Mid-November is the slack season for farmers.

　　Farmers work hard for a whole year and have only a few days to rest. Xiping Village is in a good location, in the middle of the Dali Dynasty, with a suitable temperature, and many crops can be grown in the fields, mainly millet, wheat and rice. Villagers will also leave one or two rows of ridges to plant beans, peanuts and radishes, just enough for their own consumption.

　　In the Dali period, land was divided into ten mu for males and five mu for females and boys. For males, five mu of ten mu was paddy field and five mu was dry field, while for females and boys, the land was dry field. Every year, the tax rate was 5% for every 20 mu of harvest, which meant that if the harvest was 20 dan, the tax rate was 5% for every dan, which was considered good.

　　When the Dali Dynasty was first established, there were wars for many years. In order to allow the people to rest and recuperate, the tax rate was 40%, less than 4%. Now that there are two generations of emperors, the situation is of course different.

　　The Li family had ten mu of paddy fields and ten mu of dry land. When the family was divided, Li Da only got five mu of paddy fields and didn’t want anything else. The houses he built later were all built by Li Da himself.

　　Rice, peanuts, and beans are harvested in July, millet is harvested in October, and wheat is planted in October and not harvested until June of the following year, so June and July are the busy farming months.

　　There is nothing to do in the fields now.

　　Li Zhouzhou thought his husband was too well-educated to understand farm matters, so he explained to him, “…there is not much work to do at home, so you should just take a good rest and don’t need to help me.”

　　The kitchen was cleaned, the chickens in the backyard were fed, the eggs were picked, the two pigs were eating, and the manure was cleaned. His husband had been helping him all the time, but in fact, Li Zhouzhou could do it faster on his own, not that his husband was a bad person.

　　But now he had to fetch water, carrying a shoulder pole and bucket, and the road along the river was not easy to walk on. His husband was small, thin, fair and pretty, and what would he do if he stumbled?

　　Li Zhouzhou looked at his husband with distressed eyes. What if he got hit on the face?

　　Gu Zhao: …

　　”I want to exercise. It’s good for my health.” Gu Zhao said pitifully, with a bit of a coquettish tone, not feeling disgusting and nauseous. He even pretended to be cute and raised two fingers and said, “I promise, I will listen to you in everything and not help you without authorization.”

　　This made Li Zhouzhou very sad, and his husband also wanted to help him.

　　”come.”

　　”Can I take the barrel, Zhou Zhou?” Gu Zhao continued.

　　Li Zhouzhou: “Okay, okay.” It’s an empty bucket anyway.

　　There was no one at home, so Li Zhouzhou locked the door.

　　Several surrounding villages share a river. The wide river flowing down from the mountain is divided into several small rivers. The river in Xiping Village is relatively wide. Hundreds of households in the village use the upper reaches for drinking water and the lower reaches for washing clothes.

　　Li Dajia’s^[1]jia means family house location is a bit far from upstream.

　　Just as they walked out of the house, Aunt Wang from next door came to greet him in the yard, saying things like “Are you going to get some water?” or “Have you eaten?” Li Zhouzhou responded with “um” or “yes.” The noise of talking startled other families, so people who came to visit, sewing shoes and clothes, came over with their work to watch the fun.

　　The young girls, young wives and unmarried boys just looked on curiously, but the older aunts and uncles had no scruples at all. Some made fun of them with good intentions, while others teased them under the guise of joking.

　　”Oh, Zhou Zhou’s son-in-law is indeed more handsome than our peasants working in the fields.”

　　”Well, you have to tell me. Look at his demeanor. He is different because he has read books.”

　　”Zhou Zhou’s wait was not in vain. He finally found a good one.”

　　”We are the first brother in Xiping Village to find a son-in-law. How much money must Li Da spend to marry this scholar to Zhou Zhou? Zhou Zhou, you have let your father spend all the money.”

　　”Who knows, this student may pass the imperial examination and become the wife of a scholar. It’s just a few taels of silver, so it can’t be considered a waste. The Li family makes money from it.” Aunt Zhang raised her voice and made malicious expressions while saying this.

　　Li Zhouzhou felt uncomfortable. He had been listening to these things since he was a child and knew the difference between good and bad. But in the past, he would never get upset when people made fun of him, nor would he stay angry for too long. But now, Li Zhouzhou pursed his lips.

　　It’s fine that Aunt Zhang is bullying him, but she’s making fun of his husband.

　　But Li Zhouzhou is not good at speaking, he knows the answer in his heart, but he doesn’t know how to say it. When he was a child, he was laughed at by others. He said it back once, but the next time, the person continued to talk and said that he was not easy to be teased. It was the elders who were joking with him, but he got angry.

　　”Thank you all for your blessings, aunts and uncles.” Gu Zhao, who was standing next to him, suddenly spoke in a light voice, like a scholar. He bowed and saluted to the group of women, smiling and said, “Since Gu Zhao has married into the family, he is Zhou Zhou’s son-in-law. From now on, he will definitely take Zhou Zhou as his priority and the Li family as his priority.”