FID – Chapter 1116

Chapter 1116 — Not a Single Normal Person in This Village

“So you’re planning to retire already? Xue Qinglian, that’s not right at all. You’re in the prime of your life, young, strong, full of energy. You should be roaming the world! A famed Ghost Doctor in his early twenties saying he wants to retire? Wouldn’t that make you a laughingstock? Go on, keep wandering the jianghu!” Liu Zhiqiu urged him earnestly.

Xue Qinglian shot him a sidelong glance and curled his lips. “You’re a forever runner-up.”

“Screw you!”

“Getting mad won’t change anything. Even if we all leave, you still wouldn’t become king of anything. You get beaten by the old lady every day until you’re wailing like a ghost. Where do you get the confidence to be monkey king?”

“Brother, Feng Qingbai, don’t stop me. If I don’t beat this brat until he’s crying for his parents today, then I’m not the eternal number two!”

“Don’t make trouble. Shengsheng has already gone to rest.” This was Feng Qingbai’s reminder.

Liu Zhiqiu immediately lowered his flags and stilled his drums.

He wasn’t afraid of fighting, but waking up Nannan? That wouldn’t do.

Inside the side room, Liu Yusheng had indeed already laid down, though she hadn’t fallen asleep yet.

She could hear the small commotion clearly. Although her second brother and Xue Qinglian were shouting at each other, there wasn’t a trace of real anger between them.

Liu Yusheng let out a soft smile and closed her eyes, drifting into sleep.

Two days after the busy harvest season, the group set out for the capital.

This time, the Liu family wasn’t sad at all. Instead, they were full of eager anticipation.

Feng Qingbai had told the old man and old lady about his plans. Anything he stated personally was something he was determined to see through.

Which meant this farewell was only temporary. When the young couple returned next time, it would be to live here long-term.

In the future, Axiu and their Nannan would stay in Xinghua Village. Even Badou and Hongdou would be back as well.

So when sending them off, Liu Dalin’s face was split into such a huge grin it nearly reached his ears.

The surrounding villagers who had come to see them off too were terrified by his expression. In the past, whenever someone left, he would cry his eyes out, clinging and reluctant to part. But today he actually looked like he couldn’t wait for his daughter and son-in-law to leave. What happened? Was he overstimulated? Sick?

Dalin completely ignored the worried looks around him and waved vigorously at the departing carriage. “Nannan! Axiu! Dad will be waiting for you to come home—!”

The final note echoed in the air, dramatic and resonant.

Chen Xiulan couldn’t bear to look at his foolish behavior anymore and dragged him away by force.

The villagers immediately swarmed toward the equally beaming old man and old lady. “Brother Liu, Sister-in-law, what’s going on with Dalin? Seeing how cheerful you all look, did something good happen?”

“It is good news,” Grandpa Liu answered, hands clasped behind his back as he smiled and walked toward the courtyard. “But we can’t say it yet. You’ll all know when the time comes.”

“Hey! You old fox, you’re keeping us in suspense like this! You’re doing it on purpose to tease us, aren’t you?”

No matter how much the crowd pressed him, the old man played mysterious and refused to say a word. So everyone turned to surround the old lady instead. “Sister-in-law, you’re an honest person. You’d never deliberately keep people hanging. Tell us—what good news is it?”

But the old lady didn’t let anything slip either.

It wasn’t that they wanted to deliberately keep secrets, nor that they didn’t trust the villagers. It was because Feng Qingbai deciding to return to live in Xinghua Village wasn’t a small matter. After all, he was the King of Nanling. Before he actually returned, the whole family agreed to keep it quiet to avoid causing unnecessary commotion.

On this account, the old lady quickly steered the conversation elsewhere.

“Look at how anxious you all are. You’ll know when the time comes. Stop asking, hurry on now! If you still have the energy to gossip here, doesn’t that mean the rice buyers haven’t been pestering your homes?”

At the mention of rice buyers, every person in Xinghua Village had plenty to say. In four words: absolutely unbearable!

Their attention shifted immediately. One woman slapped her thigh and hurried off toward home.

“Enough chitchatting. I have to get back and guard my yard! Those rice buyers are like oxen. Tell them our rice isn’t for sale, and they pretend not to understand. They go from house to house nagging! Can’t buy a whole basket? They’ll try a small one. Can’t buy a small one? They’ll try a handful! I’ve never seen anyone so persistent!”

“Are any of you worse off than me? I finally managed to chase them off and thought I’d get some peace. Those little bastards turned right around and tried to bribe my grandson instead!”

“How much did they coax out of him?”

“They tricked a whole bowl of rice out of my little grandson!”

“Hahahaha!”

The crowd burst into laughter, then dispersed to hurry home and stand guard.

This was no exaggeration. Lately, from one end to the other all around Xinghua Village, rice dealers and servants from wealthy households could be seen everywhere.

Rice dealers wanted to buy rice, and so did the maids and footboys from big households.

The dealers needed large quantities. If they absolutely couldn’t wear down a villager enough to get a sale, they had no choice but to leave and try the next house. The worst were the servants from wealthy families. They were utterly shameless.

They didn’t need to buy rice by the jin(catty=500g). They were willing to buy it by the liang(50g)!

Just so they’d have even a tiny bit of rice to take back and report to their masters, they used every trick in the book: sweet-talking, begging, pleading hardship, putting on pitiful acts, every tactic imaginable.

The Xinghua villagers were suffering miserably.

Only the Liu family had no such trouble. Even if someone wanted to bother them, they couldn’t. Before they could even get close to the front gate, Wei Hong and Wei Lan would toss them right back to the village entrance.

To those outsiders, the Liu family courtyard was a den of tigers and wolves—absolutely not a place to approach.

As for Xiaopo Village down the slope, everyone naturally knew that their rice had also been improving in quality year after year. People had gone to try their luck there long ago.

The result was that they went in whole and came out whole, but their once-intact clothing had turned into rags,

and every bit of exposed skin on their faces and hands was covered in bloody scratch marks.

The people of Xiapo Village were wolves!

Before they could even finish two sentences, they were treated like rice-stealing bandits and beaten out of the village with adults and children all joining the fight. Sticks swinging, hair being yanked, and the smallest kids would rush in and go straight for a ‘groin grab’ attack!

None of the people in that menace of a village are normal!

Anyone who went once would never, ever return in this lifetime.

Xiapo Village was immediately crossed off the list by rice buyers.

Which meant Xinghua Village became the prime target, and this battle over buying rice was far from over.

Meanwhile, after Liu Zhixia and Fu Yuzheng said farewell at the Yunzhou docks. Hugging little Maodou one last time, Liu Yusheng, Feng Qingbai, Xue Qinglian, and Qian Yi boarded the passenger boat heading for the capital.

Qian Wanjin had returned home to the capital two days earlier.

The moment he stepped inside, he dragged his Xiao Shitou back to their room, stripped off his clothes, and checked where he had gained new fat, thus beginning the first step of his primitive weight-loss plan.

For the next few days, the two were practically conjoined twins, going everywhere together as they handled all the chores that had piled up during his absence.

Just after they finished checking the last stack of account books, an imperial summons arrived, delivered with perfect timing.

As soon as the eunuch finished reading the message, Qian Wanjin cursed and glared at him. “Your emperor planted spies in my house, didn’t he?”

Cold sweat trickled down the young eunuch’s forehead.

He didn’t know. He knew nothing. He was just a messenger, just here to deliver a message and mind his own business.

As for whether His Majesty had planted spies in the Qian residence, not only did he truly have no idea, but even if he did know, he absolutely wouldn’t say it. He served the emperor, after all.