Chapter 115 Chapter 115: Good Neighborliness
When Yu Li was about to wash up, Zhou came out of the room wearing clothes.
When she saw Yu Li, she asked in surprise: "Mother Li, when did you come back?"
"Just got back." Yu Li apologized, "Mom, did I wake you up?"
Zhou waved her hands and said, "No, no, I've been thinking about you lately, so I heard the noise and got up to check." She realized that what she said was wrong, so she quickly said, "I just got up to go to the bathroom, I wasn't woken up by you."
Yu Li felt more and more guilty, "Then I'll rest in the study next time."
There is a bed in the study where you can rest.
"How can this be possible!" Zhou refused without hesitation, "There is no water for you to wash in the outer courtyard. How can you put yourself in such a difficult position?"
She came back exhausted, and for fear of disturbing them, she just spent the whole night in the outer courtyard. It sounded aggrieved, and Zhou didn't want her to suffer such an injustice.
Then Zhou went to the kitchen to check.
Recently, every night, she would specially boil a pot of water in the kitchen, just in case she came back in the middle of the night without hot water to wash. There were still sparks in the stove, so she opened the pot and looked, the water was still hot, so she filled it with water for her, and told her to wash with hot water, not cold water.
Yu Li naturally listened to her and told her to go back and rest and not to bother her.
"Okay." Zhou said, "You should go to bed early later. You don't have to get up so early tomorrow. It's okay to rest for a day." After all, she felt sorry for her for rushing back in the middle of the night and wanted to let her rest more.
Yu Li agreed.
When Yu Li finished washing up and returned to his room, he found that Fu Wenxiao was still awake.
Seeing that her hair was still wet, he took a towel to wipe her hair and asked, "Li Niang, is your trip going well?"
Yu Li sat on the embroidered cushion and said, "It went smoothly."
Then she briefly told him about the bandit suppression campaign.
Fu Wenxiao wiped her hair gently and listened quietly. The process she described was too brief, without any ups and downs, which made people feel very boring to listen to.
But if you look into it carefully, you will find out the incredible things that she omitted in the process.
When Fu Wenxiao heard her say that when they arrived in Yuqing County, the city gate was closed, so they just went straight to suppress the bandits, he couldn't help but find it funny.
That's exactly what she would do, and it's not surprising at all.
After Yu Li finished talking about the bandit suppression, he thought of something, reached out to pull the bundle on the table next to him, and took out two silver notes worth one hundred taels from it.
"I gave three hundred taels to Shanniang and the others for resettlement. Now I only have two hundred taels left."
As she said this, she turned to look at him.
Fu Wenxiao lowered his eyes, met her gaze, and then smiled: "Well, Li Niang did the right thing. This is the money you earned. You can arrange it however you want."
Yu Li looked at him again, then turned his head, "Will you be disappointed?"
I originally thought she brought back five hundred taels, but I didn't expect she only brought back two hundred taels.
Of course, Yu Li felt that this was her own business, and she could do whatever she wanted without asking anyone's opinion. But now that everyone lived under the same roof, she had no intention of leaving the Fu family for the time being. At present, she was considered a "family member", so she still had to respect the opinions of her family.
This way everyone can get along more comfortably.
"Disappointed?" Fu Wenxiao quickly understood what she meant, his heart skipping a beat. "No, you did the right thing."
To him, money is something outside of one's body and is the easiest thing to obtain in this world. He does not think money is precious and rare. Even if she throws out three hundred taels without blinking, he will not care. Moreover, these three hundred taels are used to resettle the victims, which is a good deed and a meritorious deed.
This is her nature, and he will only like her more and more.
In the cool late night of spring, Fu Wenxiao felt his heart burning. He whispered, "Li Niang, money is meant to be spent. You can spend it however you want! If you have no money, I will work hard to make money."
At this point, he smiled again, "Besides, I promised you that I would make money for you to spend."
There is nothing wrong with making money for his wife, he is happy about it.
Yu Li said "oh".
She said, "You made 200 taels from selling paintings before, and I also have 200 taels. Now we have 400 taels. As long as we don't spend money recklessly, this money can still support us for a long time. There is no need to rush to make money. Let's talk about it after your palace examination."
Since he decided to take the imperial examination, she felt that he should take it seriously.
If he wants to make progress, she must not hold him back and must support him in his progress. If he becomes an official in the future, she can do a lot of things, anyway, he will be behind her.
Thinking of this, Yu Li strongly supported him to take part in the imperial examination.
Fu Wenxiao responded with a smile.
He didn't take the provincial examination in April seriously, but seeing that she cared so much about it, he felt happy and decided to take it a little seriously and get a good ranking to make her happy.
After drying his hair, Yu Li also felt sleepy.
When getting into bed, she held his hand, transferred today's supernatural power to him, and asked vaguely: "How is your health these days?"
"I'm fine." Fu Wenxiao's fingers moved slightly, and he resisted the urge to shake her hand back. His voice was particularly mellow and low in the night. "I've been staying at home recently and only went out once. I'm fine."
"That's good……"
Yu Li's voice gradually became lower, and in the end only the sound of his long breathing remained.
As her light breathing sounded, Fu Wenxiao felt at ease. He closed his eyes and slowly fell asleep.
-
Sleep till dawn.
When Yu Li woke up, it was already bright outside.
Listening to another familiar breathing sound in the room, I finally remembered that I had returned home at midnight yesterday.
She turned her head and felt a strange feeling when she saw the quiet figure on the other side of the bed.
This scene gave her a feeling of being accustomed to.
During the past few days in Yuqing County, I slept alone and woke up alone in the morning.
She thought about it and felt that it was because they had never been apart since they came into this world, sleeping in the same bed, and slowly got used to his presence.
Anyway, this guy is so weak that she can deal with him with just a flick of her finger. It’s okay to get used to having him by her side.
"Li Niang." Fu Wenxiao also woke up, his voice a little hoarse, "Good morning."
Yu Li replied with good morning and did not stay in bed any longer, mainly because she was hungry.
After washing up, they went to the kitchen to find something to eat.
The breakfast was kept warm in the pot on the stove. Yu Li brought it out and ate breakfast with Fu Wenxiao.
While the two were having breakfast, Zhou came over from the outer courtyard with her two children.
In order not to disturb their rest, she took her two children to do needlework in the outer courtyard.
When they saw Yu Li, Fu Yanhui and his sister cheered and ran towards Yu Li.
"Aunt, you're back!"
"Aunt, I miss you so much!"
Yu Li patted everyone's head and said, "Yan Sheng, Yan Hui, I brought you gifts." She turned to Zhou and said, "Mother, I put the things I brought back in the hall of the outer courtyard. Did you see it? There are many specialties from Yuqing County in there. I'll go and pick them up later."
Zhou smiled and said, "I see. There's no rush. Eat breakfast first. Don't be hungry."
Zhou sat down with the two children and asked Yu Li whether her trip went smoothly. She also cared about whether she ate well, slept well, etc. She really cared about her endlessly.
Yu Li said: "It went smoothly, and the accommodation was good. Master Xuan specially arranged accommodation for us, and there was even someone to cook for us."
Zhou thought that General Xuan was not a stingy person and would definitely make arrangements and not let her starve.
She looked at Yu Li carefully and saw that her skin was fair and delicate, with a pink complexion. There was no change and she didn't look thinner. She felt relieved immediately.
Seeing Fu Wenxiao sitting next to Yu Li, she suddenly smiled and said, "Since you were away these few days, Brother Xiao didn't get much rest."
Yu Li turned to look at Fu Wenxiao and saw that he looked a little embarrassed.
Fu Wenxiao said: "It's not that I didn't rest well, I just wasn't used to it."
As for what he was not used to, Yu Li seemed to understand a little. Could it be that this person really needed his company to rest properly? No wonder he slept until noon today.
After breakfast, Yu Li picked up the things he brought back and opened them.
Here are the things she bought in Yuqing County, as well as the local gifts given by the Shen family.
Zhou was very interested. When she saw the rice cake, she said, "I have eaten this rice cake before. You can eat it fried, steamed, or boiled in soup. There are many ways to eat it."
Fu Yanhui and his sister were knocking on the hard rice cakes. When they heard this, they immediately said, "Grandma, we want to eat rice cakes."
Zhou smiled and said, "Okay, okay, I'll make it for you at noon."
After they put everything in order, Zhou took out some rice cakes and other food and said to Yu Li, "Mother Li, you and Xiao Ge'er should take some food to the neighbors in the alley later."
Then I told her which neighbors to send the gifts to.
During the days when Yu Li was away, neighbors from the alley came to visit one after another. He brought them some homemade food and they got to know each other.
It just so happened that she brought back a lot of things from Yuqing County, which she could give to her neighbors as a gift in return for their kindness.
Yu Li responded obediently.
She took the food that Zhou had specially prepared for her and put it in a basket, then went out with Fu Wenxiao.
The two first went to the Song family next door, which was the home of Mr. Song.
After knocking on the door, someone opened it soon. It was a daughter-in-law in her early twenties. She had a pretty face and was not tall, giving people a petite and cute feeling.
Seeing them, she blinked and said, "You are Mr. and Mrs. Fu from next door, right?"
Hearing this voice, Yu Li instantly remembered the fierce female voice calling "Song Daqiang" when he first came to see the house.
It turned out to be Miss Song.
Mrs. Song was a cheerful person and she warmly invited them in for tea.
"No need." Yu Li said, "I just came back from Yuqing County and brought some local specialties from there. I'll give some to you to try."
Fu Wenxiao handed over something wrapped in oil paper from the basket.
Mrs. Song did not refuse and said with a smile, "We went to visit you a few days ago, and Mrs. Fu said that you were not at home. It turned out that you had gone out."
The Fu family just moved in a while ago, and considering that they needed to settle down, everyone was tactful and didn't visit them.
After a few days, they brought some food to our house, also hoping to build good neighborly relations. Since we would all live in the same alley in the future, we hoped we could get along well.
There are quite a few residents in Shuying Lane, and most of them are scholars.
When the Fu family moved here before, they attracted a lot of curious looks, and everyone wanted to know who had moved here.
It was not until Mr. Wang came to visit them that they learned that the Fu family who had moved in actually knew Mr. Wang, and that Mr. Fu was the top scorer in the county examination. With his talent, he would have no problem passing the examination to become a scholar or a juren in the future.
Everyone naturally wants to have a good relationship with the Fu family.
Unfortunately, they came at the wrong time, and only Aunt Fu received them. Mr. Fu and Mrs. Fu were not there. Later, when they saw Mr. Fu coming back from the Wang family's carriage, they knew that he had gone out at the invitation of Mr. Wang. As for Mrs. Fu, they hadn't seen her for several days.
Although she gives a fierce first impression, Ms. Song is actually a very reasonable person and is quite polite in her words.
After delivering the items, the two men said goodbye to her and continued to deliver to the next household.
After escorting them along the way, the two men roughly got to know all the families in the alley.
Many of the scholars in this alley have the title of scholar. This family is Scholar Song, that family is Scholar Qin, this family is Scholar Chen... Perhaps all the scholars in the county town live here.
Although Fu Wenxiao is not a scholar at present, they are still very enthusiastic and want to invite them into their home for tea.
Yu Li and Fu Wenxiao politely declined, saying they had things to do at home.
Yu Li didn't know that these people's enthusiasm was because of Mr. Wang, but he could roughly guess that Mr. Wang had a very high prestige among the scholars in the county. He came to Shuying Lane several times and was seen not only by Mr. Song, but by others as well.
When we arrived at the last house, a white-haired old woman opened the door.
When the old woman saw Yu Li, she became a little wary and stared at her with narrowed eyes. It was a look as if she was guarding against a vixen, which made people feel very uncomfortable.
When she learned that Fu Wenxiao was the top scorer in the county examination, she immediately became enthusiastic and even called out her son who was studying in the house.
The man who was called out was in his early thirties. His face was very pale, the kind of paleness that comes from not seeing the sun. He looked very unhealthy, and he was thin and skinny, giving people the feeling that he was a useless scholar.
He looked impatient until he saw Yu Li and Fu Wenxiao in front of the door and was startled.
"Fu Wenxiao!" he said in shock, "Why are you here?"
The old woman said, "Son, this Mr. Fu just moved here. He is the one who moved in at the end of the alley. He is the top scorer in this county exam! Didn't you say a few days ago that he knows Mr. Wang? It's a good opportunity for you to ask him to introduce you to Mr. Wang. With Mr. Wang's guidance, you will definitely pass the exam and become a juren."
Then she turned to Fu Wenxiao and said, "Mr. Fu, my son Jun is very good at studying. He passed the imperial examination and became a scholar before he was 30 years old. He just lacks luck. If Mr. Wang is willing to give him some advice..."
When the man heard this, his face turned red instantly.
Even if he had this thought, he was still ashamed to hear his mother say this in front of Fu Wenxiao. He said angrily: "Stop talking, I still have to study, don't call me if there is nothing wrong!"
Having said that, he turned around in a hurry and went back to the house.
The old woman called out a few times, and seeing that he ignored her, she said to Fu Wenxiao with regret: "Mr. Fu, my son Jun is just too shy. Don't take it seriously. He is just embarrassed to bother others! He has always been like this. He always wants to suffer a little loss rather than bother others. Hey, Mr. Fu will definitely be willing to introduce my son to someone..."
At this time, an impolite voice rang out: "Auntie He, what you said is wrong. You can even say that. You even want others to introduce Mr. He to Mr. Wang, saying that Mr. He doesn't want to trouble others... It's really funny! You are not ashamed to say that. I am embarrassed to hear it!"
Yu Li turned around and saw that it was the mother of Qin Xiucai who had visited him earlier.
Aunt Qin smiled at them and began to mock Aunt He. Her words were sharp and piercing, which made Aunt He so angry that she didn't even bother to ask Fu Wenxiao to help her son introduce Mr. Wang. She just focused on arguing with Aunt Qin.
Many houses in the alley had their doors open and were listening to the two people's quarrel with great interest.
Yu Li was a little stunned. She felt that the neighborhood relationship in Shuying Lane was not very good. Look at how fiercely these aunties are quarreling, and not only do other people not come to mediate, they even run out to watch the fun.
Seeing her eyes wide open, as if in disbelief, Fu Wenxiao laughed and pulled her away.
When passing by the Song family, Yu Li discovered that Mrs. Song had actually opened the door, holding a handful of melon seeds in her hand, eating them while watching people quarreling.
Seeing them, she smiled and said, "Mr. Fu, don't listen to what Aunt He said just now. What's the point of asking Scholar He to introduce Mr. Wang? It's a shame that she had the nerve to bring it up."
"Mr. He is only in his thirties, why is he so anxious? Aunt He always says that she feels sorry for him because he studies hard every day, but he failed the exam several times. He even coughed up blood while studying a while ago. Aunt He cried and made people think Mr. He was going to die. But she turned around and praised her son for his hard work in studying. She kept shouting that she wanted to find Mr. Wang to teach him how to pass the exam. If he passed, he wouldn't have to work so hard..."
At this point, she covered her mouth and laughed.
Which scholar in this alley doesn't want to be guided by Mr. Wang? However, Mr. Wang has always had very high standards, and those without talent are simply not worthy of his attention.
She heard people say that with Mr. He's knowledge, it was a blessing for him to pass the examination and if he wanted to go further, it would be difficult.
This is also normal. You have to know how many people can only stay at the level of scholar, juren - and even the jinshi above juren - are all out of reach.
Upon hearing this, Fu Wenxiao said calmly, "I just moved here. Although I know Mr. Wang, it's not easy for me to introduce him to other people."
This was said very impolitely, without any concern about offending anyone.
But not everyone is worthy of his recommendation.
Madam Song was stunned for a moment, then she smiled and didn't think much about it.
Those who were secretly following Fu Wenxiao were very dissatisfied. They originally thought that Mr. Fu looked gentle and might be willing to introduce Mr. Wang to them, but they didn't expect that he was actually a fool.
Fu Wenxiao didn't care that his words would cause resentment among others, and pulled Yu Li home.
As soon as they entered the room, they saw Zhou coming towards them, looking at them with some worry.
She asked worriedly, "Li Niang, Xiao Ge'er, it seems to be quite noisy outside, what is the quarrel about?"
Yu Li told her what had just happened.
Zhou's face showed a look of sudden realization, "So that Madam He wanted Xiao'er to introduce Mr. Wang to her son. I was wondering why she was so enthusiastic these days and came to visit every day."
Fu Wenxiao said: "Mom, if you don't want to pay attention to her, just close the door."
When he said this, he didn't care at all whether he would offend the scholars in the alley.
Zhou smiled and said, "I know. As long as she doesn't go too far, she is a guest and should be treated well."
The quarrel outside lasted only a moment before dissipating.
No one in the Fu family cared.
The next day after returning, Yu Li went to work in the butcher shop. He also brought some specialties of Yuqing County to the people in the butcher shop, his sister Yu Jin, and Yu Xiaogu.
The people in the butcher shop were very curious about her trip to Yuqing County and asked her what she was doing there.
Yu Li said: "Go with Uncle Tu to earn some extra money."
Boss Tu: “…” Isn’t it just to make extra money? Suppressing bandits and getting rewards, how can that not be counted as making extra money for her?
Yu Jin was very surprised to see her elder sister come back.
"Sister, did you have a smooth journey? Nothing happened?" she asked hurriedly while looking at Yu Li.
She only found out about Yu Li's departure for Yuqing County a few days ago. When she went to Shuying Lane to deliver the fruits and vegetables she brought from the village to the Fu family, she learned that she was not in Shanping County.
Although she didn't know what Yu Li was going to do in Yuqing County, Yu Jin knew that her sister must be going there to do something big.
Even though I knew she was a good fighter, I was still somewhat worried. This was my elder sister's first time traveling far away, and I was afraid that she wouldn't be used to it, and that something might happen to her.
Now that this person came back safely, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Yu Li answered her one by one, saying that everything was fine, and gave her the local specialties he brought back from Yuqing County.
Yu Jin smiled and said, "Then I have to taste it carefully."
At this time, Yu Li looked into the shop and found that Sun Fangniang and Sun Zheng were not there. He was a little confused, "Why don't I see Fangniang and the others?"
Yu Jin's expression slightly faded, and he said, "They went back to the village. Sun Datian passed away a few days ago."
Yu Li blinked, then said "oh", and didn't take it to heart.
Yu Jin was too lazy to mention it, thinking it was unlucky to mention it, and continued to ask her sister what Yuqing County was like.
She was very interested in the outside world and felt that one day she would expand her business to other places as Shanping County alone could not satisfy her.
She even had an idea that when she could fight ten people at the same time, maybe she could go into business.
Trading is more profitable than running a shop. Every time she sees the cargo ships coming and going at the dock, she feels envious. At the same time, she also thinks that one day she will form her own fleet and become a big businessman.
-
It was almost noon when Yu Li finally finished work and went home.
Just as I was about to reach Shuying Lane, a person suddenly ran towards me, with a fierce voice behind him.
"Song Daqiang, stop right there. Where are you fooling around? I'm going to break your legs. Please help me stop him, people in front!"
Yu Li stretched out his hand to stop him.
Song Xiucai, who was running towards him, felt as if someone had patted his arm. Then his body spun around and when he was about to fall, someone grabbed his sleeve and his body leaned backwards again, like a tumbler, swaying back and forth but not falling.
At this time, Madam Song had already run over and grabbed him.
Madam Song held the person tightly and thanked the kind-hearted person. When she found out it was Yu Li, she said happily: "Madam Fu, it's you!"
Yu Li hummed and looked at Song Xiucai with some curiosity.
Song Xiucai made a bitter face and begged for mercy in a low voice: "Madam, there are people here, please give me some face."
Madam Song said angrily: "I'll give you some face, if you dare to go out and fool around, I'll break your legs!"
"I'm really not a jerk. I went to attend the party hosted by Mr. Yan."
"Is Sister Hua here to accompany you?"
Song Xiucai quickly said: "That was just a show, it doesn't count, I didn't do anything!"
"I don't believe it!"
"Madam, what do you want me to do to make you believe me?" Song Xiucai said with a bitter face.
Madam Song sneered and dragged him home: "Come on, come home with me, I'll check it myself! If you dare to lie to me, I'll punish you!"
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