A Petty Official Chapter 2

Ethan Yun only found out later that the Ciyu Village where they lived at the time was a charity project run by the wives of local merchants. In those days, poor people who could not afford to raise children would drown or abandon them. Ciyu Village specialized in adopting such children and hiring healthy women to breastfeed and take care of them.

Ethan Yun's current mother, Madam Zheng as the fat woman calls her, went to work there after she gave birth to her child.

But now, due to business failure, the boss had to sell the house and land for cash and move to another place. Madam Zheng became unemployed. After her wages were paid, she was announced that the place would change hands in half a month.

What's even more miserable are the children in Ciyu Village. There are a total of twenty or thirty children here. The owner can hardly take care of himself, let alone them.

Ethan Yun didn’t know about the children living in other courtyards, but the nine children who lived with him were either adopted or went to work as servants in rich families.

As for the ones left with nowhere to go, it was the girl who had cared about Ethan Yun before and the baby boy she was holding. One was five years old and the other was five months old, both of whom would fall flat on their faces when walking.

Although Madam Zheng lived and ate at her workplace, she actually had her own home and did not end up living on the streets as Ethan Yun had imagined.

When Madam Zheng packed Shaoshao's luggage and left with Emma Yun in her arms, the little girl, holding the baby boy, stood behind the door, looking at them with tears in her eyes.

Emma Yun heard Madam Zheng calling the two these days and knew that the girl was called Chloe Shuang and the boy didn't have a full name yet, so they all called him Xiaobao. Actually, even these names were just used by Ciyou Village. Since there was a youngest child, Xiaobao became that child.

Ethan Yun leaned on Madam Zheng's shoulder and looked at her, feeling uncomfortable. They had only been together for a few days, but as a person with an adult soul, he really couldn't bear it.

But he has neither a complete understanding of this world nor the ability, so even if he wants to be a virgin, it is impossible for him to do so.

Grace Zheng walked a few steps, tears falling all the way. She looked back at them once, then again, and finally hugged Ethan Yun and burst into tears.

At this time, Chloe Shuang ran over holding Xiaobao and hugged Madam Zheng into her arms.

Chloe Shuang burst into tears, "Mother, mother!"

Ethan Yun also felt a little sad. Perhaps in the eyes of this child, although she had never called her mother, Madam Zheng, who had always taken care of them, was no different from their mother.

Madam Zheng hugged them and cried for a while. With her last tear, she said firmly, "Follow me!"

Ethan Yun first broke out in a sweat, and then was blinded by Madam Zheng's majesty.

.

The location of Ciyu Village, where Zheng Niangzi's former workplace was, was roughly the fringe of urban and rural areas. They took a ride on a oxcart and walked for about 40 minutes before they saw the city.

Madam Zheng was surprised. Yan'er was usually the most delicate one, but she was unexpectedly sensible today. She wanted to hold Xiaobao, so Yan'er walked with Chloe Shuang, but she never complained of being tired. Perhaps it was because of the separation.

Madam Zheng didn't know that when Ethan Yun was in modern times, he would carry a camera and go out for interviews every day, and he was busy even on weekends. Whether he was going to the countryside or attending large-scale events in the city, he would run around all day long.

Although his body is smaller now and he lacks physical strength, his will is much stronger than that of an ordinary child and he doesn't cry easily.

These few days made Ethan Yun think that he had traveled back to a very poor era, but after they entered the city, he realized that this era was not only not poor, but quite wealthy!

The city is densely populated and may not be comparable to modern cities, but at least everyone is dressed appropriately, and the world is not as gray as imagined, it is even very colorful.

The market is filled with silk and satin, and countless wine flags are waving.

This is a very rich era!

Ethan Yun even saw foreign merchants doing business on the street, and the local merchants were also dressed quite gorgeously. Based on Ethan Yun's historical knowledge, he judged that this was at least the Song Dynasty, otherwise the status of merchants would not be so high.

Then he heard words like "Tokyo" and "Bianliang" from passers-by, which further confirmed his idea that this was Bianliang, the capital of the Song Dynasty.

In an instant, the scene before his eyes corresponded to the famous painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" in his memory. Everything in the ancient painting came alive, and the surrounding scenes were also integrated into the painting, which made Ethan Yun inexplicably excited.

I think time travel is both his bad luck and his luck. How many people in this world can travel through time and space across thousands of years to witness the real capital of the Song Dynasty?

Ethan Yun stared at everything on the street intently. Although according to the law of time travel, it is basically impossible to go back in time, he couldn't help but appreciate this city which is ancient yet new to him as if he was about to leave immediately.

It was not surprising to see Ethan Yun like this, and no one on the street would even look at him twice, because Chloe Shuang was just like him, as were many other outsiders who came to Bianliang for the first time, and were amazed by this prosperous capital.

Madam Zheng led them all the way to the Kaifeng government office. Fortunately, Madam Zheng introduced the children all the way and pointed to a place and told them that it was the back wall of Kaifeng government office. Then she turned around and said, "Our home is here."

Ethan Yun was shocked again. He had been to Kaifeng, Henan for a trip before. You know, Kaifeng Prefecture was called Nan Ya because it was located in the south of the imperial palace, so Madam Zheng's house was not too far from the imperial palace!

Ethan Yun's mood suddenly brightened up. Our family has a house within the third ring road of the capital, so who am I afraid of!

Although the empty house was not big, it was tidy at least. The family might have been in good financial condition in the past. There was a small yard surrounded by a fence and quite a lot of furniture. Although there were no valuable decorations, it was much better than the empty Ciyu Village.

---Of course, listening to the conversation between Madam Zheng and others, Ciyuzhuang was not like this before. It declined and finally closed down as the owner's business went from bad to worse.

But Ethan Yun felt it was a little strange. In ancient times, the whole family lived together. At the very least, he should have a "father", right? Or did the rest of the family also live and eat at the company like Madam Zheng did before?

While Ethan Yun was thinking, Madam Zheng over there did not rush to clean up. Instead, she took a rest for a while, let the children sit on the bed, and she took out pen, ink, paper and inkstone from the closet and began to write a letter.

Ethan Yun pretended to be casual and walked to Madam Zheng's side, leaning on her to read the letter. Madam Zheng really didn't take it seriously, and she never thought that he could read.

Madam Zheng's handwriting can only be considered neat, but if you think about the status of women in ancient times, especially the fact that most common people were illiterate, you will know that this is already remarkable. It also indirectly proves that their family's situation was indeed good in the past.

As for the content of the letter, it was written to Zheng's husband, the father of "Ethan Yun". From the letter, it can be seen that Zheng's husband left for unknown reasons and had no news for more than two years - no wonder she was able to take the decision to bring the child back.

In ancient times, the mountains were high and the roads were long, making communication difficult. The letters that Zheng Madam sent never received a reply, and no one knew what had happened to her husband, but she did not give up writing letters.

Ethan Yun spent little time with his parents when he was young in modern times, and his parents died early, so he never knew how his name came from. But here, he understood the meaning of this name that was the same as his own, which was entrusted with Madam Zheng's expectations.

Maybe one day, the wild geese carrying the letters will come back and bring back news of the person she is waiting for.

At the end of the letter, Madam Zheng signed her name with just one word: Ping.

Ethan Yun thought to himself, it seems that this is Madam Zheng's maiden name, Grace Zheng. Because before crossing over, Ethan Yun should be about the same age as Grace Zheng, so he already called her by her name in his heart.

After Grace Zheng finished writing the letter, everyone had rested and had a good rest. She got up and took the children to the next door and knocked on the door. The person who answered the door was a woman in her thirties. When she saw Grace Zheng, her face was full of pity and she said that she had heard about the incident at the Salesian Village.

Grace Zheng called her Third Sister Hu and asked the children to call her Third Aunt. She thanked her for helping to look after the house when she was away, introduced her, and brought back two orphans.

Sarah Hu whispered to Grace Zheng: "The girl can stay to take care of your Yan'er, but you should find a family to send the boy away as soon as possible."

"Thank you, Third Sister. I'll take a look." Grace Zheng did not express her thoughts clearly. After thanking her, she explained that she had just returned and had not bought anything, so she wanted to borrow some firewood and rice.

After borrowing something from Sarah Hu, Grace Zheng went back to cook, hoping to eat her fill first before worrying about anything else.

When she was in Ciyu Village, because there were many children, Grace Zheng also adopted the method of asking the older children to take care of the younger ones, so she was very relieved to let Chloe Shuang take care of the two younger brothers first.

Ethan Yun sat there obediently. Chloe Shuang didn't need to worry about him. Xiaobao was also sleeping. But Chloe Shuang came over and asked Ethan Yun hesitantly: "Brother Yan, I want to ask you a question..."

Ethan Yun looked at her blankly.

Chloe Shuang asked: "Do you like me?"

Ethan Yun didn't think too much and answered innocently: "I like it."

Judging from what we have seen these days, this little sister is very good to her younger siblings, friendly to her brothers and sisters, and caring for her elders. She can be described as a gentle and virtuous little beauty from ancient times.

Chloe Shuang, the little crybaby, started crying again, tears streaming down her face.

Emma Yun replied: ...

Did he do anything?

Chloe Shuang sobbed and said, "I, I don't want to be Yan Ge'er's wife. Yan Ge'er, I will be your sister, okay? You, you can ask Xiaobao to be your wife... This is also good, we can both stay."

Emma Yun replied: ...

Emma Yun looked back at Xiaobao's little Jiji, who had an innocent face, and was speechless.

Then Emma Yun thought about it and remembered that Sarah Hu seemed to have told Grace Zheng that Chloe Shuang could stay to take care of him.

He swore that he hadn't thought of the meaning of that phrase in the Song Dynasty. Even children knew it, and he himself didn't mean it that way! So he meant to ask Chloe Shuang to be his...child bride?

Chloe Shuang's childish words made Ethan Yun want to comfort her, but considering that other children of this age in Ciyou Village could not speak coherently, it would be inappropriate for him to say a long and clear sentence to comfort Chloe Shuang. After thinking it over, he only uttered two words: "Okay!"

Chloe Shuang burst into laughter and hugged Emma Yun back.

Ethan Yun was hugged by Chloe Shuang, thinking, it's useless to think about it, in the end everything depends on Grace Zheng, the only person who has working ability, and I don't know if she can support the consumption of the capital...