At noon, when the sun was high in the sky, Zhou Laoda returned in his oxcart. The family was having lunch when Zhao Guihua quickly got up and went to the kitchen to get another set of bowls and chopsticks.
She ladled out a bowl of rice and placed it beside her, saying, "Come and eat quickly. I guessed you might come back for lunch, so I made extra."
She had originally thought that Zhou Laoda would be back in the morning, but she didn't expect it to be delayed until now. She wanted to ask about Zhou Dafa's situation, but seeing that the children were all there, she held back and decided to ask after finishing her meal.
After finishing the meal, Zhao Guihua instructed Dafu and the others to clean up the dishes, and then she pulled Zhou Laoda back into the house.
"how's it going?"
Old Zhou knew she wanted to know whether her nephew was dead or alive, and why he had only come back now, so he told her the whole story in detail.
"We were only thinking about rescuing people as quickly as possible, but we forgot that there was a curfew in town. When we arrived at the city gate, it was already closed, and we couldn't get in at all. I was so anxious."
"So, you're going to wait until dawn when the city gates open before you go in?" Zhao Guihua thought to herself, no wonder they couldn't come back in the morning.
"If we had waited until the city gates opened, Dafa would have been doomed. We were lucky... The magistrate's guards searched us thoroughly and, after confirming there were no problems, led us through the city gates. They even helped us find a doctor. Thanks to the magistrate's help, Dafa is truly blessed; he's finally saved."
The doctor had us decoct medicine and perform acupuncture on Dafa, using a lot of good medicine and spending over twenty taels of silver. He even said that it was fortunate we used ginseng to keep Dafa alive, otherwise he probably would have died long ago.
Zhao Guihua's face relaxed, but she felt it was a pity. The wild ginseng looked to be very old, and she had kept it in case someone in the family needed it someday. Who would have thought that it would be given to her nephew.
However, she didn't say these words directly. Instead, she said something nicer: "It's good that the person was saved. It wasn't for nothing that we sent out the wild ginseng."
"Sigh, you were so stingy when you plucked a few ginseng roots back then. If I had known this would happen, I would have just cut some up and made soup at home." Old Zhou felt a pang of regret just thinking about it.
After saying that, the couple looked at each other and then burst out laughing.
"Hey, have my second brother and the others gone home yet?" Zhao Guihua remembered this.
"What are you going to say back to? Dafa's life was saved, but he suffered multiple fractures, broken limbs, and three broken ribs. He was lucky that his neck and spine weren't broken; otherwise, paralysis would have been the least of his worries. If his neck had been broken, he would have been dead."
The doctor said that Dafa's injuries were too severe to withstand any more travel. It would be best to let him recover fully before returning home. A broken bone takes a hundred days to heal, so he'll need at least three months to be able to return. Therefore, I've settled them in the house we bought; there are empty rooms, so they can stay there for now.”
At this point, the eldest son glanced at his wife discreetly. Seeing that she didn't seem dissatisfied, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. However, he still took the initiative to apologize, "Wife, I didn't mean to not discuss this with you. The situation was urgent at the time..."
After leaving the clinic, my second brother and his wife panicked. My brother was just anxious and helpless, and my sister-in-law was crying while holding Dafa. I felt sorry for them too; if I didn't try to find a solution, they might end up in a dilapidated temple.
"Alright, this isn't your fault. After all, you're Dafa's uncle. If it were Zhou Laosan and Zhou Laosi's child who got into trouble, we could be more ruthless. But my second brother and his wife haven't done anything to wrong us. When it's a matter of life and death, we should help them if we can. But once Dafa has recovered, we'll have to make them move out."
"Then we definitely have to make them move out, but my second brother and his wife are sensible and shouldn't refuse to leave." Old Zhou thought to himself that if his second brother's family wanted to continue living there, he would charge them rent.
Anyway, he didn't say that the house was bought by his family, he only said that it was rented.
Actually, even without Zhou Laoda saying anything, Zhou Laoer and Chen Caocao assumed that the house was rented by Zhao Guizhi and Chen Shunping, and offered to pay the rent. Zhao Guizhi immediately knew that they didn't know that the house was bought by her brother-in-law, so she didn't stand on ceremony with them and quoted a relatively low rent.
After Zhou Lao Er and his wife finished talking, Zhao Guihua made a shushing gesture, then she quietly walked to the door and suddenly pulled it open.
"Ouch."
"Oh dear."
The children who were eavesdropping by the door were all caught off guard and fell in. Xingxing and Ruru were the youngest and shortest, so they stood at the front with their heads close to the door. As soon as the door opened, they were the first to fall and were pinned down by the five Fu brothers.
It was practically flattened.
"Waaah, Xingxing's face is all squashed!" Xingxing cried out.
"You're going to die! Who told you to block the stars? Get up right now!"
Zhao Guihua hurriedly pulled the boys away. As soon as she heard her daughter's cry of pain, she regretted it. She hadn't expected that Xingxing and Ruru were also eavesdropping. She had acted rashly; she shouldn't have opened the door so suddenly without saying a word.
Zhao Guihua hurriedly picked up Xingxing and checked where she was injured.
"It hurts, Xingxing hurts." The little girl's tears kept falling as she hugged Zhao Guihua's neck and wailed, making Zhao Guihua's heart ache even more.
"Xingxing, it's my fault. I shouldn't have opened the door without reminding you. It was wrong of me. I won't do it again next time." At this moment, Zhao Guihua wished that the pain Xingxing suffered could be transferred to her, so that she could bear it in Xingxing's place.
Xingxing had a scrape on one side of her face. Her skin was already fair and delicate, so even the smallest scratches would be very noticeable. Now, half of her face was bright red, indicating that the injury was quite severe.
Zhou, the eldest brother, quickly picked up Ruru, patted the dust off her clothes, and checked her for any injuries.
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