Are you going to rebel?

  After Zhang's family matter was over, life returned to normal. Young master Ma Zhi-xiong took his fifteen knife hands and went back to Xi'an prefecture to run the rice store. He handed over the household matters to the useless second young master, who in fact let Ma Qian-jiu manage, while the second young master just hung a nominal name but did nothing. The second young madam maintained her separate living arrangement with the second young master, living in a small courtyard, quarreling with him every day, and the third young miss continued to be a lady who was raised in a deep boudoir without anyone recognizing her.

  The Ma family regained their calm, but the surroundings were not calm. All kinds of news about Zheng Yanfu and his gang spread from village to village.

  Zheng Yanfu listened to Zhu Yuanzhang's words, and after reuniting once on Tiger Head Mountain, they dispersed again and ran to the Dongziya gathering point at the intersection of Chengcheng and Baishui. However, after this reunion, he did not listen to Zhu Yuanzhang's words and run into Huanglong Mountain, but instead settled down in Dongziya. The nearby thieves, robbers, and mountain bandits flocked to his side, and soon there were more than 400 people.

  Rumors began to circulate in the countryside that government troops were going to launch a large-scale crackdown on bandits. A villager's brother was a soldier in Xi'an Prefecture, and he swore that the soldiers in Xi'an Prefecture had already received orders to mobilize troops and would soon arrive at the mountain forest at the border of Chengcheng and Baishui to search for Zheng Yanfu and his gang, and take them all to Xi'an Prefecture to be executed in the vegetable market.

  Along with the news, a story about Zhu's bravery in protecting Zhang's servant also spread. The story was told in both Chengcheng and Baishui counties, then spread to tea houses and villages in both counties, further boosting Zhu's reputation.

  Spring has passed quickly, and early summer is here!

  A hot wind swept across the fields, and the farmers in the fields straightened up, their faces covered with sweat. This year's rainfall was very scarce, and only two or three small rains fell throughout the spring, without even wetting the ground, before stopping altogether. By summer, the situation had become even more severe, with the earth cracking open with fissure after fissure, like a porcelain vase that had been dropped on the ground without breaking, but producing many cracks that spread out in all directions along its surface.

  The water level of the Baishui River has dropped again, making it even more difficult to irrigate the fields by drawing water from the river. Now, the long workers in Ma's family have to travel back and forth between the fields and the Baishui River countless times every day. Zhu Yuanzhang specially organized a group of long workers who do nothing but carry water from dawn till dusk, barely maintaining the amount of water needed for irrigation.

  Zhu Yuanzhang was inspecting the fields when farm workers would occasionally lift their heads to greet him.

  "Zhu Ba Ge, good morning..."

  "Zhu Ba Ge, are you patrolling our area today?"

  "Zhu Ba Ge, this year is like this, it seems like there will be a great drought..." This was said by an experienced old farmer.

  "Hmm, it seems like it's going to be a severe drought. Our place is still okay, being close to the Baishui River, but other places might be in trouble." An old farmer said in a low voice: "The fields of Zhang family in Cheng City are now abandoned and many tenants have fled. I heard they went to the mountains to become vagrants. The second young mistress is in a bad mood, yesterday she had a big fight with the second young master, we could even hear their quarrel from our side of the courtyard."

  "When will those two not quarrel?" A young farmer laughed and said, "A couple should be quarreling in bed and making up at the foot of the bed. Since these two don't sleep on the same bed, they have no way to make up once they start quarreling."

  "Haha, look what you're saying... Second Young Mistress has a bad temper, but she's still a good person and is nice to the servants. Don't speak ill of her behind her back. If you want to talk about Second Young Master, that's okay, I'll pretend I didn't hear it."

  The peasants were busy in the fields, chatting and laughing with each other.

  Zhu Yuanzhang walked around in a circle, and Li Chunjiu came up to him with a lowered voice, saying: "Brother Zhu Ba, the people from Xigou Village have arrived, they have something to ask for your help..."

  "Oh? Xigou Village?" Zhu Yuanchang was all too familiar with this name. After reincarnation, almost everything that happened was because of a fight in Xigou Village. He didn't expect the village to come knocking on his door again. He couldn't help but ask: "Didn't Xigou Village get sent to the Shi family? What do they want from me?"

  "I don't know either, they won't tell me." Li Chujiao said in a low voice: "Why not drive them away? They are after all people from the Shi family, and now that we've seen them, it's probably not good to spread the word."

  "It doesn't matter, what's wrong with spreading it around? At most, Second Master will be unhappy." Zhu Yuanzhang said lightly: "Whether he is happy or not, I don't care. Tell the people from Xigou Village to come to my room."

  He quickly returned to his own courtyard, waiting for the people of Xigou Village to come and see him. Having moved into the management house for several months, the things in the room had slowly increased, originally there was only a square table, a few stools, and a set of tea sets in the living room. Now on the table, however, there was an additional small earthenware vase, with a few blooming morning glories inserted inside, which were arranged by several maids who liked Zhu Yuanzhang.

  Since Third Miss returned to the Ma family, she seemed to have some reservations about women's marriages not being their own decisions. So she strongly encouraged the maids around her to pursue the people they liked. This group of maids, under Miss's encouragement, became more and more aggressive, running into Zhu Yuanzhang's room every day to "help clean", the table wiped by Xiaohua in the morning would be wiped again by Xiaoyu in the afternoon, and by evening Xiaocao would come over to wipe it again...

  The small vase on the table doesn't know which girl brought it, every day changing flowers non-stop. In the morning, it's wild lilies, in the afternoon, it becomes jasmine, and by evening, it has changed to rape flowers... It's amazing how capable they are, even in this drought-stricken year, they can still pick flowers from the mountain slope.

  The teapot was always full of water, and it was warm. Once it got cold, the maid would immediately come to replace it with hot water, and she looked forward to exchanging a few words with Zhu Yuanzhang when she came to change the water.

  This passionate offensive has harmed people, and now, except for sleeping, Zhu Yuanzhang does not dare to return home easily. Otherwise, there are always women turning around him. He is not good at dealing with women, so he simply hides outside.

  Sure, here is the translation:

  As expected, he returned to the small hut and sat for less than an incense stick's time before someone from Xigou Village arrived. However, it was a maid who rushed in first, holding a stack of clean clothes, which she placed on his table, saying softly: "Zhu Ba Ge, I took your clothes to wash without permission the day before yesterday, are you not angry? Now I've brought them back for you."

  Is it Xiaohua, Xiaocao, Xiayu, Xiao Hong or Xiao Qing? Zhu Yuanzhang took a closer look and exclaimed, "Ah! This maid is actually Qiuye, the one from the Zhang family!"

  "What are you doing here?" Zhu Yuanzhang was slightly surprised. If it were any of the maids from the Ma family, Zhu Yuanzhang wouldn't have been surprised. But since it's a maid from the Zhang family, this is truly unexpected.

  Autumn leaves looked around, no one came, and then looked left and right again. The study and bedroom were also empty, so she reached into her pocket and took out a large silver ingot weighing at least twenty taels. She put the silver in Zhu Yuanzhang's hand and said softly: "This is from my family's young lady to thank you for what you did for the Zhang family. Actually, the young lady wanted to thank you long ago, but she was short of money all along. Recently, she sold a few pieces of jewelry and finally had some money."

  It was for such a trivial matter that Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but laugh and cry, wasting time on this chicken feather and garlic skin affair. He casually put the silver into his sleeve, picked up the tea water on the table and took a sip, indicating that he wanted to send off the guest: "Help me thank Second Young Madam, is there nothing else?"

  "Uh... there's something else..." Akira hesitated, her face suddenly turning bright red.

  Zhu Yuanzhang felt a bad premonition rising in his heart and spoke in a harsh tone, "If you have something to say, speak quickly, I still have things to attend to."

  "That... my young lady asked me to ask you something, do you want to find a wife..." Akira said in a very small voice: "A man should get married when he's grown up, a woman should get married when she's grown up... this... that... among the seventeen maids who came from our house, is there any one of them that you like? Just speak up, and my young lady will arrange for her to be your wife... by the way, my young lady's personal maid, also the one who accompanied my young lady when she married into the Ma family, will serve the young master in the future, so she can't be chosen."

  She hesitated for a moment, then blushed and mustered up her courage to say: "Although it doesn't include her, but it includes me..."

  Originally, Zhu Yuanzhang's protection of the Zhang family in Chengcheng had left a deep impression on these maidservants. Many of them secretly admired him, but as lowly servants, they didn't dare to hope for a high-ranking official like him, so they never showed any indication. However, after staying at the White Water Horse Inn for some time, they found out about Zhu Bajie's background - that he was originally a cowherd and still unmarried. The fact that he was from a humble cowherd background made the maidservants think they could match up with him, as their social status was somewhat compatible, and so they began to harbor thoughts of romance.

  Zhu Yuanzhang was about to spit out a mouthful of tea, and the maidservant from the Ma family was already giving him a headache. Now he had to add the maidservant from the Zhang family? Can't you women find something proper to do?

  His face sank, and he waved his hand: "I'm not interested in discussing my wife, Second Young Master's good intentions, I appreciate it."

  Qiu Ye felt Zhu Yuanzhang's displeasure and was startled, somewhat timidly saying: "You don't like any of them?"

  Zhu Yuandian waved his hand impatiently: "Go quickly, I'm not interested in discussing this with you."

  "Why doesn't anyone like me?" Akira suddenly burst into tears: "I'm not ugly, I can have children... Is it because I was stripped by a thief and lost my chastity, so you don't like me?"

  Zhu Yuanchang was depressed, what was this woman up to? Where did she get so sensitive? He looked down on all the maids, not just targeting Autumn Leaf alone, why was she crying so hard?

  "This room is unbearable...” Zhu Yuanzhang stood up, wanting to walk out, but in a while the people from Xigou Village would come to see him. Can't talk in the courtyard, right? Those people must have come for something important, and it's inconvenient outside. He had just stood up and sat back down, saying anxiously: "Autumn Leaf girl, hurry up and leave, I really have urgent matters, no time to chat with you about these things."

  Qiu Ye turned around in disappointment and slowly walked out of the room, her sobbing voice fading away, which made Zhu Yuanzhang feel annoyed.

  After another incense stick of time, Li Chunjiu walked over quickly, with nine young farmers following behind him. Although it had been several months since they last met, Zhu Yuanzhang still recognized them at a glance. These nine people were indeed villagers from Xigou Village, not very tall or big in stature, and somewhat thin and weak in body, but their spirits were good.

  Zhu Yuanzhang ushered them into the house, and in the small living room stood Zhu Yuanzhang, Li Chujiao, and nine villagers. The room was suddenly crowded, and he said casually: "Several brothers, long time no see, what brings you to find me?"

  Those nine villagers looked at each other, suddenly knelt down in unison with a thud, and said loudly: "Brother Zhu Ba, you are a man of great righteousness, we have something to ask of you."

  "Let's hear it."

  "We want to learn martial arts! Please ask Master Zhu Ba Ge to teach us boxing."

  "Hmm?" Zhu Yuanzhang felt a little curious: "What do you want to learn martial arts for?"

  "Good health and prosperity!" The villagers said with their heads bowed.

  "No, you're not here to build your bodies. Zhu Yuanzhang sneered: "When you say this, your heads are lowered, your eyes are looking at the ground, you don't dare look into my eyes, and your voices are trembling, your waists and backs are also straightened... obviously guilty..."

  "These......" Nine young people were shocked and speechless.

  Zhu Yuanzhang didn't ask them the real reason, because even if he asked, they might not say it. He just used his piercing eyes to carefully examine these nine people. These nine people had a common point, which was that they were all very young, their bodies looked very weak, as if they had been hungry for years. Their clothes were also tattered and full of holes, and hadn't been washed for a long time.

  It's clear that they are the poorest of the poor, can't even afford a wife, so no one does their laundry. When people like this suddenly want to learn martial arts, there is usually only one possibility.

  Zhu Yuanzhang lowered his voice and asked coldly: "You've learned martial arts, are you planning to use it for rebellion?"