As if knowing what he was thinking, Li Xiaoxiao patted him on the shoulder without the slightest reserve. “You’re just young and haven’t encountered something like this before. Now that you know what happened, you’ll know how to handle it the next time you run into something like this.”
Meng Guanqi stared at her strangely. She had actually reached out and patted him on the shoulder?! And she had even said he was young and inexperienced?! How presumptuous. How could she be so disrespectful? She had completely overstepped her bounds!
He frowned and took a step back before turning around and walking away.
Li Xiaoxiao did not mind at all. She leisurely drove the ox cart behind him. “Young Master, the food shortage has been temporarily resolved, but when you go back, have Mama Mao make two roast chickens and send two bottles of wine to the yamen runners for them to drink.”
Meng Guanqi stopped in his tracks and turned to look at Li Xiaoxiao.
Li Xiaoxiao continued driving the cart, looking quite pleased with herself. “Although you may not like Constable Shi’s attitude and the way he does things, sometimes you can’t just look at what a person says. You have to look at what he does.”
While Constable Shi did not seem to show much respect for Magistrate Meng or Meng Guanqi, Li Xiaoxiao knew he was absolutely reliable from the way he was so concerned about guarding the city gate, knew to have the yamen runners sharpen their blades, and understood that the porridge distribution could not be stopped.
Working backward from the result to the cause, if the reliable Constable Shi looked down on Magistrate Meng, then Magistrate Meng was probably the unreliable one.
That was certainly not good news. After all, her own benefits and treatment were closely tied to the Meng family.
Li Xiaoxiao sighed. Back in the apocalypse, she had never had a fixed home and had constantly lived with her life hanging by a thread. Now that she had finally come to this world, she no longer had to live in constant fear of losing her life. She had even been sold into the household of a county magistrate with some power. No one beat or scolded her, and she had no shortage of food or clothing. She was extremely satisfied with this arrangement and did not want the household to collapse anytime soon, so she would definitely have to help save it.
Meng Guanqi entered through the main gate without looking back. Although Li Xiaoxiao had parted with eighteen taels of silver, she had at least kept the ox cart. She had always been optimistic, so she happily drove the cart to the back entrance and tied the ox beside the woodshed.
She had made up her mind. Over the next couple of days, she would build a shelter for the ox so it would not be left without a place to stay!
Mama Mao heard the commotion and came out to see what was happening. The moment she spotted the ox cart, she was stunned.
“You… how did you manage to bring an ox cart inside?”
Young Master was such an upright person. How could he possibly have agreed to let Li Xiaoxiao keep the ox cart?
Li Xiaoxiao smiled brightly. “Young Master didn’t object. From now on, this cart is mine.”
Mama Mao was dumbfounded. Just as she was about to ask how Li Xiaoxiao had managed to persuade the young master, A Sheng came running over and handed Mama Mao two strings of coins. “Mama Mao, Young Master told you to make two roast chickens and get two bottles of green-plum wine, then send them to the county yamen for the yamen runners to eat.”
Mama Mao had often been assigned such tasks by the masters in the household, preparing rewards for the servants, so she acknowledged him. Forgetting to ask about Li Xiaoxiao, she immediately went to the chicken coop to catch the chickens.
Thus, when the exhausted yamen runners returned to the county yamen after distributing porridge at the city gate, they immediately saw a bamboo food cover on the table. Constable Shi lifted the cover and instantly froze. Inside were two neatly cut roast chickens and two bottles of green-plum wine.
Green-plum wine was a specialty of Miyang County, a popular item at the wine shops along the streets. Everyone in Miyang County knew it. The yamen runners cried out in excitement and quickly gathered around.
“Roast chicken?! Who sent this?”
“Wow, it smells so good! Look at that crispy skin. It must be delicious. And green-plum wine too~”
“Who put this here? Is it for us to eat?”
Amid the commotion, the shopkeeper who had heard the noise came out happily with a set of keys. “Oh, Constable Shi, you’ve finally returned. Come, these were sent by the Young Master. He said they were to reward us for our hard work. Not only did he send over 3,600 jin of coarse rice, but he also sent two roast chickens and two bottles of wine for us to share.”
Constable Shi froze. “3,600 jin of coarse rice? Wouldn’t that be thirty-six sacks?”
The shopkeeper said delightedly, “Exactly! It’s been so long since the magistrate left, and we finally have grain going into the storehouse. I can finally breathe easy. With this coarse rice, we can hold out at the city gate for another ten days or half a month without a problem.”
He happily squeezed his way over, picked up a piece of chicken with his hand, and popped it into his mouth. His eyes widened. “Delicious! Everyone, eat!”
These hungry wolves worked themselves to the bone every day while remaining under immense mental strain. They could not even remember the last time they had eaten meat. Seeing the shopkeeper start eating, they immediately scrambled for the food. Constable Shi was quick enough to snatch a large chicken leg. He took a bite, and the juicy chicken meat burst in his mouth. He closed his eyes in enjoyment for a moment, held the chicken leg in his mouth, and poured himself a cup of wine.
Two roast chickens were up against six men. In no time at all, even the chicken breast bones had been chewed up and swallowed.
Constable Shi ate one large chicken leg and drank a cup of wine. By then, the plates on the table were completely empty, and not a drop remained in the wine bottles.
One of the yamen runners had managed to grab three pieces of meat and was eating until his mouth was dripping with grease. “What a shame. If they had sent over a pot of rice too, it would have been perfect.”
Constable Shi used the chicken leg bone to pick his teeth. “Dream on! This must have been Madam’s kindness. We gave the Young Master such a hard time today. It would already be good enough if he didn’t hold a grudge against us. How could he possibly send us chicken and wine?”
He spoke with complete conviction. “It must be Madam who understands and sympathizes with how hard we’ve been working, so she sent this to comfort us.”
Magistrate Meng had been in Miyang County for half a year, and Constable Shi had always felt that officials transferred out from the capital were like delicate peonies raised in the warm rooms of wealthy households, fragile and sheltered. They had no understanding of the common people, and their policies were overly idealistic and impractical. As a result, he had clashed with him more than once.
At the beginning of the month, Magistrate Meng proposed taking in the refugees and using the grain in the granary to distribute porridge. The experienced Constable Shi immediately foresaw the situation they were facing today. Not only had he stepped forward to argue with Magistrate Meng, but he had also led a group of yamen runners in protesting against him. But he was only a constable and had no way to change Magistrate Meng’s decision.
The granary was opened, and the number of refugees continued to increase. Half a month passed, then a full month. Every day, Magistrate Meng anxiously waited for the disaster-relief grain from the imperial court. Constable Shi and the others watched as his hair turned white from worry. He sent letters to the prefectural city every day to urge them, yet no reply ever came.
Now that what they had predicted had come true, the county yamen was caught in an impossible situation, and Constable Shi was not pleased about it at all. Magistrate Meng was the head of the county, while they were his subordinates. If their superior could not get out of this situation, there was a good chance they would be implicated as well.
Yet this situation could have been completely avoided. Magistrate Meng’s good deed had indeed saved many refugees, but he had opened the county yamen’s granary to save them without obtaining permission from his superiors. Constable Shi saw the matter very clearly. If things went well, Magistrate Meng would get all the work and none of the credit. If things went badly and it resulted in a riot, that would be a serious crime!
When the superior was so clueless and gave reckless orders, it was still the subordinates who had to clean up the mess. No wonder the yamen runners were resentful!
Miyang County was poor, and its annual taxes were heavy. There was not much grain in reserve to begin with, and within just over a month, they had exhausted it all. With no grain left, Magistrate Meng paid out of his own pocket to buy grain and put it into the granary, continuing to distribute porridge.
When Constable Shi heard about it, he could only give a cold laugh. “I heard the magistrate came from the capital. Perhaps his family is extremely wealthy, and he wants to support all these refugees by himself.”
What he had not expected was that before the refugees outside the city could riot, the people around Magistrate Meng had begun to fall into disarray. His most trusted aide, Master Peng, had actually resigned at this critical moment, taking eighty to ninety percent of his most capable assistants with him. The county yamen, whether in the front hall or the rear courtyard, had lost more than half its people!
Constable Shi privately mocked Magistrate Meng with the other yamen runners. “Looks like he’s the only fool here. Master Peng is clever as can be. He saw disaster coming and resigned first.”
With all the capable people taken away, the yamen runners looked down on Magistrate Meng even more. As more and more people gathered at the city gate, Magistrate Meng still failed to receive the disaster-relief funds and grain. He finally could not sit still any longer and took two attendants with him to the neighboring county to borrow grain.
In Constable Shi’s opinion, unless the magistrate of the neighboring county was his father, no one would dare lend him grain at a time like this.
Don’t think two roast chickens and two bottles of wine from Madam could buy them off. Constable Shi and the other yamen runners only felt that this was something Magistrate Meng owed them as compensation. Before he had caused this mess, they had been quite idle. Now they were working themselves to the bone every day while worrying about a riot, and their jobs had become more than ten times more dangerous than before. What were two roast chickens and two bottles of wine worth? If Magistrate Meng really had the ability, they would wait and see how he dealt with the refugees outside the city. Only then would they be able to live in peace.
Meanwhile, after Mama Mao delivered the roast chickens and wine to the main hall of the county yamen and returned to the kitchen, she finally remembered that Li Xiaoxiao had gone to see a doctor. While kneading dough, she asked Li Xiaoxiao, who was tending the fire, “Oh, right. How did it go when you went to Huichun Hall? Nothing happened, did it?”
Li Xiaoxiao sighed. “Doctor Xie said my injuries were very serious. It was a severe condition, and he initially didn’t even want to prescribe me any medicine. Later, I brought up the county magistrate, and only then did he reluctantly prescribe several doses together with the shopkeeper.”
Mama Mao’s hand stopped, and she looked at her strangely. “What? He said you had a severe condition?”
Li Xiaoxiao nodded gravely. “Yes. He said my pulse was extremely chaotic. He had never seen someone with a pulse like mine who could still walk around, so he didn’t dare prescribe any medicine.”
Mama Mao washed her hands and placed one against Li Xiaoxiao’s forehead to check her temperature. “You don’t even have a fever. What kind of nonsense are you talking about?”
Li Xiaoxiao was confused. “I’m not talking nonsense. That’s exactly what he told me.”
Mama Mao was completely speechless.
Why did everything that happened to Li Xiaoxiao seem so bizarre?
She thought for a moment. “Bring me the medicine and let me have a look. I want to see what he prescribed for you.”
Li Xiaoxiao brought the medicine over. Mama Mao opened the packet and carefully examined the herbs. Her vision went dark. “Aren’t these all warming and nourishing herbs? How is this supposed to treat an illness?! I use more than this when I make medicinal food!”
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. With a bang, she slammed her fist onto the chopping board. “He must have seen that you were just a young girl going there alone for treatment and bullied you because you didn’t know any better, cheating you out of your money! It’s already late now, so it’s inconvenient to go out. Tomorrow afternoon, I’ll go with you and confront him. He knew you were a servant from the magistrate’s residence, yet he still dared to cheat you like this!”
Li Xiaoxiao asked, “Then should I still drink this medicine?”
Mama Mao said irritably, “Drink it. Either way, it’s all nourishing medicine. It won’t hurt you, and it can still nourish your body.”
So after finishing her evening meal, Li Xiaoxiao boiled the medicine and drank it.
Not long after drinking it, she felt a wave of intense heat rise from her abdominal cavity. Her blood and qi surged upward continuously, rushing toward her chest. Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead. She suddenly sat up, clutching her chest and gasping for breath.
Her entire body was scorching hot, as though a fire were burning inside her abdomen. Before long, she was drenched in sweat from head to toe. Li Xiaoxiao bit her lower lip tightly as her vision swam, and dark specks flickered before her eyes. She wondered if that Doctor Xie had poisoned her.
Finally, the pressure in her chest grew heavier and heavier. Li Xiaoxiao felt like she was about to vomit. She quickly felt her way out of bed in the darkness, intending to walk to the chamber pot at the foot of the bed. But the moment her feet touched the floor, an overwhelming sensation suddenly surged outward from her chest. She opened her mouth and spat out a mouthful of blood.
…
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