Chapter 8 Gaining Trust
"Since it's hard to refuse such a generous offer, I won't refuse your kindness. However, please leave some hands for me. I'll make some sweet soup for everyone later."
White sugar is a luxury here. The day before yesterday in the store, Gu Xiyue took a look at the price of white sugar, which was more expensive than salt.
After she finished speaking, Xiao Heng looked at her in surprise.
Zhao Yancheng and others shook their heads and refused.
"Sugar is too expensive, Miss Gu. Just have some hot water to drink. Don't buy sugar."
Everyone agreed, and then Zhao Yancheng took the lead to lead everyone to the back mountain to open up wasteland. Xiao Heng wanted to follow to help, but was pushed down.
"Xiao Sanlang, there's no need for you to get involved in this matter. Go back and boil some water with your wife."
Xiao Heng was at a loss for words and could only go back to the house.
The slope of the back mountain is relatively gentle. The fields allocated to Gu Xiyue and Xiao Heng are surrounded by sticks, so they can be seen at a glance. Everyone works together, some picking up stones, some cutting grass, and the last row of men line up, swinging their hoes, and they have dug half of the field in a short while. Everyone is talking and laughing, and it is very lively.
Gu Xiyue was not idle in the house either. After they left, she asked Meixiang to buy two pounds of sugar. Wei Lin carried two buckets and went to the east with Meixiang. When Meixiang came back with sugar, Wei Lin had already fetched two loads of water.
Gu Xiyue boiled two large pots of water, adding nearly a pound of sugar to each pot, which was sweet enough. After boiling one pot, he asked Meixiang to call the neighbors' wives, and asked the wives to tell each other to bring their thermoses and fill each family with a pot of sugar water to drink at home.
There were more than seventy thermoses in total, and filling two pots of water was not enough, so Meixiang was asked to buy sugar and Weilin to fetch water.
Finally, all the kettles were filled, and a large pot of sugar water was left for the workers to drink.
Madam Liu and Madam Li knew that Gu Xiyue's family did not have enough bowls, so they mobilized everyone to bring one of their own bowls to help serve the sugar water, and laid them out in a row on the stone slab in front of the yard. The scene was quite spectacular.
Xiao Heng was lighting the fire the whole time. When Meixiang and Wei Lin went to the east, they were the only ones in the yard. Gu Xiyue glanced at Xiao Heng and asked with a smile, "Your Highness, why didn't you deny our relationship just now?"
Xiao Heng didn't look up, and said in a calm tone, "During the exile, we can't divorce. Besides, in this place, having this relationship is good for you. The matter of divorce should be kept between us. If you meet your destined person in the future, I will naturally not stop you."
After he finished speaking, he paused and looked at Gu Xiyue with a gentle smile on his face, "What do you think?"
Gu Xiyue felt a little dizzy at his handsome face. She glanced at him and quickly looked away.
"It's a deal! Similarly, if you meet your destined person in the future, I will naturally not stop you."
The road ahead is unknown. After all, this is ancient times. Gu Xiyue feels that as a woman, it will definitely be inconvenient for her to do some things. If she has a nominal husband behind her, it will save a lot of trouble.
"That's natural."
Xiao Heng said this with a smile, then frowned and continued to add firewood into the stove.
Gu Xiyue thought about how he had asked everyone to call him Sanlang just now, and asked in confusion: "Your Highness, did you make up the name Sanlang yourself?"
Xiao Heng paused, his expression indistinguishable from joy or anger, "I have two older sisters, so I'm naturally the third child."
"I understand. From now on, I will call you Xiao Sanlang in front of others."
Gu Xiyue readily followed his advice and did not expose his scars. He was the crown prince of the Eastern Palace before, and he would have been able to succeed to the throne smoothly in a few years. But now he has become a criminal exiled to the Southern Wilderness, and it is unknown whether he can return to the capital in this lifetime.
If this happened to an ordinary person, he would have been depressed to the bottom and would never be able to stand up again in his life. Unlike him, he still acted as if nothing had happened and was calm.
The heir to the throne is indeed no ordinary person!
"In front of others, you have to call me husband." Xiao Heng did not look up, his voice still light.
Gu Xiyue's hand shook and the gourd ladle in his hand almost fell into the pot.
Xiao Heng saw it out of the corner of his eye and said, "If you can't call me that, Sanlang will do."
Gu Xiyue glanced at him, turned around and continued to scoop water into the pot without saying a word.
The sloping field behind the house was opened up in about an hour. When the group came down, they saw that the three large stone slabs in front of Gu Xiyue's yard were filled with bowls filled with water.
Madam Li and other women asked everyone to pick up their bowls and drink water. All the bowls on the stone slabs were picked up. The men in the back came to the front and the women immediately poured water for them.
The man who got the water first felt that the water was cold, so he took a big gulp. Just as he was about to say it was cool, his eyes widened and he took the bowl away from his mouth with surprise on his face.
"It's sugar water!"
“So sweet!”
Isn't it true? The moment the cool sugar water entered the throat, it was so sweet and refreshing. No one had drunk sugar water since the day of exile. They had forgotten what sugar water tasted like because of the hard times. Every time they saved up enough money and went to the east end to buy salt, they would always swallow a few mouthfuls of saliva when they looked at the white sugar next to it.
But now he drank the sweet soup from Miss Gu's place, and he felt mixed emotions, yet deeply moved.
Wasn't it just helping Miss Gu to clear some wasteland? It was a convenient thing to do, but Miss Gu ended up making some sweet soup for them.
Since she came here, she has been distributing salt to Grandma Liu and the others, teaching them how to dry mosquito repellent grass, and even giving them sugar water today.
They had been disappointed by her failed attempt at hanging and were suspicious of her when she tried the mosquito repellent plant herself.
It’s so wrong!
If they were to say so, Miss Gu was a fairy sent down from heaven to save them!
Everyone slowed down their drinking speed, savoring the taste of the sugar water. They looked at Gu Xiyue with gratitude and made up their minds that if Gu Xiyue needed them in the future, they would do their best to help him.
The men took a few sips and half of the bowl was left, which they gave to their women and children. Some who had no relatives around gave it to the neighboring children. The way they shared with each other moved Gu Xiyue and Xiao Heng.
Gu Xiyue thought there was still some in the pot, so she turned around and asked Xiao Heng to scoop it into the bucket and bring it over.
"Dear..." As soon as he opened his mouth, he suddenly realized that something was wrong. With so many people around, he quickly changed his words, "Prime Minister... Sanlang, scoop the sugar water from the pot over here."
Because of the panic just now, her face was slightly hot and she felt a little uncomfortable.
Xiao Heng felt uncomfortable when she called him, but he didn't show anything on the surface and went to scoop water directly.
"Come on, here's some sugar water. Thank you for your hard work!"
Gu Xiyue greeted everyone and the women started working again.
Meixiang and Wei Lin were busy greeting everyone and didn't notice their master's embarrassment at all.
Someone in the crowd noticed Wang Hu's absence and asked in surprise, "Doesn't Wang Hu love to join in the fun? Why isn't he here today?"
"I haven't seen him since I woke up this morning. Forget about him. Who knows where he went?"
"The Southern Wilds are so small, we can see them everywhere!"
Mrs. Zhou from the Xue family said, "He seems to have caught a cold. When I came over just now, I saw him wrapped in a quilt going to see Master Wang Jun."
Wind-cold?
Everyone was surprised and couldn't help but look at the scorching sun above their heads.
It's so hot that you can catch a cold. You must be joking!
But seeing that Madam Zhou was so certain that the Xue family lived next door to Wang Hu, she couldn't help but believe it.
Although it was surprising, everyone quickly put Wang Hu's matter aside and discussed the benefits of mosquito repellent grass. They also said that the wheat was about to be harvested, and they needed to thresh the yard carefully in the next few days so that they could dry the wheat.
At this time, Wang Hu was sitting in front of General Wang with a bitter face. He was shivering from the cold and his nose was running. He was so uncomfortable that he had to shiver and wipe his nose when he spoke.
"Master Jun, am I going to die? If I really die, it will be from illness, not suicide!"
Uncle Wang Jun was about thirty-seven or thirty-eight years old, with a round face. He looked at Wang Hu's pitiful appearance with both amusement and disgust. The smell of his winter quilt was pungent, and the whole room was filled with this smell. Uncle Wang Jun leaned back to move away from him, covering his mouth and nose with his left hand, and feeling his pulse with his right hand.
"It's okay, you're just suffering from the heat."
After that, I asked him curiously, "What did you do last night?"
His tone was quite majestic, and he stared straight at Wang Hu.
Wang Hu didn't dare to hide anything, so he told everything about what happened last night, how he was bitten by mosquitoes, how he couldn't bear it, and how he wrapped himself in a sheet but still got bitten. In the end, he had no choice but to take out his winter quilt to wrap himself tightly to keep out the mosquitoes, and he almost died of the heat...
After listening to this, Master Wang Jun said lightly: "You are also bitten by the seat on weekdays, why couldn't you bear it last night?"
Wang Hu's eyebrows were almost knitted together in worry. "How would I know? Mosquitoes bite me on weekdays, but not so many. Last night, there were so many mosquitoes that there was no place on my body that was not bitten..."
At this point, he suddenly stood up and said through gritted teeth, "I know. It must be Miss Gu who deliberately used that wild grass to smoke out the mosquitoes. Since there were no mosquitoes to bite, they all came to my house and targeted me alone to bite!"
"She's retaliating!" Wang Hu slammed his swollen hand on the table. "Miss Gu did this on purpose, sir. You must uphold justice for me and take care of her!"
Junye Wang exchanged glances with Junye Xu next to him, suppressed the smile in his eyes, and turned to ask Wang Hu, "She's a weak woman who has only been here a few days. You two have no grudges against each other, so why would she retaliate against you?"
Wang Hu was stunned for a moment, and tried to recall carefully why Miss Gu took revenge on her. Because she was thinking so deeply, the clear mucus from both nostrils flowed down and almost stuck to her mouth.
Mr. Xu Jun felt uncomfortable watching this and couldn't help but sniff.
"I remember now. Just because I suspected her weeds were poisonous and called her hypocritical, she held a grudge and retaliated against me!"
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