Chapter 76 [VIP]
"The exoneration was successful?!" Chen Rong repeated in surprise.
"Yes, it was all thanks to Elder Liang's help that the case was overturned."
"That's wonderful! Qingyan can participate in the imperial examinations now!" Chen Rong exclaimed, overjoyed, as she pulled her nephew along.
"This year has been full of good news, and our two families are sure to have a better and better life!"
"Yes, it's getting better and better!"
Everyone raised their glasses in celebration, and the meal didn't end until late afternoon.
Winter nights are long and days are short. It was already pitch black outside. Wang Ying helped Chen Rong walk ahead, while Chen Qingyan and Cao Kun walked behind. They chatted as they walked.
"How are the preparations going for the shops in your county?"
Cao Kun said, "It's almost all packed up. I was just about to mention it to my cousin-in-law. We'll start going to town to buy vegetables after the full moon celebration."
"Okay, let me know in advance how much food you want, and I'll prepare it for you."
To transport the fresh vegetables, Cao Kun specially bought a new wooden cart and two good mules, hoping to make a fortune during the Spring Festival period.
Actually, he had always had a question in his mind: where did these fresh vegetables come from? But since his cousin and his wife didn't say, he was too embarrassed to ask.
Selling fresh vegetables is a profitable business. Last year, he made a profit of seven or eight strings of cash just by helping with transportation. Now that he sells them himself, he can easily earn several dozen strings of cash a month.
However, he couldn't do the job himself, so he needed to find someone else to help him transport it.
*
The full moon celebration arrived as scheduled. There weren't many guests, mostly relatives and friends, and everyone gathered together to chat.
Suddenly, someone brought up Lin Qiu's father.
"Didn't my husband's father come?"
"No... I heard they got divorced."
"Why?" Divorce is rare these days, and everyone was curious and inquired about it.
One of the women, who was familiar with both families, whispered, "Don't spread this around. Lin Qiu's father is Lin Xiucai from the West Quarter!"
"What? It was him!"
"No wonder they got divorced; no one can live with someone like that!"
Some people, not understanding the situation, asked, "Who is Scholar Lin?"
"He's notorious in the West District for divorcing his wife to have a son and then marrying a prostitute."
"Oh dear, is that so!"
"It must be a miracle that he had a child who is mentally challenged. The child is almost two years old and still can't walk or talk. I saw him crawling on the ground with his bare bottom in the freezing cold the other day, without even wearing pants."
"Tsk tsk tsk, what a terrible karma."
"Aren't Cao Kun and his husband going to do anything about it? They're brothers, after all..."
"How can you manage him? Once you start managing that idiot, you'll be managing him for life. You can't get rid of him once you're involved. Besides, Lin Xiucai did such a filthy thing. Could you manage him if he were in your shoes?"
The women shook their heads, all filled with hatred. Who cared about the child he had with the prostitute? The feast was about to begin, so everyone fell silent and stopped talking.
*
The Lin family's courtyard in Xifang, which was once clean and tidy, has become dilapidated due to lack of maintenance.
The withered grass in the yard was more than half a person tall, and the snow piled up to knee-deep, but no one swept it away.
Lin Xiucai was sick. He was lying in bed covered with several layers of quilts but was still shivering from the cold. He coughed from time to time, like a leaky bellows with a sharp wheezing sound.
"Hungry, hungry..." The silly son crawled on the ground with his bare bottom. This child could not say anything except hunger. When he was extremely hungry, he would pick up anything and put it in his mouth.
Lin Changbin watched him coldly without stopping him. Let him be hungry, it would be best if he starved to death!
He had long regretted it. If it weren't for him, why would his wife have divorced him, and why would Qiu'er and Sui'er disown him?
This bastard should never have been born!
"Cough cough cough..." Lin Changbin coughed again in frustration, but his body was too weak to get up, and he couldn't even drink water.
Overcome by drowsiness, he couldn't help but fall asleep.
In his dream, he returned to many years ago, when he was still running a private school. Every day after school, as soon as he entered the courtyard, he could hear the sound of weaving inside the house.
"I'm back."
The sound of weaving stopped, and Chen Rong came out with a big smile, "Husband, are you thirsty? Have some water, and I'll make you dumplings later..."
Lin Changbin held the water ladle and gulped down the water, thinking to himself how wonderful it was to have his wife at home...
Unfortunately, the dream of wealth and glory eventually comes to an end. When he opened his eyes for the last time, he found that his son had starved to death and was unable to move. Lin Changbin looked out the window with tears streaming down his face and slowly closed his eyes.
Several days later, the neighbors discovered that the Lin father and son had starved to death at home.
*
The full moon celebration went smoothly. After it ended, Wang Ying and Chen Qingyan didn't stay long and took a car back the next day. They missed their child terribly after not seeing him for several days.
On the way back, we encountered heavy snow and had to stay at the inn for two more days. By the time we got home, it was already mid-November.
As soon as she entered the house, Wang Ying jumped out of the car and ran towards the main room.
"Yuanbao, Father's back!"
Inside, Li and Qingyun were coaxing the child when they suddenly heard Wang Ying's voice. Little Yuanbao immediately dropped his toy and turned to look at the door.
The door opened, and Wang Ying looked at her son with a smile, "Yuanbao, have you missed your father?"
Yuanbao stretched out his two little arms, wanting to be hugged, and tears streamed down his face. He looked so pitiful.
Wang Ying's heart softened completely, and she quickly picked up her son, stroking his head to comfort him, "Yuanbao, don't cry, your father is back."
Chen Qingyan followed him into the house. "Why is Yuanbao crying?"
Li said, "And you're right, he started looking for Aying the day you left. When he couldn't find her, he cried every night for three or four nights in a row."
Wang Ying kissed her son's forehead, "Next time, your father will never leave again."
"Father..."
Wang Ying was stunned, thinking she had misheard. "Did Yuanbao just call me?"
Qingyun exclaimed excitedly, "She called out! She called out! I heard her!"
"Yuanbao, call me Grandma?"
"Yuanbao, call her Auntie!"
"Call me Father."
Little Yuanbao hugged Wang Ying with both hands, burying his head in the crook of her neck; he looked incredibly cute.
Li said with a hint of jealousy, "You heartless brat, you don't even care about your grandmother anymore after seeing your father."
Yuanbao seemed to understand, and raised his hand to pat Li's arm, just like how everyone usually comforted him.
This made everyone burst into laughter; how could this child be so clever?
*
As Yuanbao got older, he became more clingy. He would cry every time he was separated from Wang Ying for a short while, and it was such a cold day, so she couldn't take him to the shop.
In addition, Wang Ying wanted to stay at the estate for a while, so she simply hired a manager to help run the vegetable shop.
The new manager is named Liao Hai. He is a middle-aged man in his thirties, not very tall, with a mustache, and is literate and can calculate.
He had worked as a manager in a distillery for several years and was quite experienced; after just one day of instruction, he was able to work on his own.
Wang Ying paid him 500 coins a month to work for three months as a trial. If he did well, she would teach him how to manage the shop.
On November 13th, Wang Ying, along with her child, mother-in-law, and Qingyun, returned to the village for a short stay, and they wouldn't be back until after the New Year.
Before going out, Li was worried that her child would get cold on the way, so she wrapped Yuanbao up almost like a ball.
The little guy didn't make a fuss. He stared at his big, dark eyes and looked around. He hadn't been out much since winter started, so he was really excited to see the snow.
Once in the car, he still insisted on seeing the snow, so Wang Ying made a snowball on the ground for him to play with.
The little guy held the snowball with a curious look on his face and opened his mouth to take a bite.
Mrs. Li quickly stopped her, "Oh, you can't eat that, your stomach will hurt after you eat it."
Little Yuanbao returned the snowball to his grandmother and pointed outside, wanting to see more snow. Wang Ying opened the car window a crack so that Yuanbao could look out from inside.
A cold wind blew, making him sneeze, and Li Shi stopped him from looking.
The mule cart swayed and rocked, and soon the child fell asleep.
The mountains and fields were covered in a blanket of white, and the carriage, like a lone boat, sailed across the snow. They had set out in the morning but didn't arrive at the villa until noon.
Because Wang Ying had informed Chen Qingyan in advance the night before, he had been waiting anxiously, and immediately ran out when he heard the door open.
"We've finally arrived. Was it cold on the way?"
Wang Ying got out of the car first, then turned around and picked up Yuanbao, stuffing him into his arms. "It's alright, it's just that your son kept asking to see the snow, so it got a bit cold after we opened the window for a while."
Hearing the noise, Liang Boqing came out as well. At first, he had his hands behind his back, but when he saw Yuanbao in Chen Qingyan's arms, he immediately stepped forward and took him. "It's so cold. Why are you standing outside like an idiot with a child in your arms? Hurry up and come inside!"
Wang Ying was both amused and exasperated. "Go keep an eye on him, or he'll start pulling his beard again."
Qinghuai and Qingsong helped carry the luggage. This time they were staying for a long time, and the adults and children brought a lot of clothes, which filled two large trunks.
Qingyun helped Li Shi out of the car. It was the first time the two of them had come to the villa, and they looked around the spacious courtyard with curiosity.
When Qingyun last came, she only stayed at Chen Xi's house for one day. In her memory, it was a dilapidated and small house. She never expected it to be so spacious and grand.
There was a stream of running water in the middle of the courtyard, and steam was rising from it.
Qingyun walked forward curiously and touched the stream water. "It's warm!"
Wang Ying said, "There's a warm spring on the back mountain, and all the water is drawn from there. Let's go see what the newly built houses look like; I haven't seen them yet."
After passing through the corridor to the backyard, the original fence wall has been demolished and replaced by a row of spacious houses with a sunshade corridor in front of them, supported by a row of round pillars, which looks both simple and elegant.
As I pushed open the door and entered the house, I was greeted by a wave of warmth and the distinctive scent of pine wood that is characteristic of a new house.
Li said, "There's no stove in this room, so how come it's so warm!"
"A firewall was built, and there was a heated kang bed in the bedroom."
The east room was a bedroom specially reserved for Li Shi. It was spacious and bright, and the furniture had been made in advance, including a dressing table and a wardrobe for storing clothes.
"Is this a heated kang bed? Won't it bake you alive if you sleep on it at night?"
Old Liang had asked the same question before, and Wang Ying smiled and said, "No, it's not too hot up there because of the mats. Why don't you go up and try it?"
Li took off her shoes and got onto the kang (heated brick bed). The warmth spread from the soles of her feet, dispelling the chill from the journey. "It's really nice."
"The only drawback of a heated kang bed is that it can be a bit dry when you sleep on it, which can easily cause internal heat. Putting a basin of water in the room at night can help."
The next room was Qingyun's bedroom, which was slightly smaller than Li's but also had a kang (heated brick bed) and thoughtfully hung bed curtains.
Qingyun couldn't wait to climb up, "This kang is too hard!"
"You still need to put on a quilt to sleep at night, but you'll get used to it."
Before long, Chen Qingyan came over carrying Yuanbao, and the little guy burst into tears.
"What's wrong?" Upon hearing the sound, Madam Li rushed over.
"He wouldn't let go of his master's beard, so I slapped him twice."
Li scolded, "Why did you hit him? He's so young, how would he know right from wrong?"
"But we can't let him be naughty all the time..."
Wang Ying nudged him with her elbow, signaling him to say less.
"Oh, sweetie, don't cry. If your dad dares to hit you again, Grandma will hit him!"
"Fight..."
Wang Ying: "Hey, you little rascal, you've taken advantage of the situation."
Li didn't dare to scold Wang Ying. She picked up her grandson and quickly ran to the bedroom, saying, "Play with Grandma, don't play with them."
The couple exchanged a helpless glance; grandparents love their grandchildren more, and the mother really spoils the child too much.
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