Chapter 114: Top Quality
◎Jinjiang exclusive◎
In an ordinary village outside Kyoto...
In the courtyard rented by Mr. Zhou and his family...
Brothers Zhou Wangzu and Zhou Wangye walked in from outside, dressed in shorts...
"How's it going? How's your inquiry going?"
Mr. and Mrs. Zhou, along with the rest of the Zhou family, had been waiting in the house for a long time. Seeing the brothers return, Feng immediately asked...
"I've found out everything!" Zhou Wangye said excitedly as he entered the room.
"Dad, Mom! The Zhou family that my sister-in-law heard about on the street is really Jin'er's family!
Their family is really rich now!
Not only has Jin Ge'er been promoted to commander-in-chief, in charge of the Longxiang Camp, one of the three major camps in Kyoto, but he has also married the daughter of Pingxi Hou!
Zhou Yu was even more amazing, she actually became the wife of Prince Rui! And she was the principal wife, not a concubine!
Now, their whole family lives in the former residence of Prime Minister Wang. That residence is even bigger than the former residence of Lord Zhou, with five courtyards! I heard that the emperor gave it to Jin'er specially!
Zhou Wangye kept saying, "Today, the two brothers had been guarding outside Zhou Jin's house all day, and they saw Zhou Jin and his wife ride out together on horseback..."
Although they only saw it once, the aura of the whole body almost blinded the Zhou Wangye brothers!
"Old man! What do you think we should do?! In my opinion, we should just move directly to that mansion! After all, we are that kid's grandparents, do they dare to drive us out?!" Feng said excitedly after hearing this.
She had had enough of this hard life. When they were in Liaodong and had money in their hands, they lived a pretty good life. But later, that scumbag Youshi colluded with Concubine Liu and her daughter to steal most of her money and even ran away without a trace!
From then on, things became difficult for her family. The whole family, young and old, relied on the few hundred taels of silver she had left to survive. After a few years, there was nothing left!
Coupled with the bitter cold weather in Liaodong, their family’s life in Liaodong was not very good in the following years!
Two years ago, with great difficulty, the emperor showed mercy and pardoned the entire Zhou family, and the family was able to return to Beijing. However, the journey cost a lot of money, and by the time they arrived, Feng had very little money left!
The family could not afford to rent a house in Kyoto, so they could only rent such a shabby place outside the city. Now the whole family relies on the old man and his two sons to do some small business to make a living.
"Yes! Grandfather! We in Dayan place great importance on filial piety. Zhou Jin is now prominent, so he should pay more attention to these things. If he dares to chase you two out, I'm afraid the spit of the scholars will drown him!"
Zhou Wangzu's eldest son Zhou Zhu also followed his grandmother's words.
Although he had separated from Zhou Jin's family, Zhou Zhu was still cousins with the same grandfather, so he benefited from Zhou Jin's influence and was now able to take the imperial examination.
After all, he had a solid foundation from his studies in previous years, and Zhou Zhu had been "turning a deaf ear to the world outside the window and focusing on reading the books of sages" in recent years. Last year, he actually passed the examination and became a student, and was in the same class as Zhou Li and Zhou Zhuo.
Therefore, Zhou Zhu is now highly expected by Old Man Zhou, who hopes that he can pass the imperial examination like his third son in the future to bring honor to their Zhou family.
But Zhou Zhu himself knew that he had limited talent, and without sufficient financial and material support, he could not find a good teacher, and could not afford to buy the exam papers from previous years. It would be impossible for him to make further progress.
Therefore, when he heard that Zhou Jin's family was now well-off in both financial and material resources, and had also relied on the royal family and the Marquis of Pingxi Mansion, he immediately thought that if he could borrow some of their resources, then he wouldn't have to worry about his future!
So, he hurriedly followed suit to persuade his grandfather. Not only did he persuade him himself, he also signaled his mother to do the same.
"Yes, father-in-law, if we can get close to Brother Jin, his wife is the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Pingxi. If we beg them well, maybe we can arrange for Zhu'er to enter the Imperial College! The teachers there are all great scholars. Then, wouldn't it be easy for Brother Zhu to pass the imperial examination?
As for Brother Yao and his cousins, Brother Jin is now such a high-ranking official. If we promote Brother Yao and his cousins, maybe he can also give his cousins some small official positions..."
"Humph! You all are so wishful thinking! Have you forgotten how we offended Brother Jin back then?! Have you also forgotten how ruthless that brat was?"
Mrs. Sun was talking excitedly at the side, but was immediately scolded by Mr. Zhou who had been keeping his head down and silent!
If there was one thing that Grandpa Zhou regretted most in his life, it was that although he discovered that his grandson Zhou Jin was more promising than his other grandsons, he discovered it too late and was afraid that he was not on the same page with him, so he did not choose to win him over, but chose to strangle him instead.
Seeing that the whole family seemed to have forgotten the past and were determined to get close to Zhou Jin, he was even more furious and couldn't help but point at everyone and yell:
"Have you forgotten how Qian died? Who cut Huan'er's finger?"
Everyone was so scolded that they dared not say a word. Only Zhou Zhu, the most favored one, moved his lips, wanting to say that he had no involvement in that incident. However, he was frightened by the look of Mr. Zhou...
Zhou Huan, who had been hiding in a corner, couldn't help but burst into anger when she heard Old Man Zhou talking about her mother's death and her own hand...
Zhou Jin, that kid, had a grudge against him for having his mother killed and his hand cut off!
Although he had avoided military service due to his hand disability, he was also looked down upon by his entire family because of his disability. Even his grandmother and father, who had previously loved him, began to dislike him.
Therefore, if possible, Zhou Huan would like to cut Zhou Jin into pieces right now to relieve the hatred in his heart!
…
Old Master Zhou sat dejectedly on a small stool in the room, looking at his family, who were either fawning or resentful after hearing about Zhou Jin's family's prosperity. His hair had turned completely white from overwork, but the spirit in his eyes was still there...
He knew that at this point, if he didn't find a way to take care of the third wife's family and only rely on his children and grandchildren, his family would be completely finished! He and his wife would have to endure the hardships of being dragged down by this group of people!
After staring at everyone fiercely for a moment, Mr. Zhou gritted his teeth and finally decided:
"Tomorrow, Zhu'er will accompany your mother and me to take a look. You all stay at home and no one is allowed to follow us!"
"But, father-in-law..." Sun said anxiously...
"Stop talking!" Old Master Zhou glared at her and shouted, then turned to Feng and Zhou Zhu and said sternly:
"As the saying goes, you can't eat hot tofu in a hurry. When you two go there tomorrow, just keep your mouth shut and act pitiful. Got it?!
…
At the same time, in the Longxiang Camp, Zhou Dai also entered Zhou Jin's tent.
"Commander, I've found everything you asked me to find..."
Zhou Dai said with a smile while holding a list of names,
"The brothers who were with us earlier are all still alive! They've all returned! Except for two crippled ones, everyone else is fine and in the military camp near Kyoto!"
"Who is disabled?" Zhou Jin asked hurriedly after hearing this.
Since he took charge of the Longxiong Camp, he also transferred Zhou Dai and Han Degong, who had followed him before. Now he asked Zhou Dai to check on the young men who had gone with them to look for food on the road to exile. He thought that he had achieved some results now and could have the final say. If his brothers were in trouble, he would help them if he could.
"It's Big Tiger and Grasshopper! One has lost his left arm, and the other has a lame leg!" Zhou Dai sighed.
"How did you get hurt?" Zhou Jin asked again.
Zhou Dai was immediately furious when he heard this:
"Da Hu's arm was chopped off by the Tartars on the battlefield, there's nothing much to say about it! But the grasshopper's leg, it turns out, has something to do with your cousin, the one named Zhou Yao.
When they were in Liaodong, Grasshopper and he were assigned to a hundred households and happened to be in the same squad. That year, when their squad went to intercept the Tartars who were raiding the valley, Zhou Yao was knocked down by a Tartar and was about to be trampled to death by the Tartar's horse hooves. Grasshopper saw him and kindly pulled him up, thus saving his life!
Unexpectedly, he was afraid that he would not be able to escape, so he pushed the grasshopper, asking it to block the horse's hoof for him. As a result, the grasshopper was trampled by the Tartar's horse and his leg was broken. Although he finally saved his life, his leg could not be healed and he became completely crippled!
Zhou Jin...
It’s true... good people don’t live long, but evil deeds last for thousands of years!
If Zhou Dai hadn't mentioned it, he would have almost forgotten about Zhou Yao!
"Go ask Da Hu and Ma Cao again and tell them that my mansion is short of two retainers to take care of the carriages and horses. Ask them if they are willing to do the job. If they are, they can move in. There is plenty of room in the mansion. If not, buy them ten acres of land each and tell them to come to me if they have any difficulties."
Zhou Jin said,
"The same goes for other brothers. If they are willing to follow me, I can transfer them to our camp...
But you have to make it clear to them in advance that I can only give them one chance at most. In my place, whether you get promoted or not depends on your own ability. I will not show favoritism!
If you don’t want to follow me, each of you will be given…”
"Boss, don't worry. When the brothers heard you were promoted to commander, they wanted to transfer them all over. They're so happy! How could they not want to follow you? They've said that as long as they can follow you, they'd be willing to be your vanguard!"
Zhou Dai interrupted Zhou Jin with a smile. In the barracks, he always strictly followed military regulations and addressed Zhou Jin as the commander. Now he called him the chief, obviously remembering the days when they followed Zhou Jin on the road to exile and struggled to survive together...
"That's good, I'll leave this matter to you."
Zhou Jin also laughed after hearing this, and then warned:
"Just don't forget, our care is limited to our brothers and their wives and children. Forget about their families!"
The brothers who were with them at the beginning were all excluded by the family, and he didn't have that much kindness to help those people.
"Okay! Even if you don't tell me, I will do it!" Zhou Daiyi said seriously.
Their leader should take care of his brothers who have shared hardships with him, so why should he let that group of people get away with it!
The author has something to say:
Dear friends, Cai Cai's new book "Fei Shi Yan Ran" is being updated...
Please collect! Please comment!
Also: Pre-collection of the new article "Red Mansion: Xifeng is not the head of the family" Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or irrigated nutrient solution during 2022-08-04 11:19:55~2022-08-05 08:53:15~
Thanks to the little angels who provided the nutrient solution: 10 bottles of Youchun Yitiaotiao; 1 bottle of Wangwa;
Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!
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