Dazhuang poked his head in: "Weren't you guys going to move millstones and grinding stones? How did you get involved with these refugees?"
Upon hearing this, a murderous glint flashed in Zhi Wang's eyes. He glanced again at Zhi Wu, who was still asleep beside him, and gritted his teeth:
"The valley had been occupied by refugees at some point. They gathered in thatched huts and didn't go out. There were no footprints or other traces on the snow. Zhiwu and I thought there was no one inside, so we let our guard down."
"There was a leader among these refugees who instructed them to make no noise. We tried to probe several times but found nothing amiss, so we went to move the millstone. But we never expected that as soon as we lifted the millstone..."
"They rushed out, armed with wooden sticks or stones, and hit them accurately with every blow."
Fortunately, Zhiwu had been strong since childhood and had never slacked off in martial arts training. He managed to squeeze a way out from among dozens of people, otherwise... Old Man Nian would probably be collecting their corpses.
Su Jiu sat by the newly developed brazier, drinking sweet soup while listening to the cryptic explanations, somewhat bewildered:
"When I returned to Tanzhou, the city had already settled down, and the displaced people had been settled in the city and moved into places such as the orphanage and the nursing home."
"Although the pay isn't great, as long as they work, they don't have to worry about food, lodging, or charcoal for heating. How could they...?"
Da Zhuang handed Xu Lin a bowl of warm sweet soup, and after thinking for a moment, said, "Perhaps they are too far away and do not know, or perhaps... their purpose is not just to eat, stay and keep warm."
Dazhuang still remembers the day he climbed up the mountain behind Shuixi Village and looked down at the large group of refugees he saw.
Seemingly disordered, but actually guided and controlled, they split up and headed towards several surrounding villages.
Su Jiu suddenly laughed: "The refugees flee famine, aren't they just looking for food, enough water, and a stable life? What other purpose could they have?"
He shrugged and said jokingly, "A rebellion?"
As soon as he said it, the room fell silent.
Dazhuang Sanyuan, Xu Lin, and Zhiwang all stared at Su Jiu, leaving him quite bewildered.
After a long pause, Xu Lin suddenly laughed: "Who knows?"
Da Zhuang seemed to be deep in thought.
"Wait, weren't we discussing those people in the valley? Why are you bringing this up instead of thinking about a good opportunity to get revenge?"
Su Jiu sensed something was wrong; the conversation was drifting off-topic.
Zhiwang shook his head: "Revenge... I'm afraid that's difficult."
He certainly wanted revenge, but...
"About half of the brothers in the mountain stronghold went to Longxing Prefecture City, plus a few towns at the foot of the mountain... The stronghold only has about a hundred people in total, including a dozen or so old people and children."
"We still need to leave a dozen or so people to guard the stronghold. We can only spare about ten people. How can we possibly defeat that group?"
Su Jiu was speechless for a moment, then managed to stammer out, "You bandits are really doing a terribly pathetic job."
They have neither money nor manpower, yet they dare to call themselves bandits?
Zhiwang thought so too, but since he had received a meal from the mountain stronghold, he naturally had to say a few good words for them:
"It's still under development, isn't it? Doctor Su, would you like to join our stronghold? The monthly salary is three taels—no, five taels of silver!"
Having earned some money selling charcoal, Zhiwang became more generous with his spending.
Su Jiu waved his hand dismissively: "No need. I haven't even spent all the money I got from your former chieftain. I won't covet your little bit of money."
Later, Zhiwang, who arrived at the mountain stronghold, was left bewildered: "???"
Where did you get the silver from?
What did they get from the former chieftain?
What silver?!
After a not-so-heated discussion, Zhiwang's previously heavy mood improved considerably, and he stopped worrying about the money, instead asking:
"I'm the eldest, aren't I? He wouldn't...do something stupid, would he?"
Dazhuang shook his head: "No, he went down the mountain and brought back the stone mill that you risked your lives to bring back. He also studied the brazier. He's in the kitchen cooking for you right now."
Baldy was probably too concerned about Zhiwang and the other two. Seeing that they were injured, he inevitably implicated others and suddenly became displeased with Xu Lin's family.
He refused to eat or drink the soup and food cooked by Xu Lin's mother, and didn't want to see Xu Lin and the others. He preferred to bury himself in the kitchen and cook.
Zhiwang was surprised and immediately became flustered, throwing off the covers to get off the bed:
"Old Man Nian...he's so kind. It's my fault, it's all my fault..."
Da Zhuang, Su Jiu, and Xu Lin: "..."
Sanyuan scratched his head blankly, interrupting Zhiwang's visible gratitude: "You dare to eat the food he made?"
Baldy's mother has mentioned several times how terrible Baldy's cooking is, saying that she had diarrhea for two days after eating it, and even almost got poisoned several times.
The last time they had a get-together, they ate food cooked by Ye Wenxue herself; the bald guy only helped out at most.
If the bald guy were to cook all by himself... well, who would dare to eat it?
Zhiwang paused, silently retreated back onto the kang (a heated brick bed), and began to ponder.
Was he forcing himself to eat to save face for the eldest son?
Or should I not eat it to save my life?
Just as he was thinking, a puzzled female voice came from outside the door: "Dazhuang Sanyuan, where are you? Come home for dinner."
Dazhuang and Sanyuan jumped off the bench at the same time and ran outside, shouting, "Mom, over here!"
Ye Wenxue followed the sound and caught the two children at the door.
She touched their heads one by one, noticing that they weren't in a good mood, and casually asked:
"What's wrong? It looks like the bald guy is cooking. Is his food even edible?"
The people inside the room: "..."
That's a good question.
Since Su Jiu didn't want to try the bald man's cooking anyway, she reminded Zhi Wang, "I'm going back to her house tonight. If you've eaten something wrong and gotten poisoned, just find a doctor from the mountain village to come over."
Zhiwang wanted to cry but had no tears.
Even on a snowy night, Dr. Chen wouldn't walk that far.
Sanyuan grabbed Ye Wenxue's arm and pulled her into the house, whispering that Zhiwang and Zhiwu had encountered danger.
Ye Wenxue listened to the whole thing and only had one question:
"You were all injured, you almost couldn't escape, why didn't you throw away the millstone?"
Zhiwang was taken aback, then blinked quickly: "Zhiwu said... you want to eat tofu."
Ye Wenxue was somewhat taken aback. She hadn't expected the two of them to go to such lengths for something she'd just said casually. After a few moments of silence, she rolled up her sleeves:
"Where are those guys? Boss Ye will get you some revenge."
Dazhuang, Sanyuan, and Zhiwang quickly stopped them, saying, "No, there are too many refugees there. We can't defeat them in a short time."
Zhiwang coughed weakly twice: "Boss Ye, the mountains are blocked by heavy snow, they won't run away anytime soon. Why don't we wait until the brothers finish selling the charcoal and come back, then take all the brothers in the stronghold and go find them to take revenge?"
Ye Wenxue frowned, glanced at Zhiwang and Zhiwu a few times, and then turned to go to the kitchen.
She smiled at Xu Lin's mother, who was lingering at the kitchen door, and then reached out and picked up the bald man who was cooking something.
"Don't make things worse here, let someone who knows how to cook come."
The bald man, unwilling to accept this, was about to struggle and argue with her when a single sentence froze him in place:
"You wouldn't want Zhiwu and Zhiwang to die not at the hands of the refugees, but from the food you made, would you?"
Bald man: "......"
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