"Mom and Dad, we're back!" Xingxing called out from afar, her voice clear and melodious.
"You're finally back! I was so worried about you." Zhao Guihua patted her chest and rushed to greet him.
Through the hazy darkness, she saw a group of people in a grayish hue, stood there stunned, and muttered to herself, "Why are there so many people? Where did they all come from?"
"Mom, I'm back!" Xingxing rushed over and hugged Zhao Guihua's leg, saying in a soft, sweet voice, "We rescued so many people. These young ladies and little girls were kidnapped by bad guys. Senior Brother Zhu beat the bad guys to death and rescued them all."
As they approached, Zhao Guihua could see clearly in the firelight that they were all young girls, all dressed in gray clothes, which explained the dusty appearance of the group.
“There are still a few boys,” Zhao Guihua noticed at a glance. “How are we going to accommodate so many children? It will take so long to cook for them.”
“Three bad guys came with us. Let them cook,” Xingxing said, turning around and pointing at the three burly men.
Zhu Qiuyu pointed at one of the burly men with her folding fan, "Go and start a fire to cook."
"Yes, yes, yes, we'll do it right away," the burly man readily agreed, took a few steps forward, then turned back and asked with his head bowed, "Young master, what shall we use to make it?"
There was no rice, no pot, only people.
“Gather some firewood nearby. There are pots and grains on the cart.” After saying that, Zhu Qiuyu lifted his folding fan towards the other person’s chin, forcing the person to open their mouth. A pill flew into the other person’s throat, and the person subconsciously swallowed it.
The other two were also forced to take pills.
"I'll give you the time it takes for an incense stick to burn. If you don't come back for the antidote within that time, this day next year will be your death anniversary," Zhu Qiuyu said calmly.
The three of them dared not play any tricks and quickly ran to gather firewood. They returned in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and then began to cook.
With so many people, it was impossible to make something really delicious. Boss Zhou lent them his biggest iron pot and some cured meat. The three big men worked together to cook a big pot of cured meat porridge. There was more rice than meat, but it was thick and creamy.
Since there were no bowls, Zhu Qiuyu sent the three men to the forest to cut bamboo tubes to make bowls, and also had them whittle more than sixty pairs of bamboo chopsticks.
Because they had been given medicine, the three of them could only work honestly and dared not have any bad intentions. Only after they finished making more than sixty sets of bamboo bowls and chopsticks could they drink porridge with a group of children.
These children were all stolen or abducted from refugees in various places. Ninety percent of them could no longer find their families, and the remaining ten percent vaguely remembered where their homes were, but this matter had to be handed over to the government.
It will take about ten days to get back to Nanyang Prefecture, but there aren't enough carriages. If the children have to walk, it will take at least half as long to get there.
Zhu Lin and his group of seven rode horses. Zhou Erfu and Zhou Sifu also rode horses. In order to save time, after thinking it over, they decided not to travel the next day, but to cut wood and saw planks to make a carriage.
"How are we supposed to work without a saw?" Zhou Laoda had just finished speaking when Zhu Lin pulled out a saw from somewhere.
The saw looked so old-fashioned that Boss Zhou thought he had never seen such a beautiful saw before. It didn't look like a saw at all, but more like an antique. What was even stranger was that he hadn't seen Young Master Zhu carry a saw along the way, so where did he get this thing from?
"The thing I saw in the cave before was brought back by my senior brother. I don't know why he would think of taking a saw." Zhu Lin shifted the blame to Zhu Qiuyu.
Zhu Qiuyu: "?" Who knows where the saw came from? Only my junior brother knows.
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