The Wealthy Eldest Sister Rules Supreme

Chapter 544: Chapter 531: Football Match (Seeking Subscriptions, Seeking Monthly Tickets)

“Alright, you should get back, we’re leaving soon.” After urging Chu Jinnian, he continued to press.

Chu Jinzhou blinked in confusion.

Why did he always feel like his big brother was acting very off with him today?

However, it seemed there wasn’t any evidence to prove this…

Having personally driven the carriage, Chu Jinnian arrived at Zhuang Qingning’s front door.

The door to Zhuang Qingning’s house was tightly closed, Chu Jinnian knocked, but no one responded.

“Is Big Sister Ning not at home?” asked Chu Jinzhou.

“Hmm.” Chu Jinnian nodded slightly in disappointment, “She’s probably busy with things, let’s go check the workshop, she might be there. If she’s not, we’ll head to the shop in town later.”

When Zhuang Qingning was not at home, it was always because she was busy with business. Going to these places to look for her would definitely prove fruitful.

After parking the carriage nearby and tethering the horses to a tree, Chu Jinnian led Chu Jinzhou to the workshop.

A group of children ran in from outside the village, laughing and shouting. Seeing Chu Jinnian and Chu Jinzhou, they stopped.

The one leading asked, “We don’t recognize you two, you’re not from Enji Village, right?”

“Did you also come to participate in Enji Village’s football competition?”

“Football?” Chu Jinzhou was confused. “What’s that?”

“You don’t know about football? It’s this!” The boy leading waved the ball in his hand. “It’s called football because it’s kicked with feet. It looks like Cuju but it’s not the same. It’s really fun.”

“Nevermind, it seems like you don’t know what it is. Explaining would be a waste of time.”

“Yeah, let’s not waste our time, it’s about to start. We need to hurry, otherwise we’ll be late and won’t be able to see it. I heard that for this football competition, the winning team gets to pick up twenty catties of tofu, ten catties of century eggs, and ten catties of tofu skin from the workshop each month. Children from nearby villages have all come, it’s definitely going to be a spectacular event.”

As the children were speaking, they didn’t pay any more attention to Chu Jinnian and Chu Jinzhou and ran ahead.

“Let’s go, have a look.” Chu Jinnian quickened his pace.

“Aren’t we going to find Big Sister Ning?” Chu Jinzhou quickly caught up, asking as he did so.

“Just now, those children said that if they win, they can collect a lot of things. All these things come from your Big Sister Ning’s workshop, so where do you think Big Sister Ning is?”

“I see.” Chu Jinzhou suddenly brightened and caught up with Chu Jinnian’s quick pace.

The two of them followed the children, passing through the village to reach the other side. Sure enough, they saw that at the entrance of the village, people were densely gathered together, occasionally erupting in cheers.

Chu Jinnian, accompanied by Chu Jinzhou, moved to the side to watch this so-called football game.

The wide field was about two acres, roughly leveled, and marked with lines using lime. There were goalposts made of wooden frames at the left and right sides of the field, guarded by one person each. In the field, eight children were running back and forth, kicking the ball under their feet.

The children were wearing red and blue bands and seemed to be divided into two teams. Both teams were trying hard to kick the ball into the opponent’s goal but they were fiercely obstructed. It was a stalemate and extremely intense.

So, this was football.

It looked rather interesting.

Chu Jinzhou’s face lit up with delight, his eyes focused intently on the football game, not moving away.

Chu Jinnian, after giving the game a glance, looked around the crowd. After searching for a while, he finally found Zhuang Qingning in a corner.

Zhuang Qingning, clad in a pair of trousers and holding several colorful flags, was intently watching the children playing football, her eyes full of intensity.

Her figure, slim to begin with, stood there erectly, heroic and gallant, giving her an imposing aura that was even more enchanting than her usual charming demeanor.

“Big Sister Ning is over there, and Sister Sui too, let’s go to them together.” said Chu Jinnian.

“Alright.” Chu Jinzhou followed Chu Jinnian to meet Zhuang Qingning and Zhuang Qingsui.

“Master Chu?” Zhuang Qingning was quite surprised by his arrival.

“Initially, I came to look for you to discuss some business matters about the soap. Seeing that your house was closed, I heard from some children that there was a football game here and checked if you were here.”

Chu Jinnian laughed, “I didn’t expect you to really be here.”

“Of course I am. This football competition was set up by Uncle Village Chief and me together.” Zhuang Qingning chuckled.

“Oh?” Chu Jinnian looked surprised yet delighted, “Miss Zhuang, how did you come up with this idea?”

Typically, women were often linked to knitting and embroidery, even things like music, chess, calligraphy, and painting weren’t too far off. Football, on the other hand, seemed like something that boys would enjoy playing.

“Well…”

She couldn’t possibly mention that it was to complete a daily task.

After completing the daily task of sewing shoe soles last time, Zhuang Qingning got a generous reward. She couldn’t wait to assign the second daily task with the system.

When she first received this task, Zhuang Qingning was really scratching her head.

The task required her to create a mass sporting event beneficial to health, with no fewer than ten participants.

Zhuang Qingning pondered about this for two days.

After all, people in this era were busy just trying to eke out a living, and leisure time to rest was a luxury, let alone find time for physical exercise. Moreover, organizing a sport that could gain mass acceptance was not an easy task.

It wasn’t until she went to the workshop and saw Sister-In-Law Wei scolding her young son at the entrance. She curiously listened in for a while and understood why. The young boy was scolded for tearing up his clothing while playing Cuju, even neglecting his chores at home.

When Zhuang Qingning felt sympathy for the children of poor families needing to take responsibility at a young age, she found inspiration in the wicker ball used in Cuju.

Cuju had a long history and was the predecessor of football. But if a traditional Cuju match was held, the requirements would be too high. So it’s better to modify it into a football match, which would make it more interesting and the children could quickly become familiar with the rules. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

Once Zhuang Qingning had this idea, she asked Zhuang Jingye to help arrange it. Their given reason was that the adults were busy all day and there were no exciting events in the village at the end of the year. The new year celebration was quite dull, so they would organize a football match to liven things up and make everyone happy.

Considering this was Zhuang Qingning’s proposal, and that all prizes were provided by her workshop, Zhuang Jingye readily agreed. From then on, they began to organize the event.