Chapter 457 Spring Outing

Gu Yuhe was really arrogant this time.

On the shallows of the spring outing, he became the "protagonist".

He was holding a wooden plate in his hand, which was filled with freshly grilled meat and potato skewers, shiny and steaming.

He handed the skewers to the students one by one, with a look of unconcealable pride on his face, and kept asking, "How is it? Does it taste good? Is it salty or bland?"

Most people took the skewers, took a bite, and nodded in praise: "Delicious! I've never had such delicious barbecue!"

A few pragmatic students also raised some concerns. "Yuhe, the portion is a bit small. If we sell it, I'm afraid it won't be enough to eat."

"Also, the chili flavor isn't strong enough. It would be better if we could add some local chili peppers."

“If the price is set too high, the villagers might not be willing to buy it.”

Gu Yuhe listened carefully, took out a small notebook from his arms, squatted on the ground and started taking notes.

"Is it really okay for him to be like this?" A teacher whispered to Gu Jiayue, with a hint of worry in his tone.

There are only a few days left before the college entrance examination, but Gu Yuhe is still thinking about barbecue, which is a bit of putting the cart before the horse.

Gu Jiayue shook her head, her eyes fixed on Gu Yuhe, who was not far away. "I won't blame him for going out to play today. I'll talk to him when we get back."

Gu Yuhe's education was indeed a difficult problem. He was completely focused on business, and even when he studied, it was to avoid being cheated in his future business. His mind was not on the college entrance examination at all.

What Gu Yuhe didn't expect was that he actually found his confidant here.

Song Yao fanned herself with her hands while eating the skewers in big mouthfuls.

When Gu Yuhe asked her, her eyes sparkled, “Brother Yuhe, the skewers you made are so delicious, I can eat up all the food from your stall by myself.”

"When are you going to set up a stall in Juzhou City? If you go, please set up your stall in front of the prefectural government office so that I can eat all the food every day."

"It's delicious, really delicious. Give me another bunch of potatoes!"

Gu Yuhe was very happy to receive Song Yao's praise. But then he felt a little disappointed. "No, I still have to study. I have to take the college entrance examination after all. And my starting capital is only one or two taels of silver, which is not enough to start a business in Juzhou City."

One tael of silver, one hundred of which was this year's sleeping money, and the rest was earned from helping Kangzi run the store and the savings from daily life.

"One tael of silver is indeed too little." Song Yao felt that if Gu Yuhe only used this tael of silver as start-up capital, when would she be able to eat such delicious barbecue in Juzhou City?

Then her eyes turned, "How about this, how about we two team up? I'll provide the money, and you'll provide the recipe and the strength." Then she took out a hundred taels of silver from her purse. "Is it enough? If not, I'll go home and get more."

Gu Yuhe held the banknote in both hands, feeling very happy.

Is he really a business genius? People are willing to invest in him before he even starts his business.

After a moment of excitement, he decisively returned the banknote to Song Yao. "Sister Song, forget it. Uncle Kangzi said that when you first start a business, don't be greedy. Start small and slowly accumulate experience. Once you have a certain amount of experience, then expand the business, otherwise it is easy to lose money."

If he lost his own money, it was fine, but if he lost Sister Song's money, he would feel guilty to death.

Seeing her resolute attitude, Song Yao had no choice but to say disappointedly: "Okay, then you have to work hard. I'll be waiting for your barbecue stall in Juzhou."

Hey, with Brother Yuhe's progress like this, will she still be able to see him in Juzhou before she gets married?

There was food, drinks and fun, and the children played until the sun went down before reluctantly leaving.

Gu Jiayue was still thinking about what happened during the day, and when she came back she wanted to talk to Gu Yuhe.

But when she opened the door, Gu Jiayue was stunned.

Gu Yuhe was walking slowly around the room, holding a skewer of golden roasted pork belly in his left hand and a copy of "Detailed Explanation of Strategy Theory" in his right. He chewed the meat and muttered to himself, "The people are the most important, the country is second."

He didn't look like he was concentrating on eating, nor on studying, but he was serious about trying to do both.

"Are you reading...a book about the imperial examination?" Gu Jiayue couldn't help but ask.

Gu Yuhe turned around and saw it was her. He quickly swallowed the meat in his mouth, wiped his mouth, and nodded seriously. "Second sister, don't worry! I promised you that I would do my best for the college entrance examination this time and not be careless! I thought barbecuing was just a way to relax. After the exam, I will seriously run my stall. It will definitely not interfere with my studies now!"

Gu Jiayue felt warm in her heart, and suddenly felt that the naughty boy at home seemed to have really grown up.

The sense of accomplishment she felt when she saw her child being sensible slowly spread from her heart, causing her lips to curl upwards. "Okay, since you know your limits, I won't rush you. Just go at your own pace."

"Don't worry, second sister. I, Gu Yuhe, am a real man and I will definitely do what I promised."

He can't do it. If he can't do it, his second sister and second brother will never agree to let him start his own business. The devil second brother might even take away his New Year's money!

Humph, it’s just studying! It’s not difficult at all!

Gu Yuhe's expression made Gu Jiayue laugh. "Okay, okay, I won't bother you anymore. If you have any questions, just ask me."

After coming out of Gu Yuhe's room, Gu Jiayue went next door to see Zhang Chuyan.

Ever since Zhang Chuyan handed Gu Yuhe cheat sheets last time, the two have been studying separately.

Zhang Chuyan was much more enthusiastic about studying than Gu Yuhe. He sat at his desk, writing diligently. Gu Jiayue stood there for a long time without anyone noticing. This showed how serious she was.

Seeing this scene, Gu Jiayue was very satisfied.

She seemed to have already seen the scene of Zhang Chuyan passing the imperial examination.

She turned around and was about to go into the house when she heard a sudden noise coming from the village entrance, like a boiling pot.

At first, the villagers thought that someone from the neighboring village was causing trouble, or that there were bandits.

The men quickly put on their clothes, some picked up the hoes behind the door, some grabbed wooden sticks, and hurried to the village entrance.

But when they got closer, everyone was stunned.

All I saw were the men who had been conscripted to fight in Yanshan, standing under the old locust tree at the entrance of the village.

They were wearing washed-out clothes, their faces were covered with dust, their eyes were full of fatigue, but they also showed a sense of relief at having "come back alive".

"Child! That's my Zhuzi!" An old woman rubbed her eyes, took in the tall and thin figure in front, and suddenly rushed over crying and hugged him, "You're finally back! I thought I'd never see you again!"

"Master!" A woman threw herself into her husband's arms, her hand touching his empty left sleeve. Tears instantly fell, her voice trembling, "Your hand...where's your hand?"

"Where's my Goudan?" An elderly man searched the crowd for his child but couldn't find him. He grabbed a soldier's arm and asked, "Have you seen Goudan? Why didn't he come back with you?"

In the crowd, some people laughed until they cried; some people cried so hard that they couldn't straighten their backs.

A total of 103 men left Taohua Village, but now less than 90 have returned.

They stayed forever on the distant Yanshan battlefield and could never come back.

Hua Qingzhu took out a few cloth pouches from her waist and walked up to the old people who were crying and looking for their children.

She handed over the purse with both hands, her voice hoarse. "Aunt Zhang, these are Ah Fei's ashes... The situation was urgent, so I could only rush to take this little bit. Please... please keep it."

Aunt Zhang stretched out her trembling hand and took the small purse.

The purse was not even as big as her palm, but it contained her 1.8-meter-tall strong son.

She stared at the purse for a long time, and suddenly burst into tears. She collapsed on the ground, slapping the ground and shouting, "Oh my God! I only have this one child! He hasn't even gotten married yet, hasn't even given me grandchildren, and now he's just a handful of ashes! How am I going to live in the future?"

Aunt Zhang’s crying was so sad that it pierced everyone’s heart like needles.

The joy of seeing their loved ones faded gradually. The smiles on the villagers' faces disappeared, replaced by a heavy sadness.

Someone squatted down and patted Aunt Zhang's back to comfort her. "Sister Zhang, the dead cannot be brought back to life. You must mourn for them!"

"A Fei is a hero! He defended our border and saved our home. We all have to thank him!"

"Don't worry, if you have any difficulties in the future, our whole village will help you! No one in the surrounding area will dare to bully you!"

Amidst the flurry of comforting voices, Aunt Zhang's crying gradually subsided, but she still couldn't stop sobbing, holding the purse tightly in her hand, as if holding on to her last bit of hope.

At this moment, Ye Yuntang's mother, Ye Yang, suddenly squeezed out from the crowd, her face full of panic.

She looked around among the returning soldiers twice, but didn't see her daughter. She grabbed a familiar soldier and asked, "Dazhu, have you seen my Yuntang? He went to Yanshan with you guys, why didn't he come back?"

Everyone in Taohua Village actually knew that Ye Yuntang disguised herself as a man to join the army.

After all, they were together day and night. Even if she tied her hair up and wore men's clothes, everyone could see it from her face, the tone of her voice, and the occasional girlish habits.

But no one exposed it.

There are only two males in the Ye family, and one is still young. If Old Man Ye passes away, how will the orphans and widows survive?

Everyone understood her difficulty and secretly helped her keep the secret, fearing that it would be discovered by the authorities and cause trouble.

But after arriving in Yanshan, Xie Qingyun took Ye Yuntang away.

The villagers didn't know what she did specifically. They only occasionally saw her coming to the camp with Xie Qingyun, carrying good wine and meat to improve everyone's meals.

The day before they returned to the capital, they had a meal of meat together around the fire. Ye Yuntang said with a smile, "I'll grill some skewers for everyone when we get back."

"Aunt Ye, don't panic!" Dazhu quickly supported her, his tone firm, "Yuntang is fine, she's doing very well! We were drinking and eating meat together on the first day back in the court! It's just that Master Xie said he had to take her to take care of something important, so she didn't come back to the village with us. Don't worry, she's definitely fine!"

"Right, right!" Another villager nodded. "She's much safer with Master Xie than with us. Don't worry!"

Knowing that the child was fine, Ye's mother breathed a sigh of relief, but as she didn't see the child, Ye Yang was still worried and anxious.

For the next few days, she stood at the village entrance every day, and secretly prayed at night, hoping that her daughter would be safe.

But instead of his daughter coming back, a group of eunuchs in yellow jackets came.

The leading eunuch held a bright yellow imperial edict in his hand, followed by a dozen followers, carrying several boxes of things, and marched into the village in a mighty procession.

"Who is Ye Daming?"