After learning about Ye Chenghe's situation, the old couple did not dare to delay any longer. They packed some money and clothes and hurried to Zhao Lizheng's house.
Zhou Liang's bullock cart is still in town and has not returned yet. The two of them can only borrow the idle donkey cart from Zhao Lizheng's family first.
Although they knew that Ye Chenghe had been beaten, neither Wu Xianglian nor Ye Quan realized the seriousness of the matter at this moment.
It was just a beating. Ye Chenghe had been beaten a lot when he was fooling around outside. He just spent some money to get some medicine and went back to recuperate.
Until the two of them arrived at the hospital and saw the man lying on the bed covered in white cloth, Wu Xianglian didn't dare to recognize him at first sight.
Ye Chenghe, who was still lying on the bed, raised his hands tremblingly and shouted to her: "Mother..."
"Ouch..."
Wu Xianglian's tears fell down in a flash: "My son, you...why are you like this?"
Ye Chenghe's whole body hurt now, especially his two broken legs. The pain was so intense that his clothes were soaked with sweat. Although he had applied medicine and bandaged it, it still hurt so much that he groaned.
"Mother... mother..." Ye Chenghe stretched out his hand tremblingly, and Wu Xianglian quickly stepped forward to hold him.
"Son, what do you want to tell mother?" Wu Xianglian wiped her tears.
"Zhou...yes, Zhou is doing...mother!" Ye Chenghe said weakly.
When Ye Quan heard this, he sighed, turned around and went out.
Wu Xianglian and Ye Chenghe cried and talked for a long time, and he stood outside smoking.
He waited until the crying and cursing in the room subsided before he opened the door curtain and went in.
"Report to the official." Ye Quan said.
Wu Xianglian scolded Zhou Zaigan for a long time, but when she heard this, she also reacted.
Zhou Zaiqian was also a figure in the town, and they couldn't afford to offend him. There was no other way besides reporting him to the official.
Unexpectedly, Ye Chenghe, who was lying on the bed and groaning, shouted anxiously: "No! You can't report to the official!"
"You didn't make his daughter's belly bigger, so what are you afraid of?" Ye Quan rolled his eyes at Ye Chenghe.
"Dad, don't report to the official." Ye Chenghe didn't answer the question and just advised, "My injury looks serious. I just need to go home and recover."
"Nonsense! You're so injured, how can you just raise him and get better?" Wu Xianglian saw her son in this state, still thinking about settling the matter, and felt heartbroken again.
"You don't have to be afraid of causing trouble for your family. This time it's Zhou who went too far! Let's go to Anxing County to sue him. If you don't believe that Mr. Qingtian won't make the decision for us!"
"Mom, dad..." Ye Chenghe could only open his mouth and the wound on his face hurt, so he could only squeeze out the sound from his throat.
"I, let me tell you the truth, the work I do is not clean!"
As soon as these words came out, the old couple were stunned.
…
The old Ye family here is in a state of distress, but for Ye Anyian and Jiang Zhu on the other side, Ye Chenghe's incident is just a minor episode.
The two of them followed Wen Heng over the next day to see the empty house at the west end of Tianshui Town.
The house has a second entrance, but it occupies a relatively large area.
Ye Anyian walked around a few times, and discussed with Jiang Zhu how to turn the gatehouse at the first entrance into a kitchen and dining room for carpenters to cook and eat; and then build a large shed in the second entrance courtyard for food. Used by carpenters for their work.
There were four main rooms in total when entering the courtyard, and five east and west wing rooms respectively. Ye Annian took a look and saw that the rooms were not small, and one room could accommodate three or four people.
However, there were still few of them, so Ye Annian decided to temporarily let the two of them live in one room. In addition to leaving two rooms in the main room for finished products, the rest were also used as dormitories for the carpenters.
After planning all these things, Wen Heng arranged for a group of servants to come over to clean up. The work went faster when there were more people, and it took most of a day to clean up.
Wen Heng went to find Ye Anyian in a hurry: "The house has been cleaned up. Do you two need anything else?"
Ye Annian was discussing with Jiang Zhu in the shop about hiring craftsmen to build a shed. Hearing this, he said, "There are broken doors, windows, tables and stools, etc. I'm afraid they need to be repaired."
"That's easy to say," Wen Heng said happily. "What else do you need to repair? Just replace it with a new one. Is there anything else?"
"As soon as you enter the courtyard, the two rooms of the concierge are not going to be converted into kitchens and dining halls, but are they going to have to have two stoves and some tables and chairs?" Jiang Zhu reminded.
"Yes." Ye Anian nodded. He originally planned to find someone to do this himself, but since Wen Heng asked, he didn't have to find someone. "Then I'll bother Second Young Master Wen."
"No trouble, no trouble. You two can discuss it first. If you need anything else, feel free to tell me. I promise to make arrangements for you!" Wen Heng patted his chest proudly.
After the matter was settled, Wen Heng went about his work in a hurry.
Ye Annian looked at his leaving figure and felt more and more that he was quite suitable to be a supervisor. When his small workshop of ten people was set up, he asked Wen Heng to come over and inspect twice for him every day, which also saved him from having to go here every day. Edge ran away.
The weather was getting colder day by day. The two men drove the bullock cart out of the shop. It was getting late.
Ye Annian looked at the pedestrians walking in a hurry on the street, and was suddenly attracted by the fragrance wafting from the street.
Taking a closer look, I saw that it was a roast duck shop, and there was already a long queue at the door.
Jiang Zhu saw his eyes staring there in awe, so he chuckled and said, "Want to eat roast duck?"
Ye Anyian came back to his senses: "There are too many people, let's wait another day."
If I go to queue now, it will be completely dark when I get home.
Jiang Zhu parked the bullock cart on the side of the road and asked Ye Anyian to sit in the cart and wait for him for a while, then went down to line up.
Ye Annian was helpless and couldn't stop him, so he could only watch Jiang Zhu standing far behind the long queue.
This roast duck shop uses a stew oven for roasting. Several waiters are busy coming in and out, constantly taking out the newly cooked roast duck and placing it on the shelf at the door. Slice the duck meat, garnish with lotus leaf pancakes, sauce, shredded green onions, etc., and pack into boxes.
Roast duck like this costs sixty or seventy cents per pound. Most people in the town who have some spare money come to buy it, but only occasionally. After all, no one can afford to eat it every day.
However, now that they have money, it doesn't matter if they eat once in a while.
Just as he was thinking about it, Jiang Zhu had already returned with a food box.
He stuffed the wooden box into Ye Annian's arms and got on the bullock cart: "Just in time to catch the last one in this pot, otherwise it will take a long time to wait for the next pot."
Ye Annian held the heavy wooden box in his arms and glanced at him: "It doesn't have to be today. This shop won't be closed tomorrow."
"But you want to eat today, don't you?" Jiang Zhu raised his whip and casually swung it at the cow's butt twice, and the cow cart started walking smoothly.
"If you don't buy some things when you want to eat them, even if you get them later, you won't feel how good they are."
Ye Anyian was silent for a moment and had to admit that what Jiang Zhu said made sense.
When he was a child, his stepmother would always give the black truffle chocolate on top of his birthday cake to his half-brother. He wanted to share half of it, but his father wouldn't allow it.
Later, his father may have felt guilty and bought him many different kinds of chocolates, but for some reason, he just felt that the one on the birthday cake was the most delicious.
Seeing that he fell silent, Jiang Zhu tapped the lid of the food box with his finger and said with a smile: "Believe it or not, if you don't buy the roast duck today, you will still miss it after you go back."
Ye Annian sniffed the charcoal-roasted aroma of fruits wafting out of the box and curled his lips: "Letter."
Due to some delay in shopping on the road, it was completely dark when the two of them got home.
Ye Annian took the things from the cart and entered the yard to the enthusiastic hum of copper coins, while Jiang Zhu went to unload the cart and tie up the cattle.
In the room, Fu Zai heard the noise and ran out, followed by Ding Qiu who was leaning on a blind cane.
Ye Anian hurriedly greeted him and took the two children into the house.
"Brother, show us the little rabbit quickly."
In the past few days, in order not to make Xue Tuanzi too wary, he only fed her once a day in the morning and evening, cleaned the rabbit cage at night, and let the two children take a look at the little rabbit.
After this, Xue Tuanzi is no longer restless. The eleven little rabbits are also growing well. The fur on their bodies is getting longer and thicker. They are also bigger than when they were born, but their eyes have not yet opened. .
"Okay, I'll get some food for Xuetuanzi, and you can come in after cleaning the rabbit cage."
Ye Annian said, and went to the main room to get some fresh cabbage leaves and hay that had been stored before, and fed them to Xue Duanzi. The little rabbit is still too young and can only feed on milk.
After feeding the snow dumplings, cleaning the rabbit cage and covering it with hay and cotton wool, Ye Anian called the two children into the house.
Fuzai and Ding Qiu carefully moved the small benches and sat around the rabbit cage.
Xue Danzi, who was eating inside, just raised his head when he heard the movement and continued to eat vegetables and leaves as if nothing had happened.
Ye Annian stood by and asked, "Do you want to touch me?"
"Is that okay?" Fuzai's eyes flashed with light.
"Okay." Ye Anyian said, grabbing a little rabbit and gently putting it in Fu Zai's hand.
Fu Zai held it in both hands, looking cautiously for fear of being crushed to death.
Seeing Ding Qiu sitting obediently alone, Ye Anyian grabbed another one, took Ding Qiu's hand and put it in his palm.
"Touch and see."
Ding Qiu touched the warm fluffy ball in his hand, pursed his lips and smiled: "It's so small."
"Little rabbits grow very fast, and they will be able to eat grass in a few days." Ye Annian said.
These days, Jiang Zhu has told him some common sense about raising rabbits, and he now knows a lot about it.
For example, a bunny will usually start to grow down on its body in two or three days, and its eyes will open in ten days. When the moon is full, it can be fed with vegetable leaves and young grass.
However, the weather is getting colder and colder, and we can no longer feed grass, so we can only feed fresh vegetable leaves.
The three of them were watching the rabbits in the house, and Ye Annian casually placed the roast duck food box on the stove in the main room.
The copper coins smelled the fragrance and were circled around the stove.
But even though it was drooling with greed, it didn't lift the lid of the food box directly, but just turned around to smell it.
It is a good dog and will never steal anything from its owner.
However, maybe it was a little too excited. With a sweep of its thick and powerful tail, the food box was swept to the ground with a "snap".
Copper Coin was dumbfounded.
Outside the yard, Jiang Zhu tied up the cows, then went into the yard and picked up an armful of hay, which he put into the trough of the cowshed at the door for the cattle.
After feeding the cows and just about to go in, a low female voice suddenly came from behind.
"Dr. Jiang..."
Jiang Zhu paused and turned to look at the person.
He saw Ji Fangfang standing under an old locust tree not far from him, with most of her body hidden in the shadows.
"You...looking for me?" Jiang Zhu was quite surprised.
Well," Ji Fangfang pressed her lips together and nodded, "Mr. Jiang... please help me!"