As the carriage approached the crowd, Zhao Xian looked through the window and saw a person lying on the road with a white cloth covering their head. There was a lot of blood on the ground, and two children were kneeling and crying beside them.
There were many people standing around the two children, and several elderly women were wiping away tears. These people should all be villagers from this village.
As Zhao Xian's carriage slowly approached, people gathered around it.
Zhao Xian, unaware of what was happening, quickly ordered his guards to stop the carriage.
"What do you want? Why are you stopping our car?" the soldier asked irritably.
At this moment, an old man walked up to the carriage and bowed to the soldiers.
“We are villagers from this area. We have no choice but to stop the car here. Please forgive us if we have offended you.”
Zhao Xian lifted the carriage curtain, looked at the old man, and asked:
"Please tell us what's wrong, sir. We have urgent business to attend to and need to get on our way."
"Sir, we are all villagers from this village. This morning, an old man from the village went out to work and was hit by a horse-drawn carriage on the road."
By the time the old man was discovered, he was already dead, and the carriage that caused the accident had long since sped away. The villagers immediately reported the incident to the authorities, but by the time the constables arrived, more than an hour had passed. They simply took a look, gathered some information, and then left.
We know that carriages frequently pass by on this road, and even with the government's best efforts to investigate, they have been unable to find the carriage that caused the accident.
The deceased was an elderly man living alone in our village. His son and daughter-in-law passed away from illness two years ago, leaving behind two underage children.
The old man had a nephew in the village who was a good-for-nothing who did nothing all day. Even though the old man had been dead for so long, he hadn't come to visit.
We are all fellow villagers, so we naturally had to take care of this matter and prepare to bury the old man so that he could rest in peace.
Burying an elderly person requires money, but our family is not well-off and we simply cannot afford it. We have no choice but to ask passing vehicles and pedestrians for some money as a funeral expense for our elderly relative.
We're not asking for money; if you don't want it, please leave. If you have a kind heart, please help this old man and his poor grandson.
So that's what happened. Zhao Xian never expected that people in this era would run away after knocking someone down.
In such situations, the carriage that caused the accident could easily escape, making it difficult to investigate afterwards, and the only one who would suffer is the victim.
Looking at the dead man lying on the ground and the two children kneeling there, a wave of sorrow washed over him. The lives of the underprivileged in this era were truly miserable.
The old man is dead. What will happen to these two children? There are too many tragic things in this era. I am not Guanyin Bodhisattva and cannot save everyone.
Since he had encountered this situation, he felt he should help. With that thought, he got off the carriage and walked to the two children.
The two children kneeling on the ground were a boy of seven or eight years old and a girl next to him who was even younger, only four or five years old.
Both children were very thin and pale, showing that they were living a very difficult life with the elderly.
The people around were all from the same village, and they were all very kind. The reason they had to block the road and beg for money was out of desperation.
When the two children saw someone walking towards them, they immediately looked up at Zhao Xian and began to kowtow.
"Please, sir, have mercy and help us," the little boy pleaded in a low voice. The little girl could only cough softly and could no longer speak. It was already afternoon, and the two children probably hadn't eaten and were exhausted.
Zhao Xian couldn't bear to watch any longer, so he took out ten taels of silver and handed it to the little boy.
"Don't be sad, you two. Let the kind people in the village bury Grandpa properly. This is all I can do to help you." After saying this, Zhao Xian gritted his teeth and left resolutely.
The scene was too tragic. He dared not linger there. After getting into the carriage, he made it leave quickly.
Zhao Xian was in a bad mood throughout the journey. The road conditions were poor, and the carriage was bumpy, making Zhao Xian feel nauseous.
Seeing that Zhao Xian looked worried, Huang Bo, who was sitting next to him, asked:
"Manager Zhao, are you alright?"
"It's okay, I'm just a little carsick."
Seeing that Zhao Xian was acting strangely, the guards quickly pulled the carriage to the side and stopped it.
After resting for a while and drinking some water, Zhao Xian gradually felt better and then let the carriage continue its journey.
It wasn't until dusk that the carriage arrived at Huangjiawan and stopped in front of Huang Bo's house.
When Huang Bo's family saw a carriage stop at the door, they went out to check.
At this moment, Huang Bo and Zhao Xian alighted from the carriage. Upon seeing their family, Huang Bo immediately introduced them:
"This is Manager Zhao from our restaurant."
The family members were surprised that Huang Bo had brought the restaurant manager with him, so they quickly bowed and paid their respects.
Without any introduction, Zhao Xian could tell at a glance that the two elderly people were Huang Bo's parents, the two young people were Huang Bo's younger brother, the woman was probably Huang Bo's wife, and the last one was a five or six-year-old boy who looked a lot like Huang Bo and must be his son.
Upon seeing that guests had arrived, Huang Bo's wife immediately went to the kitchen to prepare a meal to entertain them.
At this moment, Huang Bo called the two old men into the room. The two old men seemed a little nervous, not knowing what was going on.
Huang Bo took out more than ten taels of silver from his pocket and handed it to the old man.
The two elderly people were stunned; where did they get so much money?
Huang Bo smiled and told the two old men what had happened in the past few days. The ten taels of silver was a reward from the restaurant manager, and the two taels of silver was the money he earned from selling the crabs he had brought.
The two elderly people finally understood what had happened. Their son had specially taken a horse-drawn carriage back a couple of days ago, caught a few buckets of crabs, and then left. So that's what had happened.
Then Huang Bo told the two old people the purpose of bringing Manager Zhao to their home, and they were very happy to hear it.
"You mean your restaurant will need a lot of crabs in the future and will need us to supply them on a long-term basis?" the old man said.
"That's exactly what I mean, Father. What do you think?"
"That's wonderful! If it's as you say, ten coins per pound, and the restaurant needs two hundred pounds a day, that's two taels of silver a day! My God, won't our family be rich?" the old man exclaimed.
“That’s how it is, Father. What do you think we should do about this?” Huang Bo asked.
"This is easy to handle. Just have your two younger brothers catch crabs and deliver them to your restaurant, right?"
Huang Bo nodded and said, "This matter cannot be told to outsiders. If the villagers hear that crabs can be sold for money in other places, many people will go to catch crabs, and then there will be fewer and fewer crabs."
Mr. Huang nodded. He was very excited; this was a business opportunity with no initial investment.
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