Metaphysics

"????"

Cao Jiancheng's mouth twitched as he watched his son-

Uh, what??

"Wu Qianqian, didn't you hear what Fengqi said?"

Watching from the side, Liu Chunying was delighted. She rose and stepped forward. "Never mind your exorbitant bride price. You made Fengqi go out at night and nearly got him killed. He shouldn't marry you for that alone. Stop pestering him and leave, now!"

"Ahem!"

Liu Xiuxiu coughed, a look of delight appearing on her face as well. She hurriedly said, "Miss Wu, our Fengqi doesn't want anything to do with you, so sorry for the trouble, but please stay away from him. Your Wu family is too far above our Fengqi."

"Y-you... you!!"

Wu Qianqian looked at Liu Chunying and Liu Xiuxiu, then at Cao Fengqi, whose face was full of disdain for her.

She sensed the gazes directed at her from all around and felt utterly humiliated.

"Fuck you!"

She gritted her teeth and glared at him. "Cao Fengqi, who gives a damn about a bastard like you? Do you really think I want to marry you? Plenty of people are chasing after me."

"Get lost. Get lost already. Whoever wants to marry you can have you, just don't rub your bad luck off on me."

Cao Fengqi immediately added, "Stay away from me from now on, you jinx."

"Bastard... bastard!!"

Wu Qianqian had never been treated so unfairly. She stamped her foot hard, then turned and left, her face ashen.

The girl beside her opened her mouth, then hurried after her.

Cao Fengqi watched her go and curled his lip.

"Calling a girl a jinx will completely ruin her reputation. That's going a bit too far. If the Wu family finds out, they'll definitely come demanding an explanation."

The Song couple, watching a scene completely different from what they had expected, spoke with a frown.

"What explanation do the Wus have to demand? His daughter nearly got my son killed a few days ago, and we haven't even demanded an explanation. What gives his family the right?"

Hearing that, Cao Jiancheng shot him a glance and retorted coldly.

"Mom, Dad, make sure you never let Wu Qianqian come near our home again."

Cao Fengqi ignored the Song couple and turned to caution his parents. "Sometimes you can't help believing in metaphysics. I stayed away from her for two days, and my good luck just kept coming."

"..."

"..."

His words left both of the Cao elders speechless.

They had still been wondering how to persuade their son not to marry Wu Qianqian.

How had things suddenly been turned on their head?

"We really can't let Fengqi marry Wu Qianqian. Look, has he had a single good day since he started pursuing her?"

Liu Chunying's thoughts raced, and she immediately chimed in. "Now that they've separated, everything's going smoothly for Fengqi. Maybe Wu Qianqian really does bring him bad luck."

As she spoke, she glanced at her younger brother-in-law.

Good. It's good that my brother-in-law believes in metaphysics.

Cao Jiancheng and Liu Xiuxiu nodded slightly. It did seem that Wu Qianqian brought their son some bad luck.

Given the situation, it was a double blessing.

"He can't marry her."

Cao Jiancheng's gaze grew firm. "Metaphysics really is something you have to believe in."

"That's right."

Liu Xiuxiu agreed as well, looking at her son. "Later, Mom will have someone find you a wife who's prettier and more virtuous than Wu Qianqian."

"..."

"All right, all right!"

Cao Fengqi smiled and gave a perfunctory reply, then looked at his father. "Dad, we're done eating too. Come on, let's go to the market."

"Hehe, all right."

With one worry resolved, Cao Jiancheng was in an even better mood. "You all carry on eating. Fengqi and I are going to trade for some food."

Liu Chunying watched her brother-in-law leave with the supplies, then looked at Dabao, Xiaobao, and her mother beside her. After a moment's hesitation, she said, "Mom, when we find Fengqi a wife, could we... not split up the household?"

Liu Xiuxiu looked at her and guessed some of what was on her mind.

In the past, their younger son had shown no promise, and she and her husband had even considered having him live with their daughter-in-law.

It wasn't such an absurd idea. Never mind that some people married two or three wives after the great disaster.

Even before the great disaster, there had been cases in the county where an older brother died in an accident and the younger brother formed a new family with his sister-in-law.

It wasn't particularly shameful either. On the contrary, it was a good choice for the children and the family.

But now their younger son had shown some ability. If they tried to bring the two together like that, they felt they would be doing him wrong.

Of course, there was one other, more important point: their younger son had always been rebellious and wouldn't listen to them at all.

"If we find Fengqi a wife, we'll all help him choose carefully."

Liu Xiuxiu didn't dare promise her daughter-in-law too much and said so.

Liu Chunying fell silent, no one knowing what she was thinking.

"First we'll go to the Hu Family Butcher Shop to trade for some cured meat, then to the Zhou family for some rice. Those two are hard currency nowadays, and we can use them to trade for equipment and weapons."

Cao Fengqi followed his father toward the market, and Cao Jiancheng spoke to him as they walked.

"The Hu Family Butcher Shop and the Zhou family's rice."

Cao Fengqi nodded and asked curiously, "Just how much meat and rice do the Hu Family Butcher Shop and the Zhou family have?"

"Probably only they know exactly how much."

Cao Jiancheng shook his head, envy on his face. "The Hu family was already a major livestock producer in Liangmin County ten years ago, with a breeding farm of their own. They kept raising livestock in the early days of the disaster, and later even built a large level-one shelter specifically for raising pigs. They turned the pork into cured meat that could be stored for a long time and kept it in the Lost Land. Through that cured meat, the Hu family became one of the wealthy families in Liangmin County."

"While the neighbors stockpile food, I stockpile guns. Aren't the Hus afraid of being robbed?"

Cao Fengqi said with a smile.

"Never mind that order hasn't collapsed yet. They're a lot smarter than we are. The Hu family doesn't have a transcendent, but they're linked by marriage to a family that does."

Cao Jiancheng said, "They have meat, and they've traded it for plenty of good things. Their own strength isn't weak either."

Cao Fengqi nodded slightly.

No matter the era, there were always clever people.

Even during this great disaster, when some people couldn't get enough to eat, others had hundreds of tons of meat stockpiled at home.

There were quite a few clever people and clever families in Liangmin County, and nowadays they were called wealthy families.

Families with transcendents were jokingly called "Brahmins," transcendent families.

Though it was a joking title, that was indeed their status.

These Brahmins controlled the taxes collected at the market.

Simply put, they ensured safe trading at the market and maintained order throughout Liangmin County.

But whenever anyone sold something, they took a certain amount in tax.

Cao Fengqi followed his father to the Hu Family Butcher Shop. The fact that they used a hundred-square-meter level-three shelter as a shop showed just how wealthy the Hu family was.

After trading the level-four-quality battered shield for three hundred jin of cured meat, they took the black iron staff and Moon Spirit Stone to the Zhou family and traded them for three hundred jin of rice.

"Let's go to the central trading area first and see if there's anything you need."

After the two left the food at the Zhou family's shop for the time being, Cao Jiancheng continued making plans. "Then we'll visit Spirit Craftsman Wang Duan's shop, the Zhang family's pill shop, and the Weaver's clothing shop."