I feel so good after dressing up as a peasant girl

Chapter 355 Relatives from Hometown 1

The more the emperor read the two booklets, the more he admired Bai Jingzhou. He was very pleased and not only gave Bai Jingzhou some rewards, but also personally wrote the name "Qingxian" for Bai Jingzhou.

According to Mu Hanzhi, the emperor chose these two words because he believed that Bai Jingzhou "has talent and virtue, and is my lucky star."

The emperor said this loudly in front of the crown prince, several important ministers and several eunuchs. With his words, the number of officials who dared to make things difficult for Bai Jingzhou in the future would be reduced by at least 80%.

In addition, since Bai Jingzhou specifically noted in the booklet that sweet potatoes, peanuts, corn, and sunflowers were all given to them by Mu Hanzhi, and the sweet potato and bean planting methods they initially used were also given to them by Mu Hanzhi, the emperor also rewarded Mu Hanzhi, who had previously presented crops and planting methods but had not attracted any attention.

Mu Hanzhi was promoted to a higher position and received a lot of material rewards. He wrote a letter to thank Bai Jingzhou for writing his name in the "Merit Book" and told Bai Jingzhou why the emperor gave him the two words "Qingxian".

In addition to Mu Hanzhi, officials in the prefecture, state, and county where Bai Jingzhou was located also benefited from it, and received outstanding political achievements and commendations from the emperor.

After the emperor's commendation was sent to Baijia Village by the imperial envoy, Baijia Village became lively again for a while.

Bai Jingzhou didn't want to deal with strangers who came to his house with various purposes, so he used the excuse of concentrating on studying hard and simply closed the door to refuse visitors.

Gu Wenxuan couldn't stay at home, but she also didn't want to deal with the women from various families who came for profit, so she simply climbed over the wall to her parents' home every day, using her parents' home as a transit station when she ran to the mountains.

Occasionally Bai Jingzhou would go with her, but most of the time, it was only Gu Yongming, Jia Guizhi, Jia Yuelan and the Fang brothers who accompanied her into the mountains.

Time passed quietly as Bai Jingzhou studied behind closed doors and she lived freely. In a blink of an eye, Bai Jingzhou and Gu Wenxuan welcomed the sixth winter after their time travel.

The winter in Qingshan County is still very cold. After the first snow fell, Gu Wenxuan never went into the mountains again.

She no longer regarded her parents' home as a transit station on her way to the mountains, but started a hibernating life where she would hide in a warm room with her husband's family and her own family, eating and drinking well every day.

What the happy and comfortable Gu Wenxuan didn't know was that on the third day after the first snow fell, a poor relative from afar would come to her parents' home.

As mentioned before, the Gu family were not native to Baijia Village; they fled here from other places.

This poor relative of the Gu family named Gu Yongliang had come all the way from Mr. Gu’s hometown.

Mr. Gu has an uncle in his hometown, but his family did not flee with Mr. Gu's family.

After Mr. Gu's family left, most of his uncle's family passed away one after another within a short period of one year, and in the end only Gu Yongliang, who was just a half-grown child at the time, was left.

This man was the son of Mr. Gu's cousin. After all his family members died and he was the only one left, in order to survive, he agreed to be a child son-in-law to a merchant in their area.

As a helpless teenager, Gu Yongliang was often treated harshly by his parents-in-law and his future wife. Not only did he not have enough to eat or wear warm clothes every day and had countless chores to do, but he was also always used as a punching bag by his parents-in-law and his future wife, who beat and scolded him at every turn.

Gu Yongliang endured all of this silently, even when his wife asked him to be a father after he became an adult.

Although his wife married him, she always slept in a separate room from him, and she had also hooked up with a local squire early on. The three children born to Gu Yongliang and his wife were all that squire's.

But even so, the family still had no guilt at all and continued to treat him as a free slave who could be beaten and scolded and stepped on by anyone.

Gu Yongliang really couldn't stand this kind of humiliation and torture. Before he was tortured to death by his parents-in-law and the couple, he made up his mind and took the initiative to find the country gentleman's wife.

The squire rose to power through his wife's family. His wife never allowed him to have affairs outside, and naturally would not take the initiative to let him take a concubine.

The country gentleman hated his wife's jealousy, but because he still had to rely on his wife's family, he had no choice but to obey and coax his wife.

In order to have an affair, the country gentleman came up with the method of "finding a nominal husband for his mistress", so that he could satisfy himself while continuing to pretend to be devoted to his original wife at home.

His wife had a strong personality. When she found out that he was playing her for a fool, she immediately decided to give the couple a good beating.

As soon as the squire's wife took action, the squire, the family that Gu Yongliang married into, and the other two families who gave their daughters to the squire as concubines all suffered misfortune.

Gu Yongliang took the opportunity to leave that family. He relied on odd jobs and begging along the way, and found Baijia Village by asking around.

In fact, he was able to successfully find Mr. Gu's family, who had been out of contact for many years, thanks to the fact that their family is now very famous, otherwise he might not have been able to find them.

After all, the initial plan of Mr. Gu and his group was just to escape to Xingzhou, and they were not sure which county, town or village they would escape to.

Gu Yongliang asked all the way to Liulin Town in Qingshan County. Because he was asking about the three names of Gu Jin, Gu Yin and Gu Tong at the same time, he also heard a lot of strange things about Gu Jin's family in the process of inquiring.

Upon learning that Gu Jin was dead and that his family had severed ties with the second and third wives during his lifetime, and that Gu Yongwen and his mother were extremely selfish, even doing things like selling their own daughter to an old man as a concubine, Gu Yongliang simply did not go to his house.

He endured the cold and hunger and gritted his teeth to come to the second branch of the Gu family in Baijia Village.

Because he was in such a miserable state, when he knocked on the door of the Gu family, the servants guarding the gate saw that he was ragged, dirty, and skinny, and subconsciously thought he was a beggar.

The Gu family has always been friendly to beggars. Even if the beggars are in their prime, the Gu family will give them some food and old clothes when they come to beg.

The servants guarding the gate were already used to it. When they saw Gu Yongliang, who looked no different from a beggar, the old man subconsciously said, "Begging for food, huh? Wait a minute, I'll have someone go to the kitchen and get it for you."

Gu Yongliang was very embarrassed. He shook his head and said, "No, I'm not here to beg for food."

As he said this, he felt that he was actually similar to the beggars, except that others would leave after getting the food, but he wanted to stay for a long time.

Thinking of this, Gu Yongliang's face suddenly turned red with shame.