At first when he brought Zhao Jinge to the bed, Jiang Zhen just wanted to touch him. Although at the beginning it was always kissing and touching only, there were so many places that could catch fire . . . However, after Jiang Zhen said, “I’ll rub it,” he really just dawdled and didn’t go in. Although they didn’t do it to the end, they relieved each other with their hands. Jiang Zhen even used Zhao Jinge’s legs.

It was nothing for Jiang Zhen, but for Zhao Jinge, the impact was obviously considerably stronger. When they finished, he lay frozen and motionless on Jiang Zhen’s bed. It never occurred to him that he would do such a thing, this . . .

When he was a child, Zhao Jinge was told by Zhao Liu that as a ger, he could not let others see his body, let alone let anyone touch that place. Only after marriage could he let his husband touch it. As a result, before he got married, he and Jiang Zhen . . . Jiang Zhen’s scent was all over his body, and Zhao Jinge was in a trance.

Jiang Zhen was in a very good mood. Although he failed to do it to the end, it was the happiest time of his life. Only then did he realize that it was unbearable to use his hand and five fingers to relieve himself. The only regret was that, because of the lack of lubrication, it was a little painful after rubbing it for a long time. But it was not a bad thing, was it? If it didn’t continue that long, he wouldn’t even be hurt. Obviously, after he got better, his endurance would also increase.

While humming, Jiang Zhen lit a fire to heat the water, and when the water was almost boiling, he asked Zhao Jinge to come over and take a bath. Jiang Zhen wanted to take a bath with Zhao Jinge very much; however, Zhao Jinge refused. He sighed and could only wash separately.

The two of them had gone a little too far, and both of their clothes were stained. After taking a bath, Jiang Zhen took the clothes and the bedsheets to wash them, but Zhao Jinge stopped him. “I’ll do it!”

In Zhao Jinge’s opinion, washing clothes should be done by him.

“Good.” Jiang Zhen smiled and didn’t refuse. He lit a candle for Zhao Jinge, then moved a stool to sit behind him and helped him comb his hair.

We couldn’t buy ready-made clothes in the county town, but there are some in Fucheng. Before, when Jiang Zhen went to Fucheng, he asked a tailor to make clothes for their marriage and even bought two sets of ready-made clothes. This time, he and Zhao Jinge had changed into one of the sets.

The fabric of this ready-made garment was very common, but it was much better than the coarse cloth he used to wear. After Zhao Jinge put it on, he looked more energetic.

Jiang Zhen wiped dry Zhao Jinge’s hair while talking with him. In the end, they washed their clothes together sweetly.

“Jinge, this is your pocket money.” Jiang Zhen gave Zhao Jinge twenty silver.

“I don’t need it,” Zhao Jinge hurriedly said. Before, that hundred silver was intended to buy land under Jiang Zhen’s name, so they took it, but now . . . how could Jiang Zhen give him money in private?

“Everyone should have some money on their hands, so that you can buy whatever you want. You gave me all your savings before. Now I’m only giving you a part of mine, how can you not accept it?” After Jiang Zhen accepted Zhao Jinge’s money first, he didn’t pay it back because he didn’t have much money. Now that he had money, he had to let Zhao Jinge have some money too.

“Twenty silver is too much,” Zhao Jinge said.

“Jinge, if you don’t take it, I’ll take you to bed again,” Jiang Zhen said with a smile.

Zhao Jinge blushed and left with the silver in his hands. He wouldn’t spend this money indiscriminately. First, he would find a place to hide the money, and when Jiang Zhen needed it, he would give it back to Jiang Zhen.

Zhao Jinge sneaked back to his house and found that his mother was no longer in his room. When he thought of what he had done, he immediately felt ashamed. But he didn’t regret it and was very happy.

“Back . . .” When Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui heard the noise coming from the room, their hearts felt overwhelmed.

There were some people in this village who slept together in secret before they got married, but they didn’t expect that their lovely son would do the same. They used to worry that even if their Jinge got married, he would be despised or rejected in the bridal chamber. But now, it seemed that they were really thinking too much.

“Jiang Zhen made you new clothes and gave you a hairpin?” Zhao Liu glanced at Zhao Jinge and noticed the difference in her son.

“Yes.” Zhao Jinge nodded.

“He’s good to you, and you should be good to him too,” Zhao Liu said and found that her son seemed to be holding something. “What are you holding in your hand?”

“It’s silver,” Zhao Jinge said.

Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui’s expressions became more complicated, but at the same time they felt completely relieved. Jiang Zhen was so generous to their Jinge, which showed that he had really taken Jinge to his heart.

Early the next morning, Zhao Liu got up and started  busying herself. She cooked a pot of dry rice, steamed some salted fish on the steaming rack, opened the soybean oil brought by Jiang Zhen yesterday, and then fried a large plate of eggs in oil. In addition, she opened a jar of pickled mustard stored in her pantry, cut it into thin shreds and mixed it in the bowl with the seaweed.

When Jiang Zhen came to the Zhaos’ house, the table was full of dishes. Having been away from home for more than twenty days, although they bought meat to eat, neither Jiang Zhen nor Wang Haisheng was very good at cooking. The food they ate was very simple. The food prepared by Zhao Liu was so delicious that Jiang Zhen could not help swallowing his saliva.

However, there was still something lacking in Zhao Liu’s cooking . . . She had been living in the countryside, and had not much contact with any spices or eaten many good things. What she could prepare were only a few homemade dishes using spices and vinegar since other seasonings couldn’t be bought often by farmers, so she didn’t know how to use them. Hence, there was no vinegar in the cold seaweeds.

“Mom, Dad, Jinge. Today, let’s go to Zhao Dahu’s house first to let Jinge quit his job. Then we can go to the county town again,” Jiang Zhen said.

One of the main reasons why he asked Zhao Fugui to buy land was that he wanted Zhao Jinge to stop working as a long-term worker for Zhao Dahu’s family. Although he would be tired working in his own field, at least he could go there whenever he wanted to. He could also just hide at home at noon during the hot summer. He couldn’t do that while he was a long-term worker in someone else’s house.

“Alright.” Zhao Fugui pondered for a moment and nodded. Jinge used to work as a long-term worker, but this time, he was getting married. He should have children in the future, so it would be good to take care of that first . . .

Zhao Fugui nodded his head, and the Zhao family together with Jiang Zhen went to Zhao Dahu’s house. By this time, the people in the village had already gotten up, and many people saw the Zhao family. At first glance, it seemed nothing unusual, but when they looked more carefully, they were a bit surprised.

Zhao Jinge used to do farm work all day long, which left his body covered in mud all the time. But now . . . he was wearing new clothes and had a silver hairpin in his hair. He looked very lively, and they discovered that he didn’t look as ugly as they thought. Of course, he still looked very much like a man, there was no doubt about that. In other words, if he was a man, even if his family was poor, maybe there would be some women who would like his face and would be willing to marry him.

“That Zhao Jinge is really beautifully dressed.”

“Then Zhao Liu may be right. Jiang Zhen . . . Maybe he is really good to him.”

“Does Jiang Zhen really want to go to the Zhaos’ house? Although he has no land, he has more money than the Zhao family. How could he want to be married in?”

 

 . . .

 

People looked at the Zhao family and Jiang Zhen with bewilderment, wondering what Jiang Zhen was doing. By that time, Jiang Zhen had already brought the Zhao family to Zhao Dahu’s house.

Jiang Zhen wanted Zhao Jinge to quit his job, and the process went very smoothly. Although the Zhao family had some money, they had no real power. It was obvious that, even though they hired Zhao Jinge as a long-term worker, they didn’t want to offend Jiang Zhen under any circumstances. They were afraid that Jiang Zhen would start giving them a hard time, so they even gave Zhao Jinge that year’s salary even though he only worked for three or four months. Of course, after Jiang Zhen and the Zhao family left, they were very angry, but they wouldn’t let others know that.

It was hard to find a long-term worker like Zhao Jinge, who worked hard and did a good job. So when Zhao Jinge quit suddenly, it seemed that Zhao Dahu’s family would be busy in the near future.

After quitting his job, they intended to go to the country town. But before going to the county town, Zhao Fugui proposed to visit the village head first.

If their family wanted to buy land, it was better to buy it within the village. That way, it would be closer to their home. If they wanted to buy land in the village, they could go to the house of the village head to ask about land available for sale at the moment.

There were very few people in Hexi who wanted to buy or sell land. Although Zhao Fugui said that he would go to the village head to inquire about it, he did not have much hope. However, the result was beyond his expectations. In their Hexi there was indeed someone who wanted to sell land!

“Since the land of Butcher Jiang’s family couldn’t be planted, he wanted to sell 4 mu of paddy field, and he also happened to be in a hurry,” the village head Jiang Ping said while glancing at Jiang Zhen’s face with a look of surprise.

Because he was the village head, when Jiang Zhen did those things before, everyone asked him to reason with him, so he had met Jiang Zhen several times. This experience made him a bit afraid of Jiang Zhen. He also felt that Jiang Zhen was going to become a big bully in the village, harming the villagers. However, he didn’t expect that he not only didn’t commit evil deeds in the village, but even stood up when Liu Heitou came to their village to kidnap people. Now he was even going to buy land for the Zhao family. 

He . . . Was he trying to live a good life with Zhao Jinge? If so, it would be great.

“Yes, but maybe they wouldn’t want to sell it to us. Village head, please don’t tell them yet it’s us who want to buy the land,” Jiang Zhen said.

It was a bit of a surprise to him that the Jiang family wanted to sell the land. However, no matter why the Jiang family wanted to sell it, he wanted to buy it. He didn’t know what kind of expression the Jiang family would have when they learned he was the one who bought the land.

The Jiang family was not the only one selling land in the village. There was another family who also planned to sell a piece of dryland. The price for the dryland was divided in different categories. Land that was fertile or planted with mulberry trees wasn’t cheap. It cost at least ten silver per 1 mu of land, but some land was very cheap and could be bought very cheaply.

The land was very large with an area of 20 mu, but one couldn’t grow much on it because there was a bamboo forest with many trees. If they wanted to use this kind of land to grow things, they must first dig out the bamboo wood, but that was a very troublesome process. Even if they cleared the land, the soil would not be fertile. Even if they wanted to dispose of this wasteland, no one would want to buy it.

This land couldn’t sell for a long time, Jiang Zhen recalled, but suddenly thought of something. “There seems to be a small pond in that land?”

“Yes, there is a pond. It appears to be about two or three mu. You can actually grow water bamboo and water chestnuts. That is very good.” Jiang Ping coughed a few times. “Because there is water over there, the price is not cheap. It costs 40 silver for 20 mu of land.” In fact, the originally set price was a bit higher, but no one was interested in buying it all this time, so it was lowered, yet the price was still a little high.

Although this land produced bamboo and water chestnuts, there was also an ownerless bamboo forest near Hexi. Who would want to buy this bamboo forest in that situation?

“I want this land,” Jiang Zhen said. The people of Hexi didn’t think that this land was useful at all, but he thought it was very good . . . especially suitable for raising chicken and ducks. Besides, it was too cheap.

Edited by : Faro

Proofreader: Taalia

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