Zhou Jing'an ignored Liu Feng and simply looked at Zhou Dashan indifferently.
After a long silence, he said coldly, "Father, when I was separated from the family and moved into this house, there was nothing there."
“Now that it’s been renovated, I plan to let my grandma move in, and my older sister can also help look after the house when she has time.”
When Zhou Dashan heard the name of Old Mrs. Zhou, he was stunned for a moment, and then he didn't say anything more.
Liu Feng, however, said resentfully, "You child, you're supposed to be filial, but you're even being filial to your grandparents! Your grandmother has your father to take care of her, so as her son, you should naturally be filial to your father first..."
She thought for a moment and said, "Why don't you let your father move in, and then bring the old lady back to the Zhou family? That would solve everything..."
Before Liu Feng could finish speaking, Zhou Jing'an glared at her fiercely: "You have no right to speak in our house. In my house, I can let whoever I want live in."
Then Ning Huan spoke up from the side, saying, "I remember when I went to town before, I saw a lot of people in the market who wanted to take in more servants to sell. It seemed like as long as you had a contract of indenture, you could take someone away?"
Liu Feng naturally understood Ning Huan's meaning, but she was currently favored by the Zhou family, and Zhou Dashan treated her like his precious darling. She looked at Zhou Dashan with a wronged expression, hoping that he would put in a good word for her.
Ning Huan narrowed her eyes and continued, "Look at what I'm saying. Liu Xiaoniang's indenture is still at my house. If it gets mixed up with money and is taken away by a servant, that would be terrible."
Upon hearing this, Liu Feng's face turned pale, and she was too frightened to say anything more.
Zhou Dashan was naturally unwilling to let Ning Huan threaten Liu Feng like that. He was about to say that he would give him the indenture, but when he saw Zhou Jing'an's eyes, he immediately shut his mouth.
His third son is becoming more and more capable, and his wife seems to be quite formidable as well; otherwise, how could the family have built a brick house? It's best not to offend the third son's family at this time.
So Zhou Dashan thought for a moment, then turned around, grabbed Liu Feng, and left with a very unpleasant expression.
Without the Zhou family's meddling, Zhou Jing'an and Ning Huan's renovation project progressed incredibly quickly.
While the villagers were resting from their work, Ning Huan brought them sweet water to quench their thirst, as well as various fruits and snacks to fill their stomachs.
Some villagers, despite their hunger, wanted to take the food back home for their families to try. Ning Huan wasn't angry when she found out; instead, she took some out separately and told the villagers to take it home separately.
The wages are paid to the villagers every day after the work is completed, and there is never any delay.
How could the villagers not praise Ning Huan? After a few days, every villager who saw Ning Huan couldn't help but praise her: "Jing An's wife is really a good person! My husband goes to her house to help with work, and he eats better than he does at home."
"Oh my, I heard they handle things very well. My husband keeps praising them when he gets home."
“The family next door to me is poor. They usually can’t even get enough to eat, let alone fruit. The man is a caring person. He originally refused to eat Jing’an’s food because he was hungry. He wanted to take the food and fruit home for his wife and children to try.”
"As a result, Jing'an's wife knew about this but didn't say anything. She just told him to finish his meal and then went back into the house to get some fruit and food for him to take home to his family."
"I didn't realize Jing'an's wife was such a kind-hearted person."
Now, everyone in the village had a huge positive impression of Ning Huan, and you could hear people talking about her every few steps. However, unlike before when they were all talking about how feisty she was.
This time, the discussion revolved around Ning Huan's virtuousness.
When Tao Fuyuan came to visit, he heard what these old women were saying. When he saw Zhou Jing'an, he said, "The changes in my sister-in-law have spread throughout the village. It seems she has really changed a lot."
Zhou Jing'an nodded without saying anything, thinking to himself that Ning Huan had not only changed a lot, but her whole person had changed.
Tao Fuyuan came here mainly because he heard that Zhou Jing'an was going to renovate his house, so he brought a lot of building materials and several skilled craftsmen to help build the house.
This made the house renovation much faster. It only took a few days for the house to be completely renovated.
The villagers around Zhou Jing'an stared in disbelief as truckloads of blue bricks were delivered to his home.
"Goodness, I've never seen so many blue bricks before."
"I thought that the blue brick house that Jing'an and his wife were talking about was just adding a few bricks or building a small house. Now it seems that they are going to use blue bricks for the whole house."
Inside the house, Zhou Jing'an and Tao Fuyuan were discussing their plans and arrangements for going to town in the future.
Zhou Jing'an thought for a moment and said, "I'm not fully recovered yet. If we move to town, I won't be able to go back to the academy to study for the time being. The study in that house is nice. I plan to study the lessons I missed in the study for the time being."
Tao Fuyuan nodded in agreement, "If that's the case, then we can only do it this way for now."
Besides himself, Zhou Jing'an was also thinking about sending his four little ones to the academy after they arrived in town.
"Although I am teaching the little ones to read every day, it will still take some time before they go to the academy, so I am not in a hurry to send the four little ones to the academy."
Tao Fuyuan asked, "So you plan to have the four little ones learn from you first?"
Zhou Jing'an replied, "I can still take care of their studies. Besides, I plan to open a small school at home and take in children about the age of four little dumplings."
Seeing Tao Fuyuan's puzzled look, Zhou Jing'an continued, "Although there are academies where students can study, there are always assessments for these primary school children before they can go to the academy. Some children don't even know what the assessments are about."
Tao Fuyuan seemed to understand Zhou Jing'an's meaning. He was essentially running a tutoring class before the academy's assessment, helping the children catch up on whatever they didn't know.
“Then I will keep an eye out for families who want to send their children to academy these days.”
Hearing Tao Fuyuan's words, Zhou Jing'an nodded and thanked him, saying, "Then I will have to trouble you, Brother Fuyuan. In the future, I will need your help to make sure the school can be opened."
Tao Fuyuan said, "That's natural."
Putting aside everything else, those families in town who can afford to send their children to the academy are definitely not from humble backgrounds.
Moreover, families all hope their children will be successful; if they pass the imperial examinations, the whole family can be promoted.
Naturally, everyone is willing to spend money on their children's education, especially since Zhou Jing'an's talent is among the best in the area.
Not to mention the young students who are about to enter school, even those of them who are taking the imperial examinations have to ask Zhou Jing'an.
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