The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Seeing the attitudes of her sons, Chen Cui felt relieved. She was afraid that after all her hard work, her children would uphold the old family concepts and easily forgive the people in the old house and reconcile with them. She would be so angry!

Chen Cui, whose mood suddenly improved, began her daily criticism of her sons again. Today, Changping taught her the Three Character Classic, but she memorized it after only reading it twice. She also copied it very well, and it seemed to be better than Changfu's.

After Chen Cui left, the three brothers lit the lamps and stayed up late, working hard to not be outdone by their mother.

At night, after Sui Sui fell asleep, Chen Cui entered the space to look after the corn and peppers.

The corn has begun to ear and the peppers have begun to bloom, creating a thriving scene.

Unfortunately, the vegetables that had been pulled out eventually withered after being transplanted outside as the weather warmed up. Chen Cui could only fill the dried seedlings into the stove and burn them when cooking, leaving no trace.

Judging from the growth rate of corn, it will definitely be able to be harvested before the wheat harvest. Then the harvested corn can be used as seeds and planted in the fields.

Although she is not sure whether the optimization of space land for crops can be continued to the next generation, she still feels that it is safer to use the output of these spaces as seeds.

In other words, when the time comes, plant some of both types of corn, using the same soil and fertility, and the same care, and do a comparative experiment.

By analogy, peppers can also follow this model and make two groups of references.

I believe that by then, the role of space and land will be revealed.

However, the weather this year doesn't seem to be very good.

It is already February now. After the Chinese New Year, there was only a light foggy rain that wet the ground.

This little rain fell on the crops like dew, the soil in the ground was still dry, and it had no effect at all.

Chen Cui has space, a constant source of water, and money, so she is not too worried about the harvest. But other people who make a living from the land are very worried and have already started thinking about carrying water to irrigate the land to fight drought this year.

Compared with the people in Liujiaping, the people in Chenjiagou are more anxious.

Under the same drought conditions, Liujiaping at least has a river passing through it and a water storage canal, but Chenjiagou only has a small stream coming down from the mountain. The water flow is originally thin, and if it doesn't rain after the hot weather, it is not known whether the stream water will be enough.

Although Chen Shangen had some assets, he had been a farmer all his life and still took it as his responsibility to take care of the crops. Looking at the yellow-green wheat seedlings, he sighed in his heart.

At the same time, he couldn't help but feel fortunate, thanks to Cui, for giving him so much money. Although he was worried now, he was not very anxious. But if he were to rely mainly on the income from the land like before, he would have been anxious now.

Of the more than 160 taels of silver given by his daughter, he gave 10 taels to each of his three sons and kept the rest, planning to build a few rooms in the new house after the spring for his grandsons to move in.

At first he thought that since he had enough money now, he would build a house for each of his three sons so that it would be convenient to divide the family business in the future.

But after thinking it over, he changed his mind.

Building three new houses at once is really too eye-catching. It is not a good thing for a poor person to become rich suddenly, as it is easy to be targeted by others.

He was used to being poor before, so even though he has money now, he still doesn't dare to take the initiative.

It would be better to build a few rooms first so that the grandchildren can live in them when they get married.

He planned to work with his daughter for another two years to save more money, and then divide the house among his sons, letting them take the money and build whatever house they wanted.

By that time, each son will have his own home and many children and grandchildren, and his mission in this life will be accomplished.

But Chen Shangen was determined to keep a low profile and not attract attention, but someone still came to him.

This person was none other than his younger brother Chen Shugen.

After Chen Shugen entered the room, he looked unfriendly and asked angrily, "Brother, am I your real brother?"

Chen Shangen was stunned for a moment. What nonsense was this second brother talking about in broad daylight? "What are you talking about? We were born of the same mother, so how come you are not my real brother?"

Chen Shugen spat a mouthful of thick phlegm on the ground, grinning and showing a mouthful of yellow teeth: "Bah, I am not your real brother in any sense of the word, you have found a way to make money, but you would rather give it to a married woman, and you don't know how to support your brother, how can you be a brother, have you forgotten what dad said when he died, I asked you to take care of me, and this is how you take care of me! Humph!"

Chen Shugen is Chen Shangen's younger brother, and they are ten years apart in age.

Chen Shangen was his parents' first child. After that, his mother became pregnant twice more, but both resulted in miscarriages. The other daughter died when she was seven or eight years old.

Therefore, Chen's father and mother inevitably spoiled Chen Shugen, their youngest son who was born after many years. They raised him to be lazy and gluttonous, and he was afraid of hard work, unlike other farmers who worked hard.

Chen's mother passed away when Chen Shangen was in his twenties, and Chen's father also passed away four or five years later. Before they died, the two old people were most concerned about their youngest son.

They all told their eldest son to take good care of his younger brother, support him more, and let him live a good life.

When Chen's father passed away, the two brothers had already started their own families, Chen Shangen's four children had been born, and Chen Shugen also had two sons.

It is really unreasonable to ask the eldest son who already has a family to support to support the younger son who has a wife and children.

Chen Shangen also felt embarrassed. He knew his brother's personality and that he was not the type to listen to advice. Thanks to his parents' help over the years, he was able to live a decent life.

As the eldest child, he was already magnanimous enough not to complain when his parents favored his younger brother. But asking him to help his younger brother who was taking advantage of him was really difficult for him.

Even though Chen Shangen was reluctant in his heart, facing his father's last wishes before his death, he couldn't harden his heart and say no, so he had to agree.

Because of what his father said, Chen Shugen found a new support. Whenever there was something going on at home, he would come to his brother.

Sometimes he came to borrow money, sometimes to borrow things, but more often he came to borrow people, asking his brother to help his family with work.

The two brothers received the same amount of land when they divided the property, only a few acres in total, but there was nothing he could do. It was just that he was lazy and didn't want to put in the work.

Moreover, he would borrow money or things and never return them. It would have been fine once or twice, but after a long time, not only Zhang was dissatisfied, but Chen Shangen couldn't stand it either.

The couple had always had a harmonious relationship, but they quarreled frequently over Chen Shugen, causing chaos at home.

Zhang felt that she had been very generous. Her parents-in-law favored the younger son and helped him again and again. As the eldest daughter-in-law, she did not argue or get jealous for the sake of her husband, which made her feel virtuous.

After her father-in-law passed away, her younger brother-in-law, who had his own family, kept clinging to her all day long and depended on her for a living. She really couldn't stand it anymore!