"Quirky." Zheng Xiu shook her head, but she couldn't help but laugh when she saw that her brother's previous gloom had disappeared.
Xue Zhi and Zheng Ren drank wine until the afternoon. They were both drunk and a little drunk. Zheng Ren pulled Xue Zhi into the house to take a nap. There was a long kang in the east room, which was spacious enough for two grown men to sleep on. Soon, a slight snoring sound came from inside.
Zheng Xiu cleaned the table, and the two children helped by making faces beside them.
Zheng Xiu said to Xue Shao, "I think your father will need some time to sober up from the drunkenness. You guys should keep some for dinner." Then, without waiting for Xue Shao to answer, she asked him, "How was your New Year's Eve dinner yesterday?"
Xue Shao nodded and said, "It was delicious. My father bought some salted pork and other cooked dishes from town. We didn't finish them at home."
Zheng Xiu didn't expect Xue Zhi to cook a decent meal. "What we bought is not as good as what we have at home. Anyway, we have prepared more food. If you don't visit relatives during the New Year, come over for dinner when you are free." The Xue
family moved here, and naturally they didn't have any relatives to visit. But Xue Zhi certainly didn't want to trouble others. To him, the friendship of the Zheng family had not been repaid yet, so how could he owe them anything? Although Xue Shao was willing to come to the Zheng family, he did not agree immediately.
After cleaning the table, Zheng Xiu was washing the dishes when she suddenly heard a lot of noise at the door, and it seemed that there was a child crying. She wiped her hands and went out to see - Zhu came with Zheng Rong in a huff.
Zheng Rong was crying so hard that half of his cheeks were swollen, and there were two very obvious big lumps on his face.
"Second aunt, what happened to Rong?" Zheng Xiu asked, and she unconsciously thought of her brother's happy look just now, and subconsciously went to see him. Zheng Yu met his sister's eyes and immediately lowered his head guiltily. It further confirmed her guess.
"Xiu girl, your Ayu needs to be taken good care of. Look at our Arong's face!"
Zheng Xiu stepped forward and took a look, then asked hesitantly, "Arong's face doesn't look like the one that Ayu beat him, does it?"
Zhu curled her lips, "The one on his face was beaten by his father, but these two big bumps were caused by Ayu and this kid who let out a wasp!"
"Wasn't it?" Zheng Xiu looked at her brother and Xue Shao.
Zheng Yu was too guilty to say anything, so Xue Shao interrupted him and said, "Aunt, what you said is ridiculous. Do we have supernatural powers that can command hornets to hurt people? If we released the hornets, how come we are fine?!"
Zhu was furious and said, "How dare you make excuses! Our A Rong said that it was you who put the hornet's nest under the tree and tricked him into going to see it. Then you ran away and the hornets stung him!"
She An ordinary child would be frightened by this, but Xue Shao showed no fear at all. He said calmly, "This is his one-sided story! When did we lie to him? Let him tell the whole story from beginning to end!"
Zhu pointed at him and said repeatedly, "Okay, okay, you little bastard who has no one to teach you, you won't cry until you see the coffin, right?" Then she pushed Zheng Rong who was still crying, "Don't cry, hurry up and come to me." Tell me how they bullied you?"
Zheng Rong stopped crying and choked up and said, "They said there was a treasure under the tree, but they wouldn't show it to me. I just said that the tree was near our house and it was, it was mine, so I chased them away... When I went over to take a look, it wasn't a treasure at all, it was a wasp's nest!"
Zhu became even more furious, "You stupid guy, you just said there was a treasure and Believe me, how could I have given birth to such a fool like you!"
Xue Shao was still very calm, and said: "My father said that wasp nests can be used as medicine, and one wasp nest can be sold for several taels of silver, isn't it a treasure? We warned him not to come over at that time! What's more, I covered the wasp nest with something. If he hadn't uncovered it himself, how could the wasp hurt people? A Yu, don't you think so?" He turned to blame Zheng Yu.
Now that Zheng Yu had help, he no longer felt guilty and looked up, saying, "That's right! We told Arong not to come over. He was the one who scared me with firecrackers and said he would blow me up again, so we left! There were other people on the road at that time. If Second Aunt doesn't believe it, just go to the village and ask!"
Zhu never thought that there would be such twists and turns. She thought that children's matters were very simple. Who knew that this time, Zheng Yu had a helper and would become so slippery and ruthless, making it impossible to catch him!
Although Zheng Xiu felt relieved when she first saw Zheng Rong's injuries, she was a little worried and reluctant when she heard that it was a wasp that injured him. Wasp injuries can be serious or minor, and in this era, medical care is limited. In serious cases, it can be fatal. However, after listening to the two children's words, she thought that it was Zheng Rong who took the initiative to steal their things and dared to continue to use firecrackers to do evil, and her reluctance disappeared.
She looked at Zhu coldly and said, "Second Auntie heard it herself. The children will not lie. If they told lies, you let A Rong defend them. I will not let them off easily!"
How could Zheng Rong defend himself? After all, the previous situation was exactly as they said. He could only cry again, "Mother, my face hurts! Wuwuwu..."
Zhu was furious, but she had no way to vent.
Zheng Xiu crossed her arms, not wanting to be irritated: "Now that you've said it, what else is there to say, Second Aunt? Xue Shao is the son of a hunter, so he naturally has the ability to pick wasp nests and sell them for money. Ah Rong overestimated his own abilities, coveted other people's things, ignored his warnings, and used intimidation to scare people away. How come in the end, when you got hurt, you still have the nerve to say it was other people's fault?"
Zhu was speechless, and finally said reluctantly: "Anyway...anyway, this matter was caused by your family's reputation. Can you just ignore our Ah Rong's injury?"
Zheng Xiu didn't want to continue... In the past, she gave money to this bottomless pit just to save face for her grandparents, but now she had no patience anymore and said coldly: "Didn't I give you the wasp nest? You sold it for money. Can't you cure the two lumps on Arong's face with a few taels of silver?"
Zhu turned to Zheng Rong and asked: "Where is the wasp nest?"
Zheng Rong sobbed and said: "It's still under the big tree..."
Zheng Xiu refused to give in. Zhu was anxious to take Zheng Rong to the town to see a doctor, so she said angrily: "This matter will not end like this!" Then she took Zheng Rong to find the wasp nest to exchange money.
After Zhu left, Zheng Yu also looked downcast.
Before Zheng Xiu opened her mouth, Xue Shao said, "Sister, I did this. It has nothing to do with A Yu. If you want to punish someone, punish me!"
Zheng Yu hurriedly said, "No, it has nothing to do with A Shao. He did it for me. It's all my fault. I was so angry that I wanted to punish Zheng Rong."
Zheng Xiu couldn't help but have a headache. How should she manage these two children? Although they did something bad, it was obviously Zheng Rong who was wrong first. Even in the way they punished him, it was Zheng Rong who brought it upon himself. If Zheng Rong hadn't wanted to steal their things, their method might not have worked. But if they don't discipline them, they dared to use the wasp to frame Zheng Rong today, and there is no guarantee that they won't repeat the same trick tomorrow to punish other people who don't deal with them.
She remained silent, and Xue Shao continued, "Sister, one or two wasps are really nothing. The wasp nest is not big, and there are only a few wasps in it. They are unlikely to come out in winter. Zheng Rong will definitely be fine."
Zheng Xiu had to wave her hands and said, "Sister knows that Zheng Rong deserves it, but Second Aunt is not the kind of person who will let it go. She will probably report it to your father. I'm easy to talk to, but your father is not. He will probably not escape a beating!"
Xue Shao looked calm, "Go ahead and beat me. I'm not afraid."
Zheng Yu also puffed out his chest and said, "I'm not afraid either!"
In fact, they also knew that they would probably be punished afterwards, but the two of them still did it to teach Zheng Rong a lesson and did not think about evading responsibility. But compared to being beaten by their father, the two of them were more afraid of Zheng Xiu getting angry. Now that she was not angry and was worried about them, the two of them were overjoyed. A beating was nothing to them.
Zheng Xiu held each of them by the hand and said softly, "You have to promise me that in the future, even if someone offends you, you will not easily plot against others. A gentleman is open and honest. It is not the behavior of a gentleman to be scheming."
Although the two children were precocious, they had no idea what a "gentleman" was. However, they nodded obediently and made a promise in front of Zheng Xiu.
In the evening, Zheng Ren and Xue Zhi sobered up.
Zhu took Zheng Rong to the town to see a doctor, cleaned the wound, and came to talk again.
After hearing this, Zheng Ren's face turned ashen. He claimed to be a gentleman. If Zheng Yu was angry and went back to fight with Zheng Rong, he would think it was nothing. But Zheng Yu actually played with Xiao Congming, which he despised very much!
Zheng Yu dared to defend himself in front of his second aunt in the afternoon, but he didn't have the courage to say anything more in front of his father.
Fortunately, there were two guests, the Xue family father and son, and Zheng Xiu helped to persuade them, explaining the whole story in detail, so that Zheng Ren's anger did not break out all at once.
Zhu sold the wasp nest and got three taels of silver, and Zheng Rong only spent one tael on medicine for treatment. The rest went into her own pocket. Now she just felt that Zheng Xiu would protect her brother, so she went to Zheng Ren to complain. Seeing Zheng Ren's bad face, Zhu had never seen him like this before, and was afraid that his anger would affect her family, so she hurriedly took Zheng Rong back first.
After she left, Xue Zhi bowed to Zheng Ren and said, "It sounds like my son Hun's idea. If Zheng Ju wants to blame others, just blame me for not disciplining him strictly."
Zheng Ren said, "Xue Lihu, that's not right. A Shao is also helping out of kindness. In the end, it's the negligence of us two fathers."
Xue Zhi also refused to stay for dinner, and took his son to say goodbye and go home.
Zheng Ren wanted to discipline his son, so it was naturally inconvenient in front of outsiders, so he didn't stay for long, and only asked them to come back the next day to have dinner together.
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