At noon, Zhulan stood at the door and watched Wang Ru’s last day drama. Fourth Wang and Sun Shi held their children in their arms and blocked Shi Gongzi’s carriage from leaving for Pingzhou. Wang Ru’s carriage didn’t even get off.

In the end, the black-faced Patriarch Zhou asked the Wang family to pull him away. Patriarch Zhou was counting every day when the disaster would go away. How could he let Fourth Wang act like a monster? He was deeply afraid that if something went wrong, she would not be able to leave.

In the end, Fourth Wang could only watch the carriage go away, and Sun Shi covered her face and cried. It was not until the carriage disappeared that the two broke away from the person holding them, hugged the child, and went home.

Li Shi sincerely looked down on Sun Shi and curled her lips, “This time the money tree is gone, Sun Shi is crying a little too much.”

Zhao Shi hit the nail on the head. “It’s just an act. Either there’s chili water or ginger juice on Sun Shi’s handkerchief. Her tears are too abnormal. She didn’t cry like this even when her mother died. Who is she trying to fool now?”

Li Shi didn’t catch the main point. “Dìmèi, you seem to know a lot about putting ginger juice or chili water on handkerchiefs!”

Her dìmèi used to wipe her eyes with a handkerchief whenever she cried. Wasn’t this the same method?

Zhao Shi, “.”

During the famine, nobody could just cry on command. Even if you were pretending, you had to shed tears, otherwise it would look fake. So she started using this method. Later on, she got used to it and actually mastered the skill of crying on demand. Look at my dasao’s eyes. What did she mean? Since she entered the Zhou family, she’s always cried for real, alright!

Zhulan turned around and went back to the yard. She didn’t want to see Li Shi acting smart. She looked like she had discovered the truth. It hurt her eyes too much.

Zhao Shi hurriedly followed her mother back.

Li Shi, however, thought her dìmèi had misunderstood. Then she remembered how her dìmèi cried at every turn, making her feel like she was an evil dàsǎo. Oh no, this wouldn’t do. She needed to have a talk with her dìmèi. “Dìmèi, wait a moment.

Zhulan ran away first, and Zhao Shi was left to fill the hole she dug yourself!

Zhao Shi wished she could slap herself for her big mouth. She watched her mother-in-law leave. She didn’t dare to follow up. Her father-in-law was in the house!

Li Shi was so confused that she felt uncomfortable all over without getting to the bottom of it. Zhao Shi’s vision turned black and she wanted to slap herself in the mouth again!

The next day, a family from the Zhou clan moved into the adjacent house. The head of the family was from Zhou Shuren’s generation and was among the first family in the Zhou clan to have a xiùcái. They owned forty mu of land, twenty mu of which was tax-exempt. Over the years, they had accumulated quite a bit of silver, so their family background was considered relatively wealthy.

The head of the house next door was Zhou Shuxi, and his wife was Zheng Shi. There are only two sons in the family. Because Zheng Shi was weak, she did not have any more children after giving birth to two sons. Known in the village for having few children, the eldest son in Zhou Shuxi’s family was a xiùcái.

Among Zhou Shuren’s generation, he was the youngest. Zhou Shuxi’s eldest son was already thirty-five years old. After participating in the provincial examinations once, he stopped taking the exams. Currently, he served as a teacher in the Zhou clan school and another clan’s school. He received a monthly stipend of two hundred wen from the clan school and some grains and provisions.

In the past couple of years, there have been more students in the clan school, and the clan school has acquired some silver. In the earlier years, there were many struggling farming households, so the clan school didn’t have much stipend. The teachers mostly relied on the grains and provisions sent by various families.

Typically, scholars would open their own private schools. This is the advantage of having a family clan. Even if they didn’t receive much stipend money in a year, they would still stay in the clan school for the sake of the future generations of the family. Of course, if they truly cultivated a talented individual, the whole clan would benefit. With the title of teacher’s grace, the benefits gained would be immense.

Zhou Shuxi’s family had recently moved in. After cleaning up for a day, they came to visit Zhulan’s house the next day.

Zhulan took the basket and Zheng Shi said: “These are the sticky bean buns I made myself. I brought some to try.”

Zhulan thanked her and said, “I was talking about it yesterday. Are you used to it, sǎozi?”

Zheng Shi was helped to sit down by her daughter-in-law. “I’m used to it. The house has been carefully arranged by the Wang family’s maid. It’s not inferior to the houses in the county at all.”

Zhulan motioned to Li Shi to make honey water. Zheng Shi’s body was very weak and she could not drink tea. So, honey water was suitable for her. After Li Shi went out, Zhulan said: “If my sǎozi didn’t come today, I was preparing to go and visit. Logically speaking, Chang’an is the husband of several boys in the family, so we should go and visit.”

Zheng took the honey water and thought to herself, “Indeed, Shuren’s family background is solid. We’re living quite comfortably within the clan. It’s not appropriate to serve honey water to guests. “I am idle at home, and we are the only ones at home. It’s boring for you and me to stay together. We’ll have to disturb you a lot in the future.”

Zhulan smiled and said, “Our house is lively and you are welcome at any time.”

In the household of Zhou Shuxi, there were two sons, but no granddaughters in the grandson generation, and there weren’t many grandsons either, only five in total. This time, when they bought the house, they divided the family directly. The old house was given to the younger son, and the difference in the value of the two houses was compensated with money. Zhou Shuren was invited to witness the division of the family.

This was the first time Zhulan and Zheng Shi had met. The main reason was that Zheng Shi’s health was really bad. It was said that Zheng Shi insisted on having a second child, which made her health even worse. There were also people in the village who were jealous that Zheng Shi didn’t have to work, but compared to her, there were more people who were jealous of the healthy Zhulan.

Zheng’s eldest daughter-in-law was a scholarly lady, and since Zheng herself was gentle and delicate, her daughter-in-law naturally didn’t have a strong personality either. She was also a gentle daughter-in-law.

Zhulan had prepared a return gift for visiting in advance. There were cakes in the basket. After all, it was the home of her sons’ teacher, so the gift for the visit was heavier.

After Zheng’s mother-in-law and daughter-in-law left, Li Shi gasped and said, “Mom, Zhèng Shěnzi and dàsǎozi speak louder than mosquitoes. I don’t dare to speak loudly.”

It really suffocated her to death. She was afraid that speaking loudly would endanger her. Although it was scary, the only thing that made her happy was that the scholarly lady did not dislike her and still listened to her words gently.

Zhulan realized that she seemed to have found a way to cure Li Shi’s family. Her eldest grandson’s future wife must be a gentle one!

Time flew. Since Wang Ru left, there were no more eyesores, and there were good neighbors again. Zhulan’s life was very smooth. Before she knew it, a month had passed, and it was the day of the annual autumn harvest.

The Zhulan family had hired helpers to harvest the land. This year, before the Zhou family could trap pheasants and confiscate the grain like last year, those who had tasted the benefits last year had already made traps in the field. They caught so many pheasants that they surprised the pheasants. They no longer dare to make nests in the fields.

Throughout the autumn harvest, Zhulan’s family didn’t catch a single pheasant.

The Zhou family did not have to pay taxes on their 20 acres of land, so they brought back enough food for the whole family. The remaining food was packed. Zhou Shuren found a convoy to transport food and sent it to Pingzhou. This time Zhou Shuren took his eldest son and the second son and went together.

Zhulan stayed at home and took charge. This year was another good harvest year, and the weather was good. In addition to the grain left on the twenty acres of land, there were few trucks loaded.

When the convoy left the village, they could not hide it. The grain trucks left the Zhou family one by one. Now everyone knew that the Zhou family would be moving to Pingzhou next year.

Because Shu Mo and others didn’t publicize it, and Li Shi despite knowing about the family’s wealth didn’t publicize it everywhere, the village really didn’t know that the Zhou family had a house in Pingzhou.

Some people who saw that Zhou Shuren no longer went to the county and listened to some rumors, completely stopped talking.

Zhou Shuren didn’t rush back after going to Pingzhou. He wanted to meet Zhao Bo, who had returned from the capital and also planned to meet with Wu Ming to explore Wu Ming’s background. He wanted to compare the differences between Wu Ming, who had been guided by a famous teacher, and himself, in order to make up for his shortcomings. It would take at least a week before he could return.

Just as Zhou Shuren was inquiring about Zheng Shi’s family for a couple of days, the investigation had to be postponed. He would resume the investigation upon his return.

(End of chapter)

---