The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

As Yingbao munched on an apple, she had other things on her mind.

With the death of her uncle, the custody of Zhang Xiaolang should finally revert fully to her aunt.

But what if the concubine uses this as an excuse to constantly cause a commotion?

After the siblings chatted for a while, Jiang Cheng left the shop to Jiang Yingbao and went out to buy braised meat.

Huzi also wanted to go, claiming he wanted roasted mutton.

Jiang Wu initially wanted to go too, but seeing his sister alone in the store, he turned back to sit with her.

Earlier, master Zhou and his disciples had returned to the medical bureau after dropping off Yingbao, leaving only the siblings in the store.

Yingbao took out some vegetables from the cellar to place in the basket, then began to chat with her brother.

“Xiaowu, remember, don’t act recklessly. If our master hadn’t brought soldiers in time, Huzi and many others wouldn’t have survived.”

She and her brother might have been able to escape, but Huzi wouldn’t have been able to, no matter what.

The book in her mind mentioned the fall of Jingzhou, stating that the entire Zhang family and the city residents were all brutally murdered. The barbarians spared no one, not even children. Only a few young and beautiful women were taken by them, but their final fate was equally tragic.

Jiang Wu scratched his head: “Mmm, I understand.”

“When we get home, you must devote two hours every day to studying. Spend more time reading the strategy and military tactics books I gave you.”

On the way back from Jingzhou, Yingbao had bought numerous books, managing to find two on military tactics after considerable effort.

Actually, all the good books are collected by wealthy and prestigious families for their descendants to read. They are not easily shared with others.

It’s therefore not easy to find good books in bookshops and bookstores.

However, there were many storybooks in the bookshop, most of which were romance and chivalrous fiction, as well as ghost stories and strange tales.

She also bought many of these, choosing ones she had not read before.

Of course, she wouldn’t let her brothers read them, to avoid leading them astray.

Jiang Wu kept nodding his head. “I read them every day.” He was not originally fond of studying, but he loved reading about military strategies and tactics. During their journey home, he would read for hours on end.

It was a pity that the books were so thin. He finished them all too quickly.

Soon, Jiang Cheng and Huzi returned with several packages of braised dishes.

Jiang Cheng said to his younger cousin: “I also ordered a full table of dishes from the restaurant. They will bring them over soon.”

Yingbao nodded, took the braised dishes from her elder cousin, and went to fetch some large bowls from the kitchen. She then placed the cut-up braised meat and poultry into the bowls.

Jiang Wu and Huzi brought a dining table from the backyard and placed it at the entrance of the shop.

At that time of day, the sun was setting in the west, providing shade at the entrance for them to enjoy their meal comfortably.

Jiang Cheng then returned home to bring his wife and child.

Chou Rong, holding her older son Jiang Dali in one hand and patting her belly with the other, greeted Yingbao: “Yingbao, you’ve grown so tall now.”

Yingbao grinned at her: “Sister-in-law,” then bent over to pick up her little nephew.

The little nephew was just two years old, chubby, and stared at her with big eyes. Under his parents’ encouragement, in his baby voice he called out, “Auntie.”

Yingbao gave him a spin and found him quite heavy, then she put him down, saying, “You’re so heavy, I can hardly lift you.”

However, Dali didn’t want to get down and clung tightly to his aunt’s neck, curving his legs up.

Seeing this, Jiang Cheng took his son with a smile, patted him on the bottom and said, “Your auntie is not strong enough to carry you. Come, let’s eat.”

At the mention of food, Dali immediately turned his attention to the dining table.

Before long, the food from the restaurant arrived. There were ten dishes in total, along with a barrel of freshly steamed rice.

The dishes included fish, meat, stir-fry, pastries, and a pot of rice wine.

Jiang Cheng poured a cup for each of his siblings, “This is rice wine, taste it, and see how it differs from what we make at home?”

Yingbao took a sip and didn’t notice any difference.

Huzi and Jiang Wu tasted it while eating meat. It was sweet with a hint of sourness.

“Our homemade rice wine is more aromatic.” Huzi said. The Jiang family also brewed rice wine but only kept it for themselves. They couldn’t sell it on the market.

That’s because selling alcohol required a liquor sales permit from the government office. No matter how good your business was, the annual taxes were terrifying.

Jiang Wu was not interested in rice wine, nor could he tell the quality, so he didn’t express an opinion and simply concentrated on eating meat.

Sharing the same preference for meat was Jiang Dali.

He gnawed on a chicken leg, his face oily.

While they were eating, Jiang Yunniang came back with her daughter Hong Xiao.

Seeing this, Yingbao went to the kitchen to bring out two sets of bowls and chopsticks, to serve rice for her aunt and Hong Xiao.

Jiang Yunniang’s eyes were red, and she sat at the table, holding her bowl but not touching her chopsticks.

Hong Xiao was extremely hungry and started eating.

Jiang Cheng served his aunt some food, “Did the Zhang family send someone?” he asked.

Jiang Yunniang: “Zhang Jia and his older brother’s family all came.”

While eating, Hong Xiao said, “They came and drove my mother away.”

Jiang Cheng frowned, “Aunt, if the Zhang family is behaving this way, you don’t have to attend the funeral tomorrow.”

Jiang Yunniang started to cry.

After the meal, someone from the restaurant came to clean up the dishes, and the cafeteria sister-in-law returned home with her son.

Seeing that it was getting late, Jiang Cheng closed up shop.

Yingbao and Jiang Wu stood at the doorway looking towards the direction of the county school and saw a few students leaving in groups.

In the end, a short figure came out and headed straight towards them.

“Jiang Jie!” Jiang Wu shouted and ran towards him. The two hugged and laughed heartily.

Jiang Jie, holding a blue cloth school bag in one hand and his brother’s neck in the other, walked over to Yingbao.

“Sister, we missed you so much. Our parents were extremely worried. If we couldn’t find a ship, they would have gone to Jingzhou to find you and Jiang Wu.”

Yingbao didn’t say anything. She took the blue cloth school bag from his hand, “Go eat quickly, I’ve kept the dishes warm for you.”

“Alright.” Jiang Jie and Jiang Wu ran into the kitchen.

Yingbao looked towards the county school again. Once the students had all left, she felt strange not seeing Chen Changping.

Jiang Chengk locked up, and then went home, and Yingbao walked into the courtyard and locked the door.

Xiaohei wagged its tail at her, barking a few times and scratching at its food bowl.

Yingbao untied its rope and took it to the kitchen.

Jiang Jie listened to his brother and Huzi talk about their adventures in Jingzhou while eating, His eyes opened wide in astonishment, even forgetting to eat.

Huzi smugly said, “I hit several bandits with my slingshot, they howled in pain. Jiang Wu also hit many of them. We cooperated seamlessly and saved several soldiers.”

Really? And didn’t those people come to hit you?” Jiang Jie asked.

“Of course they did!” Huzi said, “A group of bandits charging at us with big knives were killed by Yingbao with a millstone-sized rock…”

Jiang Jie’s eyes grew even wider. Just as he was about to ask for more details, he saw his sister stuff an apple into Huzi’s mouth.

“Enough talking, let Jiang Jie finish eating. Can’t you see that Dahei is getting impatient?”

Dahei was pacing around under the table, eagerly waiting for its young master to finish eating so it could have the leftovers.