He Zifeng dispersed the cold air from his body before entering the house.
His son immediately flew over and threw himself into his arms.
He Zifeng picked up his son.
Little He Ran hadn’t seen He Zifeng for half a month since coming home, and had been asking Qiu Yu about him every day.
Ever since he started studying, little He Ran felt that he had grown up and wouldn’t let anyone carry him.
But today his father had returned home, so he made an exception: “Father.”
Ran Ran’s voice was both crisp and sweet.
He Zifeng smiled and said: “Yes.”
Qiu Yu came in together with them, watching the father and son being affectionate with each other, a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.
He said: “Are you going back to the county today?”
“Not for now,” He Zifeng said.
These days the weather had gradually grown cold, and business at the shop in the county town had almost stopped, with only the morning porridge distribution continuing.
Many people had been introduced by He Zifeng to work there, so there were much fewer people coming to drink porridge. Making two or three pots a day was enough, so Qiu Yu didn’t need to go there.
Qiu Yu had been staying in the village this whole time.
Calculating carefully, it had been more than half a month since he and He Zifeng had last met.
He missed him very much too, but with the child present, he couldn’t very well burrow into He Zifeng’s arms.
Qiu Yu had a bellyful of things he wanted to say, but seeing He Zifeng’s slightly thinner appearance, he said: “Everything at home is fine.”
He Zifeng nodded and said: “You’ve worked hard.”
Managing a household well was not an easy thing. Fortunately, they had stockpiled a lot of firewood and coal before the cold weather came, so the house was still quite warm.
This kind of warm place really made He Zifeng feel a bit sleepy.
But he also felt it was too early to sleep now, afraid that if he slept during the day, he wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
Just as he was hesitating, Fang Shi came in from outside. Seeing He Zifeng, her face showed some joy: “Just now I heard the door and thought I was hearing things!”
Then her gaze looked at He Zifeng, and after a long moment she said: “You’ve gotten thinner.”
He Zifeng spent every day cooped up in the county yamen, where there were many matters to attend to. He slept less than two hours a day.
“Not at all, it’s probably just because I’m wearing more clothes,” He Zifeng said, not wanting them to worry.
Fang Shi smiled and said: “Today I’ll steam some rice for you to eat. You can’t get anything good to eat over there.”
For the villagers, even rice porridge was considered a treat.
Rice was even more luxurious.
Qiu Yu said: “Right, I’ll also steam a bowl of egg custard.”
As soon as he finished speaking, little He Ran’s eyes lit up: “Little Father, can I eat some too?”
All the adults in the room laughed.
There was only this one precious little treasure in their household. How could there not be a share for him when they made something delicious?
Qiu Yu said: “Yes!”
He Zifeng originally wanted to say there was no need to specially make delicious food for him.
But seeing his son on the side looking forward to it eagerly, he couldn’t bring himself to disappoint his son.
Little He Ran also loved eating egg custard. With a little fragrant vinegar on top, he could eat half a bowl plain.
Usually when only Qiu Yu and Fang Shi were at home, they would just make something simple to eat.
Now that He Zifeng had returned, they were all making an effort to prepare delicious food for him.
The little guy also benefited from this.
He Zifeng held the child for a while, then put him on the kang.
Fang Shi didn’t heat the kang during the day, feeling it was wasteful to heat both rooms together. When it got cold, she would come to this side to play with her little grandson, and at night she would just heat it a little when she went back.
He Zifeng said: “I heard you can already recite poetry?”
Little He Ran made an “mm” sound, then graciously recited the poem for He Zifeng to hear.
The sound of poetry recitation came from the room in waves. The house was quite warm and cozy. After little He Ran finished reciting, he looked at He Zifeng, hoping for some praise. The little fellow’s thoughts were written all over his face.
Seeing this, He Zifeng said: “My son is really smart!”
He immediately became happy.
Seeing this, Fang Shi and Qiu Yu couldn’t help but tell on him to He Zifeng: “This child has the best relationship with you.”
Little He Ran felt a bit embarrassed being talked about like this by his grandmother, and snuggled into her arms.
Fang Shi smiled and hugged her little grandson in her arms. He really was a clever little imp, very lovable.
He Zifeng was the happiest, with his real mother, his real spouse, and his real son by his side.
His whole person was also very relaxed.
If only the snow could stop in a few more days, that would be good.
Just at this moment, urgent footsteps came from outside. It sounded like there was more than one person coming.
He Zifeng had developed sensitivity to various footstep sounds from his training at the county yamen.
His brow immediately furrowed, and then he put on his cotton jacket to go outside.
He recognized the people who came – it was the former town chief’s son and several strong men. The old town chief had presided over his family division and recommended him to work as a yamen runner at the county office.
He owed the old town chief an enormous debt of gratitude. Now seeing his son with a serious expression, his heart tightened and he said: “What’s wrong?”
The old town chief’s son said: “Our village can barely survive anymore. Father asked me to borrow some grain.”
Saying these words made him feel somewhat distressed.
He Zifeng said: “How could this be? Weren’t all the villages notified?”
These people who stayed in the villages were especially good at stockpiling goods.
Their farming depended on the weather. In good years it was fine, but in disaster years they relied entirely on stored grain to get through.
The old town chief’s son said: “It’s all because of our village chief!”
There was some resentment in his voice as he spoke.
Then he roughly told He Zifeng what had happened.
This year the village chief went to the city, along with other village chiefs. When acquaintances met, after discussing business they had a few drinks. After getting drunk, they forgot about the important matters.
It just so happened that those unscrupulous merchants were buying coarse grain at a price of five wen per jin.
These farmers had never received such a high price in all these years.
They had already sold their surplus grain, and fearing they would miss this round of good prices, they actually sold their food reserves.
By the time their village chief remembered this important matter, it was already five days later.
When he told the villagers about this, everyone was dumbfounded.
Just at this time, the merchants who had bought grain from them came back. The common people negotiated with them, wanting to buy the grain back.
Who knew that grain merchant wouldn’t be so easy to talk to. He directly doubled the price – ten wen per jin, take it or leave it.
This was simply extortion. The villagers of their village naturally wouldn’t agree.
The grain merchant left.
Their grain storage was almost empty.
Every household was cutting back on food and clothing. It had been cold for several days this year, snow had started falling, and it was freezing. They had nothing to eat at all.
The old town chief was so angry he fell ill. He was already advanced in age, and this illness was very dangerous.
He wanted to borrow grain from the county.
With the old town chief down and unable to go personally, and his son not having sufficient status to meet the county magistrate, they could only hope to have He Zifeng pass along a message.
This was using He Zifeng’s personal connections!
He Zifeng naturally couldn’t let them be in difficulty. He said: “Alright, I’ll make a trip to the county. Tell the old town chief that if the county is unwilling to provide grain, I’ll personally buy a thousand jin to send over to you. Make sure to take good care of his health.”
The old town chief’s son was so moved that tears streamed down his face.
These days he had been constantly worried about the grain situation.
The village couldn’t hold on anymore. His father was consumed with anxiety and anger, and the village chief had also gone out to borrow grain but had been turned away several times. He was really afraid that this time they wouldn’t be able to borrow grain and half the villagers would starve to death.
Fortunately, there was still He Zifeng!
