Cheng Ruyi shook her head and quickened her pace toward the Cheng residence.
When she got home, it wasn't even noon yet. As soon as she entered, she saw the whole family gathered around a wooden basin, including Yunping and Chengyan. Ruyi was a little surprised that they had arrived home before her.
"What are you all doing gathered here?" Ruyi asked. "Father, have you been back for a long time?"
"Mother! Aunt Cui! Come quickly! Brother Yunping bought fish! Lots of big fish!" As soon as Yunle saw Ruyi, she skipped over and pulled Ruyi to the wooden basin.
Upon hearing this, Cheng Ruyi and Xu Cui exchanged a glance and immediately went over. To be able to buy fish at a time like this was a wonderful surprise! Inside the wooden basin lay four grass carp and two crucian carp. The two large grass carp looked to weigh seven or eight pounds, but their heads looked as if they had been crushed by something, and their bodies were pitted and uneven, almost unrecognizable. The remaining two grass carp were also quite large, probably weighing four or five pounds, while the two crucian carp weighed about one pound each. Although they were also dead, their bodies were relatively cleaner.
Xu Cui looked on with regret: "They really are fish! It's a pity they're all dead."
"If it weren't for the dead fish, we wouldn't be buying them." Cheng Yan didn't seem to care. As he took out a few packets of medicine from his pocket and handed them to Cheng Ruyi, he said, "These are all commonly used medicines. Keep them safe. By the way, how's the situation on your end? Did you manage to buy anything?"
After taking the medicine packet, Ruyi gave it to Xu Cui and asked her to take the things they bought and the fish to the kitchen to process them. Then she went into the main room with the others and told them about what happened that morning.
When it comes to sprouting soybeans, everyone looks confused, including Ruyi. Is it possible that bean sprouts cannot be grown in this world? Ruyi remembers that the earliest record of bean sprouts in her previous life was probably during the Song Dynasty. So it is possible that the social development of this world has not reached the level of the Song Dynasty, or that although bean sprouts exist, they are not yet widespread.
After hearing the principle of sprouting beans, Cheng Yan accepted it very quickly. "That's great. We can have another type of vegetable to eat in rotation. Radishes and cabbages can be stored for a long time, so we should try to store as much as possible."
Ruyi nodded in agreement, deeply appreciating her father's proactive approach, a testament to the traditional virtues of the Chinese people!
"Father, what happened when you went to the West Market?"
Cheng Yan glanced at Yun Ping, "This is a long story..."
When Cheng Yan brought Yunping to the West Market in the morning, the dock was already full of people. In the distance, a large fishing boat was preparing to dock. If you looked closely, you would see a flag on the bow with a large "Zhou" character on it. Clearly, this was the Zhou family's fishing boat.
The Zhou family is a local family in Huaishan County. They have been in business for generations and are extremely wealthy. They are considered the richest family and the largest landowners in Huaishan County, owning nearly one-third of the land in the entire county.
As the saying goes, "wealth leads to loss of offspring," so the Zhou family's offspring have never been very prosperous, and it could even be said that they have a small number of descendants.
So, decades ago, for the sake of the family's future, the great-great-grandmother of the Zhou family went to Dabeisi Temple to seek guidance from the abbot. After that, the great-great-grandmother of the Zhou family stayed in the temple to eat vegetarian food and chant Buddhist scriptures. She would donate money to repair the temple from time to time, and she would also distribute porridge and alms at the Zhou Family Charity Hall in Dongshi on the first and fifteenth of each lunar month.
It is said that when the son of the Zhou family's great-grandmother learned about this, he was quite dismissive. Since his father thought the family was too small, he could just take more concubines. So, in his youthful arrogance, he took eight beautiful concubines, causing quite a stir in Huaishan County. Some people even searched everywhere for beautiful young women to send to him, but he accepted them all regardless of their origin.
With so many people in the backyard, there are bound to be many problems. The several beautiful concubines also use all sorts of means to compete for the emperor's favor.
The first wife was a respectable young lady from a scholarly family. Whether she suffered humiliation or for other reasons, she died in childbirth not long afterward. The prematurely born patriarch of the Zhou family was also too weak to survive.
When the master and mistress found out, they rushed back from Dabeisi Temple and dismissed all the concubines without saying a word. The master and mistress regretted their actions and devoted themselves to doing good deeds, hoping to save their son. They never remarried until their death.
After that, the Zhou family became even more self-disciplined and observed proper etiquette, cultivating their character and manners. From masters to servants, everyone had to strictly abide by these rules.
Over several generations, although the Zhou family still had a small population, at least they were no longer a single-line family for several generations. In addition, they had always done good deeds and accumulated virtues, so the Zhou family's reputation in Huaishan County naturally became better and better, and over time everyone called them the Zhou family of great benevolence.
It was also because the Zhou family had always been kind to others that, as soon as their fishing boat came ashore, the people around them thought that the Zhou family would certainly not mind sharing some of the fish with them, so they all rushed forward and grabbed the fish.
Zhou Shouyi is the youngest son of Zhou Fu, the head steward of the Zhou family. He is in charge of coordinating the Zhou family's fishing boats with the dock. Although he is young, he is very experienced. Moreover, his father had informed him of the possible situation last night, so he was prepared and sent more guards to surround the Zhou family's fish transport convoy.
Even so, the convoy still struggled to move forward, especially since several of the cars at the back were surrounded and unable to get away. Zhou Shouyi was so anxious that he broke out in a cold sweat.
Seeing people pouring into the dock from all directions, and knowing that the catch of those trucks would be lost if things continued like this, Zhou Shouyi made a tough decision. He ordered his men to push over one of the fish buckets on the last truck. Instantly, everyone rushed to the last truck to grab the fish, and the trucks that were ahead were able to escape.
This meant giving up the last truckload of fish, and Zhou Shouyi felt heartbroken about losing those buckets of fish, thinking he would definitely be punished when he got back.
Suddenly, a boy darted out, jumped onto the last car, picked up the fish from the bucket, and threw them one by one into the distance. Instantly, the people surrounding the car scattered to catch the fish. The boy immediately turned around and shouted, "Run!"
Zhou Shouyi immediately understood the boy's intention and ordered the guards to throw fish while protecting the vehicle as it evacuated.
With everyone's tacit cooperation, they finally managed to escape the crowd's encirclement, and in the end, they only lost one and a half buckets of fish.
This young man was Cheng Yunping. It turned out that when they saw the crowd rushing towards them, they knew something was wrong. Yunping suddenly came up with this idea after seeing the Zhou family dump the fish bucket. After discussing it with Cheng Yan, they decided to take the risk and try it.
They were all law-abiding citizens who never thought of stealing or robbing. Seeing this situation, they only thought that if they could help the Zhou family out of their predicament, the Zhou family should sell them some fish in return for their help.
Because of his age, Cheng Yan was afraid of getting injured if he joined the convoy rashly, so he could only carefully follow the convoy from the outside and meet up with Cheng Yunping when they reached a safe place.
After Zhou Shouyi and Kang learned of their purpose, they readily agreed. When they saw that they only took a few large fish that had been stepped on and two small fish, they thought more highly of the family. After all, although it was said to be a way to help, Cheng Yunping had thrown away more than half a bucket of fish, so it wasn't cheap if you really thought about it.
That's human nature. Even if you help me, if you take advantage of the favor, you'll be considered a bad person, and the favor you did will completely lose its meaning.
By doing this, the Cheng family is befriending Zhou Shouyi and saving face for future interactions.
Ruyi was quite surprised after hearing this. How could her introverted, timid son with social anxiety have done such a thing? Could it be that he, like her, had a different soul?
"Brother, you're so amazing! Just like the stories you told us!" Just as Ruyi was feeling puzzled, Yunle, with her signature starry eyes, rushed over, grabbed Yunping's hand, and said with longing, "Brother, brother, were you just playing the hero, rescuing a damsel in distress and robbing the rich to help others... mmm mmm..."
Before Yun Le could finish speaking, Yun Ping covered her mouth with one hand, and her two short little hands could only struggle in vain.
“Storybooks? What storybooks?” Ruyi intuitively found the key and turned to ask Yunping.
However, Cheng Yunping reverted to being that socially awkward boy, stammering for a long time without saying anything.
At this moment, Cheng Yun'an spoke calmly: "These are storybooks that Dad secretly bought for my brother. Whenever my brother had free time, he would tell us these stories of the martial arts world."
"Cheng Yun'an!" Yunping looked at his sister in disbelief. How could their secret, which they had agreed to keep between siblings, be betrayed by his two sisters in the blink of an eye? Cheng Yunping felt a deep sense of betrayal!
Oh, so he's just a chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) kid.
Ruyi understood instantly, since this was very common in her previous life; when she was a child, Ruyi herself dreamed of transforming into a monster all the time...
"Ahem! Yunping, you put all the storybooks here with me later, don't corrupt your two younger sisters! Look at the nonsense Yunle is talking about!" Ruyi could use the storybooks to pass the time, uh, to learn about this world.
Cheng Yunping wanted to make one last attempt to change things, but Ruyi continued, "You can't be so reckless next time. Think about your wife and children. What will they do if something happens to you?"
When his wife and children were mentioned, Cheng Yunping was completely at a loss and could only obediently agree.
Seeing Yunping like this, Ruyi suddenly felt like a bad guy who snatched a child's toy. "Cough cough! Look at you, your clothes are all wet and you smell like fish. Go change your clothes, or you'll catch a cold in this weather."
A slap followed by a sweet treat, a snatching of someone's toy followed by a show of care—Ruyi felt she was doing a great job as a mother!
By the time Cheng Yunping changed into clean clothes, it was almost noon.
Ruyi realized that after all that fuss in the morning, she didn't feel hungry, so the fasting pills seemed to be working well. After thinking for a moment, she spoke up and discussed with everyone: "It seems that the grain shops won't be open for the time being, so for the foreseeable future, we may have to rely on our previous food reserves."
After hearing what happened that morning, everyone felt that the situation was quite serious, and their expressions were not good.
"Since we can't go out for the next period of time, and everyone doesn't need to do any heavy work while staying at home, how about we eat less and start eating two meals a day from today?"
Ruyi plans to eat one meal at 7 a.m. and another at 3 p.m. Anyway, she has fasting pills so she won't be too hungry. If all else fails, she can just go to sleep after dark.
After listening, Yunping thought of his wife and son who was not yet a month old. He wanted to speak up to ask them to eat more, but then he remembered that his grandfather and sisters had not offered any suggestions, and he was at a loss for what to do.
Ruyi had been paying attention to everyone's reactions, so she understood everything when she saw Yunping acting this way.
"Don't worry, Xiaoman is still eating three meals a day as usual. She's still in postpartum confinement, so I won't let her go hungry!"
Cheng Yunping felt a great weight lifted from her shoulders after hearing this, and replied with red eyes, "Thank you, Mother..."
What a delicate, sensitive, rebellious, and immature teenager!
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