Zhao Hanzhang came to provide a demonstration and, by the way, encourage the common people to actively participate—officials and commoners celebrating together.
Seeing that Zhu Chuan and the gentry young masters had also come, she expressed her welcome. She even pulled Fu Tinghan over to join the excitement, encouraging them, “Why don’t you young masters guess some riddles too?”
The young masters glanced at the riddles whose answers could be seen at a glance, shook their heads and refused. Never mind—they’d rather not compete with commoners for profit.
With such simple riddles, winning wouldn’t be worth boasting about. But if they lost, that would truly be embarrassing.
Zhao Hanzhang didn’t insist. She said to Zhao Kuan, “Brother Kuan, smile more.”
Under Zhao Ming’s cold threatening gaze, Zhao Kuan forced out a smile.
Zhao Hanzhang was satisfied and turned sideways, “Uncle, shall we return to the county yamen to rest?”
Zhao Ming refused. He was just giving Zhao Hanzhang face by coming to look around and express the Zhao clan’s attitude. Now that he’d looked, he should return.
However, before leaving, he still turned to Fu Tinghan and said, “You should practice pot-throwing more. You’ll need it for banquets in the future.”
Fu Tinghan had no intention of continuing with this game for which he had no talent. He said, “I’ll practice archery.”
“Archery and pot-throwing are different.”
“Yes,” Fu Tinghan expressed agreement, “Archery can also be used on the battlefield to kill enemies. Pot-throwing is just a game.”
Zhao Ming choked for a moment and asked, “Do you use this to evaluate whether you should learn a skill?”
Fu Tinghan nodded, “I have no interest in it, and it’s useless. Why should I learn it?”
Zhao Ming couldn’t speak for a long while. “You… weren’t you happy when throwing pots?”
Fu Tinghan shook his head, “I didn’t feel happy.”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled and said, “That’s because you haven’t won. Once you win, and then lose again, experiencing the joy of competition, you’ll naturally like it.”
Fu Tinghan spread his hands, “But I just haven’t won once. It seems fate doesn’t want me to learn this skill.”
He said with a smile, “But I really enjoy watching you throw pots.”
Zhao Hanzhang proudly raised her head and said to him, “I’ll throw for you to watch in the future. I can even teach you. Your angle won’t have problems—you just haven’t controlled your strength…”
Zhao Ming looked at the two of them with mixed feelings, shook his head and said, “You two play. I’ll head back first.”
Xiping County was filled with joy and celebration. The county yamen didn’t refuse people from outside the county to participate in activities, and didn’t even limit the number of times.
So as long as you queued up, you could participate in one game in an endless loop, regardless of whether you were from Xiping County.
Chen Fang’s daughter quickly discovered this and began cycling through the queue at the needle-threading station. Each time she went up to compete, her speed was always a bit faster than the last time. On her third attempt, she finally won a reward—a small bag of wheat flour.
She was overjoyed and ran to the back of the queue again.
She won again. This time the reward was soybean oil. They had brought jars with them when they came, so she waved to her mother in the distance, who came with the jar to pour in the oil.
Each reward was one bamboo tube of soybean oil. Adding a little when cooking vegetables was much better than before when they just boiled things in plain water with only a bit of salt.
This bamboo tube of soybean oil was enough for the family to use for half a month.
The originally empty jar now had a tube of oil, covering the bottom. It finally didn’t look so empty anymore.
Mother Chen was very happy and encouraged her daughter, “Well done. Go queue up again and keep competing in this.”
Miss Chen Jiao nodded vigorously and ran to queue up again.
Yi Gui was different. She led a group of younger brothers and sisters to sweep through everything. She queued for every competition. If she knew how to do something, she tried her best. Sometimes she won, sometimes she lost.
If she didn’t know how, she learned on the spot. Anyway, she played everything. After this wild spree of playing, she had also won quite a few things.
But she was an orphan from Yushan Hall, so these rice, flour, grain, and oil were useless to take with her. So she divided these things in two—one portion larger, one smaller.
The smaller portion she gave to Miss Chen Si. The larger portion she took to the county yamen.
She peeked around in the county yamen. In the huge yamen, there was only one old guard watching the gate room.
Seeing she was a young lady, he shuffled over and asked, “What are you doing running here? The games are outside.”
The activity venue was set up in the large open space outside the county yamen. Zhao Hanzhang liked to call it a plaza.
At this time, it extended all the way to the main street, filled with bustling crowds—extremely lively.
But the county yamen not far away was very quiet. The guards and officials had all gone out to organize activities and maintain order, and no one dared come into the yamen, so only the old guard was there alone.
Yi Gui lifted her basket of things and asked somewhat timidly, “Isn’t the Young Lady in the yamen?”
Now in Xiping County, the only person who could be called “Young Lady” by everyone was Zhao Hanzhang alone, so the old guard didn’t ask which young lady. He said directly, “She’s outside playing. Didn’t you see her?”
Yi Gui shook her head.
The old guard waved his hand, “Go on, go on. Go find her outside.”
Yi Gui hesitated for a moment, then handed over the basket, “These are rice, flour, grain, and oil I won. Could you deliver them to the Young Lady for me?”
“The Young Lady doesn’t allow us to accept things from you all. You should take them back and eat them yourselves.”
“I’m from Yushan Hall. My food and lodging are all provided by the Young Lady. These things have no use if I take them back. Please help me deliver them to the Young Lady.”
Hearing she was from Yushan Hall, the old guard hesitated for a moment, but still accepted them. “I’ll pass them on for you, but whether the Young Lady accepts them or not, I don’t know.”
Zhao Hanzhang was talking with Chen Fang and several other village chiefs.
Zhao Hanzhang hadn’t expected that people from Xiajiao Village, which was so far away, would come to the county seat to participate in activities. She expressed great appreciation for their enthusiasm.
Chen Fang’s face flushed slightly as he said excitedly, “People in the village all wanted to buy New Year goods. Hearing there were activities in the county seat and that we could see the Young Lady if we came, they all came.”
Zhao Hanzhang hadn’t expected she’d become a walking advertisement. She asked, “What do you want to see me for?”
Chen Fang grinned foolishly, “Nothing really. Seeing that the Young Lady is well puts our minds at ease.”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled and nodded, “I’m doing well. Now that it’s cold, you all need to take care of your health too. After spring begins, we’ll still need you to cultivate the land.”
The village chief and clan elder from Shangjiao Village quietly squeezed forward. From far away, Qian Jin recognized Zhao Hanzhang and pointed her out to the village chief and others.
The village chief squeezed forward, hesitating to speak several times, but it wasn’t appropriate to speak in front of everyone. When Zhao Hanzhang finally finished dealing with the village chiefs and was about to leave, the village chief immediately stepped forward.
Qiu Wu glanced at him, turned his scabbard around, and placed his hand on the sword hilt.
Zhao Hanzhang glanced at him, then smiled and greeted the village chief, “Which village are you from, elder?”
The village chief said embarrassedly, “I’m from Shangjiao Village…”
Zhao Hanzhang immediately said, “So you’re from a friendly village! Did you come to buy New Year goods or specifically to participate in activities?”
The village chief hurriedly said, “Both, both…”
He looked very troubled. Zhao Hanzhang assumed a listening posture.
Only then did the village chief ask dryly, “Young Lady, you previously took in refugees. I wonder if you’re still accepting them now?”
Zhao Hanzhang saw that his left cheek was engraved with “If you accept them, I’ll go back and become a refugee,” and his right cheek read “Say yes, say yes.” The words she was about to say got stuck in her throat.
She had promised Ji Yuan to take it easy and not make a move on Shangcai County for now.
—