Second Master Zheng was now highly valued by the empress dowager as an imperial minister in the  imperial court; he firmly did not join any side . . . Jiang Zhen and Zheng Yi both knew that if they prepared in advance, They would be  able to find the right person to take over the Hongjiang salt farm.

However, Jiang Zhen was not good at these types of things, so in the end, he did not say much. 

After Zheng Yi and Jiang Zhen talked about the Hongjiang salt farm, they spoke about Shen Anxin’s affairs. “It was Shen Anxin who bribed the Jiang family.“ 

“It was him?“ Jiang Zhen was startled. After Shen Anxin confessed to him he never saw him again. He really did not expect that he would come up with such a thing. 

 “There should be Feng Jinyuan meddling in it,“ Zheng Yi added. When he initially learned about it, he was very angry. He did not say anything  but made up  his mind to give Shen Anxin some lessons in private, but then . . .

Seeing Feng Jinyuan and Shen Anxin fight later and then seeing that Shen Anxin refused to say anything about it, even when he was obviously not in the right state, he could more or less guess a little. 

After guessing, it was not good to do anything more to Shen Anxin. But of course, continuing to cooperate with Shen Anxin was also impossible. 

 Jiang Zhen was thinking about his future these days, so he almost forgot about this matter. After hearing what Zheng Yi had  said and giving it a little thought, he agreed with Zheng Yi’s approach.

Right then, he didn’t want to get in touch with Shen Anxin at all, nor did he want to find out why he did it. 

“As for these people from the Jiang family . . . there are many people who are watching you now, so you can’t do anything to them. But you can still move them to some other village, so they would live far away from you,“ Zheng Yi added.

Jiang Chengxiang and Jiang Chengwen were brought to him for interrogation before, but he could not hold them forever, and they needed to be released. 

He initially wanted to send these people far away, but who knew if someone would make a fuss about them again? After thinking about it, he thought it would be best to find another village  in He Cheng County to settle them down and keep a close eye on them.

“Just send them to Qiaotou Village,” Jiang Zhen said. Aside from Hexi Village, he currently had the most number of people in Qiaotou Village, so naturally, he could keep an eye on the Jiang family if they go to Qiaotou Village. 

“Then let’s do it,“ Zheng Yi said. After settling this matter he  immediately ordered someone to go and get things done.

After solving the follow-up problems caused by the sudden arrival of Zhou Maohe, Zheng Yi and Jiang Zhen talked about the construction of the Qingfeng House in Fucheng and mentioned the distilled wine that Jiang Zhen had previously made.

The Zheng family had a special brewery. After mentioning it to the craftsmen in the workshop, the  craftsmen got busy and had already made some distilled wine.

“The distilled wine according to your method is really very mellow and tastes very good. But it takes a lot of wine to distill just one small jar. The food consumption for making this wine is really great.“ Zheng Yi thought of that wine and sighed lightly.

That wine was indeed a good wine, but if the method is spread, everyone will make it . . . It would consume too much grain. 

There were still many people in Daqi who did not have enough to eat. If this wine spreads . . . the court will certainly issue a ban on alcohol.

“This is the secret recipe of the Qingfeng House and needs to be kept secret. After this wine is produced, we will sell it in limited quantities every day and never too much,” Jiang Zhen said. “But before that, we still need to offer first some to the empress dowager.”

Although the empress dowager didn’t like wine too much, it was good stuff. It was also necessary to send a little to the big boss to flatter him. 

 “You actually know about this?” Zheng Yi looked at Jiang Zhen in some surprise; he had always thought that Jiang Zhen was unaware of these official twists and turns. 

“I know everything I should know. I’m just not quite used to doing so,” Jiang Zhen said; he knew many tricks, but he didn’t think about them because he was too impatient. 

Zheng Yi and Jiang Zhen talked for a long time, and it was not until it was getting dark that the conversation was almost done. After looking at the sky, Zheng Yi simply asked his people to send a message that he would spend the night here. 

“Wait.” The messenger boy was about to leave when Zheng Yi suddenly stopped him. “After you go back to the house to find the madam, if she is willing, she can bring a child to Hexi Village tomorrow for a visit.“ 

“Yes, sir,” the messenger boy responded and left at once. 

There were many empty houses in the Zhao family, so Jiang Zhen quickly asked someone to help Zheng Yi clean up one. 

These houses Jiang Zhen built very neatly and made them look very ordinary without any new ideas, but because he was willing to use bricks, the walls were thick and had good insulation. They were warm in winter and cool in summer, making it very comfortable inside. 

Zheng Yi disliked the room’s furnishings, but after going to bed, he slept quite well and even overslept. Finally, the sound of the drill near the dock woke him up, and he got out of bed. 

The Zhao family was already up and out, but Cook Li and Ruo’er had been waiting for him to get up and had prepared a hot and fragrant breakfast for him. A few other people were also waiting around him.

There were two dishes for breakfast, one was fried buns, the other was white rice porridge. In addition, there were seven or eight kinds of small side – dishes such as fried peanuts or pickled radish. 

Zheng Yi ate in an extraordinarily satisfied manner, and in the end, ate almost all of the served dishes . After eating, he took a freshly fried doughnut and then took his people with him as he walked  leisurely towards the pier.

At this time, it was not long after dawn, but the people of the Jinzhen Escort Agency were already busy. They seemed very busy, but everything seemed to be done in an orderly manner. Zheng Yi, who watched them come and go, actually felt very relaxed and happy.

The school had not yet opened, but there were already many children playing nearby. Some of them took out twigs and started to write and draw on the ground. 

When Zhao Jinge  taught the girls and gers how to read yesterday, he told a joke that Jiang Zhen had told him, so some of these girls were proudly retelling the joke to some of the boys. “There was once a man whose father and mother sent him to school. On the first day, his teacher taught him ’one.’ The next day, he taught him ’two,’ and on the third day, he taught him ’three.’ Then the boy no longer wanted to go to school again and told his parents that he had already learned everything. Later, his father wanted to invite a man surnamed Wan (Ten thousand) to dinner and asked him to write an invitation. But as a result, he was not able to finish it for three days . . .  His father felt it was very strange, so he came to ask him about it. Then the boy began to complain, saying that the name of this man was too difficult. He had been writing it for three days, but he had not yet finished ten thousand strokes.” 

The children laughed while Zheng Yi who listened also found it funny. 

Jiang Zhen trained his men as usual that day, and dealt with some affairs at the dock. When he returned, he saw Zheng Yi lying on a bamboo recliner, with his legs up, surrounded by a circle of children, telling stories. 

Zheng Yi had read books, traveled from north to south, and was very knowledgeable and eloquent. After several stories all those children listened to him in fascination, looking at him with gazes full of admiration. 

“It’s time for class,” Jiang Zhen looked at the time and said to the children, making all the children run away very quickly. 

“These kids seem to be afraid of you.” Zheng Yi smiled, enjoying the situation. 

It would be strange if they were not afraid of him when he used to fight. All of them came and watched . . . Jiang Zhen answered with a smile, “Young Master Zheng, your wife is here.” 

The Zheng family boat had already moored at his dock.

Zheng Yi smiled, immediately rose from the bamboo recliner, and straightened his clothes: “Go. Follow me to pick up your sister-in-law!“ 

Zheng Yi was actually not much older than Jiang Zhen; he was born just a year or two earlier. But due to Zheng Yi’s early marriage, his oldest son was already seven years old. In addition to his oldest son, he also had another son and a daughter. The daughter was four years old, and the youngest son was two years old. 

These three children were born by Zheng Yi’s wife, Zheng Hu. When she came to Hexi village, Zheng Hu brought all three children with her.

There were many servants of the Zheng family this time because Zheng Hu took all three young masters out together, so the people who came were even more . . . In total, there were 30 or 40 servants of the Zheng family standing on the dock. 

Jiang Zhen had never met Zheng Hu before, so it was the first time he saw her. It was not good to look at the female relatives casually, so he just glanced at her once. Apart from feeling that Zheng Hu was good-looking and temperamental, he could not say anything else. 

Jiang Zhen did not need to get in touch with other people’s female relatives, so Zheng Hu’s arrival wouldn’t affect him. But Zhao Liu and Zhao Jinge were different. They had to entertain Zheng Hu. 

 

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: Xiao Hua

 

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