Chapter 256: Fellow countryman, are you going to sell the big goose?

Zhou Zhongan and Xie Hui were walking in the village. It was the farming season and it was very cold outside. They were exhausted after the fight. No one was walking outside in the village and they all went home. They were covered in feces, which was not easy to wash off in the winter... Even the cats and dogs went back to their nests to comb and wash their hair.

There was a round-faced bailiff working in the county government who was leading Zhou Zhongan and Xie Hui. This man was quite interesting. He hid when the villagers started fighting. He hid until he didn't know that all the people in the county government had left, and he didn't know that the people from Jingzhao Prefecture had arrived. He couldn't hold it anymore and slipped out to go to the toilet. When his belt was half untied, he was seen by the people from Jingzhao Prefecture. Seeing that he was wearing a bailiff's clothes, they brought him to Zhou Zhongan and Xie Hui.

"My Lords, this is the Jiang Clan Ancestral Hall in the village."

In fact, it is not difficult to see that this ancestral hall is the most imposing building in the village. As the people live under the feet of the emperor, they live a good life and live in ordinary small courtyards with two entrances. The ancestral hall in front of them is a two-story blue brick building with three entrances. The painted wooden door is also very imposing, and there are exquisite wood carvings on the door.

At this time, the gate of the ancestral hall was closed, and they could not enter as outsiders. However, the important thing today was not to visit the ancestral hall of the Jiang family. Zhou Zhongan asked the round-faced yamen runner: "Is there any open space in the village or nearby? Think about it carefully. Once this matter is settled, I will tell your county magistrate that you took the initiative to stay and help us. Otherwise, I will tell him that you were lazy and got away with it."

This yamen runner had been to Qingxi Village many times. He was also from a nearby village, so he was not unfamiliar with Qingxi Village. In addition to Zhou Zhongan's "coercion and inducement", the round-faced yamen runner almost went through the entire Qingxi Village in his mind, and soon, he really remembered a place.

"Not far from the village, there is a mountain to the north. At the foot of the mountain there is a piece of wasteland. I heard that there used to be a quarry there, but it was later abandoned. There are a lot of gravel in the land, so it is not suitable for farming. Qingxi Village has no shortage of arable land, so no one goes there to open up wasteland."

"Take us to see it."

"Yes!" The round-faced bailiff led the way without hesitation. In order to show off, he walked very fast, fearing that Zhou Zhongan would go to the county magistrate to file a complaint against him when he returned.

"That's it. We're almost there."

Xie Hui saw the mountain that the yamen runner mentioned, and also saw the open space at the foot of the mountain. He also saw four or five households. This place was already outside Qingxi Village. When they came here just now, they saw some farmland on the side of the road. They didn't expect that there seemed to be people living here.

"Are the people living here also villagers from Qingxi Village?"

The yamen runner scratched his head, not knowing what to say, and said with an embarrassed look: "It's true if you say it's true, and it's not true if you say it's not true."

Zhou Zhongan glared at him: "Hey! Is that true or not?"

"The families living here are neither named Tang nor Jiang. They are outsiders who settled here. However, they do not participate in the quarrel between the Jiang and Tang families."

No wonder these families lived so far away from the village. They only had a little arable land in front of and behind their houses. Xie Hui went to the piece of land that the yamen runner mentioned and took a look. It was not uncultivated as he said. It seemed that someone had cleaned up the place and even leveled the boundaries with gravel.

"Your Excellency, I remember that no one farms here."

"There is no extra farmland for these families in the village. Perhaps that is why they are taking up the unwanted farmland."

"Just ask someone and you'll know." Zhou Zhongan walked to the door of a house and shouted across the fence, "Fellow villager! Fellow villager! Is anyone home?"

“Tu——! Kaka——!”

Three big geese appeared from some corner of the yard and ran straight towards Zhou Zhongan. Fortunately, there was a fence between them and the geese could not get out.

"You scared me!" Zhou Zhongan touched his chest, still feeling scared.

"Who?"

The people in the house also heard the noise, opened the door and stuck their heads out, and saw two people in official uniforms followed by yamen runners. The owner of the house quickly ran out and opened the gate without even having time to put on his clothes.

"What do you want to see me about?"

"My friend, let's go inside and talk before we freeze."

"Dad, who's outside?" Another woman came out of the room, with a little girl behind her. She held on to her mother's clothes and timidly looked at the few people.

"Go and make tea for the adults. Please come inside and sit down."

Before Zhou Zhongan and Xie Hui could refuse, they saw the woman quickly pick up the child and go into the next room.

As soon as they walked into the courtyard, the three big white geese rushed out again and called out to them.

"My fellow villager, your goose looks very impressive. Is it a male or a female?"

The villager had never expected that this official would come to his house and care about whether his geese were male or female. He answered in confusion, "Two females and one male." The man stamped his feet and drove the goose that wanted to come forward back.

The room was not big. There was a kang right after the door. The man took the kang broom and swept it as soon as he entered the room. "Don't mind, my lords."

"I don't mind." Zhou Zhongan lifted his clothes and sat down. "Let's cut to the chase. Who of you cleaned up the land at the foot of the mountain?"

The man was frightened when he heard this, thinking that something bad had happened there, and he knelt down with a thud. Fortunately, Xie Hui was quick to pick him up again, saying, "We are not here to punish you, just tell the truth."

Such being the case, the man did not dare to sit down anymore. He stood with his head down as if he had done something wrong. Coincidentally, at this moment the man's wife came back with some tea. Seeing her husband like this, the woman put the tea on the table on the kang, walked over to the man and stood with his head down. Even the little girl did the same.

Zhou Zhongan sighed and simply stated his purpose, "I will ask someone to call all the people from the Jiang and Tang families and ask them if they can build the Tang family's ancestral hall here. If they can, I will ask them to exchange the farmland you have opened up for you for a few plots of land or something like that."

The conflict between the Tang and Jiang families was never a problem for these outsiders. They had no idea about the fight today. When they heard what Zhou Zhongan said, they didn't really understand it at all. They just said, "We will listen to you, adults."

Zhou Zhongan asked his men to go back to the village and invite the leaders just elected by both sides to come here.

Xie Hui saw how nervous they were, and thought of the proud goose outside. He tried to ease the atmosphere and said, "Fellow villagers, are you selling your geese?"

"ah?"

Zhou Zhongan was also stunned. "Why did you buy a goose? Do you want to eat stewed goose?"

The man rubbed his hands and said carefully: "My goose is old and its meat is not tasty."

Xie Hui smiled and said, "No, I'm not buying them to eat. I'm going to propose to my fiancée's family next year, so I want to buy a pair of geese."

——

Zhou Zhongan looked puzzled. "You want a goose for marriage proposal? Where is this custom?"

"It's our family's custom." Xie Hui replied, and then said to the man, "I just saw that your geese are beautiful, so I asked this question because my fiancée likes big geese. I was rude."

If someone is unwilling to sell, Xie Hui will not force him to sell it to him.

But in fact, the couple was not unhappy, they were just stunned and did not react. After they reacted, they immediately thanked him and said, "No, no, give the two geese to the official."

"That won't do. I can't accept it even if you give it to me. Let's talk about this later. Let's deal with the business first."

After waiting for a while, the people were invited. This small room was packed and people felt suffocated inside. Zhou Zhongan took them to the foot of the mountain just now, let them take a look and then express his ideas, and asked for the opinions of both sides.

"This place is not too far. If we can build our Tang family ancestral hall here, we agree."

"What about you?"

"This corner of the land, you can build it if you want. It shows the generosity of our Jiang family."

Seeing that they agreed, Zhou Zhongan also breathed a sigh of relief. Then he said to the two people from the Tang family, "This vacant land is the wasteland reclaimed by this fellow villager. If he gives the land to you to build the ancestral hall, his family will lose their livelihood. If he gives the land, how are you going to compensate him?"

The two men turned their backs to discuss for a while, and the Tang host said, "We Tangs will never let others suffer losses. We can choose another piece of farmland to exchange with this fellow."

Zhou Zhongan asked the fellow villager, "Are you willing to accept this offer?"

"I'm willing!" The land he opened up was originally unclaimed and the soil was barren. He had to bring soil from somewhere else to cover it and barely plant some sweet potatoes. If he could exchange it for another piece of land, it couldn't be worse than what he has now.

"Well, the county government will send someone down to witness the exchange of farmland someday."

At this point, the matter has been basically resolved. The remaining matters will be handed over to the county government. We can't push all the trivial matters to the Jingzhao Prefecture, right?

People from the Tang and Jiang families also went back to discuss the matter with their clansmen.

Seeing that everyone had left, the owner of the house went to find a rope without saying a word and caught two of the geese. He also considerately tied the geese's beaks with a straw rope and then presented them to Xie Hui.

"Sir, the geese you want are one male and one female. They have a good relationship and the smaller one is their baby." Although the fellow villager didn't understand why the city people wanted a big goose when proposing marriage, he also knew that it would be better to propose a male and a female.

"The taste of your family is really unique. You gave a big goose as a gift for the engagement. Your family must be the only one in the whole capital, right?" Zhou Zhongnei patted Xie Hui's shoulder and said with a smile.

"You hold the goose for me, and I'll hold the silver."

Zhou Zhongan thought it was fun, so he reached out to take it. Unexpectedly, the goose, which was like a quail in the owner's hand, struggled hard as soon as it got into Zhou Zhongan's hand. Its legs were tied, but its wings were not, and it slapped Zhou Zhongan several times.

"Pah, pah, pah! Why is this goose hitting people?"

Xie Hui took out two silver ingots from his purse and wanted to give them to his fellow villager. The honest fellow was so scared that he stepped back repeatedly. How could the fellow dare to take so much for just two geese?

"My Lord, not so much, not so much!"

"My fellow countryman, don't refuse. This goose is worth so much to me. The New Year is coming soon, and I can buy two new sets of clothes for my children."

Zhou Zhongan also persuaded, "Take it, take it. He doesn't need money. Don't waste it."

"Then I want one, just one." The man carefully took a silver ingot from Xie Hui's hand.

Xie Hui handed the other silver ingot to the little girl and said, "Take both. They are a pair and bring good luck."

After they left the house, Zhou Zhongan threw the goose to Xie Hui and said, "It's your goose, take it yourself."

Xie Hui took it and patted the goose's head. "It's nothing. I'll go home when I get back."

"You go back. I'm going to Luoqiu County to look for their county magistrate."

On the way back, Xie Hui tied the goose to the horse's back and covered it with his cloak for fear that the goose would freeze.

After entering the city, Xie Hui suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to ask how to raise geese...

"Didn't you go to Jingzhao Prefecture to take up your post? Where did you get two ducks?"

"Mom, this is a goose."

"What are you doing bringing it home, duck or goose? Where did you get it from?"

"I bought it. She really likes geese. She said that I don't need to catch wild geese to propose marriage. I just need to catch two big geese for her."

"I like it very much... Then you can ask someone to take good care of it. My mother's golden goose has already been carved by someone else. What should we do now? Replace it with a golden goose?"

“Both.”

"OK."

Xie Hui had someone build a nest for the geese in a small garden west of the mansion, intending to let them get familiar with the environment there for two days before giving them a bath.

Xie Hui returned the letter to Shen Yuan, telling her that the geese had been brought back and asking her if she would like to give the two geese a name.

Shen Yuan received the note from Xie Hui, he smiled as soon as he read it, and immediately ran to the desk to write a reply to Xie Hui and name the big goose. Shen Yuan thought for a while, and then thought of the golden cake at home and the rice cake at the horse farm. They were all from the cake generation, so the big goose should be named White Sugar Cake and Osmanthus Cake respectively.

When the family was having dinner in the evening, Shen Yuan told his family about this matter. Xie Hui said that he would come to propose marriage and discuss the wedding date after the New Year. His family already knew about it. When Shen Yuan first learned about this, he hugged his wife and wiped his tears after returning to his room that night.

When she heard about the goose being used to propose marriage, Old Lady Shen felt she didn't know whether to laugh or cry, "You girl have so many evil ideas, and yet I let you do whatever you want."

"What nonsense! The goose is majestic and beautiful. It can even be a doorkeeper in the future! How wonderful!"

"It's up to you. I'm not the one who's embarrassing myself. Second brother, the Xie family is here to discuss the wedding date. Have you decided when to set it?"

Shen Yun didn't say anything, so Shen Xu interrupted and said, "Then we should at least let Xie Hui wait another three to five years, right?"

Madam Shen glanced at her grandson and said, "You are not allowed to speak."

He Ying picked up a piece of pork ribs and put it in Shen Su's bowl at the right time. Shen Su picked it up and ate it resignedly without saying anything else.

Shen Yun said, "This... my son hasn't thought about it yet."

"I haven't thought about it in a hurry. When you don't have to go on duty in two days, you can look through the almanac carefully every day."

"Yes, mother, I will take their horoscopes to Qintianjian to have them calculated tomorrow."

"That's fine. Qin Tianjian's calculations are definitely better than us picking randomly on our own."

Shen Yuan was eating the whole time, and his mouth never stopped except when he was talking, as if he didn't take the matter to heart at all.

"I think our girl is very generous. She won't be reluctant to marry her off tomorrow."

"What are you talking about, Grandma? Are you willing to marry me off tomorrow?"