At noon, Zhulan stood at the door and watched Wang Ru's last scene. Wang Laosi and his wife, holding their child, stopped Master Shi's carriage that was heading back to Pingzhou and refused to let it go. Wang Ru did not even get out of the carriage.
In the end, the Wang family pulled them away with a gloomy face by the Zhou clan leader. Zhou clan leader was counting the days until the troublemaker would leave, so how could he let Wang Laosi cause trouble? He was afraid that something unexpected would happen and he would not be able to leave.
In the end, Wang Laosi could only watch the carriage go away, while Sun covered her face and cried. Only after the carriage disappeared did the two of them break free from the people who were pulling them and go home with the child.
Li looked down on Sun from the bottom of her heart and pouted, "Now that the cash cow is gone, it's a little late for Sun to cry."
Zhao said bluntly, "It's just an act. Sun's handkerchief must have been stained with either chili water or ginger juice. Her tears are so abnormal. She didn't cry like this even when her mother died. Who is she trying to fool now?"
Li's focus was wrong, "Sister-in-law, you know a lot about touching chili peppers on a handkerchief!"
In the past, my brother and sister-in-law would wipe their eyes with a handkerchief whenever they cried. Could they be using this method
Zhao: “… … ..”
When fleeing famine in the past, no one could just cry. No matter how hard you pretend, you had to shed tears. Without tears, it would look fake at a glance. So she started using this method, and later she got used to it. She really practiced the skill of crying whenever she wanted. Look at the look in the eldest sister-in-law's eyes, what does it mean? She has been crying for real since she married into the Zhou family!
Zhulan turned around and went back to the yard. She didn't want to see Li's self-righteous look, as if she had discovered the truth. It was too hurtful to the eyes.
Zhao hurriedly followed her mother back.
Li thought her sister-in-law had run away. She thought about how her sister-in-law used to cry all the time, and she felt like she was the evil sister-in-law. Oh, no, she wanted to talk to her sister-in-law, "Sister-in-law, wait a minute."
Zhulan ran away first, so Zhao should fill the hole he dug himself!
Zhao wanted to slap herself on the mouth, saying, "You are so rude. You just had to watch your mother leave." She didn't dare to follow her in, because your father was in the room!
Li was stubborn and felt uncomfortable if he didn't get to the bottom of the matter. Zhao's eyes went dark and she wanted to slap herself again!
The next day, a member of the Zhou clan moved in next door. The person who bought the house was of the same generation as Zhou Shuren, and was one of the first family members to pass the imperial examination. The family owned forty acres of land, twenty acres of which were tax-free. They had saved a lot of money over the years, so their family background was quite solid.
The head of the family next door is Zhou Shuxi, and his wife is Zheng. There are not many sons in the family, only two. Because Zheng is weak, she didn't have any more children after giving birth to two sons. The family is famous in the village for having few children. Xiucai is the eldest son of Zhou Shuxi's family.
Among Zhou Shuren's peers, he is the youngest. Zhou Shuxi's eldest son is already 35 years old. He did not take the provincial examination again after taking part in it once. Now he is a teacher in the clan school with an old scholar in his 50s from another clan. Every month, the clan school gives him a bundle of 200 coins and some rice, flour, and other grains.
This is because in the past two years, the number of students in the clan school has increased, and the clan school has some money. In the early years, there were many farmers in difficulty, and the clan school did not have many bundles of grain. The teacher carried all the grain and other things that were sent by each family.
Generally, scholars opened their own private schools. This was the advantage of having a family. Even if they did not earn much money a year, they would still stay in the family school for the sake of their younger generations. Of course, if they could really teach a talented person, the whole family would benefit. They would be honored as the teacher and would get the most benefit from it.
Zhou Shuxi's family had just moved in. They spent a day packing up and came to visit Zhulan's house the next day.
Zhulan took the basket and Zheng said, "This is the sticky bean curd I made myself. Bring some to try."
Zhulan thanked him and said, "I was talking about this yesterday. Are you used to moving in here, sister-in-law?"
Zheng was helped to sit down by her daughter-in-law, "It's a habit to live in. The house that Wang's girl has carefully renovated is no worse than the house in the county."
Zhulan motioned Li to make some honey water. Zheng was too weak to drink tea. After Li left, Zhulan said, "If sister-in-law was a little later, I would have gone to visit her. Logically, Chang'an is the master of the boys in the family, so we should go and visit him."
Zheng took the honey water and thought to herself that Shuren's family was indeed well-off. She lived a good life in the clan and would not use honey water to entertain guests. "I'm just sitting around doing nothing at home. It's boring for just the two of us to stay at home. Sorry to bother you more in the future."
Zhulan smiled, "Our home is lively and you are always welcome."
Zhou Shuxi has two sons and no daughters. There are not many grandchildren, only five in total. This time, they divided the family directly after buying a house. The old house was given to the youngest son, and the money missing for the two houses was made up. Zhou Shuren was invited to witness the division!
This was the first time Zhulan and Zheng were dating, mainly because Zheng was in poor health. It was said that Zheng insisted on having a second child, which made her health even worse. Some people in the village were jealous of Zheng because she didn't have to work, but compared to the healthy Zhulan, not many people were jealous of Zheng.
Zheng's eldest daughter-in-law is a scholar. Zheng is a weak person, so naturally her daughter-in-law will not be tough either. She is also a gentle daughter-in-law.
The return gift Zhulan gave was prepared long ago for the visit. There were cakes in the basket. After all, he was a gentleman, so the gift for the visit should be heavier.
After Zheng's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law left, Li panted and said, "Mother, Aunt Zheng and Sister-in-law's voices are louder than mosquitoes. I dare not speak loudly."
She was really feeling suffocated. She was afraid that speaking loudly would scare people. The only thing that made her happy was that the scholar's wife did not despise her and still listened to her gently.
Zhulan realized that she seemed to have found a way to deal with Li. She must find a gentle wife for her eldest grandson's future wife!
Time flies. Since Wang Ru left, Zhulan's life was very happy as there was no more eyesore and she had good neighbors again. Before she knew it, a month had passed and it was time for the annual autumn harvest.
Zhulan's family hired people to help harvest the crops in their fields. This year, they didn't wait for the Zhou family to trap pheasants and confiscate the grain like they did last year. Those who had tasted success last year set traps in the fields early on. They caught so many pheasants that they scared away the wild animals and they no longer dared to make nests in the fields.
During the entire 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, and they left enough food for the family. The rest of the food was packed, and Zhou Shuren found a grain transport convoy to send it to Pingzhou. This time Zhou Shuren took his eldest son and second son with him.
Zhulan stayed at home to take charge. This year was another bumper year with good weather and good harvests. Apart from the grain that was left behind, the grain from the twenty acres of land filled several trucks.
The convoy's departure from the village could not be concealed from anyone, and the trucks carrying grain left the Zhou family one after another. By now everyone knew that the Zhou family would move to Pingzhou next year.
Because Shu Mo and others did not advertise, Li knew about the family's wealth but did not spread the word, so people in the village really did not know that the Zhou family had a house in Pingzhou.
Some people, seeing that Zhou Shuren no longer went to the county and hearing some rumors, completely kept silent.
Zhou Shuren was in no hurry to come back from Pingzhou. He had to meet Zhao Bo who had returned from the capital. He also had to meet Wu Ming to find out more about Wu Ming and compare the gap between Wu Ming, who was taught by a famous teacher, and Zhou Shuren so as to make up for Zhou Shuren's shortcomings. It would take him at least a week to come back.
Zhou Shuren had just been investigating Zheng's family for two days, so the investigation had to be put on hold and he would have to wait until he came back to continue.