Chapter 29 I Will

Chunzhi said, "The whole of Nanzhou knows about this. Nanzhou is the fief of Prince Ning, and Prince Ning is the local emperor of Nanzhou..."

She said that in Nanzhou, Prince Ning had the final say on everything.

All officials in Nanzhou follow the orders of Prince Ning, and this is something everyone in Nanzhou knows.

Although Chunzhi was just a tofu seller, there were people on West Street who specialized in collecting protection fees, and the money was actually collected at the behest of officials.

Huo Zheng asked her, "Have you ever thought about reporting it to the police?"

"Report to the authorities?" Chunzhi smiled. "Where should we report to the authorities? The officials in Nanzhou protect each other. They are all in the same boat. As long as we can get by, who among us ordinary people would seek death?"

Those who risked their lives to file a complaint were forced into a desperate situation and had no other choice.

Huo Zheng opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but no words came out.

Chunzhi said that the Prince of Chang'an had come to Nanzhou and might not leave for a while. Before he left Nanzhou, stalls could not be set up on West Street. So she would find someone to build the courtyard wall in the next few days.

That afternoon, Chunzhi asked someone to build the courtyard wall.

The two workers worked for three days and raised the entire yard to a height of one person. Chunzhi was very satisfied looking at the newly built wall.

Seeing her like this, Huo Zheng couldn't help but say, "Repairing a broken courtyard wall is really so exciting?"

Chunzhi said, "Of course I'm happy that the wall is finished. After you leave, I won't have to worry about someone climbing over the wall in the middle of the night."

The night she brought Huo Qi home, some hooligans climbed over the wall to look for her in the middle of the night. Chunzhi is still frightened.

But you don’t have to be afraid anymore.

Huo Zheng was shocked when he heard this: "..."

This person is secretly driving him away again!

Chunzhi didn't know what Huo Qi was thinking. Looking at the newly built courtyard wall, she went to the East Market to buy some flower seedlings to plant in the yard.

When the flowers bloom, the yard will look beautiful.

Without the Lu family, Chunzhi can live well on her own.

Now, there are two people for the time being.

There is also a Huo Qi here.

Huo Zheng was in the house, sitting in a wheelchair reading the news brought by Jiang He. He heard the sound of hoeing in the yard, and when he looked up, he saw Chunzhi planting flowers.

She really treated this small, shabby yard as a treasure.

Huo Zheng wanted to tell her, don’t plant flowers anymore, wait until I recover from my injuries, then I will take you back to the palace and let you be my cook. There are all kinds of rare and precious herbs in the palace, and none of them is better than these flower seedlings you planted.

But he couldn't say anything now.

Chunzhi is busy and happy.

No one knew what the Prince of Chang'an was doing in Nanzhou. Soldiers patrolled West Street every day, preventing people from setting up stalls or walking around freely.

Chunzhi rested for four or five days, and even renovated the entire courtyard, but still could not set up a stall to sell tofu. A customer came to the tofu workshop and asked if there was any tofu for sale.

Chunzhi thought of making tofu and selling it at home, and hanging a sign at the gate of the yard.

Although there are definitely not as many customers as on West Street, this is an extraordinary period and every penny earned counts.

She thought so and did it right away.

While eating, Chunzhi asked Huo Qi, if he were to hang a sign in front of the door, "What should I call tofu? Taohuaxiang Tofu? Chunji Tofu? It seems a bit strange."

"Linshui Tofu." Huo Zheng said, "This place is called Linshui Town. You sell tofu in Linshui Town."

"Linshui Tofu, not bad. Let's call it that." Chunzhi asked him again, "Can you write? Then write the four big characters 'Linshui Tofu' on a piece of cloth and hang it on the door. It will serve as a sign."

Huo Zheng laughed and said, "You want me to write a sign for you?"

The calligraphy of King Chang'an is so precious that no one else can even afford it even if they pay a fortune.

Chunzhi actually asked him to write a sign for selling tofu.

"Can't you write?" Chunzhi said with some regret: "You look... like you have been educated. I thought you could write."

She seemed to have no idea that Huo Qi couldn't write, and even said, "Then I'll write it myself. My handwriting just isn't very pretty."

Huo Zheng was speechless and said word by word: "I. Can. Write"

Chunzhi asked puzzledly, "Why do you have that expression when you can write?"

Huo Zheng closed his eyes, not wanting to respond to her.

Chunzhi laughed and said, "Isn't it because your handwriting is also ugly?"

Huo Zheng couldn't help but say, "Shut up."

After Chunzhi finished her meal, she went to find a piece of red cloth and called Huo Qi to come over and write the sign.

Huo Qi pushed the wheel to the table, stood up and picked up the pen, but found that the ink had not been ground yet, so he looked at Chunzhi and said, "Grind the ink."

"Okay." Chunzhi responded and immediately started grinding ink.

The ink was ground in a short while.

Huo Qi picked up his brush and wrote the four big characters "Linshui Tofu" on the cloth, with the characters moving like a dragon and a snake, majestic and magnificent.

Chunzhi didn't know much about calligraphy, but she knew Huo Qi's handwriting was truly beautiful, so she spared no effort in praising him, saying, "You have such beautiful handwriting. You must have read a lot. If you were to take the imperial examination, you might even win first place!"

Huo Qi said disdainfully, "What's so good about being the top scholar?"

Chunzhi said: "There is no scholar in the world who does not want to be the top scholar. If you are the top scholar, you can become an official. If you are an official, you can rise to prominence and rise to prominence--"

Huo Zheng asked, "Like Lu Jingyun?"

Haruji paused, "You can also not be like him."

Huo Zheng said, "It's a pity that I won't be able to pass the imperial examination and become the top scholar in this lifetime."

Chunzhi asked: "Why?"

Huo Zheng thought to himself that it was because I was the seventh prince of the current dynasty, the King of Chang'an personally appointed by the emperor.

How could a prince take the imperial examination?

Huo Qi didn't say anything, and Chunzhi thought she had brought up his sad story.

They thought that he was the descendant of a criminal, or that something serious had happened in his family, which was why he was not allowed to take the imperial examination.

Chunzhi took a deep breath and tried to comfort her, "It doesn't matter if you can't pass the imperial examination. There are 365 professions, and every profession has its own top scholar."

Huo Zheng said, "I don't want to hear the word 'number one scholar' for now."

"Okay, okay..." Chunzhi responded immediately. After drying the cloth with the words "Linshui Tofu", she cut it out, strung it with wooden strips, made it into a flag and hung it at the door.

Prepare to start selling tofu the next day.

But just as the tofu workshop opened the next day, a group of men rushed into the workshop with ferocious looks. The fat, big-eared man who led the group shouted, "This tofu workshop was left to me by my mother. Now I'm taking it over. No matter who you are, pack up your things and get out now!"

Customers who came to buy tofu were scared by these people and turned away.

The fat man who was in the lead wanted to lift Chunzhi's tofu frame, but Chunzhi held it down to stop him.

She recognized the man as the son of the previous owner, Wu Xin. He was a gambler and had squandered all his family fortune, forcing the owner to sell the tofu workshop and return home.

Chunzhi said, "I bought this tofu workshop six years ago. Both the buyer and the seller signed and sealed it at the government office!"

Wu Xin shouted, "You said you bought it, but where's the house deed? Where's the land deed?"

Chunzhi then remembered that when she bought the tofu workshop, it was Lu Jingyun's name that was written on it, and the house deeds and land deeds were also kept in the Lu family.

She paused for a moment, and Wu Xin was already shouting, "This woman has taken over the house my mother left me. Brothers, smash it and kick her out today!"