A middle-aged man frowned: "Elder brother, I know you want to find A-Chong, but right now we know nothing. This..."
He was Meng Zishan's second son, Meng Jian. Meng Chong's earlier affair had irritated him greatly; to disregard the survival of the entire family like that truly showed he could not shoulder great responsibility.
But they were family after all — one family's glory was shared, and one family's ruin was shared. He swallowed his frustration.
Now, because of some unfounded note, he was expected to drag the whole household to an unknown place, and he couldn't quite say what he felt about it.
It seemed that everyone in the Meng family lived only for the eldest branch; he and the other sons of the second and third branches, though equally descendants of the Meng line, could be discarded at any moment.
Meng Rong hurriedly explained: "Second brother, that's not what I meant."
He turned to Meng Zishan: "We don't know how A-Chong is doing over there. How about I go ahead and check things out first? If that place truly proves decent, then you can come over?"
Meng Zishan's brows knitted tightly: "Have the Wei family try again, see if they can find out where A-Chong is. If possible, we'll leave Ying Commandery together as a family."
A chill ran through Meng Jian's heart, and his face turned cold. Was his father truly abandoning them all?
But before he could speak, he heard Meng Rong's voice.
"You think that next spring, the Jiao tribe will attack Ying Commandery?"
Meng Jian was startled and quickly looked up at his father.
He saw Meng Zishan nod: "That's right. Ying Commandery has a dock. I suspect they will very likely attack it to seize the dock."
Though the Jiao tribe had taken two prefectures of Yan State, they only had two docks along the Divine River.
As for the coastal regions, they did not have a single proper dock.
"Even if the Jiao tribe doesn't attack Ying Commandery next year, our lives won't be easy. The government is levying taxes under all sorts of pretexts, and our money and grain are running low."
He'd lived to this age, but this was the first time he'd heard of a "snow tax."
That's right — it snowed, and the government collected a tax for it.
Not only that, walking was taxed, talking was taxed, in short, the government came to their doors several times a month collecting taxes under names you couldn't even imagine — if you could think of it, the government had already come up with it.
A young man from the Kong family had walked down the road when he couldn't hold in a loud fart. A patrolling soldier happened to hear it and immediately levied a "resonant fart tax" on him.
It was said he paid five strings of cash — for a single fart, five strings of cash!
Ordinary folk might not earn five strings of cash in several years!
Even worse, the youngest grandson of the Mu family, being disabled and walking with a limp, was hit with a "limp tax."
The Li family, because they had loud voices and spoke at relatively high volume, were charged a "loud-talking tax."
Now everyone who went out had to walk with extreme caution, terrified that taking too big a stride would trigger a "big-step tax"...
Even a family with resources like the Mengs was struggling to hold on, so what of the ordinary people? Their days were growing harder and harder.
Meng Jian lowered his eyes and said nothing this time.
Meng Rong sighed: "These days... ugh. It's the truly wealthy and powerful noble families who aren't taxed at all, while ordinary folk like us..."
He only dared say such things within the home.
Meng Zishan sighed inwardly. The noble families held vast stores of grain and wealth, along with large numbers of private troops. Unless absolutely forced, the Great Prince would never offend them.
If things went wrong and those families were pushed to revolt, then there would be true chaos at home and threats from abroad.
The common people were impoverished — you couldn't squeeze much blood from them no matter how hard you tried. The ones the authorities truly targeted were families like theirs, the small and mid-sized clans.
Time flew to the New Year. At Jiang Jin's residence, the atmosphere was lively — besides her usual inner circle, this year also included Wei Qingran and Jiang Li.
The happiest of all was Yun Chengxuan. Thanks to the brick ovens in the industrial zone, Feng Qingzhu had specially baked cookies, cakes, and bread.
All his favorites — at this moment he felt utterly delighted.
The only one who felt dissatisfied was the child Jiang Li.
In the past, all the food on his auntie's table was reserved for him alone. Now, to his great irritation, a good portion had been given to Jiang Li as well.
He shot Jiang Li a glare and lowered his head to continue bonding with the delicacies.
Jiang Li felt utterly bewildered. Not only did this big nephew refuse to call her auntie, he was also glaring at her with bristling brows.
But it didn't matter — she happily savored the food. It was absolutely delicious. Her Sixth Sister truly treated her well.
Wei Qingran let out a giggle and pushed the cake on the table toward Yun Chengxuan: "Young Master Yun, for you."
Yun Chengxuan's eyes lit up, and he immediately decided she was a good person. But he didn't take it right away — he turned to glance at Jiang Jin first.
Auntie had said: don't accept food from strangers.
He had seen this woman a few times, but to him, she was still a stranger.
Seeing Jiang Jin's nod of approval, he happily accepted it: "Thank you. You are a good person."
Dong Si gave him half of his own cake and received the same "good person" card in return.
Everyone burst into laughter; the mood was warm and cheerful.
Equally cheerful was Sun Bu's mother. Ever since Sun Bu had enlisted, she hadn't seen her son in a long while.
Looking at her son, she couldn't help nagging: "Are you not busy in the army? If you're busy, you don't have to come back. I'm fine on my own."
Sun Bu watched the braised meat bubbling in the pot: "The military gave us New Year leave — three days. Don't worry, Mother."
This year, the army had granted leave to some soldiers, especially those with families — most got the chance to go home and reunite with loved ones.
Sun Bu's mother's face crumpled into a smile of wrinkles: "The lord is a good person."
She looked at her son, who had grown sturdier and stronger, and pride showed on her face.
"Son, the Wang girl next door said she has a distant relative's daughter who's very virtuous and capable. What do you think — since it's New Year now, how about you go meet her?"
Sun Bu sighed helplessly: "Mother, didn't I tell you? I don't want to talk about marriage right now. Give me a few more years."
Sun Bu's mother darted a reproachful glance at him: "In a few years you'll be old. How will you find a wife and have children then?"
Sun Bu couldn't help but laugh: "I'm only twenty-one. How would a few years make me old?"
"Mother, weren't you also in the literacy classes? Things are different now. Women can't marry at thirteen or fourteen anymore. I'm in my twenties, in the prime of life — this is exactly the time to build my career."
Sun Bu's mother was at a loss for words. She'd noticed that since joining the army, her son had become quite glib. Before, you couldn't beat a single word out of him with a stick.
"Besides training, does your army teach you smooth talk as well?" she couldn't help asking.
Sun Bu laughed out loud: "We have culture classes."
Sun Bu's mother let out an "oh" and thought to herself, as I suspected.
"Fine then. If you won't meet her, you won't meet her. Train hard in the army and follow the lord. Don't worry about home. My little business is doing well, and the neighbors look after me."
Thinking of the savings at home, she felt a wave of reassurance. She had saved more than two strings of cash, and this time A-Bu had brought back six hundred copper coins. Soon, the household would have three full strings saved up.
This was something she wouldn't have even dared to dream of before. Now not only could she eat her fill and stay warm, she could even put aside savings.
She had originally wanted to bury the money in the ground, but the floor in her rented room was concrete — she couldn't dig through it, and didn't dare try.
In the end, she buried it in the wooden planter box where she grew vegetables indoors. However she did it, the money was hidden, and that brought her peace of mind.
Her expression relaxed as she looked around her home and said with feeling: "If only we could buy this house."
Sun Bu fell silent. After a moment, he said: "Mother, after the New Year, who knows — maybe we can."
Sun Bu's mother was startled: "What did you say?"
Sun Bu lowered his voice a little: "I heard it from someone—I heard that the master intends to sell the house."
He worked in the military department, so he had access to more news.
"Really?" Sun Bu's mother was pleased at first, but then grew worried: "Then our savings definitely won't be enough. What are we going to do?"
