After shouting, Ah Mian was also a little scared.
She looked around and realized that she had no chance of winning a fight; her opponent was clearly someone important.
If that person gets angry and orders his servants to beat her with sticks, she will have no recourse.
"You...you..." Ah Mian gritted her teeth and shouted loudly, "Caught in the act of adultery! Help!!"
The place was close to the bustling city, and the crowd was already attracted by the commotion. Upon hearing that there was such an exciting event, they all rushed into the courtyard, and some even peeked over the wall to watch.
The prefect's son, surnamed Zheng, was acquainted with well-educated, refined, and dignified women from prominent families. Therefore, as long as he asserted his status and relied on his good looks, he was almost invincible among the courtesans. So, before coming here, he didn't intend to make a big fuss; he thought a few words of persuasion and sweet talk would suffice.
However, Ah Mian's lawless and shrewish tactics were completely unexpected.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Young Master Zheng, mindful of his status, refrained from ordering anyone to take action.
After all, if these matters of love and affection were to reach the ears of his father and his wife's family, who knows what they would think of him.
"Young Master Zheng, are you here to ask a doctor for treatment or to seek revenge? Can you explain yourself clearly?" Mo Man had some experience with family members who made a scene at the hospital before even starting treatment, and immediately gave the little local a wink.
Amian cleverly darted into the crowd, first pulling over the pharmacy clerk and telling him to hurry to the magistrate's house to spread the news; then she took out two copper coins and gave them to the little beggar at the street corner, telling him to join in the fun and just make the atmosphere lively in the crowd!
Justice is clear, so let's lay everything out in front of everyone.
Ah Mian climbed up the tree again and picked a loquat.
She wiped her mouth with her sleeve, munching on the food while curiously observing the situation in the yard.
At this moment, Wen Qiao had already obtained the medical prescription. As he looked at it, he frowned deeply: "Listen to me, I am a member of the Wen family. Using human blood as a guide is extremely rare even in classical texts; it's all unverified nonsense. Your new wife is a human life, that's true, but Doctor Mo is also a human life. Why sacrifice her to save your wife's life?"
The Wen family is a renowned family of doctors in the area, and it is said that one of their ancestors was even a physician to the imperial court. However, the Wen family is a branch of a different lineage, and their business is not very large. They own a large pharmacy in this city and another in a neighboring county.
Young Master Zheng frowned. "This is what the divine physician who came to my residence said. Besides, it's not about taking her life, it's just about taking a few drops of her blood."
A chorus of boos erupted from the crowd.
Someone shouted, "If you really care so much about your wife, why don't you use your own blood as a medicinal ingredient?!"
"That's right!"
Young Master Zheng lowered his eyes, looking dejected: "Everyone says that doctors are benevolent, but it seems I misjudged him."
His words sounded rather pitiful, causing many people to hesitate, while others watched Mo Man's reaction with great interest.
After all, being seen as a "heartless and cruel woman" by the person you love must be a huge blow.
However, they were disappointed.
Mo Man said calmly, "There are no special medicinal ingredients in human blood, and everyone should not try it at home. On the contrary, it may cause patients to develop hepatitis or other diseases, which are basically terminal illnesses."
People were discussing it: "What about chicken blood and pig blood?"
Wen Qiao was silent for a moment, then said, "We are doctors, not waiters in a restaurant! Do you think we're cooking in a pot?"
The crowd burst into laughter.
From her treetop, Ah Mian saw the magistrate's family rushing over. Seeing that there was no more excitement to be had, she slipped away and went home.
When she arrived at the shop, Meng Chijian wondered why she had gone out to "learn martial arts" and returned with half a bag of loquats.
However, there was some good news: "You sold that basket of eels and got more than 300 coins. Here, count them."
As he spoke, he tossed over a heavy little money bag.
Ah Mian beamed with joy as she sat cross-legged beside the bamboo mat, counting how many coins she strung together.
However, the truly great thing happened two days later.
Many notices were posted along the city wall, and soldiers read them aloud to everyone, saying that the county magistrate was benevolent and had issued a measure to exempt dozens of shops in the city, such as blacksmith shops, textile workshops, and bean shops, from some of their corvée labor, so that these craftsmen could focus on running their businesses well!
Generally speaking, local corvée labor is performed every year, usually during the autumn and winter off-season, when able-bodied men are summoned to work for the government for free.
The manual labor tasks like repairing city walls, water conservancy projects, and roads were unpaid, and the government only provided a meal of porridge with barely a few grains of rice. Therefore, the man selected from each household was utterly despondent upon hearing the news, and those with weaker constitutions often collapsed from exhaustion!
The Meng family split up, which put them at a great disadvantage. Last year, both Meng Er and Meng San went to work, but fortunately, they were only repairing roads in nearby villages.
However, this year is different; it is said that they are going to repair water conservancy projects.
This was even more difficult than building a road; in the dead of winter, the river water was icy cold.
However, it is not feasible not to repair it. In recent years, the weather has been favorable, and farmers have had good harvests, so the farmland needs more water for irrigation.
After reading the notice, Meng Chijian went into the cloth shop and took two dresses and several undergarments that had been altered to his size. Then he went to the rouge shop.
Most of the shoppers here are women, and he was quite conspicuous. However, Meng Chijian acted as if no one was around and bought some red paper that women use to wipe their lips and clam oil for wiping their faces and hands.
They got married at the beginning of spring this year.
After buying his groceries, Meng Chijian was about to head to the market when he suddenly saw a group of bricklayers huddled together, frowning deeply at a piece of paper.
"What are they building?" he asked as he stepped forward.
“We don’t quite understand it either… This idea came from the magistrate’s daughter. She wanted to build a bathroom where you can ‘take a bath standing up’… But how can you build something like this? There’s no precedent for it!”
Meng Chijian took this matter very seriously because his family still had to boil water in the kitchen and then carry it to the woodshed in a wooden bucket, which was really inconvenient.
"Could I borrow this picture for a while? I'll return it to you later."
"It doesn't matter, just look at it."
He picked up a twig and started drawing the diagram on the ground. After thinking for a moment, he returned the diagram to the bricklayers.
In the evening, as A-Mian was engrossed in eating cucumber salad, Meng Chijian, who was beside her, put down his bowl and announced some news.
“I don’t have to do corvée labor this winter, so I plan to build a new bathroom for my house.”
Meng Jing disagreed: "Why not renovate the house and build a room for A-Mian too! And pave it with blue bricks..."
Amian asked in confusion, "What's a bathroom?"
Meng Chijian simply said, "You'll find out when the time comes."
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