Chapter 26 Anomaly
Zhou Chengli was clearly bothered by the fact that Zhao the Cripple was a gambler. After hearing Zhao Yuzhi's words, he said, "Once he's recovered from his injuries, let him go back to the Zhao family as soon as possible. Let it go this time, but don't let him stay here next time."
Zhao Yuzhi was feeling sweet after her relationship with Zhou Chengli had improved, but unexpectedly, the disgust on Zhou Chengli's face poured cold water on her feelings.
In her eyes, no matter how despicable Zhao the Cripple was, he was still her own father. Zhou Chengli disliked her father so much that he wouldn't even let Zhao the Cripple into the door. This was disrespectful to her. How could she possibly stand up in the village after this?
"Yuzhi, if there's nothing else, I'll head back to the academy now. You should consider my reputation in the village, and stop always thinking about helping the Zhao family..."
Speaking of Zhao the Cripple, Zhou Chengli's previously conciliatory attitude towards Zhao Yuzhi changed, and he returned to the academy without any hesitation.
Zhao Yuzhi was devastated, her face turning deathly pale. She had confidently assured her younger siblings that Zhou Chengli would help her reconcile with her father-in-law, but now he treated her this way. Wasn't she his wife? Why wouldn't he help her with even such a small matter…
Thinking of the little food left in her home, Zhao Yuzhi had no choice but to bite the bullet and go to Zhou Lao Er.
Since returning from the village, Zhou Lao Er had been holding back his anger and became increasingly dissatisfied with the Zhao family. He thought that if his son hadn't insisted on marrying Zhao Yuzhi, he wouldn't be in this situation of divorce in middle age, and he wouldn't even have to bear a debt of fifty taels with his son. Zhao the Cripple was lying in his house as if nothing had happened. The second branch of the Zhou family had actually become the territory of the Zhao family. How could he not be angry?
So when he saw Zhao Yuzhi coming over, he ignored her completely and didn't even give her a glance.
"Father, we're out of food..."
“If you don’t have food, find a way yourself. Now that we’ve paid off your father’s gambling debts, there’s no money left in the family. Besides, the Zhao family shouldn’t be supported by the Zhou family. Since you are Chengli’s wife, you shouldn’t be so unreasonable and always thinking about the Zhao family.”
Zhao Yuzhi was so ashamed that she wanted to disappear. She never expected that her father-in-law, who seemed to have a good temper, would humiliate her in public. She was too ashamed to stay any longer and turned around and left the carpenter's shop.
After returning home, he took his younger siblings and other family members back to the Zhao family.
"Hey! You silly girl, you're living so comfortably in the Zhou family's house, why go back to that dilapidated place?" Zhao the Cripple was so comfortable that he didn't want to leave.
"Can you blame me for this? If you hadn't gone to the gambling den and lost so much money, would I have made Chengli sign the IOU? Now you're disliked everywhere you go, and I'm being treated badly because of you. Can't you feel sorry for me?" Zhao Yuzhi finally broke down and couldn't help but vent her anger on Zhao the Cripple.
"It's just fifty taels of silver, right? Since he married you, he should pay it back on my behalf as his father-in-law! And you, you can't even keep a man in line. I've raised you for so long, it's all been for nothing!"
Zhao the Cripple was used to being the boss in the Zhao family, so he couldn't tolerate his daughter pointing her finger at him and cursing him. He immediately gave Zhao Yuzhi a thorough dressing-down.
After returning to the Zhao family in a fit of anger, Zhao Yuzhi spent her days in tears, hoping that Zhou Chengli would come back and coax her back. Zhao the Cripple was very annoyed to see her always crying, and after a couple of days he used the excuse of making money to run away, leaving the mess to Zhao Yuhe.
None of the Zhao family members could have imagined the huge mess that Zhao the Cripple would make of them this time.
Song Yushu's restaurant business has always been good. He had accumulated a lot of customers when he was setting up a stall, and now that he has opened a restaurant with more dishes, even more people come.
As the weather grew hotter, Song Yushu simply had a sign made: every customer who enters the shop can receive a free bowl of plum juice.
As a result, even more people came to the restaurant to eat.
For ordinary people, being able to drink a bowl of plum juice in hot weather is already a great pleasure.
Originally, Song Yushu thought that such hot weather should be quite common in this dynasty, but Wei's mother's words made her worried.
“It’s much hotter this year than in previous years. Yesterday your father said that the crops in the fields were all wilted by the sun and he wanted to water them, but he found that the water level in the village river had dropped a lot. I’m afraid the harvest this year will not be good!” Mother Wei muttered a few words while eating.
Song Yushu's heart skipped a beat upon hearing this. In this world today, if there is a drought, many people will likely starve to death.
“Mother, why don’t you ask Father to secretly buy some grain and store it, and dig a well in the yard? That way, we can be prepared in case anything happens. I’ll cover the cost for you. Of course, it would be good if we could persuade the village to dig a well,” Song Yushu could only say this much.
"Could it really be...?"
“Mother, we don’t know if it will come to that, but it’s always good to be prepared,” Song Yushu said, taking out a bag of silver and handing it to Wei’s mother. Her two sisters-in-law were also surprised by her generosity.
"You don't need so many. You'll need to buy some in town too. Keep some for yourself..."
“I still have money. The restaurants have been doing well these days, so we're not short of cash. Go back and remind your father and the others that if things really get bad, they should slaughter those pigs and sell them to me or make them into cured meat to store.” Song Yushu had never experienced a drought and didn’t know the situation in this world, but it was always good to be prepared.
After Wei's mother and the others drove the oxcart back, she also began to think about storing some grain.
She runs a restaurant, so she naturally has plenty of ingredients. However, apart from rice and dishes that need to be prepared in advance, most of the other ingredients are ordered in pre-ordered quantities and delivered on the same day.
So she had no choice but to buy rice that was easy to store first.
After checking the rice prices, I found that they had indeed increased compared to before. So, I didn't care about the price reduction and bought rice from several shops in town. Because of the large quantity, I naturally had to ask them to deliver the rice at different times.
As for the vegetables being difficult to preserve, Song Yushu was not in a hurry to buy them. He simply asked Wei's mother to go to the village to collect some vegetables and pickle them whenever she had time.
If the drought is not severe, these pickled vegetables can be kept in the shop and given to customers as side dishes, so there is no fear of waste.
As the weather gets hotter, more and more people are noticing the unusual activity, even the students of Wenxuan Academy are taking notice.
"Master Xue! All the crops we planted on the back hill have withered!"
The students, upon hearing this, didn't even want to attend classes anymore and all wanted to go to the back mountain to see what was going on.
Seeing this, Xue Huai'an simply led them to the back mountain to check the situation.
When they arrived at the back of the mountain, they found that all the other teachers were there with their students.
Originally, each school was responsible for a plot of land, but now all the seedlings that were growing well have withered.
"It's so hot this year, even the crops are dying from the heat. Ugh, it's so unbearable!" Xia Yun is a chubby boy who has been suffering from the summer heat for a while and has lost several pounds. If it weren't for the plum juice that Zhou Chengyu brought him to keep him going, he probably would have dropped out of school and gone home long ago.
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