81 It doesn't help
◎We must lay flagstones next year◎
Because Uncle Zhao had caused a big fuss at Xia Hua's house before, Ye Yunzhao didn't have a good impression of him. He had vowed so firmly that he would never grow mushrooms, but he never expected that he had already built a mushroom shed during the few days when he was away.
Although people are a bit annoying, mushrooms are innocent. What's more, this is the way Ye Yunzhao chose to make a fortune.
She followed Wu Laosan and hurried to Uncle Zhao's house. The snow mixed with the north wind blew towards them. She shrank her neck and looked from afar. She could vaguely see Uncle Zhao knocking and scolding.
Most of the courtyard walls of the villagers' houses are surrounded by fences. Only a few have courtyard walls half a person's height built with earth bricks. Among them, only three or five families have courtyard walls that are higher than a person.
Uncle Zhao's house has a pretty good half-person-high earthen brick wall. Now, across the wall, I can just see him banging on the mushroom shed with a hammer like crazy in the yard.
Aunt Zhao, who was at a loss beside her, was soaking wet. "Old man, please stop knocking... Old man..."
Uncle Zhao turned a deaf ear and kept muttering, "You lied to me! You all lied to me! I let you lie to me! You have no conscience..."
Outside the courtyard wall, Ye Yunzhao and Wu Laosan exchanged a glance. Ye Yunzhao spread his hands and whispered, "Mr. Zhao is such a jerk... Oh, forget it. Anyway, County Magistrate Ye, let's go. He looks like he's gone mad. Why bother provoking him? He's only bringing trouble upon himself."
Ye Yunzhao shook his head and said to him, "Go home first. I'll go in and see what's going on."
After saying that, she moved to the gate of the courtyard very quickly, raised her hand and knocked a few times, but found that the door was not locked.
Ye Yunzhao stepped inside. The first person to notice her was Aunt Zhao. Aunt Zhao took two quick steps forward and said, "County Magistrate Ye? Why are you here? Is it because of my old man's matter? Why did you come all this way in person? Come inside and warm yourself by the fire."
Ye Yunzhao waved at her and walked behind Uncle Zhao: "Uncle Zhao! Stop smashing it! If you have any questions, tell me!"
Aunt Zhao on the side echoed: "Yes, old man, County Magistrate Ye has come personally to solve your problem. Let's go inside first, let's go inside first..."
As she spoke, she walked closer and raised her hand to stop Uncle Zhao's crazy movements. But Uncle Zhao pushed her hard, and Aunt Zhao fell into the mud. "No one cares about me! Today I must smash this broken house to pieces!"
Ye Yunzhao quickly leaned over to help her. A trace of embarrassment and shame flashed across Aunt Zhao's eyes. After she stood up, she glared at Uncle Zhao fiercely, turned and went into the kitchen, and walked straight towards him with a kitchen knife in her hand.
"Zhao Qiumai! If you can't make trouble again, I'll let you go! Get back inside right now!"
Startled, Ye Yunzhao hurriedly stopped her and stammered, "Aunt Zhao, you can't... you can't... you can't..."
She smiled gently at Ye Yunzhao, "County Magistrate Ye, don't worry."
Instantly, she swung the knife in front of Uncle Zhao twice and said, "Did you hear me? Get out of here! You're getting ahead of me every day! Hurry up!"
Ye Yunzhao never expected that this trick would be so effective. Uncle Zhao, who had just ignored others, was like a quail with its feathers smoothed out. He threw the hammer to the ground and walked into the house obediently.
Aunt Zhao said sternly, "Who told you to throw the hammer here? Put it back where you got it!"
Uncle Zhao said nothing and quickly walked into the kitchen with a hammer.
Ye Yunzhao was dumbfounded and secretly gave her a thumbs up.
After a while, the three of them sat in the main room. In the middle was a stove made of yellow mud with some dry firewood burning in it.
"County Magistrate Ye, have a bowl of hot water to warm yourself up." Aunt Zhao handed her the hot water with a smile.
After thanking him, Ye Yunzhao looked at the dejected Uncle Zhao not far away and asked with concern, "Uncle Zhao, just because someone else's mushrooms have sprouted, you are so angry that you have to destroy the mushroom shed in the snow today?"
Aunt Zhao rolled her eyes at him. "County Magistrate Ye, please be fair. It's not just one household that has problems; more than ten households have. And you're the only one who's had problems because of a shortage of mushrooms, and they've destroyed our mushroom shed! You're such a loser!"
Uncle Zhao stood up suddenly and scolded, "I'm useless? You keep saying I'm useless. If I were useless, would you be able to live in such a spacious house? Besides, I'm in this state because of her—"
As he spoke, he suddenly turned around and pointed a rough finger at Ye Yunzhao who was sitting beside him blankly. "You boasted so much back then. If there was even the slightest problem, you would definitely help. Now, where are you? I knew you were trying to trick us! You have no conscience... You still have the nerve to call yourself a parent official? Is this what a parent official is like? Officials are really bad..."
Hearing this, Aunt Zhao stole a glance at Ye Yunzhao. Seeing that there was no anger on her face, she slammed him: "What nonsense are you talking about! How can you flatter yourself so much! I live in such a nice house thanks to my son. What does it have to do with a fool like you?"
Seeing them fighting, Ye Yunzhao had a terrible headache. This matter was indeed related to her sudden imprisonment, so she had to separate the two first.
"I am responsible for this matter, but the mushrooms can still be saved..." Ye Yunzhao looked at the mushroom shed in the yard which had collapsed for the most part and sighed softly.
Aunt Zhao's eyes lit up: "Is what County Magistrate Ye said true?!"
She was quick-witted, and after hearing this, she naturally thought of growing mushrooms again. What's more, she had visited Aunt Wang's house two days ago, and saw that they were indeed quite expensive mushrooms!
Uncle Zhao, however, didn't take it seriously. He said with a sullen face, "Go away! I won't believe a word you say from now on! Don't try to trick me again! Get out! You're not welcome in our house!"
As he spoke, he pushed Ye Yunzhao out, and Aunt Zhao tried to stop him for a long time but to no avail.
Ye Yunzhao was pushed out the door by Uncle Zhao. His cloudy eyes glared at him, "Get out! Get out! You're still talking about making amends? You must be trying to trick me again! Get out!"
Ye Yunzhao was forced to retreat and staggered after being pushed by him. Wu Laosan quickly jumped out from the side and pushed her back, so that she did not fall.
"Old Zhao, how can you talk to the county magistrate? Push him again and see! I'll sue you for assaulting an imperial official!"
Wu Laosan had always looked down on him. To be more precise, most of the people in Xixiang looked down on him. Zhao Qiumai was Xixiang's most lazy and slacking "person." As the saying goes, "Good shoots come from bad bamboo," and this was certainly true of the Zhao family. Such a lazy and slacking person surprisingly had a hardworking and capable son who later served on the battlefield, making him another of Xixiang's most prominent figures.
But on weekdays, everyone takes care of their own land, and for the sake of his son, there are rarely direct conflicts.
Who would have thought that today Wu Laosan would seize the opportunity and start a barrage of angry accusations, scaring Uncle Zhao completely.
He shut up and didn't dare to curse anymore. He glanced at Ye Yunzhao and saw his lips slightly opened, as if he was about to say something. He flashed into the yard, and with a "clang", the gate was locked tightly.
Wu Laosan lowered his head and cursed inwardly: "Heartless..."
He raised his head and wiped the snow off his face. "Let's go, County Magistrate Ye. I told you just now that there's no need to visit this kind of person. He's just wasting his time. Why bother..."
Ye Yunzhao's face was filled with a hint of sadness as he sighed deeply, "This is all my fault. If I hadn't been there a few days ago... Sigh... If I had been in Lingnan the first time, this wouldn't have happened. Although Uncle Zhao was a bit overbearing, he was right in one thing. I, as the local official... didn't do my job well... If I were here... you wouldn't have argued with the head of the village, and Uncle Zhao wouldn't have smashed the mushroom shed..."
"County Magistrate Ye, you don't have to blame yourself too much for what happened to Uncle Zhao. He... he's not a good person." Seeing her like this, Wu Laosan also lowered his head and sighed, then told her the whole truth. "At the beginning, although we were all very anxious when we saw the mushrooms in other people's homes, we never thought of causing trouble. It was Uncle Zhao who told us that there must be something wrong with Lu Dayuan's mushroom shed. We were stupid... and we were fooled by him... We actually... Alas, County Magistrate Ye, it's a good thing you're back, otherwise, who knows what big mistake we would have made."
"What?" Ye Yunzhao was stunned. She was so angry that she didn't know whether to leave or stand. She pointed at Wu Laosan and said, "You two... go to the village head's house together these few days to apologize to Aunt Xiangyun and Lu Dayuan. We are all from Xixiang. It would be bad if we become estranged because of these things..."
Before she finished speaking, Wu Lao San nodded immediately and said sincerely, "Don't worry, County Magistrate Ye. I will ask everyone to apologize tomorrow and will definitely ask for Brother Da Yuan's forgiveness."
The cold wind whistled across the muddy road in Xixiang, and snowflakes fell slowly like scattered dandelions. Ye Yunzhao looked into the distance and felt that the green mountains and clear waters of the past were now covered with a layer of hazy white gauze. She waved her hand, said goodbye to Wu Laosan, and walked towards the county government office alone.
She lowered her eyes to look at the muddy water on her clogs and vowed to herself: "Next year I must lay stone slabs on the ground."
She returned to the county government office exhausted, and before she could even enter her own courtyard, she heard the news that County Magistrate Han had been ill for many days.
She hurried to Han County Magistrate's residence. Liu Mazi was standing under the eaves with a worried look on his face. Seeing Ye Yunzhao coming, he immediately came forward to greet him: "Ye County Magistrate, you are finally back. A lot of things have happened in Xixiang these days..."
Ye Yunzhao said anxiously, "I've almost finished dealing with the Xixiang matter. What about County Magistrate Han? Is he still seriously ill?"
Liu Mazi paused, then followed her into the house: "County Magistrate Han has been like this for more than ten days."
The person on the bed seemed to have aged several years overnight, with no trace of his former ambition. The man in his early thirties now seemed to be over forty, with a few white hairs on his temples. He was frowning and mumbling in a half-asleep state.
Beside the bed were Li Xianjiang and Lu Yi, both looking worried. Ye Yunzhao was stunned and whispered in disbelief, "How could it be so serious?"
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