It was getting late so Jiang Zhen did not go back to the county town, but said goodbye to the others, and then took Zhao Jinge back to Hexi Village.

“Jinge, are you getting along well with those thugs? They are going to invite you for a drink,” after walking for a while Jiang Zhen asked casually.

Zhao Jinge’s expression suddenly became extremely tangled when he heard these words.

“What’s the matter?” Jiang Zhen, seeing that Zhao Jinge’s expression was not quite right, got worried. Was there something else to it?

“They…. He said he would invite me to drink flower wine.” Zhao Jinge said, somewhat uneasy that Jiang Zhen would become angry.

Jiang Zhen noticed his mood, but he was not angry at all. Instead, he laughed as he grabbed Zhao Jinge.

“You…” Zhao Jinge looked at Jiang Zhen angrily. Jiang Zhen’s reaction was different from what he expected.

“I just didn’t expect it.” Jiang Zhen chuckled. “How could they invite you to drink flower wine instead of inviting me?” Zhao Jinge looked very serious, and was very old-fashioned. He didn’t look like someone who would really drink flower wine.

Zhao Jinge immediately looked at Jiang Zhen. Jiang Zhen wanted to drink flower wine?!

“Well, I won’t go and neither will you. We already are a family,” Jiang Zhen said. His eyes flickered slightly – those people even wanted to invite Zhao Jinge to drink flower wine…. Ha-ha!

“Um.” Zhao Jinge nodded. People with families should not drink flower wine!

“Jiang Zhen, wasn’t what you did today bad?” after another couple of steps Zhao Jinge couldn’t help asking. Was it really OK for Jiang Zhen to rob Liu Heitou like this?

“I have always been a man who returns the favor, and he always must pay the price of provoking me,” Jiang Zhen said with a smile. He still had a good sense of how to do things. He would never let Liu Heitou jump the wall. The gambling house was really not a good thing and as for other things….

Young Master Zheng and Manager Zhang hoped he would teach the restless Liu Heitou a lesson.

Thinking that Liu Heitou had even come to make trouble when he was getting married to Jiang Zhen, Zhao Jinge thought that what they did today was nothing.

However, when Jiang Zhen said “return the favor” it made him feel a little uneasy.

It was because of his kindness that Jiang Zhen was so good to him. If it had been someone else to save Jiang Zhen in the first place….

However, this was also a good thing. Jiang Zhen would repay his kindness, and he would not abandon him suddenly.

When he figured this out, Zhao Jinge smiled.

“Jinge, is there anything you want?” Jiang Zhen asked.

Zhao Jinge shook his head. He was not lacking anything now, so….

Zhao Jinge looked at the small silver bracelet that the thug had put in his hand and felt his heart throb. He wanted a child now, a child from Jiang Zhen.

If they had children, their family would not fall apart.

“Then let’s get something to eat.” Seeing Zhao Jinge shake his head, Jiang Zhen pondered for a moment and then knocked on the door of a family house they passed by.

There were two newly grown up roosters in this family courtyard. Jiang Zhen bought one of them and carried it home.

Since Zhao Jinge didn’t want anything, he would buy something to eat.

By the time Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge returned, Zhao Liu had already finished preparing dinner.

“Mom, I’ll clean up this rooster and we will add another dish in the evening,” Jiang Zhen said.

Even if Jiang Zhen was rich now, he shouldn’t be so extravagant. Zhao Liu hesitated a little. “Let’s leave it today, I have already prepared steamed eggs with bacon.”

“Let’s cook it and celebrate!” Jiang Zhen said. “I’ll get the knife.”

Jiang Zhen went straight to get the knife and when Zhao Liu saw he couldn’t be persuaded, she hurriedly went in the house to get a bowl. Chicken blood couldn’t be wasted!

Jiang Zhen could kill the chicken but Zhao Liu didn’t want to let Jiang Zhen get involved in the business of plucking feathers and cleaning the  internal organs of the chicken. Jiang Zhen didn’t try to force it either. Knowing that Zhao Fugui and the others were still on the field, he went there planning to help them with the work and then call them for the meal.

“Jinge, you should keep an eye on Jiang Zhen and not let him spend money recklessly,” as soon as Jiang Zhen left, Zhao Liu said to Zhao Jinge. “The future is long. Now that we have spent all our money, what are we going to do in the future?”

“Mother……” Zhao Jinge took the bamboo basket he was carrying and showed Zhao Liu the silver inside.

Zhao Liu covered her chest feeling like she could no longer breathe. “This… This… Another hundred silver?”

“About two hundred,” Zhao Jinge said.

“Jiang Zhen gave us one hundred silver before, and this time he gave us two hundred silver. We can buy another 15 mu of paddy field and then our family will have 20 mu of paddy field. We will be even richer than the Jiang family!” Zhao Liu said.

“Um.” Zhao Jinge nodded.

Zhao Liu used to think that it was too wasteful to buy a chicken to eat, but now….

She quickly dealt with the chicken.

People in Hexi basically filled an iron pot with water to cook the chicken, and when the chicken was cooked, they would take it out and cut it into pieces to eat. They were also reluctant to throw away the water used to boil the chicken, so they basically collected it and used it for cooking. However, if the chicken was cooked like this, it would take at least half an hour. It was too slow, so Zhao Liu decided to cook the chicken in soy sauce.

The whole chicken was cut into small pieces, and the chicken’s belly was put in the pot to fry for a while. Then Zhao Liu boiled out the oil, turned the cut pieces of chicken and slightly stir-fried them, added soy sauce and water, and waited for it to cook slowly.

When Jiang Zhen came back with Zhao Fugui, Zhao Liu had already finished preparing the chicken and had asked Zhao Jinge to bring a small bowl to Sun Xiaoshan.

These days, Sun Xiaoshan went to catch either  snails or fish every day. When he caught some, he brought them all to Zhao Liu, who was very grateful to him for it.

In the evening, there was a large bowl of braised chicken on the table, a bowl of steamed eggs and bacon, as well as beans and fried garlic sprouts cooked with pickles.

While talking about the chicken, ducks, and the vegetables she had planted at home, Zhao Liu gave Jiang Zhen a chicken leg.

Jiang Zhen put the drumstick directly into her bowl, and gave Zhao Fugui the onother one.

“Mom, Dad, you eat them.”

As for Zhao Jinge, Jiang Zhen gave him two pieces of chicken breast. In modern times, except for those who wanted to lose weight, hardly anyone liked eating chicken breast, but in ancient times, chicken breast was a good thing. After all, it was a whole piece of meat. Of course, for Jiang Zhen, the taste of chicken wings was better when they had enough oil and water.

Two chicken wings were almost gnawed clean by Jiang Zhen but one of chicken wing was given to Zhao Jinge. “This one tastes best. Try it.”

Zhao Jinge ate the chicken wing with delight, while Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu slowly nibbled on the chicken legs.

Zhao Liu was still fine. She had not been in the best of health, so in the past, when they killed a chicken as a sacrifice to their ancestors during the New Year Festival, Zhao Fugui and Zhao Jinge often left the chicken legs to her to eat. But Zhao Fugui, he hadn’t eaten drumsticks in decades. He was a big man. How could he eat drumsticks? That was what Zhao Fugui thought, but there was a smile on his face.

The next day, Zhao Liu started chatting to other people again.

“Our family’s Jiang Zhen is really lavish. He bought a chicken on his way back and had to eat it on the same day. We ate almost the whole chicken in one sitting . . . Even so, he still had to give the chicken legs to me and my old man. We said we are already so old, so why should we eat chicken legs?”

The people listening to Zhao Liu were “. . .” Who can afford to eat chicken legs these days? You are only showing off! This Zhao Liu talking like that was just too irritating!

People grew even more envious of Zhao Liu. Then the news reached Hexi Village that Jiang Zhen of the Zhao family went so far as to take people to close down Liu Heitou’s gambling house! Liu Heitou hadn’t even dared to say a word!

On the day of Jiang Zhen’s marriage with Zhao Jinge, Liu Heitou went to the Zhao family’s house to make trouble, which made many people in Hexi Village sympathize with the Zhao family, thinking that the Zhao family would meet bad luck sooner or later. As it turned out, Jiang Zhen could even shut down Liu Heitou’s gambling house! How did Jiang Zhen suddenly become so powerful? He used to be a dullhead anyone could bully!

“I heard that Jiang Zhen also became a manager of the gambling house in the county town!”

“I also heard that Liu Heitou’s men are working for him now.”

“Even more than that, even Liu Heitou himself has become his subordinate!”

“I heard that they took a few hundred silver from Liu Heitou’s gambling shop yesterday. A few hundred silver!”

“Now that Jiang Zhen has money, the Zhao family are so lucky!”

Edited by : Faro

Proofreader: Taalia

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