Chapter 70 Cat Meets Old Friend
Bai Qingchen looked in the direction of the voice and saw a young man wearing a clean cloth shirt and with a kind face squeezing out. Beside him was a young woman holding a child about one year old. The young man looked at Bai Qingchen with excitement on his face.
"Wu Yu?"
Bai Qingchen also recognized the person who came. It was Wu Yu, who had been an apprentice with him at Renjitang and could be considered a friend. A sincere smile appeared on his face. "Long time no see."
Wu Yu rubbed his hands excitedly and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes! It must have been four or five years!"
He noticed that Bai Qingchen's eyes fell on his wife and children, and he quickly introduced them: "This is my wife Bizhu, and this is my son, Xiao Shitou."
Bizhu obviously recognized Bai Qingchen. She held the child and smiled at Bai Qingchen shyly.
Bai Qingchen looked at the chubby child, and a warm feeling welled up in his heart: "You're married? That's great."
He thought for a moment and took out a small, warm jade talisman tied with a red string from his storage bag. The jade talisman was engraved with simple peace patterns and had a faint spiritual light flowing through it.
He handed the jade talisman to the child and said, "This amulet is for the child. May he be safe and healthy."
Bizhu was a little hesitant about accepting such a valuable item, feeling embarrassed. However, Wu Yu's eyes lit up, and he took it for the child, saying gratefully, "Thank you, Brother Bai! It's so valuable! Little Shitou, hurry up and thank Uncle Bai!"
The child seemed unable to speak yet, and his babbling laughter was quite adorable.
Wu Yu carefully put the amulet on the child, then looked in the direction where Zhang Peng fled, sighed, and spoke with a sad tone.
Not long after Bai Qingchen left, the Zhang family began to decline.
First, he offended Huichuntang and lost a big business. Later, I heard that he got into trouble again and his family property was reduced by half.
Nowadays, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and there is still some wealth at home. However, Zhang Peng relies on the remaining money and still can't change his nature of bullying men and women, and he always stirs up trouble.
He paused, looking at Bai Qingchen with a look of gratitude and fear in his eyes. "Come to think of it, it's all thanks to you, Brother Bai, for reminding me back then. Seeing that the Zhang family's momentum was not good after you left, I quickly found an opportunity to get out, set up my own business, and opened a small medicine shop."
"The Zhang family later dismissed many servants, and Bizhu also came out..." As he said this, he looked at his wife beside him a little embarrassedly, and Bizhu blushed slightly.
Wu Yu continued, "I... hehe, proposed to her. We got married two years ago, and we have this kid."
He patted his son on the back, his face full of happiness and satisfaction. "Now the business of this small pharmacy is doing well. We can barely make a living."
Bai Qingchen was sincerely happy for him: "Brother Wu is still modest."
Wu Yu habitually wanted to put his hand on Bai Qingchen's shoulder to reminisce about the past, but as soon as he raised his hand, he suddenly felt a chill coming from the side.
He turned his head and saw the handsome young man next to Bai Qingchen, looking at him expressionlessly with cold eyes, which made his attempt to strike up a conversation freeze in mid-air.
He withdrew his hand awkwardly and pointed at Mo Li awkwardly: "Who is this little brother...?"
Bai Qingchen introduced naturally: "This is my friend Mo Li, a gentle and polite child."
Gentle and polite? Wu Yu wondered if he had heard correctly. The way the child looked at him just now didn't match that at all.
"Oh, it's Brother Mo Li." Wu Yu greeted him quickly.
Mo Li just nodded lightly as a response.
The two exchanged a few more pleasantries about their recent lives. Wu Yu warmly invited Bai Qingchen to visit his home, but Bai Qingchen declined: "I have some personal matters to attend to when I came back this time. Let's do it another day." He didn't want to disturb Wu Yu's peaceful life too much.
Wu Yu felt a little regretful, but he didn't force it. He left the address of his own pharmacy and said that if he had any problems, he could come to him. Then he said goodbye and left with his wife and children.
After seeing off Wu Yu's family, Bai Qingchen turned around and found that the young man next to him had his head slightly lowered, his thin lips tightly pursed, and seemed a little unhappy.
"What's wrong?" Bai Qingchen asked.
Mo Li raised his head and looked at Bai Qingchen. There was a hint of imperceptible grievance in his clear eyes, and his voice was muffled.
"My brother was chatting so happily with that person just now. He seemed to know a lot about my brother's past... and I..." He lowered his eyelashes, "I know nothing."
There was a hint of loss in his tone about his status as a latecomer, as if he had been excluded from an important past.
Bai Qingchen was slightly stunned, then burst into laughter.
Looking at the boy's awkward look as if he clearly cared but pretended not to care, my heart softened.
He reached out his hand and rubbed the top of Mo Li's soft head, his tone carrying a soothing smile: "Silly boy, what's there to be unhappy about? Whatever you want to know, I will tell you slowly in the future. Come on, I'll take you to see where I lived when I was a child."
Mo Li's head shook as he was being rubbed. Feeling the warmth coming from the top of his head and hearing the words "I'll tell you slowly later", the little grievance in his heart instantly dissipated.
Bai Qingchen led the horse and took Mo Li through several familiar alleys.
The closer he got to the home in his memory, the slower his steps became. Finally, he stopped in front of a gate with a small courtyard.
However, the plaque hanging on the lintel was not the Bai Mansion in his memory, but two unfamiliar gold-plated characters - Sun's Residence.
Bai Qingchen frowned slightly, feeling a strange feeling in his heart. He walked forward and knocked on the door.
After a while, the back door creaked open a crack, and a teenage servant poked his head out, looking warily at the two strangers outside. "Who are you looking for? What's going on?"
Bai Qingchen tried to keep his tone calm: "Excuse me, is this the Bai Mansion?"
The servant shook his head and said firmly, "No, this is the Sun Mansion. My master has lived here for eight or nine years."
Bai Qingchen's heart sank. As expected... after his parents passed away, those so-called clansmen who appeared out of nowhere not only took over the family property, but now even sold his house.
He was looking for the truth behind his parents' death, but before he really started investigating, it seemed like he had lost his source.
He stood in silence for a while, looking at the closed door and the unfamiliar plaque.
Mo Li stood quietly beside him, keenly aware of his low mood. The young man reached out and gently pulled Bai Qingchen's hand that was hanging by his side.
Bai Qingchen felt the warmth and strength coming from his hand, and turned his head to glance at Mo Li. There was pure concern in the boy's eyes.
He took a deep breath, suppressed the disappointment in his heart, and gently shook Mo Li's hand with his backhand, indicating that he was fine: "Let's go."
The two of them led the horses, preparing to leave this alley that carried their childhood but had become unfamiliar.
Just as I reached the corner of the alley, an old man with gray hair, a hunched back and a cane was walking towards me, trembling.
More than ten years is enough for a young child to grow into a tall young man, and it is also enough for a middle-aged person to enter his twilight years.
The old man's cloudy eyes swept over Bai Qingchen without stopping. He obviously did not recognize who the young man with extraordinary temperament was.
But Bai Qingchen's gaze fell on the old man's wrinkled face, and the familiar outline of his eyebrows and eyes instantly overlapped with the old housekeeper deep in his memory who always smiled and secretly gave him candy.
A surge of excitement surged in Bai Qingchen's heart, and he blurted out, his voice trembling slightly: "Uncle Chen!"
The old man paused, raised his head, and tried hard to focus his cloudy eyes on Bai Qingchen's face.
He was puzzled at first, looked carefully, then became confused. Gradually, something seemed to light up in his cloudy eyes, and his lips trembled.
“You…you are…”
The old man stretched out his finger tremblingly, his voice hoarse and excited, "Master Qing... Master Qingchen?!"
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