Chapter 104: Chapter 104: The Fields at the County
"Father, what did you say?" Zhou Anran wanted to make sure she didn’t hear it wrong.
Zhou Wenzhi raised his brows, and he patiently repeated his words. "I have some fields in the county too. It’s been unused for a while. We can use them now."
Her eyelids twitched, and she found out that her father was getting more and more incomprehensible.
She never knew that he had fields in the county. It made her wonder...
"Does Mother or Elder Brother know about this too?" She couldn’t help but ask.
Zhou Wenzhi fell silent for a moment before he shook his head. "They don’t."
"This..." Zhou Anran let out a breath, at a loss for words. However, Zhou Wenzhi didn’t give her another chance to ask.
"It’s time for me to go. I will accompany your family to buy some oxen in the county tomorrow." After he said that, Zhou Wenzhi got up and walked away.
Zhou Anran could only watch helplessly as her father bid farewell to her children as he walked out of the house. He even rubbed Xiao Qingya’s head before he headed home.
She rubbed her temples and sighed, knowing that her father didn’t want to talk about the topic further and chose to return home to avoid it instead.
The next day, the whole family had already gathered in the morning. Even Zhou shuran also joined them.
They walked toward the village market and rented two ox carts from there. They might have to stay in the county for a few days.
"Mrs. Zhou, we are quite free these days. If you need someone to water your fields, you can call us. We don’t need a high salary!"
When they told Shun Zi to take some rice seeds before they went to the county, he had unexpectedly recommended himself and his men enthusiastically the moment he heard that the Xiao family was about to leave home for a while.
In the end, Zhou Anran took his offer so that this time they could stay at the county peacefully without worrying about their fields at home.
She added a few more jin of rice seeds for each man on top of the pay, and Shun Zi’s men were quite satisfied, and thus, she became more relieved about leaving their fields to them.
Upon arriving at the county, they immediately went to the fields.
Zhou Wenzhi suggested that they see his fields first, and they all agreed. When they all arrived at his fields, they were all taken aback.
Their grandfather actually had such a wide field in the county! He also didn’t have it only in one place. There was another one that needed them to walk for less than ten minutes.
In total, he might have over forty mu of land!
[Woah, Grandfather is hiding these fields from that bad old woman?] Xiao Qingya thought in her mind. [It’s more than hiding another saving from his wife!]
The Ling siblings had caught Zhou Wenzhi’s words and told the little one about it.
"I also have a house here. If you feel tired and want to rest, just go to that place. Do you want me to show you?" Zhou Wenzhi asked in a calm tone, in contrast to his descendants’ speechless expressions.
Zhou Anran did notice that her younger sister didn’t seem surprised. Zhou Shuran was lowering her head, and when she lifted her eyes, their eyes accidentally met.
Both were startled. Zhou Shuran was the first who flashed her elder sister a smile.
Then, she turned away and looked at Zhou Wenzhi. "Father, what are you going to plant here?"
Zhou Wenzhi stroked his beard and immediately answered, "Ran’er rice seeds seem to be good. Perhaps, we can get the same decent yield..."
"Elder Sister, you have to give a discount price for us," Zhou Shuran joked.
Zhou Anran’s response was almost immediate. "What discount? We are family. Just take how many you need. We can help take care of each other’s fields too."
Such wide fields and only the two of them taking care of them... they definitely wouldn’t be able to do it.
"Alright, we will help each other." Zhou Wenzhi nodded.
Next, they all went to the fields the Ling siblings had given them. It was actually very wide. The field was divided into two. One was around ten mu while the other fifteen mu, totaling twenty-five mu!
[Wouldn’t it be good if we all live in the county instead?] They all suddenly heard the little one’s thoughts again. [There are no bad guys who are always framing my family!]
She let out a huff in the end, showing how annoyed she was.
Zhou Anran was surprised at the idea, and she fell into a deep thought.
Actually, when her husband was still there, he also had suggested the same thing. However, she didn’t want to live too far away from the main family back then.
Upon thinking about it again, it didn’t seem to be a bad idea.
The next destination was the house that Zhou Wenzhi had talked about. The place was actually quite wide, enough for three families to live there.
"Let’s go inside." Zhou Wenzhi took a key from his robe and opened the door wide. He entered the place, followed by others. Then, he shook his head and frowned. "This place is so dusty."
"It’s alright, Grandfather. We can clean it up!" Xiao Yuxi muttered, looking around in amazement. Her other siblings nodded in agreement.
There was numerous calligraphy and painting in the house. If Zhou Wenzhi hadn’t said that it was his house, they would have thought that it was some noble’s house!
Now, the children understood why their mother always emphasized their education. Their grandfather also had a lot of inkstones, brushes, and papers there.
The whole family cleaned up the place for a while, and after they fed the oxen outside, they all decided to stay there for the night. Anyway, it was already too late for them to return.
They didn’t want to travel in the dark.
Surprisingly, the house had a huge barn too. The oxen didn’t need to stay outside in the cold night.
"Father, what is actually happening?" When the night became deeper, Zhou Anran finally approached her father to ask.
