CH 42

During the few days of the autumn harvest, the food in the evening was delicious. The weight of the Zhou family rose sharply. Even the eldest and second eldest who worked hard showed a gain in weight. The most obvious change was in Li shi, who already enjoyed good food. During the harvest, they caught a lot of wild pheasants, and bamboo shoots were used generously in the cooking. Li indulged herself and as a result, became even plumper. Her facial features were already not very prominent; now, with her roundness, she looked like a big pancake.

On ordinary days, when Zhulan was with Li shi, she didn’t pay attention to her face. Especially when Li smiled and her eyes narrowed, it was quite amusing. But Li herself didn’t feel that way. She was most proud of her face and everywhere she went, she believed she had a lucky and blessed appearance.

The autumn harvest was coming to an end soon. The rice is sloughed, and sacks were neatly stacked, just waiting for the autumn harvest in the village to end, and the taxes will be paid together.

During the autumn harvest, the whole family caught a lot of pheasants, Zhulan was craving meat, and it was enough to eat pheasants continuously. In the end, Zhou Shuren ate duck with preserved meat, and according to the principle, the pheasants that could not be eaten were made into preserved pheasants.

As for why not raise pheasants, pheasants were hard to keep in captivity. They died soon after being tied up for a while, and there is no chance to raise them at all.

The autumn harvest was over, and the eldest and the second went to the field to pull the corn stalks back to make firewood.

Zhulan was also preparing a gift and calculating the dates to visit her parents’ home. She wanted to ask about the exact date for the delivery of goods so that she could prepare Zhou Shuren’s luggage. She didn’t have time to deal with Li, who was always hanging around the house. She was happy to have some peace and quiet.

As she was thinking this, Li suddenly came back, with her hair in disarray. “Were you chased by a dog? What’s with that look on your face?”

Zhulan thought Li was the only one in the family who wasn’t very smart, and she tried to be patient with her. But Li had been exposed to brain-boosting rhetoric and started to act timidly all day long, to the point where she almost knelt to apologize. She was seen by their neighbors several times, and they began to look down on her. The reputation of being patient and kind that Zhulan had worked so hard to build was instantly destroyed.

When she was angry, she could understand that Li shi needed cleaning up. Look, she scolded her, but instead, she smiled.

Li shi was not at all afraid to pull her hair together, and her mother’s black face couldn’t hold back her excitement, “Mother, the third daughter of Fourth Wang’s family has made a lot of money, and the one from the Xu family heard the sound of a bag of copper plates and they said it was worth several taels!”

Zhulan, “…Everyone in the village knows about it by now!”

Their family didn’t get involved, and Wang Ru’s counterattack became increasingly difficult. First, Fourth Wang changed, and now with this money-making opportunity, it’s no longer a secret that Wang Ru made money in the village. Not only that but now it’s spread to Xu’s family. Despite appearing quiet and reserved, Xu’s family couldn’t keep the news to themselves, much like Li. The two of them seemed to have a lot in common.

Li shi felt that her mother-in-law was focusing on the wrong point. “Mother, Sanya has made money, and she has made a lot of money.”

Zhulan agreed with this point. The Zhou family can’t earn 10 taels even from the high-yield 20 acres of land they had in a year. The original text said that Wang Ru made 10 taels of silver, and it was all the money for selling ten recipes for kimchi. Why it was so cheap because there was no copyright awareness in ancient times. This was also due to the freshness of kimchi, otherwise, it would be good to sell a dish for 100 yuan.

Seeing that mother was distracted again, Li shi was anxious about what to do, so she could only whisper, “Mother, mother.”

Zhulan regained her senses, and she didn’t care about Wang Ru’s reaction to making money. She was ready to take advantage of the east wind to make a small profit. The Zhou family has been attracting hatred anyway, so she was not afraid of gaining some new ones, “You go and call the boss and the second to come back.”

Li shi was a little confused, but her mother-in-law had already turned around and gone back to the house. Wondering what was going on, she ran away quickly. Even though she was a little fat man, Mrs. Li was also a flexible fat man.

Zhulan went back to the house to find the money, her eyes were bright, “I asked the boss and the second to collect more cabbage to sell, and let’s make a fortune by selling cabbage.”

Zhou Shuren frowned, “Don’t worry, wait for the Wang family to reveal that kimchi is made of cabbage.”

Zhulan patted her forehead, “Yes, you’re right, I’ll ask Li to inquire later, she’s good at this.”

It’s fun to talk about, but in a family, sometimes a character like Li shi was really indispensable.