Chapter 9
After seeing off Lan Yingde and his daughter, the chieftain asked where Han Yunkai was in Yintai, picked up a stick and went to Yintai's yard to find Han Yunkai. Li Yang was afraid that his brother would be beaten, so he quickly followed him.
Yin Tai was lecturing Han Yunkai: "Why don't you take her to play with elephants? The elephant house is dirty and smelly. Is that a place a girl should go? Can't you take her to see the peacocks?"
Han Yunkai was suddenly enlightened by the scolding. "Yes! Why didn't I take her to see the peacocks?" But she still argued, "It's useless. She's so unlucky. I guess she'll get pecked by the peacocks if she sees them."
Seeing that he was stubborn, Yin Tai was furious and slammed the table and said, "Bring me the family rules." As soon as he finished speaking, Han Tusi came in with a stick.
Han Yunkai saw this and secretly cried out in bad luck, then jumped up and hid behind Yin Tai.
Han Tusi pointed his stick at him and cursed: "You bastard, you can't even take care of a child, what else can you do?"
Han Yunkai hid behind Yin Tai, only daring to stick his head out and said, "You shouldn't have let me take care of her. I'm not a wet nurse. Besides, today is the Water Splashing Festival. It's good to be splashed with water, but she just wants to cry and scream."
Yin Tai couldn't stand it any longer: "She's a little girl. If she gets wet, won't you change her clothes? You let her come back half-dried. What if she gets sick?"
Han Yunkai protested, "I want to change her clothes too, but the elephant field is full of men. I can't even find a clean pair of women's clothes. How can I change her clothes?"
He was right in the end. The chieftain chased him with a stick in his hand. Han Yunkai ran around the house, his head in his hands. As he ran, he shouted, "Madam, help me."
Seeing him in such a state of disgrace, Yin Tai felt both angry and relieved. He said bitterly, "You deserve it. Your father should give you a good beating."
Seeing that Yin Tai didn't help him, Han Yunkai ran towards the door and disappeared in a flash. Seeing that Han Tusi was about to chase him, Li Yang hurried forward to stop him.
"Dad, how can you outrun this kid? Calm down first, I'll help you fight later."
Han Tusi was so exhausted from the chase that he was out of breath. He threw down his stick and sat on the couch, panting. He was so tired that his mouth was dry, but there was no tea. He shouted angrily: "Where's the tea?"
Tonglin quickly brought the tea tray and served the tea. Han Liyang advised, "The little girl from the Lan family just spilled some water on her, it's nothing serious. There's no need to get so angry. Besides, Yunkai didn't do it on purpose, and Lan Yingde is not an inconsiderate person."
Han Tusi took the tea and drank half of it in one gulp. He then slid down the teacup and said angrily, "This little bastard! I just boasted to Lan Yingde that I would take good care of his daughter, and he immediately made her look miserable. Isn't this ruining my reputation?"
Li Yang said, "Father, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but you've been too harsh on Lan Yingde. Even if he has the wisdom of Zhuge Liang and the talent of Fan Li, he's still a Han Chinese, not of our race."
Tusi Han knew that his son was young and hot-headed, and he was very disdainful of some of Lan Yingde's actions. He also did not know how to conceal that his words were sometimes inappropriate.
He said to Li Yang, "There's a saying among the Han people: 'Don't employ those you doubt, and don't doubt those you employ.' He has insight and ability, but more importantly, he is sincere."
"Sincerity?" Li Yang curled his lips. "We split the profits from the mine 80% to 20%. If he was sincere, how could he dare to make such a request? It's all for profit."
The chieftain sighed. This son was filial and kind to his brothers and sisters, but his brains weren't as sharp as the second son, who often irritated him. Perhaps he should have been allowed to study abroad with the second son to broaden his horizons. A dignified chieftain heir was actually so petty as to focus on those two profits.
But what can we do? We can only teach by breaking down the principles into smaller parts.
"The relationship between these two Mengs is like that between a married couple. When they are on good terms, they can even eat each other's saliva, but when they are hostile, they forget all their previous affection. They are all for the sake of nothing more than the word "interest". You must remember that there are no eternal friends or eternal enemies in this world, only common interests. Why does Lan Yingde work so hard for me? Is it for your father's reputation? Of course, it is because I can give him benefits and conveniences, and benefits and conveniences that no one else can give him."
The logic was correct, but the example given by Han Tusi made Yin Tai almost roar. What a crappy example! She could even hear the servants laughing behind her.
Li Yang was puzzled: "This can only be said to be a bond of interests. Although the rope between us and Lan Yingde is tied tightly, it still cannot prove his sincerity!"
Yun Kai poked his head out from the door frame: "Didn't he move his family to Yun Xiang? This is sincerity."
The chieftain nodded in satisfaction when he heard this, but when he realized that it was the second brother who had returned who said this, he stood up and looked around for a stick.
Han Yunkai stuck out his tongue and tried to run away again, but Li Yang quickly grabbed Tusi and said, "Please let your second brother explain it to me. If he doesn't explain it correctly, I'll beat you again."
Han Tusi said to Han Yunkai, who was peeking at the door, "Come in."
Yun Kai came in and stood at the door, not daring to go forward, ready to run away if his father got angry.
Han Tusi held up the tea and gave him a look to indicate that he could start.
He rolled up his sleeves and gestured with his fingers like a storyteller, saying, "Look, big brother, Lan Yingde moved here, so logically he should have kept someone around to take care of his daughter. But now, apart from his disciple Changsheng, he doesn't have anyone he brought back from Kunming. Is this a move? It's like fleeing famine. Not only that, but why did they send him to the mansion under the pretext of taking care of his daughter?"
Li Yang thought for a moment and said hesitantly, "He doesn't trust his former servants?"
Yintai and Tusi closed their eyes at the same time, but neither of them said anything.
Han Yunkai showed no expression: "That's one reason, but it's not the most important one."
Han Liyang was curious: "Why?"
"He's trying to show his loyalty to Father. This is like telling Father that his entire family is in our hands."
Tusi Han finally began to like his son a little more.
Li Yang frowned: "He is taking the initiative to send his daughter into the mansion as a hostage?"
Seeing Han Tusi's brow relax, Han Yunkai grew bolder. While talking, he plopped down on a chair and grabbed a piece of pork from the plate on the table and started to eat it with a crunch. "Not entirely. He left his daughter with Yun Xiang. It's not right for a little girl to live alone in such a big house. Sending her to the mansion shows his loyalty and guarantees his daughter's safety. It's killing two birds with one stone."
Li Yang sighed, "The Han people are just too cunning, with so many tricks up their sleeves, but..." He raised his eyebrows, "How do you know so much about his family's affairs?"
Yun Kai patted the rice crackers on his hands and said, "The little girl from the Lan family is not very cunning. I have been hinting at everything along the way, and she knows everything."
Li Yang laughed and sighed, "When it comes to cunning and evil-doers, who in the entire Prime Minister Yun has more than our Second Young Master!"
Yun Kai proudly lifted his legs and shook them, "This is called knowing yourself and knowing your enemy." He then said to Tong Lin, "Bring me a cup of tea, young master. My mouth is dry from all the popcorn. Where were you just saying... Oh, when it comes to doing things, you have to find clues from the smallest things, and you have to be calm and unconventional to discover problems that ordinary people can't find."
Yin Tai hated his careless look the most, so he gave him a cold look and said, "Put your legs down."
The chieftain felt a mixture of love and hate, regret and relief for his son. It was a very contradictory feeling. He loved his cleverness, the way he could turn his eyes and let out evil thoughts one after another. Of course, he hated the fact that he used this cleverness against his own father. He regretted that he was not the eldest son, as he was so smart, but he was also glad that he was not the eldest son. Otherwise, with his personality, if he really inherited the throne, he would have ruined the whole Yunxiang.
Forget it, let him assist Li Yang! Li Yang's steadiness and his cleverness, Yun Xiang will not be bad in the future, not bad.
After bringing Yueming home, Lan Yingde immediately asked Changsheng to boil water and make ginger soup, fearing that she would get sick. However, the fatigue from the long journey and the long hours of covering herself up in wet clothes made the hot bath and ginger soup less effective than they were, and by the evening Yueming still had a fever.
Lan Yingde stayed by Yueming's bedside. At dinner, she had only a bowl of soup before putting down her chopsticks, her face flushed and her whole body heavy. He told her to lie down on the bed quickly, put a thermometer under her arm, and put his finger to Yueming's nose to feel her breath, which was as hot as fire. He then told Changsheng to go to the street to buy some roasted wine.
Yueming felt a dull pain all over her head. She fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow. Her sleep was not very restful. She felt Lan Yingde and Changsheng walking in and out of her room, taking her temperature, wiping her forehead and body with a towel wet with wine, and finally she was given an injection.
In the distance came the sound of firecrackers exploding, accompanied by a whistling sound. Yueming was woken up by the noise, and because she was sweating and sticky, she felt much more relaxed.
She rolled over and looked out the window. Somewhere, a rocket was being launched. Golden fireworks exploded in mid-air, casting a golden dust across the curtains against the backdrop of the night. While not as dazzling as the fireworks I'd seen in Kunming, they were like a night-blooming cereus blooming in the quiet night, capturing the moment, its single golden hue all the more radiant. The afterglow lingered in the sky, a mixture of admiration for its splendor and regret for its fleeting nature.
She stretched out her still weak hand, spread her palm flat and held it in the air. With a bang, fireworks bloomed one after another in her palm.
The horseman, riding his horse from the small hillside above the resting ground, watched the grand scene in the city. He waved his whip and shouted, "Brothers, rest well tonight and have fun in the city tomorrow."
The second in command of the caravan asked, "Shouldn't we go tell Master Lan we've arrived tonight?"
Yang Laoliu shook his aching neck, and his bones crackled.
"It's getting late. It will be the same if we go into the city to see Master Lan tomorrow. There's no need to rush."
Looking at the Yunxiang City surrounded by fireworks, he tightened his grip on the reins. He was going to become rich here!
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