Chapter 69 Death in the First Month of the Year [VIP]
When Chen Yao and Yang Jizong invited Grandpa Sun, the Zhao family's yard was already surrounded by people.
"Oh, you still have time to watch the fun here, go home and sleep." As soon as he entered the yard, Old Man Sun drove away the villagers, and did not forget to remind them again and again that they must move the charcoal brazier outside the house before going to bed to keep warm at night in winter.
He had said this countless times, but every winter there would still be people poisoned and falling into a coma or dying.
He was just a barefoot doctor with limited abilities. On weekdays, he could only treat headaches and fevers in the villagers.
For someone like Xu, who was not seriously poisoned and still had some consciousness, he could revive the person by inserting a silver needle into his Taichong and Renzhong points.
Mrs. Xu gradually regained consciousness, but when the cold wind blew into the house, she felt a headache and nausea.
"Why are you in my house? What's wrong with me?" Xu leaned against the head of the bed, took the cold water handed to her by Old Man Sun, and took a sip.
"You finally woke up. I've told you countless times not to leave unlit charcoal braziers in the house, but you just wouldn't listen. If the Shen family hadn't discovered it in time, I'm afraid you would have already—"
Grandpa Sun didn't say the word death. It was unlucky to say that word during the New Year.
Xu's lips turned pale and she was very scared. She kept thanking everyone.
After recovering from a serious illness, she felt cold and her husband was not coming home tonight, so she put the charcoal brazier in the house to keep warm. She fell asleep in a daze, but she didn't expect the charcoal fire to go out so quickly.
She was very ashamed for doing such a foolish thing at her age, and fortunately her husband was not around, otherwise they would both suffer.
"Thank you very much. I will definitely be careful and never leave the charcoal brazier in the house again."
Old man Sun snorted, packed up his things and was about to leave, but he was blocked by Yang Jizong before he took two steps.
"Why are you stopping me, kid?"
Chen Yao looked at Xu, who was leaning against the head of the bed to relax. "Aunt, we ran into Xiaofu and the village head on the way back to the village. Xiaofu said that the village head was seriously injured by Zheng Fu, and we had to ask Grandpa Sun to go over and take a look first."
Upon learning that her husband was injured, Xu threw off the quilt and tried to get out of bed, but as soon as her feet touched the ground, she fell forward.
Fortunately, Huang Mei and Huang Xing steady her and help her to Zhao Xiaofu's house.
The oil lamp in the room was flickering in the cold wind. Xu couldn't believe that the man lying on her son's bed was her husband who had been with her for many years.
"Master, what's wrong with you? You were fine when you woke up this morning. How could you become like this?" Mrs. Xu lay on the bed and cried bitterly.
When she touched her husband's hand, it was so cold that she was so scared that she rubbed it and blew on it to keep him warm.
When Old Man Sun entered the house, he smelled blood, but he couldn't see where Zhao Liangshun was injured. So he instructed Xu: "Take off his clothes so I can see where the wound is."
After these words were spoken, except for Mrs. Xu and Old Man Sun who stayed in the house, everyone else went to the kitchen to keep warm and wait.
"Dad, uncle, and uncle, your backs--" In the light of the fire, Chen Yao discovered that the color of the coats on the backs of the three men was too dark, so she reached out and touched it, and it was blood.
"What a sin it is during the New Year. How could the new coach be so cruel? Village Chief Zhao went to serve him, yet he was so brutal." Miao took out a handkerchief and wanted to wipe the blood off her husband's jacket.
But when she thought that this handkerchief was a New Year's gift from her son, she was reluctant to put it back into her sleeve.
"Luckily they met us on the road, otherwise how could Village Chief Zhao have returned home so quickly, and how could Xiaofu and the others have gone to the city to seek medical help?" Miao sighed and added, "I don't know if they went into the city for the third time."
"Stop gossiping, don't you think it's not chaotic enough?" Huang Songbai frowned and scolded his wife beside him in a low voice.
Just as Miao was about to make a few remarks to defend herself, she heard the sound of Xu and Old Man Sun arguing from the next room.
"Uncle Sun, please save my master."
"Let go, you let go first."
When everyone pushed the door open, they saw Xu holding Old Man Sun's legs and feet, not letting him leave.
Old Man Sun was extremely anxious and shouted, "It's not that I don't want to save him, it's that I, an old man, don't have the ability to do so. He was knife-wounded. The person who hurt him killed him. His intestines are all messed up. I, I can't save him."
Mrs. Xu was not listening to any of this and just kept crying and wailing, "Please save him, I beg you."
When Yang Wenying followed everyone into the house, she saw the "death scene" of Village Chief Zhao.
At this moment, Village Chief Zhao's face was ashen, and he seemed to be breathing out more than breathing in.
As for the wound, she didn't dare to look at it. When she turned around, she saw her brother covering Chen Yao's eyes.
Before Chen Yao could step forward to check, Yang Jizong grabbed her arm and covered her eyes: "Ayao, don't look, you two go out first."
Yang Jizong glanced at his sister.
Yang Wenying came over and took Chen Yao's arm and left.
Xu was pulled up from the ground by the crowd, tears streaming down her face.
At this hour, the city gates were not open.
She heard everything Miao said in the kitchen, but she was afraid that her son was trapped in the quarry and that they said this to comfort themselves.
"Madam, it's true. Dongsheng and Baolai went with him. They will definitely take Dashi's shoulder as soon as possible.
Xu wiped away her tears, stood up, put on her husband's clothes, covered him with the quilt, and then washed his cold feet.
She wanted her husband to feel a little warmer, to be alive, even if she had to hold on until her son came home. As long as the doctor from the city came, he could be saved.
Seeing Xu like this, Miao turned her back and secretly wiped away her tears. She couldn't bear to watch.
Shen Qingshan embraced his wife and went out of the house.
Old Man Sun and the three families were waiting in the kitchen together.
Chen Yao stared at the roasted dirt in the stove for a long time and couldn't come back to her senses.
What exactly happened in the quarry? Why did Zheng Fu take such a cruel approach to Village Chief Zhao?
The howling wind outside the house could not suppress Xu's crying, and time passed by little by little.
Chen Yao wrapped the burned earthenware clod in a cloth, stood up and took it to Xu.
Yang Jizong accompanied her into the house.
"Auntie, use this to warm the headman." Chen Yao handed the hot clod of earth to Xu.
Xu's expression was numb, and her tear-swollen eyes stared blankly at her husband lying on the bed.
"Auntie, what's wrong with you?"
Yang Jizong followed Xu's gaze and approached the bed. He stretched out two fingers to touch Zhao Liangshun's neck and asked, but Zhao Liangshun was already dead.
"Ayao, the village chief has passed away."
Snap——
As the clod of earth in Chen Yao's hand fell to the ground, Xu also fell to the end of the bed.
"Grandpa Sun, come quickly." Chen Yao shouted, startling everyone in the kitchen.
At the same time, at the city gate of Qingfeng Town.
Even though Zhao Xiaofu shouted at the top of his lungs, the officers standing on the city wall remained unmoved and told the three men that if they continued to stay there, they would be arrested as bandits.
"My father is Zhao, the head of Xiahe Village. He is injured, and I have to go to the city to get a doctor for him. Please open the city gate. I have silver and I will give it to you." Zhao Xiaofu untied the purse around his waist and raised it above his head.
"Village head? I thought you were some prominent figure, but you're nothing but a dog slave. If he's dead, he's dead. Why bother hiring a doctor?" The officer guarding the city undoubtedly touched Zhao Xiaofu's trap with these words.
Zhao Xiaofu raised his eyes and glared fiercely at the two officers on the city wall, as if he wanted to tear their faces off.
"Hey, you little dog slave, you dare to stare at us? Brothers, let's teach them a lesson." One of the officers had already drawn his bow and arrow, ready to shoot the three men.
Huang Dongsheng and Tian Baolai were so frightened when they saw this that they immediately grabbed Zhao Xiaofu's arm and ran away.
On the empty road behind him was the merciless laughter of the officers.
The three of them stopped only when they reached a safe place.
"Brother Xiaofu, you and Brother Baolai go back to the village first. I will wait until the city gate opens at dawn and then follow the crowd to go in and ask for a doctor." Huang Dongsheng took out a fire starter, rekindled the extinguished torch and handed it to his cousin.
Zhao Xiaofu looked at the city wall in the distance and finally compromised: "Dongsheng, I'm counting on you."
After watching the two leave, Huang Dongsheng held a torch and went to Brother Bai's house. He waited until dawn at his house and immediately went into the city to Baohe Hall to ask for Doctor Li.
But when he took Doctor Li back to the village in an ox cart, he found it was too late.
Village Chief Zhao's body has been placed in the main house and covered with a white cloth.
Before the end of the first month of the lunar year, there was a funeral in the village. The head of the village died. Some villagers who did not know the truth began to discuss behind the Zhao family's back, wondering if the Zhao family had offended someone.
Zhao Xiaofu never expected that his father would die like this.
He didn't even get to see his father for the last time. He was struggling to hold on, not only having to take care of his mother, but also arranging his father's funeral affairs.
But when he faced his father's body, his mind was blank. What should he do with his father's funeral? What should he do?
"Brother Xiaofu, my mother has cooked some porridge. You and your aunt can have a bowl first. My father and several uncles in the village will help you with the funeral of the headman." Chen Yao handed the bowl of porridge to Zhao Xiaofu.
Zhao Xiaofu knelt on the ground, slowly stood up, and thanked Chen Yao with red eyes.
Chen Yao saw Zhao Xiaofu enter the house, and heard the crying of the mother and son coming from inside the house. She couldn't help crying and started crying too.
She thought of the time when she asked Village Chief Zhao for a pass. This old man seemed fierce on the surface, but in the end he would give her the pass unconditionally.
After the autumn harvest, when the fields were being plowed, he and Xiaofu would set out in the middle of the night to lead the oxen to the yamen, so as not to delay the tenant farmers' work.
There was also a school being built in the village. Although he was not optimistic about it, he did not interfere and even allowed Xiaofuge to teach in the school.
The villagers called him a lackey behind his back, but he didn't get angry, nor did he bully the villagers by relying on his position as the head of the village. Instead, he did his job diligently and responsibly.
Just when Shen Yao was crying uncontrollably, Yang Jizong came in with pen, ink, paper and inkstone.
"Ayao."
Following his call, Chen Yao turned around and rushed into his arms, crying in front of him while recounting the good things Zhao Liangshun had done in his life.
At the end, he did not forget to conclude: "Lizhang Zhao was a good village chief. He was murdered. The villagers should not have said that about him behind his back."
Yang Jizong pulled her away from him and wiped away her tears. "Don't cry. We might as well ask Zhao Xiaofu if he is willing to seek justice for Village Chief Zhao."
Seeking justice? But can justice really be obtained?
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