Rebirth Married The Control group Fulang Chapter 133 Part 1

Chapter 133 Extra Ruijin 1

    Zhang Fangyuan squatted on a haystack at the foot of the mountain. The spring sunlight made people drowsy, and he was on the verge of falling asleep.  

    Lately, the older folks at home had been busy with spring plowing in the fields, while the younger children could go up the mountain to dig for bamboo shoots or pick wild vegetables, either to vary their meals at home or sell the extra in town for some spare coins to buy candles.  

    He remembered that Xu He would often go up the mountain to gather wild vegetables when he had time, so waiting by the path he usually took made it easier to run into him.  

    But he had been here since early morning, squatting for over two hours, and there was still no sign of him. He figured Xu He probably wouldn’t come up the mountain today.  

    Since there was no point lingering here, he jumped down from the dried haystack piled up since last year and prepared to head toward the Xu family’s place to try his luck. Just then, someone called out to him: “Young friend, do you know if there’s a family named Zhang in this village?”  

    Zhang Fangyuan turned his head and saw a scholar dressed in blue robes. His appearance was quite proper, but he seemed to have traveled a long way. Now panting with his hands on his waist, his forehead dotted with fine beads of sweat, looking rather disheveled.  

    “There’s more than one Zhang family in the village. Which one are you looking for?”  

    The scholar’s eyes lit up at the response. “The one where the wife’s maiden name is Zeng.”  

    Zhang Fangyuan’s thick brows furrowed slightly as he gave the scholar another glance.  

    The scholar added politely, “Ah, I’m a relative from her maternal family.”  

    Zhang Fangyuan kept his expression neutral, but inwardly, he scoffed. His mother’s maternal family had no such relative. His eyebrows lifted as he studied the scholar again, and suddenly, he realized who this man was.  

    Instantly, a fire ignited in his chest. This man had already wronged his mother in the past, they should have gone their separate ways and never crossed paths again. Now that his mother was living a stable life, this man had the nerve to come pestering her again. He itched to slap him across the face.  

    If not for this man secretly meeting his mother and spouting ambiguous nonsense, she wouldn’t have been reminded of painful memories, grown unsettled, and ultimately made an extreme decision.  

    “Oh~ I know the Zhang family you’re talking about. But they’re poor and live quite far away. I’m heading up the mountain anyway, why don’t you come with me? I’ll show you the way.”  

    The scholar frowned. “The Zhang family lives on the mountain?”  

    “The Zhang family you’re looking for are hunters. Their house is naturally up the mountain, more convenient that way.”  

    The scholar wiped the sweat from his forehead, a flicker of disdain flashing across his face. But since he had already come this far, it would be a shame not to see them now.  

    “Then I’ll trouble you, young friend.”  

    Zhang Fangyuan didn’t respond, simply leading the way up the mountain path.  

    The scholar followed behind Zhang Fangyuan, eyeing the young boy in front of him. Though his face was still youthful, he was already tall - almost as tall as himself, and his strides were brisk. The scholar nearly had to jog to keep up. Thirsty and exhausted, he was too embarrassed to ask a child to slow down and wait for him.  

    Looking around, this village wasn’t much better than the one in his hometown. And the Zhang family lived in such a remote mountain area, a poor peasant family. Back then, Magistrate Zeng had despised his family’s poverty, and Miss Zeng had refused to elope with him. He had thought she would marry into a much better family, but in the end, she had ended up in some backwater county like this.  

    He shook his head. The Zeng family was supposed to be an official’s family, how could they have such poor judgment? Now, he had passed the provincial examination and was a proper juren.  

    “Sir, what brings you to Jijiu Village? Something important?”  

    The scholar snapped out of his thoughts at Zhang Fangyuan’s question. “Ah, I came to the prefectural city for the provincial examination. Now that I’ve passed as a juren, I’m on my way back home and stopped by Siyang to visit relatives.”  

    Zhang Fangyuan sneered inwardly. So he had come to flaunt his success. How thoughtful.  

    “Congratulations, then. Let’s hurry, there’s still a long way to go.”  

    “Ah, yes.”  

    The scholar trailed behind Zhang Fangyuan for what felt like half an hour, his back aching from exhaustion. Just then, Zhang Fangyuan announced, “Alright, this is as far as I go. We’ll split paths here, I need to gather firewood on the other side.”  

    “Huh?” The scholar looked around, seeing nothing but endless forest, not a single roof in sight. “Where is the Zhang family?”  

    Zhang Fangyuan planted his hands on his hips and pointed into the distance. “We’ve already climbed the slope, now it’s just downhill from here. Easy going.”  

    “But I don’t know this road.”  

    “There’s only one path. Just follow it, turn at the bend, and you’ll reach the end.”  

    With that, Zhang Fangyuan waved and headed off in another direction. The scholar wanted to protest, but the boy was already gone in a flash. Sighing, he rubbed his sore legs. He never should have come, what a waste of effort.