Chunniang's parents' home also suffered from a flood, so Xu's mother took her eldest son and his family to live with her eldest daughter.
But it felt a bit uncomfortable to always stay at her daughter's house, so Old Lady Xu discussed with her son and daughter-in-law and decided to pay for the construction of two houses in the market outside Dongchen Village, which would be convenient in the future.
Xu Da and his wife naturally had no objection, but this place was the territory of Dongcun Chen. Although the market outside the village was an uninhabited wasteland with no one living there, if they wanted to build a house there they had to get the consent of the Chen clan leader and Jiang Sanlang.
Now that Jiang Sanlang and his father have returned, and his nephew Jiang Jie has also returned home, Xu Da immediately sent over the gifts that he and his wife had carefully prepared.
The nephew passed the imperial examination and ranked third in the whole prefecture. His uncle and aunt felt proud and walked around with their backs straight.
As soon as Yingbao and her brother returned to the village, they were surrounded by the whole village.
Of course, the main focus was on watching his younger brother Jiang Jie.
To this end, Jiang Dalang and Jiang Erlang helped their third brother set up more than 20 tables of banquets and invited the whole village to dinner.
Patriarch Chen also held Jiang Jie's hand and sat at their table, eating with the elders.
Mr. Wu and Zhou Wuchang were invited to sit at the top, and Patriarch Chen personally toasted them.
Although Jiang Jie was not a member of the Chen clan, he was from Dongchen Village. When the head of the Chen clan heard that Jiang Jie had passed the imperial examination, he was even happier than when Chen Changping passed the exam.
Mr. Wu is a few years younger than Patriarch Chen, not even sixty years old. When he saw Patriarch Chen toasting him, he also toasted back.
Yingbao, Jiang Wu, Yuanbao, Huzi, and Wei Zhan were eating at another table when they saw Chen Zhao coming over with her brother Chen Xu. They squeezed into this table and sat down next to Yingbao.
Chen Zhao first picked up some food for his brother and said to Ying Bao, "Ying Bao, can I be your maid?"
Yingbao opened her mouth in surprise, not knowing what was wrong with Chen Zhao.
Chen Zhao pulled her and whispered, "Don't look like that, I'm telling the truth."
Yingbao immediately shook her head and refused: "No, your father is a scholar and has a reputation. I dare not employ you."
Chen Zhao curled his lips and muttered softly: "So what if he is a scholar?" He still doesn't care about the life and death of his brother and sisters.
Yingbao was concentrating on eating when she suddenly saw five-year-old Chen Xubao looking at her and handing her something in his hand.
Yingbao ignored him and didn't answer.
"Sister Yingbao, this is for you." Chen Xubao persistently put the thing in his hand into hers.
Yingbao looked down and saw that it was actually a small green frog.
The little frog puffed up its snow-white belly and tried to struggle out.
Yingbao stuffed the frog back to Chen Xubao: "I don't want it, you can play with it yourself."
This Xu Bao seems to be different from his previous life. Now that he has grown up, his facial features look less and less like Chen Xu in his previous life.
Perhaps, this Xu Bao is not the child from the previous life at all, because not only does he look different, but their ages are also different.
Thinking of this, Yingbao felt relieved a little, reached out and touched Xubao's head, and asked: "Have you been to school?"
Xu Bao shook his head, lowered his head and touched the little frog's head with his fingers.
Chen Zhao said, "Grandpa asked Xu Bao to go to school again next year."
Xu Bao suddenly raised his head and said to his sister, "I want to go to school!"
"Okay, let's go back and tell grandpa to let you go to school." Chen Zhao comforted his brother.
After dinner, Yingbao and her brothers went to the Deer Park to see Yoyo, and Chen Zhao followed behind holding Chen Xubao's hand.
Yoyo is now becoming more and more majestic. After seeing Yingbao, he walked towards her proudly with his head held high.
Yingbao patted Yoyo's neck and stuffed a handful of fresh golden ears into its mouth.
Wei Zhan, Yuan Bao, Hu Zi, Jiang Wu and others also touched the big deer. When they saw it lower its head, they touched its ferocious antlers.
This antler is newly grown. The previous one fell off long ago and was kept at home by Jiang Sanlang.
Chen Xubao also came over to touch the deer, and called Jiang Wu brother.
Jiang Wu was also very familiar with him, and he even directed Yoyo to lower his head and let Chen Xubao touch his big horns.
Chen Zhao smiled and said to Ying Bao: "Xu Bao likes Jiang Wu very much. He goes to the martial arts training ground to play with him every day."
Ever since Jiang Wu saved Xu Bao that time, the child has been sticking to Jiang Wu like a little tail, and sometimes even goes to Jiang's house for meals.
If Chen Zhao hadn't asked him to go home, he would have slept with Jiang Wu at night.
Yingbao said nothing.
After a while, Xu Bao followed Jiang Wu and a group of boys to the martial arts training ground. Chen Zhao then said to Ying Bao, "Ying Bao, did you meet my father and Chu Man in the county town?"
Yingbao shook her head: "No."
Chen Zhao snorted and said angrily, "Ever since Chu Man went to the county town, she has often urged my father to ask my grandparents for money. When my grandparents don't have money, she asks my father to ask my uncle for it. Now our family doesn't even have the tuition for Xu Bao to go to school, and my grandmother is planning to send my elder sister and me to the Wei family in the prefecture to be maids."
Sakura:...
"I don't want to go to the capital to be a maid." Chen Zhao curled his lips. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. "That Chu Man is a jinx. Grandpa and grandma had hoped that the Chu family could help Dad, but not only did they fail, they even married a spendthrift."
Yingbao: "Are you sure the money was spent by Chu Man?" Chen Changping is such a selfish person, how could he allow his second wife to spend money recklessly
"If not her, who else could it be?" Chen Zhao said angrily, "Yingbao, if grandma insists on sending me to the capital, I might as well be your maid."
Didn't Chuchu work for Yingbao in the beginning? She could earn three kan a month, so she could do it herself. Then she would have money to send her brother to school.
At this time, Chen Zhao had already thought about how to spend the three strings of cash.
Ying Bao glanced at Chen Zhao and asked, "Are you short of money?"
Chen Zhao immediately denied: "No, how could I be short of money..."
Yingbao ignored her excuses and continued, "In fact, you can set up a small stall at the market outside the village and make some money."
If all else fails, you can grow some mushrooms, but you have to build a mushroom shed first, cook the nutrient base, carefully cultivate the mushrooms every day, and then dry the mushrooms in the sun, or build a drying oven at home to dry the mushroom ears. It's an extremely tedious job.
I guess Chen Laoshuan is too proud of his status to do this.
After all, the purchase of seeds and the sale of mature fungi have to go through Jiang Sanlang.
Chen Zhao blinked. "Go set up a stall? What can I buy?"
Yingbao thought for a moment and told her the recipe for making sugar cakes that she had learned in the pastry shop: "You can use flour and sesame candy to make fried sugar cakes. It doesn't cost much to make, and it's easy for you to sell. There will definitely be people who will buy it in this small market."
Chen Zhao hesitated for a long time and nodded: "Okay, Yingbao, tell me how to make the candy cake. I'll try making it first."
Yingbao told her how to make the sugar cake, and said at the end: "But you'd better fry it and sell it immediately, otherwise the sugar cake will not taste good when it gets cold."
"Fry it now? That requires a stove." Chen Zhao hesitated, "But I don't have a stove at home."
Yingbao: "That's easy. Ask the stonemasons in your village to make one. If you find it too hard to drag it back and forth, just put it on the market. It's not worth much. Who can't steal a stone?"
There is a public stone mill in Dongchen Village, which has always been placed outside. Anyone who wants to use it can just clean it themselves and use it.