Chapter 54 Good Cat
She put down the small flower, took out a clean coarse porcelain bowl from the basket beside her, poured some water into it, broke off half a piece of a rough-looking multi-grain cake and placed it next to the bowl, and waved to Bai Qingchen on the wall with a gentle voice.
"Kitten, are you hungry? Want to eat something?"
Sang Biao immediately came to the bowl and ate with relish, not forgetting to meow at Bai Qingchen, signaling him to come and eat too.
Bai Qingchen looked at the bowl of water and the rough bread, then looked at Sang Biao who was eating with relish.
As a monk, he had no interest in this kind of mortal cat food.
Bai Qingchen just jumped lightly into the yard. Instead of going to eat, he found a corner a little far away from the girl and the old man, but still able to get sun exposure. He lay down quietly, his ice-blue eyes quietly watching the warm and peaceful scene in front of him.
Seeing that he didn't want to eat, the girl didn't force him. She smiled and went back to wash clothes, humming a little tune softly, her voice melodious and beautiful.
The old woman put down her needlework, listened sideways, and looked lovingly at the cat in the yard.
A long-lost feeling called home, like a trickle of water, quietly seeped into his cold and numb heart, and a hint of sourness quietly surged to the tip of his nose.
He thought of Yaowang Valley and the home where his parents lived when they were alive. That was a long, long time ago.
Bai Qingchen stayed here, and Sang Biao volunteered to go out and patrol the territory. Bai Qingchen was not interested in being the leader of a group of cats.
Liu Wan was also used to Xiaohua not being home most of the time. Fortunately, this new kitten didn't like to wander around and always lay quietly aside to rest. She touched Xiaobai's head lovingly, and Bai Qingchen didn't hide but just looked at her quietly.
During the few days that Bai Qingchen stayed at Liu Wan's house, he also got to know their family situation.
Their family was originally very happy, but one day Liu Wan's mother unfortunately became seriously ill. In order to raise money to buy medicine, her father was lured into a gambling house. He won some money at first and bought medicine for her mother, but later he got trapped. Not only did he lose all his money, but her mother also died of illness.
Her gambler father was too embarrassed to come back and owed a lot of debts outside. Those people couldn't find her father, so they came to find them.
Someone would come to collect debts every once in a while, and all the money Liu Wan earned from washing clothes was taken away by those people, making her life very hard.
Today, as usual, Bai Qingchen yawned while basking in the sun.
Suddenly, there was a rough knock on the door outside the yard, accompanied by a man's rude shouting.
"Open the door! Open the door quickly! Mr. Liu! Stop playing dead! We know you are in there!"
The tranquility and peace in the yard was instantly broken. This commotion was different from the previous debt collection situation.
The girl's face turned pale. She stood up suddenly, her eyes filled with panic and fear. She said to the old woman quickly, "Grandma, go inside! Close the door! No matter what you hear, don't come out!"
Her voice was rapid, filled with unmistakable anxiety.
The old woman seemed to understand something, and a look of worry and fear appeared on her face. She stood up tremblingly: "Wan girl, you..."
"Come in quickly!" The girl almost half pushed and half supported the old woman into the low earthen house next to her, then took a deep breath and walked towards the gate with forced calmness, her hands shaking slightly.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!" The knocking on the door turned into kicking, and the already simple wooden door was shaking.
"If you don't open the door, I'll smash it!"
Liu Wan gritted her teeth and suddenly pulled open the bolt.
There were three men standing outside the door, the leader was a man dressed in brocade with fierce eyes, followed by two burly thugs.
When the man saw the girl opening the door, a malicious smile immediately appeared on his face, and his eyes swept over her unscrupulously.
"Oh, Sister Wan, you finally decided to open the door?" Zhao Guangyuan laughed and took out a crumpled piece of paper and shook it open.
"Look, your father, Liu Lao San, has signed in black and white that he owes us, the Golden Hook Shop, fifty taels of silver! How long has this been going on? With the interest compounding, the amount is now much more than this! Today, either pay it back, or..."
He smiled lewdly, his eyes becoming even more revealing. "I heard that Sister Wan sings well. Why don't you come back with me to pay off the debt? Brothers, get moving! Take that person away!"
The two thugs behind him immediately stepped forward with a grin and reached out to grab the girl's arms.
Liu Wan was so frightened that she stepped back repeatedly, her face as pale as paper, her eyes filled with despair, but she still managed to shout, "Stop! I don't owe that money! My father owes it! Go find him! I'll find a way to pay back the rest!"
"Think of a way?" Zhao Guangyuan sneered and stepped into the yard. "Just relying on your laundry and mending skills? How can you ever pay it back? Stop talking nonsense! Take him away!"
A thug roughly grabbed the girl's slender wrist. Liu Wan struggled hard: "Let me go! You are forcibly taking me!"
Seeing the newcomers bullying his master, Sang Biao arched his back, bared his teeth at the three men, and made threatening sounds.
Seeing this, a thug kicked Sang Biao away, and Fat Lihua flew out and hit the wall heavily.
When Liu Wan saw Xiaohua being kicked away, she became anxious and turned around to bite the arm of the person who was holding her.
The thug screamed in pain and let go of Liu Wan. In the chaos, the old woman who was pushed into the house heard the noise outside. Worried about the safety of her granddaughter, she couldn't help but push open the door and look out.
Just then, she saw the thug grab Liu Wan again, with a fierce look on his face and his fist raised over his granddaughter's head, and she cried out in panic.
"What a sin, you bastards! Let Wan'er go, let her go." She staggered out and tried to stop them.
"Get out of here, old man!" another thug pushed him impatiently.
"Ah!" The old woman was already old and weak. She lost her balance after being pushed. She screamed and fell backwards.
"Grandma!" Liu Wan saw her grandmother fall and, not caring about being caught, struggled desperately to rush over, "Grandma! Let me go!"
Seeing this, Zhao Guangyuan was even more proud: "Oh, you are quite filial? Don't worry, as long as you take good care of me, your grandma will have a good life."
Liu Wan closed her eyes in despair, tears streaming down her cheeks. She knew that she had no way to escape today.
At this critical moment.
"Ouch!"
"What?!"
“Who hit me?!”
Several cries of pain and screams rang out almost simultaneously.
The thug who had grabbed the girl's wrist felt a sharp pain in his wrist, as if it was clamped by a pair of pliers, and he involuntarily let go of his hand.
The other thug who tried to catch the old woman felt a powerful kick in the waist, and he fell out like a rolling gourd.
Before Zhao Guangyuan could see what was happening, he was slapped hard in the face. He saw stars and half of his face swelled up instantly!
The three of them rolled into a ball in a panic, looking in horror at the person who suddenly appeared in the scene.
A young man in a plain white gown, with a handsome face but a lingering look of fatigue, appeared in the yard at some point.
He stood in front of the old woman and the young girl who fell to the ground. His posture was straight, but his eyes were too calm, as if he was not the one who knocked down the three strong men just now.
Zhao Guangyuan covered his face and climbed up, staring at Bai Qingchen in shock and anger: "Who are you? How dare you hit me! Do you know who I am? I'm tired of living!"
Bai Qingchen was too lazy to talk nonsense with him and just looked at him indifferently: "Get out, or I will help you get out."
His eyes were calm, but they made Zhao Guangyuan feel inexplicably cold in his heart.
The speed and strength of the opponent's attack just now were definitely not that of an ordinary person. He covered his burning face and pointed at Bai Qingchen with a fierce look but a weak heart.
"Alright! Good boy! Just wait for me! If you dare to offend our Jingoufang, you're dead! Let's go!"
He uttered some vicious words and crawled out of the yard with two equally frightened thugs.
The young girl Liu Wan was still in shock and rushed to the old woman: "Grandma! Are you okay? Did you fall anywhere?" She checked anxiously.
The old woman shook her head, but held her granddaughter's hand tightly, tears streaming down her face: "It's okay, it's okay... Wan girl, it's all thanks to this young master."
Only then did Liu Wan look at Bai Qingchen, her eyes filled with gratitude, but more of it was an inconsolable sorrow.
"Thank you for saving my life, sir. But you're in big trouble now. He's Zhao Guangyuan, the eldest son of the owner of Jingoufang in the city. The Zhao family is very powerful in the city and is a distant relative of the Muling Zhao family."
"You beat Zhao Guangyuan today, they will never let you go. Sir, you'd better leave quickly before they bring more people with them."
Bai Qingchen looked at the fear and sincere worry in the girl's eyes, his heart moved slightly, and he was silent for a moment.
He glanced at the simple yet tidy courtyard, at the grandfather and grandson who depended on each other, and then at the fat tabby cat that was nervously hiding at the girl's feet and meowing weakly at him.
He walked to the stone table in the yard and gently brushed his fingers across the rough surface. When his fingers left the table, a heavy, inconspicuous gray cloth bag appeared on the table.
"Use this money to pay off your debts." Bai Qingchen's voice remained flat, as if he were paying for the accommodation he had been paying for during his recent troubles at the Liu family.
Liu Wan was stunned and quickly shook her head: "No! Master, this won't do! You've already saved us, how can I ask for your money again!"
"Besides, those people are greedy. Even if we give them money this time, they will find other excuses next time! This debt... is a bottomless pit!" Her tone was filled with a deep sense of powerlessness.
Bai Qingchen glanced at her and said nothing more. He turned around and walked out of the yard, and his figure quickly disappeared at the alley entrance.
"Young Master! Young Master!" Liu Wan chased to the door, but there was no trace of Bai Qingchen.
She returned to the yard in a daze, but saw the inconspicuous gray cloth bag on the stone table. She picked up the bag with trembling hands, and it felt heavy in her hands.
When he opened it, there was a bag full of silver. A quick glance showed that there were at least a hundred taels of silver!
The girl stood blankly in the yard holding the purse, tears falling like beads from a broken string, hitting the cold silver ingot.
This sudden gift was so heavy that she was at a loss, and it also allowed her to see a faint light in the abyss of despair.
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