epidemic
The county magistrate spoke sincerely and asked her to accept it no matter what.
When Qi Qinghe heard the county magistrate mention the prince, he looked hesitant and after hesitating for a long time, he politely refused.
After the county magistrate repeatedly declined, the two finally agreed that Qi Qinghe would accept the house for half the price.
After seeing the county magistrate off, Qi Qingyu grabbed her sister and couldn't wait to ask her why she didn't accept it.
"That yard is not cheap, and it has a good location. It's close to the government office. If someone comes to cause trouble again, it's still not too late to report to the police." Qi Qing's words were not very clear.
"That was a gift from His Royal Highness the Crown Prince. It's definitely not mine." Qi Qinghe sipped her tea and spoke slowly, "Since I've decided to draw a clear line between me and the Crown Prince, how can I accept this precious gift without knowing the truth?"
"But His Royal Highness the Crown Prince voluntarily gave it to my sister. How can it be unclear?" Qi Qingyu seemed to understand, "The Crown Prince came last night. What did he say to my sister?"
Qi Qinghe was silent for a moment, and then he briefly talked about what happened during the day and night of yesterday.
Qi Qingyu slapped her head and said, "Oh my sister, the prince obviously likes you."
"If he didn't like you, why would he chase you here? If he really wanted to arrest you and punish you, why wouldn't he just inform the county magistrate? He chased you and even sent you to his house. What else could he do but love you?"
"Wait a minute, sister. The prince asked you if you have someone you like. How did you answer?" Qi Qingyu tilted her head to look at her sister, grasping the key points in her sister's words.
"I don't think I answered, I scolded him..." Qi Qinghe recalled last night, feeling more and more guilty as she spoke, a trace of discomfort flashed across her face. She didn't believe her little sister's words, "How could the prince like me? Have you read too many storybooks?"
"Why wouldn't I like it?" Qi Qingyu puffed out her cheeks and said firmly, "If that's the case, why would the Crown Prince behave like this? It's inexplicable."
Qi Qinghe bit her lip, still not quite believing it. She looked up at the sun outside and said, "I can't figure it out, so forget it. It's getting late, I should go out. You just stay home and watch over me. Don't try to be stubborn if something happens."
She gave her little sister a few instructions and only left after seeing her nod repeatedly.
As soon as he stepped out of the door, he saw Aunt Li holding a basin of water and dirty clothes, walking towards the river with a smile on her face.
She greeted the old lady with a faint smile. As she got closer, she saw a dense patch of red rashes on her neck. "What's wrong with you, Auntie?"
"Oh, it's an old problem." Aunt Li lowered her eyes following her gaze, raised her hand to touch it, and waved it away nonchalantly, "It's just something I ate wrong, it's nothing."
Seeing that Aunt Li looked nonchalant, Qi Qinghe didn't know what to say. He just advised her to go to the clinic. He looked back every few steps and watched her walk away before he came to his senses.
In the cloth shop, everyone received the boss's letter and packed up their things, waiting for the boss to arrive.
Qi Qinghe took a quick look and saw that everything was fine. He told everyone to load their belongings onto the carriage and head to the newly opened cloth shop together.
Everyone sat in two carriages and even the new location, their eyes widened.
This house is too luxurious, occupying half of the street. Outside the jet-black gate, there are two stone lions. The blue bricks and black tiles block the gazes of passers-by, and the interior cannot be seen.
At this moment, the door opened slowly from the inside with a teeth-grinding sound, and a young servant in blue clothes ran out.
"Excuse me, is this Miss Xu? My master said that the young lady is weak and alone, so he asked me to stay to see if I can help her in any way." The servant bowed to Qi Qinghe.
Qi Qinghe frowned. She knew it wouldn't be that simple. What was it giving her? It was clearly to monitor her, watch her, and control her at all times.
She lamented that she had spent half of her silver to buy such a nice house, and was thinking about the silver she had spent. Now she really didn't have much silver left. Hearing the servant's words, she secretly cursed the prince for his bad behavior and for doing such a thing to look down on others. She felt mixed emotions for a moment.
Led by the servant, she entered the courtyard and saw rugged rockery, gurgling water, carved beams and painted buildings. It was extremely elegant and quite quiet.
This doesn't look like a cloth shop at all, it looks more like the home of a noble family in Beijing.
"Are you dissatisfied, young lady?" The servant looked at the young lady's face and asked carefully with a bow.
"Nothing." Qi Qinghe shook his head. "Tell everyone to move their things down. This house is big. Let me take a look around."
Everyone in the cloth shop responded and worked together to move the spinning wheel and loom down.
An hour later, Qi Qinghe finished touring the house. After careful consideration, he decided to use the front yard as a cloth shop and let everyone live in the back house.
As for the house where she, A'niang and younger sister live, it is very small compared to this one. It would be better for everyone to move in together.
They started working right away. The hall in the front yard served as an external display room, with all kinds of fabrics laid out one by one. Going back to the adjacent waterside pavilion and attic, there were dyeing and weaving workshops.
There are five small courtyards in the backyard. Qi Qinghe and A Niang occupy one, Xiaomei and Qin'er occupy one, two young men in the outer room occupy one, the embroiderer occupies one, the dyer occupies one, and the kitchen is connected to an ear room.
Basically everyone can make arrangements.
Qi Qinghe became more and more suspicious that the prince had been planning this for a long time and was just waiting for her to fall into the trap.
It was almost noon when A Niang and her younger sister arrived. Before they had time to clean up, she held A Niang and her younger sister down and told them to go and eat first.
In the dining room, a jar of fine wine was opened, and everyone raised their glasses and looked at Qi Qinghe.
Qi Qinghe stood up and said, "I am just an ordinary person. I owe my current situation to you all. In the future, I will stand together with you and share your prosperity."
After saying that, she drank the wine in the glass.
Everyone cheered and clinked glasses with each other.
Qi Qinghe sat down slowly, turned his head and was about to say something to A Niang, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw red spots on the neck of the embroiderer who was sitting one seat away. The spots were densely packed on the right back side, and most of them were blocked by the collar.
Her eyes darkened, and she remembered that Aunt Li had the same problem earlier, which looked like a rash but not entirely similar.
Thinking of this, she nodded her neck and asked directly: "Where are you?"
The embroiderer's name was Ning Li, and everyone called her Li Niang. Because of the boss's words, everyone looked at Li Niang.
Li Niang was taken aback by the boss's gaze. She followed his movements and touched her neck, feeling a little relieved. "There are a lot of willow catkins at this time of year. Maybe I'm feeling a little uncomfortable. It will be fine in two days."
"This doesn't look like a rash." Another embroiderer, Juanniang, took a closer look and asked in confusion.
"You might not know this yet, but be careful these next two days." Zhao Nian quickly put down his wine cup and said mysteriously in a low voice, "In Yangzhou City, I heard there's a plague. It's said that no one is allowed to enter the city right now, and they're going door to door to find the source."
The embroiderers and dyers were all young girls, and their faces changed drastically when they heard what he said.
"Oh, how could this happen? Why is there no news at all?" "It's so serious that they have to search house by house."
The most frightened person was Li Niang. She clutched her collar tightly, her face as if facing a great enemy. She said in panic: "What does the plague look like? Could it be..."
Before she finished speaking, Juanniang, the dyer Xu Hui, and Meng Xu who were standing next to her immediately stood up and moved away from Li Niang.
Li Niang looked at everyone blankly, her half-extended hand frozen in mid-air. She smiled awkwardly and was about to withdraw her hand when the boss came over and held it.
Qi Qinghe didn't have time to think about what happened in such a short time. She tried to comfort Li Niang, "Don't panic. You might not have the plague. Even if it is, there are so many hospitals in the city, and they don't work for free."
She turned to face the crowd and said, "We all work together. If she's sick today, it might be you tomorrow. Why are you retreating like this?"
"Besides, the epidemic may not have been exaggerated by others, and it only became so serious when it reached Zhao Nian's ears. The county magistrate's office has not yet made it public, so why scare yourself?"
A few people smiled awkwardly, lowered their heads and answered yes, then took their seats one after another.
Even so, Juanniang dragged her chair a little closer to Xu Hui.
Zhao Nian scratched his head, raised his wine cup, and said apologetically, "Yes, yes, the young lady from the Dong family is right. I also heard it from others. It may not be true. Please don't blame me, Li Niang."
Li Niang forced a smile, waved her hand and said nothing was wrong.
After this incident, the previous cheerful atmosphere disappeared without a trace.
In the afternoon, everyone took a short nap and then started working.
Qi Qinghe coaxed his mother to take a nap while his eyes swept across the messy room. Several boxes were piled in the corner. The box on the table was open and contained several letters. It did not specify who wrote them.
The corner of the paper with her name on it flashed through her mind. She slowly leaned forward and reached into the box.
At this moment, the sound of messy footsteps was heard, faintly mixed with the girls' panicked cries.
Qi Qinghe was startled and abruptly withdrew his hand. Thinking that it would be better to ask his mother directly another day, he stood up, pushed the door open, and asked what happened.
The people who came were the younger sister Qi Qingyu and the dyer Meng Xu. Meng Xu spoke incoherently and intermittently so that Qi Qinghe could not understand.
Fortunately, I came with Qi Qingyu. "Sister, the county magistrate just came again and said that Li Niang has contracted an epidemic disease. He wants to lock Li Niang in the house and not let her go out. He also told us to try not to go out for the next few days and not to visit Li Niang."
"How could it be..." Qi Qinghe murmured softly, his peaceful expression suddenly changing, his smiling eyes instantly becoming serious, "Has the county magistrate not left yet?"
After receiving a positive answer, she hurried to the front yard. After a while, she ran into the hall with her skirt lifted up and her breath disordered.
As soon as she entered the room, she asked, "Sir, is the epidemic true?"
The county magistrate nodded, and out of consideration for the Crown Prince, he patiently advised, "We've just moved and settled down these few days, so why not take a good rest? Business matters can't be rushed."
Qi Qinghe pursed her lips, hesitating to speak, and finally asked, "Sir, do you have any solution? Is there a clinic in the city that can treat this disease?"
"The incident happened suddenly and has not been settled yet. Please wait." The county magistrate shook his head.
After seeing off the county magistrate, Qi Qinghe slumped down on the chair, his face pale. He clenched his fingers on the table, pretending not to notice the blood.
The helper fell ill and was involved in the epidemic, which meant that Li Niang could not go to work during this period, and the materials she handled could not be kept.
As the employer, she was afraid that she would not be able to find another person to work at this time. Firstly, Li Niang might be dissatisfied, and secondly, not many people would be willing to come.
She didn't have much money left to begin with, and now the cloth shop couldn't open, and the kitchen cooks who had been given more work had their monthly wages increased, not to mention that there were still a lot of people whose monthly wages had not been paid.
Qi Qinghe rubbed his eyebrows and felt a splitting headache.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
