Chapter 1: Winter in Jinling Chapter 63: You are indeed an adult
On the Wu Ji ship.
While serving Zhao Liben a meal, Ye chuckled and said, "Since you miss your grandson, why don't you just call him aboard to see you?"
"Why are you interfering?!" Zhao Liben frowned and said unhappily, "I said that if I want to sharpen them, I have to let them suffer more. If we meet like this, won't all our efforts go to waste?"
"Yes, sir, you are right. I am being kind." Ye was reprimanded but accepted it happily, saying, "It is a blessing from their previous life that they can be tempered like this."
"I don't expect them to be successful. As long as they know that life is not easy, I will have achieved my goal." Zhao Liben stood up, put his hands behind his back and looked at the small cargo ship upstream. He smiled with satisfaction and said, "This kid from the second family is something I never expected."
"Yes, the young master is truly a genius. He can actually create this 'Frost Turns into Snow' out of thin air."
Ye stood up and walked behind Zhao Liben, put a brocade cape on him, and then took out a delicate small porcelain cup from her sleeve and said, "Why haven't I heard you mention that he has this ability before?"
"Humph, you are so lucky to have a good granddaughter that I cannot have a great grandson?" Zhao Liben raised his head slightly and said proudly, "Before I was here, he was like a sword in a sheath. Who could recognize the sharpness of my grandson? Now that he has unsheathed his sword, he will eventually shine brightly across the nine states!"
"You are worthy of being called a master. Even your grandson is so outstanding!" Ye was intoxicated. She looked up at Zhao Liben for a long time before she remembered something and said, "Oh, I haven't reported it to you yet. I just received news that he got married to a soldier, the former imperial censor Zhao Jin, and took him back home."
"Eh..." Zhao Liben, who always looked like a man of great stature in front of this woman, was surprised when he heard her words and asked, "How could this boy think of such a thing?"
"Sir, is this inappropriate of the young master?" Ye's expression tightened when she heard this. She stroked her neck with her palm and whispered, "Should we take advantage of the young master's absence to take Zhao Jin..."
"What nonsense!" Zhao Liben shook his head decisively and said, "My grandson's move is a stroke of genius! Your Wu Ji has spies all over the two capitals. You don't even know that the court is about to be reinstated and the officials of the previous dynasty were convicted for their words? You are worse than a child!"
"Yes, I am short-sighted..." Ye lowered her head in shame and said, "I have been focusing on you recently and have indeed neglected it."
"Alas..." Zhao Liben then gently put his arm around Ye's shoulders, raised her chin with his hand, and said sternly, "What did I teach you back then? Women are the masters of the family and cannot bow their heads."
"I have never forgotten it for a moment."
Ye looked at Zhao Liben with moist eyes, snuggled happily in his arms and said, "I only bow my head for you, my Lord..."
"Alas, what a bad fate..." Zhao Liben shook his head and asked helplessly, "You haven't forgotten what I told you to do, right?"
"How could it be? That Zhou guy dared to take advantage of your misfortune and break off the engagement to humiliate you. I wish I could skin him alive!" Ye raised her eyebrows and said hatefully, "I have had people investigate and found out that he was actually involved with Shao Fang, that charlatan, and even secretly hooked up with a famous Qinhuai prostitute. If we report these matters to the Metropolitan Censorate, I guarantee he will be in big trouble."
"These are just minor details. They can't bring down a fourth-rank official." Zhao Liben shook his head and thought to himself with some self-pity, if it weren't for Gao Suqing, how could I have fallen into such a small loss?
Seeing that the adult looked gloomy, Ye knew that he was secretly sad again.
After Zhao Liben was dismissed from office, he was in a bad mood, so Ye accompanied him to travel. For two months, the two of them took a boat down the Yangtze River and saw the beautiful scenery along the way. Unfortunately, Zhao Liben still couldn't smile because he couldn't get rid of his anger.
After thinking for a moment, Zhao Liben ordered in a deep voice: "Pass on all the information you have collected to my grandson. He may be able to use it ."
"Yes, sir." Ye naturally agreed.
…
Zhao Hao never expected that his grandfather, who was supposed to suffer poverty and hardship in his hometown, would actually ride on a big boat with the hostess of Wu Ji, and enjoy himself on the river!
He ate the whole second-harvest shad with satisfaction, and thought that spending the night on the boat was no big deal.
In fact, it was not a big deal. The river water was warm in spring, and Zhao Hao brought his own quilt. At night, wrapped in a thick quilt, he curled up in the sheltered cabin, listening to the sound of the river water hitting the side of the boat, and fell asleep in a short while.
When he was awakened by Gao Wu, the cargo ship had already docked.
Zhao Hao climbed out of the cabin, stood on the deck and stretched.
The sun was shining brightly outside the cabin, with no clouds in the sky.
Zhao Hao squinted his eyes, and after adjusting to the sunlight, he saw the sky was empty and blue. The rape flowers on both sides of the river were blooming like golden brocade, and flocks of chickens and ducks were foraging among them.
A few local dogs lying lazily on the dock barked at the strangers, attracting nearby villagers.
"Hey, isn't this Boss Tang? It's been years since we last met!" The villagers actually all knew Fatty Tang and hurried to help tie the boat up.
Boss Tang knew that Zhao Hao was suspicious, so he quickly explained with a smile: "When I was an apprentice, I followed my master to apply vegetable oil. It has been thirty years."
"Oh." Zhao Hao nodded, thinking, am I that scary? He turned around and told Yu Peng, "Tell everyone not to leave the dock. You and Brother Gao can just follow me."
Yu Peng also knew that he had not done a good job on this mission, and was afraid that the richest man in Caijia Lane would have a problem with him, so he was naturally doubly careful at this moment and hurriedly obeyed the order.
This rural ferry didn't even have a step to get off the boat. Tang Youde jumped directly from the boat to the shore.
He staggered and nearly fell into the water, but fortunately he was caught by a villager.
"Hey, I've been on the boat for too long and I can't even stand steadily." Boss Tang smiled awkwardly.
"You've gained weight, haven't you?" The villager patted his round belly and said with a smile, "There's little rain this year, and the rapeseed has just bloomed. I'm afraid Boss Tang's trip was in vain."
"I'm not here to collect the money either." Boss Tang slapped the villager's hand away. He was now the owner of a 'century-old store' with branches all over Jinling, so naturally he didn't want to mingle with the peasants anymore.
"Who are you?" The villager didn't care about his expression, but continued to joke with a smile: "You're coming from Nanjing to see the rape flowers?"
"I'm here to collect silk." Tang Youde said lightly.
"Ah?" Several villagers were stunned when they heard this, and asked in disbelief, "Are you serious? Are you really going to collect the silk?"
"That's right, go tell the people at the Silk Society that I want as many as they have!" Tang Youde said in a rough voice.
"Hurry up and tell the head of the community that a distinguished guest has come to collect silk!" The villagers were immediately excited.
Some ran east, some ran west, and returned to their villages to report the news. Some even grabbed Tang Youde's arm and tried to drag him back to their village.
Tang Youde was dragged around by several villagers and was almost torn into pieces by five horses.
"Let me go, everyone. If anyone dares to touch me again, I will turn around and get on the boat without a single strand of silk left!"
Tang Youde yelled in anger, and it really worked. The villagers immediately let go of his hands and wanted to help him smooth out his wrinkled robe.
"Get lost..." Tang Youde kicked in annoyance and stood still at the dock, saying, "I'm not going anywhere. Let the heads of your villages come to see me."
"Oh, well..." The villagers were afraid of angering him, so they stood aside, but no one was willing to leave, fearing that he would be taken away by other villages.
"This is a dock shared by several nearby villages, so people from all villages have it." Tang Youde originally wanted to show off in front of Zhao Hao, but after being tossed around by a bunch of peasants, how could he still be so impressive? He straightened his crooked jade-inlaid black silk Liuhe hat, smiled bitterly and said to Zhao Hao: "The news has almost spread to all the villages now, and the head of their silk society will come to beg us later."
Seeing that the raw silk market was, as expected, a buyer's market, Zhao Hao nodded and felt relieved.
