Transmigration: The Evil Mother-In-Law Is Actually Innocent!
Chapter 296: Prepared in Advance_1

Chapter 296: Chapter 296: Prepared in Advance_1

Though Chang Zhi was disheveled, his spirit was especially good, his eyes extraordinarily bright, and there was excitement at the bottom of them. This trip had broadened his horizons significantly. Chang Zhi disliked his own untidiness, "Dad, I want to take a bath first; I can’t stand it anymore."

These seven days had been truly unbearable; his whole body was smelly, and even he wanted to vomit when he caught a whiff of himself.

Zhulan called out to her eldest, "Quick, go heat up some water for your brother to bathe."

The eldest looked at his younger brother with compassion. The child had never suffered before, but now he had really gone through a tough ordeal.

Zhulan thought that there wasn’t much left for breakfast. This boy must have come straight home as soon as he entered the city, his stomach growling fiercely, "Eldest daughter-in-law, go roll out the noodles."

Lady Li, "Yes!"

An hour later, Chang Zhi had taken a bath and eaten the noodles, finally returning to his original appearance.

Zhulan took one look at the boy and saw he had lost a lot of weight, "Tell me, where did you and your master go? Why are you in such a sorry state?"

Chang Zhi was still shaken, "Mom, I followed Master to celebrate Mr. Qi’s birthday. Mr. Qi is a master calligrapher; I never expected Master and him to be good friends."

He had basked in quite a bit of glory this time, and his writing had improved greatly!

Zhou Shuren asked, "Did you run into bandits on the way back from celebrating the birthday?"

Chang Zhi shook his head, "Not bandits. Mr. Qi’s home is at the border in Dongbei. There were a couple of border skirmishes recently, and Master, fearing a major war, hurried us back. Many households from Dongbei were also dragging their families south, and since there were all sorts of people, Master, with his travel experience, made sure we didn’t show our wealth. We didn’t change clothes on the way home, rushing to get here. Today at the city gate, there were quite a few people gathered trying to get into the city!"

Chang Zhi was speechless about why Mr. Qi would choose to settle at the frontier, just for the sake of an atmosphere, yet he admired Mr. Qi’s courage. Master had been advising Mr. Qi to leave, but Mr. Qi hadn’t left!

Chang Zhi continued anxiously, "Dad, the guards at the city gate are numerous. They’re not letting the southward-moving people into the city, unless they have local household registration. Thankfully, Master kept our documents safe and we weren’t lost, allowing us to enter."

Zhulan and Zhou Shuren looked at Zhou Eldest, and Zhou Shuren asked, "Did you not encounter anyone at the city gate when you came back yesterday?"

Zhou Eldest shook his head, "Dad, we came in through South City gate, and there were no people outside the gate."

Zhou Shuren realized his mistake; Chang Zhi had come through Beicheng gate.

Zhou Second was deeply concerned, "Dad, is there really going to be a war?"

If there were indeed a war, especially in Dongbei, he didn’t want to recall the days of war—a time when human lives were worth less than those of animals. At least animals could eat, but human lives were simply extinguished without a second thought. The very thought was terrifying.

Everyone in the room, except Zhulan and Zhou Shuren, was extremely afraid.

Zhou Shuren cleared his throat and, as the head of the family, said, "The war won’t reach here. Everyone calm down. However, for the time being, don’t expect to be able to buy meat or vegetables."

He estimated that the city gates would be sealed soon, judging by the way Pingzhou City was not letting the southward-moving people through. The city’s attitude was surprisingly tough and they seemed to have been prepared for this. He wondered why if Pingzhou City was prepared, then why were the states to the north allowing people to head south?

Zhou Eldest stood up, "Dad, since they’ve only sealed the gate at Beicheng, there should still be farmers coming into the city to sell vegetables. Lady Li and I will go buy some meat and vegetables before it’s too late and there’s nothing left."

Zhou Shuren said, "Go, buy as much as you can; I reckon the city will be sealed by tomorrow."

Zhou Eldest, "Yes!"

Chang Lian stood up, "Dad, I’ll go to my brother-in-law’s place to see if there’s any news."

Zhou Shuren waved him off, "Your brother-in-law must be overwhelmed right now; he won’t have time for you. Just stay at home and behave!"

The just-departed Zhou Eldest came back again, "Dad, a servant from the Jiang Residence came with a message saying that the third brother doesn’t need to go to the Jiang Residence anymore and also said we should try not to go out these days."

Zhou Shuren, "Where is the person?"

"After delivering the message, he rushed off. He didn’t even take the Silver Coin I offered him."

Zhou Shuren fell silent. It seemed many matters were not simple. "Understood, you go ahead with your work!"

"Yes!"

Zhou Shuren then turned to Zhou’s second son and said, "Take Rongchuan and Mingyun to the Academy."

Zhou’s second son replied, "Dad, we should just take a leave of absence!"

"No need, the garrison of Pingzhou City has been prepared for a long time, and the city is safe. Moreover, among Rongchuan’s and Mingyun’s classmates are many officials’ children, and we might be able to glean some information from them."

He then said to Rongchuan, "Go to the Academy and check carefully to see who isn’t there, then come back and tell me."

Rongchuan responded, "Yes."

Chang Zhi also stood up. "Dad, I’m going to my teacher’s house."

"Go ahead!"

Lady Dong was somewhat worried, but she didn’t dare to speak directly to the eunuch. As soon as the eunuch got up and left, she hurriedly said to her mother-in-law, "Mother, I want to send a message back home."

Zhulan didn’t stop her. "If you want to send messages, go ahead, but I reckon there’ll be a lot of people sending messages, and you might not be able to get yours out."

Lady Dong and the others exchanged glances. It was indeed so; those who needed the news would have already received it by now and would all be trying to send messages.

However, after exchanging glances, they still wanted to go and see.

Zhulan said, "Wait for the second son to come back to send you, with people now panicked, there are bound to be those with crooked thoughts taking the opportunity to rob and cause chaos. It’s better to have a man accompany you."

The two daughters-in-law were somewhat afraid and dared not go out on their own anymore.

After Zhulan and the two daughters-in-law had left, only the children and Xue Han remained in the room. The young girl was somewhat frightened. "Mother, are we really going to have a war?"

Zhulan nodded, "Yes."

Xue Han gripped her mother’s hand tightly. "Will it reach us here?"

She had not experienced war and knew that war meant many people would die, especially the ordinary folk.

Zhulan comforted her, "No, it won’t."

If the Imperial court was preparing to deploy troops to the Northwest, the Northeast wouldn’t be in chaos; otherwise, it would be attacked from both sides. However, even though there wouldn’t be a major uprising in the Northeast this time, many people would still die.

Two hours later, Lady Li and Zhou’s eldest son returned. They hadn’t managed to get any meat, only a few baskets of wild vegetables.

Lady Li was very anxious. "Mother, it’s a good thing we went quickly; otherwise, we wouldn’t even have been able to get any wild vegetables."

Zhou’s eldest son added, "In the market, many stewards from large households had cornered all the meat. It’s a good thing that yesterday we got quite a lot of meat from my father-in-law’s place; otherwise, our family would have run out of meat to eat."

Zhulan thought they were indeed fortunate. The Li family had sent quite a lot of meat, enough to last a month or two. She estimated that the civil unrest wouldn’t last long.

When noon came around, Zhou Shuren returned. The Zhou family wasn’t short of food, so they still had three meals a day as usual.

Lady Li deeply admired her mother-in-law. Last year, they hadn’t sold the family’s grain, but moved it all to Pingzhou City. She had just gone out with the steward to inquire and all the grain at the grain shops had sold out, at prices so expensive it was outrageous. Each household feared they wouldn’t have enough to eat, but their own family wasn’t afraid at all.

For lunch, they had wild vegetable soup. From the two pounds of meat left over from yesterday, they had used a pound to fry some wild leeks. This was the first time they had such a simple meal since moving to Pingzhou.

After lunch, only Zhou Shuren and Zhulan were left in the room. Zhulan asked, "Did you find out anything?"