The only favourite ugly husband

by Usui Takumii

not anslation of free web novel go check there. Beware Bl. Total: 179 cps.

151. 101 to 105

Chapter 101.1 – Buying Jiang Xiaomei

Today Jiang Xiaomei was really different from the past.

When Jiang Zhen first came here, Jiang Xiaomei was a clean, beautiful, and popular girl in Hexi Village. Her hands and face were white and clean, but at the moment . . . Her hair was a mess, her hands became thicker, and she had also lost a lot of weight. She was only sixteen or seventeen years old, so she should still be growing, but now, her original clothes looked so big on her body.

Jiang Zhen looked at Jiang Xiaomei's appearance and frowned, regretting that he had not noticed her situation earlier. However, he had not been present for several months, so even if he wanted to pay attention to her condition, he could not. Instead of thinking about what happened before, he might as well think about how to deal with it now.

It was absolutely impossible to let Jiang Xiaomei go back. If he allowed it, right before he'd turned around, she would be sold off by the Jiang family again . . .

Jiang Xiaomei couldn't use the tricks he used, and, right then and there, there was no way she could do anything. Standing here today, she had nothing.

Because of this, he wanted to bring Jiang Xiaomei out of the Jiang family . . .

Jiang Zhen knew that the best way to bring Jiang Xiaomei out of the Jiang family was to find a husband for Jiang Xiaomei. There were many people under his hands who were not married. If he was willing to marry Jiang Xiaomei to one of these people, they all would be ecstatic. He just needed to choose one of them and let him bring the dowry money to the Jiang family to marry Jiang Xiaomei. Given the fact that the Jiang family was now short of money, they would certainly agree.

But this was ancient times, not the modern times. In modern times, marrying was not easy; divorce and remarrying happened a lot. But nowadays, marrying someone was basically a lifetime contract. Even if he made that decision for Jiang Xiaomei and supported her to marry. In fact, if Jiang Xiaomei did not like the man he chose for her, she would probably force herself to endure it.

Jiang Zhen didn't like arranged marriages, let alone having to arrange other people's marriages.

"You have two options right now," Jiang Zhen looked at Jiang Xiaomei.

"What?" Jiang Xiaomei asked subconsciously, looking at Jiang Zhen uneasily. Just then, Jiang Zhen had been staring at her, making her feel a little scared.

"First, hurry up and choose a man you like, I'll marry him to you. Do you have anyone you like in the village? Or do you have a good impression of He Chunsheng or Jiang Ming? I can ask them for you," Jiang Zhen said.

Jiang Xiaomei became a little flustered. People in the village got married early, so she had already thought of getting married. She also had good feelings for a few men she knew, such as Jiang Ming of the village head's family, who she liked very much. But under these circumstances, suddenly having to marry made her feel uneasy.

She had a crush on Jiang Ming, but who knows if Jiang Ming had good feelings for her in return?

"The second option is to ask Zhao Jinge to go to the Jiang family house to buy you and sign a deed of sale. Of course, you can rest assured that you can keep the deed of sale in the future, and when you want to marry, you will marry from this family," Jiang Zhen said.

"Big brother. . ." Jiang Xiaomei, seeing her elder brother being so generous, was slightly torn. Just let her get married in the front, but it's like this secretly in the back . . . Her eldest brother married into the Zhao family house and was in trouble now. It wasn't good, right?

She also knew that her brother had made some money outside, but fifty silver was not a small amount; it could buy two acres of land . . .

"What do you want to do?" Jiang Zhen asked again.

"Big brother, do you have money?" Jiang Xiaomei asked in a small voice.

Jiang Zhen didn't think that Jiang Xiaomei would even be worried about it so he said, "There is money," and opened the two bundles beside him.

In addition to the clothes for Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui, the bundle also contained several hundred taels of silver intended to be given to the Zhao family and some jewelry that was shiny and made of gold.

Jiang Xiaomei was stunned for a moment; old lady Jiang never allowed her to see money, so the most she had in her hand before was a few copper coins. She had never seen so much money . . .

"Brother, you can buy me!" Jiang Xiaomei immediately said.

Jiang Zhen also thought that this was the best option. "You have a good meal and rest first. I will buy you tomorrow."

"Thank you, big brother," Jiang Xiaomei said.

After seeing Jiang Zhen's drastic change before, Jiang Xiaomei became a little afraid of him, but at the moment . . . she suddenly found that this big brother was not so frightening.

The Zhao family's house was small, so the conversation between Jiang Zhen and Jiang Xiaomei was overheard by Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu. However, they were fine with Jiang Zhen spending money "buying" Jiang Xiaomei.

Zhao Jinge, needless to say, knew exactly how rich Jiang Zhen was. Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu thought that the silver on the table might be all of Jiang Zhen's possessions, but they knew that Jiang Zhen had earned it, so they were in no position to stop him from spending it, even if he wanted to spend it all.

"I didn't expect Jinge to have a child . . ." Zhao Liu kept blinking her eyes as she prepared the food, trying not to let the tears fall from her eyes.

"Our days will get better and better from now on," Zhao Fugui said. His action of killing the chicken was very neat, not distressing at all.

"I was worried that Jiang Zhen might get hooked up by some goblins in the capital . . . But now I am relieved, he and Jinge are on good terms," Zhao Liu said again.

"Mm-hmm." Zhao Fugui nodded.

"My life has been completed."

"Mm-hmm." Zhao Fugui continued to nod.

"It's no fun talking to you!" Zhao Liu said, thinking that tomorrow she would be able to speak with other villagers.

"Don't go out and talk nonsense. The Li family has a funeral to arrange," Zhao Fugui said.

Only then did Zhao Liu realize that, because she was so happy, she forgot about Li Yuan and immediately closed her mouth.

The meal could be regarded as lunch. People in Hexi had a casual lunch, but the Zhao family's meal was extraordinarily sumptuous.

Half of a rooster was boiled and the other half braised. Zhao Liu also steamed a silver carp that was raised in the water tank, scraped off the scales, then put it into the chicken soup and simmered it together with the chicken. Corn flour was then added to make a pot of thick fish soup.

It was winter at the moment, so there were not many vegetables to eat in the north, but in Hexi, many vegetables were growing—at least, green vegetables, such as radish, beans, cauliflower, and spinach and so on that were sown before the weather turned completely cold.

If you cook something like green vegetables in water, it wasn't that delicious, but if a villager were willing to stir-fry it in oil . . .

Zhao Liu stir-fried the green vegetables, cut a few radishes into shreds and braised them, cut the garlic leaves that had just grown into small pieces and mixed them with the scrambled eggs.

Except for the boiled chicken, all the other dishes were cooked very quickly. Zhao Liu, relying on the only two pots in the house, soon created a table full of various dishes and then began to invite everyone to eat.

"Mother, I've been hungry for a long time . . ." Zhao Jinge followed Zhao Liu into the kitchen to help with the meal, and then asked, "Mother, where's the rice?"

One pot boiled chicken, one pot stir-fry, and then . . . Zhao Liu forgot to cook rice.

Zhao Liu froze and immediately said, "I made so many dishes to let you eat some vegetables. Go and eat quickly and pour some wine for father and Jiang Zhen." With that, Zhao Liu hurriedly went back to cook.

At the beginning, Jiang Zhen had given Zhao Fugui the wine, but Zhao Fugui didn't want to finish it and stashed it away, so when he opened it now. . . the wine had turned sour.

Although the longer the wine was kept, the mellower it should have been, but it was still better to not open that wine.

In the end, Zhao Fugui made a pot of strong tea and had tea with Jiang Zhen while eating vegetables. Zhao Jinge and Jiang Xiaomei each filled up a bowl of fish soup and slowly began to eat.

Jiang Zhen arrived early in the morning, so he was very hungry. Although there were many dishes on the table, Zhao Liu didn't come to the table, so everyone ate a few mouthfuls and drank strong tea. He had a feeling that he was getting hungrier and hungrier as he ate. Fortunately, it didn't take long to prepare the rice; however, the rice in the iron pot would not be cooked for a while, and even then rice grains might still be a little hard.

"Jinge, eat more. You need to eat for two now." After Zhao Liu came to the table, she began to persuade Zhao Jinge to eat more and gave Jiang Xiaomei a drumstick. "Xiaomei, you also need to eat more and make up for before."

"Mother, I've eaten enough," Zhao Jinge said then let Jiang Xiaomei eat more.

Jiang Xiaomei did eat a lot. She had been feeling sick two days ago and didn't want to work. However, old lady Jiang said that she would starve her for two days, so she could only get up. And so, she had not eaten much these past couple of days and had been hungry for a long time. Moreover, the Zhao family's food was really delicious!

In the past, when the Jiang family was still well-off, they could eat meat during the holidays, and they usually could eat eggs from time to time. But old lady Jiang was never a person who spent much time preparing food. For example, she generally steamed eggs on the steamer when cooking. As for the meat, she usually put it into the water to boil.

Jiang Xiaomei had never even eaten braised chicken or anything like that before. After eating a lot of food, Jiang Xiaomei put down her bowl in embarrassment and secretly regretted that she had eaten so much.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

Meanwhile, Jiang Zhen gave her another piece of chicken. "Eat more if you can." This was an underage sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl. She should be brightly dressed and be lively and lovely. . .

Jiang Xiaomei eyes were filled with bitterness.

As a matter of fact, she was not very kind to her eldest brother in the past although she sympathized with the eldest brother and secretly helped him from time to time. That was to say, she had done much more for her other two brothers. Many clothes of Jiang Chengwen and Jiang Chengxiang were made by her. She had also been helping to take care of Jiang Chengwen's son and washed his diapers since childhood. But as it turned out, Jiang Chengwen was cheated out of the money and wanted to sell her off.

Everyone ate until the plates were clean, and they were all satisfied.

The Zhao family was happy while, on the other hand, the Jiang family was just the opposite.

The Liang family, mother and son, were thrown out of the village by Jiang Zhen's men, and the Jiang family could only watch, unable to help them as Jiang Zhen's men threatened them. They only heard Liang Hu's words before leaving, saying that she no longer had the intention of giving Jiang Xiaomei the opportunity to marry into their family again.

This . . . what should they do? Without Jiang Xiaomei, how much land would they have to sell before they could pay back the money?

"Father, Mother, you shouldn't indulge the second elder brother! He has no ability at all, but he still wants to make a lot of money . . . is big money so easy to make? If money were that easy to make, everyone in the world would be rich!" Jiang Chengxiang couldn't help but say.

This family property would definitely be shared equally between him and Jiang Chengwen in the future, but if Jiang Chengwen lost so much because of his debt, what he would inherit would be less.

Jiang Chengwen also knew he had done something wrong, and because of that, he lowered his head and kept quiet.

---

Chapter 101.2 – Buying Jiang Xiaomei

"Now that my little sister has been taken away by that Jiang Zhen, in two days, it would be time to pay back the debt . . . Father, Mother, I want to separate!" Jiang Chengxiang suddenly said.

"Separation?" Butcher Jiang was stunned.

"Mom, Dad, if we separate my family from my second brother's, if you follow me, you will still be able to live a good life. Otherwise, in the future, we will all eat wind together," Jiang Chengxiang said. He felt that, by helping Jiang Chengwen pay off his debts before the family split up, he wouldn't be able to get anything after. He might as well divide the family right there and let Jiang Chengwen sell his share of the family fortune to pay off his debts!

"No! Jiang Chengxiang, you are too vicious. You are trying to kill your brother!" Huang Min jumped up all of a sudden. If the family separated at this moment, it was estimated that there would be nothing left after the land allocated to Jiang Chengwen was sold to pay off his debts. Where could they live in the future?

"It's hard to let him drag the whole family down with him. One hundred thirty silver is not a small amount of money!" Jiang Chengxiang said.

"It's not like the family can't afford the money! Jiang Chengxiang, why are you so vicious!" Huang Min sat on the ground and began to cry. "If you want to separate the family, alright, I will hang myself in front of your house tomorrow to let people know that you've forced your pregnant sister-in-law to death!"

Of course, Huang Min was reluctant to die, but that did not stop her from threatening people with her death.

Although Jiang Chengwen was very lazy, he was still good to his wife. What's more, he also knew that if they were to separate at this time, he would be finished. He directly pounced on Jiang Chengxiang, and Jiang Chengxiang hit Jiang Chengwen. Jiang Chengxiang and Jiang Chengwen started fighting.

When Zhu Shufen saw this scene, she went back to her room with a straight face. She regretted that she had married Jiang Chengxiang. But . . . looking at her growing belly, Zhu Shufen could only endure it.

People were selfish, and she had to take care of her own baby . . . After returning to her room, Zhu Shufen packed up a few things and went back to her own family house, intending to let her family force Butcher Jiang to separate his two sons. She also didn't want to be with Jiang Chengwen and Huang Min anymore!

However, Butcher Jiang and old lady Jiang could follow them since both of them still had the strength to work for a long time.

There was a lot of noise in the Jiang family, and it soon attracted people around to watch the hustle. People were filled with different emotions as they watched this farce of the Jiang family.

"In the past, when Jiang Zhen was still in the family, they lived a good life. Look at how long it took . . ."

"In fact, I wanted to say before that only the eldest son of the three sons of the Jiang family could work."

"I'm afraid the Jiang family will break up in the future . . ."

"That Jiang Zhen, it can be said that he is really a blessing . . ."

. . .

"Jiang Zhen, being blessed, may not necessarily be true . . . Didn't he meet trouble when he went out this time?"

"I heard that they met pirates, and that Li Yuan died."

"The people who went out didn't bring anything back. I'm afraid they didn't make any money."

"For a man, it is better to buy land and cultivate it, working in a down-to-earth manner. When doing business, you might accidentally lose all your money."

. . .

In the countryside, people believe in keeping their money secret, or else, what if someone came to steal it? Because of this, although Jiang Ming and others got a lot of money, they did not say a word about it, so much so that everyone in the village felt that Jiang Zhen's trip did not go well.

Jiang Zhen also learned about the affairs of the Jiang family. Jiang Ping's house was not far away from the Jiang family, so when Jiang Ming saw the situation of the Jiang family, he came to Jiang Zhen and told him about it vividly.

"Those people . . ." Jiang Zhen snorted coldly.

As a matter of fact, Jiang Chengxiang and Jiang Chengwen were not necessarily that bad themselves, but they were spoiled by old lady Jiang without a doubt.

Even though there was so much work to do in the fields, old lady Jiang never let them do it, only asking him to do it alone . . . In modern times, some families preferred boys over daughters and let their daughters work while their sons didn't have to do anything. Regardless of their thoughts, the girls raised in such families were very capable. But what about the son they raised? You can't do anything about an opened bottle of oil after it falls down.

Without the hardworking eldest Jiang at home, how would the family be able to survive with these people?

There are some things that are better to end early . . .

Jiang Zhen looked to Jiang Ming. "You go keep an eye on things, and when they are almost done fighting, come and tell me."

"Good!" Jiang Ming immediately ran away.

When Jiang Zhen looked back, he saw that Jiang Xiaomei was looking in the direction of Jiang Ming's departure

In this small village, there was no rule of not marrying people with the same surname, as long as the two families were not directly related. Jiang family and Jiang Ping's family had nothing to do with each other.

If Jiang Xiaomei liked him . . . Jiang Zhen thought that he could create some opportunities for the two of them to get closer and see if they were suitable or not.

Jiang Chengwen and Jiang Chengxiang fought until they were finally separated by Butcher Jiang and some relatives and friends of the Jiang family. It was at this time that Jiang Zhen came.

Jiang Zhen . . . What was he doing here?

When Jiang Chengwen saw Jiang Zhen, he immediately looked at him angrily . . . Old lady Jiang wanted to jump out too, but there were many people behind Jiang Zhen.

Jiang Ming was a very easy-going man who was raised in a good family environment since he was a child. He has read some books and often went to the theatre. As soon as Jiang Zhen entered the Jiang family house, he moved the best chair over. "Boss, sit down!"

Jiang Zhen was stunned then sat down and looked around at his men then at the bruised and swollen Jiang family in front of him. Suddenly, he felt like a triad boss.

"You were going to sell Xiaomei, aren't you?" When the Jiang family did not speak, Jiang Zhen spoke first.

"What sell? We just found her a husband! Letting her live in a country town and enjoy herself!" old lady Jiang said.

"What a nice thing to say." Jiang Zhen laughed.

"Jiang Zhen, you'd better give your little sister back! Or I'll go to the yamen and sue you for kidnapping and human trafficking!" Jiang Chengwen was so anxious; he forced himself to stand up to give a warning.

He was afraid that if Jiang Xiaomei would not go back, Butcher Jiang and old lady Jiang would really want him to separate from Jiang Chengxiang . . . Even if they didn't separate, without the silver from selling Jiang Xiaomei, their family would definitely have a hard time in the future.

"Jiang Zhen, you weren't afraid of me suing you before, but now what? Do you have the guts to go to the yamen and kill like you said before? At that time, the first person with bad luck will be the Zhao family and Zhao Jinge!"

The more Jiang Chengwen said, the more he felt that he was right. He was not as afraid of Jiang Zhen as before.

"Go and beat him up," Jiang Zhen said to Jiang Ming.

Jiang Ming went up and slapped Jiang Chengwen on the face, followed by another kick . . . This man's mind was not clear. First, he was cheated out of money and now wanted to sell his own sister. He was simply not a human being.

The head of the village who came in a hurry to stop fighting was full of embarrassment. This . . . Why . . . Why was his son also hitting people?

"If you have something to say . . . ," Jiang Ping said.

"Dad, we're having a good talk." Jiang Ming let go of Jiang Chengwen with a smile.

Jiang Chengwen, who just shouted that he would go to the yamen to sue Jiang Zhen, didn't dare to say even a word.

Jiang Zhen was already extremely disappointed with this family, so he didn't bother to talk with these people. "Yes, I am no longer the same. I am not open-minded . . . So I came this time to talk to you."

Jiang Zhen sat in a chair, but the Jiang family was still standing, but they were still feeling that Jinag Zhen was looking down at them.

Jiang Zhen continued, "Aren't you going to sell Jiang Xiaomei? It would be better to sell her to me than to someone else. But from then on, like me, she will have nothing to do with you and will be cutting off ties with you."

"You want to buy Jiang Xiaomei?" old lady Jiang raised her head and said, "Two hundred silver! You pay me two hundred silver!"

"You guys beat up Jiang Chengwen and Jiang Chengxiang," Jiang Zhen said.

Jiang Ming pushed up his sleeves and went up with He Chunsheng.

Jiang Ping: ". . ."

"Fifty silver, you will sell whether you want to or not." Jiang Zhen said directly.

In fact, it didn't cost much money to raise a child in the countryside. It's just a matter of adding a pair of chopsticks. Moreover, when the child was seven or eight years old, they would be able to start working.

Although Jiang Chengxiang and Jiang Chengwen never worked, Jiang Xiaomei began to help old lady Jiang cook and wash clothes when she was still very young. Later, she was in charge of the chickens and ducks at home, so she didn't need to work in the fields. Therefore, it would absolutely not cost Jiang family fifty silver to raise Jiang Xiaomei.

At this time, of course, old lady Jiang wanted to raise the price again, but how could she when her two sons are getting beaten up!

"Sell it or not?" Jiang Zhen asked.

Old lady Jiang finally agreed. "Sell."

When Jiang Zhen heard the words, he said to Jiang Ming. "All right, you guys can stop."

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

The village head Jiang Ping breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that these people finally stopped fighting. At this time, Jiang Zhen looked at him and said, "Village head, I would like to trouble you to be a middleman in this deal."

Jiang Ping: ". . ."

The Jiang family was not easy to deal with. If they bought Jiang Xiaomei from them, they would definitely be able to cheat and deny the debt if he didn't have a document, so he definitely wanted the deed of sale.

Jiang Zhen didn't really know anything about the sale deed at this time, but Jiang Ping had seen it before. He discussed it with the Jiang family, confirmed with Jiang Zhen, and quickly wrote down a sale deed.

It was like this:

"Jiang Chengwen has a younger sister, named Xiaomei, who is sixteen years old, and is willing to sell herself to Zhao Jinge as a servant."

It also stated, "The base price is 50 silver. If there are any problems, a middleman would take over the management of the person, and this person will have nothing to do with the buyer. Because there is no other proof, it is signed by the seller and kept by the buyer."

Seller: Jiang Chengwen

Mediator: Jiang Ping, He Chunsheng

The writer: Jiang Chengxiang

---

Chapter 101.3 – Buying Jiang Xiaomei

In order to avoid any possible trouble in the future, when Jiang Zhen wrote the contract of sale, he asked them to make this sale under Zhao Jinge's name.

However, Butcher Jiang was not willing to sign his name on that document, so in the end, it was Jiang Chengwen who came forward to sell his sister. This document was written by Jiang Chengxiang.

When the document was written out and signed, Jiang Xiaomei became Zhao Jinge's servant and now had nothing to do with the Jiang family.

Jiang Zhen threw down fifty silver and left without looking back.

Jiang Zhen gave this deed of sale to Jiang Xiaomei as he promised before saying, "Before you get married, you should take it and hide it well so that those people will not come to take you back."

Jiang Xiaomei could not read, but she also knew that this was her deed of sale. Holding that piece of paper, she burst into tears.

Jiang Xiaomei cried for a long time, and when she was having dinner that day, she was still sobbing incessantly. However, although she was crying, her speed of eating had not slowed down at all. She couldn't help it, Zhao Liu's cooking was too delicious!

Zhao Liu specially picked up a fish, which was some variation of silver carp. People in Hexi generally called it baotou fish or big-headed fish because its head was so big.

Zhao Liu stewed tofu with the fish head and then braised the rest of the fish with sweet and sour sauce. In addition, she asked Zhao Fugui to go to the county town to buy a piece of pork and made braised meat.

In fact, Zhao Liu had also made several vegetarian dishes. She and Zhao Fugui hadn't even gone to the Jiang house to watch the fun because they were so busy cooking and preparing the food.

However, in Jiang Xiaomei's eyes . . .she only saw the couple of meat dishes laid out.

She didn't eat much; she only ate meat. How delicious it was to taste the meat in her mouth! But after a few bites of green vegetables, the flavor was gone!

What's more, this fish was so delicious . . . Old lady Jiang was too reluctant to put oil in the fish while steaming it, but what about the fish Zhao Liu cooked? She fried the fish head with oil, and not only did she put oil in the fish, she also put sweet and sour soy sauce on it!

Jiang Zhen watched Jiang Xiaomei sobbing while eating and gave her a piece of fatty meat; obviously, Jiang Xiaomei preferred the fat meat.

As for Zhao Jinge . . . Jiang Zhen cut the meat and cut off all the fat before giving it to him to eat, saying, "You should eat more fish."

When Zhao Liu saw this scene, she was somewhat surprised. "Jinge is pregnant with a child, so even his taste has changed?" He didn't like fat meat anymore?

"Mmm . . . ," Zhao Jinge responded, not saying that he actually loved to eat fatty meat, but Jiang Zhen did not allow him to eat more . . . However, although Jiang Zhen did not allow him to eat more fatty meat, every day, he gave him fish and meat. In the whole Hexi, probably no one else was able to eat like this. For better or worse, he really didn't like fatty meat as much as he used to.

"Mom, Dad, you should prepare more chicken, ducks, and fish in the future . . . Don't sell our chickens and ducks anymore. We can eat them all by yourself," Jiang Zhen said. He thought it was healthier to eat chicken, duck, and fish.

"How can we finish eating so many chickens and ducks by ourselves?" Zhao Liu was startled.

"One a day," Jiang Zhen said.

This . . . who eats chicken and ducks every day? Although Jiang Zhen at least brought back some money when he went out this time, he spent 50 silver to buy Jiang Xiaomei so there were no more than 100 silver left . . . to eat a chicken and duck every day.

In order to solve Jiang Xiaomei's matter, Jiang Zhen did not have time to tell Zhao Liu that he has made a lot of money this time. As for Zhao Jinge . . . he simply slept all afternoon.

Although Zhao Liu was worried, she considered the fact that Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge had just returned and that Jiang Xiaomei was also there, so she didn't ask.

When her son went out, he probably didn't eat or drink well. Jiang Xiaomei also suffered . . . A few days of eating chickens and ducks was nothing at all . . .

That night, Jiang Xiaomei was assigned to live in the house that Jiang Zhen had asked the Jiang family to build for him.

The house that Jiang Zhen used to live in by himself had been vacant for a long time, but it could still be used by Jiang Xiaomei immediately without needing to buy anything.

After tossing and turning all day, Jiang Zhen was so tired that he went to fetch some water to wash up before falling asleep beside Zhao Jinge, who was not sleepy at all after napping all afternoon.

After putting Jiang Zhen's hand on his stomach, Zhao Jinge yawned and slowly nodded off.

Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu were old, and they didn't sleep much, so they got up at dusk the next day and took the rice to the river to wash.

People in Hexi got up early, so when they saw Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui, they all went to say hello. Some of them asked how much money Jiang Zhen made this time, and others said, "I don't think Jiang Zhen brought anything back with him when he came back yesterday. I'm afraid this trip didn't go well."

Although Zhao Liu was always worried about Jiang Zhen, she was immediately displeased when others said so.

"It did not go well, and Li Yuan kid is gone . . ."

"But Jiang Zhen really likes to spend money. When he came back, he brought me several kinds of jewelry."

"What's more, he asked me to kill chickens and ducks for Jinge every day . . . How can you say that he is fooling around? There is no one who would cheat to eat chickens and ducks every day!"

She talked about Jiang Zhen for a while but didn't dare to say anything more for fear that these people would really find out that Jiang Zhen did not make money, so she switched the topic to Zhao Jinge.

"It is true that Jinge is pregnant with a child, and he simply treats himself so well, giving Jiang Zhen all the food he doesn't like to eat . . . Our Zhao family was never so picky about food."

"Even the water he used to wash his feet yesterday, he had asked Jiang Zhen to carry it into the house!"

"Say, in our village, who is pregnant with a child and is more delicate than him?"

. . .

When Jiang Zhen came out of the house, he heard Zhao Liu showing off, and his heart was suddenly a little happy.

When Zhao Liu saw Jiang Zhen, she was a little embarrassed. Ordinary men, even if they were willing to do something for women at home, they were not willing to speak about it outside for fear of losing face.

"Mother, Jinge is not delicate. Besides, those are things that I should be doing anyway." Jiang Zhen smiled at Zhao Liu.

Zhao Liu immediately had a sense of fulfillment, straightening her waist and looking at the people around with a smug look on her face.

The surrounding people: ". . ."

What are you so proud of? Jiang Zhen must have spent a lot of money to please Zhao Jinge . . .

The villagers were silently, sore in their hearts.

At that time, however, Zhao Liu asked Jiang Zhen, "Jiang Zhen, why did you already get up? Shouldn't you sleep more?"

"He Chunsheng woke me up. He said that my ship was coming," Jiang Zhen said.

"Ship? We haven't seen it," Zhao Liu said with some doubts. They were by the river and hadn't seen any boats at all.

"It's over the canal." Jiang Zhen pointed in the direction of Zhao Dahu's family house.

There were many things on that ship, so after thinking about it yesterday, he simply asked He Chunsheng and the others to take a trip today and sail the ship directly over here.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

"Why is it over there? Did it go the wrong way? You can go and tell them to turn back the boat directly," Zhao Liu said.

Jiang Zhen paused for a moment. "Can't. The canal is too small."

The author has something to say: Everyone look over here~.

The format of the deed of sale is from Baidu, copy and paste modify.

In ancient times, there were sixteen ways to weigh but for the sake of this novel, I unified it as ten silver = one jin = 500 grams.

Finally, let's talk about silver~

Although this novel is fictional, it is basically written according to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

In fact, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, there was more and more silver; therefore, even a farmer's family could make money. Apart from farmers, many officials were able to bury millions of taels of silver under their own houses, and salt merchants made even more money. Not to mention the big sea merchants in the south. At that time, all the money from all over the world was flowing into China.

Therefore, Jiang Zhen is not really rich at the present stage. There are some wealthy merchants that spend 100,000 silver a year on family expenses, so building a garden can use up all his wealth. However, although big merchants and officials were rich, ordinary people were still very poor.

---

Chapter 102.1 – Jiang Zhen got rich

The canal was too small?

Zhao Liu looked at the canal beside her, puzzled. This canal was not small; it could fit three boats side by side without a problem!

As Zhao Liu was wondering, all of Jiang Zhen's men from Hexi came, even those who lived in Qiaotou Village and the county town also came.

After those people went out with Jiang Zhen, their temperaments had all changed. Because they had been eating well, they all became very strong. Now standing together, they gave people great pressure, not to mention that after they saw Jiang Zhen, they opened their mouths and shouted in unison, "Greetings, boss!"

Their voices were so loud that it made Zhao Liu afraid.

"Mm-hmm." Jiang Zhen nodded to them then pointed to the river. "You go first."

"Yes, boss!" Everyone responded in unison, and then He Chunsheng shouted, "Run, go!"

After He Chunsheng finished, these people ran the distance in an orderly way.

Zhao Liu was a little overwhelmed by this scene, but soon, she became even prouder. These were Jiang Zhen's men! But . . . what are they going to do by the river?

"Mother, would you like to come over there with me?" Jiang Zhen asked.

"I'm cleaning rice," Zhao Liu said.

"Auntie, can you help my mother put the rice back?" Jiang Zhen took a bamboo sieve from Zhao Liu's hand and gave it to a middle-aged woman who was also washing rice.

These days, after people husk the rice, there were often a lot of shells left, so they needed to wash the rice and let it soak in the water to let the rice husk float away.

"Oh . . . ," The woman answered and subconsciously took the bamboo sieve from Jiang Zhen's hand.

"Thank you," Jiang Zhen said.

In this rural place, few people would solemnly thank people, especially Jiang Zhen, who was now famous . . . The woman holding the bamboo sieve was slightly stunned for a moment. When she saw Jiang Zhen leaving with Zhao Liu, she said to people around her, "Did you hear that? Jiang Zhen just thanked me!"

"I heard it," the man beside her said.

Jiang Zhen was not vicious at all, in fact, he made one feel that he could be trusted.

At first when they heard Zhao Liu's words of how much Jiang Zhen loved Zhao Jinge and how good he was to them, they always thought she was bragging, but Jiang Zhen was smiling just now . . . Perhaps Zhao Liu hadn't lied.

"They've all gone to the river. What do you think is there?"

"Let's go and have a look too."

"All right. Let's go and have a look."

. . .

After some discussion, everyone made a decision. However, they all had something to put away at home first, especially the woman who picked up Zhao Liu's bamboo sieve. She needed to go past two houses to put those away: "Wait for me!"

"With such a short road, there's nothing to wait for! Why don't you just go slowly?" Some people were already on their way.

The winter days were short, and although it's only dawn, the Hexi villagers were basically all awake. When the man waiting for breakfast saw his wife running back from outside in a hurry, he had to ask, "Why are you running so fast?"

"I'm going to go see what's going on."

"What's the excitement?"

"Jiang Zhen took a large group of people to Zhao Dahu's house!"

Jiang Zhen took people to Zhao Dahu house? What was going on?

There were so few interesting things that happened in the countryside, so no matter who had an accident, everyone would rush over to watch the hustle and bustle. Since Jiang Zhen had taken a group of people to Zhao Dahu's family house, everyone ran to watch the fun.

Village head Jiang Ping also rushed over.

His son went to Zhao's house early in the morning. Then he heard that he followed a group of people to Zhao Dahu's house. He did not know what was going on . . . but he needed to keep an eye on it.

Zhao Dahu's family was already awake by that time.

They all lived a little farther away from the villagers, so at first when they saw a group of people running from afar, they became scared. They were afraid that someone had come to rob their house, and they became even more afraid when they found out that these were Jiang Zhen's men. They were not very kind to Zhao Jinge in the past. Jiang Zhen wasn't coming to trouble them, was he?

They were worried. Then they saw the group running neatly across the road next to their house and then towards the river. Zhao Dahu breathed a sigh of relief and immediately became curious. Why on earth were these people going to the other side of the river? He . . . also needed to go take a look.

After Zhao Dahu's family cleaned themselves up, they also went out to watch the hustle and bustle.

By that time, a big ship had come to a stop beside the river, its captain was looking for a place to dock, some people ran to the riverbank and then tied the ship to the trees on the riverbank with ropes.

In general, the cargo capacity of a ship was much better than that of a horse-drawn carriage. After all, ships all had the help of buoyancy. As long as the ship was bigger, it could carry a lot more things . . . In order to secure the ship, those people had to take out more ropes so that it could stay firmly in place. When they had finished tying it up, they found some boards and laid them between the boat and the river bank.

After doing all of that, those busy people looked at Wang Haisheng and asked, "Brother Wang, is this the place? When will the boss come over?"

"Soon," Wang Haisheng said. Watching the people on the boat treat him respectfully and calling him Brother Wang made him feel very proud. He used to be a fisherman; he really didn't expect to have such a day.

As soon as Wang Haisheng spoke, He Chunsheng came with people, and after a while, Jiang Zhen also arrived.

After Jiang Zhen called Zhao Liu, he went to the other side of the river and met Zhao Jinge and Zhao Fugui on the way.

Zhao Jinge strode along while Zhao Fugui, who had always been silent and then looked at him discontentedly, unexpectedly saying, "Jinge, be careful, be careful . . . How can you walk so fast when you are pregnant with a child?" His son didn't look like most gers, wasn't he afraid that Jiang Zhen would start disliking him?

"Dad, what should I pay attention to?"

"What else can you pay attention to? Of course, I want you to walk slowly!" Zhao Liu immediately said, and Jiang Zhen looked at her with a smile.

Seeing Jiang Zhen, Zhao Jinge immediately slowed down.

Their family didn't walk fast, so in a short time, the rest of the villagers had caught up to them by the time they had already reached the edge of the river.

In the past, Jiang Zhen had a lot of dates with Zhao Jinge by this river. Looking at this place, his eyes flashed in nostalgia, and he felt that everything was pleasing, especially the large clump of indocalamus bamboos, which was withered and yellow because of the cold weather, was extremely lovely.

In the past, he held Zhao Jinge's hand and kissed him there.

Jiang Zhen was thinking about the past, but the eyes of Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui were attracted to the big ships by the river.

There were many ships going back and forth on this side of the river. Both Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui had even helped with the cargo on the docks before, so even he had boarded such a big ship, but this one . . .

He Chunsheng and those people all ran to the ship. This ship, this ship . . .

"Why is there such a big ship here?"

"The men under Jiang Zhen command went on the board."

"Did you see Jiang Ming? He's carrying things down the ship!"

. . .

The Hexi villagers did not dare come nearer; they all stopped at some distance, on the slope of the river, which was much higher than the river bank. They talked one after another, and after a while, everyone looked at the village head, Jiang Ping.

The village head always knew a lot of things, and Jiang Ming went to the ship. At the moment, if they had doubts, they would have to ask Jiang Ping. Who would want to ask that fierce and evil Jiang Zhen?

Jiang Ping: ". . ." He really didn't know where that ship came from!

His brat said he left something on the ship and needed to bring it back . . . Could it be this ship? Did this ship belong to the Zheng family?

After thinking about it, Jiang Ping thought that this should be the case, so he said, "Isn't Jiang Zhen working for the Zheng family? This ship should be the Zheng family's."

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Jiang Zhen walking towards that ship, and everyone on that ship nodded and bowed to Jiang Zhen. "Boss!"

Wait, this ship . . . It wasn't Jiang Zhen's, right?

"This ship . . . It can't be Jiang Zhen's right?" Jiang Ping, who was far away, was skeptical, but Zhao Liu also could not help but have some doubt. Before, Jiang Zhen had said that his ship was on the way.

"What nonsense! How much money does a ship of this size cost?" Zhao Fugui looked at his wife and reprimanded her. Many of the rich people in this county town didn't even own a ship this big!

"Also . . ." Zhao Liu also felt that the ship should not be Jiang Zhen's.

"Father, Mother, it's Jiang Zhen's," Zhao Jinge said awkwardly. He just remembered that he had forgotten to tell his parents about it.

Zhao Liu shuddered and became a little unsteady. Zhao Fugui's expression froze. "Jinge, what did you say?"

"That boat is Jiang Zhen's," Zhao Jinge said.

Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu were dumbfounded, and only after a while did they look at Zhao Jinge.

Zhao Fugui: "Where did it come from?"

Zhao Liu: "How could Jiang Zhen even afford such a big ship? Jinge, you have to watch out for him. Don't let him be seduced by those little goblins."

"Mother, Jiang Zhen won't," Zhao Jinge answered Zhao Liu, but he didn't know how to answer Zhao Fugui . . . He couldn't say that Jiang Zhen robbed this ship, right?

Fortunately, Zhao Fugui was subdued and did not continue to ask.

Jiang Zhen had already gone on board and commanded people to begin moving things down from the ship.

What they moved down first were things everyone bought in the capital to bring back home. Jiang Zhen also allowed his men to carry these things back to their homes first. Anyway, there were a lot of sailors on the ship, and he had no shortage of people to help him move the goods.

Jiang Zhen's men cheered as they picked up their own things one after another.

He Chunsheng bought a lot of brightly colored fabrics and found his younger brother He Qiusheng. "Qiusheng, these are for you. Take them to make clothes."

"Brother!" He Qiusheng's eyes lit up immediately.

"Dad, I bought you a chamber pot! I heard you say that your chamber pot was broken, and that you have accidentally scraped it—Ouch!" Before Jiang Ming could finish his words, he was smacked on the head by his father.

This brat really dared to say anything! Jiang Ping looked awkwardly at the people around him, and sure enough, he saw that all the people in the village were looking at him in surprise. Their eyes were all trained on a certain part of him.

Jiang Ping: ". . ." His son was a debt collector! "Cough," Jiang Ping coughed twice and pointed to the large bags around Jiang Ming. "These are all you bought?"

"Yes, Dad," Jiang Ming said. "I bought something for everyone in my family."

"That ship . . . ," Jiang Ping asked again.

"That ship belongs to Boss," Jiang Ming said.

"Jiang Zhen's ship? Where did Jiang Zhen get such a big ship?" Jiang Ping was shocked. So were the surrounding Hexi villagers.

Where did Jiang Zhen get such a big ship? He hadn't made any money, had he?

"Isn't it just a ship? Dad, why are you so surprised?" Jiang Ming said. This ship didn't look like a big deal to him.

"Is this just an ordinary boat?" Jiang Ping was angry.

"This is a very ordinary ship. The boss has five more around the same size, and a few slightly smaller ones," Jiang Ming said.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

Jiang Ping: ". . ."

Hexi people: ". . ."

Jiang Zhen, how did he get so many ships? Did he rob them?

Zhao Dahu and his family were also among the crowd, and they listened to the conversation between Jiang Ping and his son and then . . . They used to be the richest in the village, but it looks like that won't be the case any longer. Suddenly they felt a little depressed!

Most of the people in Hexi Village, except for Butcher Jiang's family went to the riverside.

As for why Butcher Jiang butcher didn't go . . . at that time, they needed to hide from Jiang Zhen and lay low. How could they send themselves to his side?

Because all the people in Hexi had run away, the whole village looked empty. Meanwhile, Zhu Shufen came back with her parents and relatives.

She didn't even greet the Jiang family yesterday; she just packed up her things and went back to her mother's house. She wanted to bring her family and force the Jiang family to divide, so this day, they came early in the morning.

Afraid that the people in Hexi Village would not agree to separate the family, the Zhu family called a lot of people today. Zhu Shufen's father, Zhu Xiucai, also came in person.

They angrily rushed to Hexi Village only to find . . . Why was Hexi Village so quiet, and why was there no one around?

---

Chapter 102.2 – Jiang Zhen got rich

"Where are all the villagers?" Zhu Xiucai looked left and right, puzzled.

"I don't know." Zhu Shufen was also puzzled. At this time, the village should be making fire. Was everyone eating breakfast? Why is there no one out at this moment?

"This matter will not run away, will it? Uncle, let's go and see the Jiang family's house!" someone said.

The group of people quickly ran towards the Jiang family's house and then blocked them all in.

The other day, the Jiang family was blocked by Jiang Zhen, and this day, they were blocked by the Zhu family. The chair that Jiang Zhen sat on yesterday was also brought out for his father-in-law by Jiang Chengxiang at his own initiative.

A one-sided negotiation began.

The people in Hexi village knew nothing about the Jiang family situation. They were still in shock. However, they could at least speak at the moment . . .

"This Jiang Zhen is really something!"

"Yeah, he's only been out for a few months, but he's brought back ships this big."

"He's definitely blessed."

"It's true that old lady Jiang had been treating him unfairly. If the Jiang family had treated him better, they might have become rich a long time ago."

. . .

The second uncle of the Jiang family was also there and was furious when he heard these words. He became angry. He felt that Jiang Zhen was not ambitious enough. If he were so capable, why would he lower himself to marry into someone else's family? Wasn't it good enough to start your own household? He could marry a wife and have four concubines and open branches and scatter leaves for the Jiang family . . .

The second uncle of the Jiang family thought like this and wanted to talk to Jiang Zhen again, but his son, seeing this, quickly grabbed him.

Jiang Zhen was so powerful now; it would be stupid to offend him again!

Meanwhile, Zhao Fugui had boarded the ship to help Jiang Zhen move things.

As a matter of fact, Jiang Zhen had no shortage of people to do this, but Zhao Fugui was so happy, he insisted on moving them, so Jiang Zhen let him. However, he asked him to only move what he had brought back for him and Zhao Liu and not carry too much.

Like so, Zhao Fugui moved a little each time, back and forth.

"Mother, ask Dad to come back." When Zhao Jinge saw his father running back and forth. He felt a little distressed.

"Your father is showing off. Don't mind him," Zhao Liu said. In fact, she also wanted to go down there and move things! But the plank was too narrow, so she didn't dare to go there.

Zhao Liu's eyes turned to look at the people from the village not far away.

A few people who often spoke with Zhao Liu and had a good relationship with her immediately came over to her and boasted, "I told you that Jinge has been blessed since childhood! I was sure he could marry well!"

"Zhao Liu, you have been waiting for good days!"

"You have the best life in our village."

. . .

Zhao Liu was praised without having to take the initiative to show off, so she was very happy.

At this time these people began to inquire, "How was Jiang Zhen suddenly able to have such a ship?"

Zhao Liu froze when she heard this question. She also didn't know!

Zhao Liu immediately looked at Zhao Jinge.

Zhao Jinge coughed twice. "Jiang Zhen . . . He's very good . . . Well . . ."

He wanted to show off like his mother, but he didn't know what to say. If he praised Jiang Zhen too much, wouldn't other people want to rob him?

"This child mouth is really clumsy!" Zhao Liu said. He didn't know where Jiang Zhen's ship had came from, but it did not affect her boasting. "Jiang Zhen has always been a capable man. What are a few ships for him?"

"The master of the Zheng family appreciates him!"

"But he's not always good at everything—No, he's too clingy. When going out to do business, he always takes Jinge with him. Jinge is pregnant, but he still travels outside."

"Of course, he has such a big ship, so Jinge won't be tired."

"They are such a sticky couple, so sticky . . ."

If his mother said so, and people knew that Jiang Zhen liked him very much, then they wouldn't think of stealing Jiang Zhen from him. That's great!

"Madam, Old Madam." At this time, Cook Li came with Ruo-er; their accent was a little different from the Hexi one. However, because they learned from Zhao Jinge, their accent was not too difficult for Zhao Liu to understand.

"This is . . ." Zhao Liu didn't know who these two people were, and . . . This was the first time someone called her Old Madam . . . It was really strange. Even Zhao Dahu's mother wasn't called that.

"Jiang Zhen asked them to take care of me," Zhao Jinge said.

"Oh, you see, this Jiang Zhen is really good at spending money. My Jinge is so sturdy. Why would he need someone to take care of him?" Zhao Liu immediately said, "But I don't have to worry about how to take care of the child. Someone can help!"

The people of Hexi who failed to get a word in: ". . ."

Suddenly, they all wanted to smack Zhao Liu . . .

Zhao Jinge smiled reservedly and suddenly understood why his mother liked to show off to people like this.

Zhao Fugui ran back and forth more than a dozen times before he finished unloading all of the things. Then Jiang Zhen found a man and asked him to help deliver the things to Zhao house.

The man took a load and picked up all the things Zhao Fugui had carried for so long, leaving only a few small baggage for Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui to take.

As a matter of fact, this baggage was originally intended to be carried by Ruo-er, but Zhao Liu wanted to take it.

"Such good material, but it's used to wrap baggage." Zhao Liu's expression was a bit tangled as she stroked the baggage in her hand.

Because Jiang Zhen came over, all the people around scattered. Seeing the situation, Zhao Liu pulled Zhao Jinge over quietly and said, "Mother just said some words you should not listen to."

"What?" Zhao Jinge was puzzled.

"That is to say, it is too sticky for you to follow Jiang Zhen out . . . Mother thought about it. You'd better go with him in the future so that Jiang Zhen won't be taken away!"

When the Zhao family was still doing well, even the honest Zhao Fugui was targeted by a widow who wanted to get money from Zhao Fugui and let him help with the work. Now that Jiang Zhen was rich . . . She thought it would be better if her son followed Jinag Zhen all the time so that even if some goblins wanted to stick to him, her son could beat them away!

Zhao Jinge solemnly nodded. He also felt that, as long as he could follow, he must follow.

With Jiang Zhen walking in the front, he brought the people of Hexi back. Everyone was so dizzy that no one noticed the movements within the Jiang family. Especially after Jiang Zhen put down his things and went to the river again. Everyone yelled, and then followed after him again.

Jiang Zhen had calculated to himself that he should have more than two hundred thousand silver in cash, which included all the real estate, like his ship.

If he really wanted to talk about silver . . . after he bought a lot of goods in the capital, there was only about twenty thousand silver left. This twenty thousand silver was what he planned to hide at home as emergency funds.

Twenty thousand taels of silver weighed two thousand jin (1,000 kg), which was one ton in modern times. It looked like quite a lot, but if you put it together, it wasn't much.

This ten thousand silver, when put into the box, would fill only four boxes, and it was only because the shape of the silver was not regular.

These boxes were previously locked on the ship by Jiang Zhen, but Jiang Zhen had personally led people to carry them back to the Zhao family. After that, he would arrange some of his own men to serve as guards.

At the same time, there was also another urgent matter. That was to build a house.

Jiang Zhen hadn't been in a hurry to build a house before, mainly because he didn't have the money on hand, but now that he was rich, he must build a good house. Even so, he did not want to build just any house.

Jiang Zhen remembered that Li Mingzhe, who was engaged in the silk business in Lijia Village, not only built his house by the river, but also built a small dock to make it convenient for people from various region of the country to dock their boats and sell their cocoons to him.

Should he also buy a piece of land and then build docks as well as a house?

Speaking of which, although there were all kinds of difficulties in ancient times, there were also some aspects that Jiang Zhen liked very much. For example, when you buy a piece of land these days, you can do anything you like with it. Unlike in the modern times where you needed to build it according to the higher-up's approval.

If a person wanted to build a dock for personal use, it would be even more troublesome, and he may not even be able to get approval at all. If he could, he would build a big dock in Hexi Village and build the house next to it.

Jiang Zhen took out a piece of paper and drew the topography of Hexi, and then he began to pick the place.

At this time, Zhao Fugui and his wife opened the boxes that Jiang Zhen brought back. As soon as they opened the box, they were surprised. There was so much silver in this box!

Zhao Liu covered her chest and felt that she could not breathe.

"Fuck! You can't talk about this outside." Zhao Fugui gulped and said, "I'll go kill a chicken."

"Don't just kill a chicken, kill a duck too . . . Jiang Zhen likes to eat braised duck meat," Zhao Liu said.

So much silver, ah . . . All the chickens and ducks they raised could indeed be eaten by themselves . . .

Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui went to cook, but Zhao Jinge came to Jiang Zhen's side.

He now had a little knowledge, so when he saw Jiang Zhen drawing, he could guess it at a glance, "Are you mapping out Hexi Village?"

"Mm-hmm," Jiang Zhen said to Zhao Jinge and then pointed to the drawing to show it to Zhao Jinge. "What do you say we build a house here?" 𝗳𝔯𝙚e𝒘e𝚋𝙣𝚘ν𝙚𝚕.𝑐o𝓶

"Good!" Zhao Jinge immediately said. He was worried that his house was too small for all these people to live in!

After all, he might have two children in three years, right? Maybe after five years, there would even be three children!

Jiang Zhen didn't know that Zhao Jinge's thoughts were not about building a house.

"Although using mud walls to build a house saves time, it has many defects, and it is still damp. I want to change it and build a brick house, but the layout of the house cannot be like this. Every house should be well planned. I will design a house first . . . Better to build a building . . ."

"Building?" Zhao Jinge looked at Jiang Zhen in surprise.

"Yes, building. Even if the floor could be paved with bricks and tiles, the ground floor would be too humid, so it's better to build a building and live upstairs," Jiang Zhen said. "Do you think I should get a brick kiln and bake bricks first?"

Jiang Zhen didn't know how to burn glass, but he roughly knew how to bake bricks. After all, burning bricks was simple . . . Wasn't it just to make some molds with clay and bake them? In addition, there were already brick kilns in ancient times. He might as well recruit some brick-baking master and solve this matter.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

Jiang Zhen quickly made a decision, and Zhao Jinge, after he made this decision, immediately agreed.

They would go to buy the land tomorrow.

While Jiang Zhen was thinking about how to buy land, the Jiang family was taken by the Zhu family to the country town to sell land. Then they went to pay the debt and separate the family along the way.

The Jiang family still had eleven acres of paddy fields left, ten acres of mulberry land, and ten acres of dry land. This time, in order to pay off the debt, they sold three acres of paddy fields, two acres of dry land, and two acres of mulberry land.

After Zhu Xiucai came forward, Jiang Chengwen owed all the debts, so after the separation of family, Jiang Chengxiang rightfully got more things. He got five acres of paddy field, five acres of mulberry land, and five acres of dry land. However, even so, Jiang Chengxiang's share had become much less than he had expected.

At present, if he worked hard in the field for a year, he would only be able to get enough for food and clothing. It would be difficult to have a surplus.

Jiang Chengwen was even worse; he only got a total of three acres of paddy field, three acres of dry land, and three acres of mulberry land. Even if each piece of land was used well, he would hardly have enough to eat . . . After all, he would be having another child soon.

Moreover, he and Jiang Chengxiang made a deal that old lady Jiang would follow him and Butcher Jiang would follow Jiang Chengxiang. That meant his family had three adults . . . It was a good thing that old lady Jiang could raise silkworms to help support the family.

As a matter of fact, the amount of land that the Jiang brothers had was not small. There were still many people in Hexi who were poorer, but transferring from extravagance to frugality was always a bit hard to swallow.

And only when the land was planted would they have a harvest! However, they didn't know how to farm. The Jiang family looked at each other in disagreement as they hung their heads low when they returned to Hexi dejectedly and only to find out that . . . Jiang Zhen had unexpectedly earned a lot of money!

---

Chapter 103.1 – Buying land to build a house

The people of Hexi village were so happy, as if there was a festival that day. In their village, there is a big man now!

Jiang Zhen was very, very powerful. He went out on trip, and when he got back, he got one—no no, several big ships and suddenly became a big businessman! It was estimated that Jiang Zhen now had more money compared to Zhao Dahu.

Before, when Jiang Zhen was only slightly richer than the rest of the people in the village, people might still be jealous of him, but now that Jiang Zhen's wealth far exceeded that of the villagers, they did not envy him, but looked up to him instead.

At the moment, the villagers looked very proud, and when they saw the Jiang family, the last of their reluctance disappeared. Compared with the Jiang family, their situation was much better!

Seeing the dejection of the Jiang family who drove away their blessing, they, in contrast, just have a good friendship with Jiang Zhen in advance, so it was really nothing.

Seeing the Jiang family hanging their heads in despair, some people who did not have a good relationship with them went up to gloat.

"Jiang Chengwen, did you know that Jiang Zhen's ship was coming today?" a young man of the same age as Jiang Chengwen and had been in with him since he was a child asked.

"What ship? I didn't see it!" Jiang Chengwen said in an unpleasant voice.

"Of course, you couldn't see it. The canal here is too small for that boat to get here, so it docked in the river." The man laughed.

"Yes, Jiang Zhen's ship is really big, and from this ship, many things were brought back," someone next to him said, then more and more people began to speak up.

"Jiang Zhen also has more than this one boat. He has several of them!"

"Jiang Ming and He Chunsheng bought down things from this ship worth more than twenty silver. How much do you think they have made on this trip?"

"I heard that on just this trip, they each earned almost a hundred silver! Tsk, tsk. Jiang Chengxiang used to earn only two silver a month on the docks, right?"

"These people have earned so much, so how rich should Jiang Zhen be!"

The crowd spoke in front of the Jiang family, making their faces turn darker and darker.

"This can't be! Jiang Zhen must be cheating! It's all a lie!" old lady Jiang said in a loud voice.

"Everyone in the village saw it, so how could it be a lie?" the men said before leaving in a good mood.

The Jiang family looked at each other and returned home, covered in gloom. At this time, the people who were close to their family came and finally explained the whole story to them, trying to persuade them again.

"You should be more open . . ."

"Don't offend Jiang Zhen in the future."

"Well, if only you had been nicer to him at first?"

. . .

The Jiang family became even more depressed after hearing their advice.

But at this time, the Zhao family was jubilant. In the morning, Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu didn't make breakfast because they went to move things, so at noon, Zhao Liu cooked a very big meal. Moreover, she was already used to using a little oil, and now was even more willing to use oil.

For the green vegetables, she only used water to blanch it in and then it was stir-fried. The duck, she not only fried it in oil but put wine to braise it! The chicken, she didn't even think of boiling chicken for the soup but steamed it in an earthen pot!

. . .

Of course, this was not Zhao Liu's idea, who was a rural woman with little experience. In fact, all the cooking was done under the guidance of Cook Li, and she learned that cooking could be done this way.

"Did you make all the meals Jinge had before?" Zhao Liu smelled the rich fragrance of the duck in the pot and asked.

"Yes, his lordship asked me to cook specially for his wife," Cook Li said to Zhao Liu in her accented voice.

"Jiang Zhen is really kind to him." Zhao Liu was very happy in her heart. She had been busy all her life, so wasn't it just right for her child to have a good life? Now her son had a good life.

Zhao Liu thought like this in her heart, and so did the others. Jiang Xiaomei, who looked over at Zhao Jinge, envied him a little. She also went to see the excitement before and became a little scared. She didn't know that her elder brother was so good . . .

She has such a powerful big brother. In the future . . . as soon as Jiang Xiaomei thought like this, cold water was poured over her.

Jiang Zhen has been talking to Zhao Jinge, Zhao Fugui, and Zhao Liu, but he didn't look at her at all. Her eldest brother had thoroughly become a family with the Zhaos. Although he had not changed his surname, it was still the same. While she was surnamed Jiang.

Because of this, Jiang Xiaomei didn't dare to be complacent at all. At that moment, she was still busy helping Zhao Liu.

Jiang Zhen enjoyed the meal very comfortably. He liked to eat meat, and although there was no pork on the table that day, he could eat chicken and duck freely. Especially the chicken . . .

The chicken had been steamed in the earthen pot for some time, so the meat was not hard at all and the flavor was condensed inside the meat . . . Two chicken wings were all chewed clean by Jiang Zhen.

Zhao Fugui also liked to eat meat rather than to chew on the bones. In addition, the taste of the duck this time was especially good. In the past, the ducks cooked by Zhao Liu had always had unpleasant duck smell, but this time, the duck did not smell and also had not lost its flavor. Moreover, the soup was very tasty. Even those vegetarian dishes were very delicious.

After eating, Jiang Zhen told Zhao Fugui and his wife that he was going to build a house. "Mom, Dad, we will have more people in the family in the future, so we will definitely not be able to fit everyone here in the future. Later, I will go to the county town and buy a piece of land, so we can build a house by the canal."

"Good." Zhao Fugui nodded again and again. He was now very convinced by Jiang Zhen, so he would not refute Jiang Zhen's decision.

"Mom, Dad, why don't you try on your new clothes and come with us to the country town for a stroll?" Jiang Zhen said again.

"All right." Zhao Fugui nodded again.

At this time, Zhao Liu mentioned Jiang Xiaomei, "You might as well bring the Xiaomei as well." Jiang Xiaomei, like Jiang Zhen before, was treated badly by the Jiang family, which made Zhao Liu have some kind of empathy for her, and she liked this child very much. Moreover, no matter what others would say, she was still Jiang Zhen's younger sister. Even if it were for Jiang Zhen's sake, she would not be unkind to Jiang Xiaomei.

"It'll be better to wait for the next time. I don't even have the right clothes now." Jiang Zhen looked at Jiang Xiaomei, who was still wearing shabby clothes, and then said, "As soon as Cook Li and Rou-er are done, please show them around the village. Their luggage will be moved to your house, and they will live with you for the time being. If you find it inconvenient, you can get some curtains or something to separate the area."

Jiang Zhen didn't hate Jiang Xiaomei, but he hadn't interacted with Jiang Xiaomei that much, and he couldn't say that he liked her. Jiang Xiaomei was just a passerby to him.

It was precisely because of this that he had never taken care of Jiang Xiaomei before. However, even if he did not have feelings for her, the former Eldest Jiang had liked Jiang Xiaomei very much, so he would help her. But even if he did help Jiang Xiaomei get rid of the Jiang family and find her a marriage partner, he did not intend to let her integrate into his family.

"Good," Jiang Xiaomei answered.

"I've brought back more cloth. There's a dark red one in it. I will ask someone to bring it to you later, so you can make two new sets of clothes," Jiang Zhen said again.

In modern times, Jiang Zhen was not young; he was already in his thirties. Coupled with the education he has received, he was always more tolerant of minors—they were just children. As long as they were not vicious nor did they break the laws and commit crimes, he had nothing to worry about.

Therefore, when He Qiusheng asked him for help, he did not get angry, and he would save him when it came to it. He was looking for someone to serve Zhao Jinge and was tender-hearted to the skinny Rou-er at the first sight, wanting to help find an easy job for the child. Zhao Jinge was not a difficult person to serve.

It's Jiang Xiaomei's turn soon. He didn't mind letting her improve her situation because it didn't cost him much to help.

Jiang Zhen went to the county town this time on that big ship. Both Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui wanted to take the ship, so he naturally wanted to satisfy them.

"It's a wonderful ship." After Zhao Fugui got on board, he took in the ship with a burning gaze.

"Don't rub about, or you'll get your new clothes dirty." Zhao Liu stood beside Zhao Fugui and reminded him. After a word of warning, she turned her head in a slightly stiff way and looked around curiously.

Before getting on board, both Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu changed into the new clothes brought back by Jiang Zhen from the capital. In addition, Zhao Liu also put on several pieces of the jewelry that was brought back by Jiang Zhen.

After putting a gold hairpin in her hair, Zhao Liu was afraid to move her head for fear that the pin in her hair would fall off, and the gold bracelet on her wrist made her feel like she didn't know what to do with it. She wanted to show others the gold bracelet on her hand, but she was afraid that others would try to rob it . . .

As a result, Zhao Liu inevitably got entangled. It could be said that she couldn't sit still. Seeing Zhao Jinge, she quickly took Zhao Jinge's hand.

"Jinge, come here quickly. Come and help Mother see . . . the hairpin on Mother's head is not crooked, right?"

"Mother, the hairpin on your head is not crooked. It's fine," Zhao Jinge said.

"It's good that it's not crooked . . ." Zhao Liu sighed in relief and looked at Zhao Jinge with a frown. "Jinge, why don't you wear some jewelry?"

"I don't like it," Zhao Jinge said.

"You have to wear them even if you don't like them. Men like women and ger to wear bright clothes and jewelry," Zhao Liu said. "If Jiang Zhen bought you jewelry, it's better for you to take it out and wear it."

"Mother, Jiang Zhen doesn't like these either, he didn't even buy jewelry for me." Zhao Jinge said, Jiang Zhen bought some jewelry for Zhao Liu's, but not for him.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

Zhao Liu became speechless hearing that. "He didn't buy jewelry for you? How come he didn't buy jewelry for you?" She had gotten a lot of jewelry but not Zhao Jinge?

"Because I don't like it," Zhao Jinge said, not wanting to talk to Zhao Liu about it anymore.

He looked like this, wearing jewelry really would not look good on him.

Hexi Village was not far from Hecheng County, so the ship did not take long to arrive at Hecheng.

Zhao Liu had not been to the county town for a long, long time. After getting off the ship she could not help but look around but soon restrained her desire to do so. She was wearing such nice clothes, so she should act more dignified. If she kept looking around, she would certainly embarrass Jiang Zhen . . . She'd better bear with it and stop looking around.

Jiang Zhen noticed Zhao Liu's discomfort and took the initiative to explain, "Mother, look over there. There is the fabric store. I went there to sell fabric before. And there is a tea stall. You can get a pot of tea for a penny . . ."

"Drinking water costs money . . ." Zhao Liu sighed, listening to Jiang Zhen's explanation. Her whole person became more and more relaxed.

Zhao Liu's health had not been good over the years, so she didn't go out much. Her skin in the village was considered fairly pale. Now when she smiled, full of kindness, she really looked like an old lady from a wealthy family.

Zhao Fugui looked at her and saw many people around at her, so he could not help but grunt twice.

"Father, I'm going to go buy the land. You guys stroll around first, and when I'm done with my business, I'll find you guys before we go to the restaurant for dinner," Jiang Zhen said to people around him as they strolled around.

---

Chapter 103.2 – Buying land to build a house

On the other side of the river, most of the land belonged to the Zhao family, but some of it belonged to no one. This land could be bought from the yamen, but the yamen needed to measure it first.

Jiang Zhen informed Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu and then took He Chunsheng and He Xiasheng to work, leaving Jiang Ming, Wang Haisheng, and several others to protect the Zhao family.

Jiang Zhen first went to see Yang Jing and then followed him to the yamen office, as well as to the Hecheng country magistrate. In fact, he didn't intend to see the county magistrate. After all, with his status, he would need to kneel to give his respects. But as soon as he went to the yamen and stated his name, they not only came out immediately to help him but they also didn't give him a chance to kneel down before he was complimented instead.

There was no doubt that this magistrate was from the Zheng family.

Seeing this, Jiang Zhen breathed a sigh of relief. Then as he expected, things went smoothly. Not only did the county magistrate say that land would be his in a few days, but even the price was cheaper. Of course, with the magistrate being so kind, Jiang Zhen also needed to be respectful. So immediately after, he gave the magistrate some medicinal materials brought from the capital to show his respect. Both sides talked to each other very happily.

"Boss, it's only been less than a year, you're surprisingly powerful."

Yang Jing couldn't help but feel some emotion as he looked at Jiang Zhen. Jiang Zhen had been poor and penniless, so he didn't expect that, after half a year, he had become a person who even the county magistrate had to treat him with courtesy. He was suddenly a little glad that he was beaten by Jiang Zhen and did not try to make trouble for Jiang Zhen after that incident. If he hadn't had the sense to not go against Jiang Zhen, he had no idea of what would have become of him by now.

"I am quite surprised too." Jiang Zhen laughed. "By the way, invite all familiar people in the yamen. I will invite you all to drink." Since Jiang Zhen intended to live in Hecheng County, having a good relationship with those yamen officers was necessary.

"Don't worry, boss. I'll be sure to invite all the people who should be invited." Yang Jing laughed and invited someone to go.

Jiang Zhen seeing this, asked He Chunsheng to go to the butcher in the county town to ask if he had enough pork so he could buy some to give away.

That evening, the restaurant in the county town was very lively. All the yamen officers and those small officials who worked in the yamen came to gather in the restaurant to drink and eat meat.

Jiang Zhen spent only 20 silver to buy a meal in the restaurant that could satisfy all these people. In addition, he asked He Chunsheng to prepare a basket for each of them. In each basket, there was a large piece of pork, ten eggs, ten duck eggs, plus a packet of snacks. It was not much, but in those times, it was still a very good gift. These people could enjoy themselves at this banquet and still bring back quality food for their families when they went home.

The yamen officers were all eating and drinking downstairs, and several of Jiang Zhen's men were also talking to them downstairs to establish a good rapport with them, while Jiang Zhen took Zhao Jinge, Zhao Fugui and his wife to eat on the second floor.

Zhao Jinge was here for the second time, and he had learned a lot when he was in the capital, so he didn't think anything about eating here. But Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu were very uneasy. They are actually going to eat above a group of officials, which . . . this . . .

Zhao Fugui did not even dare to move a lot, for fear of making a noise and making these officials below unhappy.

"Father, Mother, you do not need to be like this . . . There will be more days like this in future," Jiang Zhen comforted.

"Oh . . . I just can't get over it," Zhao Liu said.

Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu were very uncomfortable, but it didn't stop them from eating the food at the table and even clearing the plates. It would be such a waste to not finish all of such expensive food!

When Jiang Zhen bid good-bye to the yamen officers, the people under him had already become brothers with these officers while those yamen officers even called Jiang Zhen, boss.

While the Jiang family was enjoying their dinner, the old Jiang family had already officially split up, but because the food in the kitchen had not been divided yet, the meal was eaten together.

In the past, when the family ate together, although there was no meat, there were still eggs on the table. But at the moment, only boiled vegetables could be eaten, and old lady Jiang was reluctant to even put salt in it.

Both Jiang Chengxiang and Jiang Chengwen were picky eaters, so although both of them were hungry, they put down their chopsticks without eating much.

Jiang Chengxiang had long since borne a particular dislike for Jiang Chengwen. Jiang Chengwen, on the other hand, also hated his cold-blooded brother, so neither of them was willing to talk with each other. Seeing this scene, Butcher Jiang could not help sighing.

Old lady Jiang was also unhappy . . . especially since Jiang Zhen made a lot of money

"Chengxiang, didn't you say before that we can sue Jiang Zhen for being unfilial? He intimidated us at the beginning, so we didn't sue him, but how about now?" old lady Jiang suddenly asked. "I gave birth to him, so all the money he earned should be given to me! How could he ignore his own mother!"

As soon as old lady Jiang's words came out, all the Jiang family members were stunned, especially Jiang Chengxiang who had some knowledge.

Nowadays, if a son wanted to sue his father, no matter why he wanted to sue he would be punished first. However, when a father or mother wanted to sue their son it was easy.

After all, Daqi country was ruled by filial piety!

Now that Jiang Zhen had become rich but he did not care about his parents, this was definitely being unfilial!

They didn't dare to sue Jiang Zhen before because he threatened them, saying that if they dare to sue him, he would take a knife and go to the yamen to slice people up, but this time . . . that Jiang Zhen admitted it. Didn't it give them immunity to sue?

In the eyes of the Jiang family, hope lit up again.

Even if they wouldn't be able to make Jiang Zhen spit out all the money he had earned, they could still get a little so that they will have no worries about food and clothing and buying back the land they have just sold! Maybe they could even buy more land!

The Jiang family looked at each other and became more and more excited. The next day, old lady Jiang changed into rags before going to the yamen building to make a complaint.

"Who are you suing?" the yamen officer asked.

"Sir, I want to sue my eldest son for disobedience . . . Disobedience and for being unfilial!" old lady Jiang cried.

The country magistrate of Hecheng County was determined to rise in the ranks. Although he was not necessarily clean, he was still good to his people. If people come to sue, he would see it through.

Hearing this, the yamen officer asked, "Who is your eldest son? Do you have any documents?"

"My eldest son is the villain of Hexi Village, Jiang Zhenwei. But now he changed his name to Jiang Zhen." Old lady Jiang then took out the paper that Jiang Chengxiang had already written.

"Jiang Zhen?" The yamen officer looked at old lady Jiang in surprise and went in with the paper.

The other day, Jiang Zhen invited them to dinner and drink, but this day, someone came to sue him. What a coincidence . . .

The yamen officer went to Yang Jing, who had known Jiang Zhen the longest.

Seeing that the yamen officer had gone in, old lady Jiang waited outside excitedly. As a result, she waited for a long time but did not see the officer come out again.

It was cold. She had been standing outside for a long time in the wind, making her eyes tear up and snot come out. She deliberately wore rags, so she did not feel warm . . . In desperation, she could only stop another officer and asked, "Officer, I'm here to complain. . ."

"Don't get in the way." The yamen officer frowned and looked at old lady Jiang, saying, "Besides, before you file a complaint, you should weigh your own weight first. Don't accuse others and lose your own life."

"What?" Old lady Jiang was surprised.

In the end, this was an old lady, so yamen officer reminded her, "Jiang Zhen—no, Boss Jiang has come to the yamen yesterday to have tea with the county magistrate, and you still want to sue him?"

"What?" Old lady Jiang was so frightened at the idea that Jiang Zhen had the ability to drink tea with the county magistrate. This . . . This . . .

"Besides, who doesn't know that you mistreated him and kicked him out?" The yamen officer said, "How long are you going to stay here? Boss Jiang's men will come soon."

Coincidentally, as soon as old lady Jiang heard the yamen officer speak, old lady Jiang saw Jiang Ming and He Chunsheng coming together from afar.

When old lady Jiang came, she dressed in rags to look like a person who was very poor and who did not have enough to eat. After being in the cold for a long time, it seemed that she would fall down when the wind blew, but now . . . She sprang to her feet and ran away as fast as she could and at such speed, even a young and strong person would not be able to catch up with her.

Jiang Zhen didn't know about old lady Jiang's affairs at that time. Having nothing to do today, he stayed at home and started prenatal education to Zhao Jinge's belly. He read poems to the child in Zhao Jinge's belly while touching Zhao Jinge's stomach. He didn't know whether the child in the belly was happy to hear it or wanted to protest. But when he read, the child moved a lot.

"My child's legs are so strong!" Jiang Zhen was kicked a few times by the child in the belly and then could not help boasting and asking Zhao Jinge, "Does it hurt when it kicks you?"

"It doesn't hurt." Zhao Jinge was a little speechless. Even though the child moved gently, he didn't know why Jiang Zhen insisted that it was kicking.

Maybe the child was just turning over.

"As long as it doesn't hurt," Jiang Zhen said with a smile. "I'll read another book."

Jiang Zhen soon began to read again, but this time, he only read a few words when Zhao Liu's voice came from outside, "Jiang Zhen, what are you talking about? Why are you speaking so strangely?"

When Jiang Zhen was reading, he naturally used Mandarin, but obviously, Zhao Liu could not understand . . .

"Mother, Jiang Zhen speaks in the capital's official language, Mandarin. All people in the capital speak like this," Zhao Jinge said to Zhao Liu.

"Mandarin? People in the capital speak like this?" Zhao Liu was surprised.

"It can be said that people who are officials all talk like that." Zhao Jinge nodded earnestly.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

"Jiang Zhen is really very good . . ." Zhao Liu sighed with emotion. As soon as she turned around, she could not help sharing it with other people.

"Do you know? Jiang Zhen can speak Mandarin, but only those who are officials can speak it!" She could not talk about money at home, but she could still talk about this, so Zhao Liu added, "He can read and write in Mandarin."

"Really?" the people who talked with Zhao Liu's were stunned.

"Of course, it's true." Zhao Liu was very sure, "He also reads to Zhao Jinge's stomach even though it's only so big now. He wants to start teaching the child in the belly, so he was reading to Jinge's stomach all day long . . . This Mandarin, how powerful it was that even can teach child in the belly—"

"Zhao Liu, Jiang Zhen has never studied. Why do you think he can read and speak Mandarin?" a man interrupted Zhao Liu and asked suspiciously.

"Maybe he was enlightened by some immortal," Zhao Liu said casually and carried on, "Jiang Zhen said that when the child is in the belly, it can still hear the voice from outside, so he reads to teach the child in Zhao Jinge's belly every day. Maybe in the future, there will be a master scholar in our family!"

Zhao Liu had little education, so she thought that becoming a scholar was already very good! As for the people who spoke to her, they did not listen to what she said later, only thinking about the sentence she spoke in front of them—"Enlightened by immortals."

Without Jiang Zhen's knowledge, the Hexi villagers spontaneously found a reason for his change. Eldest Jiang suddenly became so powerful because he had met an immortal and became enlightened! He was really blessed!

After all, this was just what everyone said in private, so a few days later when the yamen officers came from Hecheng, they were truly shocked.

Jiang Zhen bought such a large piece of land . . . He soon had more land than Zhao Dahu's family! It's just . . . That piece of land was not good for growing things.

---

Chapter 104.1 – Cooking and eating

Close to Zhao Dahu's house, there was a large piece of riverbank land, but because the land was not good for growing crops, no one claimed it. However, there were some people in the village who had little land and were relatively idle, so they would go there to plant beans and pumpkins or something. Even if the harvest was small, a little something was better than nothing.

Now, that land, along with the small forest nearby, all belonged to Jiang Zhen.

Jiang Zhen took the deed given by the yamen and invited the yamen officers who came to measure the land and deliver the title deed to eat at his house. Then he gave them a duck each and found a boat to send them back to the county town.

"Jiang Zhen is really powerful. How polite were those yamen servants towards him!"

"I don't know why he wanted such a large piece of land . . ."

"Say, do you think he needs more men? My youngest son wants to follow him too."

"Are you afraid that your son will end like Li Yuan?"

"My youngest son may not have that bad luck, will he? Moreover, you also know the situation in my family. There is barely enough to eat, so if he won't venture out on his own, it will be almost impossible for him to have a good life in future."

. . .

The entire village was talking about Jiang Zhen. On the other hand, the Jiang family did not dare to entertain crooked ideas anymore. Each of them shrunk their heads for fear that Jiang Zhen would find trouble with them.

They asked old lady Jiang to go to the yamen to sue Jiang Zhen. So it was estimated that Jiang Zhen already knew about it but still didn't know how to deal with them

Just thinking about it, they couldn't help becoming worried. Old lady Jiang, who had been waiting for a long time in front of yamen that day in the cold weather, directly fell ill. Huang Min kept complaining because she had not yet gotten off the kang bed. (https/en./wiki/Kang_bed-stove)

Old lady Jiang was now living with them, but she was not able to help with the work and even asked her to wait on her. Fortunately, it was agreed that Butcher Jiang, who lived with Jiang Chengxiang's family, would take care of some fields from them to let her rest.

The Jiang family's days were spent in fear but Jiang Zhen did not intend to do anything to them. Eldest Jiang's obsession was gone, so to him, these people were just some annoying strangers . . . Moreover, this was the ancient times . ..

In modern times, when the children's parents are unkind, they still have the responsibility to support their parents, or else, people will accuse them for being unfilial. Let alone these ancient times. After all, in the eyes of the people, old lady Jiang and Butcher Jiang had raised him all this time. It was just that they were not good to him. However, that was not enough reason to cut ties with them.

If he was still as alone as he was when he first came to this world, he would not be afraid of anything. But since then, he had every intention to live a good life in this place and this era, and he was going to have a child soon.

Jiang Zhen didn't do anything to the Jiang family. He just completely ignored them. In fact, his attitude had already made it difficult for them.

His subordinates, as well as the people of Hexi, were not those scholars who paid special attention to filial piety. When they saw that Jiang Zhen didn't like the Jiang family, they gave them no face. So they bullied the Jiangs. Even the village gers and women were unwilling to talk to them.

The Jiang family was so isolated that their days in the village were getting worse and worse.

Soon, Li Yuan's funeral was held.

In Hexi Village, attending a funeral was called "eating tofu" or "eating tofu rice" because tofu was the main dish served during the village's funerals.

It was probably because it's difficult to preserve the corpses at these times that villagers paid no attention to the matter of death. Usually, after someone dies, the people of the clan would be called over to discuss the matter of dealing with the funeral. Then they would begin to prepare funeral objects, such as clothes to show filial piety, which was cutting a sack to make a hat for a filial son or preparing some strips of white cloth, as well as blue and red cloth.

These strips of fabric were worn on the heads of the guests who came to offer their condolences. Generally, the peers, the children of the deceased, and their nephews would wear these white strips while the grandchildren wear dark blue strips, the great-grandchildren wear the red strips, and the generation after that would wear the black strips.

Since every family had some strips of cloth like this ready, there was no need to cut too much. Of course, some big families not short on money would prepare hats of corresponding colors and a belt for all people who came to eat tofu.

Women prepared these things while the men were to visit from house to house to report the funeral then buy food, borrow tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks . . . Usually after such a busy day, the funeral would then be held.

The next evening, all the relatives and friends would come to deliver offerings, kowtow in respect to the deceased, and have a tofu meal in the house. On the third day, the deceased would then be buried.

On the day of Li Yuan's burial, everyone had to take part in the funeral, and after the funeral, they would still need to go to the main house and eat tofu rice. Of course, some people had fewer family members, so the preparation time became longer.

Li Yuan died a long time ago and only his clothes were brought back. So the Li family didn't have to worry about his body decaying. Hence, they didn't hold a funeral immediately. Instead, they went to seek the advice of the fortune-telling blind man to set an auspicious date.

Li Yuan had joined Jiang Zhen's team late, so Jiang Zhen was not very familiar with him, but since he was one of his own men, the Li family came to inform him about the funeral.

On the evening of Li Yuan's funeral, Jiang Zhen took Zhao Jinge to the Li house. All his subordinates in Hexi also came.

According to the local custom, people who attended a funeral needed to bring things like incense and candles, a piece of meat or egg, and some rice and noodles. At the gate of the Li family house, Jiang Ping, who was literate and knew the entire village and even the people from the nearby villages was taking notes with a pen to write down the offering basket of each family.

Some of the things sent by would be used when the family hosted the funeral. Some poor families even relied on these things to complete the entire funeral.

But the host would not use up all the things. According to customs, they had to return some of them. Therefore, they need to remember who sent what. After that, the host family would go to that house to "eat tofu rice" and return the offered things.

In the past, there was a family in Hexi that was so stingy that they only gave two eggs and a handful of dried rice when they went to someone else's house for the meal. Later, when their family held another funeral, people only sent them such things so that the entire funeral was nearly impossible to complete.

Jiang Zhen didn't know anything about this, but Zhao Liu was very proficient and prepared a generous gift for Jiang Zhen, including a pot of oil, two large candles, two chickens, and a basket of eggs.

Jiang Zhen put these down and gave another two silver.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

Jiang Ping recorded it. At that moment, the people who came to the Li family were talking about the funeral and sincerely felt that the Li family funeral was conducted very decently.

"The coffin is painted!"

"Did you see that two candles and eight oil lamps were lit! At this point, it must have been lit all the time for the past two days and wasn't extinguished. "

"The Li family also invited a cook and someone to play the suona."

"The younger generations of the Li family all wear blue hats and blue belts, and even the filial piety clothes of Li Yuan's brothers were newly made."

. . .

"It is said that the reason why the Li family was able to do so was because Jiang Zhen gave them a lot of money after Li Yuan's passing."

"I heard about it too . . . Although the Li family lost a son, their lives will be easier in the future."

"In fact, it was not a loss . . ."

"Keep your voices down. Jiang Zhen and his men are here."

---

Chapter 104.2 – Cooking and eating

These comments were all heard by Jiang Zhen, which made him feel complicated. People in this era really did not value human life as much as modern people did . . . Of course, this wasn't such a bad thing for him. Just look at these days, countless people were scrambling to become his subordinates.

Every time someone arrived, the suona would be played for a while, and when everyone showed up, the banquet would begin.

There was no tradition in Hexi of only eating vegetarian dishes during a funeral, in general, there would only be tofu rice served on the first day of funeral. Only on the evening of the burial would a meat dish appear on the table . . . After all, everyone was poor.

But the Li family was different. After the start of the banquet, they first served four dishes of green vegetables and tofu on each table, and pig lard dregs were placed on the top of these bowls of tofu. There was also meat in the soy sauce tofu served later and pieces of egg and shredded meat in the tofu soup.

There were four bowls of green vegetables and tofu, two bowls of braised tofu, and two bowls of tofu soup. A total of eight bowls on each table, and each bowl had some meat, such as in the tofu rice. It was definitely very generous.

At some tables, there were children who made a scene after getting to eating oil and meat, but Jiang Zhen sat at this table with several of his men who were from Hexi. They all ate well these days, so they didn't rush to grab food.

Everyone ate in silence, and even Jiang Ming, who had been relatively jumpy, was silent and quiet.

"This green vegetable tofu tastes good," Jiang Zhen said to Zhao Jinge and then picked up the bowl of green vegetables and tofu in front of him and put some into Zhao Jinge's rice bowl; the tofu was tender, so it was not easy to pick up with chopsticks.

"Hmm." Zhao Jinge nodded and lowered his head to pick up rice, seeing that Jiang Zhen had also started eating.

As soon as Jiang Zhen moved his chopsticks, a man came to Jiang Zhen, lowering his head and pleading in a low voice, "Boss, can you not drive me away? I was wrong before . . . I am willing to follow you."

"I always keep my word." Jiang Zhen looked at the other person.

This man was also from Hexi Village, one of his former subordinates. When they encountered the pirates, Li Yuan and another Hexi villager were seriously injured, and this person then said a lot of disheartening words and expressed his regret for following Jiang Zhen.

At that time, Jiang Zhen was very unhappy, so he told this person not to follow him in future . . . This was what he said, but because they were on the journey that time, he was still regarded as his subordinate by everyone.

That man suffered light injuries then, so he did not follow Jiang Zhen to fight the pirates later on. Still he was given compensation by Zheng Yi, and later, Jiang Zhen gave everyone a small bonus, so he was not short on money . . . Seeing so much money, he wanted to continue to follow Jiang Zhen.

Later, Jiang Zhen did not talk about not wanting him. so he thought that Jiang Zhen had forgotten about it. He did not expect for Jiang Zhen to tell him he was no longer one of his men when they returned to Hexi.

When he came back from the capital, he brought back a lot of things and silver. Everyone envied him, and he was also a bit elated, but then . . . Jiang Zhen drove him away? He was unwilling, so he came to talk to Jiang Zhen about it today. He begged, "Boss, I will definitely be obedient in the future . . ."

"It's useless for you to say this now," Jiang Zhen said.

Seeing Jiang Zhen's cold expression, he didn't dare to speak anymore and left, dismayed.

"I knew he would regret it sooner or later," Jiang Ming said. "It's good to follow the boss. You can drink and eat spicy food!"

Jiang Zhen looked at Jiang Ming. "I will increase the training in the future, and if you guys can't finish it, there will not be good food and drinks in the future."

During the trip to the capital, Jiang Zhen found a lot of shortcomings within him, not to mention his men. Their training time was a little too short. Since he was not short on money, he was able to let Zhao Jinge live a good life, so it was better to live quietly and train his men and lay his own foundation, so that he could develop better in the future. Of course, before that, he had to sell the goods he brought back from the capital and build up the house.

Early the next morning, a lot of people gathered in Li Yuan's family house. Everyone helped to dig a hole on the ground selected by the Li family to bury the coffin that contained Li Yuan's clothes then performed the rituals. After eating two more meals, Li Yuan's funeral was over.

The Li family's tofu rice was very rich for the villagers, especially the last meal, where not only was there braised pork served but also sliced chicken. And the tofu soup was cooked with chicken! However, such a meal was so-so for Jiang Zhen. After all, the Zhao family's food was also very good these days.

However, for the time being, he would not be able to eat Zhao Liu's food. After attending Li Yuan's funeral, Jiang Zhen planned to go to Fucheng and sell the goods he had brought back from the capital.

That night, after a round of "fetal education," Jiang Zhen told Zhao Jinge about his plans.

"I'll go too," Zhao Jinge immediately said.

"Jinge, you are pregnant with a child . . ." Jiang Zhen said with some hesitation. He did not intend to take Zhao Jinge with him this time. After all, he would only be gone for a few days. The goods were easy to sell since Zheng Yi had introduced him to several merchants. He did not worry about selling the goods.

"I want to go too," Zhao Jinge said. 𝗳𝐫ee𝘸𝗲𝚋𝓃𝚘v𝘦𝚕.𝑐𝒐𝐦

Jiang Zhen thought about it for a while then agreed. Then he approached Zhao Jinge. "Jinge, are you reluctant to leave me?"

Zhao Jinge said, "En." Of course, he is reluctant to give up Jiang Zhen and . . . he was also afraid that some goblin would seduce Jiang Zhen while he was not there.

When Jiang Zhen got Zhao Jinge's reply, he felt very happy. He threw himself at him and then kissed him several times.

"Be careful . . ." Zhao Jinge hugged his belly.

"I've been very careful," Jiang Zhen said, bowing his head and kissing Zhao Jinge's belly then he began to take off Zhao Jinge's clothes.

Zhao Jinge has always felt that his body was not good-looking, and with him pregnant with a child, he felt that it was even more ugly. Fortunately, it was so cold that he was always under the quilt, so Jiang Zhen could not see it.

This day, as usual, after a while, Zhao Jinge was stripped off his clothes by Jiang Zhen, and he finally lay naked on the quilt.

Jiang Zhen's hand touched Zhao Jinge for a while and then suddenly stopped.

Recently, the weather was getting colder and colder. So when he and Zhao Jinge did things, it was very inconvenient, because the whole time, they had to be under the covers. Because of this, he had not seen Zhao Jinge's body for a long time and many positions were also inconvenient. If Zhao Jinge were not pregnant, it would have been okay, but he was, so he couldn't have Zhao Jinge freezing at all.

"Jinge, wait for me," Jiang Zhen said to Zhao Jinge opened the door and walked out.

Zhao Jinge was a little confused. Why did Jiang Zhen leave?

After a few steps outside, Jiang Zhen entered the kitchen and found several earthen pots and dug up some charcoal before going back.

Taking the earthen pot and charcoal back to the room, Jiang Zhen lit in the circle around his and Jinge bed.

"What are you doing with this fire?" Zhao Jinge asked inexplicably, feeling a little distressed. Charcoal costs money, so he has been reluctant to use it. But Jiang Zhen used so much.

"Making the room a little warmer," Jiang Zhen said as he lit a brass foot warmer.

This brass foot warmer was bought by Jiang Zhen when he was in the capital. It was a little smaller than commonly used washbasin and was made from thick brass underneath. There was a lid with holes in it so after putting charcoal fire into it, it could be used to warm the feet and dry other things. If it were made even smaller, it would be called a hand-warming stove.

On the ship, Jiang Zhen would put some charcoal in it and then use the brass stove to dry and heat up the bed. However, Hexi Village was not as cold as it had been on the ship and Zhao Liu would dry their quilt as long as there was sun so they had never needed to use it.

At this time, Jiang Zhen put a lot of charcoal in it and put it inside the bed again.

"Be careful not to burn the quilt," Zhao Jinge said. They never put so much charcoal in it before . . . Usually, they only put small-size pieces of burning charcoal and a lot of plant ash, so it would not be too hot.

"It's all right. I can always move it," Jiang Zhen said.

Zhao Jinge nodded and then couldn't help wondering, "You . . . What are you doing?"

He was lying naked on the bed, and Jiang Zhen had lit a stove beside him. That was not enough, there was even another makeshift brazier on the ground. What did he want to do?

"Eat you," Jiang Zhen said.

Zhao Jinge only thought that he had heard wrong. "Eat me?" What does that mean? Jiang Zhen . . . He doesn't eat people, right!

"I'm cooking, I'll eat you when I'm done." Jiang Zhen smiled at Zhao Jinge.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

That smile meant a lot. Zhao Jinge vaguely felt something was wrong, just . . . Jiang Zhen should be joking, right? The fire was so far that it could only make him warm but it couldn't actually cook him!

"Jinge, do you have anything you want to eat? I will cook it for you." Jiang Zhen looked at Zhao Jinge and saw his bewilderment, so he stopped teasing him.

"Then… roasted sweet potatoes?" Zhao Jinge asked.

"Good." Jiang Zhen nodded and went to find a few more sweet potatoes. After their exercise, it would be a great time to eat some sweet potatoes.

And the room wouldn't be heated up for a while, so he could cook something else to eat first.

Jiang Zhen found some grain in the kitchen, and took the rice left over from the night as well as a small piece of salted meat and three eggs to the small iron pan used on the ship.

"Do you want me to help?" Zhao Jinge sat up and got up from the bed to get dressed. He thought that Jiang Zhen must be hungry after tossing around for so long in the middle of night, so . . . he shouldn't want to do anything with him . . .

"No need for you to help." Jiang Zhen did not hesitate to snatch away Zhao Jinge's clothes and put them on the box far away.

Zhao Jinge: ". . ." Jinag Zhen did not want him to get dressed?

"Come. I will make popcorn for you to eat," Jiang Zhen said, and then he threw the shelled rice into the fire.

---

Chapter 104.3 – Cooking and eating

The rice was thrown into the fire, emitting a crackling sound, and soon burst one by one, the white rice inside also exploded.

Jiang Zhen picked up these rice grains and gave half of it to Zhao Jinge. "Taste it. It is quite good."

"Oh . . ." Zhao Jinge ate it slowly. He had eaten this when he was a child, so the name of it was popcorn? Quite a good name.

"I'll make you fried rice with eggs," Jiang Zhen said again, setting up a small iron pot.

First, he put oil on the iron pot and then put the shredded salted meat into, stir-frying it slightly. Then he added eggs and the remaining rice before continuing to fry it for a while. Then the egg fried rice was ready.

In ancient times, Jiang Zhen had never seen fried rice with eggs. These days, oil was so expensive, so who would have thought of using the oil to fry rice? He had never seen it, and Zhao Jinge had not seen it either. But although he had never seen it, the aroma of fried rice made him crave it.

"This is fried rice with eggs. Here. Have a bowl first." Jiang Zhen gave Zhao Jinge a bowl of fried rice with eggs while he ate directly from the pot.

Jiang Zhen was a mediocre cook, but his fried rice with eggs was very good. After all, in modern times, he often ate it.

Zhao Jinge sat up with the quilt wrapped around his stomach and took a bite from the bowl. Then he immediately felt that the fragrance was not the only good thing. When he gazed at Jiang Zhen, his eyes were full of worship.

Zhao Jinge ate the rice first and kept the eggs and bacon aside. When his meal was almost finished did he only begin to enjoy the bacon and eggs with great satisfaction. Meanwhile, Jiang Zhen had already finished eating and was watching Zhao Jinge.

He fed him enough and so he was ready to eat . . .

"This egg fried rice is really delicious." Zhao Jinge finished the rice in the bowl and put down the bowl.

"Mmm," Jiang Zhen said, picking up the bowl and putting it down, then without hesitation, he lifted Zhao Jinge's quilt.

"What are you doing!" Zhao Jinge was startled.

"I'll taste it." Jiang Zhen kissed Zhao Jinge on the mouth, and after kissing for a while, he said, "You keep your voice down. Don't let Dad and Mom hear a sound."

"Then you first give me back the quilt—" Zhao Jinge said.

"Your husband will be given to you as a quilt." Jiang Zhen did not hesitate to take off his own clothes and look at Zhao Jinge's body in the light of fire.

He had not seen Zhao Jinge's body for many days, so he only found now that Zhao Jinge stomach was no longer small, and when he was lying flat on the bed, it was particularly obvious. He did not like a man with a flabby stomach, but Zhao Jinge's belly was not flabby; it was taut. His own child was there.

He liked Zhao Jinge's body; it even made him feel a little moved. It was not easy to have a baby, but Zhao Jinge helped him to have a baby. Jiang Zhen suddenly felt that he would not be able to make out with Zhao Jinge today. At last he his memory was refreshed by Zhao Jinge's current appearance. Of course, it was impossible for him not to make out.

If they don't make up at this time, all the charcoal would be wasted. Jiang Zhen ate Zhao Jinge; he ate him from the front and the back.

Zhao Jinge was so ashamed that he did not dare to make any noise and could only follow Jiang Zhen's lead. At first, he remembered to cover his stomach, but later, he didn't have the time and . . . Jiang Zhen seemed to like his stomach, and he kissed it repeatedly. If Jiang Zhen liked it, just by it he would also like his belly, which was not ugly at all.

The two lingered in bed for a long time, and after they finally finished, the sheets were no longer usable.

Jiang Zhen got water to clean Zhao Jinge with and soaked bedsheets as well. Then he asked, "Jinge, do you want to eat baked sweet potato?"

Zhao Jinge has been lying down, so he answered in daze, "Yes." He previously thought Jiang Zhen meant eating meat by eating, but it turned out this was eating . . .

When Jiang Zhen heard the words, he immediately pulled the roasted sweet potatoes out of the fire, and then he found out . . . that the whole roasted sweet potato was burned.

Jiang Zhen: ". . ."

"Jinge, why don't I make you something else?" Jiang Zhen asked, but he did not hear the answer this time. When he looked over, he found out that Zhao Jinge had already fallen asleep. After a brief tidying up, Jiang Zhen climbed into bed and fell asleep with Zhao Jinge in his arm.

Jiang Zhen woke up early on the next day. He was in a high spirit for a long time like he was injected with chicken blood, but when he got up today he looked at the mess in the room.

Zhao Jinge was still sleeping, so when Jiang Zhen got out of the bed, he slowly started cleaning up. When he was cleaning he found that two earthen pots had been burnt with charcoal, and the ground was cracked.

He silently moved everything out of the room. Jiang Zhen also took the sheets out to wash them. Ruoer, Zhao Liu and Jiang Xiaomei were very washed clothes proactively, but he was too embarrassed to ask them to wash such sheets.

Early that morning, Jiang Ming came to find Jiang Zhen, and then he saw his impressive, wise, and powerful boss unexpectedly. . . washing sheets! He didn't even wash his sheets; his mother did it, and later, his future wife would do that job. Didn't Zhao Jinge wash the sheets for Jiang Zhen?

Zhao Liu, who had just finished cleaning the rice in the river and was bragging to two women who wanted to buy eggs from her along the way, also froze. Although she had been telling people that Jiang Zhen was very kind to Zhao Jinge, wasn't it not good to let people see that Jiang Zhen was washing the bedsheets? She really didn't treat Jiang Zhen badly! She would never let Jiang Zhen do the washing and cooking!

Zhao Liu subconsciously looked at the people around her and then saw them looking at her in admiration.

Zhao Liu and Zhao Jinge were really powerful . . . Jiang Zhen at home even had to wash his own bed sheets . . .

"Jiang Ming, what are you doing here?" Jiang Zhen had already finished washing the bedsheets, and was wringing them out two or three times before putting them up to dry in the sun.

It was just washing a bedsheet; he did not take the matter seriously at all.

"Boss, it's not much. I just came over for a moment," Jiang Ming said. Then he asked, "Boss, is there anything I can do?"

"There is," Jiang Zhen said.

"What?" Jiang Ming asked.

"Help me to buy some braziers as well as some charcoal," Jiang Zhen said. Zhao Jinge tasted great, so he planned to eat him a few more times.

Jiang Ming answered affirmatively then ran away. The two people who came back with Zhao and Liu also ran away. They surprisingly saw Jiang Zhen washing clothes . . . These two women suddenly had a problem with the men in their house who didn't do any work around the house.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

"Jiang Zhen, why are you washing these sheets yourself? You could leave it for me to wash." After the two women left, Zhao Liu hurriedly told Jiang Zhen.

"I just washed it casually," Jiang Zhen said, not mentioning the reason why the sheets were dirty in the first place . . . That is to say, it would be no easy for Zhao Liu to wash it. She could not even wring the sheets dry.

"Keep it from now on. Don't wash them," Zhao Liu said. Just as she finished talking, she saw the earthen pot next to him. "Why is the earthen pot full of ash?" 𝙛𝐫ℯ𝚎wℯ𝗯ｎ𝗼ѵ𝙚𝗹.𝒄o𝐦

"Wait, the earthen pot is cracked?" Zhao Liu was deeply distressed. "Who would set fire in the earthen pot? Isn't it intentionally burning the pot?"

Jiang Zhen: ". . ."

After complaining twice, Zhao Liu realized that no one in her family would do such a thing except Jiang Zhen.

"Jiang Zhen, why did you burn the pot?" Zhao Liu asked.

"It was a little cold in our room yesterday, and there was no brazier at home . . ." Jiang Zhen touched his nose awkwardly.

Jiang Zhen was a big man, so he was not afraid of the cold, so this was for her own son . . . Zhao Liu was not angry with Jiang Zhen at all, but when Jiang Zhen went out, she knocked on her son's door and asked while standing outside, "Jinge, is your quilt a little too thin for you?"

Already awake, Zhao Jinge, who was wrapped in the quit and was going to pick up his clothes from the box froze.

---

Chapter 105.1 – Failed marriage proposal

Zhao Jinge stood there blankly, not daring to respond.

Zhao Liu added, "If you felt cold why did you not tell me? You should not let Jiang Zhen burn all this coal in the house. Even if he is rich now, he should not be so wasteful . . ."

Zhao Jinge still did not answer and moved slowly to the bed, intending to lie down for a while. Jiang Zhen closed the door when he went out, but that was all. If the door bolt inside were not fastened, the door could be opened with a simple push.

Fortunately, after saying her piece, Zhao Liu left without hearing a response. She only thought that Zhao Jinge was still asleep, so she didn't want to disturb her son's sleep.

Zhao Jinge sat on the bed and sighed in relief when he found his mother was gone. Only then did he discover that the quilt he was wrapped up in was covered in black ash.

After Jiang Zhen lit the fire last night and did simple cleaning this morning he did not sweep all the dust off the ground. He was a little frightened just now, so he accidentally dragged the quilt to the ground.

The quilt was dragged to the ground, so inevitably it was stained by a lot of ash, so it's corner turned black . . .

After wrapping himself with the quilt again and got his clothes. He then removed the quilt, got dress and was preparing to wash the quilt.

Meanwhile, Zhao Liu discovered that, last night, Jiang Zhen seemed to have lost more than a few earthen pots . . .

There were fewer eggs, bacon in the kitchen, and the leftover rice was missing as well as bag of charcoal that they bought. She did smell a faint smell of cooking coming from her son's room last night. Did the two of them cook at night? That's really too much!

Zhao Liu couldn't stand being idle, so she took initiative to winnow the rice. The cooking was all done by Cook Li, the fire was prepared by Jiang Xiaomei, and Ruo'er helped wash vegetables. Zhao Liu had the leisure time, so she went outside only to see her son washing the quilt cover.

"Jinge, I just washed this quilt cover for you before. Why did you wash it again?" Zhao Liu asked, frowning.

"It was a little dusty," Zhao Jinge said.

Zhao Liu took a look and found that the washing water was black, so the quilt was probably stained with ash "Today Jiang Zhen came out to wash the sheet in the morning also because it was stained with ash, right? Did you knock the copper foot stove on the bed? You should be more careful in the future."

"Yes." Zhao Jinge bowed his head and answered, becoming secretly relieved to hear that Jiang Zhen had washed the sheets.

"Also, don't let Jiang Zhen wash the sheets in the future. People will definitely think that we treat our son-in-law too harshly, letting such big men wash the sheets," Zhao Liu said as she moved a small stool over, intending to help Zhao Jinge wash. When she found that the water was cold, she frowned again. "Why are you washing with cold water? Are you not afraid of freezing on such a cold day?"

Zhao Jinge was driven back to the house, and Zhao Liu asked Ruoer to wash the blanket with her. Both of them had little strength, but each of them held one end of the sheet and slowly wrung it. Then they both put it together with Jiang Zhen's washed sheets to dry on the sun.

When Jiang Zhen returned, he saw the sheets and covers being dried together, fluttering in the wind.

Hexi Village did not pay much attention to morning meals. In the past, Zhao Liu's breakfast was always porridge. But ever since she was replaced by Cook Li, the dishes were changed and became more varied. For example, this day they were eating rice porridge with green vegetable buns. The green vegetables were kneaded by hand with salt last night and pickled all night. So now they not only had the fragrance of fresh green vegetables.

Zhao Jinge liked this steamed bun very much so he ate them together with porridge.

Jiang Zhen also liked the steamed buns and ate a lot. After eating, he told the story of himself and Zhao Jinge going to Fucheng.

"Those goods should be sold as soon as possible." Zhao Fugui nodded without any objection.

However, Zhao Liu blamed Zhao Jinge, "Why do you still want to take Zhao Jinge with you? Is he pestering you to go? It's outrageous for a ger to run outside with such a big belly!"

"Mother, it's just going to Fucheng. It's all right." For Jiang Zhen, it was not appropriate for Zhao Jinge to go if they were to go far away, but it was only Fucheng, which was only a day's journey, so there would be no problem at all.

Zhao Jinge: ". . ." Mother, it was you who told me to follow . . .

After saying a few words to Zhao Jinge, Zhao Liu began to tell him what he should bring. "It's cold now, so you better bring more quilts. Mother will find someone to make you some quilts. You should also take some food and drinks . . ."

Zhao Liu did what she said, and after breakfast, she called familiar people from the village to make quilts.

Every family in Hexi village raised silkworms, but they didn't grow much cotton. The quilts were all silk, but the silk was not suitable to make mattresses and so were all basically made from cotton.

When Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge got married, Zhao Liu paid people to make cotton mattresses as well as two silk quilts.

Most of the silkworms raised in Hexi were sold for money after these produced cocoons, but some of them would be kept for their own use. They would cook the cocoons in pots and soak them in water for a few days.

After a few days, women or gers would peel off the soaked-soft cocoon and dig out the silkworm pupa inside. After pulling them open, they would place them on their hands, and after garnering several layers, they would pull it into square silk pieces.

After drying, this thing would become a cotton bag by the villagers. When making a quilt or silk-padded jacket, they would take it out and lay one or two cotton bags on door panels, and two people would stand on a cotton bag to pull the cotton pocket apart. Layer by layer, they would cover the door panel with a quilt cover, making a silk quilt.

The Zhao family had not raised silkworms for many years, so Zhao Liu not only did not prepare cotton bags, but also forgot all about the skills of pulling quilts. So she had no choice but to spend money to buy some cotton bags and then find several people to help pull quilts.

Although silk was very expensive in the north, in Hexi, the price of cotton bags was not lower. Wanting to find someone to help pull the quilt was not only about money but also about taking care of their meal.

In view of the fact that the food of the Zhao family was very good, the women in the village were scrambling to come.

The Zhao family immediately became lively, and after Zhao Liu found a few cotton-padded jackets, she asked people to prepare new ones.

"Big Sister Liu, your life now has really become better and better." Seeing that Zhao Liu was actually wearing a gold hairpin, someone began to sigh.

"Yes," Zhao Liu said and couldn't help but smile.

"Although your Jinge's marriage came late, he is blessed. His life will definitely be better and better in the future," another person said.

Hearing this, Zhao and Liu immediately nodded in agreement. Originally, she didn't want to show off, but after a few compliments, she couldn't help but say, "My Jinge is really lucky. Before Matchmaker He said he would have children easily . . . but look at how long he is married! He got pregnant very fast! But even so, he became more and more delicate. Last night, he was so cold that he asked Jiang Zhen to lit a fire and even used a bag of charcoal. In the middle of the night he also ate pork and eggs. Ordinary people would not stand him."

. . .

Zhao Liu was talking happily when someone suddenly nudged her with his elbow.

"What's the matter?" Zhao Liu asked.

"Zhao Liu, Jiang Zhen is very kind to Zhao Jinge. We also know it. But . . . I will just tell you the truth . . . Jiang Zhen is a big man and promising one. You should be kind to him."

"Yes, I heard you asked him to do the laundry . . . It's so inappropriate."

"Don't treat him badly, or he will run away . . ."

. . .

Zhao Liu suddenly felt a little wronged.

Zhao Liu was pulled by several of her friends and wanted to say something when Jiang Xiaomei suddenly rushed from outside excitedly. "Auntie Zhao, my brother got a horse back! A horse! This is the first time I've seen a horse! "

"Horse?" Zhao Liu became surprised. The other people who were originally pulling a quilt were also curious.

"The horse has already entered the village!" Jiang Xiaomei said again.

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

The people in the room immediately swarmed out, and after going out, they did see a majestic horse standing not far from Zhao house.

Cattle could still be seen in the countryside on this side of Hexi. Although there were no cattle in their village, some people in the next village raised cattle. But horses were very rare, and they could only occasionally see them pulling carriages in the county town.

Also this horse in everyone's eyes was a very precious thing. But Jiang Zhen unexpectedly brought back a horse!

The people stood at a distance, not daring to go near the horse at all but still reluctant to leave. This horse was brought back by Jiang Zhen.

After bringing horse and carriage back to Hecheng County, Jiang Zhen suddenly found that the carriage couldn't be used here at all. Not only that, the horse became very uneasy after spending so much time on the ship, but there was no one under his hand who could take care of the horse. After thinking about it, Jiang Zhen simply put the horse in the Zheng family and chose one of the people who had been rescued by him to learn how to take care of a horse from one of the Zheng family grooms.

Half a month later, the horse had been taken care of, and the men became familiar with the horses and were able to take good care of it, so Jiang Zhen brought the horse from the Zheng family to Hexi. As for the carriage . . . it could not be used for the time being, and he did not want to use such a good carriage to load the goods, so it was still left in the Zheng family.

Jiang Zhen unexpectedly got a horse back from the capital! Zhao Liu looked at the horse and felt very proud but was still afraid of the horse as it was much taller than her, so she did not dare to go forward . . .

Before leaving for Fucheng, Jiang Zhen did a lot of things. In addition to bringing the horses home from the county town he also taught the two families a lesson. One of them was Zhao Liu's maternal family. 𝐟𝓇e𝐞𝚠𝚎𝒃n𝒐ѵe𝒍.coｍ

After Zhao Liu's family made trouble at Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge's wedding, they were beaten by Jiang Zhen and Jiang Zhen asked them to pay them compensation . . . But they insisted on not returning it.

Jiang Zhen didn't take care of them before because many things were happening at that time, and later, when he went to the capital, he cared about them even less, letting them live a comfortable life for a period of time. But after hearing that Jiang Zhen earned a lot of money, Zhao Liu's maternal side even tried to visit the Zhao family and ask Zhao Liu for money. Although Zhao Liu was sold by her family at the beginning, they still felt that Zhao Liu should take care of her maternal family when she had money.

---

Chapter 105.2 – Failed marriage proposal

However, after thinking like this, they went into action. But before they could implement it, Jiang Zhen's men told Jiang Zhen about their intentions, and then . . . Before they could see Zhao Liu, they were beaten by Jiang Zhen's men. Not only that, but the fee for borrowing silver from Zhao Liu was also doubled.

Given the chance, Jiang Zhen then gave the silver to Zhao Liu.

Zhao Liu did not know that the silver handed to her came from her mother's family and only thought it was from Jiang Zhen. Jiang Zhen had already given her silver several times before, and every time saying it was for household use.

Without explaining it to Zhao Liu, Jiang Zhen went and did other things with a smile.

The second family taught a lesson by Jiang Zhen was Liang Fufa's family, who once wanted to buy Jiang Xiaomei.

Originally, Liang Fufa had nothing to do with Jiang Zhen, but when Jiang Zhen accidentally learned that after failing to buy Jiang Xiaomei, they cajoled a little girl from another village. They also wanted to marry her without spending money and asked the little girl to work as a cow and horse for their family. Jiang Zhen did not teach him a lesson in person, only asking his men to give Liang Fufa a trashing and letting him experience the feeling of being beaten up. After learning that Liang Fufa's first wife had already gone back to her mother's house, he also helped the women get a divorce document. For this kind of man who liked to beat women up, it was better if they didn't let him marry any women!

After Jiang Zhen came back from the capital, he lived in Hexi for twenty days, and so it has turned to December. It would be the new year in less than a month if he did not sell those goods . . . he would have to stay for New Year.

With Zhao Jinge and his own fleet, Jiang Zhen left Hecheng County and went to Fucheng.

As the new year approached, the city became very lively, and all kinds of things were easy to sell. After Jiang Zhen contacted several businessmen introduced by Zheng Yi, the medicinal materials, jewelry, fur, and other things he brought were immediately sold out.

Although the Zheng family lived in Hecheng County, they still had some connections in this city. Jiang Zhen, who was under Zheng Yi's care, did not meet any difficulty when he spent a few days in the city to inspect and sell goods,

Seeing that everything went smoothly, Jiang Zhen began to inquire about brick kilns. There are several brick kilns near Fucheng, and these brick kilns were all under the hands of several big families here. All brick burners had signed deeds of sale with those large families.

Jiang Zhen inquired about it for a while and finally bought two craftsmen who could burn bricks from one of these families.

The craftsmen who could burn bricks were both surnamed Zhang and were a pair of father and son. The son was still unmarried and fifteen or sixteen years old. However, his father, who worked at the brick burner with him, had a wife and five other children.

Jiang Zhen bought the father and son, with the children coming along as bonuses. Jiang Zhen couldn't help but wonder if this family was too good at having too many children that the big family would be willing to sell them to him. . .

Jiang Zhen thought like this, but soon he learned that it was not the case . . . The reason this father and son were sold to him was not because their family had many children but because their craft of burning bricks was actually not good.

"I haven't learned for long and often burn bad bricks." The father looked at Jiang Zhen in some embarrassment. To burn good bricks, one had to practice for a long time, but he and his son were both new and still hadn't practiced much. They burned bricks before, but the bricks they burned before were often unusable . . .

Jiang Zhen also knows that, these days, no one was willing to hand over the technology to others and it was impossible to sell him skilled craftsmen so easily, so it was not surprising. "Can you burn bricks?"

"As long as I practice more, certainly. I will work hard," the middle-aged man said. "I am now just adding water now, so I am not sure."

Adding water? Jiang Zhen had been to a brick factory before and knew roughly how to burn bricks. But he never heard of adding water to burn bricks.

"Tell me more about it," Jiang Zhen said.

When Jiang Zhen asked, the man explained it to him in detail, but when Jiang Zhen listened, he suddenly found that . . . This ancient brick firing technology was even more complicated than the modern one! In addition, in ancient times, the red bricks used to build houses in modern times were considered inferior to those in ancient times . . .

The ancient green bricks were made by adding water to cool them after firing, so they were strong and durable. They would not be damaged for a thousand years after building a house. However, the red bricks that were naturally cooled had a much shorter lifespan than these green bricks. Therefore, in these days, if red bricks were fired, they would be thrown away as inferior. 𝐟𝙧e𝑒𝒘𝐞𝒃n𝒐ѵ𝘦𝒍.co𝙢

Of course, the red bricks at this time, because they were made without coal and the temperature was not high, were not of the same color as that of later generations. They were often green mixed with red, so in the end, they were quite different from later generations' red brick. However, such bricks were actually not unusable.

"After you go back with me, you will start burning bricks, and the unqualified bricks burnt at the beginning can still be used to pave the floor." Jiang Zhen said. These two people just lacked experience, but it could always be practiced.

At this time, the big family didn't want to use defective products, but he didn't mind it. He just wished there would have been cement. Jiang Zhen knew that cement was fired from mud, which was very simple. But cement was different from bricks, cement needed a formula. So he really did not know how to make a cement. Fortunately, even if there was no cement, there were still many alternatives at this time.

After buying people, Jiang Zhen had nothing to do, so he took Zhao Jinge shopping in Fucheng.

Jiang Zhen once brought Zhao Jinge to Fucheng before, but at that time, they had no money, so they didn't buy anything. But this time, it was different.

Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge have already been to the capital and seen the prosperity of the big city. However, compared with the capital, this city was completely different, and some things here were even more exquisite, and the style even more beautiful than the things in the capital. For example, rouge, powder, and jewelry were not worse in quality as those in the capital but the prices were cheaper.

Jiang Zhen looked around and thought about bringing something back to Zhao Liu.

Zhao Jinge followed Jiang Zhen and watched him pick things and could not help becoming a little happier only to see that Jiang Zhen completely did not think of him, which made him feel a little uncomfortable.

"Sir, what do you think of this bracelet? It's very suitable for this . . . ger next to you."

When the people in the jewelry store saw Jiang Zhen asking about jewelry, they took out a silver bracelet suitable for a ger to wear.

"What I want to buy is not for him but for my mother," Jiang Zhen said, letting the shopkeeper take out a few other styles to look at.

The jewelry Jiang Zhen brought back from the capital was very heavy, but it was not exquisite. After all, he only wandered around with Jinge at that time and . . . he also thought that prices at capital were too high.

It's good to show off those jewelry, but it's not suitable to wear them casually, so Jiang Zhen planned to choose some exquisite ones for her this time.

After Jiang Zhen asked the shopkeeper to take out a lot of things to see, he finally chose a pair of gold flat bracelets carved with dragons and phoenixes, as well as a small hairpin inlaid with jasper.

After the selection, Jiang Zhen asked the shopkeeper to wrap up the things.

"Sir, what are you going to choose for your ger?" While packing, the shopkeeper asked, "Your ger is pregnant with your child. Buying him some jewelry will also make him happy. "

The shopkeeper saw that Jiang Zhen had chosen several things for his mother but didn't pick anything for the ger who followed him. This ger did not have any jewelry on his body, so the shopkeeper became a little sympathetic toward Zhao Jinge. This ger was ugly, and his husband ignored him completely, which was really a little pitiful.

Jiang Zhen was stunned. He bought this and that for Zhao Liu because others had told him that his mother-in-law must be pleased if he wanted to live a happy life. After experimenting with Zhao Liu, he found that this was indeed true. His mother-in-law, Zhao Liu, was absolutely satisfied with him. It's just . . . because he wanted to buy jewelry for Zhao Liu, he hadn't noticed Zhao Jinge.

"I don't like wearing jewelry," Zhao Jinge said.

"There's no one who doesn't like jewelry, but if you don't like wearing it, it's still better to keep some," the shopkeeper said again.

"Shopkeeper, do you have a ring suitable for us?" Jiang Zhen asked suddenly.

"Yes, sir. What do you like?" the shopkeeper asked.

"Let me see," Jiang Zhen said.

There were very few kinds of jewelry displayed, so it was just a moment that Jiang Zhen saw two jade rings that looked exactly the same and asked, "Is this shop craftsman in?"

"Yes, the craftsman is right behind." The shopkeeper said that there were several craftsmen who opened this shop.

"Jinge, wait for me outside. I'll be right back," Jiang Zhen said to Zhao Jinge and then followed the shopkeeper into the back of the jewelry store.

Zhao Jinge, seeing Jiang Zhen left like that, was a little confused. Was Jiang Zhen going to give him the ring? Two identical rings. Will he wear one while Jiang Zhen wears the other? If that were the case, it would be really good . . .

"Sister-in-law, maybe the boss will buy you something else," Jiang Ming, who also came with them was responsible for protecting Zhao Jinge, leaned over and said.

Zhao Jinge began to look forward to it even more. However, when Jiang Zhen came out after a long time, he looked the same. He didn't even know where he had put the two rings he had in his hands before.

"Come on. We should go back," Jiang Zhen said. After that, he went out first.

Zhao Jinge followed, suddenly feeling a little depressed.

The ship was very wet. The place where they could stay in was small. So when they came to Fucheng this time, Jiang Zhen took Zhao Jinge to live in the inn.

After returning to the inn that day, Jiang Zhen told Zhao Jinge that business was as usual and urged Zhao Jinge eat more fish and less meat. He also did not mention what happened in the jewelry store before. However, when they returned to their room, Jiang Zhen suddenly said, "Jinge, I have something to tell you."

"What?" Zhao Jinge asked.

Jiang Zhen took out a ring and knelt on one knee.

Zhao Jinge immediately knelt down with Jiang Zhen. "You . . . what are you doing?" Why did Jiang Zhen suddenly kneel before him? This . . . This. . . Zhao Jinge suddenly felt a little scared.

Jiang Zhen: ". . ." The originally good atmosphere was gone!

Jiang Zhen sighed. "Jinge, stand up, I didn't kneel down! See, I didn't get down on one knee."

Zhao Jinge suddenly felt a little uneasy, so Jing Zhen could only help Zhao Jinge up by himself, and then said to him, "Stand well for me and don't kneel!"

Zhao Jinge still felt uneasy, but he did not dare not get down on his knees anymore. What exactly was Jiang Zhen trying to say? Why was he kneeling?

Jiang Zhen knelt on one knee again and said to Zhao Jinge, "Jinge, are you willing to marry me?"

Zhao Jinge was a little confused but immediately said, "Yes."

"I love you. I want to be together with you for the rest of our lives." Jiang Zhen kissed Zhao Jinge's hand and put ring on his hand. Then he stood up and gave another ring to Zhao Jinge. "Jinge, put it on me."

𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢

Zhao Jinge nodded and imitated Jiang Zhen when he put on the ring on his finger.

Jiang Zhen kissed Zhao Jinge again. He was in very good mood. He also suddenly found out that he didn't buy a ring or proposed . . . So after buying the two rings, he also went to the craftsman to have him carve words on the two rings. One ring was engraved with "Jin", and the other ring was engraved with "Zhen." Earlier, he put the ring engraved with "Zhen" on Zhao Jinge's hand, and on himself, he wore the ring with engraved with "Jin."

When the proposal was successful, Jiang Zhen wanted to be sweet, but Zhao Jinge suddenly asked, "Jiang Zhen, do you want your child to have your family name? It doesn't matter. My parents mentioned it to me in private." Jiang Zhen probably knelt down and asked if he wanted to marry him because he wanted a child with his surname?

In fact, Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu did not care much about this. They were willing to marry him to Jiang Zhen.

Jiang Zhen: ". . ."

Jiang Zhen spent some time explaining that he had no such intention and then looked at Zhao Jinge helplessly and suddenly found that his proposal was a failure. He really thought too much . . . Zhao Jinge married him. What was he doing with all of this? If he had time, he might as well order more braziers and eat Jinge again.

Doing just what he thought, Jiang Zhen ate Zhao Jinge again. This time, he fell asleep before Zhao Jinge.

Zhao Jinge couldn't sleep. He . . . was very happy. Although what Jiang Zhen did startle him at first, he cheered up after Jiang Zhen explained it to him later. In the dark, he took off his ring and touched the back of the ring. Sure enough, he found a word there. There was a "Zhen," the name of Jiang Zhen.

Jiang Zhen wore the same ring as him, and it was probably engraved with each other's name . . . Zhao Jinge quickly put the ring back and became reluctant to take it off again.

At the same time, he was a little confused . . . Jiang Zhen said he loved him. But what does "love" mean?

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