Chapter 28

Yu Mu had never seen this side of Dashan, he was so shocked that a piece of meat fell from his mouth. Is this still the honest man he had interacted with in the past? He leaned into Li Feng’s ear and whispered:

“ Did Brother Dashan behave like this before when he was drinking?”

These words seemed to have brought back memories of Li Feng’s past, and a rare smile appeared on his face as he said: 

“He was so virtuous when he married his ger and was even beaten up by the men in the village who were jealous of him.”

However he was too young to join the fun, but he did watch.

“Hahaha…Yu Mu slapped the table as he laughed. “You know I feel like beating you, is he that good? Brother, why don’t you hurry up and marry a better ger? And let’s see if he will continue to brag in the future.”

Dashan was not annoyed after hearing this, as long as he has his ger no matter how good others are they are not as caring and as considerate as his own.

However, he was curious after hearing Yu Mu’s words and asked drunkenly:

“Boy Feng, tell me honestly, have you not met someone you like in the past few years outside? Otherwise, why are you not in a hurry?”

Yu Mu was laughing beside him, Li Feng gave him a sideways look silencing him. Nevertheless, his shoulders were still shaking, Dashan just drank a little too much and was not so inebriated as to be confused, could there be someone out there that boy Feng likes?

“Don’t listen to his nonsense. I’m a poor old rough guy, which ger can take a liking to me? He should be treasured, I don’t want him to bear hardships after being married to me. I just want to live a peaceful life after coming back first, and then later on like brother Dashan find someone willing to live with me”

As he said that someone’s figure appeared in his mind, it was clear that life could be extremely difficult but that person was always smiling, optimistic, and open-minded, and no difficulty was a deterrent for him.

He was different from the other gers he had known before, even without speaking to him, just sitting next to him was enough to be infected by his aura.

Li Feng wanted to find a ger, who would not be afraid of his violence and could live in poverty and enjoy the simple life with him. The two of them could run their small home together, and no matter how heavy the wind and rain were outside, they could not dissipate the warmth of the small home.

He previously had no intention of starting a family when he came back, but he couldn’t help but be attracted to that person, even though he was about to have a second child. Of course, if Zhao Dahu was still here, even if he was attracted, he would keep his distance and appreciate such a ger, and wouldn’t harbor any thoughts he shouldn’t have.

“What if that ger has a child? Except for this aspect, everything else is good, if it were an unmarried ger I’m afraid the matchmaker would have come already.”

Dashan carried the task he had been assigned by his ger to inquire about Li Feng’s thoughts, without drinking, he wouldn’t have been able to ask these questions, but now he had already voiced them out.

In his opinion, if Brother Ming didn’t have children to drag him down, he would be a good marriage match. He was more literate than all gers in the village, cooked good food, and managed the household well. Asking himself as a man if it were him, he realized he wasn’t that kindhearted to accept a ger with a child.

Li Feng was drinking wine with his head lowered and Dashan couldn’t see the expression on his face.

However, Yu Mu piqued interest upon hearing this. He came over and smiled mischievously:

“Is he a good cook? Is the child well-behaved and likable? If there is such a ger please tell me.”

“Pfft!” Li Feng and Dashan spit out a mouthful of wine and coughed non-stop. Li Feng’s skin was dark but he felt his face burning, he unceremoniously kicked Yu Mu who fell to the ground, wiped the wine from his mouth, and yelled:

“Get out! Go back to the barracks tomorrow, you have stayed here long enough.”

Li Dashan was dumbfounded: “ Brother Yu Mu is still on duty?” 

He had heard someone say that Yu Mu was Li Feng’s superior, but the villagers were confused about his identity when they saw him following Li Feng around.

“What the hell,” Yu Mu was not annoyed. He got up and patted his head with a naive smile and said, “My Brother killed a lot of the Northern Barbarians back in the North. In terms of military merit, he was even promoted to a general, it’s so comfortable living by my Brother’s side that I don’t want to go back, hehe.”

In the Zhou Dynasty, the general had the sixth rank in the military. The magistrate of a county is of a seventh rank, although the status of a general is not as high as that of a civil official, the current emperor Qingyuan, dispatched troops to fight against the Northern Barbarians, so the status of the generals has improved compared to before.

Ordinary people don’t have an idea of a general’s rank, they are astonished even if they encounter the Yamen officials, however, the status of a general is higher than that of Yamen Officials.

Therefore, Dashan panicked all of a sudden. A general is someone a common man couldn’t mess with. His attitude towards Yu Mu was so casual before, he immediately stood up and wanted to apologize.

Yu Mu quickly jumped behind Li Feng, Li Feng held Dashan from bowing and asked him to sit down. The panic on his face was still visible, he looked at Li Feng in confusion, Yu Mu always referred to Li Feng as ’ elder brother’. Was it because Li Feng was his superior? Thinking about it,  he suddenly felt that the distance between them had suddenly widened.

Li Feng knew that if he revealed his identity, the people in the village would either stay away from him like Dashan or they’ll try to please him. So he didn’t want to mention his experience outside in the past few years after he returned to the village. Li Zheng might be able to guess some but not everything. Not to mention he has now retired and is relaxing at home without anything to do.

“Brother Dashan, why are you apologizing to him? He is just an ignorant boy who has only killed a few Northern Barbarians, he can’t compare to us who went to the North because we had no choice, I’m lucky to be able to survive among the dead, as you can see I am also a farmer like you guys, if you do this I won’t dare to live in the village anymore.”

“Don’t, don’t.” Dashan became dumbfounded again, he awkwardly waved his hands and scratched his head smiling, “It’s just unexpected, I’m not used to it. Brother Yu Mu, I’ll apologize to you.”

Zhang Xiu sent him because he was also not aware, otherwise, he was always a sensible person. Seeing that Yu Mu and Feng Xiaozi didn’t treat him differently, he knew that they regarded him as a brother. Having such Brothers would be good for him in the future.

“What…what I just said…” Although Feng Xiaozi didn’t respond to his words Li Dashan now knew his identity might not be simple. If he matched him with Brother Ming, would it make him feel that he was looking down on him(LF)? Thinking he won’t complete the task given to him by his ger, Li Dashan was at a loss for a moment.

“Hehe,” Yu Mu returned to his seat with a sly smile and patted Dashan, “I make the decisions regarding my Brother’s affairs, If it weren’t for the wrong time, I would have gone to find a matchmaker for my eldest brother earlier. ”

“Get out of here tomorrow, and don’t come back!” Li Feng shouted angrily. But Dashan blinked, feeling that Li Feng was annoyed out of embarrassment. Could what Axiu had said be true, that Li Feng was attracted to Brother Ming? Is it because Brother Ming is still observing filial piety for Dahu, so he(LF) holds back and hasn’t said it?

“Haha, let’s drink and eat.” Li Dashan made a witty move and advised the two of them, that it was enough to just say a bit, and the rest should be arranged by Feng Xiaozi himself, this was his life-long event.

Tang Chunming had given the vegetables in the backyard several times to the families he was familiar with, including Li Zheng’s family, Wang Mo’s family, Zhao Liu’s family who often helped bring things back from town, and Zhang Xiu’s family.

 After thinking about it, Tang Chunming decided to take some vegetables to the town to see. It was best to find a long-term customer who could come to collect the vegetables because he wouldn’t be able to go to the town to sell vegetables every day.

Now his belly is getting bigger like a balloon, he can sometimes hear popping sounds in his belly. No matter how much he ignores it, he has to accept the reality. There will always be a time when the baby in his belly will become heavier and how will he go out every day? Even though Tang Chunming was trying not to think about giving birth, he still had to make some preparations for that time.

Thinking of how this baby was tormenting him so much even before he was born made Tang Chunming disgusted. No matter how you look at it, A-Lin is sensible and considerate. In the future, when the child is born, his status in Tang Chunming’s heart will not be comparable to that of Ah-Lin. Of course, he never told Zhang Xiu and the others what he was thinking, otherwise, he wouldn’t know how they would scold him.

There is a market day every five and ten days in the town. This day happens to be half of the month. Tang Chunming got up early and picked up two big baskets of vegetables. He made an appointment with Wang Mo and Zhang Xiu to go to the town together. The two of them have also saved some eggs to be taken to town and sold.

After feeding the chickens and sheep, and leaving food for Xiaohua, Tang Chunming took Ah-Lin, locked the door, and walked to the entrance of the village with Zhang Xiu who was waiting at the door. Dashan carried the two baskets of vegetables and placed them in Uncle Zhao Liu’s ox-cart at the intersection. 

” Uncle Liu.”

“Brother Ming is here. Your vegetables are lush. It will fetch a good price when delivered to the town.” Uncle Zhao Liu helped Dashan put the two vegetables into the ox cart. Since he had tasted it himself, he naturally knew that they tasted great.

“Then I’ll accept Uncle Liu’s word and wait until I sell it at a good price to buy candied haws for your eldest grandson.”

“Haha, alright.”

After Dashan loaded the vegetables into the cart, he talked to Zhang Xiu before heading back. Wang Mo also hurried over with a basket. Zhang Xiu specially brought a padded stool for Tang Chunming so that he could sit more comfortably in the cart. He and Wang Mo protected Tang Chunming on the left and right. Ah-Lin was also held in Zhang Xiu’s arms, seeing that everyone had arrived, Uncle Zhao Liu raised his whip and the ox-cart started to move.

There were more than ten people crammed into the ox-cart, so the speed could not be compared with the Li Zheng family’s big mule, but the road was quite steady.

The people on the ox-cart were curious about the two baskets of vegetables brought by Tang Chunming. Zhang Xiu had carried the baskets through the village to deliver them to Li Zheng’s house. He attracted the attention of many people on the way.

 Zhang Xiu didn’t hide it, telling others that Brother Ming grew it himself. He wanted to earn some money to support his family from the vegetables, it was like flatly telling them, don’t play with Brother Ming’s ideas, if you ruin people’s business, you will suffer.

Tang Chunming responded with a few words, Some people caught the implictions and didn’t continue exploring further, but some people couldn’t see it and said unpleasantly: “Brother Xiu, you and Brother Ming are so close, you didn’t grow the vegetables together, but now you are going to town to sell them together. I think you can make some small money nevertheless.”

Tang Chunming was amused, this was sowing discord. Zhang Xiu replied rudely: “How did you know I didn’t plant the vegetables as well? The extra seedlings from Brother Ming’s place were divided between Brother Mo and me,  We didn’t have Brother Ming’s courage and dared not plant more crops for fear that they wouldn’t be able to survive in this kind of weather. Besides, it also depends on people’s skills. Brother Ming can harvest more vegetables better than us, regardless of  having the same seedlings.”

 Some people have high yields, while others are not lucky and their yields are low, you can’t blame anyone for this, the same goes for growing vegetables.

“Yes, Brother Xiu and I didn’t dare to plant more crops. At that time, Brother Ming even said that he would help us raise rice seedlings. But although our two families can grow more than Brother Ming, his home-grown vegetables are much more delicious.” Wang Mo echoed with a smile.

 His grandma and children all liked it, and they didn’t grow enough for the family to eat and sell the rest.

Some people were even more envious after hearing this. They all knew that Zhang Xiu and Wang Mo were close friends with Brother Ming, and the two families were always willing to help him with anything. 

The other villagers usually stayed far away, for fear that something would happen to Brother Ming and they’d be implicated, now they can only watch. Someone shamelessly asked Tang Chunming when he would raise more seedlings for planting. Zhang Xiu looked at the person with a smile, but Tang Chunming did not directly agree he just responded casually.

If the vegetables can be sold at a good price in the town, then why would he help others raise seedlings? If they want seedlings, just buy them with money.

Tang Chunming spent the second half of the trip dozing, all the way. His son Ah-Lin was just like him. When they arrived in town, he was woken up by Zhang Xiu and Wang Mo.

Because he had to get up early in the morning to pick vegetables and feed chickens, Tang Chunming deliberately got up earlier than before. Ah-Lin, who always slept with him, also got up with his mother whenever there was any movement. they could only catch on sleep on the way.

Uncle Liu was very enthusiastic and dropped Tang Chunming off to the place where the stall was set up before he drove off and agreed on a meeting place in the afternoon. Tang Chunming was a little surprised that Uncle Liu treated him differently than before, but he didn’t take it too seriously at the time. He thought that Uncle Liu took pity on him and took care of him after he and the Zhao family broke up.

 Zhang Xiu had silenced the villager by mentioning Dalian’s name, he had asked about it after returning. After figuring out the situation, he understood the reason for the difference in Zhao Liu’s attitude. He could only say that Zhao Liu was also a miserable man.

　　Uncle Zhao Liu is also a member of the village with the surname Zhao and is related by blood to Third Uncle and Zhao Daniu. Logically speaking, Uncle Zhao Liu should have had a closer relationship with these two families, but Tang Chunming always remembers that Uncle Zhao Liu had a nonchalant attitude towards The Zhao family members on both sides, including Ming Geer who married. If they needed a cart for something, he would be fine. As long as they paid him money. They wouldn’t even talk to each other if nothing happened.

However, after Tang Chunming cut off ties with the Zhao family, Uncle Zhao became more enthusiastic towards him. Every time he asked him to bring meat back from the town, he didn’t have to pay extra. Even if he paid a penny more for the meat he would give it back. At that time, Tang Chunming couldn’t explain why, but he felt that Uncle Zhao Liu treated him and the Zhao family separately.

Speaking of Dalian, he was Uncle Zhao Liu’s little geer. He and his husband raised the little ger like a treasure, but in the end, someone with white hair had to send the black hair first. Even his husband was depressed because of it. He was so sad that he soon fell ill and passed away too. As a result, Uncle Liu’s family cut off ties with everyone from the Zhao family in the village and had never been on good terms again.

According to Zhang Xiu, Dalian was a very quiet and somewhat shy ger. Uncle Liu was reluctant to let his young ger get married, so he delayed the marriage proposal until he was sixteen years old. It is rare for people to care for their little Geer like this. At that time, many people laughed at Uncle Zhao Liu.