Lu Yanzheng has decided to find some time to talk to Meng Tianze about sending him to the army for training, and see if he is willing to do so.
By the time the group returned to the village, it was already daylight.
In June, the first rays of dawn can be seen on the horizon at dawn. At this time, the village is shrouded in a layer of fog, hazy and somewhat unreal.
But none of Lu Yanzheng and the others paid attention to these things; they were all eager to return to their own homes.
"Big brother, I..." Lu Yancai followed behind Lu Yanzheng the whole time. Seeing that they were almost at home, he closed his eyes and said, "I want to join the army!"
Lu Yanzheng looked at him, remained silent for a moment, and then asked, "Why?"
“I’ve tried these days. I’m not good at farming, I don’t know how to do business, and I don’t have any skills to make a living. But today, I went with everyone to fight the Western Qiang people and found that this is something I can do.”
“Tianbao is growing up soon. As his father, I have to work hard to earn money so that he can get married and raise children. I can’t just stay in the fields and make ends meet anymore…” Lu Yancai said this somewhat awkwardly.
After hearing his explanation, Lu Yanzheng neither immediately agreed nor refused, but instead asked, "You just want a means of making a living?"
Lu Yan was taken aback. After thinking about it carefully, he realized that... it really was true?
Because of Lu Yanzheng's success story, he naturally assumed that joining the army was a way out, a way to earn money for his son to get married and improve their family's life.
But he never considered whether he was cut out for military service.
"Uh, then just pretend I didn't say anything, brother..." Lu Yancai lowered his head awkwardly, his shoulders slumped, and he felt that the spirit he had just mustered had all disappeared.
Lu Yanzheng interrupted him, placing a hand on his shoulder, "If you just want a way to make a living, then you should find your sister-in-law. She knows how to judge people, how to use people, and how to make money."
Lu Yan suddenly looked up, staring blankly at him, "Find my sister-in-law? Will she help me?"
"That's up to you. I can't make the decision for her." Lu Yanzheng patted his shoulder, then turned and strode home.
As Lu Yancai watched his retreating figure, a whirlwind of thoughts surged through his mind.
He almost sold Shufan and Pan'er for a few taels of silver and a bite to eat, and his sister-in-law even severed ties with his family. Now that he's come begging again, will his sister-in-law really help him?
Lu Yan dragged his heavy steps home. As soon as he pushed open the courtyard gate, he saw Lu Tianbao being pushed to the ground. "Tianbao? What are you doing here?"
Ignoring the pain in his bottom from the fall, Lu Tianbao scrambled to his feet and pulled Lu Yancai up and down, looking him over from head to toe. Seeing that he was unharmed, he finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Dad, you're finally back! I've been waiting for you all night..."
"You didn't sleep all night?" Lu Yancai frowned. "Where's your mother?"
Tianbao will only turn nine next month. How could Ma let the child wait at the door instead of letting him go to sleep?
“I was worried about you,” Lu Tianbao said, holding his hand. “My mother went to bed a long time ago and hasn’t gotten up yet.”
Upon hearing this, Lu Yan suddenly became furious.
They've been married for almost ten years, does Mrs. Ma really care so little about him?
Looking back, it was Ma Shi who instigated the sale of books and the affair between Fan and Pan'er. Otherwise, how could the Lu family have raised two children for six years before that incident happened? Ultimately, it was all because Ma Shi kept whispering in his ear.
Lu Yancai was aware of all of this, especially after he learned that he was not the biological son of Old Man Lu and Madam Chen. He regretted his past actions even more after he understood this.
But considering that Madam Ma was Tianbao's biological mother, he held back, neither causing trouble for her nor divorcing her, and kept an eye on her to prevent her from causing any more trouble.
He wanted to make do with what he had, but Madam Ma was indifferent to him and his son. She would secretly eat most of the food herself, leaving only a small portion for him and Tianbao.
He turned a blind eye to all of this and didn't hold it against her.
But tonight, at such a critical moment, this wretched woman could still so carelessly leave her son waiting for him at the front gate while she went to sleep. He really couldn't stand it anymore!
Lu Yan rushed into Madam Ma's room, ripped the blanket off her and threw it on the ground, "Get up!"
He and Ma had long since started sleeping in separate rooms, and now he and Lu Tianbao were sharing a room.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Madam Ma looked up at Lu Yancai blankly. "You're back, sir? Did you bring back anything good?"
Upon hearing this, Lu Yancai nearly had a heart attack from anger. He grabbed Ma's collar and said, "How can you be so careless? Leaving Tianbao alone in the courtyard? Don't you know how many Western Qiang people came tonight? What if someone broke into the house? Are you even the child's mother?"
Ma was stunned by his barrage of questions and it took her a while to recover. Knowing she was in the wrong, she touched her nose guiltily and said, "Well, don't be angry, husband. I was just thinking that with my eldest brother around, we're sure to win."
"Heh, so you believe your older brother now?" Lu Yancai laughed in anger. "Then why did you insist on causing such a rift with your older brother and sister-in-law in the first place? How am I supposed to face them in the future?"
The thought of Jiang Qinyu severing ties with them caused Lu Yancai's heart to ache.
He's not stupid. Although he has realized his mistake, his sister-in-law won't forgive him easily, even if he apologizes.
“What can’t we face?” Madam Ma got up from the ground, put her hands on her hips, “Her Pan’er was saved by our Tianbao! Just for that reason alone, she can’t keep talking about severing ties with her husband.”
Lu Yancai slapped her across the face. "How dare you bring this up? If you hadn't gone to your sister-in-law, our two families would still have a reason to stay in touch. But because of your interference, your sister-in-law has already bought off that favor with gifts!"
At the time, he did have some calculations in his mind, but he didn't have any bad intentions. He just wanted to be able to have normal contact with Jiang Qinyu and the others.
As a result, Ma's actions made the whole village aware that Jiang Qinyu owed them nothing.
Upon hearing this, Madam Ma immediately became displeased. "How can those things buy out the kindness of saving her Pan'er? Is her Pan'er so worthless?"
"You...you..." Lu Yancai's chest heaved with anger, and he couldn't think of anything to say for a moment. After a while, he caught his breath and said, "Shut the hell up!"
If his sister-in-law heard this, how could he possibly ask her for help?
“Madam Ma, I’m warning you, from now on, if you dare to cause trouble again, especially if what you just said reaches your sister-in-law, I will absolutely not tolerate you anymore!” Lu Yan slammed the door and ran away after saying that.
Mrs. Ma covered her face, glaring resentfully at the doorway, muttering under her breath, "I'm Tianbao's mother. As long as you don't kill anyone, I don't believe you'd really dare to divorce me..." [My dear readers, this book will be finished at the end of this month. Please see if there are any plot points you'd like to see, and I'll try my best to accommodate them. If not, I'll continue writing at my own pace. Love you all!]
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