◇ 【100】 Inquiry

Gu Juan laughed. "If you really come, won't the other students laugh at me? I have the most luggage among the six students. What do you have to worry about?"

"Okay, no worries. Are the instructors and other students easy to get along with? Where do you live?"

"Everything is fine. There's a family in the village who has gone to work elsewhere, so we're staying with them."

…

After the half-hour call, Gu Juan sent Xi Lang all the photos he had taken along the way. He wondered how Xi Lang would feel when he saw that the vehicle he was riding in was actually an oxcart. Thinking of Xi Lang's expression, he couldn't help but smile.

Wu Yu secretly sighed to himself that it was no wonder Fang Lingling said he was handsome.

Gu Juan walked over and asked, "Are you done with your calls? We'll go downstairs after that."

Wu Yu said, "The fight is over."

The three of them went down the mountain together again.

There was a vegetable basket under the eaves of the temporary house, filled with potatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbage, peppers and eggplants, some eggs, and local leafy vegetables that Gu Juan did not recognize.

He helped Wu Yu and Fang Lingling carry the vegetable baskets into the kitchen. The large water tank against the wall was also filled with water, and the water was still swaying, obviously the person who filled it had just left.

In the room, Zhou Dong's snoring became louder and louder. Gu Juan lay on the kang, eyes closed, resting.

Suddenly there was a scream outside the house.

"ah--"

"Hurry up, there's a fire! There's a fire..."

Everyone in the house was woken up and rushed out to see thick smoke billowing out of the kitchen. Wu Yu and Fang Lingling, their faces blackened by the smoke, stood at the kitchen door, looking inside in panic.

Jin Meng rushed into the kitchen. The firewood piled in front of the stove was burning. He quickly picked up the basin on the stove and scooped some water from the water tank and poured it over the fire. After doing this three or four times, the fire was finally extinguished. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"What's going on?" Guo Jianwen had a stern face, and he looked even more terrifying when he was angry.

Fang Lingling was so upset that she burst into tears. "Teacher, the stove in the kitchen is a clay stove. Wu Yu and I don't know how to use it..."

Wu Yu also said to Liang Yuntang: "Teacher, this is really not our fault. We cook at home, but we have never used the earthen stove in the countryside. Besides, rice is the staple food in our family. We only have flour here, and I really don't know how to make pasta."

Seeing the two girls' faces covered in black ash, Liang Yuntang couldn't find words to blame them. He asked the boys, "Do any of you know how to cook?"

Cheng Feng, Zhou Dong and Jin Meng all said no.

Gu Juan also shook his head. Cooking rice in a rice cooker was fine, but forget about making pasta. When he and Xi Lang lived at the flower farm, they occasionally ate dumplings, and it was Xi Lang who made the dough. He was only responsible for eating and making the mess.

Liang Yuntang said helplessly: "Do you want me and Professor Guo to do it?"

Jin Meng felt sorry for the two girls and said, "Teacher, how about we hire someone in the village to cook for us?"

Liang Yuntang frowned, "We have limited funds, and most of the money is used to buy medicine. We don't have any extra budget to hire people."

Fang Lingling whispered, "We can pool our money together. Or, when we leave, we can pass through Qishan Township and buy some practical daily necessities to give to the villagers."

I have to say that Fang Lingling's mind was working very quickly at this moment.

Liang Yuntang said, "This is the only way. It's too late today, so we shouldn't bother the village chief anymore. Let's figure out how to prepare dinner together. We can go see the village chief tomorrow."

After saying that, he and Guo Jianwen went back to the house.

Gu Juan and the other six cleaned up the kitchen and thought about it for a while before they came up with a solution. As long as the fire in the stove was lit, cooking would not be difficult. It was just that the size of the fire was not easy to control.

But anyway, dinner was ready before dark.

Wu Yu was much more reliable than Fang Lingling. He made a dish of scrambled eggs with green peppers, a dish of cold leafy vegetables, a dish of braised eggplant, a dish of shredded cabbage, and stewed a pot of potatoes with the beef and beef broth bought by Gu Juan.

As for the staple food, it's a pot of batter. Bring the water to a boil, pour the flour in, stirring with chopsticks as you go to prevent it from clumping. Then, add salt and oil, a handful of vegetables, and cook for a while before eating.

Wu Yu said she didn't know whether other people would eat it this way, but what was certain was that it would absolutely not poison anyone.

Because there was no electric light in the house and candles were too dim, Gu Juan and Cheng Feng moved the dining table to the yard, where everyone ate, which was both cool and bright.

Fang Lingling, perhaps feeling a bit embarrassed, took out the two cans of fish in fermented black beans she had brought with her, opened them, and placed them on the table. Thus, there was one more dish on the table.

No one took the previous unpleasantness to heart. After a few young people took out their mobile phones to take photos, they started eating.

The scrambled eggs with green peppers and the braised eggplant were a bit mushy, but the flavor was acceptable. The batter itself was surprisingly good, too. With the addition of the beef stew with potatoes and the fish in black bean sauce, everyone enjoyed their meal.

Zhou Dong said to the others, "Didn't the village chief say there's no electricity in the village? Should we take turns turning off our phones?"

Wu Yu said, "There's not much entertainment in the village. Can you guys avoid playing with your phones at night?"

Everyone else had a grimace. No electricity meant going to bed early, but how could young people like them possibly do that?

Liang Yuntang and Guo Jianwen didn't care about the young people's entanglement. They ate leisurely and chatted about their own topics.

Gu Juan said, "I brought a few extra batteries. If your phone model is the same as mine, you can use my batteries."

Everyone looked at him in surprise, but then they saw that his phone was the latest iPhone model and their expressions shone. They all had different phones.

However, if their cell phones run out of battery and they want to make a call, they can borrow Gu Juan's cell phone.

The cell phone problem was solved, and everyone ate faster. After dinner, they had to boil water for a bath.

When it was Gu Juan's turn to shower, he locked the bathroom door and went to his inner room to wash. After showering, lying on the hard kang, he thought of his old man. Ever since they'd been together, they'd always slept together. Now, there was no one around him, no one in his heart, and his body felt strangely empty. Every night when they lay in bed, even if they weren't having sex, Xi Lang would kiss him and caress every inch of his body, like a rare treasure...

Suddenly realizing what he was thinking, Gu Juan blushed and felt annoyed. There were people around him, what was he thinking about? He chanted a few Heart Clearing Mantras and cursed Xi Lang inwardly. He forced himself to calm down. Even if he couldn't sleep, he could still practice.

In the imperial capital, Xi Lang, who had also just finished his shower and was wearing a comfortable robe, leaned against the headboard, watching a photo of him and Gu Juan. He suddenly sneezed and couldn't help but smile. Xiao Juan must be missing him.

Good night, my love.

…

At around six o'clock in the morning, Liang Yuntang woke everyone up by knocking on the pot lid.

"Cheng Feng, go find the village chief and ask him to find someone to cook for us. On our way back, we'll buy some daily necessities for the villagers in Qishan Township. Of course, the money will be split equally among the eight of us."

Everyone agreed.

Guo Jianwen added, "By the way, talk to the village chief and ask him to send someone to other nearby villages to tell them that if there are patients in other villages, they can also come here and we will provide free treatment for them as well."

"Yes, teacher. I'll go now." Cheng Feng ran away swiftly.

Liang Yuntang said, "Wu Yu and Fang Lingling will stay to help Professor Guo and me. The rest of you will split up and ask all the villagers who are feeling unwell to come here. I'm afraid the villagers are afraid to spend money, so explain to them that we will provide them with free medical treatment."

"Yes, teacher."

Gu Juan said to Jin Meng and Zhou Dong, "I will go from the east to the west of the village."

Jin Meng said, "Then Zhou Dong and I will go to the west of the village and notify every household from the west to the east."

Gu Juan arrived at the east of the village, notified the first household, and then went to the second household. The second household was where the three monks were staying.

He first used his spiritual sense to check and found that the three monks were practicing in the yard and did not notice that their fellow monks were standing across the door.

Gu Juan went forward and knocked on the door.

Bai Shanyi walked over and opened the door, "What's going on?"

"We are college students who followed the professor here to provide free medical treatment. We are here to inform this family that if they feel unwell, they can go to Li Daqiang's house and we will provide them with free medical treatment." Gu Juan said calmly.

Bai Shanyi said, "The owner of this place is not here, we are just renting here."

Gu Juan said, "So that's how it is. If you're not feeling well, you can come over and take a look. Sorry for bothering you."

Bai Shanyi nodded and closed the door.

"Who is it?" Bai Shanxin asked.

Bai Shanyi said nonchalantly, "It's the group of people riding the ox cart we met on the road earlier. They're university students, and they came here with their professor for a free clinic."

Bai Shanxin nodded and said, "We are here for important things to do, so try not to interact with other people."

"I understand, Big Brother." Bai Shanyi touched his belly and looked at the beautiful girl. "Junior Sister, is it time to make breakfast? My stomach is rumbling."

Bai Shanyan rolled his eyes at him and said, "I cooked yesterday, and I'm going to cook today too?"

Bai Shanyi smiled apologetically and said, "Those who are capable should do more work. If I could cook, I would be happy to cook for my junior sister every day."

Bai Shanyan crossed his arms and glanced at him, "You wash the rice and vegetables."

Bai Shanyi immediately said, "No problem." He looked at Bai Shanxin.

Bai Shanxin pulled out the red string from her neck. Tied to it was a small, delicately embroidered bag, woven with gold and silver threads. With a single stroke of his hand, half a bag of rice and some vegetables appeared on the ground.

Bai Shanyi and Bai Shanyan's eyes flashed with intense envy. The eldest brother's embroidered bag was a storage bag. It looked only the size of a cigarette box, but it actually held approximately five cubic meters of space, enough to hold a lot of things. Unfortunately, there weren't many such storage bags, and among the three of them, only the eldest brother had one. But there was nothing that could be done about it; after all, the eldest brother was the master's biological son.