This year, Brother Dafu spent Lunar New Year's Eve alone, perfectly embodying the feeling of loneliness, desolation, and misery.
The Zhou couple haven't spent the Spring Festival with their children for two years. For the past two years, Zhao Guizhi and her family of three have returned to Yegou Village to spend the holiday with them.
Li Quan's family will return to Yegou Village during the Lantern Festival to get together with everyone. Now the waterways are very convenient, with boats traveling between the prefectural city and the county town every day. The journey by land would take about twenty days, but by water it would only take ten days.
When everyone sat down to eat together, they were all in high spirits, but Zhao Guihua would always sigh unconsciously, "The children have grown up and don't want to stay at home. They just like to run around outside, leaving only the two of us old folks to take care of the house."
Zhao Guizhi didn't like hearing her say this, and she would retort whenever she did, "You two are going to the capital together, but you can't bear to leave your fields and orchards. The children have their own ideas. They can't stay with you to farm and grow fruit trees for the rest of their lives. That's life. People come and go. It's impossible to have it all."
Zhao Guihua gave her a subtle glare and said in a low voice, "I just wanted to vent, couldn't you comfort me instead of provoking me?"
“If you were to complain to me privately, that would be one thing, but now that we’re all sitting together having a reunion dinner, and you suddenly say something that spoils the mood, who else am I supposed to talk back to?” Zhao Guizhi said, both amused and annoyed.
"Alright, I understand. Once the weather warms up and the snow in the north melts, my husband and I will see if we should go to the capital." Zhao Guihua finally couldn't bear the pain of missing him and made up her mind to go to the capital again.
However, things didn't go as planned. Some things happened that prevented Zhou Laoda and Zhao Guihua from going to the capital, but the children all came back.
Here's what happened: In April, when the mulberries began to ripen, Zhao Guizhi led a group of people back to Yegou Village to transport a boatload of mulberries to Nanyang Prefecture.
Li Yu'er and Li Ji'er also knew how to make mulberry wine, so Zhao Guizhi was too lazy to make it herself and instead sent the mulberries over to them to make their own.
After delivering the goods, Zhao Guizhi was in a hurry to go to the dock to see the seafood. When leaving the county, Chen Yuting specifically told her to bring seafood back with her, as Xiao Yuting liked to eat all kinds of seafood.
"Auntie, I'll go with you." Li Ji'er also invited her husband to come along. Every time Zhao Guizhi came to the prefectural city, she would buy a lot of seafood and take it back by boat the next day. Li Ji'er was afraid that she wouldn't be able to carry it all by herself, so she would have to find someone to help deliver it.
"Aren't you busy?" Zhao Guizhi glanced at the restaurant. The food was delivered to the backyard, so she didn't know how business was at the front.
"We have enough manpower, we won't be short of one or two people." Li Ji'er laughed heartily. In recent years, she and Li Yu'er have become more and more cheerful. They have been living a good life after getting married. Their husbands are also very caring. The two sisters have both had two children.
Li Ji'er and Li Yu'er are twins. Perhaps it's genetic, but the sisters conceived one after the other and later gave birth to twin sons one after the other. Now, their sons are three years old and very lively.
At this moment, Zhao Guizhi and Li Jier got into the carriage together. Li Jier's husband was in charge of driving the carriage, and they arrived at the Fucheng Wharf half an hour later.
In the past year, fishermen along the coast have been bringing in a lot of seafood to sell. The shrimp and crabs are quite large, and all kinds of sea fish are plump and alive. Although the prices are not cheap, people who love to eat seafood will grit their teeth and buy them.
“Some people get poisoned by eating shrimp and crab. Last time, a customer at the restaurant ate both kinds of seafood and drank alcohol, and he collapsed on the ground. Everyone was shocked. I even thought that someone was trying to poison us again by putting poison in the food and drinks,” Li Ji’er said with lingering fear.
"Fortunately, one of the customers who was dining at the restaurant at the time was a doctor. When he saw someone in trouble, he immediately came over to take their pulse. The doctor gave the fallen customer a pill, and the person's condition improved somewhat."
The doctor who saved the patient had a clinic in the prefectural city. After bringing the patient's condition under control, he sent someone to his clinic. In the end, the guest who had the accident was saved, and the doctor said it was seafood poisoning.
"Auntie, do you think these shrimp and crabs are poisonous?" Li Jier asked seriously.
Zhao Guizhi wasn't too sure either, but her reply was quite fair, "There's no poison, right? It's probably because everyone's body is different. Shrimp and crab are both cold foods, and people with weak constitutions can't handle them. Your uncle shouldn't eat too much of them."
Li Jier nodded thoughtfully, "I think it's fine too. So many customers in the restaurant ate shrimp and crab without any problems. Only one customer got poisoned. It must be because his body couldn't handle it. It's not a problem with the shrimp and crab."
"Madam, Madam, please have mercy and save my sister! My sister is dying, please save her life!" Zhao Guizhi was talking to Li Jier as they walked down to the dock when suddenly a beggar rushed up and grabbed her leg, crying out.
"Get out of the way! Don't block the way. There have been beggars like you swindling money everywhere these past few years. The government is cracking down on them. If you don't let go, I'll call the police!" Li Ji'er threatened, prying the other person's hands off.
The beggar looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old. She was dressed in tattered clothes, and her face was not deliberately smeared with soot and mud. Her skin was naturally dark and translucent. Apart from looking very disheveled, she was actually clean.
"No, I didn't mean to cheat you out of money. We escaped to Nanyang Prefecture after suffering a great calamity. We swam across the sea to get here."
“There haven’t been any natural disasters in recent years, and the refugees have long been resettled. Since you can swim across the sea, it means you are an excellent swimmer. Could it be that you encountered a shipwreck while fishing at sea?” Zhao Guizhi asked doubtfully.
The beggar's eyes were filled with tears, and she hesitated to speak. Seeing Zhao Guizhi staring at her steadily, and Zhao Guizhi's kind face and upright eyes, she inexplicably felt that she could trust her. She whispered, "It's not a natural disaster, it's a man-made disaster."
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