In the same cell next to Zhang Qiushi, Zhang Baosheng and his son were complaining that Zhang Qiushi acted recklessly and without any sense of reason.
"That spendthrift woman, I'll divorce her as soon as I get back. She has the guts to do bad things, but she's not capable of cleaning up the mess. That's quite something."
"The biggest mistake I ever made in my life, Zhang Changgen, was marrying such an unlucky woman..."
Zhang Baosheng, however, was concerned with something else entirely.
"Father, stop complaining. If Mother were smarter, she could have escaped to another place, even if she died, it wouldn't matter."
If they get caught, our family is finished. I'm finished too.
My academic achievements will also be affected by my mother.
"Dad, you must think of a way. My years of hard work and studying can't be wasted like this."
The father and son fell into a long silence.
The next morning, when the jailer came to deliver food, he found that Zhang Qiushi had been delirious from the fever.
Since the trial had not yet begun, Magistrate Qiu summoned a doctor to treat Zhang Qiushi. After being given a large bowl of bitter medicine, Zhang Qiushi woke up an hour later.
Upon learning that Zhang Qiushi had awakened, it was imperative to interrogate her as soon as possible.
Zhang Qiushi, who was not very bright to begin with and was a bully who preyed on the weak, quickly confessed to all her crimes, including her thought process in picking a fight with Zhao Qingyan.
Wuyu's mother opened the door for him; Wuyu had arrived home.
Magistrate Qiu, who considered himself a well-informed official, never imagined that there could be such a shameless person in the world.
Zhang Qiu was sentenced to ten years of hard labor and ordered to pay ten taels of silver in compensation to the victim, Li Er, for deliberately poisoning Li Er. Zhang Baosheng was stripped of his student status due to his mother's actions, and would never have another chance to take the imperial examinations.
Zhang Changgen was flogged ten times for failing to properly manage his household.
After the poisoning case was closed, Huang made a banner with great fanfare, inscribed with "Upright and Honest Magistrate," to express his special gratitude to Magistrate Qiu.
As a result, the story of Qingtian spread widely in Lingnan Prefecture.
Time passed like flowing water, and the crops planted by the Zhao family in the valley and village were harvested one after another.
The first crops harvested were potatoes and corn grown in the valley, followed by sweet potatoes.
The yield of sweet potatoes in the valley is about 6,000 jin per mu, while the yield per mu in the village is relatively lower, about 2,300 jin per mu.
There's nothing we can do about the low yield; the sweet potatoes in the village are propagated from cuttings of sweet potato vines grown in the valley.
It was already quite late. The last thing to be harvested was the chili peppers.
Because they were all high-yield crops, the harvest of each crop would elicit gasps of amazement from the Zhao family.
These days, every member of the Zhao family feels like they're living in a dream.
How can there be such a high-yield crop? In fact, there is.
As for potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, apart from allowing them to eat one meal right after the harvest to try them out, no one in the family was allowed to touch them again.
If anyone showed interest, Madam Huang would answer with a smile.
"That's life-saving food. When the next harvest comes, you can eat as much as you want. Just bear with it."
This is how Huang says it when he's in a good mood; when he's in a bad mood...
"Eat, eat, all you know is eating. Don't you even look at your big face? The wooden basin you wash your face with is almost overflowing. And you still want to eat?"
If I eat any more, I won't be able to leave the house.
Well, the stuff is rare, and because it's so productive, it could definitely save many lives in a famine.
When the Zhao family harvested the crops in the valley, no one knew about it, but the crops planted in the village were eagerly sought after by the villagers.
After all, the Zhao family's pig farmers had cut down quite a few sweet potato vines planted in the fields to feed their pigs.
This is common knowledge in the whole village. Some people even privately remarked that the Zhao family seemed to be getting increasingly foolish.
Instead of planting proper crops, they use the land to grow vegetables and feed pigs.
When the Zhao family was harvesting sweet potatoes, some people felt a pang of embarrassment upon seeing the sweet potatoes buried under the vines.
Those who previously criticized the Zhao family for being foolish now feel like they were the biggest idiots.
The land that other people cultivate can be used to feed pigs on the surface and eaten by people underground.
So there's absolutely nothing wasted.
When they learned that the yield per mu reached 2,300 jin, they were so envious that their jaws dropped to the ground, the kind of jaw that couldn't be picked up.
As a result, the Zhao family's every move was being watched closely.
It's that time of year again when the Zhao family harvests their chili peppers.
"Grandma Qian'er, what are these pretty things? What are they used for?" Curious voices rose and fell.
Mrs. Huang smiled and said, "This is delicious."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a child’s wailing was heard.
The parents quickly checked on their child and found a bright red lump in the child's left hand and swollen lips.
"Grandma Qian'er is lying. This isn't good food, it's poison. Look how swollen my child's mouth is."
"Honey, hurry and find a car to take us to the pharmacy."
The mother was so anxious that tears streamed down her face.
Hearing the commotion, Mrs. Huang rushed over to check. Seeing the child's mouth swollen like a sausage, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
She reached out and took the chili pepper from the child's hand.
They were very careful, afraid of dropping even a single seed.
"Don't worry, the child is just spicy from eating chili peppers. Give the child plenty of water to drink and wash their mouth, and they'll be fine."
For the next few days, stop feeding the baby dry food and just give them porridge.
"My stomach is weak; it will take some time to recover from this shock."
The mother was skeptical, but seeing that Huang was very certain, she knew that the child was not in any danger, so she quickly took the child home to wash his mouth.
After the family of three left, Mrs. Huang said with a smile,
"This red fruit is called chili pepper. The reason it is said to be delicious is not because it tastes really good, but because it is spicy enough."
Everyone's had their fill of dogwood, right? This chili pepper has a more assertive and purer flavor than dogwood.
My wife likes the taste, that's why she says it's delicious.
People who can't even stand the smell of dogwood normally can't enjoy chili peppers.
Please don't actually eat this stuff just because my wife said it as a joke.
"If you cry from the spiciness or get an upset stomach, this old woman won't be responsible for treating you."
Huang said it half-truthfully.
Although some people wanted to help, Huang politely declined, saying that this was a precious item.
If you lose even one chili pepper, how many seeds will you lose?
The Zhao family quickly harvested the chili peppers, spread out an oilcloth in the yard, and laid all the chili peppers out to dry in the sun.
For no other reason than that chili seeds need to be dried in order to be preserved.
Recently, apart from continuing to grow leafy greens, the Zhao family no longer plans to grow any of the rarer crops.
Before long, the humid season will arrive in Lingnan, when the world will be damp and the sun will be veiled. It's better to miss the planting season than to waste the seeds.
Moreover, the so-called agricultural season in Lingnan Prefecture is nothing more than a difference between earlier and later.
The eighth day of the second lunar month was the day when all the men of the Zhao family participated in the preliminary examination for the imperial examination.
Nothing is more important than this; otherwise, all the hard work the Zhao family men put into their studies over such a long period would have been for nothing.
Da Bao, who is already five years old, was not registered to take the exam, and he expressed his grievances.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com