Chapter 87

In the past two years, there have been more and more families with a prosperous life in the surrounding villages. After paying taxes and grain, people have some money left over, and those with enough labor force at home have begun to look for ways to send their children to school to learn to read and write.

There were very few villages with school schools nearby, so many people from other villages took the trouble to send their children to Jijiu Village to study.

There were more and more children enrolled in the Fei Lian School, so naturally the tuition and fees were not reduced. Zhang Fangyuan vaguely heard some gossip that the tuition for children from other villages who came to study in their village was much higher than that of children from the local village.

The reason why the villagers did not spread the news everywhere was, firstly, that their own children had to rely on the tuition fees to attend the private school, and secondly, people were very selfish, and the villagers wished that the admission requirements for children from other villages to enter their village school would be much higher, so that the difference in closeness and distance would be revealed.

At the end of last year, Fei Lian invited a student from somewhere to teach together. Now the village school is getting better and better. The new student calls him "master" and promises to learn from him with an open mind. In the summer of that year, Fei Lian got a big fat boy, who now looks very stylish when he appears in the village.

For this reason, Liu Xianglan visited the Fei family more frequently this year than before.

Early in the morning, Zhang Fangyuan and Xu He got up and washed up. Wenzi dressed the two kids and led them out, one in each hand.

"We are going to have a drink at my second aunt's house today. Eat breakfast quickly so you can come over to see me."

When they woke up in the morning, the two children were a little attached to Xu He. When they heard that they could go out for a drink, they broke free from Wen Zi's hand and ran over when they saw Xu He, both wanting their little dad to hold their hands.

Ruili ran faster and arrived first to grab Xiaodie's fingers. Ruijin, who came one step later, saw that Xiaodie's other hand was held by a big hand. It had been completely occupied by someone, without even a finger exposed.

He frowned and looked along his arm. His father was also looking at him with a smile, looking very kind, but he did not let go of his father's hand.

"Brother, come here."

Ruili originally wanted to act coquettishly and ask for a hug from his little father, but when he saw his brother being bullied, he called the man over and gave up his seat to his brother out of protectiveness. But how could he suffer a loss, so he angrily pulled Zhang Fangyuan's hand away and took his father's place.

Zhang Fangyuan sighed: "Little Li brother, you are becoming more and more overbearing."

“No!”

"Your little daddy is mine." Zhang Fangyuan sat down at the table and looked at the child who was held in Xu He's arms and sitting on his lap, ready to eat.

"Is little daddy daddy's?" Ruili blinked his big eyes.

Xu He scooped up a spoonful of porridge made from pork bones, blew on it, and fed it to Ruili: "Eat quickly."

He hugged one and ignored the other. He couldn't help but glare at Zhang Fangyuan: "You don't even hug one, and both of them are sitting here with me. How can I feed them?"

Zhang Fangyuan propped his face on the table: "Then you won't clear my name?"

Xu He put down the spoon: "Are you childish?"

Ruijin and Ruili became curious after hearing this and tugged at Xu He's sleeves: "Little Daddy, please tell me quickly."

"Little Daddy is his own."

Ruijin and Ruili looked at each other, feeling a little disappointed that the little father was not theirs. But when they looked at his father again, who was also dejected, they no longer felt uncomfortable, because it was the same for everyone after all.

Zhang Fangyuan waved to Ruijin and said, "Come here, baby."

Ruijin knew that his father couldn't hold two children while eating. If he had to feed them both, he would have to sit on a bench. However, he still preferred to hold them while eating rather than sitting on a bench.

It’s okay to hold my dad while eating, but the view would be better.

The pork bone porridge, which was simmered for almost an hour, became thick and the essence of the bones was cooked into the rice. After cooling down, it became fragrant and soft. Both children loved it. When I’m in good shape, I can eat a big bowl of it, so I won’t have any snacks until lunch time.

Ruili opened his mouth wide to receive the rice porridge, blinked his eyes and asked curiously: "Where did the big daddy come from?"

Xu He's eyebrows moved slightly as he looked at the little boy with eyes full of curiosity. Other children would only be curious about where they came from, but his own child was curious about where his father came from. He was speechless for a moment.

If you ask him where he came from, he can say that he married into the Xu family, but his father Zhang Fangyuan is the head of this family and it was he who built this family.

He thought about how the villagers told the children where the children came from, and said seriously: "Big Daddy was picked up from the river. When it rained and the water rose, it was washed to our village. So children can't just go to the river to play. It's super dangerous."

By the way, I also taught my children, which is great.

Ruili opened his eyes wide and was speechless with surprise. Ruijin said very seriously: "The water must be very big. Even Daddy would be washed away."

The two children instantly felt awe for the river and didn't want to catch crabs and shrimps at all.

Zhang Fangyuan tilted his head and looked at Xu He with narrowed eyes. Xu He picked up a piece of pickled radish with chopsticks and blocked his mouth.

After dinner, the family of four brought gifts to Fei's house. It was very lively there today. I heard that Chen Si even bought half a pig, and it was a grand celebration. Parents of students from the neighboring village also came to congratulate them. There were very few people who came to drink. The Fei family was very prestigious and entertained people warmly.

Xu He took his two children to see his second sister, who had given birth to a fat boy. The Fei family had hope for a new child. Mother Fei, who had always been hostile to Xu Shaochun, was now much more polite to her than before. Liu Xianglan came over every now and then to take care of her during the confinement period. Xu Shaochun became much plumper than before, with a rosy complexion, and she looked very energetic while holding the child.

Holding the child, she was greeting people in the yard. When she saw the four members of the Zhang family, she walked up to them and said, "You're here."

Xu He nodded and asked the two children to call people.

Xu Shaochun touched Ruili's head and said, "Your family is faster. In the blink of an eye, Ruijin and Ruili will run around shouting for help. I don't know how long I have to wait for mine. It's not easy to take care of. He often wakes up and cries in the middle of the night. I need someone to hold him and coax him to sleep for half an hour."

Xu Shaochun was happy that he finally had a son, but he also sighed that it was not easy to raise a child: "After all, your family is strong. You bought a servant to look after the child."

However, Xu He thought that their two children were not very noisy when they were very young, and their rest time was similar to that of the adults, so he had never experienced the unpleasant experience of coaxing children in the middle of the night.

However, he did not say these things to offend others, and said: "Second sister at least only worries about one person, I am too busy to worry about both of them at the same time."

"Let me see the child."

Xu Shaochun carefully transferred the baby in the cradle to Xu He's hands.

"The little guy is so strong, much stronger than Rui Jin and Rui Li when they were born." Xu He held the heavy child in his arms and looked at the tender little cub in the cradle, then he remembered when Rui Jin and Rui Li were this big, and his heart of pity for them couldn't help but rise.

"Erbao wants to watch it too. Erbao wants to watch it too."

Xu He laughed and squatted down to let the two children see the baby. All the relatives and friends who came to see the children laughed.

Seeing that more and more people wanted to hold the baby, and Xu Shaochun had to entertain other relatives, Xu He tactfully took the two children somewhere else.

Today, there are people coming and going everywhere. If he didn't have to take care of his two children, he would have come here early to help prepare food and cook.

"Would you like some water? Daddy will go get you some."

Ruili's eyes were darting around in the yard. He was very happy to be out playing. He also had sharp ears. He didn't answer Xu He's words but said angrily, "They were talking loudly to Daddy!"

Xu He went over to the direction of the sound, his brows twitching slightly.

Zhang Fangyuan was surrounded by villagers at this moment and was chatting with them.

"Zhang the butcher's family is making money now. The guesthouse is so busy that it's packed every day. I'm afraid we can't even count the money. But we invested all the money for our son's marriage into buying mulberry ponds, but we didn't make a penny. Zhang the butcher, we are all from the same village. You can't just care about your own happiness and ignore the lives of others!"

"Yes, if you hadn't suggested to the village chief to do all these things, we wouldn't have done it. We just watched other villages make money, but our village didn't make a single fart. Our family assets were emptied out. How can we live like this?"

The villagers were originally chatting, and the conversation turned to this side. They became more and more excited. If it weren't for the Fei family's happy event today, they would probably have started a quarrel.

Zhang Fangyuan had heard from the village chief that some villagers were anxiously complaining, but he was not angry. He just said, "Whether it's mulberry trees or fish farming, it takes time to produce results, just like raising pigs, chickens and ducks. If you buy them today, can you expect to exchange them for money tomorrow? You have to feed them with food and wait for them to grow big and fat, so that you can sell them for a good price."

"We can't just watch other people's pigs grow bigger and sell them for money and then get tempted to raise pigs instead of just thinking about money."

The villagers were not happy with what they said, but they still said unreasonably: "Why do we need to plant mulberry trees and dig fish ponds? It would be better to plant some flowers like the Red Stone Village, so that they can bloom several times a year and have flowers for each season."

"The two villages do the same business, not to mention being enemies, but flowers are ultimately ornamental, and we can only make money by attracting people to see them and selling other things. Although our mulberry trees and fish ponds are not as attractive as flowers, we can sell the fish when they are ripe, the mulberry fruits can be sold, and the silkworms can also be sold. Isn't this better than growing flowers?"

"You can only make money if someone buys these things. If no one is willing to buy them, you will have to drag them to the city to sell them. You can't get a good price if you sell them individually, so you will have to keep them. If I hadn't thought that people from the city might come to the village to buy them when they come out for fun, I wouldn't have seen anyone come this year. They just went to other villages."

The villagers spread their hands, feeling unhappy.

"I know that you businessmen are quick-witted and have a set of ideas for what you say and do. You can make money by bluffing us."

The village chief came to the banquet and saw the excitement. He came over and overheard a bit. He saw that the talk was getting more and more nasty, so he went in and said, "Who are you trying to scare? I can honestly say that Zhang Fangyuan and the landlord's family did a lot of work in buying mulberry trees and digging ponds. Why are you so anxious? Why don't you take care of your things and tidy up your house? Why do you have time to talk about this?"

The villagers were silent for a moment after being scolded by the village chief. Someone muttered, "The village chief is loyal to the Zhang family and the landlord family. Could it be that someone sent rice to his house?"

"What nonsense are you talking about! The village chief has been in the village for decades and you don't know what's going on."

The villager was yelled at and realized that he had said something too harsh: "I am also worried. I have to pay back the money I borrowed. I can't see the harvest now, so what should I do?"

The fight was getting on and on, and Xu He was about to go and mediate. Fei Lian also came out of the house and said, "Everyone, for the sake of the Fei family's wedding today, give me Fei Lian a..."

Fei Lian, who was trying to stop the fight with good intentions, was interrupted by a long-awaited voice: "A Lian!" before he could say anything.

The villagers fell silent for a moment, and all looked at the unfamiliar young man who had walked into the yard at some point.

Fei Lian was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously asked, "Why are you here?"

Zhang Fangyuan quietly retreated to the side of the villagers. Immediately, everyone forgot about the quarrel and huddled together to look at the people in the yard.

The men were all fine and did not speak directly. The women in the village put down their things and asked: "Who is this?"

The young man was surrounded by people and wiped his eyes with his sleeves. He looked at the surprised Fei Lian with tears in his eyes: "Finally I found A Lian's residence. I wonder what happy event is today. I am afraid I came at a bad time."

As he spoke, he started to cry: "But there was really no other way, so I came here."

Everyone had already sensed that something interesting was about to happen. Xu Shaochun came forward holding the child and faced the young man directly, his expression visibly unhappy.

This time a young man came crying. Everyone knew there was something fishy going on. But before Xu Shaochun could get angry, Liu Xianglan scolded him, "Who are you? Today is the full moon party for Fei Lian's eldest son. If you are here for a proper drink, we will treat you with courtesy. If you are here for an unlucky reason, I am not someone who can be easily bullied. I will definitely beat you out with a stick."

The young man cried even more sadly when he saw Liu Xianglan, who was about to jump up like a fighting cock. "Don't blame me, my lady. I am looking for this A Lian because I am pregnant with his child. If the Fei family doesn't accept me, I will have no choice but to die. My death is not a big deal, but it will be a pity for this child."

As he said this, the young man put his hand on his still flat belly, and the villagers were shocked when they heard it.

The faces of the Fei family members also changed, and Fei Lian's face turned pale and red. For a moment, they didn't know what to do.

If there really was no connection at all, Fei Lian would have refuted it directly. Seeing her son like this, Fei's mother had a rough idea in her mind. In order to avoid making things more embarrassing, she quickly stepped forward to put on a good face and pulled the little boy over: "Brother, come and have a drink on a good day. Let's have fun first. It's unsettling to see you crying. Go into the house quickly and have a rest. If there is anything else, we can talk about it after we are done with this."

After saying that, he quickly pulled the man into the house. Regardless of whether it was true or false, it was not something that could be discussed openly. It would be an even bigger joke to interrogate him about the details in front of all the men in the village.

Seeing this, Liu Xianglan's face turned red with anger, and Xu Shaochun was so shocked that he didn't know what to do.

It was the taciturn father Fei who came to invite everyone to eat and chat. Although the villagers did not rush in to watch the fun, they could not help but explode as soon as the host's back was turned.

Xu He frowned and held the two children in his arms. The children didn't know what was going on, but they just thought everyone was acting weird and quickly hid in Xu He's arms.

"Do you want to go in and take a look?"

Zhang Fangyuan didn't expect that such a thing would happen on such a happy day. Although it immediately drew the villagers' attention away from him, after all, the two families were still related, so he really couldn't be happy.

"This is the Fei family's own business. I don't think they want me to know the details at this time."

Xu He was thinking about the young man just now. He was quite handsome and different from the young men from the countryside. He had seen the girls and boys in Yunliang Pavilion, who were somewhat similar to him. He roughly guessed where the man came from.

If she really didn't lie and was pregnant, judging from her belly which isn't very noticeable yet, the baby should be no more than four months pregnant. A rough calculation shows that Fei Lian had contact with Xu Shaochun when she was pregnant.

Xu He felt a little confused. Although men were known to have many romantic affairs, which were talked about and lamented by women and boys, the men would just laugh it off and even thought Fei Lian was quite capable.

Men usually have three wives and four concubines, but that is only the norm for powerful and wealthy families. In rural villages where food and clothing are a problem, there are not many men who can marry a respectable wife.

Some poor families, even if they sold everything they had to save enough money for a betrothal gift, could not get married because of their financial situation. They often had no choice but to go to the city to buy a wife, but they had no choice but to buy a wife. Some of them were even widows over 30. People in the family would even persuade them that those who had given birth to children were more reliable and could ensure the continuation of the family line.

For this reason, having three wives and four concubines was very rare in the village. Most men only stayed with one person for their entire lives. Although it was not known whether they had had affairs outside during their lifetime, what everyone saw was only one wife per household. As a result, Xu He was shocked by this sudden appearance of someone.

Everyone was also shocked. They were shocked that a well-educated and well-mannered man like Fei Lian could be so romantic outside that he got someone pregnant and even brought the incident home. His behavior was truly inappropriate.

But if this happened to Zhang Fangyuan, everyone would be more likely to accept it, and even think it was normal.

"What's wrong? Are you worried about your second sister?"

Xu He shook his head gently. Although he felt a little sorry for his second sister who had encountered such a thing just after she came out of confinement, but with Liu Xianglan protecting her like a hen and a son by her side, the Fei family would not look down on her and would definitely give her an explanation.

He just felt somewhat dazed and empty in his heart. He used to live frugally, busying himself for a few pieces of silver. Now his family business is getting better. Once his family is wealthy, he will think about having a prosperous family, branching out, and making his clan flourish...

So how can we have a large and prosperous population? Naturally, there are many children. Even though we now have a son and a little brother, it is nothing compared to other families with more than a dozen children.

No matter how fertile a person is, they cannot have children one after another. Not only will it harm their body, but they may also lose their life if they are not careful.

The best situation is to have more wives and concubines in the family.

He didn't know whether Zhang Fangyuan would one day bring two people back for the sake of a family.

He has been very kind to him over the years, and he is very grateful in his heart. But no matter how grateful he is, he knows that he will not take the initiative to find two for him just out of gratitude.

In order to stay together without any other considerations, he can give up the reputation of being virtuous.

"Are you feeling unwell?" Zhang Fangyuan looked at Xu He, who was in a trance and hadn't even taken a bite of food. "How about we go back first? I see that the villagers are not here to have fun today."

Xu He tilted his head to look at the man with thick eyebrows and eyes full of concern. He felt a little warm in his heart and suddenly made a decision: "Maybe I slept too late last night, let's go back."

As long as Zhang Fangyuan didn't bring up the matter himself, he would certainly not help arrange for other people to enter the house. Xu He felt that he was a little selfish. As the saying goes: If a man does not work for himself, he will be punished by heaven and earth.

Not long after, Xu He and Zhang Fangyuan were discussing how to solve the villagers' suffering, and Liu Xianglan came home to see her eldest grandson and scolded the Fei family.

"Fei Lian is really a piece of shit. He went out to hook up with a singer, and even came to the village with a big belly, and refused to leave no matter what."

After the banquet that day, the Fei family invited a doctor to check the boy's pulse, and it turned out that he was pregnant. Calculating the date, it was the incident that happened outside when Xu Shaochun was pregnant.

The young man's belly became too big to stay in the brothels any longer, and he didn't want to continue to be a prostitute, so he simply came to find the child's father and threatened that if the Fei family didn't want him, he would kill himself in front of the Fei family.

There was chaos for a few days, and finally Fei's mother decided to give the boy to Fei Lian as a concubine. Fei Lian has achieved great success and now has a respectable job as a teacher. There is nothing ridiculous about taking a concubine to enrich the Fei family's incense, but the way he took a concubine was a bit embarrassing.

But now that things have come to this, I have no choice but to be thick-skinned.

"Who knows if the child is Fei Lian's? He actually accepted her."

Liu Xianglan kept cursing, but Xu He and Zhang Fangyuan were very rational. If they were not just singing in brothels for fun, there would be many innocent people there.

Fei Lian was not a fool. He must have known whether the young man was innocent when he followed him. He had also asked a doctor to choose the date. How could he easily let someone in without any reason?

"So how's the second sister?"

Liu Xianglan sighed, "Of course your second sister is angry too, but she can't be too angry. She's afraid that the Fei family members in the village will say that she is jealous, which will give her a bad reputation and give her a handle to divorce her in the future. At least she has a son, so she has some comfort in her heart."

"After all, I am a slave, a maidservant. Even if I live in a village, I cannot go beyond my wife. Otherwise, I will be the first one to file a complaint with the county government."

Xu He persuaded Liu Xianglan for a while, took out some cloth and food from home and asked Liu Xianglan to send them to her second sister, which could be considered as a comfort.

Seeing Xu He being so considerate, Liu Xianglan felt warm in her heart for the first time. She felt that after all, they were still a family and could only support each other. She said, "The villagers are very noisy these days. If there is any problem, just call the village chief to take care of it. It doesn't matter who pays attention to it. It will be the village chief anyway."

Xu He narrowed his eyes and smiled slightly: "I know the villagers are worried, and Ayuan and I are already thinking of a solution."