Lu Baichuan nodded and said, "Yes, but they went east. We ran into them on the road before."
Qian Xiao gasped for breath, then suddenly realized he had been tricked, and his anger flared up: "You little brat, you fooled me!"
"Believe it or not," Lu Baichuan took two steps back and continued, "By the way, my wife is a doctor. She noticed that you are weak and said she can help you treat it. As long as you can afford the treatment fee, she guarantees your recovery."
"Get lost! What a charlatan! What bad luck!"
Qian Xiao was so angry that he kicked Lu Baichuan out. He had thought Lu Baichuan would reveal some important information, even at the risk of offending the Lin family, but it turned out he had been fooled. He had no way to vent his anger.
He just dealt with the matter in court, so it's not appropriate to retry it now, and the evidence would be too obvious and easily investigated.
In other words, he could only swallow this bitter pill and had to go to Master Lin to explain and apologize afterwards, inexplicably causing himself a huge problem.
Jiang Jiuniang and Gou'er left with the Miao people. At this time, the Miao people were very grateful to her and wanted to invite them to stay at their home, but Jiang Jiuniang refused, saying that she still preferred to stay at the inn.
"Sister Jiang, what did Brother Lu say to the prefect just now? I noticed his attitude changed instantly. Could this cause you any trouble?"
Miao Lanlan was a smart woman and noticed the changes in the prefect. She worried that Lu Baichuan might be threatening the prefect, and that she would be retaliated against afterward.
Jiang Jiuniang waved her hand and said, "It's nothing serious. I just noticed that the prefect wasn't in good health, so I had my husband tell him that I was willing to help him with his medical treatment. He then made his own choice."
Jiang Jiuniang knew, of course, that Lu Baichuan wouldn't just talk about treating the illness, but that was all the Miao people knew.
"Is the Prefect ill?"
Miao Lanlan was very curious. They had only glanced at it from afar, yet Jiang Jiuniang could tell that the prefect was ill. That was amazing!
"Of course he is. Look at him, he doesn't even have the strength to speak. He's so weak. If he doesn't get treatment soon, he probably won't live for more than a few years."
"That serious!"
The Miao people were all shocked. Jiang Jiuniang nodded. This was the consequence of not knowing how to restrain oneself when young.
The group returned to the Miao family's stall. Miao Shan scratched his head and said, "Father, Mother, I'm going back to setting up the stall. I'm still busy."
Throughout the entire process, his emotions did not fluctuate much; he is a person with strong self-control.
But the lack of emotional fluctuation doesn't mean he wasn't sad inside. After all, she was the wife he chose, and they had lived together for so many years and had two sons.
After his wife leaves, he will have to take care of two children and run this small stall by himself, which will make life very difficult. But he will not regret his decision today.
The wife's problem is too big and has directly affected the two children. The two sons are seven or eight years old, but they never help out at the stall because the wife says that the sons are the treasures of the family and they can't do these rough and tiring jobs with them.
In the past, his wife was the head of the household, and he would do whatever she said. Now that his wife is gone, he has to raise his children according to his own ideas.
Just like his parents taught him when he was a child, poor children learn to be independent early and develop the skills to make a living, so that their lives won't be too difficult when they grow up.
The Miao parents wanted to say a few words of comfort to him, but they didn't know what to say, so they could only nod and tell him to go on with his work.
After Miao Shan left, they said to Miao Lanlan, "Your older brother has suffered a great blow this time. You should help him more in the future. Liu will definitely come to cause trouble again. Be careful and don't tell her the soup base recipe."
She had long known that Liu was unreliable, so she had never told Liu the recipe for the soup base over the years.
The son listened to Liu in other places, but he was also aware of the importance of the formula, so he didn't say anything. Therefore, they were not afraid that Liu would leave and take away their business with the Liu family.
"I know, Mother, don't worry."
Miao Lanlan nodded, then pulled Jiang Jiuniang to sit down at the table.
As soon as they sat down, they heard Miao's mother cursing again. Upon closer listening, they learned that while they were away, all the food on the stall had been stolen, and the place was a mess, with the stall completely ruined.
Miao's father comforted him from the side, "It's alright, it's alright. You can only accept your bad luck when something like this happens. Since you can't set up your stall, just go home. We have important guests tonight!"
Jiang Jiuniang asked curiously, "Aren't we going to investigate who stole it?"
It seems like they're all just cursing and getting angry, but they don't really intend to catch the thief; this seems to be the norm.
Miao Lanlan explained, "It's no use, it was done by those kids around here."
As she spoke, she casually pointed to a group of dirty children in a corner of the street.
They were all covered in black from head to toe, with messy hair and looked very thin. The oldest was eight or nine years old, and the youngest was only three or four.
Are these all little beggars?
Miao Lanlan shook her head: "They're not beggars, but they're even more troublesome than beggars."
Seeing that Jiang Jiuniang was really curious, Miao Lanlan simply helped her parents pack up the stall while talking to Jiang Jiuniang about the children in the city.
These children are not beggars, but children from ordinary families in the city. Although they are very young and look pitiful on the street, they are doing this on purpose.
Because the whole family depends on them for a living.
The roads in this place are rugged, land is scarce, but the population is large. Each household is allocated very little land, and with so many people in the family, it is impossible to survive by farming.
There are coal mines in the mountains, which are outsourced by the government to wealthy merchants in the city. All they need to do is pay the government taxes and coal on time.
Merchants are profit-driven and unwilling to pay wages; they send their own servants to mine, only requiring them to be fed.
Since the people had no opportunity to make money, they came up with other ways: they had as many children as possible and sent them to steal coal in the mountains and money and food on the streets, which was enough to support the whole family.
The children are very young, so even if they are caught stealing, the other party won't be too harsh on them. At most, they'll just be scolded, which won't stop them from stealing again next time.
This has led to children becoming increasingly brazen, daring to steal things even in broad daylight.
Jiang Jiuniang was utterly astonished: "Isn't the government doing anything about it?"
Miao Lanlan shook her head: "There's no way to control it. Even the government tacitly approves of it because the coal and food those children steal don't belong to the government. If we don't let them steal, they won't be able to survive and will need government assistance. In order to avoid taking responsibility, the government turns a blind eye to these things."
At this point, Miao Lanlan sighed and continued, "In the early years, things were better. The gap between the rich and the poor wasn't that big. Many people were willing to spend money to eat rice noodles, and we could make money. Now, the rich are getting richer and richer, while the poor are getting poorer and poorer, so fewer and fewer people are eating rice noodles."
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