Divorced woman with child travels through time

Li Baozhu didn't care about anything else. She took a nice bath, put on her new clothes, had a delicious meal, and then waited anxiously until evening when Zhao Qicai appeared, reeking of alcohol.

Zhao Qi immediately started tearing off her clothes, but Li Baozhu dodged away with a look of disgust, saying, "What do you want to do? You smell bad, don't come any closer."

This was the first time Zhao Qi had been so blatantly rejected. He felt utterly humiliated and instantly flew into a rage. Not wanting to hit a woman, he silently began tearing at her clothes, his face darkening. Li Baozhu panicked. Those old women weren't exactly saints either. She rarely had any clothes; if they were torn to shreds, she'd have to beg for help again. How could she escape? She softened her voice, saying, "How could you do this? I've been waiting for you all day, and you haven't even said a word, coming over drunk. It's so hurtful."

Zhao Qi felt that he was being pathetic. Seeing her give in, his heart softened, and he even offered some words of comfort, saying, "I just had something to do. You're sleeping quite well. Do I smell bad? I'll go wash up."

Seeing that he was falling for her charms, Li Baozhu quickly and sweetly tempted him, "Then you go wash first, I'll wait for you in bed." She even gave him a flirtatious wink.

"Little vixen!" Zhao Qi chuckled, patted her face, and went to bathe and change. Li Baozhu quickly stripped naked and rolled into the quilt. The new quilt smelled sweet and soft. By the time Zhao Qi came over, Li Baozhu was almost asleep. Seeing Li Baozhu looking at him half-asleep, looking exceptionally charming and adorable, Zhao Qi couldn't help but shower her with affection once more.

Li Baozhu let him do as he pleased, as long as she was comfortable. They had been up all night and had been drinking and talking business during the day. Zhao Qi couldn't hold on any longer and fell into a deep sleep after their lovemaking. Li Baozhu woke up, ate something, and went to the bathhouse to wash herself. After getting dressed, she looked around and noticed that someone seemed to be secretly watching her. She quickly came up with a plan, pretended that she wasn't clean, and went back into the bathroom.

It wasn't good for Shadow to keep staring at her. Seeing that she was alright, Shadow went back to the room to watch over Zhao Qi.

After not noticing any strange looks, Li Baozhu turned around, secretly found a low section of the wall, placed a stone under it, and climbed over.

The shadow watched the departing figure in the room without making a sound; a woman like that shouldn't have stayed here in the first place.

Li Baozhu slipped out of the mansion and walked for a long time before finally finding her way home. It was very late when she returned. As soon as she got back, her brother scolded her harshly, but she didn't care. Her brother cared about her. After Li Qingshan finished scolding her, she smiled and held out her hand, "Brother, give me some money. I'm out of money."

Li Qingshan sighed. Anyway, she was often away from home every few days. It was good that she was back. He took out a fifty-tael silver note and gave it to her, saying, "Spend it sparingly. Business at the shop is not good this year, and there is not much income."

"Okay, brother, I'm going to rest now." Li Baozhu happily went to sleep.

Not to mention that when Zhao Qi woke up the next day and couldn't find anyone, he threw a tantrum, yelling, "What? They ran away? What are you all good for? You can't even keep an eye on one person. Useless!"

Even the shadow was scolded. Later, he cursed himself for not even asking her name. He had slept with her several times, so he couldn't blame his subordinates for being negligent. He instructed his men to keep an eye on Zhu Qingguan and tie her up as soon as they saw her, so that he could propose marriage to her later.

Wang Erniu also found out that a boss surnamed Zhong had bought the sugarcane. Following the trail, he discovered that Zhong owned a rest stop, but he didn't do any food business. Was he buying it for someone else? Helpless, he could only send someone to keep an eye on him for the time being.

In early November of the lunar calendar, just before the winter solstice, Chen's Pastry Workshop in Wangjiazhuang finally finished building its walls and buildings before the ground froze. The workshop consisted of twelve two-story buildings, fifteen warehouses with basements, eight processing workshops, four large drying yards, and two livestock farms—one for chickens and ducks, and the other for pigs and sheep. After more than six months of hard work by Brother Nie and his hundred-person construction team, it was finally completed. As for the small villa that Chen Wenfang wanted, it wouldn't be built until next year.

Wang Erniu used the money to buy a lot more land. He traveled along the official road to Aunt Liu's house, and finally to Chen Wenfang's house. The entire piece of land belonged to Chen's family. Uncle Liu Hai led a land reclamation team of dozens of people and reclaimed over a hundred acres of land. Uncle Liu Hai also discussed with Chen Wenfang that after the house was completed and they had a banquet, the land reclamation team would take a complete rest. After all, once the land froze, no one could reclaim it.

Chen Wenfang agreed, so everyone began preparing the ingredients for the feast. Chen Ji was always the top buyer for vegetables; whenever there was something good, the villagers would deliver it to Chen Ji first. After all, cash payment was the most reliable thing. Upon learning that Chen Ji was hosting a feast, an old farmer drove his own fat pig over the next day. He didn't quite trust Chen Ji's scale, so he weighed it at home, but to his surprise, it was accurate. He happily took the money and left, praising Chen Ji to everyone he met.

As a result, the next day, Chen's family hauled in six large, fat pigs, over thirty chickens, about a hundred ducks, and several hundred kilograms of dried vegetables—the same method Chen Wenfang had taught everyone to make in the summer. Eggs were another story; although fewer eggs were laid in winter, the large number of chicken farmers meant that in less than five days, they had collected five whole baskets of eggs.

What surprised Chen Wenfang the most was that a woman brought over mung bean sprouts, which were plump, tender, and white, and looked particularly beautiful. That very evening, Chen Wenfang had Aunt Liu stir-fry a large plate of them, with each person getting at most a chopstickful. Chen Wenfang also had Zhuan Shi order another 100 jin from there, and if convenient, 50 jin could be delivered to Chen's Restaurant every day.

The woman surnamed Zhang happily agreed and even asked the brick to express her special thanks. It turned out that when she went to buy the stove, she heard from the shopkeeper that this stove, which could be used for heating, cooking porridge, and boiling water, was designed by Chen Wenfang and could quickly burn coal. Otherwise, how could a poor family like her survive the winter without firewood? Not to mention the mung bean sprouts in the room with the kang (heated brick bed).

Chen Wenfang was also very happy, as he felt he had helped to improve the lives of the poor and backward society, because thanks to Chen's family, the lives of the surrounding people had become a little better.

The materials for the banquet were almost ready. Chen Wenfang followed Wang Erniu to the warehouse. Looking at the row of empty houses behind it, Chen Wenfang said, "Husband, let's buy some things to fill it up."

Wang Erniu smiled and said, "It's good to stock up on some things. If we fill it up, we won't need it anymore. Otherwise, people will start to covet it."

Chen Wenfang said with a forced smile, "Then I'll secretly slip some in. I'm going to treat everyone to a meal anyway, and no one will say anything if I buy more grain." Actually, Chen Wenfang had already harvested a batch of rice in early September, but the warehouse was newly built and had not been ventilated and dried properly, so he didn't have much stored. He could only wait until next year to store more rice.

She always planned ahead, buying 3,000 catties of coal before winter even arrived. Now that the weather was unusually cold, and seeing so many workers coming to help, Chen Wenfang specially emptied a warehouse after it was built and stocked up on another 10,000 catties of coal. The delivery merchants were overjoyed. Such a big customer! Business was so easy to do. It was rare. The coal was delivered in just a few days, and the price was even 10% cheaper than the market price.

Chen Wenfang was also happy and spread the word that as long as the workers at Chen's company wanted to buy coal, they could bring their own baskets to purchase it, and it would be sold at cost price, with only two coins added per pound. In an instant, people asked for favors and used their connections. In just three days, all 10,000 pounds of coal were sold out. After all, poor people don't want to save money, so Chen Wenfang had to increase the purchase volume and bought another 20,000 pounds. As a result, it was sold out again in three days after it arrived. So Chen Wenfang had no choice but to start doing coal business on the side.