Volume 1 In the Countryside Chapter 2: Child-rearing...son-in-law
Zhang Shou saw the incomparably beautiful girl waving to a guard beside the carriage and asking something in a low voice. She then gestured to the driver to drive on. But before lowering the curtain, she suddenly seemed to remember something, smiled at him, and waved goodbye. He couldn't help but smile and waved to her as well.
When he met a beautiful and reasonable lady, his mood, which had been suddenly ruined, unknowingly improved.
He naturally didn't know that Zhu Ying, who had lowered the curtains and sat back in her original seat, was pressing her chest, her face beaming with joy.
This trip to the countryside was worth it! Just seeing Zhu Gongquan, who was in cahoots with his second brother, being humiliated, made her feel proud, not to mention that she met a young man with a good appearance and conversation! Well, she might as well ask about his background and knowledge in the future. When Dad comes back, maybe she can recommend him to him. At least he is much better than a shameless person like Zhu Gongquan ! By the way, she can also meet him often...
Zhang Shou did not take this small encounter seriously. After the uninvited guests left, he put on his bamboo hat and heard the tenants happily say that they would continue to grow rice next year. Only then did he walk back with satisfaction.
It was exciting to read books about time travel, but when Zhang Shou came over, he discovered that it would be terrible if it was his turn.
But fortunately, although this is the countryside, he was not born into an ordinary farm family that had to work hard in the fields all day to feed himself. His family had a two-courtyard house with three servants to take care of the interior and exterior. Ah Liu never said a word, while Old Liu looked at a door that was never visited by any guests. His gossipy daughter-in-law Aunt Liu often said that all the fields nearby belonged to him.
And this neighboring area… is said to be as large as several thousand mu! Although the land he owns does not seem to be in line with his current life, and is even a little suspicious, it does not prevent rice advocate Zhang Shou from using part of the land to grow rice.
First, rice-fish symbiosis was used to improve the soil environment, and in the past two years, artificial selection of species was used. Unfortunately, the immigrant household of crayfish has not been introduced yet. It is a pipe dream to open a shrimp-raising ditch next to the rice field to raise crayfish.
When he occasionally wants to eat high-protein foods, he can only satisfy his cravings with high-protein foods such as loach and eel.
The north is not suitable for raising silkworms, and the scale of silkworms cannot compete with that of the silk weaving industry in the south of the Yangtze River. Tussah silkworms are a specialty of the north, and they are not picky about taste, eating leaves of all kinds of trees, such as oak, camphor, cypress, maple, and poplar. His mother, Wu, had already raised some silkworms, and under his encouragement, she expanded the scale of breeding in the village.
In addition to rice, after diverting water to irrigate the fields, he also opened up a portion of cotton fields and planted cotton. The current yield is not high. As for fruits and vegetables, they have all the varieties they should have these days. As for grafting, there are no good varieties for the time being. With his limited theoretical knowledge, he is still at the stage of asking old farmers to explore...
There are some farm tools suitable for rice fields. Because there are not enough oxen for plowing, the village blacksmith made some tools such as hoes and weed claws according to his instructions, which are quite useful.
Anyway, in this era where food and clothing are the most important thing, agriculture is the foundation and agriculture is king, so let’s just focus on farming first…
Although his rural life was relatively affluent, Zhang Shou was not without worries. It had been three years since he traveled through time, and he, who was said to be sixteen years old, only knew that his last name was Zhang Shou, his mother was Wu, but he didn't know who his father was!
Most of these farmers in the countryside were tenants. Except for the master's surname, Zhang, they knew nothing about anything else. As for the servants in the house, he tried his best not to get a single word of truth out of them. Not to mention his mother, Mrs. Wu, whose mouth was so tight that it was like she had locked it!
He initially tried to sneak away, but was always "courtesy" sent back by the villagers halfway.
There were many books at home, but he had an extraordinary memory and could recite them by heart after reading them once, and he also understood history.
There are no less than Qin, Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties. Now is the Ming Dynasty, but the emperor's surname is not Zhu! When he first discovered that history had taken a big turn at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, he was completely devastated . Now is the 26th year of Yongchen in the Ming Dynasty. What the hell is this!
Of course, he had to be thankful that it was not the Zhu family that took over the empire, so there was no strict system that stipulated that your father and son must be successors and must inherit the same household registration, and it was strictly forbidden for women to bind their feet. From the founding of the country, large ships had been sailing around the world, and maritime trade spread to Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea. The culture was not closed, and women could also show their faces in public. Otherwise, how could he have met that elegant and graceful young lady just now?
During these three years, he had no time to think about history, so he could only think about his own life experience, and he could only come up with two inferences.
Either, they and their son were the concubines and illegitimate children of some wealthy family; or, something terrible happened in their family, and they were sent to the countryside to avoid disaster.
At this time, Zhang Shou walked leisurely along the ridges of the fields, and finally saw a house.
Compared with the crude houses in the village, this house located at the entrance of the village with neat walls, blue bricks and black tiles, and two entrances inside and outside is considered to be the most luxurious house in the vicinity.
It was already noon, smoke was rising from the kitchen, and the sound of pots and pans colliding came from the kitchen in the front yard. Zhang Shou found himself a little hungry. But when he arrived at the gate, he saw a few horses tied to a few wooden pillars in front of the gate, and there was also an oil truck next to it. Although it looked quite ordinary, he recognized it at a glance because they had just been separated for a short time.
Hey, isn't this the carriage we met before? Could that extremely beautiful young lady be a guest of his family?
As soon as Zhang Shou had this thought, Old Liu hurried out from the door.
"Oh, Master is finally back. I was planning to go look for someone! A visitor has arrived. He is from the capital. He has been waiting for you for a long time!"
When Zhang Shou saw the carriage, he was mentally prepared. He took off his hat and walked quickly into the house, crossed the front yard, and arrived at the door of the main hall.
As soon as he stepped over the threshold, he saw his mother, Mrs. Wu, sitting on the main seat in the middle, feeling very uncomfortable. The red-dressed girl and the middle-aged scholar he had met before were sitting on the first and second seats at the bottom left, respectively. The others were standing behind them.
When he saw him, the middle-aged scholar called Mr. Zhu by the eldest lady was as if he had seen a ghost, and the girl in red widened her eyes with disbelief. Although he was a little curious, he still went forward to see his mother, Wu, and called her mother.
Mrs. Wu quickly stood up and pulled him around to face everyone: "Miss, Mr. Zhu, this is my Ah Shou."
"It's you!" Seeing Zhang Shou smiling and greeting her, Zhu Ying couldn't help but staring at that face for a few more seconds. But after the surprise, when she thought of the other party's identity, she felt subtle again and kept looking him up and down .
Although it was not the first time that she was stared at with burning eyes, how could those dull women and young girls in the countryside compare with such a radiant and dazzling young lady?
After smiling at her, Zhang Shou looked away and raised his eyebrows at Mr. Zhu, who had a dark complexion and said, "Uncle, we meet everywhere in life."
Zhu Gongquan was so angry at this time. He was unlucky enough to be ridiculed by a young man who he thought was illiterate. But what was even more unlucky was that this young man was the one he had brought his daughter to see!
At this moment, he knew that Zhang Shou's words "You will meet each other anywhere in life" were ironic, but he still had to suppress his anger, stood up and bowed: "Mr. Shou, I was offended by my words before."
"Haha." Zhang Shou would not say something polite like "ignorance is not a crime". Instead, he changed the subject and said, "My mother and I have lived here for so many years. We have no relatives or friends. Apart from the peddler who we rarely see twice a year, we have never seen any other outsiders, let alone guests from the capital. May I ask who you two are? Do you have anything to do with us?"
Zhu Gongquan had a cold expression and an even colder tone: "If there is nothing wrong, I would not dare to disturb Mr. Shou and Aunt Wu."
This was the information he had spent a lot of money to get from the people around the old lady. The eldest lady hated the fact that some powerful families had many wives and concubines. Knowing that Zhang Shou was a bastard, and possibly a bastard born to another woman, with an unknown background, she would not be so obsessed with him, right? However, to his disappointment, Zhu Ying still stared at him, as if she didn't notice the three words he deliberately emphasized.
When Zhang Shou heard the three words "Auntie Wu", he saw Wu's eyes struggling, and finally she lowered her eyelids and remained silent. Countless scenes of infighting in the rich family flashed through his mind, but he put these messy thoughts aside in an instant.
He already hated someone who had been rude to him when they first met, so he was naturally even more displeased at this time: "Please speak directly if you have anything to say!"
"That's right. I guess Aunt Wu hasn't told Mr. Shou." Seeing that Mrs. Wu was indeed timid, Zhu Gongquan sneered and said, "My master is the Duke of Zhao. I am just an aide in the mansion, insignificant. As for my eldest daughter... Mr. Shou, have you never heard that you and the eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhao were engaged since childhood?"
Although Zhang Shou knew that marriages these days were determined by parents’ orders and matchmaker’s words, when he heard that the beautiful woman in front of him was actually his fiancée, he was still shocked even though he had lived two lifetimes!
Zhu Ying finally pulled herself out of her lust for beauty. She knew that Zhu Gongquan was deliberately provoking her dissatisfaction, but knowing that her fiancé was actually the handsome young man she had just decided to go out of town to the countryside often, taking the opportunity to feast on his beauty, her heart unconsciously became a little biased.
Especially when she noticed that Zhang Shou showed a very surprised expression after hearing Zhu Gongquan mention the engagement, she couldn't help but have an idea and came up with a very bold idea.
After the initial shock, Zhang Shou burst out laughing and said, "It is said that a marriage should be between people of equal status. She is a daughter of a famous family, and I am a young man from the countryside. Why would the Duke of Zhao decide on such an ill-matched marriage?"
This is what Zhu Gongquan was waiting for. But he was afraid that Zhang Shou would retreat in order to advance, so he revealed another answer without hesitation.
"Mr. Shou probably doesn't know that the fields around here, the house you and Aunt Wu live in, and the food and clothing you've been eating and wearing over the years, all came from the master. Even the servants in this house were carefully selected by the master. If it weren't for this marriage, how could the master be so concerned about you and your son?"
Zhang Shou instinctively turned his head to look at Mrs. Wu who was standing beside him. Seeing that the silk handkerchief in her hand was almost crumpled to pieces, he felt that his worldview had been refreshed once again.
He was wondering why his life didn't seem to match the property he owned. It turned out that the land belonged to his future father-in-law!
Moreover, he was actually raised by his future father-in-law since he was a child. What is this, a child-raised husband... No, a child-raised son-in-law?
