The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

No need for Yingbao to watch the excitement. Come evening, Aunt Wang came again to visit Jiang’s house, sharing with Chunniang the interesting happenings she witnessed.

“The Chen family just had a division of property.”

Aunt Wang, grinning as she accepted a red date steamed bun from Chunniang, said, “Ah, you wouldn’t know. Feng from the Chen family moved all the contents of the moneybox to the yard and smashed it; there was only ten and a bit taels of silver inside, ours is even more than theirs.”

Ever since Aunt Wang started growing golden ears with Jiang, her life improved day by day. The last sale of their golden ears brought in more than twenty taels of silver; subtract the autumn tax and repayment of debts, and there was still more than ten taels left.

Chunniang asked cheerfully, “How much did each of their houses get then?”

Aunt Wang, munching on her steamed bun, mumbled: “How much can they get? Six taels for each son’s family. But, Chen divided quite a lot of land for his sons, more than three hundred acres of land, a hundred acres per family, leaving only sixty for the elderly couple.”

This was no surprise to Chunniang.

When Chen and his wife were young, they were hardworking people, and they had a nice homestead. Even though they spent years supporting their children and grandchildren in their studies, they managed to amass quite a lot of land.

It’s said that when Chen was young, he worked as a horse boy in a wealthy family and saved their young master; the master’s family rewarded him with a significant amount of money and even gave him a beautiful wife, who returned home with him to farm. That wife was the Chen’s Madame Feng.

“Oh, there’s still better drama coming.”

Aunt Wang couldn’t even bother to eat her steamed bun as she jested, “You wouldn’t know. The Han’s immediately sold their hundred acres of land right on the spot for 220 taels of silver.”

“Ah?” Chunniang was amazed, “They sold them straight away? Who did they sell to?”

Aunt Wang chuckled, “Who else? Chen Sanyou’s family bought ten acres of paddy, and Chen Changsheng from West Village also bought ten acres. A few other households bought scattered pieces of land totaling to twenty acres. The rest of the plots were slowly bought up by people from other villages. Only the fields on the South Slope remain unsold.”

Of course, the lands that had been verbally promised to Chen Changping cannot be sold.

“Tsk tsk, Chunniang, you wouldn’t know this, Chen was annoyed to the point of passing out, but he couldn’t prevent Han from selling the lands.”

Aunt Wang shook her head regretfully, “I wanted to buy some too, but unfortunately, the remaining lands are all on the lower South Slope, so it’s meaningless to buy them.”

Chunniang burst into laughter and asked, “Isn’t her husband going to do something about Han’s actions?”

“How can he do anything? From his expression today, it seems like he can’t wait to sell all the lands to avoid any troubles. Well, Chen Changping read himself into a fool since he was a child. He has never done a day’s worth of farming; how would he know the importance of it?” Aunt Wang bit her steamed bun viciously, and said contemptuously, “Just watch, he will suffer one day.”

Chunniang poured a bowl of tea for Aunt Wang, “That might not necessarily be the case. I heard Chen Changping has his own abilities. He used to earn money by copying books himself during his school days.”

“You believe that nonsense!”

Aunt Wang took a sip from her tea bowl, and bit into her steamed bun again, “Did he go to read or to copy books? Other elders have said that you only earn a few coins for copying a book in the bookstore. Make one mistake, and you don’t earn a coin, worse, you’ll lose money for the paper and ink. Pfft! If Chen Changping can earn two taels of silver a year from copying books, I’ll walk backward through the village.”

“Maybe they really have a way to make money.” Chunniang laughed, “Just as the saying goes, snakes have snake paths, mice have mouse paths; who’s to say Chen Changping doesn’t have the ability to provide for the family?”

Aunt Wang nodded, “Hmm, I did hear someone say that Chen Changping wants to sell his land and mix around with his brother-in-law. Surely his sister and brother-in-law, who live in the county city, can lend him some support?”

Chunniang simply couldn’t wait for Han to go to the county city and never come back. “Indeed, they maybe able to enjoy a life of luxury in the county city.”

“Possibly so.”

Aunt Wang chatted with Chunniang for a while longer before she got up to go home.

Yingbao sat nearby, secretly listening to their conversation and pondering.

Han and her husband were truly unique; selling the land they relied on for survival and planning to live in the city.

In her past life, she never saw Han earn a single coin, not to mention Chen Changping. Before becoming a scholar, his education was solely supported by his parents and elder brother.

Now, his older brother Chen Changrong had split from the family, so how much could Old Chen and Feng Family really help him?

Well, anyway, it’s none of her business. She would rather have the Han Family distance themselves from her as much as possible.

The next day, Jiang Family’s eldest grandson was having an arranged engagement. Many guests needed attending to, so Chunniang went to help her sister-in-law’s family early in the morning.

Yingbao took her two younger brothers for their morning routine and breakfast, then led them to school.

This was the first time Xiaojie and Xiaowu were in a classroom, they were so reserved they didn’t dare to speak. They were like mice seeing a cat when they saw Lady Wen.

Although Lady Wen was very kind, the two children sat upright without moving for an hour.

In the end, Wen Hengyin couldn’t bear to see this, so he took them to the backyard to see the piglets. It was then that they began to loosen up.

The piglet Spiral had grown to a weight of fifty to sixty pounds, and wasn’t afraid of people. When it saw them, it came running over, making noises for food.

Wen Hengyin gave it a dried date, and Spiral rolled it happily into his mouth, chewing away until drool streamed out.

“Once it gets a little bigger, I can ride it.” Wen Hengyin bragged to the two little scamps, “It runs faster than your family’s deer.”

Hearing this, Xiaowu became unhappy, “Our deer runs faster than your piggy.”

Xiaojie nodded in agreement: “Yeah, your piggy is so ugly.”

Wen Hengyin pulled a face, but as the older brother, he had to maintain his dignity. He couldn’t stoop to the level of these two ignorant scamps.

“Spiral isn’t ugly, look how good it is.” As Wen Hengyin stroked Spiral’s head, he suddenly thought of the little tufts on Yingbao’s head.

Well, why not tie two little tufts on Spiral too? It would look adorable, and then the two little scamps wouldn’t call Spiral ugly anymore.

No sooner said than done, Wen Hengyin ran like the wind to his sister’s room and searched until he found two ribbons that matched the ones on Yingbao’s head.

He guessed they were for his sister’s hair, but she hardly used them anymore, so they were just left in the makeup box.

Wen Hengyin ran back and tied two small tufts on Spiral’s head.

Just taking a look, it really did look similar to the tufts on Yingbao’s head.

“Xiaojie, Xiaowu, come and see if Spiral looks good”?” Wen Hengyin pulled the two scamps over and pointed at Spiral smugly.

Xiaojie and Xiaowu were both amazed, looking at Wen Hengyin in disbelief. “Big Brother! You’re in for trouble.”

“What?” Wen Hengyin blinked in confusion. “Why am I in for trouble?” Xiaojie wore a grave face: “You’ve turned our sister into a piggy.”

Xiaowu clenched his little fists in anger: “Turn my sister back!”

Wen Hengyin was taken aback. He looked carefully at the pig before him, a twinge of panic inside.

But then he thought again, this was his Spiral, how could it be Yingbao?!

Sure enough, nearly fooled by these two dummies.

“Look closely, dummies! This is my Spiral, not your sister.” Wen Hengyin pointed seriously at the piglet’s forehead: “Your sister doesn’t have a spiral on her forehead.”

Xiaowu pouted, then suddenly burst into tears: “Bad brother! Your sister doesn’t have a spiral!”