CH 14.1

After enough rest, Wang Shijing continued to pick the tea leaves. Shao Yunan also put the bag of sweet-scented osmanthus in Wang Shijing’s back basket to avoid contaminating the tea leaves. Wang Shijing’s movements became more and more skillful, so after a little more than an hour he finished picking the remaining half of the tree. Their trip to the mountain was extremely fruitful, so without any further delay the two men packed up and went down the mountain.

Their speed of going back was fast and because Shao Yunan no longer looked around, Wang Shijing led him down the mountain smoothly. The two first went home to put their things away before going out again to pick up the children. But who knew that as soon as the two men went to the village, they would meet a woman who would say gloatingly, “Shijing, your mother has been looking for you all day, you should quickly go home.”

Shao Yunan’s good mood immediately dissipated and Wang Shijing’s face even darkened a little. But he only said “got it” and continued to go home with Shao Yunan. He didn’t let go of Shao Yunan’s wrist, while Shao Yunan also did not try to break free.

“It must be about the stone.” Shao Yunan hummed coldly. “I’ll take you home first and then I’ll pick up Qing and Nizi.” Just as Wang Shijing’s words fell, someone called out to him again, “Shijing!”

The two looked over and it was Aunt Li who looked very anxious. The other party trotted all the way over and hurriedly said, “Shijing, they are asking about your stones. She went to your house in the morning. Because you weren’t there, as soon as she heard that Qing and Nizi were at Zhou’s house she took Wang Tianyan and his family over and made a big fuss, saying that you had hidden money from here before splitting up so you have to hand it over. They also want the family patriarch to open the ancestral hall, saying that you were unfilial and had to be punished according to the clan rules. The two children were frightened, so aunt Zhou and I hurriedly sent the two children to Zhao Lizheng. You should hurry up over there.”

Shao Yunan gritted his teeth, “Damn it. I hope she doesn’t expect that a tiger would act like a sick cat. I’d like to see how she obeys the rules!”

Seeing a donkey grazing not far away, Shao Yunan pulled out his hand from Wang Shijing’s and unloaded the basket on his back before putting it on the ground with force. Then he said angrily, “Shijing, you take the stuff home. If I don’t spoil Wang Songzhi’s reputation today. My fu*king name is not Shao!”

Before Wang Shijing and Aunt Li realized it, Shao Yunan rushed to the donkey. As the original owner was still dumbfounded, he climbed on the donkey and fiercely smacked its ass. The donkey gave a cry and ran under Shao Yunan’s command.

“Oh! That’s my donkey!” The owner of the donkey shouted and rushed up after them.

Shao Yunan knew how to ride a horse, so it was no problem for him to ride the donkey. But the donkey had no saddle, so he still had a little bit of a hard time riding it. However, Shao Yunan was filled with anger. He now knew that he had to give them a taste of ruthlessness when dealing with the shameless people of the Wang family. The reason why the Wangs were so arrogant was because they had a possible scholar in their family. But no matter which era, the reputation of the scholar was most important. If the Wang family could do such a shameless thing, he will see if the scholar of the Wang family could also be so shameless!

“Yunan! Yunan!” Aunt Li became so anxious that she pushed Wang Shijing hard, “Go after him!”

Wang Shijing’s face became tense as he said to Aunt Li, “Aunt Li, I’ll put these things at your house first. Can you lend me your ox cart? I will also need to trouble you with telling Lizheng’s side that Yunan has gone to look for Zhisong?”

“Oh, go quickly. I’ll tell Lizheng’s side right now!” Aunt Li scolded old lady Wang’s family to death in her heart and then helped Wang Shijing bring the two baskets full of things to her home. As soon as Wang Xing and Sun Er Jiang heard that Shao Yunan had gone to find Wang Zhisong, they immediately said that they would go with Wang Shijing.

Wang Shijing did not refuse and just drove the ox cart in the direction of the county town. Shao Yunan’s reaction also startled him, but next to it a new complex emotion also rose in his heart. This was originally something he was supposed to solve, but Shao Yunan’s actions made him feel once again that they were a family now.

At Zhao Lizheng’s house, old lady Wang, Wang Tianyan, and Wang Guo were all waiting angrily. After Aunt Wang and Aunt Zhou sent the two children over here, they also stayed at Zhao Lizheng’s house and did not leave. Zhao Liu, the wife of Lizheng, was very angry. She has never seen such a shameless family. It was simply unreasonable for such a family to have a child.

Old lady Wang had already called over the family patriarch, Wang Wenhe. The faces of both Wang Wenhe and Zhao Zheng were very bad. The latter was because he had to obstruct Wang Zhisong’s status as a child student while Wang Wenhe did it out of consideration for the whole family. After Wang Zhisong’s examination, the fate of the entire Wang clan was linked to him. Wang Wenhe was annoyed with old lady Wang, but he couldn’t ignore the future of the entire Wang family, so this matter made Wang Wenhe stand in a very difficult position.

The two children were taken to the inner room by Zhao Liu. While Zhao Lizheng’s eldest son and daughter-in-law were sitting in the hall. Lizheng’s eldest grandson, who had just returned from the private school, was now sitting in the inner room with his grandmother, Wang Qing, and Wang Nizi. Zhao Lizheng’s eldest son, Zhao Yuande, married a male wife, a brother from the same clan named Zhao He. Usually, there would be no intermarriage between the same clan, but since Zhao He’s parents couldn’t have children they adopted him from his mother’s family side into the Zhao family tree. Since he was not really a member of the Zhao family, there was no problem with this marriage.

The couple only had one son, named Zhao Congbo, who was now ten years old and was studying in a private school in the county town. Although Lizheng and his wife were not satisfied that their daughter-in-law was a man and they only had one grandchild, they loved their eldest grandson very much and had great expectations for him.

Fourth Uncle Wang and Fourth Aunt Wang ran in from outside. As soon as they entered the house, Uncle Wang didn’t even look at the patriarch or old lady Wang and just said to Lizheng, “Zhao Lizheng, Shijing and Yunan are back, but Yunan went to the county school to look for Zhisong.”

As soon as Uncle Wang’s words fell, Zhao Lizheng and Wang Wenhe froze. Old lady Wang was also a bit confused for a moment. While Wang Tianyan just foolishly asked, “Why is he looking for Zhisong?”

Wang Guo raised her voice and shouted, “It’s useless for him to go looking for Zhisong!”

“Stupid!” Wang Wenhe suddenly let out a shout, making Wang Guo so frightened that she fell off the stool. Zhao Lizheng’s face trembled as Aunt Wang said cynically, “Yunan said he was going to ask Zhisong what to do about this matter.” She didn’t say that Shao Yunan probably wanted to discredit Wang Zhisong.

Wang Wenhe stood up and shouted, “Where is Shijing? Why didn’t he stop him?”

Aunt Wang said, “Shijing couldn’t stop him. Yunan robbed Ergouzi’s family’s donkey and ran to the county town. Shijing borrowed my ox cart and went after him together with Wang Xing and Sun Erjiang.”

Wang Wenhe pointed to Aunt Wang before turning to old lady Wang who had not yet figured out the severity of the situation. “You’re making a scene! If Zhisong’s reputation is ruined today, I’ll see what you’ll tell him!” With that, Wang Wenhe strode away. He also had to arrange for someone to stop Shao Yunan.

Old lady Wang still didn’t react, “How could this ruin Zhisong’s reputation?”

Zhao Lizheng said impatiently, “Why don’t you hurry up and let Wang Tianyan chase him? Shijing had already separated from your family. Not to mention that he just sold some stones, even if he really has some private money, you had no reason to make trouble now! The deed clearly states that Shijing no longer had anything to do with your family anymore! What is a county school? Yunan is a strong willed person. If he wants to make trouble in the county school, how will the teachers and fellow students in the school look at Zhisong? If Zhisong’s reputation is ruined, he won’t even be able to take the scholar exam!”

“What?” Old lady Wang was stunned at first but then screamed, “I dare him!”

“See if he dares!” Zhao Lizheng really wished he could slap some sense into this stupid woman. The village’s child student… Zhao Lizheng no longer cared about old lady Wang and hurriedly asked his eldest son Zhao Yuande to chase.

Zhao Lizheng’s action rattled fearless old lady Wang. “He, he really dared to go to the county school and discredit Zhisong’s reputation?”

“If you don’t believe me, keep messing around!” Zhao Lizheng ignored old lady Wang and shouted to Wang Tianyan, who was still confused about the whole situation, “You and Yuande go after him! If this goes badly, Zhisong’s future will be ruined!” Wang Tianyan looked foolishly at Zhao Lizheng and his own mother before running out in a panic.

The patriarch said so and so did Zhao Lizheng, finally making old lady Wang feel some fear. She sat on the ground after her legs went weak and then howled. “This misfortune star!” How can such a misfortune star marry into my Wang family!”

Zhao Lizheng scolded her. “What’s the use of crying now?! If you hadn’t made such a fuss, there would be no such thing! Shijing is also your son and the eldest one! He didn’t take a single grain of rice from your family, but you are still asking him for money! Is there such a mother as you?! After all, this is your fault!”