Chapter 219: Exploring the Bottom
At noon, Zhulan stood at the door and watched Wang Ru's last scene. Wang Laosi and his wife, holding their child, blocked Shi Gongzi's carriage back to Pingzhou and refused to let it go. Wang Ru didn't even get out of the carriage.
In the end, they were pulled away by the Wang family members under the gloomy face of Clan Leader Zhou. Clan Leader Zhou was counting the days until the disaster would end, so how could he let Wang Laosi cause trouble? He was afraid that something unexpected would happen and he would not be able to leave.
In the end, Wang Laosi could only watch the carriage go away, while Sun covered her face and cried. Only after the carriage disappeared did the two of them break away from the people pulling them and go home with their children.
Li looked down on Sun from the bottom of her heart and pouted, "Now that the money tree is gone, it's a little late for Sun to cry."
Zhao said bluntly, "It's just a show. Sun's handkerchief was either stained with chili water or ginger juice. Her tears are so abnormal. She didn't cry like this even when her mother died. Who is she trying to fool now?"
Li's focus was wrong. "Sister-in-law, you know a lot about touching chili peppers on a handkerchief!"
In the past, my brother and sister-in-law would wipe their eyes with a handkerchief whenever they cried. Could they be using this method now?
Zhao, "........"
When fleeing famine in the past, no one could just cry. No matter how hard you pretend, you had to cry. Without tears, it would look fake at a glance. So she started using this method, and later she got used to it. She really practiced the skill of crying whenever she wanted. Look at the look in the eldest sister-in-law's eyes, what does it mean? She has been crying for real since she married into the Zhou family!
Zhulan turned around and went back to the yard. She didn't want to see Li's self-righteous look, as if she had discovered the truth. It was too hurtful to the eyes.
Zhao hurriedly followed her mother back.
Li thought her sister-in-law had run away. She thought about how her sister-in-law used to cry for no reason and she felt like she was the evil sister-in-law. Oh no, no, she wanted to talk to her sister-in-law. "Sister-in-law, wait a minute."
Zhulan ran away first, so Zhao should fill the hole he dug himself!
Zhao wanted to slap herself on the mouth, saying, "You are so rude." She watched her mother leave in disdain. She didn't dare to follow her mother in because her father was in the room!
Li was too stubborn and would feel uncomfortable if he didn't get to the bottom of the matter. Zhao's eyes went dark and he wanted to slap himself again!
The next day, a member of the Zhou clan moved in next door. The person who bought the house was of the same generation as Zhou Shuren, and was one of the Zhou clan members who had passed the imperial examination earlier than Zhou. The family had 40 acres of land, 20 acres of which were tax-free. They had saved a lot of money over the years, so the family was considered to be quite wealthy.
The head of the family next door is Zhou Shuxi, and his wife is Zheng. There are not many sons in the family, only two. Because Zheng is weak, she didn't have any more children after giving birth to two sons. In the village, they are famous for their few children. Xiucai is the eldest son of Zhou Shuxi's family.
Among Zhou Shuren's peers, he is the youngest. Zhou Shuxi's eldest son is already 35 years old. After taking part in the provincial examination once, he did not take it again. Now he is studying in the clan school with an old scholar in his 50s from another clan as a teacher. Every month, the clan school gives him a sum of 200 coins and some rice, flour, and other food.
This is because in the past two years, there have been more students in the clan school, and the school has some money. In the early years, there were many poor farmers, and the clan school did not have many bundles. The teacher carried all the grain and other things sent by each family.
Generally, scholars opened their own private schools. This was the advantage of having a family. Even if they did not earn much money a year, they would still stay in the family school for the sake of their younger generations. Of course, if they could really teach a talented person, the whole family would benefit. They would be honored as the teacher and would get the most out of it.
Zhou Shuxi's family had just moved in. After spending a day cleaning up, they came to visit Zhulan's house the next day.
Zhulan took the basket, and Zheng said, "This is the sticky bean curd I made myself. Bring some to try."
Zhulan thanked him and said, "I was just talking about this yesterday. Is my sister-in-law used to moving in?"
Zheng was helped to sit down by her daughter-in-law. "I'm used to it. The house that the Wang family's girl has carefully renovated is no worse than the houses in the county."
Zhulan motioned to Li to make some honey water. Zheng was too weak to drink tea. After Li left, Zhulan said, "If sister-in-law had been a little late, I would have gone to visit him. Logically, Chang'an is the master of the boys in the family, so we should go and visit him."
Zheng took the honey water and thought to herself that Shuren's family was indeed well-off. She lived a good life in the clan, and they would not use honey water to entertain guests. "I am idle at home anyway. It would be boring for my mother and I to stay at home alone. I will bother you a lot in the future."
Zhulan smiled and said, "Our home is lively and you are always welcome."
Zhou Shuxi has two sons and no daughters. There are not many grandchildren, only five in total. This time, the family was divided directly when buying the house. The old house was given to the youngest son, and the money short of the two houses was supplemented. Zhou Shuren was invited to witness the division!
This was the first time Zhulan and Zheng were dating, mainly because Zheng was in poor health. It was said that Zheng insisted on having a second child, which made her health even worse. Some people in the village were jealous of Zheng because she didn't have to work, but compared to the healthy Zhulan, not many people were jealous of Zheng.
Zheng's eldest daughter-in-law is a scholar. Zheng is a weak person, so naturally her daughter-in-law will not be very tough and is also a gentle daughter-in-law.
The return gift Zhulan gave was prepared long ago for the visit. There were cakes in the basket. After all, he was a gentleman, so the gift for the visit should be more expensive.
After Zheng's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law left, Li panted and said, "Mother, Aunt Zheng and sister-in-law's voices are louder than mosquitoes. I dare not speak loudly."
She was really feeling suffocated. She was afraid that speaking loudly would scare people. The only thing that made her happy was that the scholar's wife did not despise her and still listened to her gently and tenderly.
Zhulan realized that she had found a way to deal with Li. She must find a gentle wife for her eldest grandson's future wife!
Time flies. After Wang Ru left, Zhulan no longer had any trouble and now had good neighbors. Her life went very smoothly. Before she knew it, a month had passed and it was time for the annual autumn harvest.
Zhulan's family hired people to help with the harvest. This year, they didn't wait for the Zhou family to trap pheasants like they did last year. They didn't harvest grain yet. Those who tasted the sweetness of last year set traps in the fields early on and caught a lot of pheasants. This scared away the wild animals and they no longer dared to build nests in the fields.
During the entire autumn harvest, Zhulan's family didn't catch a single pheasant.
The Zhou family did not have to pay taxes on their 20 acres of land, and they left enough food for the family. The rest of the food was packed, and Zhou Shuren found a grain transport team to send it to Pingzhou. This time Zhou Shuren took his eldest son and second son with him.
Zhulan stayed at home to take charge. This year was another bumper year with favorable weather and good harvest. Apart from the grain left over, the grain from the twenty acres of land filled several trucks.
The convoy could not hide its departure from the village; the carts carrying grain left the Zhou family one after another. By now everyone knew that the Zhou family would move to Pingzhou next year.
Because Shu Mo and others did not publicize it, Li knew about the family's wealth but did not publicize it everywhere, and people in the village really did not know that the Zhou family had a house in Pingzhou.
Some people, seeing that Zhou Shuren no longer went to the county, heard some rumors and completely kept silent.
Zhou Shuren was in no hurry to come back from Pingzhou, as he had to meet Zhao Bo who had returned from the capital, and also meet Wu Ming to test Wu Ming's abilities and compare the gap between Wu Ming, who was taught by a famous teacher, and Zhou Shuren, so as to make up for Zhou Shuren's shortcomings. It would take him at least a week to come back.
Zhou Shuren had just been investigating Zheng's family for two days, so the investigation had to be put on hold until he returned to continue.