The road to wealth of a peasant widow

Chapter 148 Wang Chunsheng

"Sister-in-law, I want to go to Brother Eryong's grave, woo woo..."

The middle-aged man with a dark red face had red and swollen eyes from crying, and tears and snot were streaming down his face, unable to hide his sadness.

"Okay, I'll let Changping take you there later. Chunsheng, don't be too sad, otherwise your brother Eryong will know about it and he will be worried down there." Chen Cui comforted.

"If Eryong hadn't secretly brought me food from home, I would have starved to death. The money I needed to leave home was also gathered by Eryong. Now that I have finally made a name for myself, I wanted to come back to repay my brother, but I didn't expect..."

Wang Chunsheng sobbed while wiping his tears with his sleeves.

Chen Cui sighed. Who could have thought of this?

Today, Wang Chunsheng suddenly returned home. When he learned the news of Liu Eryong's death, he ran over crying. His crying was so sincere and heartfelt that it made Chen Cui's family feel uncomfortable.

Because they had to visit the graves after the New Year, the family had prepared gold ingots and paper money long ago. Chen Cui asked the three Changping brothers to take him to the graves.

In front of Liu Eryong's grave, Wang Chunsheng cried for a long time, crying for his brother Eryong who died early and for his brother who had a miserable life.

Wang Chunsheng went to the grave of his parents again and saw the tall, neatly-cut grave mounds with no weeds in front of them. He knew that it must have been done by Changping and his men.

Thinking that Eryong had been gone for three years, but his son was still taking such good care of his parents' graves, he felt grateful and guilty.

Wang Chunsheng knelt in front of his parents' grave, burning paper money and crying bitterly.

By the time Chen Cui saw Wang Chunsheng, his eyes were swollen like walnuts, his nose was red, and his voice had become hoarse.

"Sister-in-law, I was unlucky in the past few years and wandered around. I have finally settled down in recent years and saved some money. I originally thought that I could come back to repay Brother Eryong for his kindness, but I didn't expect..."

Wang Chunsheng's house was originally dilapidated. No one had lived in it for many years and it had collapsed a long time ago. The courtyard wall was also dilapidated. He came directly to Chen Cui's house carrying his luggage.

At this time, he took out two bags, one large and one small, from his luggage and placed them on the table: "I know my sister-in-law's family is doing well now and may not need these, but this is what I prepared a long time ago. Please accept it so that I can feel at ease."

Chen Cui was a little embarrassed. She really had everything she needed now, and she didn't need any thank-you gift from him. But looking at the red, swollen and haggard face of the man in front of her, she finally nodded: "Okay, your brother is gone, I will accept it on his behalf. I will accept your kindness and complete your brotherhood."

Wang Chunsheng didn't know what he was thinking about, and he couldn't help but cover his face and start crying again.

Wang Chunsheng, who had no relatives in the village, temporarily lived in Chen Cui's house. He had another important thing to do when he came back this time, which was to relocate the graves of his parents.

According to him, he has now settled down in Shu, married and had children there, and he was able to gain a foothold there thanks to the support and help of his Yue family. He will most likely not come back in the future, so he wants to move his parents' graves there so that it will be convenient for him to worship them in the future.

Chen Cui asked Changping to find a Taoist priest who had performed a ritual before to check the feng shui and choose a date for the relocation of Wang Chunsheng's parents' graves. The nearest auspicious day was chosen, which was the third day of the first lunar month.

Originally, Chen Cui planned to return to the county town on the second day of the Chinese New Year, so she would have to wait two more days at home.

When Chen Cui put away the two bundles given by Wang Chunsheng, she found that one of the small bags contained thirty taels of silver, and the other bag contained grayish-white salt.

The silver was fine, Chen Cui had seen a lot of it, but the quality of the salt was rare, the grains were finer and the color was lighter.

Although it could not be compared with the refined salt she had seen in modern times, it was already the best quality salt she had ever seen in this era. Even the salt used in the kitchen of the county government office was not of such good quality.

However, Chen Cui had seen such good salt before.

She had previously been unable to tolerate the salt she bought because it was too rough and had too many impurities, and had tried to purify it.

The method was one she had seen online before: dissolve coarse salt in water, boil it in a pot, and then add soy milk. The impurities in the salt would then combine with the soy milk and turn into floating foam that would float on the water.

Scoop out the floating foam, add soy milk again, and repeat this process until all the impurities are absorbed and the water in the pot is boiled dry, and the salt left at the bottom is snow-white fine salt.

But because the quality of the salt was so good, she didn't dare to use it. If someone found out and spread the news, and couldn't explain the salt's origins, she would be guilty of a capital crime.

She dared to do the canned fruit business and use chili peppers to make hot pot because these two foods are not taboo. She would never dare to touch anything related to salt.

Today's laws are very strict on smuggling salt. Once caught or considered a suspect and unable to clear the charges, the person will be sentenced to death.

But she really couldn't tolerate the dirty appearance of the salt she bought and had to put it in the food, so she thought of a solution.

She dissolved the salt in water, filtered it through gauze and boiled it for the initial purification. The salt obtained in this way removed basic impurities and was much better in quality than when she first bought it.

Moreover, it looked similar to the salt used in the backyard of the county government office. Even if someone saw it, they would only think that she bought good salt at a high price and would not think of anything else.

Chen Cui looked at the salt in front of her, and her heart trembled when she thought that Wang Chunsheng only said that he had made money but did not mention what he did.

Could it be that Wang Chunsheng had done something fatal?

Chen Cui couldn't help but test her with words at the dinner table: "Brother Chunsheng, I wonder what you do for a living outside?"

Wang Chunsheng paused with his chopsticks in his hand: "Sister-in-law, I am just a vendor helping people sell goods. I earn this hard-earned money. It's not worth mentioning."

When Chen Cui heard this, her heart tightened.

If he said that he worked in a salt mine or a shop, then being able to produce such good salt would not be a big deal. But he said vaguely that he was a dealer, which was a bit suspicious. After all, smuggling salt is also trafficking!

However, this topic cannot be discussed in depth, even if there are no outsiders at home, it is not appropriate to discuss it further.

Chen Cui could only suppress her doubts and pretend that she had no doubts at all. She continued to entertain the guest warmly as if nothing had happened, but in fact she was hoping that time would pass quickly so that she could send the guest away as soon as possible.

Finally, the third day of the Chinese New Year arrived. The coffins of Wang Chunsheng’s parents were dug out, their bones were burned and placed in an urn.

The next day, Chen Cui and her family took Wang Chunsheng to the county town and sent him to the carriage shop. She presented him with the prepared return gift and felt relieved only after watching him get on the carriage and drive away.

Next, the most important thing for the whole family is Changping’s exam, which is in mid-February and is very tight.