Meng Shi couldn't rush over, her wrist being grabbed by the eldest brother. This was the second time that day that the eldest brother had stopped her from hitting Liu Shi. It wasn't that the eldest brother was worried about Liu Shi getting beaten; he was the head of the family now. Liu Shi was the inner head of the household, and if Liu Shi made a mistake, his mother, as the mother-in-law, would have no problem with her.
Nor will they try to stop it.
The problem is that Liu didn't make any mistakes, nor did she do anything out of line. If he allowed his mother to beat Liu for no reason, how would Liu, as the head of the household, be able to discipline other people in the future?
"Can you please have some peace and quiet for a day? You're always making trouble every few days. What a mess!" The eldest brother said a few words and went to the main room with a gloomy face.
The meal was already served in the main hall. Liu carried the food on a tray for Old Ding and said with a smile, "Old Six has gone to ask for news but hasn't come back yet. I'll go and serve Dad dinner first."
As soon as she finished speaking, Lao Liu came back.
Liu had cooked dinner early tonight, and since the eldest and the others weren't home, she hadn't set the table in the main hall. In the past, only the men in the family ate in the main hall, so they each ate in the kitchen. The sixth child also ate a quick bowl of rice before going to Jian Ning's place.
He arrived just as Ah Man was being beaten, and was later pulled to the table by Ding Youtian to eat some more. Ma Fuquan had already sent a message to Jian Ning through the interstellar space, saying that Ding Youtian wanted nothing more to do with the situation. He told Lao Liu to go find the clan leader. The men and craftsmen Weidong had brought would have to stay for a while, waiting for Ma Fuquan to finish the light bulb before returning to report.
The ancestral hall provided Weidong and his friends with meals every day. The clan specially hired several women to cook, and Weidong paid for all expenses. All those people wanted was food. Ding Youtian had already gone to see the clan leader after Jian Ning told her, so when Lao Liu arrived, the clan leader told him to let them push the grain cart to the ancestral hall.
The elder brothers were delighted to hear what the sixth brother had said. After dinner, they quickly loaded the grain cart and headed for the ancestral hall. Weidong inspected the grain, finding it plump and full, indicating it was all new rice from this year. He readily paid for it, a total of 120 taels. After deducting the costs of the trip to Zhuling County, he'd lost about 10 taels.
If he had lost ten taels of silver for nothing, Old Ding would have felt heartbroken, but compared to the cart of grain he had lost and recovered, ten taels of silver became less important. Old Ding looked at the silver that the eldest brother held before his eyes, tears streaming down his face. The turbid air in his chest dissipated for the most part, and even his body felt a little more relaxed.
In the eyes of his sons, Old Dingtou was as powerful as a mountain, especially to the eldest and second oldest sons. That was why the eldest son was extremely indignant and dissatisfied when Meng beat Old Dingtou like that.
Back in the old house, Jian Ning was talking about the story of borrowing arrows from a straw boat. Big Girl and Little Girl weren't particularly interested in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and listened absentmindedly. Ding Youtian, Dabao, and the Ma brothers, however, preferred the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and were listening with gusto when the clan leader and the village head arrived.
Weidong also came with them.
They listened to Jane Ning telling a story, and after a while, the three of them became fascinated by it.
After listening to Jian Ning's story about borrowing arrows from straw boats, Wei Dong couldn't help but blurt out, "Zhuge Liang is truly a god. This reminds me of someone who can be called the Zhuge Liang of our dynasty. It's a pity..."
He shook his head, his expression darkening.
"Who are you talking about, brother? What's the pity?" Ding Youtian asked.
"I'll tell you when I have the chance." The person Wei Dong was talking about was Nanyangzi, now known as Blind Liu. He was a figure of this dynasty, so it was naturally inconvenient for him to tell others about him at the moment.
In the year of the founding of the Dayan Dynasty, the Emperor had yet to appoint a empress. The Crown Prince's mother, Yin, was not the Emperor's first wife. The Emperor's first wife had been murdered by local officials under the orders of King Qing during the first year of his rebellion. Yin was the eldest daughter of a wealthy family, Ding, whom Nanyangzi had arranged for him to marry during the Emperor's third year of his conquest.
Yin was the eldest daughter in the family. Not only was she skilled in swordsmanship and martial arts, but before she got married she often disguised herself as a man to run her father's business. She was truly an extraordinary woman.
Since marrying the emperor, Yin has been accompanying the army in battles across the country. In the middle of winter, she led the women in the family to wash clothes for the soldiers, doing everything herself. Whenever a soldier was injured, even if it was just a small soldier, Yin would often go to the camp to visit him in person, and she was highly respected by the soldiers in the army.
Due to overwork and excessive worry, Yin had two miscarriages before giving birth to the prince. In addition, she was old and her looks were fading. The emperor was also afraid of her family's wealth and had long wanted to remove her from the throne. How could he be willing to make her the empress?
Nanyangzi, who was the prime minister at the time, did not publicly intervene in the matter of establishing a queen, but secretly wrote a few storybooks and gave them to Yin's father. He asked his father to find some storytellers to preach in major taverns and teahouses in the capital.
The stories in the storybooks were all written based on Yin. For a time, Yin became famous, and the people's calls for her to be the queen became louder and louder. Military generals also submitted memorials to the emperor requesting him to enthrone Yin as the queen as soon as possible to comply with the will of the people.
As a last resort, the emperor had to issue an edict to establish Yin as the queen. At the same time, the emperor also harbored the intention to kill Nanyangzi.
There's no such thing as a completely impenetrable wall. It took the Emperor over two years to finally verify that the folklore about the Empress was written by Nan Yangzi. Just a month later, a trumped-up charge of treason was pinned on Nan Yangzi.
What a pity for such a great strategist, Wei Dong sighed secretly.
Since he was unwilling to speak, Ding Youtian did not ask any more questions. Instead, he asked the village head and the clan leader why they came. The village head asked the clan leader to speak, and the clan leader asked the village head to speak. The village head stamped his foot and said, "Okay, I'll tell you what I'm talking about. This is what happened."
It's hard to write two Ding characters with one stroke. The village head, the clan leader, and Old Dingtou all grew up wearing open-crotch pants and fled famine together with their parents, gnawing on tree bark and grass roots along the way. Earlier, Lao Liu had gone to the clan leader to sell grain, and the clan leader casually asked about Old Dingtou's situation. Lao Liu told him the truth: his father had suffered a stroke and was paralyzed in bed, unable to take care of himself. After selling the grain, they planned to send Old Dingtou to visit the Puren Hall in town.
The clan leader felt a surge of sympathy upon hearing this. He thought of the elderly men, who knew how many years they had left. He also thought that after this incident, Old Ding would likely repent. He went to the village head. The two old men discussed it and then came back to Jian Ning. He wanted to ask Jian Ning if he would treat Old Ding. If so, could a stroke patient like Old Ding recover?
Jian Ning said, "I'm a doctor. He wants to come to my house to see a patient. In my eyes, he's just an ordinary patient like any other villager. There's no reason to turn him away."
"As for whether it can be cured, we'll have to wait and see. I can't guarantee it."
"Just show it, just show it. You really are the living Bodhisattva that everyone says you are." The clan leader and the head of the village both gave her a thumbs up and happily went to report the news to Old Dingtou.
Unexpectedly, Old Ding shook his head like a peddler's drum after hearing this. He was worried that Jian Ning would harm him and take the opportunity to kill him. Not only did he not appreciate it, he also yelled and signaled the boss and others to drive the village head and the clan leader out.
The two men came into the room smiling, they must have conspired to harm him. Although he was paralyzed, his brain was not broken, so he would not be fooled. If you want to trick him, no way!
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