After the whole family was swept away, I lay down flat

Chapter 585 Reunion
Ma and Haitang returned home with several bags of Ningxia specialties such as wolfberries and red dates.

Ma especially liked those packs of wolfberries, saying that it was rare to find such good quality on the market. Recently, she was planning to nourish her husband Hai Xiya, so she immediately had someone kill a chicken and cook soup. Just a few wolfberries in the chicken soup would make the soup sweet and nourishing, just right for the couple's age. However, the two grandchildren also worked hard in studying and practicing martial arts, and they also needed to drink more good soup to nourish their bodies.

When Hai Xiya came back in the evening, he drank the chicken soup with wolfberries and appreciated it very much. He learned that it was brought back by Zhou Jinlin, so he said, "I have heard that the wolfberries in Zhongwei, Ningxia are good. I thought I could ask Jinlin to help you and your aunt do this business. It would be good for the third branch of the Zhou family and also help Jinlin. Unfortunately, this matter has never been followed up. Now Jinlin has also returned, and I am afraid he will never come back again. I don't know if this business can still be done."

Ma sneered, "Why can't we do it? Although Jin Lin is back, his old friends who used to work with him for many years are still in Ningxia Zhongwei. They can still build up this trade route by writing a letter and sending someone over. In the past, they had good things but couldn't sell them because of the horse bandits. The horse bandits would kill passing merchants at any time, so people from outside didn't dare to pass by them, and naturally the local products couldn't be sold. But now, before Jin Lin came back to observe mourning, he took his brothers in the garrison to eliminate the local horse bandits. In the future, they don't have to worry about the horse bandits robbing and killing passing merchants. Are they still worried about not being able to sell their good things? They just need to spread the news, and naturally there will be people who know the business rushing to buy their local products!"

Hai Xiya nodded, "In that case, you can help shout a few times to let the merchants in Chang'an know that there are no more horse bandits in Ningxia Zhongwei, so they can send people to collect the goods without worry. It's probably too late this year, so we can only sell the few carts of wolfberries that came with Jinlin to Chang'an first, so that they can survive until the end of the year, but there should be many merchants rushing over next spring. Now that the weather is getting colder, many merchants from other places have already left for their hometowns. If we want to sell, we have to sell now, otherwise when everyone is gone, we can only sell to the rich families in Chang'an. Although there are not many things in a few carts, they can still be sold locally, but how can Chang'an compare with the rest of the world? If we don't let merchants from all over the country know that the horse bandits in Ningxia Zhongwei have died out by the end of this year, how can we attract enough merchants to go there to collect the goods next spring?"

Ma nodded: "I know, I'll find someone tomorrow." As for who would be the most suitable person, she had an idea in her mind. During the years when her husband was doing business in Guazhou, in addition to wine and spices, he also did medicine business. She had seen a lot of things, so she naturally knew which caravans in Chang'an City were in urgent need of wolfberries and were willing to pay a high price. The caravans' clerks were not very careful, so it was easy for the news to leak out.

Hai Xiya lowered his head and concentrated on drinking the soup, while Hai Jiao, who had just finished his soup, was able to spare some time. He lowered his voice and asked his younger sister Haitang, "Uncle Jinlin is back home, have you informed Auntie?"

Haitang said, "Of course they sent someone to report the news, and the second group of reporters came to our house. When grandma and I were in the third room of the Zhou family, we heard that my great-uncle sent someone back to deliver a letter, saying that Uncle Jinlin should rest at home for two days first, and there was no need to rush to the farm to pay him respects, and that taking care of his health was the first priority. My aunt also sent a letter saying that she would take Yijun back to the city tomorrow, and asked my uncle and aunt not to worry about their daughter."

After all, she is my biological mother, and her attitude is different from that of my biological father who is used to being casual.

However, Haitang felt that Uncle Zhou Jinlin might not be obedient and rest at home instead of going to the farm to pay respects to his parents. No matter how tired he was after walking more than a thousand miles, he must pay respects to his parents as soon as he returned from the journey, otherwise someone would definitely find fault with his etiquette. Although he was the youngest son, he was about to become the successor that his father had focused on cultivating. How could he lose points in such a small matter? When he and his wife sent Ma and Haitang out of the second gate, Haitang heard Zhou Jinlin instruct his personal soldiers to prepare horses. He was probably ready to ride a horse to the farm. As long as he went to pay respects to his parents on the day he returned home, even if he returned home on the same day and did not go to the farm for the next few days, outsiders would not be able to find fault with him easily.

His parents asked him to stay in the city to look after the house. Could he possibly disobey them?
Hai Jiao couldn't help but become suspicious after hearing this: "It's impossible that my great-uncle didn't know the seriousness of the matter, so why did he send someone to tell my cousin Jin Lin not to go to the manor? Since he wanted to cultivate my cousin Jin Lin, he couldn't set a trap for his son in this matter, right?"

Haitang said, "Who knows? Maybe he is not incapable of thinking of it, but he just feels that it is not appropriate for his son to go to the farm now? Or maybe he just loves his children and grandchildren, and can't bear to see Uncle Jinlin and his family running around and working hard, right?"

Haitang and Haijiao each had their own guesses, but the next day, when Zhou Ma brought her granddaughter home from the dowry farm, Ma took her granddaughter to visit, and they knew the truth. It turned out that Zhou Jinpu went to his stepmother's dowry farm to make a scene. For some reason, he became very excited, ran to his father and cried and scolded, and finally fainted from excitement. His wife Chen cried and hugged him, begging her father-in-law and mother-in-law for help. Even if Zhou Shigong was disappointed with his eldest son, he could not ignore his life or death, so he settled his son and daughter-in-law in the house, and specially invited a doctor from the city to treat him.

The doctor's diagnosis was that Zhou Jinpu fainted due to anger, but he was not seriously injured.

Recently, Zhou Shicheng lived in the same village with his nephew. He could not stand Zhou Jinpu's decadent attitude towards life, and could not tolerate the fact that he refused to even turn the page of a book under the banner of reading. He was clearly in heavy mourning, but he just drank every day. So he went to his nephew's residence in person, urged him to get up early and go to bed early at night, and watched him read and write every day. If he saw that he violated the rules of mourning, he would raise his whip to teach his nephew a profound lesson.

Zhou Jinpu couldn't resist because his second uncle was a military commander who was really good at fighting. Zhou Jinpu was forced by his second uncle to go to bed and get up early every day, eat and drink, not drink and not beat his wife, and memorize a few pages of books and practice ten pages of big characters every day. His mental outlook has improved. He was just excited and fainted just now. There is no way there is anything wrong with his body.

He is now even healthier than he was in the past ten years.

Zhou Jinpu was in good health, but he insisted on saying that he was not feeling well and refused to leave his father's house, and no one could do anything about it. As long as Zhou Shigong did not drive him away, no matter how many complaints Zhou Ma had in her heart, she would not dare to say a word to ask her stepson to leave.

However, Zhou Shigong also knew that he couldn't let his eldest son and second son meet at the moment. What if Zhou Jinpu resented his younger brother for taking away his heir status and wanted to harm Zhou Jinlin? That would be terrible. Even if he couldn't do anything, the rumors of brothers' discord in the third branch of the Zhou family would not be helpful to the family reputation. Therefore, Zhou Shigong wrote a letter to his youngest son, asking him to stay at home to look after the house after returning to the city, and not to come to the village to pay respects to his parents for the time being. If they wanted to meet, they had to send their eldest son Zhou Jinpu away first.

Zhou Shigong was only thinking about avoiding conflicts between his two sons, and he no longer cared about other people's gossip.

But he couldn't take care of it, and Zhou Ma felt uncomfortable. That was her dowry farm, why did Zhou Jinpu refuse to leave and complain about her poor hospitality? Anyway, he didn't have any serious illness, and he had his wife and maids to take care of him, and his children were also around to show their filial piety, so there was really no need for her, an elder, to trouble him. She was more concerned about her son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren who had been away for many years, so she simply went back to the city to see them.

Since the master loves his eldest son so much, let’s go and reunite with his family!
(End of this chapter)