These days, it could be said that the people in Hexi were talking about Jiang Zhen every day. Now that they were talking about Jiang Zhen again, they regretted that they hadn’t married their daughters or gers to Jiang Zhen in the first place.

Old lady Jiang used to like listening to the neighborhood gossip, but at the moment, when she saw people gather together, she wanted to turn around and leave.

“From Butcher Jiang’s house, from Butcher Jiang’s house!” Someone stopped old Madam Jiang.

Old lady Jiang stopped with a cold look on her face, and then heard people saying, “From Butcher Jiang’s family, now everyone is saying that Jiang Zhen is a blessed man. Have you heard?”

“He is a star of evil. How can he become a blessed man!” Old lady Jiang almost blew up.

“He is indeed blessed. Think about it. When you were pregnant with him, Butcher Jiang got the chance to join the army. Later, he came back with a lot of money.  After he came back, the life of your family got better day by day . . . But after he left your house . . . Tut-tut!” The person paused at this point, but the meaning could not have been any clearer.

Since Jiang Zhen left the Jiang family house, the life of the Jiang family had turned sadder and sadder. There were people quarreling in the family every day.

“Now that Jiang Zhen has gone to the Zhao family, he became part of the Zhao family. The Zhao family treats him well and his blessing is growing bigger and bigger. . . ” the man said again.

Zhao Liu praised Jiang Zhen outside all day. At a single glance, everyone knew that she was very satisfied with Jiang Zhen. Not only that, Jiang Zhen was also very kind to them. This old lady Jiang . . . she used to scold Jiang Zhen all day, so she was also scolding all of Jiang Zhen’s blessings.

Old lady Jiang looked at the man’s gloating eyes and was so angry that she left with a cold face and hurried home. As soon as she returned, she was scolded by the angry-looking Butcher Jiang.

“Why are you running outside when there is still a lot of work at home?” Butcher Jiang looked at old lady Jiang in dissatisfaction.

The second son went out to do business, the third son went to work in the county town, and their two daughters-in-law couldn’t be counted on. Butcher Jiang was very tired from his everyday work and became even more dissatisfied after seeing old lady Jiang.

“I’m not running around! I was going to do the laundry!” Old Madam Jiang was dissatisfied too. Where was she doing less work?

The Jiang family members immediately started quarreling again.

There was also another family that was noisy.

Since he was tied up by his sons, Father He had been well-behaved for some time. He even helped Mother He with some of the work at home, which made her very happy. But after learning that Jiang Zhen had managed to close down Liu Heitou’s gambling house and became the manager of Hongxing Gambling House, the wheels in Father He’s head started moving.

Jiang Zhen was so powerful. If his son could marry him . . .

Although He Qiusheng was good-looking, the He family had always lived in a small village and had never seen much of the world, so they were already satisfied, as long as He Qiusheng could marry a slightly richer person. And wasn’t Jiang Zhen a rich man now?

“Qiusheng, what a good candidate Jiang Zhen is! You must hurry up!” Father He persuaded repeatedly. “Even if you become his concubine, as long as you can get his love, what is the difference between the first wife and the concubine? Zhao Jinge is not only ugly but also old. I also heard that his cinnabar was dim in the past. I don’t know if he can even give birth to a child. If you give birth to a son to Jiang Zhen . . .”

“Dad! Stop it!” He Qiusheng was angry and annoyed.

“Why are you so mean to me? I’m doing it for you. I like Jiang Zhen. He can provide you with several hundred silver!” Father He said. Jiang Zhen had become the manager of Hongxing Gambling House. If he could become Jiang Zhen’s father-in-law . . .

“Dad, in Jiang Zhen’s heart, there is only Zhao Jinge. If you talk nonsense again, I will tie you up again!”

When He Chunsheng came home to pick up his things, he heard what his father was talking about and was furious.

Father He was silent, but the wheels in his head hidden behind his eyelids were still turning.

Jiang Zhen didn’t know what was happening in Hexi. He took Zhao Jinge to the county town early in the morning.

Zheng Yi said that he would open a gambling house for Jiang Zhen to manage, but the gambling house was not yet in sight for now, and Jiang Zhen could only get involved in the original gambling house, so Jiang Zhen didn’t have to do any work at the moment but was paid a manager’s salary.

After going around the gambling shop, he told Manager Zhang that there was something going on at home. He was afraid he would not be able to come over for some time.

Manager Zhang was very eager for Jiang Zhen to stay away from the gambling house, so he was glad that something was going on in his family and sent Jiang Zhen away with a smile. Then Jiang Zhen took Zhao Jinge to the docks and bought all the chicken and ducks that were being sold.

“So many chicks and ducklings, what are you going to do with them?” Someone looked puzzled at Jiang Zhan. Jiang Zhen bought more than thirty ducklings and more than forty chicks. No one would raise so many chicks and ducklings, right? How much food did they want to eat?

“Raise them and sell for money,” Jiang Zhen responded casually.

“How can you sell so many chicken and ducks . . .” The man looked at Jiang Zhen in bewilderment.

Jiang Zen didn’t say anything. But adding up to almost one hundred chicken and ducks, would there still be no room to sell them? It was just enough for a big family throwing a banquet.

Rowing the boat, Jiang Zhen went home with a brood of chicks and ducklings.

Those chicks and ducklings they had been raising before were all kept in the land that Jiang Zhen bought. They let them out in the fenced area during the day and locked them in the shed at night. These young chicken and ducks which were still too small were taken care of by Zhao Liu and Sun Xiaoshan.

Jiang Zhen paid Wang Haisheng, Sun Xiaoshan, He Chunsheng, and He Xiasheng to help them do tasks around and taught the young men some skills every morning.

Jiang Zhen basically gave these people all the work of rising the chicken and ducks, as well as the work in the field, while he himself took Zhao Jinge with him every day and started gathering Liu Heitou’s former subordinates.

In modern times, Jiang Zhen had a lot of pricks under his command, but they were all won over by him, so now, he was naturally not afraid of dealing with a group of thugs who couldn’t even read a single word. The only thing he needed to pay attention to was weeding out those who had naturally bad characters and those who wouldn’t fit in his team. Jiang Zhen did all of this for the sake of his own future, but his favorite thing to do at the moment was actually exercising at night.

Although Zhao Jinge was shy, he was very obedient. He never refused any requests he made, which was simply too much to his liking. Of course, he had no special hobbies and would not make any excessive demands.

“Jinge, let’s clean up for today. Wait . . .” After the meal, Jiang Zhen was thinking about their evening.

“Ok . . . ” Zhao Jinge replied in a low voice and touched his stomach – he didn’t know when he would have a baby . . .

Edited by :  Faro

Proofreader: Taalia

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