Village Chief Li said, "My dear niece, you really don't need to worry about things at home. Just stay in the border town and live a good life with A-Zheng! Besides, your parents are worried about A-Zheng, a grown man, being here. They'll feel more at ease knowing you're taking care of him, won't they?"
“Uncle Village Chief is right,” Lu Yanzheng chimed in. “Before Qinqin came, I couldn’t even understand what I was eating for my three meals a day. Now that she’s here, my life has improved a lot.”
Village Chief Li laughed and said, "That's right, the young couple should be together. Besides, you two haven't seen each other for six years, so you should make up for the time you missed."
They talked back and forth like this, leaving Jiang Qinyu completely at a loss for words. She stood there with her head down, feeling embarrassed.
Soon, Lu Yanzheng asked Uncle Chen to take Village Chief Li and Meng Tianze down to settle them. After they left, only he and Jiang Qinyu remained in the main hall.
"Qinqin, is there anything we need to pay attention to when planting winter wheat?" Lu Yanzheng asked.
Jiang Qinyu thought he would continue what he had said in the master bedroom, but to her surprise, he acted as if nothing had happened and didn't mention it again.
That's perfect, since she hadn't thought of how to reply to him anyway.
"There are a few things to be aware of. I'll go find Qi Wu later and talk to him about it," Jiang Qinyu replied casually.
Lu Yanzheng nodded, "Since the sweet potato planting is now finished, let's leave the winter wheat planting to Qi Wu!"
The two understood each other without saying anything more, and neither brought up what had just happened.
Because she needed to oversee the winter wheat planting, Jiang Qinyu didn't bring up the matter of going back again.
Village Chief Li and Meng Tianze stayed in Biancheng for three days. During those three days, they were quite busy, going to the fields to check on how the sweet potatoes were growing. They also chatted with Qi Wu, and the three of them even seemed to be developing into close friends.
On the fourth day, Village Chief Li and Meng Tianze came to say goodbye to Lu Yanzheng.
"Uncle Village Chief, Brother Meng, why don't you stay a few more days before going back?" Jiang Qinyu urged.
Village Chief Li waved his hand, "We've been out for so many days, and there are still many things waiting for us to do back in the village, so we won't stay any longer."
"Yes, sister-in-law, you don't know that the outer areas of Yunshan are starting to turn green now, and there are many rabbits in the forest. It's the perfect time for me to go back and hunt rabbits, so we can't delay any longer," Meng Tianze said cheerfully.
Knowing he couldn't keep them, Lu Yanzheng said, "In that case, I'll have Uncle Chen prepare some local specialties from the border town for you. Please help take them back and share them with everyone."
"How could we possibly accept that? If it's grain, you should keep it for the people of the border town and the soldiers. We can take some of the other things back with us," Village Chief Li said immediately.
They've visited many places in the border town over the past two days and witnessed the lives of the local people. They were shocked by what they found.
Even during the most difficult times, Dingshui Village never ate the food that the people of the border town are eating now. It's heartbreaking to see.
They now understood why Lu Yanzheng was so anxious about the people here; it was truly too difficult for him!
If the common people are like this, the soldiers in the army must be having an even harder time.
I just hope they can grow the sweet potatoes and wheat soon, so they can have a proper meal.
“Uncle Village Chief is a sensible man. I really can’t let you take the grain and local specialties back with me,” Lu Yanzheng said with a wry smile.
Meng Tianze patted his shoulder, "Don't worry, we understand. By the way," he looked at Jiang Qinyu, "Sister-in-law, you also planted an acre of rice, right? It should be ready for harvest in two months. If it's a good yield, I'll bring it over to you."
"Thank you so much, Brother Meng," Jiang Qinyu quickly said.
Although she really wanted to go back and do it herself, she couldn't leave here for the time being, so she decided to leave it to Village Chief Li and the others.
Just then, Qin Shen suddenly came in with an envelope, and said to Lu Yanzheng with a serious expression, "General, this is a letter from the capital. It must be something important."
Lu Yanzheng immediately took the letter, opened it, and his hand gripping the letter suddenly clenched into a fist. "This is simply outrageous!"
Seeing him like this, Qin Shen asked repeatedly, "What happened?"
"Take a look for yourself." Lu Yanzheng casually handed him the letter, and then said to Village Chief Li and Meng Tianze, "Uncle Village Chief, Brother Meng, please wait for half a day. Qinqin may need to go back with you."
"Huh?" Village Chief Li and Meng Tianze looked at each other in bewilderment.
Jiang Qinyu was also completely bewildered. What was going on? Didn't they refuse to let her go back before? Why were they letting her leave now?
"This is outrageous!" Qin Shen read the letter quickly, then said angrily, "Isn't this bullying others by abusing one's power?"
"What exactly happened?" Jiang Qinyu couldn't help but wonder, remembering that Lu Yanzheng had only asked her to go back after reading the letter.
Lu Yanzheng said, "Liu Ruyi and Wu Jingyao, the heir of the Marquis of Wuyang, took sweet potatoes to the Emperor to claim credit, saying that they had discovered high-yield sweet potatoes that could save the people of Dayue from their suffering."
The Emperor believed them and was overjoyed. He immediately bestowed upon Liu Ruyi the title of Lady of Yongshan County.
"What?" Village Chief Li's eyes widened. "Didn't my niece plant those for us?"
The key point is that before this, nobody knew what a sweet potato was!
"The sweet potatoes that Miss Liu was carrying, could they have been taken from our village?" Meng Tianze asked Lu Yanzheng, his eyes wide with astonishment.
Lu Yanzheng nodded, "That's right. They said they discovered the sweet potato and had the people of Dingshui Village plant it. Now the Emperor is sending them to Dingshui Village to collect the sweet potatoes, saying that he wants to take all the sweet potatoes and have the Ministry of Revenue use them for breeding, and then promote them throughout the entire Dayue."
"How could they do this? Even if planting sweet potatoes was a merit, it should belong to my niece!" Village Chief Li was immediately furious. "How could Liu Ruyi be such a person?"
“That’s right. Back when she was in the village, we all took such good care of her. How could she try to steal her younger brother’s and sister-in-law’s credit?” Meng Tianze said indignantly.
Jiang Qinyu frowned and said, "Now is not the time to talk about these things. Since Liu Ruyi and the others are going to Dingshui Village, they will definitely take all the sweet potatoes. We need to hurry back to the village!"
"Yes, let's hurry back. We can't let them take all the credit!" Village Chief Li lifted his foot to walk out.
Lu Yanzheng stopped him. "Uncle Village Chief, wait a minute," he said, looking at Qin Shen. "We also sent people to the capital with sweet potatoes back then, so why did such a mistake happen?"
"General, I don't know anything about this either! There's probably something else going on. We can only wait for news from the capital now." Qin Shen felt unlucky just thinking about it. He shouldn't have let Liu Ruyi and Wu Jingyao go in the first place.
But at that time they had no reason to continue detaining Wu Jingyao, and they were even less wary of Liu Ruyi. Who could have known that the woman would be so treacherous?
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