The couple in the last days traveled to ancient times, farming and storing grain and meat in the war

Mr. Tao still didn't say anything. He waited until Tao Cheng came back from Honghu Academy, confused, before saying, "I promise. You don't have to go to the academy to study in the future."

"Ah?" Tao Cheng was stunned for a moment. Then, he knelt down in front of his father, hugged his father's legs and cried, "Dad, are you feeling unwell?"

It looked like his father's last words.

Mr. Tao was both angry and amused: "When I really die, it's not too late for you to mourn me. I'm fine now!"

"What's the reason?" Tao Cheng finally wiped away his tears, still sobbing.

"I've come to terms with it. You're really not cut out for the imperial examinations. I reckon even if you study for a few more years, you still won't even be able to pass the exam to become a scholar."

"That's not right. When I mentioned it before, you even said what if I actually passed. Anyway, you just won't give up."

His son is really not stupid. Master Tao was relieved. "Of course there is a reason. Now your friends are all gentlemen with excellent character. The possibility of you learning bad things should be small.

As your father, I won't say anything else. I just want to remind you that from now on, the family business will be handed over to you, and the future of the family will also be handed over to you. But there is one thing: you must learn more from your friends, especially County Magistrate Xiao and Miss Jiang.

If you encounter a problem that you cannot solve, ask for their opinions.

Dad especially trusts their character, they will not harm you.

You must remember this.

Don't create any grudges with them for any reason."

"I understand, Dad." Tao Cheng finally became happy.

That day, Tao Cheng went to the county government office to find Xiao Yan.

However, Xiao Yan was not in the county government office and was still helping out in the porridge stall. Tao Cheng went to the porridge stall to find Xiao Yan and told him the good news.

"Did your father really say that?" Xiao Yan was also quite surprised. He also knew that Master Tao was quite stubborn about Tao Cheng's studies.

"Yes, he also told me that if there is anything I can't solve, I should ask for your and my future sister-in-law's opinions, and not to create any grudges with you. He said that he trusts your character very much." Tao Cheng said.

The future sister-in-law naturally refers to Jiang Ningning.

As soon as Xiao Yan heard what Tao Cheng said, he knew what Master Tao meant. It was equivalent to putting Tao Cheng and the Tao family on the same boat as him and his wife.

It can be seen that he truly believes in his and his wife's character and ability.

And after just a few things, Mr. Tao has such foresight...

That being the case...

"Then if you have any questions, just come and ask us. We can still visit each other often even if we have nothing else to do." After all, we are all friends, and they don't have any problems. Then he asked, "Have you talked to the academy?"

"Before I came to see you, my father personally accompanied me to talk to the gentlemen. They all nodded in agreement, saying that there is more to life than just the imperial examination."

This shows that the teachers also did not agree with Tao Cheng's stubborn persistence in the academy.

Xiao Yan understood, but didn't point it out. "Okay, I'll tell my Ningning later that you won't be going to the academy anymore."

"That's great. I won't visit you then. I'm going to take over the family business and I'm pretty busy."

"Ah."

That night, Jiang Ningning was also surprised when she heard Xiao Yan talk about this matter after returning.

"Although Uncle Tao is a businessman, he is also a good man. He donated money and food to resettle the disaster victims. Now the cotton mill is also thanks to his strong promotion. It is so fast that it can already produce quilts and other things. His action is equivalent to entrusting Tao Cheng and the Tao family to us.

Besides, Tao Cheng has a good relationship with us. If anything happens to the Tao family in the future, we will definitely help as long as we can." Jiang Ningning said.

Xiao Yan nodded.

The next day, Xiao Yan went to the porridge stall again.

Fortunately, the cotton mill run by Mr. Tao and his colleagues has already taken in all the people they were going to hire. Although the porridge stall is still busy, it is not as busy as in the past few days.

Doctors have a kind heart. Since the only people left in the porridge stall are the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled, most of the doctors in Dengping County have brought their apprentices to provide free medical services.

He didn't even ask the hungry people for money when he prescribed medicine.

If the clinic doesn't have that much money, the government will pay for it.

The eyes of these old, weak and sick people were all red with gratitude.

Many of these people had escaped famine before, but had never been settled so thoroughly.

Everyone thought they had completely survived. Before, there was really no way out.

Doctor Zhang Xuanhu naturally brought several apprentices with him.

Xiao Yan was originally greeting other doctors. Seeing that Doctor Zhang Xuanhu was there, he naturally came over to greet him and chatted about the health problems of the hungry people here.

Fortunately, there is no infectious disease, so no major problems should occur.

Because the yamen had other matters to attend to, Xiao Yan could not stay long and had to go back to the yamen.

But as he walked towards the horse, before he reached it, he saw some skinny children playing, but suddenly they tripped over a stone and one of them almost fell in front of him.

Xiao Yan quickly supported the child.

When the children's families saw this, they all rushed over from under the shed and knelt before the County Magistrate, Xiao Yan, saying, "Thank you, County Magistrate! Thank you, County Magistrate!"

Every time Xiao Yan came, people who fled from the north would kneel down in gratitude to him. He didn't know how many people he helped up.

Now that they came again, Xiao Yan naturally hurried to help everyone up.

Especially some of the older ones.

Xiao Yan also realized that these people were from the same family, and those children must be from this family, so he couldn't help but ask casually, "What's your name, old sir?"

The oldest was an old man. When he heard the county magistrate address him as "old sir," he was extremely apprehensive: "No, no, no, excuse me, my common name is Jiang."

Xiao Yan smiled and said, "My fiancée's surname is also Jiang."

"Sir," a yamen runner came hurriedly over. "County Magistrate Yuan has sent someone to urge us again!"

Xiao Yan naturally couldn't chat with these Jiang people for long. The government office was really busy. "Old sir, I have some matters to attend to at the government office. I'll take my leave now. If you need anything, please feel free to ask the officers here."

"Thank you so much." These people's eyes turned red. They were extremely moved.

Everyone knows that it was the county magistrate Xiao Yan who issued the death order, otherwise the officers here would not be so responsible.

Seeing Xiao Yan mount his horse and leave, the old man, who was called "old gentleman", still had tears in his eyes and kept nodding his head, saying, "Good official, good official."

His family members also felt that they had met a good official, which was why they, the elderly, the weak and the sick, were able to survive.

But the old men were old, so the others said, "Second Grandpa, you should go sit under the shed. Your legs and feet are not in good condition."

Grandpa Jiang Er and the others also knew that they were old and had difficulty walking, so they couldn't stand for long, so they obediently went back under the shed.

In order to make it easier for each family to take care of their own people and to facilitate government management, people from the same family, or from the same village, or relatives, friends, and clansmen were basically arranged under one shed, or under several sheds.