Chapter 200
200
Shen Yuntang waved to him and said, "We are going to the mountain over there to pick wild vegetables. Do you want to come?"
"Come." Cheng Yeran ran over happily, took the tools from Shen Yuntang's hand, and put a backpack on his back.
In the backpack were the food for the picnic that Shen Yuntang had prepared today. Originally, they wanted to eat by the river, where there were farmlands and others were working hard. They were eating and drinking beside them, and Cheng Yeran felt a little bit reluctant, but there wouldn't be enough to share. With so many people, it was also a question of who to give the food to and who not to give the food to.
He wanted to solve these people's problems from the root instead of just giving them alms once and for all.
It just so happens that the scenery on the mountain is pretty nice, so it’s nice to take the kids hiking.
The third brother's older brother and younger sister also went up the mountain with them. They often went up the mountain to chop firewood and dig wild vegetables, so they were quite familiar with the place. They took them all the way up the mountain and enthusiastically explained the varieties of wild vegetables to Cheng Zhao. When they heard that Cheng Zhao wanted to catch insects, they also liked to catch some small insects to play with, so they took Cheng Zhao to look for them.
Shen Yuntang felt so distressed when he saw the two children were so skinny that they looked like they were about to fall apart at any time. Just now when they went up the mountain, they also saw many very young and weak children going up the mountain to dig wild vegetables or chop firewood. Shen Yuntang also helped with housework at home since he was a child, but at least he could eat enough when he was a child. He didn't do such heavy work when he was seven or eight years old. At most he washed dishes and helped pick vegetables. Later, he started going up the mountain to chop firewood when he was in his teens.
He told Cheng Yeran about his childhood. Cheng Yeran felt sorry for him and said that he had to help with housework at such a young age. In the future, when children are in their teens, they will be loved and pampered by their parents. Apart from studying, they don’t have to chop wood, farm, wash clothes or cook.
Now it seems that he was very happy when he was a child.
Cheng Yeran was also looking after those children. He could send all the children to school and provide them with two meals. In this way, even if the parents were unwilling to send their children to school, they would still go there for the free meals.
Although he built three schools in the city, the schools are far away from here. If the children are sent to school, they will have to spend one or two hours going back and forth every day. It would be better to open several schools here and in several villages.
Shen Yuntang found a shady spot and asked Cheng Yeran to spread a mat on the ground and put the food he brought on it.
He made some lovely and delicate fruit cakes, egg tarts, sandwiches and even hamburgers.
He had seen hamburgers and sandwiches in futuristic TV dramas. The hamburgers were delicious when they were freshly made. He couldn't buy them by express delivery, but they didn't look very difficult to make, so he tried it at home and it worked.
Cheng Zhao loves beef burgers the most, and every time he asks Shen Yuntang to make a few more fried beef patties to put in the burgers.
Shen Yuntang also made juice and some snacks.
After he and Cheng Yeran put everything in place, they called a few children over.
The four people in Cheng Zhaohe's family
Talk about
The children have become accustomed to eating with them and run over to get their favorite food.
The third brother's older brother and younger sister stood by very reservedly, looking at the dishes filled with food they had never seen before. They were attracted by the beautiful appearance, which not only looked good but also smelled good.
They stood there with their stomachs growling and wanted to go eat. However, before they left, their parents repeatedly told them to be good and not to ask Lord Cheng and Madam for food.
Shen Yuntang saw the two of them standing there, called them over, and stuffed a burger into their hands, "Try this and see if you like it."
They had never seen this thing before, but they smelled the aroma of meat. The older child was ten years old and the younger one was six years old. They had only eaten meat once in their lives. The elder brother still remembered that one morning, a dead pig was found in the river. It looked like it had died of illness and was thrown into the river by someone and floated down from upstream.
Although it was a sick pig, they were not afraid. More than a dozen families cut up the pig together.
Their family got a piece of meat, and my mother was reluctant to eat it, so she wanted to make it into bacon, but the meat was almost rotten. My father decided to let my mother stew it, and they made a pot of cabbage and pork slices. I ate it once and remembered it for two years. The taste is still deeply engraved in my mind.
Now he smelled a familiar smell, but it looked different. Last time he ate a mixture of fat and lean meat, but this time there was only lean meat. The taste was also different, but it was still very fragrant. There was such a big piece of meat in the pancake, and the fragrance made them feel dizzy, as if they were drunk, and their little faces were flushed.
Cheng Zhao likes to eat lean meat, and prefers beef and chicken. He doesn't like pork, mutton, duck and goose. Shen Yuntang will give priority to Cheng Zhao's preferences when cooking.
Shen Yuntang watched the two of them wolfing down their food, as if they were about to swallow their tongues. He thought of the four little servants who were also like this when they first came to their house, so he poured them two glasses of juice and said, "Eat slowly, there's more here."
The two little ones started crying while eating. In the past, they felt sorry for their third brother because he was sold to be a book boy and lived a hard life. But now they realized that his life was much better than theirs. Just now when they were playing together, his third brother told them that he could eat three meals a day and each meal had meat. What a heavenly life that was! Not to mention selling their bodies, they would be happy even if they were asked to sell their souls.
"Why are you crying? Isn't the food delicious?" Cheng Zhao had been living a life of luxury since childhood and had never been hungry. He didn't understand why they were crying.
"I'll starve you for two days, and then you'll cry if I give you food again." Cheng Yeran was really afraid that his child would grow up to be a playboy who didn't know the sufferings of the world. He said to Shen Yuntang, "I'll feed him wild vegetables every few days, and then take him to the countryside to plant crops, so that he can feel how difficult it is to grow food."
Shen Yuntang grew up in the village and missed the days of farming and growing vegetables. "We can make a small vegetable garden in the garden and grow vegetables, and let Xingxing grow them with us."
Cheng Zhao had raised flowers before, but he didn’t plant them himself. He just watered them every day. He really wanted to experience planting vegetables himself. “Let’s plant some vegetables tomorrow.”
"You have to start from turning the soil. Can you stick to it?" Cheng Yeran asked him.
Cheng Zhao nodded vigorously, "When have I ever given up halfway?"
When the other children heard about planting vegetables, they all raised their hands and said they could help. “I planted vegetables with my parents when I was a child, and I still remember the process.”
The two siblings were extremely envious when they saw them talking and laughing happily. The younger sister asked Shen Yuntang in a low voice: "Can my brother and I go back with you? I also want to live a life where I can have enough food every day."
She didn't dare say that she had always wanted to eat meat every day. In her eyes, having a full meal every day was already a luxury, and she didn't ask for too much.
Although my brother didn't say anything, his eyes were full of desire.
The third brother also wanted to take his brother and sister with him. If possible, he also wanted to bring his parents and grandmother to the Cheng family to live a good life.
But he had been well-educated for a while and knew that there was no such good thing in the world, and the Cheng family had no obligation to support their entire family, so he did not mention it. He could receive wages from the Cheng family every month. After a few years, when he had saved enough money, he would use the money to support his parents, grandmother, and brothers and sisters.
Cheng Yeran raised his hand and rubbed the tops of the brother and sister's heads. "From now on, you will have a life with enough food every day. I promise."
…
In the afternoon, they dug a basket of wild vegetables, and Cheng Zhao also caught the insects he wanted. Before leaving, Shen Yuntang left the uneaten cake and hamburgers to the brother and sister, asking them to take them back and eat.
The brother and sister were reluctant to eat it, so they took it back and gave it to their parents and grandmother.
Their parents were very worried about them. They were officials, and officials had bad tempers. They would beat people with sticks or arrest people at any time, and they might even lose their lives. The two children were out for an afternoon, and the whole family was worried for the whole afternoon. When they saw them come back in the evening, they kept chattering about how nice Lord Cheng and his wife were, especially his wife, who spoke gently and smiled beautifully, and also gave them meat and cakes.
The adults in the family were amazed when they heard this, and were even more stunned by the delicious smell after eating the late hamburger. They were even more surprised when they heard that it was made by the wife. The wife of an official could actually cook for herself. It was said that the official’s family had a cook who specialized in cooking.
The younger sister explained to them: "Brother said that there are servants in the mansion who cook, wash clothes and clean on weekdays. Madam will occasionally cook for them. Madam's cooking skills are very good."
The adults in the family looked at the exquisitely crafted food and thought that only a lady as beautiful as a fairy could make it.
At the same time, they were also surprised. When they sent their child to the Cheng family, they sent him to work. They didn't expect that Lord and Madam Cheng would actually ask the servants to wash clothes and cook for their child. Isn't this becoming a young master? Their child has become a phoenix.
On the other side, several children were chattering in the carriage. They were full of energy and said that today was a lot of fun and they wanted to come here to play again next time.
The third brother also looked at Cheng Yeran and Shen Yuntang expectantly, as he also wanted to come home and play more often.
Cheng Yeran nodded: "I will bring you back to play often in the future. Even if you don't come to play, you can ask the driver to take you home to stay for two days occasionally."
The third brother quickly shook his head: "I am already a member of the Cheng family. I can't always go back, otherwise I will be reluctant to come out."
He has already gotten enough and doesn't dare to ask for more.
Cheng Yeran also said that he would teach them how to ride horses after a while. "Once you learn how to ride horses, you can go wherever you want by yourself."
Shen Yuntang said worriedly, "The roads here are not as good as those in the capital. Even in the most prosperous places in the city, the road surface is uneven. Besides, there are all kinds of people here. What if the kids fall down or run into bad guys? We still need to have more servants, preferably strong ones who know martial arts. Don't ride horses, just take a carriage."
"The road here is really not that good." When Cheng Yeran was speaking, the wheel just happened to run over a stone, and the people in the car flew into the air and then fell back into their chairs.
Cheng Yeran protected Shen Yuntang, fearing that he would hit his head again. "The road here should be repaired. When we make cement someday, we can use it not only for paving roads but also for building houses. But in the novels I read before, there was always a similar plot. The protagonist paved the cement road, and then the people doubted whether the cement was strong. The name of cement ground didn't sound strong. Then after the protagonist paved the cement road, the people were surprised that the cement road was so smooth and hard. Although it looks great, it would be hard to understand when paving it in the early stage. It's better to change the name to steel road or railway, which sounds strong."
Shen Yuntang: "...It sounds too expensive. Aren't you afraid that right after you finish paving the road, someone will dig it up to see if there is any steel inside?"
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