Chapter 19
It’s the familiar village entrance again.
Because the autumn plowing was completed, more people gathered here. Some were chatting, some were arguing, there were children running around and screaming loudly, and there were a bunch of people gathering together in the corner, seemingly gambling.
Fu Wenyu was discovered by them as soon as he appeared at the entrance of the village.
"Wen Yu is back."
"It's Wen Yu from the third uncle's family. Hey, what is he holding?"
Before they could get up and take a closer look, children running around shouted in surprise, "Sheep, Brother Wenyu brought a sheep back, it's a sheep!"
"Wow--"
Not long after, Fu Wenyu was surrounded on three levels inside and three outside.
Sheep are not common in Fujia Village. The last time the patriarch's son passed the exam, the family bought a sheep from the city to entertain distinguished guests. Therefore, the onlookers looked at the sheep with its head down and grazing in wonder. .
"Wen Yu, why did you buy a sheep?"
"Wen Yu, have you made a fortune? Your second uncle said that you copied books for others, wrote some scripts, and planned to build a house. Did you make a fortune? You are really promising."
"How much money does this sheep cost?"
As the villagers scrambled to ask questions, a familiar voice from Fu Wenyu suddenly sneered: "Oh, it's all a lie to say that you can't eat meat to observe filial piety! Just a few days ago, I brought back another sheep. I bought it before I'm afraid the bones of those two chickens have been chewed away, and you still call yourself a filial son."
Fu Wenyu: "...?"
It turned out to be the fourth aunt Wen who wanted to help their family kill chickens last time.
Fu Wenyu couldn't let the villagers misunderstand, so he said seriously: "Fourth Aunt, don't talk nonsense. The two chickens we bought before are well kept in our house and have started laying eggs. If you don't believe me, you can ask Sixth Aunt. She delivers food to our house every day and knows everything about it.”
"As for this sheep..."
Fu Wenyu pulled the rope made of straw and pulled the sheep to his side, which was still grazing calmly under the curious touch of the children, and then said: "This is a ewe that has just given birth to a lamb."
"I didn't buy it to eat meat, but to replenish the body. Goat milk is warm in nature, and drinking it regularly can strengthen the body. So in order to make my mother and sister better, I bought a goat. After a while At some point, this sheep will have no more milk, and the sheep farmer will replace it with a new ewe.”
Fu Wenyu came up with the idea of exchanging sheep. After all, his family couldn't eat meat now, and the sheep seller looked at him curiously. However, Fu Wenyu promised to make up some additional money, so the other party agreed.
Thinking that he could not finish the goat's milk from one goat, Fu Wenyu added, "If you have elderly people or children who are weak, you can exchange eggs with me for goat's milk."
After he said this, a skinny old man asked: "Can this goat milk baby drink it?"
"Of course you can drink it!" Fu Wenyu nodded affirmatively.
However, people with lactose intolerance cannot drink it, but there is no need to mention this now. It will be better to remind them when someone actually comes to change.
After explaining the matter, Fu Wenyu ignored those who asked him whether the goat's milk tastes good or whether the land is for sale, and went home with the bleating sheep.
After arriving home, Fu Rong's eyes widened when she saw the sheep walking obediently behind Fu Wenyu.
"Brother, why did you buy a sheep?"
"Goat milk is nutritious. We can drink some every day." Fu Wenyu said, "By the way, did something happen at home? I just saw that you were not very happy."
"Where's mother?"
Hearing this, Furong gritted her teeth slightly, looked inside the room and whispered, "Mom is not happy. She went out with her second aunt in the morning and she was not happy when she came back. I guess her second aunt is angry with her again."
Is Aunt Fu angry again?
Fu Wenyu's expression suddenly became serious.
At this time, cousin Chunhua, who had just been talking to Fu Rong, glanced at Fu Rong and whispered: "...my mother and aunt went to pick wild vegetables, and then they quarreled, and then aunt came back."
Did Mrs. Zhou and Aunt Fu have a fight?
What should Chunhua know?
Fu Wenyu thought to himself, and judging from her actions just now, it was obviously related to Fu Rong.
Thinking of this, Fu Wenyu already understood in his heart.
It must be the landlord Chen incident. Second Aunt Fu brought up the old matter again, otherwise Mrs. Zhou wouldn't have been so angry that she would have quarreled with her. So he handed over the straw rope and said to Fu Rong, who had been staring at the sheep curiously just now: "Take the sheep and find a piece of grass outside to feed them. Don't go too far."
"By the way, I also bought some delicious tea eggs. You and Chunhua can have one each."
Chunhua quickly refused, "I, I won't eat, I'm not hungry."
"It's not expensive to eat." Fu Wenyu gave one to each of them. As for the snacks also packed back from the teahouse, he didn't share them because he was too lazy to open them.
"Don't play too late. You'll be back when it's time for dinner."
Fu Rong happily took the tea eggs and rope, "Okay!"
"Sister Chunhua, do you want to go with me?"
Fu Chunhua is one year older than Fu Rong, taller than her, and her skin is darker than Fu Rong. If you want to say what the two sisters have in common, it is probably that they both have little flesh on their faces.
Fu Chunhua was also at the age when she was interested in small animals. When Fu Rong asked, she happily agreed, and the two sisters took the sheep and set off.
"Sister Chunhua, what kind of grass do sheep want to eat?"
"Same as a cow?"
"Then I know. There is a patch of tender grass over there. Aunt Liu's cows are taken there to eat. Let's take the sheep there too."
"Yes!"
After watching his sister and Chunhua leave, Fu Wenyu put down the other things he bought in the city and then walked towards Zhou's room.
"Mom, Chunhua said you had a fight with Second Aunt?"
Inside the house, Zhou was staring at a basket of wild vegetables on the table in a daze, not knowing what she was thinking. It wasn't until Fu Wenyu spoke that she came back to her senses, "Wenyu is back."
Fu Wenyu sat down opposite her and asked seriously, "What happened?"
Zhou hesitated for a moment, then sighed, "Oh, it's still the matter of Landlord Chen. Today we went to dig wild vegetables together. We were fine on the way, but when we got to the field, your Second Aunt took advantage of the fact that no one was around and pulled me to talk about Landlord Chen's son again, saying how good their family was and how much benefit the family would get if Rong'er married him."
"I was really angry when I heard that, so I had a fight with her."
Fu Wenyu hurriedly comforted, "Good fight!"
"Mom, Our family doesn't need to rely on the second uncle for help now, so you don't have to put yourself in a difficult position. Second aunt dares to bring up such things again and again, which means she doesn't regard us as relatives and doesn't take us seriously. "
"Don't indulge her."
"Mother knows," Zhou showed a bitter smile, "your second aunt let it slip today. It turns out that the landlord Chen said that if the matchmaking is successful, he will give her two taels of silver. Rong'er's life is worth two taels of silver in her eyes. Your father and I treat Chunhua and Wenju well on weekdays. "
"How could she do such a thing?"
Before, Liu had been encouraging her to marry her daughter to the Chen family. She thought that the other party was thinking that after her family got ten taels of silver and ten acres of land, their second room would be able to benefit from it, so she persuaded so actively.
But she didn't expect it to be for two taels of silver!
If she wasn't worried that the incident would affect her daughter's reputation today, she would have to ask someone to judge.
Two taels of silver?
Fu Wenyu clenched his fists suddenly.
He finally understood why Second Aunt Fu would hold on to this matter and bring it up again and again. It turned out that Landlord Chen promised so much as a matchmaking gift.
You know, two taels of silver is enough for a family of four in the city to live for a month, and in the countryside, because food, housing and vegetables can be self-sufficient, silver is more valuable. Some families only need two or three taels of betrothal gifts to marry a daughter-in-law.
Should we be thankful that Landlord Chen promised two taels of silver?
If it weren't for the purpose of monopolizing the two taels of silver, given Second Aunt Fu's personality, I'm afraid she would have spread the news to the whole village, and would not just talk about it in private.
Without waiting for Fu Wenyu to speak, Zhou hesitated and said, "Wenyu, mother just thought about it. Didn't you plan to build a few more houses before? Why not build the wall as well? When the time comes, we can surround our house, so that we can live a quieter life. What do you think?"
"This is a good idea!"
Fu Wenyu gave a thumbs up in agreement.
As a person who traveled from the modern times, he actually prefers the mode of each person managing their own affairs. Now that he is living opposite the second branch family, they know everything he does, which is very unusual for him. Not to mention that there is a grandfather above him, so being able to build a wall is really what he wants.
But at the same time, he was furious again.
Aunt Fu brought up the old matter again. This is not only her business, but also the business of Landlord Chen.
It has been so long since the incident, and he thought that Landlord Chen had given up long ago, but he didn't expect that the other party had never given up and was still doing this and that.
Do you really think he is easy to bully?
Thinking of this, Fu Wenyu said to Zhou with a serious expression: "Mother, the root of this matter is Landlord Chen. As long as he hasn't given up, there will be others tomorrow if there is Second Aunt today."
"We can't just deal with it like this. We have to solve it once and for all."
Zhou was stunned and murmured: "... Once and for all?"
"Yes," Fu Wenyu said seriously: "Mother, tell me about Landlord Chen. What kind of person is he, what has he done, and what is the situation at home?"
As the saying goes, knowing yourself and the enemy will win every battle. Fu Wenyu felt that before going to see Landlord Chen, he had to understand the details of the other party. In other words, he had to hold the trump card before he could go to negotiate with him. Otherwise, if he went to the door rashly, it would be easy to get a meat bun to hit the dog and never come back.
Zhou suddenly realized and then explained.
Zhou didn't know the name of Landlord Chen, because the other party didn't have much contact with Fujia Village. He only knew that his family moved here ten years ago and bought more than 200 acres of land as soon as they arrived.
The Chen family lived in seclusion, and rented the land to people from several nearby villages. It was said that the rent was not much, and there would be some reductions in disaster years, so they had a good reputation in the local area. Their family was very low-key, and the most noticeable thing was probably that the landlord Chen and his wife had a stupid son with an IQ of only five or six years old.
In other words, there was no crime or violation of laws and discipline.
This made Fu Wenyu a little embarrassed.
Because his bottom line plan was to collect evidence of the landlord Chen's family doing bad things. If the negotiation failed, he would find an opportunity to complain to the government and let the government arrest the landlord Chen.
Now that he found that the bottom line plan did not work, Fu Wenyu was not discouraged. He quickly changed into clean clothes, rolled up the newspaper he brought back, and went out to the landlord Chen's house.
But before leaving, Zhou stopped him again.
"Wenyu, mother has thought about it carefully."
Mrs. Zhou frowned, "When you arrive at the home of Landlord Chen, you must not act on impulse. Just tell him not to mention this marriage again in the future, and don't make trouble."
"Rong'er's reputation is important."
"Don't make a big fuss, understand?"
She had always tolerated Mrs. Liu before, and she was worried that she would spread the news of this marriage. Although her family would not agree, she could not stop people from talking. When she lived in the city before, she had seen those people who had no conscience deliberately ruin the reputation of other people's young ladies, and then ask for marriage when they could not get married.
Her husband had passed away, and her family had separated from the second house, so she could not bear the blow again.
Fu Wenyu's expression was stern, "Mother, I know."
Because he went there with a bit of a mentality of asking for accusations, he didn't even mention eggs, snacks, etc., and walked to the door of the Chen family with his head held high.
"Excuse me, I'm Fu Wenyu, please pass on the message."