11 Chapter 11

Just two acres of land was enough to stump the brave man. Su Fengzhang, who dragged his legs back, felt like he couldn't straighten his back.

Compared to him, Madam Wei and Zao'er seemed relaxed and even in the mood to joke.

As soon as they entered the room, the twins came over with water for them to wash. After washing their hands and feet, Su Fengzhang finally felt a little refreshed: "Thank you, Third Brother and Huihui."

"Come and eat after washing your hands. You must be tired after working for most of the day." Su Zhao had already brought out the food and set it aside.

"It's not tiring. In fact, I didn't plant much. Most of them were planted by my second uncle and Madam Wei Zaoer." Su Fengzhang was not being polite. At his speed, he probably couldn't finish planting in a day.

Su Zhao glared at him and called the two people who were about to go to the kitchen to eat: "Madam Wei, Zao'er, please sit down and eat with us. There are only a few of us at home now, so there is no need to be formal."

Madam Wei and the other woman hesitated: "Madam, this is not a good idea."

"We are a country family, there is no need to be so particular. Anyway, I don't have any food left in the kitchen." Su Zhao said with a smile.

Madam Wei and Zao'er then sat down. After having a meal at the same table, they felt that they had become closer to the host family.

Originally, they were busy helping in the fields and were worried about being sold, but now they feel that the Su family is really good.

After finishing the meal, Su Zhaoshi finally spoke, "Feng'er, I've thought about it. Our family is either made up of women or children, and you're still young. We only have two acres of land. Even if we grow flowers, it won't fill our stomachs. Why don't we let your second uncle's family grow them?"

After all, she felt sorry for her son.

Su Fengzhang finished his last mouthful of soup before saying, "Mom, we've already planted everything this spring. We just need to take care of it later. It won't be tiring."

"Besides, we live in the village, we can't even buy food. It would be really frustrating if we can't get enough food."

Su Zhao frowned and said, "Madam Bai and I can both do embroidery, so we can always make money."

Su Zhaoshi's embroidery skills were very good. She used to do it for fun, but Aunt Bai learned it from her after she got married.

"My mother can earn money by embroidering, so I can't be idle either." Su Fengzhang said.

Madam Wei said quickly, "Madam, I can actually take care of those two acres of land by myself. There's no need for the young master to go to the fields."

Zao'er also said, "Madam, I can help too. We can even build a vegetable garden so we don't have to buy vegetables."

Nowadays, most of the dishes they eat are sent by Uncle Su, otherwise it would also be an expense.

Su Zhaoshi still felt distressed and wanted to cry when she thought of her son bending over to work in the fields. If the master were still alive, the child would just sit comfortably in the academy and study, and would not have to worry about all these things.

Su Fengzhang also advised: "Mom, if you rent the land to Second Uncle's family, he will definitely not be happy with his temper. He will be busy all year and send the food to our family. We can't let Second Uncle suffer any loss, right?"

Su Zhao frowned slightly, thinking that her second uncle was capable of doing such a thing. Apart from anything else, her second uncle was indeed very kind to their family and had taken good care of them after the master's death.

She thought more about it. If they really did that, it would seem that their family had gained the upper hand, but the villagers would definitely talk about it in a bad way. Moreover, his second aunt would not be happy about it, and it would be easy to cause trouble.

"We are only busy for a few days during spring planting and autumn harvest. We only have two acres of land, so it's really not tiring." Su Fengzhang said helplessly. In fact, he really didn't do any work. He let others do it.

"When my eyes get tired from reading, I go out to work in the fields to loosen up my muscles. It's a good way to combine work and rest, don't you think?"

Su Zhao's eyes lit up slightly, and she asked, "Have you thought it through this time?"

Su Fengzhang said helplessly, "I've thought it all out. Mom didn't stop me from going to the fields this morning. Wasn't she also trying to show me how tiring it is to work?"

Otherwise, with Su Zhaoshi's personality, she would definitely try her best to stop him instead of going with him.

Su Zhao smiled and said, "Farm work has its own rules. Everyone has their own destiny. Take your father, for example. He might be fine as a pawnshop clerk, but if he were to go home and farm, his whole family would starve to death."

That’s right. The working people in ancient times faced the earth and worked hard for a whole year, but they still might not be able to fill their stomachs.

The efficiency of farming these days is really too low and there is no guarantee.

After the matter was explained, Su Zhaoshi stopped talking about it and tacitly acknowledged the fact that the family had two acres of land to cultivate.

In fact, everyone knows that these two acres of subway cannot support a family, but it is good to be able to harvest crops.

Returning to his room, Su Fengzhang couldn't help but pat his shoulders and sighed that it was not easy.

The cost-effectiveness of farming is too low, which does not fit his identity as a capitalist. Since both efforts are required and the results of mental labor far exceed those of physical labor, is there any need to think about what choice to make?

Hearing Su Lanzhang's laughter outside, Su Fengzhang sighed again. If this child was a few years older, he could be trained. Now he is completely useless and it is too late to start educating him right away.

Su Fengzhang has always been a man of action. He does what he says and starts making preparations early the next morning.

Although the enlightenment reading materials were different from what he remembered, the imperial examination was inseparable from the Four Books and Five Classics. He was very lucky because his father and elder brother were both scholars and had all these necessary books.

When Su Dianli was dismissed from his post and returned home, he moved back all the books he had accumulated throughout his life. The Su family specially cleared out a room for them, which served as a temporary study, and it was filled to the brim.

This was the first time Su Fengzhang came in after traveling through time. As soon as he entered the door, he saw two shelves of books. If these books were sold, they could be worth several hundred taels of silver, which was a considerable fortune in ancient times.

My father and brother planted trees so that future generations could enjoy the shade, which saved him a lot of trouble.

Su Fengzhang reached out and pulled out a book to read, but found that it was a miscellany, and there were also notes written by Su Dianli in it. Upon closer inspection, it was about the customs and trivial matters of Qingzhou Prefecture.

A cursory glance reveals that Su Dianli has quite a collection of miscellaneous books, including travel notes and miscellaneous notes. Perhaps he feels that he has no hope of advancing in the imperial examinations in this lifetime, and has set his sights on other things.

I continued to browse and found the Four Books and Five Classics. They were neatly arranged on a row of bookshelves. It was obvious that the owner took great care of them. After all, these books are not cheap.

Looking further down, in addition to the printed version, there are also many copied ones. The notes of one person are sophisticated, and he should be Su Dianli. The notes of another person are a little immature, and he should have been copied by his deceased elder brother.

The types of these copied books are even more complicated, with the Six Arts and various schools of thought being the most numerous, followed by poetry and prose, and then numerology. A medical classic was also found in the corner, but no military books were seen.

It's not surprising. Military books were not available to ordinary people in those days. Even if they saw them, Su Dianli and Su Zongzhang, both of whom were scholars, probably wouldn't be very interested in them and naturally wouldn't copy them.

Su Fengzhang counted them and found that the total number was nearly two hundred. Although this number may not seem large and cannot compare to some book collectors who have tens of thousands of volumes, it is already the best among ordinary literati.

Su Dianli and Su Zongzhang left him a huge fortune, Su Fengzhang sighed.

It took him a whole day to sort the books into different categories, and he also made a separate book to catalog them, so that if he wanted to find a book in the future, he could just search for it.

It is easy to organize but difficult to read. He himself had never read the Four Books and Five Classics. The original owner was also intermittent in his studies, so his foundation was not solid. After opening the first book, Su Fengzhang felt extremely uncomfortable.

The first thing to overcome is the reading habit, from left to right or right to left, from horizontal to vertical, from simplified Chinese to traditional Chinese. What's even more frustrating is that punctuation marks were not promoted at that time.

Even at this time, there were many different interpretations of the meaning of some books, with different authors and different scholars giving different explanations.

Su Fengzhang felt that he was a smart person. In his previous life, he had never felt any difficulty in studying. He was the type of person who didn't study at school or at home, but his grades could still be among the top three.

But after watching for half an hour, he felt a sense of fatigue.

The difficult words and completely different books made him feel tired.

Especially these abstruse ancient texts, after reading them several times, not only did the meaning not become clear, but it made him drowsy.

Don't blame him. It was because he chose science in his previous life and failed to foresee the future and choose the ancient Chinese language major.

After dozing off again, Su Fengzhang felt that this was not going to work. Since he wanted to take the imperial examination, the first step was to thoroughly understand the Four Books and Five Classics. Although the notes of Su Dianli and Su Zongzhang could help to some extent, he himself also had to work hard.

After thinking about it, he untied his hair tie. Because he was in mourning, the hair tie he used was a hemp rope.

He tied his hair at one end and tied a paper ball at the other end and threw it onto the beam. Since the ancients could study hard by hanging themselves from the beams and piercing their legs with a needle, then he could definitely do it too!

Who knew that before he threw the hair tie in, Su Lanzhang came in with a cup of hot tea, and the cup fell to the ground when he saw this.

"Mom, my second brother hanged himself!" Su Lanzhang's voice was panicked and extremely sharp.

When Su Zhao heard the shout, she felt a black screen in front of her eyes and her legs went weak.

Su Fengzhang held the hemp rope, this was a huge misunderstanding.

He quickly reached out and covered Su Lanzhang's mouth: "Don't shout, don't shout, you saw it wrong, mother, I'm fine, I was just joking with my third brother."

But Aunt Bai had already come over with Su Zhaoshi. Both women looked unhappy, and Su Zhaoshi even asked tremblingly, "Feng'er, please don't let this get you down."

"Mom, my third brother must have seen it wrong. Do you think I am someone who would commit suicide?" Su Fengzhang was helpless.

Su Zhaoshi's lips trembled, and she got to the point: "Then what are you doing with the hemp rope?"

"I'm not concentrating on my studies, so I want to emulate the ancients who practiced hanging from the beam and pricking their thighs with a needle." Su Fengzhang spoke frankly. "Look, this hemp rope is so thin. It's fine for tying hair, but it would break immediately if I were to hang myself."

Su Zhaoshi thought about it and finally breathed a sigh of relief: "It's a misunderstanding, it's a misunderstanding."

Aunt Bai grabbed her son's ear again and scolded him, "I asked you to bring Erlang a cup of tea to warm him up and take a rest, but you're making a fuss and scaring people. I'll punish you."

Su Lanzhang was very innocent. His mother and aunt had clearly told him to watch out for his second brother and prevent him from committing suicide. Why was he scolded for tipping off the person? Why was he always the one who got hurt?

The author has something to say:

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Lan Zhang: My brother has hanged himself! Help!

Feng Zhang: What the hell?