Mr Hou also went back with them.

This time, they weren’t in a hurry, and the carriage was much slower.

It took about half a month to return to Xiaxi village.

Mr Hou did not return to the county home with his servants, but directly followed them to the village.

He realized that even his mansion in the capital was not as comfortable as Xiao Hanzheng’s house.

The carriage arrived at his house before dinner.

There was a new hut specially built outside the new house for horse and ox carriages.

The few of them got off the carriage first and walked back home, while the servants went to store the carriages.

The door was not tightly closed.

It was easily opened with a gentle push.

“Quack!”

Shi Qingluo had just entered the house when a black shadow flapped his wings and came over.

Then, he kept calling out and rubbing against her arm.

Shi Qingluo reached out and touched her dazed head. “Good goose!”

“Errk! Errk!” Then, a few more quacks from him.

Shi Qingluo looked over and saw that there were five big white geese and two flower geese in the courtyard.

She looked at her dazed face in a daze. “Are these all your wives?”

His dazed black eyes rolled around intelligently as he raised his head proudly. “Quack! Quack!”

Of course.

Shi Qingluo widened her eyes. “I really didn’t expect you to be a promiscuous goose. I’m just went out for a period of time. You already have three wives and four concubines!”

Hearing her words, Xiao Hanzheng and Mr Hou didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

At this moment, Mother Xiao and Xiao Baili happened to walk out of the kitchen.

Seeing Xiao Hanzheng and Shi Qingluo return, the two of them were extremely happy.

Mother Xiao had become much more cheerful and bold over the past few days. “That’s right. Recently, every few days, Dumby will bring some geese back home.”

She continued with a chuckle, “There is already a big pile of goose eggs, and these geese are still guarding them tightly. It looks like they’re going to hatch on their own.

“Dumby is also guarding them every day. Apart from me and Baili, no one is allowed to get close to them.”

Shi Qingluo smiled and said, “Looks like we’ll soon have a bunch of children staying here.”

She really couldn’t tell that her goose was actually a promiscuous goose that had opened a harem and had hooked up with so many female geese.

Looking at those female geese, they were very obedient to Dumby and were very protective of him.

Then, Dumby called out a few times proudly.

Shi Qingluo coughed dryly and stretched out her hand to pat his head. “Since you’ve found so many wives, you should treat them better and not go out to play anymore.”

She didn’t want to open up a harem and turn the house into a goose nest in the future.

Dumby was unhappy. “Quack!”

How could these few be enough!

Shi Qingluo was speechless

She could only use two words to describe her big goose. “Scumbag goose!”

Dumby turned his head unhappily, and the other geese immediately came from all directions to comfort it.

Shi Qingluo sighed, this was hopeless.

Mr Hou was full of smiles.

Indeed, it was more interesting to stay at his disciple’s house.

Dumbly was quick-witted. The other geese also looked quite smart.

He smiled and said, “I’ll go back to my room to rest first.”

He had been on the road recently, and his old bones were about to break.

His young disciple and his wife also wanted to speak to Mother Xiao.

Xiao Hanzheng took the initiative to support Mr Hou. “Teacher, I’ll send you over.”

Mr Hou did not reject his student’s filial piety. “Sure!”

The two of them entered the side courtyard. Shi Qingluo asked Mother Xiao, “Mother, did anything great happen recently?”

“Were you guys bullied?” This was what she was more worried about.

Mother Xiao held her hand and smiled. “Nothing much. The three of us are doing quite well.”

She paused for a moment before saying, “Previously, the Wu family wanted to do something bad to our family’s workshop, but they were stopped by the chief and the villagers.

“Your father also came over to help.

“By the way, the villagers have already finished plowing the land on the mountain beside our old house.

“Baili and I have planted all the seeds that you left behind.

“The villagers have also helped to plant all the fruit trees on the mountain of the Taoist temple.”

Shi Qingluo asked with a smile, “They helped so much?”

Mother Xiao nodded. “Yes, they said that you led the entire village to earn money together.

“Everyone in the cement workshop gets a share of the profit every month. They are grateful, so they insisted on coming over to help.”

Shi Qingluo nodded. “Then let them be.”

This was the reason why she had taken out the cement and asked the villagers to start the workshop together.

Although there was a saying that the poor and unruly were the result of their poor attitude, most of the villagers actually led very simple lifestyles.

They had their own problems within their house, but there were also quite a number of cases where they helped each other.

She had tied the interests of her family and the villagers together.

Since she and her husband had matters to attend to outside of the village, the villagers naturally took the initiative to step forward to help.

When they were not at home, the chief led the villagers to block the Wu family and came to help to plow the land and plant fruit trees.

This meant that she was not wrong.

Most of the villagers in the village remembered her past efforts.

Shi Qingluo asked, “Mother, where’s Erlang?”

Mother Xiao smiled and said, “He hasn’t returned from his studies from our clan’s school.”

Because of the Xiao family’s workshop, tofu, and cement workshops, Xiaxi village became more and more popular.

The chief and other elders discussed building a clan school.

In other words, they invited Tongsheng to teach the children in their clan how to read.

Of course, it wasn’t free, but it was much cheaper than sending them to the school outside.

They didn’t need to leave the village.

Xiao Hanzheng also supported it, so he told the chief that Erlang would go to the clan school.

But he didn’t expect the clan school to be built so quickly.

They only started building it when they left.

“That’s good.”

Shi Qingluo took out the gifts she bought and gave them to the two of them.

Mother Xiao and Xiao Baili both liked them very much.

After Xiao Hanzheng sent Mr Hou back, he chatted with the two of them again.

When Erlang heard that his brother and sister-in-law had returned, he ran home immediately after school.

Now that the food at home was good, he had become much sturdier, and his stature had also grown a lot.

His personality was also becoming more and more cheerful.

He was very happy to receive the gift that Shi Qingluo had brought from the capital.

After the meal, he even brought it out to share it with his friends in the village.

The next day, Xiao Hanzheng and his servant went to visit the chief’s house.

Then, they went back and toured around their family’s workshop.

Shi Qingluo stayed at the workshop to check on the latest accounts, while Xiao Hanzheng sat not far away and read a book.

After reading for a while, Bai Xu arrived.

He walked in with Number Four and exclaimed, “You guys are finally back!”

Shi Qingluo looked up. “You’re well-informed.”

Bai Xu poured himself a cup of tea. “You and your wife are now celebrities in the county. I knew that you guys were back yesterday.”

He looked at Xiao Hanzheng and asked, “I heard that an enke is coming soon?”

Xiao Hanzheng put down the book. “Yes, it’s already confirmed that it will begin in March.”

He asked, “You’re going to take the exam?”

Bai Xu shook her head. “I’m not going to take the exam. If I can become an elementary scholar, my ancestors’ graves will be smoking. Being a high scholar is too far away from me and I can’t reach this goal.”

Shi Qingluo chuckled. “You know yourself well.

“Since you’re not going to take the exam, why are you so concerned about enke?”

Bai Xu answered truthfully, “I’m not concerned about enke. I’m concerned about how long you can stay in Nanxi county.

“After the enke and if Brother Xiao continues to rise up the rank, I’m afraid you won’t be in Nanxi county next year.”

Shi Qingluo nodded. “That’s true.”

She asked, “What are your plans?”

Bai Xu chuckled. “I’m ready to follow you and your husband.”

“Nanxi county is too small. I want to go out and take a look.”

This was something that he had thought about carefully.

Shi Qingluo raised her eyebrows. “You have good taste.”

Bai Xu was speechless.

This woman was still so confident and shameless.