Chapter 51
51
Cheng Yeran felt that there was something wrong with the way they looked at him. Immortal fate could indeed be used as a good excuse. In the future, when he sold anything from the future, he could say that it was given to him by the gods. The ancient people were so superstitious that they would not doubt him.
"That night I went out to pee and saw Brother Cheng peeing something on the field. He peeped a lot." A child sucking his fingers stood up and pointed at Cheng Yeran and said.
Cheng Yeran was shocked and the hairs on his back stood up. There was obviously no one around when he was spreading fertilizer that day, so how could he be seen by this little kid? What about the others? Did you see it?
Besides this time of spreading fertilizer, what about other times? Did you see him going up the mountain to shop on his mobile phone?
He waited for a long time and finally breathed a sigh of relief when he found that no one said they saw him spreading fertilizer and no one mentioned him going up the mountain.
But then he heard someone ask him, "Is it something that the gods brought down from heaven and asked you to sow it in the fields? That's why your wheat is growing so strong?"
"Maybe the Cheng family kid is possessed by a god! Otherwise, how come he was so lazy before and suddenly became so diligent and made so much money? He must be a god descending to earth."
Several aunts nodded and whispered about the difference between the lazy man in the past and Cheng Yeran now. The difference was huge.
When Cheng Yeran heard that they regarded him as a god, he became even happier. If he accepted this identity, no one in the village would dare to cause trouble for him in the future.
Just as he was about to admit it, Shen Yuntang pulled his sleeve hard. Shen Yuntang's movements were stiff. He wanted to shake his head but was afraid that others would notice his movements, so he could only move his head slightly to remind him not to talk nonsense.
Cheng Yeran swallowed the words that were about to come out of his mouth. He thought for a moment and remembered that when he watched TV dramas before traveling through time, the emperor always liked to call himself the Son of Heaven. The emperor was just a child of God. He had directly become a god. If he took the imperial examination and became an official in the future, what would the emperor think of him if he knew about it?
If he had been just a villager all his life and had no real skills and could only play tricks and pretend to be a god, that would be fine and would not attract official attention. But if he wanted to use his identity as a god to come up with many future technologies and items so that the people would worship him as a god, then he would become a thorn in the emperor's side.
In ancient times, there were too many taboos. He could not possess abilities that the ruler could not control. Even if he could be used by the emperor, but his abilities were too strong, the emperor would suspect whether he wanted to replace the emperor. The emperor would rather kill him than use him.
He quickly said to everyone: "Where did the gods come from? Even if there are gods, can they come to our house? As for my personality change, it's because I got married. Don't you always say that a man is not good now, but he will be good after getting married, and he will take care of the family and take care of people? I became a better person because I got married. Is there a god like me who goes crazy every day?"
After he said this, many people agreed, and even some aunts began to urge their sons, "See, your brother Cheng became a better person because he got married. You should hurry up. Mom will take you to the Lu family to propose marriage tomorrow. Don't be picky anymore. Good looks can't be eaten."
"Mom, I have a crush on Xiao Zhu from the next village. You all know that."
"That Xiao Zhu's family is not well off, you don't understand."
There was chaos at the scene, with several aunts urging their sons to get married and almost getting into a quarrel. Cheng Yeran thought that this time the conflict had been diverted away.
Just as he was about to turn around and leave, he heard someone calling him back, not letting him go: "Since it's not a destiny, then your wheat has absorbed the luck of our wheat, you have to compensate us!"
Cheng Yeran was speechless. How did he come back after so many twists and turns? Fortunately, he made up another excuse: "I found a book left by my grandfather at home. It wrote about a fertilizer that can make wheat grow better. Because I haven't tried it, I don't know if it works. My husband doesn't let me use it, so I made it and sneaked out in the middle of the night to spread it on the fields."
"Your grandfather? How could your grandfather have such a book?" An uncle looked at Cheng Yeran with suspicion, trying to find a flaw in Cheng Yeran's expression, but Cheng Yeran's expression did not seem fabricated at all.
Cheng Yeran had already asked Shen Yuntang about everything about the original owner. The original owner's grandfather was a scholar and a scholar at that. However, he was a scholar all his life and failed the exams many times. In the end, he felt that he was not cut out for it and gave up studying. Not only did he give up, he also told his sons not to study and to just farm quietly.
Later, after the original owner's grandfather passed away, the original owner's parents saw that their child was smart and clever, so they gritted their teeth and made a decision that went against their ancestors and let the original owner go to school.
With some facts and his superb acting skills, he can make things seem real: "My grandfather was also a scholar in his old age. He bought many books, one of which recorded this. Is there any problem?"
"It seems that he has studied." Several older people still remembered Cheng Yeran's grandfather and stood up to testify for him. "Back then, your grandfather loved buying books. At that time, your family was still rich and you hadn't squandered all the money. He often bought piles of books for your family."
When Cheng Yeran heard the words "the family's fortune was ruined by him", he couldn't help rubbing his nose and said nothing.
Shen Yuntang behind him was unhappy: "Who said he squandered all the family fortune? When grandpa divided the family property, my parents-in-law only got a part of it. It wasn't all squandered by my husband. He still left a house and a piece of land."
“This piece of land and that shabby house are nothing compared to the Cheng family of the past. If the family wasn’t well-off, they wouldn’t have been able to withstand his squandering.” Although the elderly had nothing to do with the Cheng family, they felt extremely distressed when they thought of how the lazy man of the past squandered the family’s wealth. When they were at home, they often used the lazy man as a negative example to preach to their children.
"No, if your grandfather had this book, why didn't the wheat in your family grow like this before?" the uncle just raised the question.
Cheng Yeran: "This is my first attempt too. Maybe grandpa wasn't sure if it would work. If the fertilizer he made didn't work, all the wheat seedlings at home would be killed, and a year's work would be in vain."
"You are such a brave kid. You dare to try it. Aren't you afraid of starving to death?" Several villagers looked at Cheng's wheat. Although it would take some time before the wheat was harvested, they could see that his family's wheat ears were fuller than those of other families, and the grains were bigger.
"The bold will die of overeating, and the timid will die of starvation." Cheng Yeran looked at everyone staring at their wheat with jealous expressions. Someone even asked him to take out the fertilizer recipe in the book and share it with everyone. If he really made it himself, he might really share it with everyone. After all, growing crops is different from making tofu or dried bean curd. Tofu or dried bean curd is a small business, but every household has to grow wheat, and they all sow it in the ground. Why should his family be better than others?
mutter
Other people's good things will definitely make people jealous. In the past, he thought that he could scare others by going crazy so that they would not dare to do bad things secretly. However, it turned out that his idea was too naive. He couldn't stop those who did bad things behind his back.
So either don't stand out, or make everyone else the same, and take the risk of being scolded for doing it without asking for anything in return.
But the problem is that he doesn't know how to make fertilizer, so he really can't share it now, but he can buy some books on making fertilizer, or some tutorial videos. There are plenty of methods, so he can just put today aside for now.
He asked the villagers who asked him for fertilizer methods: "If I had told you that there was a book and asked you to follow me and try it, would you dare to try it?"
After he asked this, the people who were shouting fell silent, but they did not give up. They were a little less aggressive than before. "If you had asked me to try with you, I would definitely try. Didn't you ask us for help? Now that you have tried it, share it with everyone. We are all from the same village. Don't be so selfish and only think about yourself. You will suffer in the future. If something happens to your family in the future, who will help you?"
"That's right. We are all from the same village. Are you willing to watch us all starve to death?"
"You're still thinking about taking the imperial examination and becoming an official. You don't care about the people. It's useless for you to be an official." The villager who spoke didn't believe that Cheng Yeran would be able to become an official in the future. If he did, he wouldn't dare to talk to Cheng Yeran like this.
"Is it your turn to take our Cheng family's things?" Cheng Yeran's relatives stood up, surrounded Cheng Yeran, and protected him like a treasure.
Cheng Yeran also saw through their little plan. They didn't come over to help and talk just now, but now they are around to help. Aren't they just trying to share the method of making fertilizer? But it is better to have someone to help than for him to fight alone.
He pretended to be weak and hid behind his relatives, not saying another word, letting his relatives go forward to fight.
Just when the argument was getting intense, the village chief came over and told everyone to disperse, to clean up their own fields, to go home to eat, and not to gather around anymore.
The village chief's words still carried some weight. Although everyone was reluctant, they could see that the village chief was clearly on Cheng Yeran's side, so they had no choice but to disperse.
After returning home, Cheng Yeran quickly bought several books on making fertilizers. He had originally wanted to live a life of leisure, but he did not expect that he would be forced to learn skills. He felt exhausted.
After buying the book on making fertilizer, he also bought some literacy cards and some children's books with pinyin for Shen Yuntang.
Although they were busy these days, he did not forget to teach Shen Yuntang pinyin at night and read some books himself. He had a good memory and was always the fastest at memorizing texts in school. He could also memorize the script after reading it once during filming.
These days he has read the book with both simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has been able to read it without any obstacles, but he still needs more practice in writing.
Learning to read is just the first step. His next step is to find a teacher to teach him to read.
But he is very busy with his business now. Unless the weather is bad, there is always someone at home, full of customers coming to buy dried tofu. He can't let Shen Yuntang do it alone. Both of them will be tired, and it's not good to put all the work on one person. He is thinking about whether he should find someone to help.
These days, Cheng Yeran's relatives often come to his house, and they all want him to share the method of making fertilizer. They also ask him if there is other content written in the book and whether he learned the method of making dried tofu from that book?
Cheng Yeran has been trying to put them off. As long as they don't explicitly ask for it, he won't mention it.
When the book arrived, he studied it carefully and copied out a formula for making fertilizer. Then he invited all his relatives and the village chief to come.
Cheng Yeran handed the recipe to the village chief and said, "Although it was something my grandfather left me, it is part of the Cheng family after all. I have no objection to giving it to my cousin to distribute."
He pushed the trouble to the village chief to solve. The village chief knew his little plan, but he was not angry. He even admired his magnanimity for dividing up such a good thing so easily.
The village chief looked at his relatives, and their eyes were glued to the recipe. Unfortunately, the paper was folded and they couldn't see it.
Another relative couldn't help but remind the village chief not to keep it all for himself, as it belonged to everyone. Right after he said that, he was scolded by the elders in the family, who said he was disrespectful. They almost got into a quarrel, and it was the village chief who told them to be quiet.
Although the village chief is old, he can still keep his composure in any situation.
The village chief proposed a distribution method. The formula could not be shown to them for fear that they would leak it. However, everyone could work together to set up a workshop to make the fertilizer and sell it to the villagers. If the fertilizer became famous, people from other villages would also come to buy it. The money earned would be distributed according to everyone's contribution.
This recipe was originally given to them by Cheng Yeran, and even if he didn't contribute, he would still receive 10% of the income.
The village chief looked at everyone and asked, "Do you have any objections?"
Naturally, they would not be unhappy about making money, and even if they could not get the formula, the village chief would distribute the fertilizer to them after making it. They could get both money and fertilizer, making a lot of money.
Everyone nodded and said they would invest money, and also asked the village chief to be fair, and those who invested more money would get more.
Cheng Yeran was also very happy when he heard this. He originally thought that it would be the end after the formula was given out, but he didn't expect that he could still make money. He said to Shen Yuntang next to him: "Let's invest some money too."
Shen Yuntang went into the house to get the money, and they didn't dare to invest too much, not because they were afraid of losing money, but because they were afraid that others would know that their family was rich. In the end, they only invested two taels of silver.
This was considered a medium amount among the relatives, but it still made a few of them jealous: "You've made a lot of money, is that dried tofu really what's written in the book?"
"That's enough!" The village chief stopped them from making things difficult for Cheng Yeran. "That book was left to him by the old man. Even if he didn't tell you anything, you can't say anything. Now that he can share the fertilizer with you, you should just be happy. If you say another word, you won't get the fertilizer anymore. I'll tear up the paper now."
The relatives shut up immediately. They had their own plans in mind. First they would set up the fertilizer workshop and then slowly train Cheng Yeran. Sooner or later they would have to learn how to make dried tofu.
After the village chief left the Cheng family, he asked people to notify every household door that they could buy the same fertilizer as Cheng Yeran next year.
Everyone in the village is waiting and watching. After all, the wheat has not been harvested yet, and no one knows how effective the Cheng family's fertilizer will be. If it can double or triple the yield, it would be worth spending some money.
The matter was finally over. Cheng Yeran no longer had the buzz of relatives in his ears. He said to Shen Yuntang, "Let's go back to your house later and ask Dad to accompany us to buy a donkey. We have no experience and don't know how to choose one."
Shen Yuntang wanted to talk about this, too. He had wanted to go home and ask his father to help him pick the donkey, but he was afraid that Cheng Yeran would not agree. Now that Cheng Yeran had brought it up himself, he didn't have to worry about it. "Okay, let's go over now. There aren't many people around right now."
The two of them changed their clothes, picked up some dried tofu as gifts, and were about to go out. When they opened the door, they saw a skinny young man standing at the door.
The boy seemed to be about fourteen or fifteen years old, with thin hands and feet and sunken cheeks. However, his clothes and hair were very clean. He did not look like a beggar but rather suffered from long-term malnutrition.
He looked like he could barely afford to eat, and didn't look like he was here to buy dried tofu. Cheng Yeran turned to look at Shen Yuntang, wanting to ask if Shen Yuntang recognized him.
Almost everyone in the village knows each other, but there are so many people that it takes some time to think about some people you don’t contact often.
Just as he was thinking about it, the young man called Cheng Yeran "cousin".
"Cousin, I have something to talk to you about. Are you going out? It's okay, I'll wait for you to come back." The boy said with a flattering smile.
"You are Yuanbao, right?" Shen Yuntang remembered that Yuanbao was a distant relative of Cheng Yeran.
"Yes, sister-in-law." Yuanbao smiled and called Shen Yuntang sweetly.
"What's the matter? Just say it now if you can explain it in a sentence or two. We don't know when we will be back." Cheng Yeran felt that the child was quite polite and didn't seem like a bad person. Besides, he was just a child, so he was patient with polite children.
"I want to buy some dried tofu from you and sell it in the county." Yuanbao said in a low voice, "But I don't have any money now. Can you give me the dried tofu first, and then I'll give it to you after I make the money?"
"Buy on credit?" Cheng Yeran turned to look at Shen Yuntang, asking with his eyes what kind of character this kid was. He hadn't met a good person in this village since he traveled through time, so he was afraid that this kid was also a bad one.
Shen Yuntang didn't have much impression of him, but he knew a general idea. He leaned over to Cheng Yeran's ear and said, "This child lost his parents when he was young, and lived with his grandmother. I heard that his grandmother also passed away a while ago."
When Cheng Yeran heard this, he didn't expect that he was still a miserable child. It made people feel sorry for him. However, this child was not like other people in the village who morally blackmailed others for help when they were in trouble. He was also not like those relatives just now who forced him to hand over the formula. There should be no problem with his character.
His tone became better, and he asked Yuanbao, "Are you having any difficulties in life?"
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"No, I can support myself. It's just that the wheat in the field was washed away yesterday, so I thought about doing something, otherwise I really can't get through this winter. Cousin, I will definitely keep my promise and give you money." He took out a piece of paper from his pocket and said, "This is the house deed of my family. If I break my promise, I will compensate you with my house."
"Put it away." Cheng Yeran was just worried about hiring someone at home, and he happened to come. "Come and help me sell dried tofu. I'll pay you every month. How about that?"
Yuanbao scratched his head: "I still want to go to the county to sell it myself."
"What? Do you think I give you too little?" Cheng Yeran didn't expect him to refuse.
"No, it's just me...I don't want my cousin to give me alms out of pity for me." Yuanbao still has some backbone and wants to rely on himself.
"I'm short of help. I want to study, but my family needs someone. If you can come, it will be a great help to me." Cheng Yeran said, and then he saw a suspicious expression on his face, "You little brat, even you doubt that I'm not cut out for study?"
Yuanbao quickly waved his hands and said no, but his expression clearly betrayed him.
"Take back your house deed. Come to my place and help me sell dried tofu for a month. After you earn this month's wages, you can use the wages to buy dried tofu. When the time comes, it's up to you whether you want to sell it in the county or in the city." Cheng Yeran saw that he was still hesitating, and added, "Food is provided."
"Okay!" Yuan Bao's stomach growled as soon as he heard the word "provided meals". He blushed and scratched his head. "How many meals? I'll just eat what you leave behind. It doesn't matter if I'm not full."
"What do you think of me? I have to eat enough if I provide you with food." Cheng Yeran said, looking at Shen Yuntang: "You will have to work hard in the future, otherwise we should invite someone from the village to cook for me. It is not easy for you to cook for me alone. I am afraid you can't handle it with more people. Otherwise, let this kid eat the food I cook?"
Shen Yuntang looked at him speechlessly, "You want to kill someone? It's just a meal. It doesn't matter to me whether I cook more or less."
Yuanbao looked at the two of them being so affectionate and blushed, "Actually, I can cook too."
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