In the evening, he cooked a pot of wood-fired rice.
He steamed some cured pork slices and sweet potatoes in the pot, along with a bowl of steamed eggs. After serving the rice, he cooked some pot-bottom porridge.
He had been drinking a lot of herbal medicine lately and had lost his appetite for soupy meals, but Xie Yan liked to eat them, especially the crispy pot-bottom rice.
In the evening, the family of four ate together. Xie Yan ate a piece of pot-bottomed rice, drank a bowl of porridge, and ate half a sweet potato, but couldn’t eat any more.
The steamed eggs were untouched by the family, so Lu Yang ate them.
He had no appetite and couldn’t eat much anyway. There were no nutritious foods at home, so he ate as much of the steamed eggs mixed with cured meat slices as he could.
Lu Yang was afraid of wasting food, so he ate it with a small bowl, eating half of it, then having a couple of mouthfuls of rice, and he was full. The rest was shared among the three of them.
The village was quiet, and there were no chores at home.
After dinner, they boiled water for washing.
Lu Yang discussed with them when to talk to his uncle and Uncle Aqing, mentioning Lu Sanfeng more often in the village, and gradually making the matter of sending the child clear.
The Li and Xie families had no objections to the marriage exchange. The Chen family had not caused any trouble for so long, so outwardly, they were brothers. In the future, if they encountered anyone, it would be easy to talk things over.
Most people would not think of a marriage exchange. It was time to start laying the groundwork.
Lu Erbao said, “My older brother knows. He hasn’t said anything to anyone for all these years. I’ll go find him tomorrow.”
Speaking of this matter, they also mentioned some old stories.
Soon after, the mother couldn’t endure the hardships and passed away as well. With both parents gone, the family naturally fell apart.
The fields were divided equally. At the time, Lu Sanfeng hadn’t yet been married off, so she took three acres of land and lived with the eldest son’s family.
Lu Erbao said, “Your aunt was a good person back then. She married into the Chen family and still visited her parents’ home fairly often. When your father was pregnant with you, she already had a son and had some influence in the Chen family, so she could speak up for herself. We couldn’t afford to raise two children, and we didn’t want to send them far away. She said the Chen family could afford to raise them, so she took them in for a few years. Once our family’s circumstances improved, we could bring them back.
“Later, she changed her mind and stopped coming home often. Eventually, she stopped coming home altogether. Over the years, we went to the county to look for her, but we didn’t know where to look, and we couldn’t afford to stay in the county, so we couldn’t travel far. Later, during the New Year, we went to Chenjiawan to visit, and Chen Lao Ye brought his son back to pay respects to his ancestors, but your aunt and you didn’t return to the village.”
When we tried to talk to him, Chen Lao Ye grew impatient. He feared being bothered by poor relatives, so when he spoke, he only said that the child he had raised could never be returned to the Lu family.
If the Lu family insisted on finding the child, he would abandon it.
Lu Erbao and Wang Fengnian couldn’t afford to raise the child either. The dowry they gave to Lu Liu was scraped together from the bride price. The two were honest people who couldn’t argue with Old Man Chen. Every time they met, they only got scolded.
Then last year, they heard news of Lu Yang for the first time, and she had already gotten married. The two children were bold and had switched families.
Xie Yan knew very little about the Chen family’s affairs, but he listened carefully, his ears perked up as if they could stand up.
Lu Yang wasn’t surprised by Lu Sanfeng’s change. Old Mr. Chen wasn’t a good person. He treated living people like animals, demanding that his daughters-in-law take care of the family and not send money back to their parents’ homes. Who knows how he tormented them every day. That’s how he lived.
Lu Yang said, “Since I’ve received their kindness, I can’t avoid interacting with them. But they’re setting an example, so I’ll just do what I can on my end.”
He had learned this from Lu Sanfeng, and it was all thanks to Chen Lao Ye’s good teaching.
Wang Fengnian sensed from his tone that he hadn’t had an easy time at the Chen household and cautiously asked, but Lu Yang denied it.
“I’m doing just fine. To gain skills, one must work hard. You may not know this, but many shops in the county are family workshops. The entire family works around the workshop, and the silver they earn is saved by the family. Expenses are shared. This saves on labor costs, and no one takes a cut. Whatever they earn is theirs.
” My shop with Xie Yan isn’t a family workshop because we have to pay wages to outsiders, and our family can’t handle all the work. The money we earn has to be divided up, and there are many expenses. When a family runs a workshop together, opening the shop every day to do business, it’s normal to be busy.”
He only mentioned the hardships and busyness, not anything else.
Wang Fengnian didn’t understand business, so he wanted Lu Yang to save his strength.
If you hire someone, you hire someone. He thinks it’s better to hire someone for the shop.
Xie Yan also thought hiring help was a good idea and eagerly agreed, saying, “Let’s wait until February to see how the book sales go. If they’re good, we’ll publish the second volume as soon as possible. We’ll try to rent a small house in the county this year. The back of the shop can be cleared out for the employees to live in. At that time, we’ll see if Lin Ge and the others are still willing to help out. With their help, Yang Ge will have it easier.”
Lu Yang listened to his pie-in-the-sky plans, but the two fathers didn’t realize they were pie-in-the-sky and were full of expectations for Xie Yan.
The Xie family used to have some wealth, which was accumulated by Xie Yan’s scholar father.
In that case, Xie Yan, as a scholar, should also be able to accumulate some wealth.
The farmland that Lu Yang had reclaimed had not yet been sold.
The Xie family’s house in the village was still vacant.
Both of these could be exchanged for money.
He grew up in the county and had no attachment to the land.
For him, long-term livelihood was more important than the land.
Once life was stable, he would be willing to accumulate some good farmland as a backup.
Lu Erbao and Wang Fengnian both tried to stop him from selling the fields.
Lu Yanglao wanted to sell the fields, but that wasn’t a good idea.
“They provide a steady income, regardless of drought or flood. There’s also grain to eat every year. Keep them.”
Lu Yang nodded.
If he wanted to sell them, he would have done so long ago.
This farmland was a source of comfort for Xie Yan and Zhao Peilan.
It was something that had been taken from them and had now returned. It was the backbone of their family.
Unless it was absolutely necessary, he would not choose to sell the farmland.
He said, “Those are good farmlands, unlike the poor farmlands we have.”
Lu Erbao and Wang Fengnian finally felt at ease.
In the evening, they washed up and went to bed.
Lu Yang took Xie Yan to sleep in the small hut. This hut was where Lu Liu had lived for over a decade; Lu Yang had only stayed there for a few days.
Xie Yan wouldn’t act recklessly sleeping with him in his mother’s house. The two hugged and chatted.
Xie Yan said to him, “ We don’t know how to farm either, and life is tough. We can sell it first. If necessary, we can buy it back later.”
Lu Yang laughed, “It’s not about that. It’s about the bloodstained fingerprint on the land deed. It looks so satisfying, don’t you think?”
Xie Yan also felt satisfied.
That was enough. A thousand gold pieces couldn’t buy such satisfaction. The emotional value of these few acres of land was higher than their monetary value.
Xie Yan rubbed his stomach to help him relax.
He had tried rubbing Lu Yang a few times before, and Lu Yang always found it comfortable.
Moving his hands under the covers would disperse the heat, so he would rub him before bedtime. When Lu Yang was deeply asleep, Xie Yan would let go.
Lu Yang said his arm strength was greater than his leg strength.
Lu Yang refused, saying that commuting was too tiring.
He told Xie Yan, using a different reason: “The most important thing for you right now is to study well.”
Xie Yan had recently met with Wu Pingzhi and discussed other matters. He knew he needed to exercise.
Exercise was also part of exam preparation, a component of studying.
He said, “I run around every day to build up my leg strength.”
Lu Yang: “…”
He was even tricked by that bookworm.
He said Xie Yan was being cunning.
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