Rebirth: Making a Fortune in Ancient Times

Zhang Youtie drove the oxcart, with Liu Shi sitting beside him. Once the cart had traveled quite a distance out of the county town and the number of pedestrians on the road had dwindled, Zhang Youtie took out several silver ingots from his pocket and handed them to Liu Shi: "Mother, this is from our trip to the Shen residence. Six taels of silver is for the watermelons, and eleven taels is a reward from Madam Shen and Master Shen. Besides, the Shen family wants all the watermelons we have, except for the ones given to Steward Wang. They'll come to pick them up the day after tomorrow."

Hearing Zhang Youtie's words, the others on the oxcart were stunned. No one expected that Zhang Youtie would not only get more than ten taels of silver as a reward for going out, but also sell all the watermelons in his family.

"Father, does the Shen family mean they want to buy all the watermelons our family grows? Is it this batch? Or do they want all the watermelons from now on?" Madam Liu was a little confused about the Shen family's intentions.

"Um, I didn't ask clearly either. I'll ask again when Steward Ding comes the day after tomorrow and see what their family thinks!" After saying that, he turned to look at his daughter, who was still a little dazed, and said, "Xiaxia, I sold all the large watermelons you grew today, but Master Shen wants to transport the watermelons back to the capital. Can our watermelons be preserved until then?"

Hearing her father's words, Xia Yu thought for a moment and said, "Dad, why don't we send them a few more buckets of water? We can sprinkle some water from the buckets onto the stems of the watermelons every day; that should preserve them for a few more days!" Then she thought of a very important question:

"Dad, how far is it from here to the capital? How many days will it take to travel?" Xia Yu felt that this was the most crucial question. If it took one or two months to travel, the watermelon wouldn't last that long.

“I don’t know how far we are from the capital. The farthest place I’ve ever been is Ming’an County.” As he said this, Zhang Youtie suddenly remembered something. He looked at Liu Shi and said, “Mother, I want to discuss something with you.”

"Hmm? Go ahead and tell me, what's the matter?" Liu was puzzled by Zhang Youtie's tone.

"I want to send our Changyun to school..."

Changyun, sitting on the oxcart, thought he must have misheard. His father said he was going to send him to school? How could that be? His family was already so poor because of his fourth uncle's education, how could they possibly send him to school too!

“Okay, I’ll send it tomorrow!” Liu agreed without any hesitation. After all, she would have brought it up even if Zhang Youtie hadn’t mentioned it, so she saved herself the trouble of saying it herself.

"You...you don't object? After all, going to school costs a lot of money." Zhang Youtie was somewhat surprised by Liu's reaction. Shouldn't he explain the benefits of going to school to her again?

"Why should I object? I've already paid for my fourth brother's education, and now I'm going to pay for my own son's education. Why should I object?" After saying that, she looked at Zhang Youtie with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot, not understanding why he thought she should object.

Changyun could no longer hear what his parents were saying. When he heard that his mother had agreed to let him go to school, he was overjoyed. He never thought that he would have the opportunity to study in his life.

"Xiaxia, did you hear that? Our parents are sending me to school! I can study now! I can study now!" Changyun shared his joy with his younger sister.

"I heard you, I heard you, brother. Congratulations! You can finally study! You must study hard, brother, and pass the imperial examination like Fourth Uncle. I want to be the sister of a scholar!" Xia Yu encouraged her brother and expressed her own dream. Of course, this was just to encourage Changyun, since the most educated person around them was Fourth Uncle, and they could only use him as their role model.

"Okay, Xiaxia, don't worry, I will definitely not let our family's money go to waste. I will definitely pass the imperial examination and become a scholar, so that you can be the scholar's sister, our father can be the scholar's father, and our mother can be the scholar's mother." Changyun patted his sister's thin shoulder and said his bold words.

"Brother, our parents and I believe in you," Xia Yu said, playing along with her brother's bold statement with an expression of belief and excitement.

Listening to the conversation between the two children in the car, Zhang Youtie and Liu felt a pang of sadness, realizing that they had wronged their children over the years.

"Father, should we talk to our parents about this?" Madam Liu was still a little worried.

“Our dad will definitely come to our house today. Let’s get some wine and invite him to stay for a meal. I’ll tell him about this at the dinner table.”

When I got back to the village, it was dinnertime. Before I even got home, I could see a few people standing in front of my house. When I got closer, I saw that it was Grandpa Zhang waiting for me in front of his yard with his two sons.

Zhang Youtie quickly jumped off the oxcart

"Father, eldest brother, second brother, why are you standing at the gate? Why aren't you coming into the yard? Have you eaten yet?"

“Our dad came right after lunch, saying you'd be back soon. He's been waiting ever since. We've been telling him to go home for lunch, but he won't eat. He insists on waiting for you to come back,” Zhang Youjin said.

Liu opened the courtyard gate and let Old Master Zhang and the others go in first. Zhang Youtie parked the oxcart and then led the group into the house to discuss the watermelon sales in the county town that day. Changyun was in charge of feeding the oxen, while Liu took Xia Yu to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

Xia Yu felt sorry for her ox, which had carried several hundred kilograms of watermelon and walked such a long distance today. She put enough water from the space well in the watering trough that Chang Yun had prepared for the ox to drink, hoping that the water from the space well would make the ox's body better.

Today was a tight schedule, so after discussing it with her daughter, Liu decided to make a few quick dishes. They still had some baked flatbread from lunch in their space, so they didn't need to make any other staple foods. They made stir-fried shrimp with chives, cucumber salad, and bok choy with garlic. Finally, they made a braised fish—a fish given to them by Sister Wu when they first went to the county town to sell shrimp; Xia Yu had kept it in the pool in her space. They took out the lively fish and gave it to Liu to clean, while Xia Yu prepared the other three dishes in the kitchen.

By the time Liu had finished cleaning the fish, Xia Yu had already prepared the chives, dried shrimp, and cucumber salad.

Taking the fish from Liu's hand, I first pan-fried it in oil to set its shape, then poured in hot water, added scallions and ginger to remove the fishy smell, and added two dried chilies. After bringing it to a boil over high heat, I turned it down to low heat and simmered it slowly.

Xia Yu and Liu Shi brought the two dishes they had prepared, along with the sesame seed cakes they had bought at noon, to the table. Zhang Youtie wanted to pour wine for the old man, but the old man refused, covering his cup. He said that a simple meal would be fine today, as he had things to discuss later, and drinking would interfere with his business.