CHAPTER 1557: CHAPTER 1532: PROOF

Zhou Liulang: "How could I not know how to make it? Although it’s not as delicious as Eldest Sister-in-law’s, I can still make it."

When Eldest Sister-in-law’s rice wine was mentioned, Zhou Wulang couldn’t help but swallow his saliva, "The last time I had Eldest Sister-in-law’s rice wine was when my wife gave birth."

Rice wine is expensive, and it’s generally not made unless there’s a celebration or a woman is in confinement after childbirth.

The Zhou family made rice wine often because they had many children.

From Datou to his son, he had tried all the rice wine.

Zhou Liulang also missed Eldest Sister-in-law’s skills, but then he shook his head to clear his thoughts and waved his hand, saying, "Today, let’s take two bags of rice to the restaurant first."

Zhou Wulang nodded, "By the way, this time, besides rice, we also received two rolls of cloth fabric. I’ve checked them; we can use them."

Before, the reward cloth brought back by Manbao was something that even they, let alone Ms. Fang and others, couldn’t really use.

Though they looked nice, they weren’t practical for working in the fields.

So, even if Manbao gave it to them, they either asked Zhou Silang to exchange it for money or used it for business. When they needed to make clothes, they would buy fabric from the fabric store.

But this time, the cloth fabric was received as salary, and it is all very common fabric that they could all use.

Zhou Wulang, after looking Zhou Liulang up and down, said, "Even though you’re now engaged, you don’t need to make yourself look too polished, but at least dress a little better in your regular clothes. Your future wife is right next door to the restaurant; you see each other every day."

Zhou Liulang blushed slightly and asked in a low voice, "Is my outfit shabby?"

"Not shabby, but not particularly nice either. Why do you patch up your clothes?"

Zhou Liulang looked down at his robe and said, "I scraped it last time, so I patched it up. I can’t wear torn clothes, can I? It can’t just be thrown away for a little tear."

Zhou Wulang thought it over and agreed; it would be wasteful not to wear it for just one tear.

He thought and said, "How about this, I’ll make you two new outfits. In the future, wear them when you go out, and keep these old ones for home or the restaurant."

Zhou Liulang felt it was too troublesome and wasn’t keen on such trouble.

Zhou Wulang said, feeling exasperated, "This is all for your own good, you know? You haven’t married your wife yet."

Zhou Liulang looked at his Fifth Brother, who had been grooming himself more since Fifth Sister-in-law came, and remained silent.

When the two brothers came out of the warehouse, they had reached an agreement. Zhou Wulang, with a sincere tone, put his arm around Zhou Liulang’s shoulder and said, "Trust me, you can’t go wrong. When have I ever tricked you, Fifth Brother?"

Zhou Liulang thought carefully, and indeed, never. Usually, it’s the two of them being fooled by Fourth Brother, and they have always been comrades in adversity.

So Zhou Liulang was even more accepting.

"Right, I heard from Lijun that Manbao also has land?"

Zhou Wulang said, "I asked Mr. Zhuang and Old Madam Liu. That’s not considered Manbao’s land. I heard it’s managed by the Ministry of Public Works, but the rent collected every October is all Manbao’s."

Zhou Wulang’s eyes shone as he said, "Lijun saw the note; Manbao’s two official positions together own a thousand acres of land—a thousand acres worth of rent!"

Just the thought made his heart surge with excitement.

The Bai family in their county might not even have that much land.

Zhou Liulang was dumbfounded, swallowing hard, "Is being an official this good?"

Zhou Wulang nodded. Initially, he only thought Manbao becoming a rank five official brought glory to the family, like smoke rising from the little uncle and little aunt’s graves. But now he saw it was more like a plume of smoke soaring into the sky.

He finally understood why so many people wanted to become officials. If he had known earlier and the family had more money when he was young, he would have studied hard.

He would have wanted to try becoming an official.

Even Zhou Liwei somewhat regretted not studying well in school when he was young, though he only attended school for a year.

Therefore, what he said to Zhou Lixue and Zhou Ligu, who now had the opportunity to receive salaries, was, "If you can become officials, then you won’t have to worry about food and drink. Think about that salary rice, think about that land. Mr. Zhuang said even a rank nine has two hundred acres."

Zhou Lixue was tongue-tied and asked, "Where does the court get so much land?"

"How would we know?" Zhou Lijun said, "Anyway, this whole world belongs to the Emperor."

Though their little heads were still filled with many questions, Zhou Lixue and Zhou Ligu indeed felt a surge of spirit, and went to class more attentively the next day.

After all, a thousand acres of land.

Even if they weren’t as skilled as their little aunt, having half her skills would mean five hundred acres.

But this determination didn’t last long; they soon went back to their usual selves, working as diligently as their classmates, occasionally unable to resist the urge to slack off.

Zhou Lixue and Zhou Ligu privately said, "I want to work hard, but when I’m tired, I can’t read anything, and after sitting for half a day, I don’t even know what I did, just dazed out."

Mainly, they weren’t thinking about anything while dazing, just blankly staring.

He sighed, "It would be better to copy books from the bookstore; at least we earn some money and practice writing."

Zhou Ligu agreed, and only at this point did he really think his little aunt was fantastic.

"It seems like Little Aunt and Little Uncle are always reading books. Don’t they ever get bored?"

Zhou Lixue sighed, "Yeah, don’t they ever get bored?"

The two took three days to prove they weren’t suited for rigorous studying, while the Emperor took three days to prove that his health seemed to be less robust than he thought.

It was already the fourth day, and the Emperor continued to have intermittent fever, which was one thing. This morning, the Emperor’s throat even hurt so much that it hurt to swallow, and when he got up, he swayed slightly and slumped softly back onto the bed.

When the Emperor lost his strength, the Empress was terrified, and Gu Zhong’s face turned pale, almost unable to stand.

The two supported the Emperor from left and right, letting him lean on the bed. The Empress touched the Emperor’s forehead and found it scorching like a branding iron.

She was so frightened that she immediately instructed Gu Zhong, "Quickly summon the imperial physicians."

She paused and then said, "Request the Crown Prince to come, and the heads of the Three Departments, Lord Wei and others..."

Since Ji Xiang’s retirement, the Emperor hadn’t chosen a Left Prime Minister. The Right Prime Minister was also old, mostly not attending court, and was planning to retire soon, so the Emperor now relied most heavily on Wei Zhi, Lord Tang, and State Duke Zhao.

Gu Zhong immediately rushed out.

The palace staff quickly brought cold water to cool the Emperor down.

The Empress wrung a towel and placed it on the Emperor’s head. The Emperor only fainted for a moment, then slowly woke up while leaning on the bed.

Due to the high fever, his eyes were filled with blood, looking bright red.

He hoarsely asked slowly, "Why has my condition suddenly become this severe?"

The Empress also didn’t understand why it suddenly became so severe.