Zhao Guizhi got up several times in the middle of the night, sometimes to change the baby's diaper, sometimes to feed the baby rice cereal. Perhaps the baby was craving milk, because the little one refused to eat the rice cereal and kept crying. He only ate when he was starving.

Zhou Laoda and Xingxing slept soundly until dawn, completely undisturbed by the crying next door. However, Zhao Guihua woke up immediately upon hearing the crying from next door and went to help take care of the child in the latter half of the night.

Fortunately, she helped Zhao Guizhi, otherwise she would have really collapsed. When she woke up in the morning, her eyes were covered with dark circles and she was listless. She was several times more tired than when she used to guard Yanzi at the Chen residence.

After breakfast, Zhao Guizhi said, "Let's go back to the children. Taking care of children is really tiring. If we keep going like this all night, we'll be half dead. I really don't know how you managed to raise five children at once."

"We really went through a lot of hardship taking care of our five boys back then. But my five boys weren't as pampered as the children of wealthy families. We raised them roughly, as long as they were fed. They weren't picky eaters. Although we were poor back then, we had enough food, so the children were relatively easy to raise," Zhao Guihua said with a light laugh.

Although she speaks lightly now, the hardships she faced back then are unimaginable. To support five children at the same time, she and Zhou Laoda had to save half of their own food rations every day.

Zhao Guihua stays at home taking care of the children every day. Because there are so many children, she has no way to go out. She can only rely on Zhou Laoda to go out to work or go into the mountains to find some food.

Back then, the family hadn't separated yet, and the money Zhou the eldest earned from work had to be handed over. So every time, Zhou the eldest would go to work far away and lie about his wages when he came back. For example, if he earned eighty coins a day, he would say he earned sixty coins and leave twenty coins for the children to buy food.

Later, Zhou Laosan and Zhou Laosi, who were cunning and irresponsible, often followed him and found out that he had lied about his wages. Zhou Laotou and Zhou Laotai scolded them, calling them unfilial and saying all sorts of nasty things.

They could tolerate being scolded, but scolding the children was unacceptable. When Old Mrs. Zhou called the five boys "short-lived ghosts," the eldest son of the Zhou family immediately flew into a rage.

“Mother, you’re their mother, how can you talk like that? That’s my own son, he’s only a few months old. You’re so heartless to say such things. Don’t ever say such nasty things again.” Zhou the eldest retorted coldly.

"Brother, why can't we scold Mother? Elders can scold their juniors all they want, but you still protect her. You're not on our side anymore because of those five boys. You even deduct their wages every day. You have no conscience." Zhou Laosan mocked from the side.

Old Zhou's eyes blazed with fury as he glared at Old Zhou's third son and said, "Why don't your honeysuckle's three children die young? Why should my Fu'er be cursed? If you're so capable, go work and earn some money. Don't try to be so arrogant with me."

"Brother, how dare you talk like that?" Zhou Laosan said angrily.

“How dare you talk like that? I’m your older brother, I can say whatever I want.” Old Zhou retorted.

After the big commotion, Boss Zhou stopped secretly hiding money. He openly took out a portion of his wages and bought things like flour, rice, and eggs, then locked them in the room.

With five babies, breast milk was definitely not enough, so the five babies started drinking rice water and eating complementary foods during their postpartum period.

Zhao Guihua kept a close watch on the grain to prevent Zhou Laosan and Zhou Laosi from breaking into the room and stealing things. The fine grains she bought were for her five sons; if they were stolen, her sons would starve to death.

Looking back, it's heartbreaking, but thankfully all five children survived, and none of them died. That's a blessing, and all the suffering was worth it.

At this time, Zhou Laoda and his group took the little boy to the yamen. The injured guard, perhaps because he had martial arts skills, was able to get up and walk around after resting for a night. Apart from his pale face, there was nothing else wrong with him.

The man took the child and, after confirming that the child was being well taken care of, visibly breathed a sigh of relief. He then gave Zhou Laoda a jade pendant.

"This jade is a gift to you. If you ever encounter any difficulties in the future and need any help, take this jade pendant to the current prefect of Nanyang Prefecture." After that, the man said nothing more.

Although the other party's statement was vague, Zhou Laoda and the others were still taken aback and roughly guessed the child's identity.

After leaving the yamen, Zhao Guihua took the jade pendant and examined it carefully. "Although we don't know much about jade, this jade pendant looks very expensive. That person said that if you encounter any problems, you can use the jade pendant to go to the prefect, so that child is the prefect's child?"

"I heard that the prefect of Nanyang Prefecture took office last year. It is said that the prefect's ancestral home is in the neighboring Pingzhou Prefecture. He previously served in a prefecture in the north. His family probably did not come with him immediately. That child is very likely the prefect's son." These were the things Zhao Guizhi heard some customers talking about in the tavern.

"Didn't the guards say they set off from the capital?" Zhao Guihua asked, puzzled.

"Perhaps their family has been settled in the capital?" Old Zhou said casually. "Alright, let's not think about that anymore, let's go look at the house."

Indeed, they couldn't figure out the prefect's family's affairs either, so they put that aside for now and focused on taking care of their own.

In the afternoon, the house was chosen. It was a two-courtyard house, not far from the shop, only a quarter of an hour's walk away. It cost 350 taels of silver, which was more expensive than the shop.

The slave trader said that the house is almost new and can be moved into directly without renovation. The price is not considered expensive in the county. Don't think that the house is more expensive than a shop.

Many people know that someone died in the shop, which is why it couldn't fetch a high price. But the house is clean. The owner is a merchant. If it weren't for the natural disaster that caused him to lose a lot of money, he wouldn't have had to sell the house.

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