also stingy; no one had mentioned giving Helen a salary.
Helen only lasted a day before her true colors showed; she was lazy at work, but her mouth was sweet, especially towards the male students from who came to eat. She was overly enthusiastic!
Whitaker Scarlett was still unaware that she had again avoided a commotion caused by the Whitaker family.
If Whitaker Chris had really come to demand grain from the mother and daughter, he certainly wouldn’t have gotten a good reception. Of course, it was always better to have one less trouble. Whitaker Scarlett’s time was so precious; how could she waste it on irrelevant people?
Thanks to the Whitaker family members each having their own calculations and unable to unite their efforts, they hadn’t been able to frequently disturb Whitaker Scarlett’s life.
The grain tax delivery notices were sent to every household. Whitaker Scarlett was to go with her aunt, Amanda, to the grain station in the township to deliver the grain tax. This was a novel experience for Whitaker Scarlett, something she had never experienced in her previous life.
The rice grains had to be thoroughly dried, free of sand and other impurities, each grain plump and golden yellow, with no shriveled grains to be considered qualified grain tax.
Grain tax was delivered several times a year. After the rice harvest, rice grains were delivered; there was also the wheat and rapeseed from earlier. A portion of the harvest was unconditionally surrendered to the state to substitute for agricultural tax. The grain tax didn’t necessarily fully substitute for the tax; the insufficient portion had to be paid in cash. Previously, the production team had unified the grain tax delivery and agricultural tax payment, but after the implementation of the household responsibility system, each household was responsible for delivering grain and paying taxes themselves.
“Now we don’t pay taxes anymore; it’s changed to collecting retention funds.”
Elizabeth had gone to catch eels, so Whitaker Scarlett and her aunt worked together to pack the rice. These rice grains had been sun-dried and sieved; let alone shriveled grains, there wasn’t even a tiny speck of impurity.
Amanda mentioned that they had to pay “retention funds” this year, leaving Whitaker Scarlett completely baffled.
In the rural areas of the 1980s, there were many areas she didn’t understand. She didn’t understand farming, nor did she know how difficult life was in the rural areas of the 1980s. Not only was farm work arduous, but the seemingly small amount of grain tax was a significant pressure on farmers… Hybrid rice technology had been developed in the 1970s, and demonstration planting had begun in Duskhaven Province in 1976, but it hadn’t been widely promoted to this day.
