“That’s right . . . Right, even if that Zhao Jinge’s man went out to do business, this Zhao Jinge has no reason to suddenly move here after his man went out! Do you think there is something else going on here?”

“If you think about it, what she said doesn’t have to be a lie . . .. . . do you think that this Zhao Jinge might be someone else’s concubine?”

“Who would want a concubine like this? But when you said it, I thought of the possibility . . . Zhao Jinge even dug out the cinnabar mole between his eyebrows, so I thought he thought of himself as a true man. Do you think he worked as a sailor and ended up being pregnant with some businessman?”

“It’s really possible. If there were no women on board, those sailors could make do with men when they were in need. At least, he is a ger and would be better than those smelly sailors.”

“So maybe Zhao Jinge’s man is really capable?”

“But in that case, it’s not a son-in-law who married into their family, right?”

 

. . .

 

While everyone was talking, an eight- or nine-year-old boy suddenly ran in from outside the alley and shouted, “Look! There are a lot of big boats coming to the dock. Ships! Those ships are especially big, and there are even some strangely shaved ronins on board!”

When the children in Qing Yang Alley heard him say this, they all became interested. “Really?”

“Of course, it’s true. The ships are very big! I heard that someone came back from the sea and made a lot of money!” the boy said, gathering a group of children together to go to the docks to see the fun.

There were some sea merchants in Fucheng, but their ships seldom came  to this side of the city, so the children seldom saw this big of ships.

Almost all the children in Qing Yang Alley ran out, but in a short while, they came back huffing.

“Why are you back so soon? You are no longer looking at those big ships?” one woman asked her grandson.

“Grandma, there are a lot of people coming down from the ship, and they are coming towards us!” the boy said to his grandmother.

“For what reason are these people coming here?” the woman wondered. Just then, she saw several carriages entering Qing Yang Alley, and beside the carriages, there were many children following.

The driver of the carriage was afraid of hurting the children, so he didn’t dare to drive the carriage too fast.

The carriage moved very slowly so people could see very clearly the appearance of the people inside. The carriage was exquisitely carved and magnificent, and if you were not very rich, you would never be able to afford to sit inside it.

“Grandma, I saw Uncle Zhao in the carriage,” a child suddenly shouted.

Uncle Zhao? In their alley, the new family was surnamed Zhao. Was it Zhao Jinge inside this carriage? How was that possible?

People didn’t believe it, but the carriages stopped at the gate of the Zhao’s house.

Zhao Liu also saw these carriages and was wondering who was coming. When she saw the carriage stop at her own door, she then saw Jiang Ming jumping down from the carriage.

“Old Madam!” Jiang Ming greeted Zhao Liu.

When Zhao Liu saw Jiang Ming, she was surprised. “It’s Jiang Ming! Could it be that . . . Jiang Zhen is back?”

“Mother!” Jiang Zhen called out and got down from the carriage while still holding Zhao Mingzhu in his arms.

Because she hadn’t seen him for some time, Zhao Mingzhu was not very close to him. so he was trying to cultivate his relationship with his daughter.

“Mother.” Zhao Jinge also came down. He was currently smiling very happily. Obviously, he looked like a different person compared to a few days ago.

“You’re back! It’s good you are back. It’s good you are back!” Zhao Liu was overjoyed.

“Mother, let’s go in first and move the things in by the way,” Jiang Zhen said, holding Zhao Mingzhu and walking inside. After taking two steps, he stopped again, beckoning the people outside. “You guys move everything in first. I’ve ordered food at the restaurant. When everyone is done moving, the food should be delivered, then we’ll all have a good meal.”

“Yes, boss!” Jiang Ming and the others said in unison, suddenly full of energy. God knows how much they want to eat good food!

The people who came with them were the people Jiang Zhen had brought out and the people Zheng Yi had sent to help them, so they all worked together and soon moved all the heavy boxes into the Zhao family house.

“So many boxes. Where should we put them?” Zhao Liu was a little tangled.

“Someone will come to pick up these boxes later. Put them in the yard first. It’s spacious.” Jiang Zhen said that all the gold and silver contained in those boxes were those given by Zhu Erlin. It was impossible for him to keep all the gold and silver with him, so he contacted the Wexing money house to count the gold and silver. After taking it away, they would exchange it for silver notes for him.

“The old man’s vegetables are going to be crushed.” Zhao Liu’s heart ached for the vegetables.

“Mother, this box is full of silver” Jiang Zhen leaned over and whispered.

There was silver in this box? Zhao Liu’s eyes suddenly opened wide. At this time, how could she still care about Zhao Fugui’s vegetables?

The vegetables were originally planted by Zhao Fugui, who had nothing better to do, and they weren’t even worth one silver.

Zhao Liu jumped up and beckoned Jiang Ming and others to put the boxes in the yard.

Looking at the boxes, she became very excited.

Zhao Fugui also didn’t have time to worry about his vegetable garden at this moment.

His precious granddaughter was back, so how could he still have time to care about those vegetables? Destroy it if you want, he can plant it again tomorrow, otherwise . . .. . . he would have nothing to do but catch bugs.

A lot of carriages stopped at the entrance of the Zhao family house, bringing countless boxes that filled Zhao’s family yard.

Outside Zhao’s house, the women who thought Zhao Liu was bragging were all stunned. Could it be that what Zhao Liu said was true? Could it be that their family was actually very rich and had been hiding it all the time?

It took half an hour for all the boxes to be moved into the Zhao family house, then the people Zheng Yi sent to help left, leaving only the people from the Jinzhen Escort Agency to guard the Zhao family’s yard.

It was at this time that the meal ordered by Jiang Zhen at the restaurant was delivered.

When Jiang Zhen went out this time, he earned a lot of money, so the food he ordered at the restaurant was also extra generous, ordering ten full tables of food at once.

Every table was filled with chicken, duck, fish, and meat, and there were so many dishes that even ten strong men couldn’t finish them.

The restaurant called a lot of pickers and sent dishes to the Zhao family in bamboo baskets.

There were so many dishes that the Zhao family could not fit them all in the house, so in the end, they simply put them on top of the boxes outside the house.

Roasted chicken, ducks, steamed fish boxes were full of all kinds of food. Following Jiang Zhen outside for a month and lacking food and clothing, their eyes turned green with greed.

Not waiting for all the dishes to be delivered, they started to eat.

Jiang Ming grabbed some food and sat on the threshold of the Zhao family, eating while guarding the door to the Zhao family house. While he was gnawing on a chicken leg, a woman in her fifties or sixties came to him. “Young man, what do you do?”

“I’m from the Jinzhen Escort Agency.”Jiang Ming smiled at the woman, thinking that he should be a neighbor of the Zhao family.

“From the Jinzhen Escort Agency? Are you one of the men working under Zhao Jinge?” the woman asked again.

“Yes,” Jiang Ming answered, then stuffed a large piece of meat into his mouth and chewed it quickly.

The woman wanted to ask something else but was surprised by Jiang Ming’s eating face, so she changed her question. “Why are you eating so fast? Does the Jinzhen Escort Agency not give you food?” The people who came here all looked like hungry ghosts.

“Yeah. Wwe didn’t have any food before! Eating fish after fish every day, I felt like throwing up,” Jiang Ming said.

People around Jiang Ming also nodded: “That’s it! Alas,  boss didn’t look clearly when he ordered food in the restaurant. There are even steamed fish on the table. Who would want to eat them now?”

“Did you go out to sea?” the woman asked again. Eating fish every day . . . that should be sea, right?

“Yes, went out to sea.” Jiang Ming nodded.

The woman glanced at Jiang Ming before looking at the Zhao family house with a complicated expression. What that Zhao Liu said was actually true?

The people who had originally gathered together to discuss the Zhao family had all sarcastic expressions at the moment, especially the person who wanted to marry her niece to Zhao Jinge but was rejected. Her stomach turned upside down.

Before, she was the one with the best relationship with Zhao Liu, and Zhao Liu even promised to help her younger son to find a job. Yet . . . she started basically all the gossip about the Zhao family, and after her matchmaking failed, she became even angrier and spoke ill about the Zhao family everywhere.

Now, Zhao Liu should be aware of it, and these days, she was not even willing to talk to her.

This Zhao family was surprisingly so rich. If she had known,  she would not have fallen  out with Zhao Liu. She was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to get any benefit from Zhao Liu’s family any more.

The woman regretted it as did others. If they had not gossiped about the Zhao family before and had a good relationship with Zhao Liu, they could bask in her limelight and not look at Zhao Liu from sidelines with the others . . .

These people thought about a lot of things, but the children were relatively much simpler. They ran around the Zhao family house, curiously looking at the Zhao family’s group of tall men and stared ravenously at their food.

“Come.” Jiang Ming beckoned the children over and gave them some plates of fish they didn’t want to eat and chopsticks: “This is for you. be careful not to eat fish bones.”

These children running around were not particularly young, and there were a lot of fishes in Fucheng, so they had all basically eaten fish before, but they still took chopsticks and ate quickly.

This steamed fish was really too delicious; they had never eaten such delicious fish before!

“Those little brats! But these people are really generous. A plate of fish costs several copper coins, but they give it to the group of children to eat.” An old man from Qing Yang Alley sighed. He knew that restaurant; the steamed fish there could cost from fifty to sixty copper coins a piece!

While outside Jiang Zhen’s men were wolfing down the food, inside, Jiang Zhen was doing the same.

Jiang Zhen, who used to love to chew chicken wings, did not even ate the chicken wings but devoured a chicken leg in three or two bites.

After eating some meat, Jiang Zhen’s eating speed slowed down, and he told Zhao Liu and Zhao Fugui about the money he earned this time. “This time, I earned a bit more, about a few hundred thousand silver.”

Zhao Fugui directly dropped the bowl he was holding while Zhao Liu froze. “How much did you earn? A few hundred silver?”

“Several hundred thousand silver,” Jiang Zhen said.

This time, Zhao Liu’s also accidentally dropped the bowl.

 

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: Xiao Hua

 

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