Chapter 263 Ring
Zhao Shiqing has been traveling back and forth between the mountain and the city gate for several days. It is a hard and dangerous job. Others wanted to do it for him, but Zhao Shiqing refused.
Those who fled at this time were terrified but determined to fight, and they were afraid in their hearts.
What frightened them was not only the flood, but also Gaoping and the road to Gaoping. On this road, there were not only heavy rain, lightning and thunder, but also thieves, bandits, kidnappers, and dangers that could happen at any time and anywhere.
At this time, someone told them that Gaoping, five hundred miles away, was not the only place where they could find shelter. If they returned to the city, they could find a place to stay in two or three hours.
They will hesitate between believing and not believing. If they believe, it would be great. But if they don't believe, then the person who told them this has bad intentions and is a bandit.
At this time, women are more likely to let down their guard than men, especially those women with children. Pretty and lovely girls make them feel more at ease than loud-mouthed men.
Zhao Shiqing's efforts were not in vain. In the past few days, more and more people came to the mountain under her guidance, and 70% of them were the elderly, the weak, women and children.
At this time, Zhao Shiqing was standing in front of a stranded carriage, talking to the people in the carriage through the curtain.
She was a middle-aged woman, her surname was Hao. At this moment, she was holding a girl in each hand and listening nervously to the movement outside the car.
These two children are her two granddaughters. After her daughter died, her son-in-law was transferred to the capital. He originally wanted to take the two granddaughters with him, but Mrs. Hao did not agree. Her son-in-law had no children, so he would definitely remarry. With a stepmother, there would be a stepfather, and the two granddaughters would definitely suffer.
Mrs. Hao kept her two granddaughters by her side for five years.
Not long ago, Mrs. Hao heard rumors of a flood in Tongzhou, so she wrote to her son-in-law, asking him to send someone to pick up her two daughters and bring them to Beijing. However, the person sent by her son-in-law has not arrived yet. She has been waiting and waiting, and she knows that she can't wait any longer. She regrets that she should have sent her two granddaughters to Beijing directly.
Hearing the voice of a young woman coming from outside the car, Mrs. Hao bravely lifted the oilcloth on the window and looked over. She saw three people wearing straw raincoats riding on horses. Although the rain blurred her vision, Mrs. Hao could still tell that two of them were women.
"Who are you?" asked Mrs. Hao.
Zhao Shiqing smiled. "My last name is Zhao Shiqing. I came here from the teahouse on the mountain. There are already many people like you who want to go to Gaoping but can't get there. The teahouse on the mountain is a long-established brand, and the owner is kind and generous. Although the way up the mountain is difficult, it is much easier than going to Gaoping. There are houses on the mountain, hot water, hot meals, and medicinal herbs we prepared in advance. Most importantly, the mountain is high. Even if the flood submerges Tongzhou City, the mountain is still the safest place.
If you don't believe me, you can send someone to the mountain to check. If you believe me, you can go there now."
Mrs. Hao was half-believing and half-doubting. She had been a widow for many years, her only daughter had passed away, and she rarely left the house. Her knowledge of the mountain was limited to having passed by it once.
She looked at her two granddaughters and said, "What do you say? Should we keep going forward, or go back to the city and up the mountain?"
In fact, it was useless to ask. Their car was no longer able to move, and it was extremely difficult to go to Gaoping.
Although the two granddaughters are young, they are very sensible. They look at the girl outside the window curiously. This sister can ride a horse. This sister is so majestic.
They had never ridden a horse before, and before this, they had never even seen a woman who could ride a horse.
My sister bravely asked, "Where will we live when we get to the mountains?"
They are women, and my grandmother is a widow. What if they get hit?
Zhao Shiqing smiled and spoke more slowly, fearing to scare the little girl. "Besides the teahouse, there's also an inn on the mountain. The women stay in the inn, and the men stay in the teahouse, separated by a row of rocks and trees. However, due to limited rooms, single rooms are not possible. Everyone has to sleep together, on those big bunk beds. It's warm and clean, but quiet is out of the question."
The elder sister nodded and looked at her grandmother and younger sister. "It's just like the house where the servants live at home. Many people sleep on one big bed."
My younger sister looked confused and just listened to grandma and her older sister.
Mrs. Hao listened carefully. She could imagine the scene there. She had never lived in such a house before. However, living in a large bunk bed was better than being washed away by the flood at any time.
"Okay, Miss Zhao, thank you for letting us know. We will return to the mountain now!"
After watching Mrs. Hao and her group leave, Zhao Shiqing breathed a sigh of relief, looked up at the sky, and couldn't help laughing. What was she thinking? It was windy and rainy, so why bother looking at the weather?
"Second Miss, it's almost evening now. No one will leave the city. Let's go back to the mountain." Ling Bo said.
"Okay, let's go back!" Zhao Shiqing has always been a person who listens to advice and eats a full meal.
In fact, not only is the road out of the city difficult now, but the road back to the city is also difficult.
Ling Bo sighed: "The rain is getting heavier."
She suddenly remembered something: "Second Miss, the Fourth Prince must be stuck on the road, otherwise he should be here by now."
Zhao Shiqing chuckled. At this time, ten days had passed since the date Xiao Zhen estimated, which meant that it was enough time to walk from the capital to Tongzhou twice.
Even if the Fourth Prince has to crawl, he will eventually reach his destination.
"The Fourth Prince is probably enjoying the rain at the official post station right now."
Zhao Shiqing guessed correctly. At this moment, the Fourth Prince was sighing at the rain.
It's not that he doesn't want to leave, but that he can't leave.
Who would have thought that something would happen as soon as we arrived in Yancheng Prefecture.
The weather in Yancheng Prefecture was hot, and the fairy prayed for rain, and finally, it rained.
On this journey, he was not originally going to enter the city, and officials from all over the country were welcoming him on both sides of the official road.
Before arriving in Yancheng, we heard that it was raining heavily in Tongzhou. This news shocked everyone.
Originally, the Tongzhou flood was just a guess. After all, even the Imperial Astronomical Observatory could not calculate it.
Even the people in the Ministry of Works felt that they were just following the Fourth Prince for a walk and had been planning to slack off.
Unexpectedly, it actually rained heavily in Tongzhou. People in the Ministry of Industry knew best what heavy rain meant to a town near a river.
Just at this time, the story of Fairy Cao in Yancheng Prefecture who prayed for rain and got it reached the ears of the Fourth Prince.
The Fourth Prince was overjoyed. Fairy Cao was so effective. Since she could pray for rain, she could certainly make the rain stop.
When he met the officials of Yancheng, the Fourth Prince asked about Fairy Cao, as he wanted to meet her in person.
But the officials could not find Fairy Cao, and even Fairy Cao's disciples were nowhere to be found.
The Fourth Prince was furious and immediately sent people to look for him, which delayed him in Yancheng for two days.
The people who were sent out to look for people came back and told us that they had found the whereabouts of Fairy Cao. It turned out that the fairy had taken her disciples to Tongzhou to save the people.
The Fourth Prince was filled with emotion. This was the true model of a true immortal. A fairy was supposed to save people from danger and save all people.
Now that he knew that Fairy Cao had gone to Tongzhou, the Fourth Prince prepared to continue his journey the next day. However, he did not expect that that night, everyone, including him, would suffer from vomiting and diarrhea and could not even get out of bed.
It would be fine for other people, but he is a prince, and getting a stomach upset should not happen to him.
It was finally discovered that the problem was with the drinking water.
When the Fourth Prince traveled, an entire carriage was loaded with the mountain spring water that he had been drinking since he was a child. The water he drank was different from that of other people.
But for some reason, the water was good all the way, but after stopping in Yanzhou for two days, when they woke up in the morning, they found a layer of insects floating on the water surface. The water was definitely not drinkable, so the Fourth Prince had to drink the water drawn from the official post station's well like everyone else.
The accompanying guards fished out a dead bird from the well. The dead bird had stones tied to its body and sank to the bottom of the well, so it did not float up.
Although the Fourth Prince's condition was under control by the imperial physician and he had stopped vomiting and diarrhea, he had been seriously injured and was already weaker than a normal person. This illness made his condition even worse, and the Fourth Prince had to lie in bed for five full days before he could get out of bed.
Although the others were a little better than him, they were not much better.
Yang Shengqiu was also sick, but he had been practicing martial arts since he was a child, so he would be fine as long as he stopped having diarrhea. However, the Fourth Prince was still sick, so he and the others had to stay in the official inn.
Everyone discussed this matter quietly. It was obviously man-made, otherwise why would there be stones on the dead bird?
The people in the official post house arrested many people and took turns to interrogate them, but they couldn't find out anything. Everyone was in a panic and hoped that the Fourth Prince would recover soon and leave this damn place as soon as possible.
Yang Shengqiu had just arrived at the Ministry of Works and was not very familiar with the others. However, the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works were on the same street, and low-level officials often came and went. So, before he got to know everyone in the Ministry of Works, his deeds in the Ministry of Revenue had spread throughout the Ministry.
He was not good at his job and even lost the memorials from the local government. He lied about a fire at home to ask for leave. He was arrogant because he almost became the son-in-law of the Feng family. Therefore, Yang Shengqiu's current situation was not much better than when he was in the Ministry of Revenue.
When they were all busy with their own things in the capital before, it was not a problem. But now everyone has nothing to do and cannot leave the official inn. They have to stay in the same room. He can clearly feel the unfriendly gazes.
He could only sit in the corner and read a copy of Tongzhou County Chronicles.
Suddenly, a man ran in from outside. He was a minor official from the Ministry of Works. He came out with us this time and was mainly responsible for some miscellaneous tasks.
"My Lords, I just arrived and heard everyone talking about a lady who wanted to stay the night. She learned that the Fourth Prince was staying here, but she still insisted on moving in. In the end, she forced the Postmaster to say something harsh, and she finally left. Can you guess who this lady is?"
As everyone knows, the official inn where the prince lives will not allow other people to stay. Since that lady came to stay at the official inn, she must be an official's wife and must know the rules.
Everyone was bored, but now they became interested and asked, "Which family's woman is so ignorant of the rules?"
The clerk chuckled, looked around seriously, and said with a smile: "This person claims to be the sister of Wu Shaoqing of the Taichang Temple."
Everyone was stunned at first, and then looked surprised.
They were going to Tongzhou, so they had done their homework in advance.
Isn’t the sister of Wu Shaoqing of the Taichang Temple the wife of the prefect of Tongzhou?
It is raining heavily in Tongzhou and a flood is imminent. The prefect's wife is not in Tongzhou and has run to Yancheng?
"We've received news that people in Tongzhou are fleeing to Gaoping. Gaoping is poor and has bad waters, so the prefect's wife naturally doesn't want to go there. Although Yanzhou is farther away, it's richer and more prosperous than Gaoping, so she made the right choice to come to Yanzhou."
"What's right? Tongzhou is about to be flooded, and the Fourth Prince is still on his way to Tongzhou, but the Tongzhou Governor sent his family out. Does he think his family is more valuable than the Fourth Prince?"
"Hush, keep your voices down. I've heard something. Wu Shaoqing's sister has been cheating on Qian Zhizhou a lot, and Qian Zhizhou can't control her. It's most likely not Qian Zhizhou's intention for her to come here."
"Is this true? Is this true?"
After listening for a while, Yang Shengqiu felt extremely bored. These people were all scholars who had entered the officialdom through the imperial examinations. When they talked about such things, their vulgar tone was exactly the same as that of the toe-picking men on the street.
He stood up and walked out. It was raining heavily in Tongzhou, but it was a clear sky here.
Seeing Yang Shengqiu leave, someone spat: "Just now he was listening attentively, and now he's pretending to be so noble. Who is he trying to show off to?"
"Alright, he's the top scholar, so of course he's aloof."
"So what if he's the top scorer? Just act like everyone has seen a top scorer before."
Yang Shengqiu listened to the gossip behind him and felt uncomfortable. He stood in the corridor for a while, and remembered that when he first moved in, he saw a pavilion not far away, so he walked over.
The pavilion is surrounded by bamboos and has not been specially trimmed. It is a bit messy, but at least it is quiet.
Yang Shengqiu sat down in the pavilion and continued reading the Tongzhou County Chronicles.
Suddenly, something fell on my shoulder and then fell down along my shoulder.
He subconsciously reached out to catch it, and it turned out to be a small purse.
Yang Shengqiu was startled, stood up and looked behind him. A breeze blew, and the bamboo leaves rustled, but there was no one in sight.
Yang Shengqiu looked down at the purse in his hand, thought for a moment, and poured out the contents of the purse.
There was a ring inside!
The ring was very old and was not made of gold, silver, jade or other precious stones, but copper, so it was not worth much.
But when Yang Shengqiu's eyes fell on the ring, he was stunned.
He picked up the ring, walked out of the pavilion, held the ring up to the sunlight, and the four words on the inside of the ring came clearly into view.
"Shanmen Huisheng"
Huisheng, this is his mother's name.
Wisdom is born, wisdom is born!
He had long forgotten what his mother looked like. He was very young when his mother died, and all he knew about his mother came from his grandfather.
Every time my grandfather mentioned my mother, he gritted his teeth.
"That bitch Huisheng ruined your father, ruined you, ruined me, and ruined our Yang family!"
When he was a child, he never understood why his grandfather thought his mother had ruined him?
He is obviously alive and well.
Later, as he grew up, he finally understood his grandfather.
Because of his mother, his father died, because of his mother, he became an orphan, because of his mother, he had to wander around with his grandfather and have no place to live!
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