”Okay, okay, I’m free now.” Zhu Laosi poured Li Da some wine and said, “Drink it. I won’t ask you for the money.”

　　The town’s thick wine costs sixteen cents a pot.

　　Li Da didn’t want to drink Zhu Laosi’s wine for nothing, so he said, “You will have a portion of the pig’s offal this afternoon.”

　　”That’s great. It turns out that your Zhou Zhou has found a son-in-law. Now your burden is lightened.” Zhu Laosi joked. In the past, Li Da never drank alcohol and would not buy a bowl of wine for four cents.

　　Li Da took the bowl, drank a sip of wine and said nothing. But Zhu Laosi saw that he was satisfied with his new son-in-law, and said a few words in agreement. Li Da complained: “Zhou Zhou likes his fancy look, but I am not satisfied. He is too thin and cannot work in the fields.”

　　He may complain on the surface, but his face is beaming with satisfaction.

　　Zhu Laosi held up his wine bowl and pointed at Li Da from a distance, “I heard that he is a scholar. He just needs to practice farm work. Didn’t you say you wanted to buy a cow? Old Zhu at the east end of the village just gave birth to a calf. Although it’s a little small and can’t work now, it’s cheap.”

　　A skinny person can’t do it, but an animal can support him.

　　Now that Li Da’s house has been built and his brother has found a son-in-law, there are no other big expenses. He bought a cow. Won’t life be good in the future?

　　Who knew that Li Da shook his head and said, “Let’s buy a cow first. I still have the strength to work. He is weak and can’t do farm work. He should go back to school.”

　　Zhu Laosi’s eyes widened when he heard this, “Are you going to support your son-in-law’s education?!”

　　Scholars spend money, and Zhu Laosi was reluctant to send even his own son to school to learn to read and write. If someone told him to pay for his son-in-law’s education, Zhu Laosi would slap the person in the face.

　　Li Da didn’t say anything.

　　”Then you still have some foundation.” Zhu Laosi was amazed.

　　Li Da did manual labor, as he was a farmhand. He saved money by doing farm work. He spent some money on the newly built courtyard house, gave 18 taels of silver as a dowry to the Gu family, and also bought clothes and furniture for Zhou Zhou. Other miscellaneous money he had was spent on other things.

　　Now, there is only a little money left in the Li family’s money jar, maybe about ten taels.

　　”There are not many left. I’ll finish your wine today and won’t drink it again in the future.” Li Da slowly took another sip of wine.

　　Zhu Laosi knew that Li Da was a man who meant what he said. He calculated that the Li family might not have much money left, so why would they support their son-in-law to study? When he saw Li Da drinking, the wrinkles on his face were smoothed out.

　　”If you don’t support his studies, you will be able to drink as much as you want in the future.” Zhu Laosi didn’t understand.

　　”Zhou Zhou’s father^[1]who gave birth to him passed away early. I feel sorry for his father and him. My only hope in this life is that Zhou Zhou is well. If he is well, what does this little bit of fatigue for me as a father matter? Besides, I am used to working on the farm so it is not tiring.”

　　In fact, Li Da also had some plans. He didn’t say that because Zhou Zhou really gave all his family fortune to Gu Zhao, he thought of trying to take the exam for a few years first. If it didn’t work out, Gu Zhao would naturally give up the idea.

　　Li Da doesn’t protect his own brother, but he actually knows in his heart that Zhou Zhou is not good-looking and his brother’s mole is light. When Gu Zhao came into the family, he looked honest and was nice to Zhou Zhou, but Li Da was worried and always wanted to use his favor to bind Gu Zhao.

　　Judging others by oneself, Li Da is a person who remembers favors. When times were tough, Li Da remembered and repaid those who lent him money to build a mud house, and those who helped him during the harvest.

　　So Li Da thought that by doing this, Gu Zhao would be grateful and treat Li Zhouzhou better, but he didn’t know that some people are born bad and ungrateful. If Gu Zhao hadn’t come here and wasn’t in his original skin, according to his original thinking, he would have thought that this was a humiliation for him and that he would have to endure hardships.

　　Now that I have become rich, I wish I could burn away all the shame of the past with fire.

　　Zhu Laosi knew that he could not persuade him, and could not help but think of the joke about Li Da Ge’s son-in-law. He said that their village had a new scholar who had passed the imperial examination last year. The scholar happened to be at home now and had not yet gone to the prefecture or county to study. He could ask the new scholar’s opinion.

　　In fact, Zhu Laosi wanted the village scholar to persuade Li Da.

　　Your son-in-law is really not good at studying, so don’t waste your money.

　　Xiping Village.

　　The sun had not yet set and Li Zhouzhou had prepared dinner. He had sweet potato and grain rice, and scrambled eggs with cabbage and radish.

　　”The rice is sweet and delicious.” Gu Zhao picked up the egg with chopsticks and put it in his wife’s bowl.

　　Li Zhouzhou fried eggs to nourish his husband’s body. He just picked up the radishes and cabbages to eat during the meal and didn’t even touch the eggs. Now the bowl is full of eggs.

　　”If Zhou Zhou eats, I will eat.”