On June 18th, at midnight, the simple and peaceful Huaqiao Village was completely silent.
As the cuckoo's calls were heard, a dark figure emerged from the wall of the Hua family's old house.
On the grass beside the stream, a burly man in a black nightgown knelt on one knee before Mu Lige, who was dressed in a dark brocade robe. When he removed the black veil from his face, revealing his bearded face, it was none other than Mo Liqi, whom Hua Qingcheng had met at Mu Yang's blacksmith shop during the daytime trip to town.
"how?"
Mu Lige, standing in front of Moliqi, had a stern expression and sharp eyes, and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry. He was looking down at the man kneeling in front of him.
"Master, please look!"
Moliqi took out an exquisite dagger from his arms and presented it.
Taking the dagger, Mu Lige unsheathed it with a "swish", and a white light flashed under the moonlight.
"Well, the quality is good. The first batch will be made into spears to ensure that everyone has one."
Mu Lige's eyes were cold, and the hand holding the dagger trembled slightly. Not only spears, but he would also equip his subordinates with more bows and arrows, swords, shields, and armor.
At the border between Laifeng and Zhaoyang, deep in the mountains and valleys, untouched by human activity, tens of thousands of well-trained men were engaged in relentless training under the moonlight. Not far away, at an iron mine, a group of sweat-drenched men were diligently digging.
No one in Zhaoyang or Laifeng Kingdom knew anything about what was happening here. After all, the Zhifan Forest, where one could never return, was their best natural protection barrier.
"Hehe~"
In the early morning of June 19th, with the loud crowing of the village hens, the villagers of Huaqiao Village began a new day.
"Bang, bang, bang~"
At the backyard of the Hua family's old house at the end of the village, there was a sudden, rapid knock on the door, mixed with the sound of a child crying. In the main room, Hua Qingcheng, who had slept soundly all night with Yu Xiaotian in her arms, suddenly felt the noise was too much.
For Hua Qingcheng, who was always grumpy when waking up, being disturbed was as annoying as stealing her food. With a dark face, Hua Qingcheng went to the front yard in anger, opened the gate and saw Cheng Minggui.
"You'd better give me a good reason to disturb my sweet sleep so early in the morning."
Hua Qingcheng had no good feelings towards Cheng Minggui, who almost climbed into her bed before, especially because he made her use all her tricks to coax the husbands at home. It made her angry just thinking about it.
"S-sorry for disturbing you! I really... there's really nothing I can do. Ermao has been poisoned! Your third husband is the only one in the village who knows some medical skills. Can you ask him for help?"
As Cheng Minggui spoke, he turned the little face of Hua Ermao who was lying in his arms. Hua Qingcheng immediately saw a pair of red and swollen eyes. At this time, Hua Ermao was crying non-stop. Because his voice was hoarse from crying, he could only hum from time to time.
"What's going on?"
Although she disliked Cheng Minggui, Hua Qingcheng still couldn't take her anger out on the child.
"When Ermao went up the mountain to dig wild vegetables just now, he picked some poisonous weeds. He rubbed his eyes without washing his hands and kept crying out in pain."
Cheng Minggui wiped his tears with his sleeves as he spoke. His wife had died, and now Hua Ermao was the one he depended on.
"Wait here for a moment!"
After glancing at Hua Ermao, Hua Qingcheng finally turned back to the backyard and knocked on Han Yichen's door. A moment later, Han Yichen, who was forced to open the shop, also looked at Cheng Minggui with a murderous look on his face, which made him tremble all over.
"S-sorry! Ma-can you please help Ermao take a look?"
Cheng Minggui was about to kneel before Han Yichen, but he stopped her. While he didn't often treat the villagers, occasionally looking after a dog or cat, depending on his mood, he wouldn't go so far as to embarrass a widower with children, provided he didn't flirt with his wife.
"how?"
Hua Qingcheng saw that Han Yichen just glanced at Hua Ermao and was about to go back to the yard, so she pulled him aside and asked him a question.
"It's not a big deal, I just got irritated by the poisonous weeds. Wait a moment."
A short while later, Han Yichen returned to his room, retrieved his medicine box, and brought out a basin of water. Once outside the front gate, Han Yichen grabbed Hua Ermao from Cheng Minggui's arms and began rinsing his eyes with water. After a moment, he wiped the water away with a handkerchief and pulled a bottle of ointment from the medicine box. He applied a thin layer to Hua Ermao's eyelids and the red, swollen area around his eyes.
Hua Ermao, who was originally restless, suddenly felt something cool on his eyes, which made him feel very comfortable, and he calmed down.
"Thank you so much, Hana Sanfurou!"
Cheng Minggui looked at Hua Ermao who had stopped crying and thanked Han Yichen repeatedly.
"That's not necessary. I don't treat patients easily. I'll charge you five hundred coins for the medicine, which is one tael of silver."
Upon hearing this, Cheng Minggui's face turned pale.
Han Yichen glanced at his embarrassing look, then looked at Hua Qingcheng and said, "If you don't have money, go to my vegetable garden and pull weeds for a day to pay off your debt."
Looking at the third husband of the Hua family who turned and left, Cheng Minggui said "OK" three times in a row.
"Can you tell me what kind of poisonous weeds hurt your Ermao?"
Hua Qingcheng looked at Hua Ermao and felt more and more that he looked like he was spicy by the chili pepper, so she couldn't help but ask curiously.
"Yes...yes, I just picked one and was going to show it to the doctor, but I got so nervous I forgot to take it out."
After saying that, Cheng Minggui took out a plant from the bamboo basket. When Hua Qingcheng saw the red fruits scattered among the branches and leaves, she couldn't help but smile.
Isn't this a chili pepper?
The locals love spicy dishes, using Sichuan peppercorns, cornelian pepper, green onions, ginger, garlic, and more. Hua Qingcheng had long since grown tired of them, her taste buds bland. She deeply missed mapo tofu, tripe hot pot, dry-fried shredded beef, fish-flavored shredded pork, Kung Pao chicken, husband and wife lung slices, Dongpo pork elbow, twice-cooked pork, boiled fish, spicy crayfish, and so on...
When Cheng Minggui saw Hua Qingcheng staring at the poisonous weed in his hand with shining eyes, he couldn't help feeling uneasy and scared.
"Where did you pick it? Take me to see it!"
"well……"
So Cheng Minggui took Hua Qingcheng to a place near the deep mountains of Pinglan Mountain. Hua Qingcheng had always thought that there was nothing worth picking outside the deep mountains, but she didn't expect that there was such a treasure hidden there.
"This poisonous weed is very irritating. Tell your son Ermao not to play with it anymore."
"well……"
After sending Cheng Minggui away, Hua Qingcheng took advantage of the quiet time and transplanted a bunch of chili peppers to the soil in her space. She'd plant some more in the Hua family's fields when she had time. Whether she used them for herself, sold them, or used them in spicy recipes, creating an exclusive supply of chili peppers—it would be absolutely amazing! Hua Qingcheng couldn't help but swallow at the thought of all those delicious dishes. The frustration of being woken up so early in the morning vanished.
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