叭哒漫画

“Is my body condition okay?” Zhu Zongyu asked.

“Just tell me when you can’t walk. As long as you act within your abilities and don’t put on a strong front, it won’t be a problem,” Wei Ruo replied.

“Alright.”

Then Wei Ruo stood up, taking Zhu Zongyu toward the fields in the village.

The path by the fields was fairly flat and Wei Ruo’s pace was not fast. Zhu Zongyu could barely keep up with his current condition.

Zhu Zongyu looked at the vast fields and the scattered figures working in them and then at the person walking ahead of him.

For some reason, his mood was extraordinarily calm.

Zhu Zongyu had seen farms and farmers working before, but in the past, his view was from a high angle, now with Wei Ruo, his viewing perspective was different.

The people they met along the way greeted Wei Ruo very actively and warmly, cheerfully calling her “Boss” with smiles on their faces.

Simply from their talking voices, Zhu Zongyu could feel this ‘boss’s’ status in their hearts.

Among them, a woman was holding a child about two or three years old, sitting on the field ridge, with her husband busily working in the adjacent field.

The man’s hands were frozen red, his nose was also red, he was constantly exhaling white breath, but he had a smile on his face and he often looked back at his wife and child behind him.

When Wei Ruo approached, the man stopped and bowed to her: Boss .

The little boy in the woman’s arms also smiled at Wei Ruo, shouting in a childish voice: “Hello, Boss”.

His voice was soft and sweet, the slightly flushed face was inexplicably adorable.

Such a smile was infectious, not only to Wei Ruo, but Zhu Zongyu was also softened by this sight.

Moreover, Zhu Zongyu discovered that the little boy and the couple didn’t show any fear upon seeing his bandage-wrapped face.

He knew that it was probably because he was with Wei Ruo, due to the trust in her, they naturally believed that this scary-looking stranger was not a bad person.

Wei Ruo walked up to the little boy and gave him a piece of dried sweet potato.

The little boy took the dried sweet potato but didn’t eat it himself, instead, he stuffed it into his mother’s mouth.

The mother kindly stuffed the dried sweet potato back to the boy’s mouth,

smiled and said not to eat.

Then the boy started to take small bites of it.

Wei Ruo smiled, and she stuffed two more pieces of dried sweet potato into the boy’s mother’s hand, and then turned around and continued to walk.

Zhu Zongyu looked at Wei Ruo’s smile, feeling that her smile was even warmer than the boy’s smile.

Zhu Zongyu followed slowly: “Manager Yu mentioned the other day that you’ve protected them, allowed them to survive this especially cold winter, and what I saw today confirms this.”

“I’m not that great. I’m employing them, they are to work for me. If they’re lazy, I’ll show no mercy and drive them away. We both take what we need, I m not being charitable,” Wei Ruo replied.

“But you have more ability than most and are more willing to help people in trouble. If one has only the idea but no ability, in my view, it’s just self-disturbance; if one has ability, but lacks the will, they would be like Boss Fan. But you, Wei Ruo, have both,” Zhu Zongyu evaluated Wei Ruo.

“Mr. Zhu, you think too highly of me. I’m just greedy for money, just thinking about how to maximize profits. I am the same as Boss Fan,” Wei Ruo said.

“If you were only after money, you wouldn’t have saved me,” Zhu Zongyu was very certain about his judgment.

“Maybe, I was gambling. Gambling on you being a rich man’s son, gambling that saving you could garner a nice reward. And reality proved that I gambled right,” Wei Ruo responded.

“Wei Ruo, why do you intentionally belittle yourself? You’re not one who only pursues wealth,” Zhu Zongyu stated definitively.

“Think what you will.”

No matter how this man saw her, as soon as his injury healed, their relationship would no longer concern each other.

They walked for a while longer, and the smell wafted through the air wasn t particularly pleasant.

“What are they doing?” Zhu Zongyu asked.

“They’re fertilizing the soil. Most of the farm work has stopped at this time, but they can do some things to improve the soil, so that they have a chance to reap a good harvest when planting in the spring,” Wei Ruo explained.

“What fertilizer?”

“Farmyard manure and a mixture of decayed melons, fruits, vegetables, and plant straws,” Wei Ruo explained, knowing that Zhu Zongyu was disturbed by the smell, and added, “For them, these foul-smelling things are nevertheless, the hope of life, from decay to regeneration.”

“From decay to regeneration…” Zhu Zongyu mused.

Wei Ruo smiled and continued to lead Zhu Zongyu for a while.

Considering Zhu Zongyu’s physical condition, Wei Ruo didn’t walk for long and returned to their hut after a quarter of an hour.

Then Manager Yu brought today’s medicine.

Smelling the bitter medicine, Zhu Zongyu looked at Wei Ruo, “Wei Ruo, do you still have the thing you gave to the little boy just now?”

“You mean the dried sweet potato?”

“Yes, that should be sweet, I would like to taste it after drinking the medicine.”

“Sure.”

Wei Ruo readily took out a piece of dried sweet potato from her bag and placed it beside Zhu Zongyu’s medicine bowl.

Zhu Zongyu then picked up the medicine bowl and drank it in small sips.

It was not that the bitter taste made him drink slowly, but the injuries on his face limited his movements.

After finishing the medicine, he put the dried sweet potato in his mouth and took a small bite.

“It’s indeed very sweet,” Zhu Zongyu looked pleased.

Seeing his satisfactory expression, Wei Ruo simply gave him two more pieces. Zhu Zongyu then took out one tael of broken silver and placed it on the table, “Since Wei Ruo is after money, it’s inappropriate to go against your principles.”

Wei Ruo, of course, unreservedly pocketed the silver.

You have to be a fool not to take money!

###

After the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month, classes were completely stopped, as Mr. Wang Caiwei had to set off early to return to his hometown for the New Year.

The situation was the same in Xu Tongzhi’s house; the school was on break and all the young ladies had some free time to help their families prepare for the New Year’s rites.

Young girls of twelve or thirteen started to learn from the head female in their families about the management of household chores, especially the chores during the New Year festival.

However, Wei Ruo didn’t have any plans to learn these things from Mrs. Yun, by all means, this was the time when his pickled meat shop was busiest, as many households were preparing New Year goods, preparing for New Year’s Eve dinner, and would buy some pickled meats in advance.

Wei Ruo also introduced pickled duck products based on the original products: pickled duck neck, pickled duck wing, pickled duck leg.

Now the sales of pickled duck products were even better than the original pickled pork, selling twenty or thirty ducks a day. Therefore, the early morning shopping for ducks in the vegetable market was not stable enough.

In order to find a suitable duck supply channel, Wei Ruo had been running around the rural areas near Government City these days. After a series of contacts and talks, he temporarily selected several places as duck suppliers..