The Nameless of the Common Clans

It snowed heavily at the end of the year. The snowfall this winter was not much, but it was not too little. At least next year will not be as severe as the drought in the first year of Xingping. With this heavy snow, the harvest next year will not be too bad.

Under the cover of wind and snow, the night of Chang'an City can still feel the strong vitality. The soldiers patrolling on the street will stop by the government office at the end of the street to warm themselves by the fire, and the warm light penetrates from the window lattice.

The firelight of the fireplace makes the room warm like spring. The sky is already dark, but it is not time to rest yet. There is a table on the bed in the room. Juan'er, who is already a mother, frowns and plays Lianzhu chess with Diaochan, who has just integrated into the family. From time to time, she looks up at the concubine opposite her who is so beautiful that she makes people feel inferior.

At the other end of the room, Chen Mo lazily lay in the spacious bathtub. Yun Si helped Chen Mo wipe his body. Cai Yan sat by the window sewing embroidery. Beside her, young Chen Jin was already yawning. The little guy practiced martial arts in the morning, read in the morning, and studied mathematics in the afternoon. His day was almost full. Now that he was relaxing, he was already exhausted, and his little face was full of the feeling of life being hopeless.

"Mom, why do you want to study and practice martial arts?" Little Chen Jin looked up at Cai Yan.

"Why do you want to study?" Cai Yan was stunned, as if she had never thought about this question. She was born in a scholarly family, and her father was a great scholar of the time. Even as a woman, she would study since she was a child. Reading seemed to be born this way, and it had become a habit. Why do you want to read such a thing, Cai Yan really didn't think about it.

"Yes~" Little Chen Jin nodded and said, "Does everyone have to read it?"

"Probably not." Cai Yan shook her head. The preciousness of the scrolls is that for many people, medical skills are worth thousands of gold. Even in aristocratic families, many books are extremely precious. Ordinary people may not be able to read them even if they want to.

"Why does Jin'er have to read it?" Little Chen Jin said dissatisfiedly.

"Reading can help you understand the origin of all things..." Cai Yan is a talented woman. She can say a lot of truths, but before she finished, she saw that little Chen Jin had fallen asleep on her legs.

"It's just that I have nothing to do. I will teach him tomorrow." Chen Mo had put on his clothes and came over without knowing when. Looking at his son who was sleeping soundly, Chen Mo stretched out his hand to pick him up and smiled.

"Yeah." Cai Yan smiled. Her husband was talented and well-versed in ancient and modern times. It was best for her husband to teach her. Unfortunately, Chen Mo was busy with official duties and rarely at home. Little Chen Jin studied with Cai Yong or the teacher invited by Cai Yong most of the time.

Chen Mo called the wet nurse from outside the house, took Chen Jin away, and said to the four wives and concubines: "It's getting late, everyone should rest."

Although Chen Mo would occasionally act absurd, he was very restrained most of the time.

Tonight it was Cai Yan's turn to accompany Chen Mo to rest. Yun Si took Juan'er and Diao Chan out tactfully. The bed had been made by Diao Chan and Juan'er. Cai Yan helped Chen Mo take off his outer clothes, and then turned off the lights. The couple fell asleep in each other's arms.

There was no conversation all night. The next morning, when little Chen Jin woke up, he was told that he didn't have to practice martial arts and study today, but was brought to Chen Mo.

"Hello, father." Little Chen Jin saluted Chen Mo in a serious manner.

"Take a rest today, so you don't need to study. Come with me." Chen Mo nodded, took Cai Yan and Chen Jin to sit in the carriage, and went straight out of Chang'an City.

"Father, where are we going?" Chen Jin was a little excited and leaned on the window, watching the people coming and going on the street.

"Take you to live the lives of other people. From today on, we live in the countryside. You don't have to study or practice martial arts, but you have to do some housework." Chen Mo touched his son's head and smiled.

"Well, Jin'er can do it." Chen Jin nodded excitedly. The so-called housework should be serving tea and water. It's just what the servants do at home on weekdays, and he can do it.

"Husband..." Cai Yan looked at Chen Mo with some worry.

"Nothing." Chen Mo shook his head and smiled.

The carriage went all the way to the vicinity of Baqiao. There was a farm here, which was considered Chen Mo's private property and also a place for intelligence transmission. The people in the farm were all responsible for organizing information for Skynet. They would also work and farm on weekdays. It looked no different from an ordinary manor, but there were many secret protections here.

Chen Mo brought his wife and children to a fairly tidy courtyard.

"Why did father bring the children to this firewood room?" Chen Jin looked at the chickens raised in the courtyard with some curiosity.

"This is not a firewood room, but a residential house. For the next half month, you, your father and your mother will live here." Chen Mo took his wife and children into the house, changed into coarse cloth clothes and said, "How do people who don't read live? How do we live?"

Chen Jin nodded ignorantly, looking at the narrow house, he felt a little uncomfortable, but thinking that he didn't have to study and lived a little worse, he endured it.

"We haven't had breakfast yet. I will prepare breakfast soon. Go get some dry firewood. It's over there. It's already chopped. My son can move it." Chen Mo pointed to the firewood pile in the courtyard and smiled.

"My husband, this should be done by me." Cai Yan held Chen Mo.

"Can Madam do it?" Chen Mo asked with a smile.

This...

Cai Yan shook her head helplessly: "My husband, Jin'er is just joking. Why do you take it so seriously?"

"Sometimes, children's words are not jokes. As parents, we are their guides. How to go in the future and what path to take are up to them to choose, not forcing them to go." Chen Mo smiled and said: "If he wants to inherit my family business, he must first know the sufferings of the people. If he can't even do this, how can he care for the people when he becomes a local lord? This is not something that can be read in books."

"My husband is a hero in the world, how can he do these things himself?" Cai Yan said with a wry smile.

"People are born in this world to live for three meals a day, so why not?" Chen Mo rolled up his sleeves, set up the cauldron and said with a smile: "Madam, you only know that my family was poor when I was young, but you probably don't know how poor it was. I know everything about making fire and cooking, working in the fields, or making a living on the streets."

Cai Yan heard this and could only help with a wry smile. Little Chen Jin suddenly came to a new environment and was a little excited. He was also quite interested in Chen Mo's request. He immediately brought firewood one by one and watched Chen Mo make a fire by the stove and start cooking.

"There are chicken eggs in the chicken coop, go and get two." Chen Mo pointed in the direction of the chicken coop while washing corn.

"Okay!"

After a while, Chen Mo laughed happily at his son who was chased by the hen and ran around the yard, crying for his parents, but Cai Yan on the side drove the hen away with heartache.

When little Chen Jin came over with two eggs, there were still traces of tears on his face.

"Next time, lead the hen away before taking out the eggs." Chen Mo said with a smile while cooking.

"Father, why don't you kill the chicken!?" Little Chen Jin said angrily.

"Its children are for you to eat, are you sure you want to kill it?" Chen Mo asked with a smile.

"Children?" Little Chen Jin looked at the eggs in his hand in confusion.

"Yes, those chicks in the yard came from the eggs. For them, these eggs are their children." Chen Mo nodded.

"Then... I won't eat them." Chen Jin quickly put down the eggs.

"For chickens, their greatest value is to lay eggs. If we don't eat eggs, we will be hungry, and secondly, they will have no value, so we can only use them to stew soup." Chen Mo said with a smile.

"Chicken soup?" Little Chen Jin swallowed his saliva and shook his head: "Father, isn't this a bit cruel?"

"Survival of the fittest, this is the way of survival of all things. I want to eat eggs every day, so I raise it, but one day when it no longer lays eggs, why should I raise it?" Chen Mo asked with a smile.

Half an hour later, Chen Mo prepared breakfast, corn and eggs. Compared with the current Chen family, this breakfast is monotonous and boring.

"Father, it's not delicious. I want to eat egg custard, goat milk, preserved fruit, and cakes~" After eating the eggs, little Chen Jin found it difficult to swallow the corn rice. Compared with the food of the Chen family, is it difficult to swallow at all?

"That is the food of the educated people. People who don't study eat these." Chen Mo laughed and ate with relish. Chen Mo was only limited to cooking. He was far behind the Chen family's chefs in terms of skills.

Little Chen Jin looked at Chen Mo who was eating corn rice with relish, hesitated for a moment, continued to eat a few more mouthfuls and then stopped eating.

Farmers are relatively idle in winter. If it is spring plowing, naturally, the four-year-old child does not need to go to the field, but it will not be too happy.

Next, Chen Mo's family of three lived here for three days. Eating corn rice every day is actually good in this year, but not all families can have surplus food. They also sleep on dry and hard wooden boards, not even couches. They help with chores every day. At first, maybe because of the novelty, they still find it interesting, but after three days, Chen Jin just wants to escape from such a life.

After all, compared with Chen Mo's childhood hardships, Chen Jin has been living a life of luxury since childhood. It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. For a child who has been living a life of luxury since childhood, it is really unbearable to suddenly live such a life of rushing for three meals.

In the evening of the third day, the little guy sat next to the chicken coop and suddenly cried softly.

"Dad lived like this when he was a child." Chen Mo appeared beside Chen Jin without knowing when, smiling.

"How many days has Dad lived?" Little Chen Jin looked at his father.

"Ten years, in the last year, we suffered from war and were driven away with your grandmother. For a piece of corn cake, Dad killed someone when he was nine years old." Chen Mo looked at the distance and said sadly: "Later, I met your master, and life became better."

"Is the child useless?" Chen Jin looked at his father secretly.

"People's desires are different. It is easy to go from frugality to luxury, but it is difficult to go from luxury to frugality. That day you asked your mother why she wanted to study? To put it simply, it was to live a more luxurious life, not having to rush for three meals a day, and live decently. To put it more broadly, people always want to do something in their lives after having enough food and clothing. You don't know anything, and you just want to do things but don't know where to start. Isn't it sad? To put it more generally, you can talk to people calmly." Chen Mo touched his son's head and smiled.

"Then why do you want to practice martial arts?" Chen Jin asked curiously.

"This... probably to make people talk to you calmly." Chen Mo thought while stroking his chin.

"Puff~" Chen Jin thought for a moment and understood, and couldn't help laughing: "So father would do such vulgar things?"

"Vulgar?" Chen Mo shook his head and said: "Sometimes it's useless to just talk about reason. This is not called vulgarity, it's called strategy!"

"Child, I understand!" Chen Jin nodded.

"It doesn't matter whether you understand or not. You have to stick to it for half a month. Things should be done from beginning to end, and people should keep their promises." Chen Mo stood up and smiled.

Chen Jin nodded with a bitter face, and could only continue this kind of life. His father could live through it for ten years, so there was no reason why he couldn't.