163 – Lei Old Three, Lei Old Four, and Lei Old Five

Although Lei Xiangren and Zhao Shi were very annoying, the villagers did not expect that the couple would end up like this. Poor Dabao and Erbao lost their parents at a young age.

Lei Xiangyi and Lei Xiangli could only invite their Eldest Aunt to take care of Zhao Shi’s funeral and delivered a letter to the Capital at top speed to inform the other family members of the funeral. It was more than ten days when they received the other’s reply.

The letter was written by Lei Xiangzhi. It had been hard for Lei Xiangzhi in the Capital, too.

After Lei Daqiang and Du Shi knew of Lei Xiangren’s situation, they asked Lei Xiangzhi to write to Lei Tie, wanting Lei Tie and Qin Mian to pay to get Lei Xiangren out. Lei Xiangzhi didn’t do it. He thought it was a good thing to let Lei Xiangren stay in prison for a few years. Maybe he would get a lesson if he suffered some hardships. If Lei Xiangren made progress in two or three years, he would try to find a way. If Lei Xiangren didn’t make any progress, he would give up, just as if he didn’t have this kind of brother. Lei Daqiang and Du Shi weighed the matter and decided to listen to their youngest son. After all, they depended on their youngest son, not their second son. As for Zhao Shi’s death, Lei Daqiang and Du Shi merely sobbed without making whatsoever justification. As for Lei Dabao and Lei Erbao, Lei Daqiang and Du Shi meant to let Lei Xiangyi and Lei Xiangli adopt them. At this point, Lei Xiangzhi expressed regret. In the letter, he confessed that he had not established himself in the Capital and could not take care of Dabao and Erbao. Attached with the letter, he sent 20 taels of silver.

Lei Xiangyi and Lei Xiangli were unwilling to adopt Dabao and Erbao. If it was only to bring up the two children, there would be no problem, but it was a great responsibility to teach them to be a person. The character of Dabao and Erbao had long been raised crookedly by Lei Xiangren and Zhao Shi. Lei Xiangyi and Lei Xiangli believed they could not pull the boys back. They were also worried that Dabao and Erbao would bring bad effects on their children. People were selfish.

After discussing with each other, the brothers wrote to Lei Xiangzhi and told him their worries. While waiting for Lei Xiangzhi to reply, the two brothers did not take Dabao and Erbao home. They only gave the children three meals a day and urged them to go to school. In terms of food and clothes, the two brothers did not treat Dabao and Erbao badly. Whatever their children had, Dabao and Erbao would have them. However, Lei Dabao and Lei Erbao had not realized that they were not protected by Lei Xiangren and Zhao Shi anymore – they had lost the qualification to be headstrong. The two young brothers were still as stubborn and arrogant as before. They even scolded Qian Shi and Sun Shi when they were slightly dissatisfied with the food, practically learned from Zhao Shi. Consequently, the Lei Xiangyi couple and the Lei Xiangli couple were even more unhappy with them.

Before long, Lei Xiangzhi wrote back. Lei Daqiang and Du Shi asked Lei Xiangyi and Lei Xiangli to send Dabao and Erbao back to Zhao Shi’s family and asked Lei Tie, Lei Xiangyi, Lei Xiangli, and Lei Xiangzhi to give 2 taels of silver to Zhao Shi’s family every year until Dabao turned sixteen years old.

Lei Xiangyi and Lei Xiangli, as Dabao and Erbao’s uncles, ought to give some money to help the children grow up, so they had no objection. However, they tacitly didn’t raise the issue about money to Qin Mian and Lei Tie.

They took the time to go to Li Zheng to explain that they wanted to send Dabao and Erbao back to Zhao Shi’s family. Lei Xiangren’s house could be rented out if possible. After all, if the house was uninhabited for a long time, it would wear out quickly. The income from renting the house naturally belonged to Dabao and Erbao. Lei Xiangyi kept the account for the time being. Lei Xiangren’s land property was also rented out, and the income also belonged to Dabao and Erbao. When the children grew up, it would be returned to them. Li Zheng was needed to be the witness to all these things.

Zhao Shi’s family didn’t separate their family. They didn’t want to adopt Dabao and Erbao, but when they heard that there were 6 taels of silver to receive every year, they agreed.

After Dabao and Erbao were sent away, the matter of Lei Xiangren’s family was over.

A few days later, Lei Xiangli came to Qin Mian’s house to borrow money from him and Lei Tie. He planned to open a grocery store at home.

Qin Mian was very supportive of this. Before, he found that Lei Xiangli had a bit of a business mind; now, it seemed that he really had it. In these few years, due to the existence of the processing yard, the financial situations of the villagers’ families were much better than before. Every so often, they were willing to spend money on some side dishes to add to their tables. Many villagers were willing to give their children a copper or two from time to time. When a peddler came, the children could buy some snacks. Besides, some people from nearby villages came to work in the processing yard. If there was a grocery store in Green Mountain Village, it would be much more convenient for them to buy bits of thread and needles for their families and didn’t have to go all the way to town. Therefore, Lei Xiangli truly profited in opening a grocery store in the village.

Qin Mian generously lent Lei Xiangli 20 taels of silver and taught him some knacks of doing business.

Lei Xiangli had gained a lot. Ten days later, Li’s Grocery Store opened for business. It sold all the things that villagers often used, such as oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, tea, sugar, wine, needle, thread, and so on. There were also some side dishes, such as fried shelled peanuts, salty fried soybean, pickled vegetables, marinated meat, and all kinds of cheap and delicious snacks. For the villagers, the goods were very complete and basically, everything was sold cheaper than in the town for half a Wen or a Wen. Not only that, but Li’s Grocery Store also allowed the local villagers to buy on accounts once a month, but if someone failed to pay up three times in a row, he would not be allowed to buy on accounts in the future. Also, the store helped the villagers sell their handicrafts, such as baskets, handbaskets, embroidered pouches, and so on. It was convenient for the villagers.

To solicit customers for Lei Xiangli, Qin Mian even told Lei-Qin Le to take out his jar of salted eggs that he made for personal use to sell on consignment. Each salted egg was sold for 1 Wen. It was very well-received.

Sun Shi had a keen mind and dexterous hands. Occasionally, she gave some frequent buyers her homemade snacks. Lei Xiangli was a warm-hearted man and Sun Shi was a kind-hearted woman. The local villagers and the neighboring villagers had gotten used to shopping here. The children would go to buy some snacks after school, such as fried melon seeds that weighed a lot for a Wen, which they could eat to their satisfaction. In less than half a month, Li’s Grocery Store was firmly established and its business was booming.

As soon as Lei Xiangyi and Qian Shi saw that their fourth brother had a way to make money, they couldn’t sit still. They didn’t know how to do business and only knew how to farm. It was hard for them to come up with a money-making idea for a while. In the end, Qian Shi got an idea. Wasn’t Wu Di make a fortune by raising chickens in the village? They could raise ducks. There were several large ponds and a river in the village, completely qualified for raising ducks. However, there was another question: raising chickens can make a lot of money because many people eat eggs and chicken meat; if they raise ducks, can duck eggs and duck meat sell?

Thinking that Qin Mian was a businessman, the couple went to Qin Mian for advice.

Qin Mian expressed his appreciation and supported their idea. He suggested that they should raise less and accumulate experience first, because both of them were young and had enough time and energy to try, so there was no need to worry at all. After learning through experience, it was not too late to increase the number of breeding. As for the sale of duck eggs and duck meat, there was no need to worry. As long as they developed a variety of ways to eat duck eggs and duck meat, they would be able to sell them.

The couple trusted Qin Mian’s business mind very much and accepted his advice.

Qin Mian also lent them 20 taels of silver.

It wasn’t long before the 12th lunar month arrived.

Lei Xiangzhi continued his habit of writing one letter to each of his three elder brothers every two months. He wrote another letter before the end of the year. This New Year was his first New Year in the Capital, so he had to stay in the Capital to make a good impression by paying New Year’s greetings in time. In his letter, he apologized to his elder brothers and paid New Year’s greetings in advance, and with the letter came the New Year’s gifts for the whole family of his three elder brothers.

As for Lei Daqiang and Du Shi, it was easy to guess. After seeing the prosperity of the Capital, would they be happy to go back to the recess in mountains?

Without Lei Daqiang, Du Shi, and Lei Xiangren, Lei Tie’s family, Lei Xiangyi’s family, and Lei Xiangli’s family were more cordial to each other. Their families were also closer to Lei Dagang’s family than ever. In the first month of the Lunar New Year, the four families visited each other and took turns hosting a banquet. It was very lively.

Yuanyuan and Manman were the most popular among the younger generation. In the first month, more than 20 red envelopes were received from relatives alone, plus the red envelopes from the villagers, the total was more than 80.

The two little boys happily took out their money boxes and put all the money from the red envelopes into their boxes. They even asked Qin Mian and Lei Tie to prepare a special account book for them and solemnly wrote their names on the first page of their account books.

There were many strokes in the two little boys’ names. They had only learned to write their names not long ago. Three words filled the page. The “Rui”, “Qi”, and “Lin”¹ were written more like two words. Qin Mian snickered for a long time.

Lei Tie was forced by his two sons to press Qin Mian on the bed, and the three of them tickled him together.

After the Lunar New Year, there were a group of yellow ducklings in the village, a total of 50, staggering around behind a mother hen’s butt, fluffy like yellow cotton balls.

In the 4th lunar month, Lei Xiangzhi wrote a letter back, saying that he had been promoted to the sixth-ranked Senior Compiler of Imperial Hanlin Academy.

Qin Mian was a bit surprised. Lei Xiangzhi was promoted too fast. But anyway, the promotion was a good thing. He and Lei Tie wrote a letter in reply to congratulate him.

It was almost the 7th lunar month after the busy farming season. The weather was too hot to go out to play. Besides, their family would be very busy for the whole year. Yuanyuan and Manman were four years old. Apart from studying, they also began to learn cultivation with Qin Mian and Lei Tie. Four years old was one of the most suitable age stages for building a foundation.

Yuanyuan and Manman did not need to build their foundation like Qin Mian built his foundation last time, but rather directly built their foundation by taking a building-foundation pill refined by Qin Mian. Moreover, Yuanyuan and Manman were born in the magical space, so there were practically no impurities in their bodies. There was practically no pain during their process of building a foundation.

There were 12 stages of cultivation, including Foundation Establishment, Enlightenment, Fusion, Tempting Heart, Golden Elixir, Nascent Soul, Astral Projection, Distraction, Unification, Hollowness, Mahayana, and Overcoming Tribulation.² Each stage was divided into early stage, middle stage, and late stage. Qin Mian was now in the early stage of Tempting Heart, while Lei Tie was in the middle stage of Nascent Soul. With the two of them teaching Yuanyuan and Manman, the cultivation of Yuanyuan and Manman would go very smoothly.

Note (by Author): This is not a bug. Ducks can’t hatch eggs. Ducklings are hatched by hens. When they are young, they will run around with hens.

Footnotes