Chapter 204: Down to Earth

Zhulan rubbed her lower back. It had been a while since she had helped in person, so she felt a little tired. "What's the matter?"

Li took out a tael of silver from her hand and said, "Mom, just when I was about to leave and close the gate, Zhang Sanni from the next door yard ran out to stop me and asked me who came to our house today, and she even gave me a tael of silver!"

Zhulan saw Li accept the money and asked, "You said so?"

Li laughed and said, "We'll know it sooner or later anyway, so why not just exchange it for some silver and tell the truth. I'll just say it was Young Master Yao and nothing else."

Zhulan thought to herself that Li was really smart. "The money you get is yours. You've been tired all morning, go back and rest!"

Li held the silver in her hand and said, "Mother, I give this silver to you as a gift to you."

Zhulan, "........"

When you show your filial piety, don't just hold the money in your hands. She didn't see any sign of filial piety in Li's hands.

Li saw that her mother-in-law didn't reply. This was not what she thought. Shouldn't her mother-in-law have asked her to take it back? She didn't want to lose a few silver coins. She was just saying that she didn't want it. She felt pain even when breathing. She said weakly, "Mother."

Zhulan's hands were itching and she couldn't help but tap Li's forehead, "Put away your little thoughts. If you do it again, I will really take your money. Hurry up and leave. It's painful to look at you."

Li quickly put the silver in her pocket, and when she no longer felt the pain in breathing, she ran away. She didn't dare to do it again, as she almost had all her silver left.

Next door, Wang Ruxin was twisted into a dough stick. She suppressed her panic and asked Zhang Sanni to go out. When there was no one in the room, she stood on the ground and turned in circles. She didn't understand what went wrong. The male protagonist appeared too early. If she remembered correctly, she should have met him when Zhou Xuehan was ten years old. What was going on?

Wang Ru smashed the vase as if to vent her anger. She blamed Shi Qing for everything. It was all Shi Qing's fault, otherwise she would not be trapped in the yard. Now it was no different from being in prison. Zhang Sanni, who was taken in by the hateful Zhou family, also became the person guarding her. She thought she had escaped from Shi Qing, but ended up finding himself at Shi Qing's doorstep.

She couldn't breathe smoothly when she thought of Shi Qing's insatiable squeezing of the things in her brain. She had seen Shi Qing's ruthless side and now she didn't even dare to run. Who knew if there were people in the village bribed by Shi Qing? She was now completely controlled by Shi Qing. She didn't even dare to think about what her ending would be after the things in her brain were drained!

Originally, the male protagonist was her life-saver, but that life-saver still had connections with the Zhou family. She was jealous and crazy. If she traveled through time, she should be the heroine, but why didn't she travel through time to the Zhou family? Why couldn't she be sweet and pampered!

Whenever Wang Ru thought of the county magistrate's carriage picking up Zhou Xuehan to take her to the county, she felt jealous and uncomfortable. In Pingzhou, it was difficult for her to meet the daughters of officials, let alone the daughters of merchants. Zhou Xuehan started out as a daughter of an official, and she was unwilling to be Shi Qing's pet all her life!

Outside the door, Wang Xin asked the second sister anxiously, "What's wrong with my little sister?"

Wang Rong's eyes were filled with sarcasm. The elder sister put her head on the pillow. She really thought that she didn't know. She didn't behave herself even after being humiliated. "How would I know? If you care, go in and ask yourself."

Wang Xin pursed her lips. She was not afraid of her youngest sister, but her second sister. She always felt that her second sister saw through everything. She dared not say a word, nor did she dare to provoke her second sister. She lowered her head and said, "My youngest sister is very sad. I'd better not go in."

Wang Rong sneered and turned away. If she wasn't so young, she would have run away long ago. Just wait a little longer.

Zhulan didn't know what the Wang family was like, and even if she knew she wouldn't care. She was looking through the gift that Yao Zheyu had sent her.

All eight gift boxes were opened, which dazzled Zhulan's eyes. Zhulan hissed, "The male protagonist is really down-to-earth when giving gifts. Look at the weight of the gold bracelet, which is almost as heavy as that of a nouveau riche. Look at the gold hairpins, which dazzle my eyes. Even the writing brushes, inkstones, and inkstones are vulgar and full of the smell of gold and silver. They are not as elegant and low-key as the ones you bought in Jiangnan."

Zhou Shuren twitched his lips. He hadn't expected Yao Zheyu to be so down-to-earth. The gift he gave was too direct and too tacky. It was quite different from what he had expected. "Maybe the male lead thought that we were from peasant families and had never seen good things, so it would be more intuitive to give us tacky gold and silver."

Zhulan laughed out loud, "After seeing the gifts, I remembered what Yao Zheyu wore. The jade pendants were all inlaid with gold edges, and the hairpins that held his hair were also gold. I think this must be Yao Zheyu's aesthetic taste. Didn't you say that he was raised by the old marquis? The old marquis was a military commander who loved gold and silver. Maybe he influenced Yao Zheyu's preferences since he was a child!"

However, if the protagonist really has good taste, we can only say that he follows the aesthetic taste of a military general and old marquis. If he is pretending, he is very scheming!

Zhou Shuren took the gold bracelet from Zhulan's hand. Hmm, it felt really heavy. "If I melt them again, I can make three sets of hollow jewelry."

Zhu Lan gathered all the gold together and said, "I'll melt them all when we get to Pingzhou. It's embarrassing to carry these two big gold bracelets weighing half a pound outside!"

Zhou Shuren looked at the inkstone in front of him. It was too vulgar. Although he didn't like tea, he did have a taste for it. "Let's put this one away!"

Zhu Lan smiled secretly. Zhou Shuren would never use it. His tone was full of disdain. However, the gold jewelry alone weighed one jin, which was equivalent to one hundred taels of silver. "The Marquis' Mansion is rich. If Yao Zheyu brings such a heavy gift every time he comes, the male protagonist is always welcome to use our house to get close to the neighbors."

Zhou Shuren pinched Zhulan's nose and said, "You are so nice. This is the first time you have given me such an expensive gift. You won't be able to do that next time."

Zhulan thought it was such a pity, as they only earned 100 taels in one day. This money was brought by Wang Ru, which she never expected.

In the afternoon, Zhulan was awakened by the smell of incense. She sat up and sniffed the direction of the kitchen. "What is Li doing in the kitchen?"

Zhou Shuren didn't sleep, and was tortured by the aroma. "I don't know, it smells weird."

Zhulan put on her shoes and went downstairs. She opened the door and sniffed the smell of bone soup. When she arrived in the kitchen, Li was mixing the ingredients. Zhulan asked, "Are you making wontons tonight?"

Li shook her head, "Mom, I'm mixing the filling for mooncakes. I was thinking of making bone soup. It must taste good if I use bone soup to mix it. Mom, do you want to try it?"

Zhulan has eaten many mooncakes, including those with salted egg yolk, five-nut, and jujube paste, but she, who knows nothing about cooking, really has no idea how the fillings are prepared. It smells strange, so it must be delicious. After taking a bite, her eyes lit up. It was sweet but not greasy, and there was no taste of bone soup, which neutralized the taste. "It tastes good."

Li was delighted. Although her mother-in-law was not very good at cooking, she knew how to eat. Her mother-in-law said it was good, and her stuffing was a success. "This is sweet and has meat filling. Mom, do you want wontons or bone soup noodles tonight?"

Zhulan was a little confused, she wanted to eat both, "Use bone soup as the base, bone soup wonton noodles."

Li, "........"

Mother-in-law is mother-in-law, they can be mixed in.

There are many men in the Zhou family, so they have to make a lot of wontons. Zhulan thinks it is too much effort to make wontons, so they don't make many wontons, mostly noodles, which the whole family enjoys eating.

Time flies, a week passed in the blink of an eye, and the sky cleared up a long time ago. After it cleared up, the weather was indeed as Zhou Shuren said, the temperature dropped a lot, and Zhulan's comfortable days came.

At the same time, Yao Zheyu also proved with actual experience that he indeed came to Zhou's house frequently, twice a week. Everyone in Zhoujia Village knew about Zhulan's distinguished guest.

The only thing that surprised Zhulan was that Wang Ru didn't go out to meet her. Sometimes, Zhulan really couldn't help but say it, and Wang Ru would take action as soon as she finished saying it.