Reborn in a small village in the 1990s

Chapter 99

Zhao Yongbo scratched his head: "I don't know. My mom does some work too, but she only works for a short while and then stops. My dad really doesn't do anything. My mom says she has a heart condition and is sick."

"Do you think your mother is sick?" Zhao Da'e asked.

"I don't know, she seems to really be sick. She's not faking it, Grandma is the one faking it, my mom is lazy."

Zhao Da'e smiled happily: "Little brother, your older sister thinks you have great potential. You're absolutely right."

Zhao Yongbo chuckled as well.

Zhao Da'e felt as if he had lived through another life. In his previous life, Zhao Yongbo was a decent person, uncorrupted by his parents' bad influences. Of course, that was because Zhao Yongbo later married an extremely formidable wife who, after a few rounds, had Zhang Cuilan and Zhao Tiegang completely under her thumb. That wife was incredibly domineering; a single word from her could terrify Zhang Cuilan.

Of course, this is all for later.

Zhao Da'e led Zhao Yongbo to his aunt's house, where Zhou Chunwen was lying down reading a novel, "Romance of the Three Kingdoms." When he got to an exciting part, he couldn't help but say, "Prime Minister, you're confused! This Sima Yi is obviously a scoundrel. If you know Sima Yi is a scoundrel, why didn't you kill him while he was still alive?"

"Oh dear, cousin, you don't understand. When Prime Minister Cao was alive, he didn't take Sima Yi seriously at all. They weren't even in the same league. Prime Minister Cao was a true man who had fought his way up in real battles, a tough guy. As long as he was alive, no one dared to have any designs on the Cao family."

Sima Yi was indeed capable, and there were historical reasons why Prime Minister Cao didn't kill him. The Sima family was a powerful clan, and from the Eastern Han Dynasty onwards, the north was dominated by powerful clans. With the support of these clans, Cao Cao was able to secure his position. Therefore, Cao Cao couldn't easily eliminate Sima Yi when he hadn't made any mistakes. Doing so would have caused panic among other powerful clans. You can refer to the reason why Yang Guang so quickly destroyed the Sui Dynasty—it was because he lost the support of the powerful clans in the north.

Secondly, Cao Cao believed his son was also capable, but Cao Pi died far too young. If Cao Cao had known his son would die in his thirties or forties, he would have been furious. Of course, the historical reason at that time was that the country was not unified, so he couldn't be killed. Prime Minister Zhuge Liang was constantly on his Northern Expeditions; someone had to fight, and Sima Yi was one of the few capable generals, which made him survivable. Other generals became too weak in the later stages of battle. Not only did Shu Han later lack great generals, with Liao Hua serving as the vanguard, but Wei also lacked good generals; Sima Yi was the only one they could rely on. Could he have been killed at that time? No. Later, Sima Yi became too powerful to be killed.

Zhou Chunwen looked up at Zhao D'e and noticed a child beside her. She asked in confusion, "Whose child is this?"

“My third uncle’s son, Zhao Yongbo.”

"Don't you dislike your third aunt Zhang Cuilan? Why are you bringing her son out?" Zhou Chunwen asked honestly.

"The sins should not be borne by the children. It's a saying from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms," said Zhao Da'e.

"Heh, give me a break. Aren't you just a kid too?" Zhou Chunwen said, dissatisfied. Then she asked Zhao Yongbo, "Kid, your older sister has a grudge against your mother. Aren't you afraid that if your older sister brings you out, your mother will come back and say the child is lost, and blame your older sister?"

Zhao Yongbo thought for a moment: "Don't worry, my mom went back to her parents' home. Besides, my mom can't beat my older sister..."

"Hehe, you little rascal, you're a bit of a fence-sitter. Why don't you side with your mom, but instead side with your older sister? She's your own mother, you know," Zhou Chunwen teased Zhao Yongbo with a laugh.

Zhao Yongbo chuckled: "If I want to be on the same page as my mom, I'll have to go hungry for three days and nine meals a day. My older sister said she'll treat me to dumplings, white flour dumplings."