The Prime Minister’s Little Wife

Chapter 21: That Rich Young Lady is a Bad Person

Not to mention a few country bumpkin brothers, even Xiao Jingheng didn’t understand at first. He thought they were talking about the Chief Minister, assuming the country folks had mispronounced it!

“Should we go and get a couple of better outfits?” Xu Dahu said sheepishly.

“Hahaha…” Old Doctor Shangguan laughed heartily.

“Let’s leave it at that for now. We’re just here to drop someone off. The rest isn’t our business. It’s already good enough that we bought him two sets of clothes. Let’s head back now, so Third Uncle doesn’t have to wait too long,” Xu Zhizhi said.

She then turned to Old Man Shangguan and said, “Divine Doctor, we’ll take our leave now. We’ll come back to town in a couple of days to see you. We live in Qili Village. There’s a high-ranking official surnamed Wang in Luocheng, and he’s from our village.”

“What official? Are you talking about Minister Wang from the Ministry of Rites? Isn’t his family from Luocheng for generations?” Shangguan Zhuoyun genuinely didn’t know this.

“Yes, yes, his daughter still lives in our village,” Xu Dahu said with a hint of annoyance.

“That rich young lady is a bad person. She even…” Xu Erhu wanted to say that she had snatched Zhizhi’s fiancé and then abandoned him, even forcing his sister-in-law’s family to break off the engagement.

“Let’s go, let’s go,” Xu Zhizhi interrupted him before he could finish.

After bidding farewell to Old Doctor Shangguan, she took her brothers and left.

Xiao Jingheng overheard a bit of this and thought to himself, “This so-called Qingshan Town is truly a place of hidden talents and crouching tigers!”

He was very familiar with Minister Wang’s family. The Wang family’s eldest daughter had been betrothed to his second brother. During the marriage negotiations, the Wang family’s fifteen-year-old illegitimate daughter tried to seduce his second brother and was caught in the act.

Originally, his second brother wanted to marry both, but unexpectedly, the illegitimate daughter suddenly died. It turned out she had been sent back to the countryside.

From what he just heard, it seemed that illegitimate daughter had caused trouble for their family.

Although Xiao Jingheng had never met that illegitimate daughter, he had heard many rumors about her. His book servant, Xiao Mo, loved gossiping about such things. If he had known he would end up here, he wouldn’t have stopped the boy from gossiping! Staying here would have been quite interesting.

The siblings walked back together. Passing by a pastry shop, Xu Zhizhi bought three boxes of crispy pastries. She gave one box to Xu Erhu to take back and share with his sister, one to Xu Xiaowu to carry, and the last box was for Third Uncle’s family.

Seeing a vendor selling candied haws, she bought a few sticks, one for each person, including the sisters who hadn’t come.

When they reached the ox cart, Third Uncle and Xu Honghua had just arrived. “Have you all eaten?” Third Uncle asked.

“We’ve eaten,” they replied as they climbed onto the ox cart. They noticed three bags of coarse rice and three small bags of flour.

Third Uncle handed the remaining thirty coins to Xu Zhizhi. “Third Uncle, Dahu, when you get back, start preparing to grow bean sprouts. I’ve made a deal with Drunken Fragrance Pavilion. They’ll buy them for two coins per pound, and they’ll take as much as we can produce,” Xu Zhizhi said as she took the money.

“That’s great! We sold the last batch today for three coins for two pounds!” Xu Dahu expressed regret. They hurried back to soak the mung beans.

Everyone had received a share of the wild boar meat yesterday, and today they had bought coarse rice and flour for them.

By the time they returned, it was almost dark. Xu Zhizhi was exhausted from the day’s work, so she didn’t invite Second Uncle and Third Uncle to stay for dinner.

Xu Honghua was disappointed. She had grown fond of the meals her “foolish” elder sister cooked.

Xu Xiaowu handed her a box of crispy pastries and a stick of candied haws, telling her to take them back and share them with her sister and brother. She didn’t look pleased.

When Xu Zhizhi and her siblings returned home, Mother Xu was already waiting at the door. She had gone to deliver something to her maternal family and usually didn’t get to eat there, so she had returned by noon.

She waited for Xu Zhizhi to come back and cook dinner. The meal she had made for herself at noon wasn’t tasty, and she felt like she had been eating pig slop all along.

Xu Daniu fetched water, Xiaowu tended to the fire, and Xu Zhizhi quickly made a simple dough drop soup, adding thinly sliced pork liver. Father Xu found it delicious and had an extra bowl. He was too embarrassed to admit that what he had eaten at noon was pig slop.

After dinner, Xu Zhizhi sat in the yard with her father. “Dad, let’s buy a plot of land and rebuild our house. We can convert this old house into a workshop.”

“We don’t have the money for that.”

“We do. Last time I dug up a ginseng root and sold it for fifty taels. Today I sold another one for twenty taels. The medicine for you only cost two taels. The rice and food today were bought with the money from selling wild boar meat and bean sprouts.”

Xu Zhizhi continued, “I’ve made a deal with Drunken Fragrance Pavilion. They’ll buy all our bean sprouts at two coins per pound. One pound of beans costs eight coins and can produce eleven pounds of bean sprouts. That means one pound of beans can earn us ten coins.”

Father Xu did the math. Growing ten pounds of beans a day would earn them a hundred coins. What about twenty pounds? They were going to get rich!

Since his daughter wanted to use the money from selling the ginseng to build a new house, and with the bean sprouts bringing in more money, life wouldn’t be too hard.

After thinking for a while, he agreed. Just then, the two brothers finished washing the dishes and came over. Hearing about the plan to build a new house, they were thrilled.

Xu Zhizhi said she wanted to buy the mountain behind the village and build the house at its base.

Father Xu thought it was a wasteland and useless, but Xu Zhizhi explained to him that they could clear it and plant sweet potatoes, which had high yields. Sweet potatoes could be made into noodles and dried sweet potatoes, both of which could be sold for money.

The Xu father and sons listened to their daughter (sister) while imagining piles of shiny silver, their mouths grinning from ear to ear.

Mother Xu wasn’t interested in building a house. What was she thinking about? She was thinking that she hadn’t yet learned how to grow bean sprouts. Once she learned, she could teach her three brothers! The sweet potatoes had already been planted for them. Whatever Zhizhi did, her brothers would follow, as it could all be sold for money.

The others didn’t know what she was thinking, nor could they have guessed.

Everyone happily went back to their rooms to sleep.

The next day, Mother Xu and the two brothers went to work in the fields. Father Xu asked Xiaowu to call the village chief over, as his foot still couldn’t support walking.

Xu Zhizhi made a simple crutch for her father, so he could walk around the yard, but going farther was still impossible.

The village chief arrived shortly after. Xu Zhizhi quickly brewed tea and brought out some mung bean cakes she had made. The tea had digestive benefits and tasted excellent. The mung bean cakes were even more delicious.

The village chief couldn’t stop eating. Xu Zhizhi didn’t stop him, as the tea aided digestion, so no matter how much he ate, it wouldn’t upset his stomach.

The village chief nearly finished an entire plate before he finally stopped and asked, “Xu Da, what did you call me here for?”

Father Xu said, “Uncle Village Chief, I want to buy the wasteland mountain to the south of the village.”

“What do you want that wasteland for?” The village chief, having eaten their food, spoke kindly.

Xu Zhizhi said, “Grandpa Village Chief, we want to build a house at the base of the mountain.”

“The place you’re living now is quite good. Your house is a bit run-down, but you could just tear it down and rebuild.”

“This place isn’t big enough. Daniu will need to get married in a few years, and Xiaowu will need his own room.”

“Even though it’s a wasteland, the area is large, and it won’t be cheap,” the village chief said, seeing that both father and daughter were serious about buying it.

“How much would it cost?”

“Eighty taels.”

Xu Zhizhi thought to herself, “An entire mountain for just eighty taels? That’s so cheap!” But she kept a smile on her face and said, “Eighty taels for a wasteland? That’s so expensive!”

(End of Chapter)