"What's wrong?" Chen Zhi was startled when he saw Bai Dalin's pale face. He felt a sense of foreboding. Could it be that Bai Dalin had found out about him taking the money?
But he was only using a little money from home. It's not like his family is poor; Bai Dalin has a thousand taels of silver, right? Why be so stingy? Isn't his money his mother's? His mother's money is Chen Zhi's money. Why should Bai Dalin have a problem with him spending his own money? Why can't he decide how to spend his own money?
Thinking about it this way, Chen Zhi calmed down and stopped feeling guilty. He said calmly, "A friend invited me to his home, so I stayed for a couple more days!"
"You can't stay out all night without telling your family, you know that's not good?" Bai Dalin said unhappily, completely forgetting that he too had just stayed out all night drinking.
"What's wrong, Uncle Bai?" Chen Zhi was also very unhappy about being talked about by Bai Dalin. Who was Bai Dalin? He wasn't his biological father, so why should he care about him?
"I'm a grown adult, shouldn't I have some freedom?"
"Do you know that it was because you didn't come home last night that your mother got into trouble?" Bai Dalin was furious when he saw Chen Zhi's attitude of "Why are you blaming me?"
"Something happened to my mother? What happened?" Chen Zhi immediately forgot about arguing with Bai Dalin and asked.
“Your mother was beaten up last night!” Bai Dalin said. “It affected the pregnancy, and she needs to take medicine to stabilize the pregnancy.”
"Who hit her? How did they hit her?" Chen Zhi asked one question after another, then suddenly remembered, "Wait a minute, I wasn't home last night, but you were. How could my mother have been hit by someone else? Uncle Bai, tell the truth, did you hit my mother? No way, Uncle Bai, my mother is carrying your child, how could you have the nerve to lay a hand on her?"
He wasn't home that day either!
Bai Dalin felt inexplicably guilty. Faced with Chen Zhi's questioning, Bai Dalin forced himself to calm down. "I had to rush to finish work that day, so I didn't come back. Otherwise, why do you think your mother would have been beaten?"
"Did you lose any money?" Chen Zhi asked again, this was the question he was most concerned about.
Bai Dalin shook his head.
After feeding Chen Qiuling the medicine, Bai Dalin hurriedly said to Chen Zhi, "The medicine is in the kitchen. Give it to your mother every two hours. I'm going to work now."
He didn't go to work yesterday, and he couldn't find the beads. He doesn't know what the foreman will think of him or whether he'll give him a hard time.
If they lose their jobs because of this, then... how will they survive?
When Bai Dalin was at home, he really wanted to go to work, but when he went out the door, he was very confused. Where should he go to find this bead?
After thinking for a moment, Bai Dalin went to the riverbank and picked up a few smooth pebbles, round and with smooth surfaces, then put them in his pocket and left.
Hopefully, Ms. Li and the foreman will be satisfied.
As for whether or not there would be a reward, Bai Dalin dared not think about it or ask for one. He remembered what the foreman had said that day, and he had only one thought: he just hoped that the foreman would let him continue working there.
Five taels of silver, plus occasional bonuses of ten or more taels, is much better than when he was a carpenter. Bai Dalin had to go through a lot of trouble and say countless nice things to get the job in the county magistrate's office, and he didn't want to lose it.
Upon arriving at the county magistrate's residence, Bai Dalin went to the construction site as usual. The foreman and other workers were already at work. Bai Dalin searched for the foreman and finally found him on the wall.
So Bai Dalin called out, "Foreman, come down here for a moment."
When Bai Dalin spoke, everyone stared at him blankly. Even the foreman was stunned, but only for a moment before the contractor came down.
The foreman walked up to Bai Dalin, who said happily, "Foreman, I found the bead. Now give it to Miss. She will be very happy."
"Huh?" The foreman was taken aback. Didn't the young lady already get the bead yesterday and tell them she wouldn't look for it anymore? Why is Bai Dalin still looking for it?
Looking at Bai Dalin's bright smile, the foreman suddenly realized, "That's right, Bai Dalin didn't come yesterday, so he doesn't know about this." Thinking of what the young lady had said, the foreman immediately had an idea: let Bai Dalin go and experience what it's like to fail.
"Then take it to Miss. She's in the backyard," the foreman said. "Go find a maid named Cui'er. Cui'er will take you to see Miss."
"Foreman, you..." Bai Dalin was quite surprised. Why was the foreman so kind? Why was he willing to let him go? Bai Dalin still remembered what the foreman had told him: after he found the bead, he would give it to the foreman first, and then the foreman would give it to the young lady.
Bai Dalin didn't have much of an opinion about the contractor. After all, the contractor was his superior. If his superior wanted to take advantage of him and share the benefits, Bai Dalin couldn't refuse, unless he wanted to quit the business.
"It's alright!" the foreman said calmly. "It was my fault. I knew it wasn't easy for you to find this bead, and I was still thinking of taking advantage of you. But now I've realized I shouldn't have done that. You should go now; the young lady is waiting for your bead."
After saying that, he turned and left without asking Bai Dalin to take out the bead so he could see what it looked like.
Bai Dalin had no doubts about this. He was now focused on how to make Miss Li happy and how to become a respectable person in the county magistrate's mansion.
"Hello, ma'am, I'm here to present the pearl to Miss!" When Bai Dalin arrived at the backyard gate, he was stopped by an older woman. Bai Dalin quickly said with a smile.
"Beads?" The woman was short and stout with a face full of black moles. Her face was so fat that her eyes were squinted into slits and almost invisible.
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