Ugly girl only wants to farm

Seeing Qin Zhenzhen's angry expression, the maidservant quickly shielded her and asked somewhat timidly, "Miss, do you still want these chestnuts?"

Qin Zhenzhen grabbed her hair and tugged it hard a few times, acting like a shrew from the streets: "Eat, eat, eat! All you do all day is eat. What else can you do besides eat? I'm giving you all those chestnuts. Eat them all, not one left. If I find one missing, you'll be in big trouble."

The little girl watched the crowds coming and going. The chestnuts were trampled underfoot and covered in mud. Today, on the Lantern Festival, there was a light drizzle, and the roasted chestnuts were covered in even more mud.

Her face paled slightly, and she stammered, "Please forgive me, Miss. I promise to make you happy next time."

This time, the young lady didn't see the Meng family scholar, so she vented all her anger on her. Looking at the beautiful hair that the young lady had thrown down, she couldn't help but feel a chill. Her hair was becoming thinner and thinner, and at such a young age, she would soon be bald from being pulled by the young lady. How would she ever get married? She didn't know where the young lady had picked up this bad habit of pulling her hair whenever she was unhappy.

Qin Zhenzhen kicked the maid again, getting angry at her timid and hesitant manner. The servants who had come with her also gathered around at this time, and were scolded by Qin Zhenzhen. The servants lowered their heads and dared not utter a sound.

"What are you all standing here for? Go and clear the crowd. I'm going home. Don't you have any sense of propriety? If you don't hurry up and go back, each of you will receive twenty strokes of the cane."

The servants were so frightened that they quickly and fiercely parted the crowd to make way for Qin Zhenzhen, who then swaggered over.

The little maid glanced at the roasted chestnuts on the ground with a troubled expression, then gritted her teeth, steeled her resolve, and ran after them.

"Miss, Miss, wait for me."

Xu Chaoyan was busy for several hours this afternoon, and all the oden she made was sold. Looking at the coins in her pocket, she couldn't suppress the smile on her face.

Meng Jiuxia muttered to herself, "If we had known, we should have prepared two loads of tofu pudding. Maybe we would have earned more today. But the oden is quite popular today. After tomorrow, I'll go out to do business with you. I believe our family's life will get better and better."

Xu Chaoyan stirred the glutinous rice balls in the pot with a spoon and teased with a smile: "You're quite the little money-grubber. Didn't you say money wasn't important before? You've only been in the county for a short time and you're already blinded by all the extravagance and glittering life?"

Meng Jiuxia added a piece of firewood to the stove, and muttered with some dissatisfaction: "Sister-in-law, what are you saying? I'm helping you make money and you're not happy. In the future, you'll have to spend money to raise a few nephews. I'm just thinking of you. You really don't appreciate my kindness."

Xu Chaoyan was afraid that if she continued talking, the little girl would start pressuring her to have children. Although the girl was young, she could talk like an old woman. To divert her attention, she pointed to the cupboard and ordered, "Little sister-in-law, bring me some fermented rice wine."

She'd been busy all day and hadn't had a chance to eat glutinous rice balls yet. She didn't usually like these things; she only ate them for good luck. Back in modern times, she didn't like them either, especially since her family would eat glutinous rice balls on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, saying it would drive away all bad luck.

Meng Jiuxia carried the earthenware pot over and scooped a large spoonful into each bowl, looking ingratiating: "Sister-in-law, could you add more sugar for me? It won't taste good if there's not enough sugar in this fermented rice wine."

"Alright, alright, I'll give you a little more, you little devil."

After Xu Chaoyan finished tidying up and returned to her room, it was already quite late. She rubbed her hands and complained, "It's already the first month of the lunar calendar, why is it still so cold?"

As she spoke, she quickly lay down in bed, stuffing her hands and feet into Meng Jiuhe's arms, and said softly, "Husband, please warm me up, my hands are almost frozen."

Meng Jiu was startled by her sudden movement. His wife's cold hands and feet still hadn't improved. It seemed he would have to find a doctor to replenish her blood and qi and get her some medicine. He hadn't even reached out to warm her hands yet.

Xu Chaoyan suddenly threw off the covers, and the icy chill seeped into the bedding. Meng Jiuhe frowned and quickly pulled her back, tucking her in tightly: "Wife, what are you doing? It's only just gotten a little warm, don't let the warmth escape again."

Xu Chaoyan ignored all that and threw back the covers, pulling her jar out from under the bed. When Meng Jiu heard that familiar clattering sound, he helplessly rubbed his forehead. Damn it, his wife wouldn't stop counting money for at least half an hour.

For the past few hours, his wife has been dragging him to sit at the stall. He wanted to offer to lend a hand, but his wife and younger sister both waved him off, telling him to just sit there with a book.

As you can imagine, when a group of beautifully dressed girls showed him shy smiles, he knew that he had been fooled by his wife again today. Before he could even settle the score with her, she had already put the matter out of his mind. Oh well, he should warm up the bed for her first.

The next day, when Meng Jiuhe woke up, Xu Chaoyan was no longer beside him. He touched the still warm part of the quilt and guessed that she had only gotten up not long ago.

Today was the day they went to the county school to take the exam. When he arrived at the kitchen, he saw Xu Chaoyan busy at work.

"My lady, there's no need to rush. It's still early. Do you need my help?"

Xu Chaoyan stuffed another piece of firewood into the stove and urged him, "I've already prepared hot water for you, so hurry up and wash your face. Also, put on the new robe I made for you earlier; this one looks too worn out."

Meng Jiu looked himself up and down and thought his clothes were alright.

At this moment, Meng Jiuxia also came in yawning. After hearing Xu Chaoyan's words, she also looked disgusted and quickly chased her older brother out: "Whatever sister-in-law says goes. Hurry up and change into those clothes. We must have good luck today."

When Meng Jiuhe sat down at the table and saw the two chickens and a bright yellow food, he was puzzled and asked, "Wife, what does this mean?"

Xu Chaoyan handed him a pair of chopsticks, then pointed to the fried dough sticks and two eggs on the plate and explained, "This is a custom from my hometown. It basically means wishing you good luck. Hurry up and eat it. I also sent a portion to the Zhang family. We'll send it to you in a bit."

Meng Jiuhe thought to himself, "How come I don't know about the customs of your hometown?"

Meng Jiuhe didn't usually like eating boiled chicken, but today, under the watchful eyes of two people, he forced himself to swallow it.

When the two families escorted them to the entrance of the county school, Shen Siheng had already come running over, jumping and skipping: "Brother Meng, Brother Meng, I have been waiting here for a long time. Here are the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone I prepared for you."

Then, with a look of disdain, he tossed a small bundle to Zhang Xuyang with a "thud": "Don't say I'm not kind, I've also prepared a gift for you. I wish you both good results. I'll be waiting for you outside."

Not far away, Qin Zhenzhen lifted the curtain of the carriage and saw several people gathered together, including that silly boy Shen Siheng, chatting and laughing with each other.

She gave a mocking smile and asked the maid beside her, "How's the matter I asked you to handle?"

Yesterday, when I returned home, Miss threw another huge tantrum. The bruises on my body hadn't even faded yet. When I heard Miss's question, I quickly answered, afraid of being a fraction too slow.

“Miss, the matter has been taken care of. The master has some connections with people in the county school. I spoke to that person, and I believe it will be very easy for the Meng family scholar to get into school.”

Qin Zhenzhen slapped the maid across the face: "I meant that both of them should go through the normal procedures to enter. If you let that scholar Meng enter alone, won't that expose the secret? What if he is isolated and helpless and gets ostracized? How can you be so useless and not be able to handle anything properly?"

The maidservant was slapped again for no reason. She mustered up her courage and retorted, "Miss, didn't you want to make things difficult for him and make him beg us? How come he got in so easily? I don't understand."

With a "smack," another slap landed on the maid's face. Qin Zhenzhen looked at her handiwork and nodded in satisfaction.

"I was just thinking that if we're going to hit something, we should hit both sides. Now it's symmetrical and looks much better."

The young maid bit her lip, not daring to utter a sound. The burning pain on her face reminded her that her mistress was not easily fooled, and she should be even more careful with her words and actions in the future.

Qin Zhenzhen raised her hands and stared at her bright red nails for a moment, then gently stroked them before speaking to the maid with a disdainful look.

“Fool, why would someone as principled as Meng Shusheng come to me for help? It’s better to do him a favor and let him get into the academy smoothly. I’ll have more opportunities to see him when I visit my elder brother in the future. Isn’t this a case of being close to the water tower and getting the moon first? Remember to make sure he knows he owes me a favor.”

The young maidservant knelt beside her, trembling, and replied, "This servant knows what to do."