The canal was too small?

Zhao Liu looked at the canal beside her, puzzled. This canal was not small; it could fit three boats side by side without a problem!

As Zhao Liu was wondering, all of Jiang Zhen’s men from Hexi came, even those who lived in Qiaotou Village and the county town also came.

After those people went out with Jiang Zhen, their temperaments had all changed. Because they had been eating well, they all became very strong. Now standing together, they gave people great pressure, not to mention that after they saw Jiang Zhen, they opened their mouths and shouted in unison, “Greetings, boss!”

Their voices were so loud that it made Zhao Liu afraid.

“Mm-hmm.” Jiang Zhen nodded to them then pointed to the river. “You go first.”

“Yes, boss!” Everyone responded in unison, and then He Chunsheng shouted, “Run, go!”

After He Chunsheng finished, these people ran the distance in an orderly way.

Zhao Liu was a little overwhelmed by this scene, but soon, she became even prouder. These were Jiang Zhen’s men! But . . . what are they going to do by the river?

“Mother, would you like to come over there with me?” Jiang Zhen asked.

“I’m cleaning rice,” Zhao Liu said.

“Auntie, can you help my mother put the rice back?” Jiang Zhen took a bamboo sieve from Zhao Liu’s hand and gave it to a middle-aged woman who was also washing rice.

These days, after people husk the rice, there were often a lot of shells left, so they needed to wash the rice and let it soak in the water to let the rice husk float away.

“Oh . . . ,” The woman answered and subconsciously took the bamboo sieve from Jiang Zhen’s hand.

“Thank you,” Jiang Zhen said.

In this rural place, few people would solemnly thank people, especially Jiang Zhen, who was now famous . . . The woman holding the bamboo sieve was slightly stunned for a moment. When she saw Jiang Zhen leaving with Zhao Liu, she said to people around her, “Did you hear that? Jiang Zhen just thanked me!”

“I heard it,” the man beside her said. 

Jiang Zhen was not vicious at all, in fact, he made one feel that he could be trusted.

At first when they heard Zhao Liu’s words of how much Jiang Zhen loved Zhao Jinge and how good he was to them, they always thought she was bragging, but Jiang Zhen was smiling just now . . .  Perhaps Zhao Liu hadn’t lied.

“They’ve all gone to the river. What do you think is there?”

“Let’s go and have a look too.”

“All right. Let’s go and have a look.”

 

. . .

 

After some discussion, everyone made a decision. However, they all had something to put away at home first, especially the woman who picked up Zhao Liu’s bamboo sieve. She needed to go past two houses to put those away: “Wait for me!”

“With such a short road, there’s nothing to wait for! Why don’t you just go slowly?” Some people were already on their way.

The winter days were short, and although it’s only dawn, the Hexi villagers were basically all awake. When the man waiting for breakfast saw his wife running back from outside in a hurry, he had to ask, “Why are you running so fast?”

“I’m going to go see what’s going on.”

“What’s the excitement?”

“Jiang Zhen took a large group of people to Zhao Dahu’s house!”

Jiang Zhen took people to Zhao Dahu house? What was going on?

There were so few interesting things that happened in the countryside, so no matter who had an accident, everyone would rush over to watch the hustle and bustle. Since Jiang Zhen had taken a group of people to Zhao Dahu’s family house, everyone ran to watch the fun.

Village head Jiang Ping also rushed over.

His son went to Zhao’s house early in the morning. Then he heard that he followed a group of people to Zhao Dahu’s house. He did not know what was going on . . . but he needed to keep an eye on it.

Zhao Dahu’s family was already awake by that time.

They all lived a little farther away from the villagers, so at first when they saw a group of people running from afar, they became scared. They were afraid that someone had come to rob their house, and they became even more afraid when they found out that these were Jiang Zhen’s men. They were not very kind to Zhao Jinge in the past. Jiang Zhen wasn’t coming to trouble them, was he?

They were worried. Then they saw the group running neatly across the road next to their house and then towards the river. Zhao Dahu breathed a sigh of relief and immediately became curious. Why on earth were these people going to the other side of the river? He . . . also needed to go take a look.

After Zhao Dahu’s family cleaned themselves up, they also went out to watch the hustle and bustle.

By that time, a big ship had come to a stop beside the river, its captain was looking for a place to dock, some people ran to the riverbank and then tied the ship to the trees on the riverbank with ropes.

In general, the cargo capacity of a ship was much better than that of a horse-drawn carriage. After all, ships all had the help of buoyancy. As long as the ship was bigger, it could carry a lot more things . . . In order to secure the ship, those people had to take out more ropes so that it could stay firmly in place. When they had finished tying it up, they found some boards and laid them between the boat and the river bank.

After doing all of that, those busy people looked at Wang Haisheng and asked, “Brother Wang, is this the place? When will the boss come over?”

“Soon,” Wang Haisheng said. Watching the people on the boat treat him respectfully and calling him Brother Wang made him feel very proud. He used to be a fisherman; he really didn’t expect to have such a day.

As soon as Wang Haisheng spoke, He Chunsheng came with people, and after a while, Jiang Zhen also arrived.

After Jiang Zhen called Zhao Liu, he went to the other side of the river and met Zhao Jinge and Zhao Fugui on the way.

Zhao Jinge strode along while Zhao Fugui, who had always been silent and then looked at him discontentedly, unexpectedly saying, “Jinge, be careful, be careful . . . How can you walk so fast when you are pregnant with a child?” His son didn’t look like most gers, wasn’t he afraid that Jiang Zhen would start disliking him?

“Dad, what should I pay attention to?”

“What else can you pay attention to? Of course, I want you to walk slowly!” Zhao Liu immediately said, and Jiang Zhen looked at her with a smile.

Seeing Jiang Zhen, Zhao Jinge immediately slowed down.

Their family didn’t walk fast, so in a short time, the rest of the villagers had caught up to them by the time they had already reached the edge of the river.

In the past, Jiang Zhen had a lot of dates with Zhao Jinge by this river. Looking at this place, his eyes flashed in nostalgia, and he felt that everything was pleasing, especially the large clump of indocalamus bamboos, which was withered and yellow because of the cold weather, was extremely lovely.

In the past, he held Zhao Jinge’s hand and kissed him there.

Jiang Zhen was thinking about the past, but the eyes of Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui were attracted to the big ships by the river.

There were many ships going back and forth on this side of the river. Both Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui had even helped with the cargo on the docks before, so even he had boarded such a big ship, but this one . . .

He Chunsheng and those people all ran to the ship. This ship, this ship . . .

“Why is there such a big ship here?”

“The men under Jiang Zhen command went on the board.”

“Did you see Jiang Ming? He’s carrying things down the ship!”

 

. . .

 

The Hexi villagers did not dare come nearer; they all stopped at some distance, on the slope of the river, which was much higher than the river bank. They talked one after another, and after a while, everyone looked at the village head, Jiang Ping.

The village head always knew a lot of things, and Jiang Ming went to the ship. At the moment, if they had doubts, they would have to ask Jiang Ping. Who would want to ask that fierce and evil Jiang Zhen?

Jiang Ping: “. . .” He really didn’t know where that ship came from!

His brat said he left something on the ship and needed to bring it back . . . Could it be this ship? Did this ship belong to the Zheng family?

After thinking about it, Jiang Ping thought that this should be the case, so he said, “Isn’t Jiang Zhen working for the Zheng family? This ship should be the Zheng family’s.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he saw Jiang Zhen walking towards that ship, and everyone on that ship nodded and bowed to Jiang Zhen. “Boss!”

Wait, this ship . . . It wasn’t Jiang Zhen’s, right?

“This ship . . . It can’t be Jiang Zhen’s right?” Jiang Ping, who was far away, was skeptical, but Zhao Liu also could not help but have some doubt. Before, Jiang Zhen had said that his ship was on the way.

“What nonsense! How much money does a ship of this size cost?” Zhao Fugui looked at his wife and reprimanded her. Many of the rich people in this county town didn’t even own a ship this big!

“Also . . .” Zhao Liu also felt that the ship should not be Jiang Zhen’s.

“Father, Mother, it’s Jiang Zhen’s,” Zhao Jinge said awkwardly. He just remembered that he had forgotten to tell his parents about it.

Zhao Liu shuddered and became a little unsteady. Zhao Fugui’s expression froze. “Jinge, what did you say?”

“That boat is Jiang Zhen’s,” Zhao Jinge said.

Zhao Fugui and Zhao Liu were dumbfounded, and only after a while did they look at Zhao Jinge.

Zhao Fugui: “Where did it come from?”

Zhao Liu: “How could Jiang Zhen even afford such a big ship? Jinge, you have to watch out for him. Don’t let him be seduced by those little goblins.”

“Mother, Jiang Zhen won’t,” Zhao Jinge answered Zhao Liu, but he didn’t know how to answer Zhao Fugui . . . He couldn’t say that Jiang Zhen robbed this ship, right?

Fortunately, Zhao Fugui was subdued and did not continue to ask.

Jiang Zhen had already gone on board and commanded people to begin moving things down from the ship.

What they moved down first were things everyone bought in the capital to bring back home. Jiang Zhen also allowed his men to carry these things back to their homes first. Anyway, there were a lot of sailors on the ship, and he had no shortage of people to help him move the goods.

Jiang Zhen’s men cheered as they picked up their own things one after another.

He Chunsheng bought a lot of brightly colored fabrics and found his younger brother He Qiusheng. “Qiusheng, these are for you. Take them to make clothes.”

“Brother!” He Qiusheng’s eyes lit up immediately.

“Dad, I bought you a chamber pot! I heard you say that your chamber pot was broken, and that you have accidentally scraped it—Ouch!” Before Jiang Ming could finish his words, he was smacked on the head by his father.

This brat really dared to say anything! Jiang Ping looked awkwardly at the people around him, and sure enough, he saw that all the people in the village were looking at him in surprise. Their eyes were all trained on a certain part of him.

Jiang Ping: “. . .” His son was a debt collector! “Cough,” Jiang Ping coughed twice and pointed to the large bags around Jiang Ming. “These are all you bought?”

“Yes, Dad,” Jiang Ming said. “I bought something for everyone in my family.”

“That ship . . . ,” Jiang Ping asked again.

“That ship belongs to Boss,” Jiang Ming said.

“Jiang Zhen’s ship? Where did Jiang Zhen get such a big ship?” Jiang Ping was shocked. So were the surrounding Hexi villagers.

Where did Jiang Zhen get such a big ship? He hadn’t made any money, had he?

“Isn’t it just a ship? Dad, why are you so surprised?” Jiang Ming said. This ship didn’t look like a big deal to him.

“Is this just an ordinary boat?” Jiang Ping was angry.

“This is a very ordinary ship. The boss has five more around the same size, and a few slightly smaller ones,” Jiang Ming said.

Jiang Ping: “. . .”

Hexi people: “. . .”

Jiang Zhen, how did he get so many ships? Did he rob them?

Zhao Dahu and his family were also among the crowd, and they listened to the conversation between Jiang Ping and his son and then . . . They used to be the richest in the village, but it looks like that won’t be the case any longer. Suddenly they felt a little depressed!

Most of the people in Hexi Village, except for Butcher Jiang’s family went to the riverside.

As for why Butcher Jiang butcher didn’t go . . . at that time, they needed to hide from Jiang Zhen and lay low. How could they send themselves to his side?

Because all the people in Hexi had run away, the whole village looked empty. Meanwhile, Zhu Shufen came back with her parents and relatives.

She didn’t even greet the Jiang family yesterday; she just packed up her things and went back to her mother’s house. She wanted to bring her family and force the Jiang family to divide, so this day, they came early in the morning.

Afraid that the people in Hexi Village would not agree to separate the family, the Zhu family called a lot of people today. Zhu Shufen’s father, Zhu Xiucai, also came in person.

They angrily rushed to Hexi Village only to find . . . Why was Hexi Village so quiet, and why was there no one around? 

 

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: XLB

 

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