Chapter 55 [VIP]

After selling out of popsicles at noon, the group walked home together.

On the way, Wang Ying saw a cherry vendor and couldn't walk any further. She took out some money from her pocket and handed it to Qingyun, saying, "Go buy some cherries for your sister-in-law."

"Why!"

It's cherry season right now, and hardworking farmers are going up the mountain to pick them and sell them in town. You can buy a big basket for just ten coins.

Last year, Wang Ying thought about transplanting a cherry tree to the experimental field, but she never had the time and forgot about it. Now, seeing the fresh cherries, she is extremely tempted.

Qingyun ran over to ask the price, tried two, and then ran back.

Why didn't you buy any?

"It's so sour, one bite almost made my teeth hurt."

Upon hearing this, Wang Ying's mouth watered. "Sour is good, I want to eat something sour."

Seeing this, Qingyun ran over and bought the whole basket of cherries. On the way, Wang Ying grabbed a handful and ate them while praising how delicious they were. Lin Qiu and Lin Sui tried a few, and their faces scrunched up from the sourness.

Wang Ying couldn't help but laugh out loud, but he really didn't think the cherries were that sour. Could it be that his sense of taste had failed him?

As they turned the corner, the group paused, never expecting to run into Zhang Xiucai here after more than four months.

He was sitting on a roadside stone, dressed in rags, his hair disheveled and covered with twigs and blades of grass, looking up at the sun with a foolish smile on his face.

Chen Qingyun quickly stepped in front of her sister-in-law and spat, saying, "This is the person who prevented my brother from taking the imperial examination. He deserves to end up like this."

Lin Qiu and Lin Sui also looked at him warily.

Zhang Shiqiu seemed to notice the gazes of the group, turned his head and suddenly grinned, revealing a mouthful of black and yellow teeth that startled the three children, causing them to scream.

"Ignore him and let's go." Now that he's fallen to this state, Wang Ying didn't want to cause him any more trouble, so she turned and left with the three of them.

When Wang Ying returned home, he went to tend the vegetable garden in the backyard. Chen Rong and Li Shi, worried that he would be bored, specially brought cloth and needles and thread to his yard to make clothes and chat with him.

"Just have the servants take care of this vegetable garden, don't tire yourself out."

"It's alright, Mom, this little bit of work isn't tiring."

Chen Rong gently patted Li Shi and winked at her. She had told her sister-in-law before she came that she shouldn't keep too close a watch on Ying'er. Ying'er was a sensible child, and now that she was pregnant, she shouldn't make him feel awkward.

Seeing that Wang Ying was hot and went inside to drink water, Chen Rong couldn't help but say, "Ah Ying isn't that delicate. Before she was pregnant, she worked in the fields every day on the estate. This little bit of work won't tire her out."

"I know... I just can't help worrying. You know our family is small, and this is the first grandchild..."

Chen Rong said, "I understand. If Qiu'er were pregnant, I would probably be even more nervous than you."

"I've heard that childbirth is more difficult for boys than for women, and I'm always worried about it."

"Don't think too much. Wang Ying is a blessed child. Look, ever since she married into your family, life has gotten better day by day. Qingyan's chances of passing the imperial examination have also increased. She will definitely be able to give birth to this child safely."

Li nodded and continued cutting fabric; today she was making children's clothes.

Based on the dates, the due date should be around March or April next year.

The two hadn't made children's clothes for many years, and they weren't sure about the size, so they borrowed two pieces from other people's houses to measure and cut out patterns.

The newborn baby's skin was delicate, so the fabric used was also of high quality. Li took out the two bolts of fine silk that she had been reluctant to use since her wedding and cut them into a bib and a close-fitting garment for the child.

Chen Rong was skilled at embroidery, so she embroidered beautiful patterns on the clothes. The stitches were fine and even, and the clothes would not chafe when worn close to the skin.

A little bib was quickly sewn up, with two chubby little ingots embroidered on the vermilion fabric, looking very festive.

After Wang Ying finished drinking her water, she came out of the house and saw the small garment, asking, "Is this a handkerchief?"

Chen Rong burst out laughing: "What handkerchief? This is a bellyband!"

"This is way too small."

Li laughed and said, "Oh my, the baby was only about the size of a forearm when he was born, so this big bellyband is enough for him."

Wang Ying scratched his head; he didn't understand any of this. He picked up the shovel and continued digging. He had secretly moved a few melon seedlings out of the experimental field when he went inside earlier, otherwise it would have been rather abrupt to suddenly take them out once the watermelons were ripe.

Have you been feeling nauseous these past few days?

"It's alright. Sometimes the smell of oil makes me nauseous, but if I can't smell it, I'm fine."

Li clapped her hands and said, "Oh dear, just like me back then! When I was pregnant with Qingyan, I couldn't stand the smell of oil or grease. I would vomit as soon as I smelled it."

"I didn't have as strong a reaction as you guys. When I was pregnant with Qiu'er, I craved meat terribly, but the Lin family was dirt poor, and we couldn't even find a trace of lard in our food."

I was so hungry I bought a chicken and secretly stewed it in the middle of the night. You have no idea how delicious it was; I still think about how tasty it was.

"Don't even mention it. I was craving pickled radishes back then, but we didn't have any at home. Your older brother had to run around to several houses with a bowl to get some. I ate six steamed buns that meal, which scared him so much that he wouldn't let me eat any more."

The two women, aunt and sister-in-law, burst into laughter, reminiscing about the bittersweet memories.

Fortunately, the hard times are finally over. With Lin Qiu getting married soon, Cao Kun said that after the wedding, he would bring Chen Rong and Lin Sui to live with him. He has two courtyards in the county town, so there's plenty of room for everyone.

Li didn't want Chen Rong to leave; the family was already small, and it would be even more desolate if they left.

Chen Rong said, "I don't want to live in the county either, for fear of running into that dead man. Just thinking about it makes me feel nauseous."

Remembering what Cao Kun had said earlier, Wang Ying quickly replied, "Oh, right, I found out about what you asked me to ask last time, Aunt. Lin Changbin was brought back to the county by Cao Kun."

"Cao Kun took him back?"

"Yes, I even found him a job at the porter's guild, so he won't run around aimlessly."

"Pah! Why bother with someone like that? It'd be better if he died out there!"

Li said, "This young man from the Cao family does have some ideas. Qiu'er won't suffer if she follows him."

"I hope they can be as harmonious as Qingyan and Ying'er."

Wang Ying thought to herself, "Those two boys are much more clingy than them."

*

As the dog days of summer arrived, the weather grew hotter day by day. Wang Ying froze many large blocks of ice in the experimental field. When Dunzi came to town to deliver popsicles, she brought them along and placed them in the house to cool it down.

The hotter the weather, the better the popsicle business. Before, we could sell about 600 popsicles a day. The shops in town sold 400 popsicles and wholesaled 200 to Strychnos nux-vomica.

The price has soared to 800 sticks in the last few days, and even 500 sticks a day aren't enough to keep up with demand at the vegetable shops.

The children would run over with their coins to buy popsicles.

Don't think that two or three coins is a small amount. You can earn more than one string a day, and nearly thirty strings a month! You should know that the Chen family has hundreds of acres of land, and the harvest in one crop is only sixty or seventy strings.

When Wang Ying had accumulated a lot of money at home, she felt it would be a waste to exchange it for silver, so she simply put it into the experimental field to store, where no one could steal it.

After dinner, Wang Ying returned to his bedroom and entered the experimental field. He noticed that his experience bar seemed to have increased slightly, from 98% to 99.2%. He looked down and touched his lower abdomen, vaguely guessing what was going on in his mind.

After waiting for a while without seeing Chen Qingyan come in, Wang Ying started clicking on the screen to adjust the weather out of boredom.

Since vegetables couldn't be sold in the summer, all the vegetables in the experimental fields were replaced with wheat, and now several thousand kilograms of wheat have been harvested.

All the wheat was dried and packed into burlap sacks, which were then neatly stacked along the edge of the air wall. The wheat in the field was almost ripe, and after this crop was harvested, vegetables would be planted, which would be ready to be sold when the weather turned cold.

Half an hour passed, and Chen Qingyan still hadn't gone in. Wang Ying was getting a little anxious.

You usually come in early, why are you taking so long today? Did something happen?

The more he thought about it, the more anxious he became. Unfortunately, there were no communication devices in ancient times, so he couldn't get in touch with anyone. After waiting for another quarter of an hour, Chen Qingyan finally arrived late.

Wang Ying quickly stepped forward and asked, "Why are you so late today?"

Chen Qingyan wiped the sweat from his brow. "Something happened in the village."

"What's wrong?"

"Grandma Chen from the village passed away, so the three of us went to help her and also brought her some ice."

Wang Ying's heart skipped a beat when she heard the news. "She was perfectly healthy the last time I saw her. How could she suddenly be so sick?"

Chen Qingyan took an ice pop and ate it while saying, "She said she fell on the mountain and couldn't get off the bed when she got home. Uncle Chen Xi went to ask the village doctor to prescribe medicine, but the old lady passed away before the medicine was finished."

"Why would someone her age go to the mountains?"

"Going to pick wild vegetables, sigh... the walk was painless, so it can be considered a blissful trip."

"I want to go back and take a look."

Chen Qingyan held his hand and said, "Don't travel back and forth. Take good care of yourself. The weather has been too hot lately, so I don't think we can stay for the full seven days. We'll be buried in three days."

Funerals in the village are simple. The coffins for the elderly are prepared in advance, and they are buried in the ancestral grave and some paper money is burned.

"Then please help us out. Uncle Chen's family has been good to us, and they've taken care of everything we need to spend money on."

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

The two chatted for a while longer when a notification sounded, indicating that it was almost time again.

Wang Ying clung to his waist, unwilling to let go. "I wish I could bring you to my room. I can't sleep peacefully at night if I don't sleep with you."

Perhaps it was because of her pregnancy, but Wang Ying felt that she had become more sensitive than before. Sometimes when she woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't see him, she felt a sense of emptiness in her heart, which was extremely painful.

Chen Qingyan kissed his forehead. "Don't worry, I'll be back in town in a few days."

What are you doing in town?

"Master calculated the days and said that Fourth Uncle's letter should arrive soon."

"Then come back and stay with me for a few more nights."

*

It's no wonder Liang Boqing and Chen Jing were such close friends; the letter from Fourth Uncle arrived at their home the very next day.

Li read the letter once, then called Wang Ying over and showed it to him as well.

The letter said that my fourth uncle's family had been settled in Shanzhou. Although the place was poor, it was not without its advantages, as it was close to the ancient tea and salt trade route and had well-developed land transportation.

Unfortunately, due to mismanagement over the years, bandits have proliferated, and merchants would rather take detours than use this main road. He plans to take into account everyone's suggestions, first suppress the bandits, then dredge the official road, and build post stations to revitalize commerce.

Shanzhou's specialty is goat milk cake, but it's too hot to carry around in this weather. I'll bring some back home for my family to try when it cools down in the fall.

So-called sheep milk cake is cheese made from sheep milk, and it is a common food for herders.

The letter also inquired about the health of the family members and the studies of the children. Finally, it said that if Chen Qinghuai failed the imperial examination next year, he did not need to come back and could continue to study with Brother Liang in his hometown.

It's clear that Fourth Uncle has adjusted his mindset well and adapted to his new official position so quickly.

Wang Ying carefully folded the letter, eagerly anticipating Chen Qingyan's arrival.

A note from the author: