Chapter 199

199

Cheng Zhao grew up in luxury and had never eaten wild vegetables. When Shen Yuntang said they wanted to eat this kind of food at night, he felt a little disgusted. He was not a rabbit, so why should he eat the grass in the garden? But dad wants to eat it. Could it be that Cheng Yeran is a rabbit spirit? I am the little rabbit spirit.

"No wonder." Cheng Zhao said seriously.

"What's the wonder?" Shen Yuntang couldn't help but ask him when he saw his serious look.

"No wonder dad sometimes calls me a little bastard. It turns out we really are rabbits." Cheng Zhao said with a frown.

Shen Yuntang couldn't help laughing, raised his hand and rubbed his head, "You and your father are both human, this is not grass, it is a wild vegetable, similar to the vegetables we eat every day, they are all vegetables, just look different."

Cheng Zhao looked at those wild vegetables that looked like weeds. The vegetables he usually ate were all big-leafed and looked delicious, but this one looked dry and didn't look delicious.

He looked at the little servants again, and they also said that this was edible. "When we were young, we had nothing to eat, so we would dig wild vegetables to eat, but they didn't taste good."

Several children looked at Shen Yuntang eagerly and asked him, "Can we not eat this today?"

Shen Yuntang looked at the wild vegetables in the basket and said, "You don't have to eat them. Give them all to his father."

Shen Yuntang cooked personally and made a wild vegetable meatball soup. He made four meatballs in total, and the cooking method was very different from before. He added top-quality bacon and ham, and sesame oil was dripped into the soup, making it delicious.

When it was served on the table, Cheng Zhao couldn't help but stretch his neck to look over, "Dad, can you give me some?"

"This was made for me by your mother." Cheng Yeran ate a meatball, squinted his eyes happily, and deliberately made Cheng Zhao greedy.

Cheng Zhao pouted and said, "This wild vegetable was picked by my father and I ourselves."

"You're so good. You've learned to be filial to your father." Cheng Yeran praised him, but he didn't give him the food. He wanted this little brat who usually loved to act cool to break his act and show his childish side.

Cheng Zhao looked at Cheng Yeran angrily, "If you don't want to eat it, then don't eat it. I don't think it tastes that good."

Cheng Yeran chuckled, and Shen Yuntang shook his head helplessly. Cheng Yeran always teased children in this childish way. Fortunately, their child didn't like to cry. If it was a crying child, his eyes would be swollen every day.

Seeing Shen Yuntang's expression, Cheng Yeran stopped teasing the child and raised his hand to pinch Cheng Zhao's angry face. "Here, here, there are two left for you to eat."

"I don't want to eat the leftovers," Cheng Zhao turned to Shen Yuntang stubbornly and said, "Dad, let's go to my third brother's house another day. He said there are a lot of wild vegetables near his house, so we won't take Dad with us."

Cheng Yeran's eyes widened when he heard this. "It's not okay for you to isolate yourself at such a young age."

"You don't have time to go there, and we don't see you on weekdays." Cheng Zhao complained. In fact, he liked Cheng Yeran very much. When Cheng Yeran was not busy, he would always play football with him and tell him stories. He became sworn brothers with those little book boys because he was inspired by the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" told to him by Cheng Yeran.

But recently Cheng Yeran has been busy with government affairs, as well as building schools and factories. He returns home after dark every day. Sometimes he is already asleep when his father comes back. He has not been able to say a few words to his father for several days, which makes him very dissatisfied.

"Who said I don't have time? If you don't take me with you, I'll go with you." Cheng Yeran calculated his recent schedule and said, "It just so happens that I'm free tomorrow, so I'll go with you."

"Really?" Cheng Zhao was finally happy when he heard this and looked forward to tomorrow.

The third brother's home is on the outskirts of the city, quite remote, but there are mountains, rivers and farmlands nearby, and the scenery is pretty good. Shen Yuntang prepared some gifts to give to the family, and also brought some food and drinks. After visiting the third brother's grandmother, they went to dig wild vegetables, and when they were tired, they went to have a picnic by the river.

Cheng Yeran brought a fishing rod. When he was in Beijing, Yang Shiming always went fishing. Later, Yang Shiming took them all to fish. Cheng Yeran originally thought that only older uncles liked fishing, but after he tried it himself, he found that fishing was very interesting.

As the eldest brother, Cheng Zhao was not idle either. He asked the servants to prepare sun hats, mosquito repellent sachets, and nets for catching insects.

When they were in the palace before, Cheng Yeran always took him and the two princes to catch insects. Sometimes he would tell them the name of the insect and whether it was a pest or a beneficial insect. Sometimes he would also take them to make insect specimens.

Cheng Yeran asked him to make a specimen booklet, which collected many beetle and some butterfly specimens.

This time he plans to catch some insects he has never seen before.

But these insects must not be seen by Shen Yuntang. Once, when Shen Yuntang and Cheng Yeran were watching Cheng Zhao doing homework together, Shen Yuntang picked up a booklet on the table, opened it and saw that it was full of insects. He was so scared that he jumped directly on Cheng Yeran, not caring about his image anymore, and immediately asked Cheng Yeran to carry him out.

After leaving Cheng Zhao's room, he couldn't calm down for a long time. After returning to his room, he was still shaking and crying in Cheng Yeran's arms for a long time.

Cheng Yeran regretted taking those kids to catch insects. There were so many things to do, but he chose to do the thing that Shen Yuntang was most afraid of.

He still remembered that when they were in the village, they opened the cellar once and several woodlice crawled out, scaring Shen Yuntang.

He just thought that Shen Yuntang was afraid of those disgusting-looking insects, but he didn't expect that Shen Yuntang was even afraid of butterflies. This fragile look was so pitiful. He hadn't seen Shen Yuntang in such a fragile look for a long time. Although it looked beautiful, he would not deliberately use insects to scare Shen Yuntang.

Shen Yuntang thought that he was different from before, and had grown into a strong adult who could not be defeated by any storm.

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It was not until he saw the insect specimens made by Cheng Zhao that he realized these little bugs were more terrifying than any big winds or waves!

The whole family was ready and took a carriage to the third brother's house.

The third brother clenched his hands nervously on the way. When he came out, the house was full of the smell of medicine. The adults in the family were frowning all day long. His younger brothers and sisters did not have enough food to eat and were starving to the point of being just a handful of bones.

He and his sister were both sold, leaving only a younger brother at home. No one knows to whom his younger sister was sold. Is she doing well now? I hope I won't be sold to that kind of place.

When they arrived at their third brother's house, grandma's illness had already recovered. The third brother also had two uncles. His family had a younger brother, and his two uncles had an older brother and a younger sister.

Because each of the two uncles had a child, and only their family had three children, so when the children were sold, two of their children were sold.

When they arrived at the third brother's house, his family did not expect Cheng Yeran's family to come. They thought that the third brother had made some mistake and that Lord Cheng was coming to kill their entire family. They were so scared that they knelt down, trembling and shouting for mercy.

Although Cheng Yeran investigated and prosecuted Lord Lin, everyone knew that he was a good official, but they were still afraid of him.

Cheng Yeran quickly helped them all up and explained their purpose. "The child misses home, so we brought him back to visit. You don't have to be so reserved."

The third brother also ran over and hugged his grandmother. Seeing that she had recovered from her illness, he couldn't help crying and said while crying: "Master Cheng and his men are very good. They give me delicious food, meat for every meal, and nice clothes to wear. You don't have to be afraid of him."

Shen Yuntang asked the servants to take down the gifts from the carriage. They were some rice, flour, grain, oil and the like. Although they were not expensive gifts in his eyes, they were good things that his third brother's family was reluctant to eat. They did not dare to accept them, but they did not dare to say no either. They watched in fear as the servants around Shen Yuntang carried those things in for them.

When grandma saw my third brother, she burst into tears, hugged him and cried, saying she was sorry for him.

His mother also cried a lot, saying that she had been crying all day since he and his sister left home, and she even became sick for a while due to crying.

Cheng Yeran saw that their family was so poor. They were very poor before their grandmother fell ill. This time, in order to raise money for medical expenses, their family sold their land to the landlord. Now they are farming for the landlord, but they still have no food to eat. Their life is just better than that of slaves. Slaves signed a contract to sell themselves and could be beaten or killed at will by their masters, but they are free and cannot be beaten or killed at will.

Cheng Yeran chatted with his third brother's father and uncles. It was called a chat, but in fact it was just like asking questions. He asked a question and they answered. If Cheng Yeran didn't ask, they wouldn't say anything.

During the interrogation, we learned that almost all the farmland here is in the hands of the landlords, and the farmers in their area all farm for the landlords.

Some people rented land from landlords to farm, and some were hired by landlords to farm. They could only make a living, and families with many people could barely get half full. If there was no illness or disaster in the family, it was fine, but if someone got sick, the family would collapse.

Cheng Yeran felt uncomfortable listening to this. In that era, landlords were legal and land was owned by individuals, not the state. He had no way of distributing the landlords' land to the peasants.

He looked at the three men in front of him. They were obviously about the same age as him, but they were hunched over and looked old.

He had heard that people in ancient times had short lifespans, but he did not feel it when he was in the capital before. That was because all he saw in the capital were dignitaries who did not have to do physical work or suffer from hunger and cold. Now that he saw the peasants in poor areas, he realized that it was true. The people in front of him had consumed their lifespans prematurely in order to support their families.

Cheng Yeran wanted them to work in the factory, but if they saved their family, what would happen to the other poor families nearby? If everyone goes to the factory, who will farm the fields here?

There are still a lot of fields on the outskirts of the city. If all of them were used as factories, wouldn’t the fields become abandoned?

Moreover, there are many people in the city who have no jobs and no land. If these people go to factories, what will happen to the rest of them?

He decided to call a meeting of landlords from the suburbs and several villages to resolve the issue.