Chapter 262: Life Must Slow Down To Be Savored
Trivial family life has now become Yun Ce’s source of sense of happiness.
Marrying two women as wives at once, and even making the two women almost pregnant at the same time, Yun Ce knew that his good days were probably over.
But a young man living in the ancestral land, who could resist the temptation of legally marrying two wives? It’s not like he couldn’t afford it.
When reading ancient books, it often appeared in the books that the female head of the household, when she grew old and faded, would proactively take concubines for her husband. The man was clearly overjoyed but furrowed his brows and said he had no time, letting the wife handle it…
Clearly bullying women, yet stubbornly described as virtuous and benevolent. Yun Ce had once criticized such immoral things, but after closing the book, scenes of leaning on red and nestling against green occasionally appeared in his brain.
Arriving in the Great Han, far away from Yun Linchuan, far away from the people he knew, and far away from the law of the ancestral land, Yun Ce felt no moral guilt at all about marrying two wives.
It was really just as Doggy said, Yun Ce’s moral bottom line was actually quite low.
The hardest time to serve a woman is during pregnancy. Many young men in the ancestral land were still rushing around in the middle of the night for their only pregnant wife’s craving to inhale tractor exhaust, while Yun Ce felt that being trapped in the middle of the bed by two big-bellied women, unable to move, unable to speak, unable to have a heartbeat, unable to breathe, wasn’t a big deal.
At least, there was still a bed to sleep on, right?
When fully entering personal life, the grand narrative was very far away from him.
1 Whether it was the turbulence in Chang’an, the storms in Luoyang, or the changes at Iron Enclosure Pass, they suddenly seemed far away in the ninth heaven. Even something like Cao Kun’s father preparing to convene the Eastern Vassals Conference in Qiuhe City couldn’t make Yun Ce nervous.
1 History is so strange. Perhaps because they were of the same clan, many things that had already happened in the ancestral land vaguely showed signs of happening again in the Great Han.
1 After the Zhou Son of Heaven waned, the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period took the stage. Cao Kun’s family was now playing the role of the first Hegemon among the Five Hegemons of the Spring and Autumn period—Duke Huan of Qi.
1 If it were just similarities, that would be fine. But after Cao Kun’s father proposed the familiar slogan of “Revere the King and Repel the Barbarians” to the Eastern Vassals attending the meeting in Qiuhe City, Yun Ce was certain that Cao Kun’s father was the famous Duke Huan of Qi, because back then, when Duke Huan of Qi gathered the Eastern Vassals for a meeting, he had said exactly that.
1 The so-called “Revere the King” meant revering the Great Han imperial family and upholding the authority of the Zhou Son of Heaven.
1 The so-called “Repel the Barbarians” meant resisting and excluding the Gui Fang people’s invasions against the Eastern Vassals.
1 Yun Ce had naturally studied this history. “Revere the King” was a noble cause of upholding orthodoxy and civilization, something that could be openly stated and used to package oneself as a righteous person.
1 In reality, they just wanted to use the banner of “Revere the King” to tell all the vassal lords that he respected the imperial family, so when he began to crusade against the disloyal, he was acting on behalf of the Great Han Emperor’s authority and was just.
1 Meaning, it’s just if I hit you, but wrong if you hit me.
1 “Repel the Barbarians” was even more interesting. The Gui Fang disaster had a great relationship with all the Eastern Vassals. If everyone could unite and confront the Gui Fang together, it would benefit every vassal lord.
2 Using this banner to unite the Eastern Vassals and establish one’s own image as a leader.
2 Yun Ce thought this was a good thing. After all, in the history books, Duke Huan of Qi did many things that a big brother should do at this time, such as leading the allied forces to “strike Mountain Rong in the north and attack Chu State in the south,” steadfastly protecting small states like Xing and Wei, showing quite the demeanor of a big brother.
2 Thus, Liang Kun and Feng An actively advised Yun Ce to take advantage of the time when their own Eastern big brother was easiest to talk to, sell off the mountain of grain and goods piled up at home, and by the way, introduce more merchants into Xiangcheng.
2 Yun Ce thought it very reasonable and specially approved one hundred taels of gold for Liang Kun to purchase gifts and go to Qiuhe City to present them to the Cao Clan.
2 In the morning, when Yun Ce carried a basket to feed the chickens, he suddenly remembered that Cao Kun hadn’t come to the Yun Clan for a long time. Could it be that he didn’t miss the saizi noodles and oil-splashed noodles from the Yun Clan at all?
2 Thinking about it, Cao Kun should be very busy at this time. After all, his third brother and ninth brother had been developing fiercely recently. Lingzhou’s He Tian became the first target selected after the Cao Clan’s alliance. His third brother and ninth brother were now attacking cities and seizing territory in Lingzhou. It was said that in less than half a month, they had taken six cities in Lingzhou, and now they had surrounded Lingzhou City so tightly that not even water could leak through, about to establish an unprecedented achievement.
2 The most rare thing was that they were also meticulous, even considering the pregnancy of a nobody like Yun Ce’s wife, sending good medicinal materials for preventing miscarriage from thousands of miles away.
2 Just didn’t know if Cao Kun had used the radioactive material on his father and several formidable younger brothers. If news came recently of Cao Kun’s father or his brothers suddenly dying violently, it would mean he had used it.
2 Considering this, Yun Ce threw all the fetal protection medicines sent by Cao Kun’s younger brothers into the Qingshui River. If the big belly were in the ancestral land, Yun Ce would even unplug the neighbor’s internet cable, let alone these medicinal materials that might have been near a radioactive source.
2 Yun Ce fed the chickens just to steal eggs. After scattering half a basket of chicken feed, those chickens about as tall as him ran over to peck at it, and Yun Ce took the opportunity to get three huge eggs.
3 The eggs were very fresh, probably laid last night or early this morning. One of them still felt a bit warm to the touch, probably just laid, but unfortunately, the other two were somewhat cold.
3 This naturally wouldn’t do. If Yun Ce dared to use one warm egg and one cold egg to make fried eggs, then who would eat the fried egg from the warm one, and who would eat the fried egg from the cold one, that would be a big problem.
3 Eggs would heat up in the oil pan, Yun Ce’s worry was like farting with pants off, but Yun Ce just had to take off his pants to fart, otherwise the trouble would be even bigger.
3 At this time, naturally, he had to invite out the shehuo big brother for a bit, striving to make the temperatures of the two eggs the same. As for the other one that Yun Ce was going to eat, it didn’t matter even if it was a rotten egg.
3 One egg weighed four or five jin, beaten into egg liquid about one or two jin. Yun Ce first threw a heart-shaped frame into the pan, then added oil and heated it, finally pouring the egg liquid into that new frame. After one side set, he removed the frame and flipped it to fry the other side.
3 Yun Ce confirmed the two fried eggs were identical. One of the fried ones was slightly overdone earlier, so he specially put the other fried egg back in the pan for a bit.
3 When the two portions of fried eggs were placed in front of the two big-bellied women at the same time, and Yun Ce looked at the equal amount of chopped green onion on the fried eggs and felt very satisfied, he suddenly heard Zhang Min say.
3 “Why is it that she says she wants fried egg and you make fried egg? I clearly said I wanted boiled egg.”
3 Looking at Zhang Min’s angry eyes, he really wanted to grab this stinky woman by the neck, slam her hard on the ground, smash her hard. Heavens, when had she ever said she wanted boiled egg? He had just asked in the morning and she said fried egg.
3 Fortunately, Yun Ce was prepared early and took out the boiled egg he had made for himself, placing it in front of Zhang Min like offering a treasure: “This fried egg is mine, yours is naturally boiled egg.”
4 After saying that, he used internal breath to make the boiled egg spin on his finger, then used fingers infused with internal breath to forcefully dig through the hard eggshell. Only after peeling the eggshell clean did he place it in front of Zhang Min.
4 Yun Ce had already thought about it. If this stinky woman dared to say again that she wanted the egg with shell, he would…
4 Zhang Min cut open the boiled egg with a knife, dug a bit of egg yolk with a spoon, fed it into Yun Ce’s mouth, and grinned: “That’s right, I said I wanted boiled egg.”
4 Last night he saw Zhang Min’s frighteningly large belly, the veins on the belly clearly visible, the child inside kicking from time to time, bulging the belly into bumps one after another. It made Yun Ce very worried that the child’s next kick would break through the belly.
4 A woman who practiced martial arts quite well, now had to go to the toilet every little while, her originally fair and delicate small feet now swollen with pits when pressed.
4 E Ji’s condition wasn’t much better. Last night she even dreamed that her son was playing dragon claw in her belly, actually slashing her belly open, and cried half the night because of it.
4 After Zhang Min fed him, E Ji would definitely feed him too. Yun Ce had just finished the egg yolk when he ate a big bite of fried egg. Before he could swallow the fried egg, another bite of egg white was in his mouth.
4 So, Yun Ce’s breakfast was one boiled egg and one fried egg. As for Zhang Min and E Ji, the two of them eventually turned hostility into friendship and shared one fried egg.
4 After finishing breakfast, Yun Ce went to inspect the camp again. At this time, the camp appeared much more orderly, and the people living inside also looked much cleaner.
4 Lei Ming led thirty-five younger brothers and sisters riding horses galloping through the camp. Seeing Yun Ce coming, he stopped the horse and said: “Lord, another ten younger brothers and sisters have shown signs of internal breath surging.”
5 Yun Ce smiled and nodded: “I know. Tomorrow night, we’ll induce qi into their bodies for them. By the way, you’ve grown up now and can go back to visit your parents.”
5 Lei Ming laughed: “We did, gave them some money.”
5 Yun Ce asked other children: “Have you gone home?”
5 A little girl in a pink jacket said: “They want money, not people, so giving money is fine.”
5 Lei Ming said again: “Now I wish I could grow up overnight to share the Lord’s worries. I don’t want to think too much about other things. Lord, I will keep watching the younger brothers and sisters in the youth academy. If there are any more with surging breath, I will tell the Lord immediately, so we can build our army early.”
5 Yun Ce laughed: “Practice martial arts well with Qin Shu and the others. My martial art can’t be used by you, and I can’t teach it.”
5 Lei Ming said: “We are practicing very hard, but there are no targets to kill, so we can’t cultivate the killing intent that General Qin Shu mentioned.”
5 “Take it slow, it will come. What are you here for?”
5 The girl in the pink jacket said: “We’re here to look at this group of useless people, to firmly remember their useless appearance and swear not to let ourselves fall to this state.”
