Chapter 28
Old Madam Zhao stared at him in shock.
"You actually want to keep a shameless woman like this?"
"She spent two days with Yang Ze!"
"Who in the village won't laugh at you after this?"
"How are you supposed to show your face in public?"
Jang Un-mo quickly protested,
"I didn't spend two days with Yang Ze. I only left home for a little while."
Zhao Yongchang frowned.
"Mother, while Un-mo has been with me, there has never been any problem."
"She has never done anything improper."
Even if he didn't know much about such matters, he had at least heard what was supposed to happen on the wedding night.
And he knew there had been nothing unusual about Jang Un-mo.
"Y-you..."
Old Madam Zhao's hands shook with anger.
She only regretted that her son had arrived at the earlier confrontation so late.
He had come when the fight was already nearly over.
Then that woman Jang Un-mo shed a few pitiful tears, and he immediately fell for it.
"You've lost your mind!"
"Your wife admitted she had something going on with another man!"
"And at the time, she was already promised to you!"
Old Madam Zhao was practically roaring.
But Zhao Yongchang remained unmoved.
He also believed it was true that Jang Un-mo had once had some kind of relationship with Yang Ze.
He was angry about it.
He simply didn't think it was enough reason to drive her out of the family.
"Mother, if we send Un-mo away, Xiaoyang and Xiaoshan will lose their real mother."
Zhao Yang and Zhao Shan immediately began crying and calling for their grandmother at just the right moment.
Zhao Yongchang continued,
"The most important thing for me right now is to study hard."
"If I become a xiucai in the future, no one will dare laugh at me."
"Compared to what Un-mo did, isn't the fact that I still haven't passed the examination after all these years an even bigger joke?"
"I don't want this matter to become any larger."
"The most important thing is for me to study quietly and pass next year's examination."
"Un-mo has already suffered a serious lesson this time."
"She won't do it again."
When Old Madam Zhao saw the exhausted look on her son's face, she could no longer keep scolding him.
She knew what people in the village said behind his back.
They mocked Zhao Yongchang for growing older without becoming a xiucai and said he would be better off giving up his studies and farming instead.
Her son must have been carrying a great deal of pressure too.
Her lips moved, but in the end she said nothing.
However, her resentment toward Jang Un-mo only deepened.
How impressive.
She had bewitched her simple, kindhearted son so thoroughly that he was willing to overlook something this serious.
Jang Un-mo had no idea what Old Madam Zhao was thinking.
The moment Zhao Yongchang said he wouldn't drive her out, all the strength left her body.
She collapsed onto the floor in relief.
Then she hurriedly promised,
"Mother, don't worry."
"I'll serve my husband properly from now on."
"I'll also be filial to you."
"Enough."
Old Madam Zhao had no intention of accepting such words.
"Having a daughter-in-law like you, it would already count as filial piety if you didn't shorten my life."
After saying that, she stormed out of the room.
The other members of the Zhao family who were still there kept silent and quietly left as well.
Meanwhile, the other Zhao daughters-in-law gathered together in the back and began whispering.
"Fifth Brother really is something."
"He can even forgive this."
Old Madam Zhao had given birth to many children.
She had five sons and three daughters.
Zhao Yongchang was the youngest son and also the most favored child.
Naturally, that favoritism had unintentionally harmed the interests of his elder siblings.
Zhao Yongchang had failed the Imperial Examinations again and again.
His wife, Jang Un-mo, also disliked working.
The only reason everyone had kept quiet was because Jang Un-mo regularly brought things back from her maiden family, so the rest of the household benefited too, and because Old Madam Zhao suppressed any complaints.
But behind closed doors, there had always been plenty of dissatisfaction.
So now it was only natural that everyone had something to say.
"Fifth Brother might not care, but Mother definitely will."
One daughter-in-law laughed.
She understood her mother-in-law's personality very well.
The others thought the same.
"She's going to have a hard time from now on."
"Forget having a hard time. It would be best if Fifth Sister-in-law finally had to work like the rest of us."
They had all married into the Zhao family as daughters-in-law.
Yet only Jang Un-mo had been allowed to live comfortably.
Naturally, the others resented it.
The villagers kept waiting for news, but nothing happened at the Zhao household.
As time passed, the Zhao family simply continued with their daily work as though nothing had happened.
Everyone understood immediately.
The Zhao family had no intention of driving Jang Un-mo out.
"Has Zhao Yongchang studied so much that something went wrong with his head? He can tolerate this?"
Someone else spoke as though they understood the Zhao family's reasoning.
"Jang Un-mo has given birth to two children, after all. They have to think about the children."
"Even if they think about the children, this isn't something a man should tolerate."
What man could endure something like this?
"But look at the Zhao family's situation."
"They have a huge household and they're poor."
"If they drive Jang Un-mo out, how is Zhao Yongchang supposed to marry again?"
A man with two children wasn't exactly someone most women wanted to marry.
And Zhao Yongchang wasn't considered an especially desirable husband in the village anymore.
He hadn't become a xiucai.
His family was poor.
Yet he still had high standards.
If he drove Jang Un-mo out, he might end up a widower for life.
At least the Jang family regularly sent Jang Un-mo things.
Everyone knew that.
So the villagers began joking loudly.
"Looks like the Jang family is going to have to bleed quite a bit more silver from now on!"
Naturally, Jang Un-chu also learned what the Zhao family had decided to do with Jang Un-mo.
She wasn't surprised by the result.
Jang Un-mo had always been good with words.
Convincing Zhao Yongchang was probably child's play for her.
She had been reborn and had already spent several years living with him.
Besides, Zhao Yongchang wasn't exactly a decisive person.
But Jang Un-chu also knew something else.
No matter how skillfully Jang Un-mo turned black into white, she wouldn't be able to change Old Madam Zhao's feelings.
What mother-in-law could tolerate a daughter-in-law who had behaved improperly while promised to her beloved son?
Especially when Zhao Yongchang was Old Madam Zhao's favorite child.
Jang Un-mo's suffering had only just begun.
Jang Un-chu couldn't help smiling.
The next morning, Gang Gye woke up and checked in as usual.
Today, instead of thinking about a treatment for his father's leg, he focused on onion seeds.
He had previously received onions, cilantro, and cilantro seeds as check-in rewards.
The only thing still missing was onion seeds.
Cilantro and onions were both needed for making spicy konjac.
If lightly fried in oil, they would infuse the oil with fragrance.
Using that oil when seasoning the dish would make it much more delicious.
The step might seem insignificant, but if he wanted the best possible flavor, it couldn't be ignored.
It was also one way to make their product taste different from everyone else's.
But he couldn't keep making excuses every time he suddenly produced ingredients like these.
The best solution was to grow them at home and become self-sufficient.
And this season happened to be a good time to plant onions.
Cilantro could be planted throughout the year, and he already had seeds for it.
Everything fit perfectly.
At the same time, Gang Gye wanted to continue testing the characteristics of the Attendance System.
And sure enough...
He received onion seeds as today's reward.
When he had thought about meat buns before, he had gotten meat buns.
This time, he thought about onion seeds and received onion seeds.
It seemed that when the thing he wanted had relatively low value, it was easier to influence the reward.
But something like a prescription capable of treating his father's leg was much more valuable, so naturally the difficulty would be much higher.
Still, if he kept trying, perhaps one day he would receive something related to it.
Now that he had obtained what he urgently needed, Gang Gye decided that whenever he had no other pressing goal, he would continue thinking about a way to heal his father's leg whenever he checked in.
If he kept at it long enough, perhaps it would eventually work.
As usual, by the time the children woke, washed their faces, and prepared to eat, the adults had already been working for quite a while.
After breakfast, Gang Gye planned to walk around outside and think of a natural way to bring out the onions and cilantro.
They would soon begin making the spicy konjac.
They couldn't be missing important aromatics.
But just as Gang Gye stood up from the table, Old Madam Gang brought up the konjac.
"Little Six, all the huiyu slices are dry now."
"Can we make the food you were talking about?"
Gang Gye stopped and nodded seriously.
"Yes."
"First, we need to grind the dried huiyu into powder."
"Then sift it twice so the powder becomes very fine."
"That way, when we make the huiyu, it'll look smoother and have a better texture."
"After grinding it, we can make it the same way people usually do."
"But don't add too much lye water."
"If there's too much, the lye taste will be too strong and it won't taste good."
"All right."
Old Madam Gang agreed readily.
Those steps were simple enough.
"We'll do that much first."
"Once we're finished, tell us what comes next."
Old Madam Gang was worried that hearing too many steps at once might confuse her.
This was work meant to earn money.
She absolutely had to be careful.
After explaining everything, Gang Gye refused Howa's invitation to go graze the ox and practice with slingshots.
He waved the book in his hand.
"I'm going to read outside for a while."
"Then I'll come find you and the others later."
"All right."
Howa didn't care much.
There were plenty of children in the household.
Even if Gang Gye didn't come, he still had other brothers and sisters to play with.
Besides, Gang Gye was so young that he hadn't usually followed them around much in the past anyway.
Old Madam Gang repeatedly warned him,
"Don't go too far."
"And don't go up the mountain."
"There are man-eating tigers and poisonous snakes up there. It's very dangerous, understand?"
Gang Gye burst out laughing at her attempt to scare him.
"I understand, Grandma."
"I won't go to the mountain."
"I'll just walk around the main road in the village."
"Good. The main road is fine."
Old Madam Gang smiled in satisfaction.
The village children were always running around everywhere.
As long as they didn't go into the mountains or near the river, the adults generally didn't worry.
Gang Gye was also naturally obedient, so Old Madam Gang trusted him even more and didn't feel the need to watch him personally.
There were people working in fields all around the village anyway.
Nothing was likely to happen.
After leaving the house, Gang Gye didn't go far.
He found a quiet place and genuinely read for a while.
He reviewed what he had learned before and even used a stick to practice writing characters in the dirt.
Then he began thinking about how to bring out the onions and cilantro naturally.
Last time, he had claimed that the massage prescription came from a physician gathering herbs in the mountains.
He had also said that he had helped the physician, making it sound like an even exchange.
Technically, he could use the same excuse again.
But constantly doing that would become awkward.
After all, these were things he himself was producing.
And in the future, the family planned to make money from spicy konjac.
Unless something unexpected happened, the business would probably become one of the household's main sources of income for at least the next ten years.
Money was extremely important to ordinary people.
Gang Gye didn't want his family to constantly feel as though they owed some mysterious stranger a huge debt.
So he needed to think of another explanation.
