Chapter 131: Having A Taste For This
Su Yaoguang saw Zi Zhan Young Master sitting in the corner, far away, as if she had thorns on her body, and shook her head with a wry smile.
This person turned out to be an old pedant too, so restrained even when sharing a horse-drawn carriage with a woman. Fine, no more scaring him, just send him there and leave!
“Don’t be afraid, I’m not a bad person,” Su Yaoguang said. “I’ve heard your melody before; you play the qin very well. How long have you been learning the qin?”
Zi Zhan Young Master—Zhou Wangshu glanced at her through the veiled hat and said faintly, “I’ve been learning since childhood, for ten years.”
“Then aren’t you very young?” Su Yaoguang looked at him curiously.
She could vaguely see a pair of beautiful eyes; the shape of those eyes was somewhat familiar. Before she could see clearly, he turned his head away, avoiding her gaze.
Su Yaoguang muttered, “He really is easily shy.”
More like a young lady than her.
Suddenly the horse lifted its hooves, the horse-drawn carriage shook violently, and a flower pot fell from above, about to smash right onto Su Yaoguang’s position. Zhou Wangshu nearby lunged over and blocked her with his body.
Bang! The flower pot smashed onto Zhou Wangshu’s back.
Su Yaoguang looked at Zi Zhan Young Master in front of her in shock.
“Are you okay?”
“The horse-drawn carriage…” Zhou Wangshu reminded hoarsely.
The horse was startled and was now running wildly, letting out shrill neighs.
Su Yaoguang quickly pushed Zhou Wangshu away, got up to grab the horse rope.
However, as the horse ran, the horse rope swung back and forth, just out of her reach.
She lunged onto the horse’s back, hugging its neck and stroking it to calm it down.
When the horse’s emotion had improved a bit, she grabbed the horse rope tightly and yanked hard.
“Whoa!” Su Yaoguang brought the horse-drawn carriage under control.
She turned back to look at Zi Zhan Young Master and saw him touching his back. After stopping the horse-drawn carriage, she leaned over to check and felt blood on her hand.
“You’re bleeding. I’ll take you home now. My family has a very good female doctor who can definitely help bandage your wound,” Su Yaoguang said, driving the horse-drawn carriage toward home.
However, when she wasn’t paying attention, the injured Zi Zhan Young Master quietly jumped off the horse-drawn carriage without a trace.
His figure was very fast; Su Yaoguang didn’t notice he had left even after driving the horse-drawn carriage far away.
“We’re here…” Su Yaoguang stopped the horse-drawn carriage and turned to look at the carriage compartment, only to find it empty.
She lifted the curtain, and sure enough, no one was inside.
She drove the horse-drawn carriage back to look and only saw refugees of different ages and genders sitting, leaning, or lying under the eaves on both sides of the street. Among so many people, she didn’t see Zi Zhan Young Master.
“If he fell off by himself, he would definitely call for help, but there was no sound. That can only mean one problem: he left on his own,” Su Yaoguang muttered to herself. “Why is he so afraid to see me? Is he ugly? Even if he’s ugly, he doesn’t need to care so much about my opinion, right? Or is he particularly afraid of strangers?”
That was the only explanation.
Su Yaoguang returned to Peach Blossom Workshop.
At this time, cursing came from the opposite Fenghua Pavilion, followed by Zhong Lanhua chasing a skinny tall man out with a kitchen knife. Zhong Lanhua swung the knife, and the man was so scared he scrambled away.
“Pah, shameless thing, actually reaching into my place. No wonder the rice and flour have been disappearing so fast lately—it was you, you thousand-knife thief. If you dare come steal again, I’ll chop off your hand. Even if you report it to the government office, I’ll be innocent for stealing my things.”
Su Yaoguang drove the horse-drawn carriage into Peach Blossom Workshop.
That skinny tall man just now was a nearby neighbor, often seen before. He looked even thinner now. Everyone’s days must be hard lately, especially for ordinary people like them.
“You’re back.” Zhang Pandi saw her lost in thought and waved her hand in front of her. “What are you thinking about?”
“On the way back just now, I saw someone sneaking into the opposite Fenghua Pavilion to steal rice and flour; it was one of our nearby neighbors. Mom, shouldn’t we hire a few people to come watch over the place?”
“I already told Captain Qian just now and asked him to arrange a few bailiffs to come guard the house. After all, I have so many medicinal herbs here, all for saving the people’s lives.”
“Mom, you’re amazing—actually getting government bailiffs to guard the house for you, saving even the money for hiring people. The old ginger is still the hottest; my mom is smart.”
“Of course…” Zhang Zhaodi said proudly. “By the way, aren’t you going back to the academy to take care of Wangshu? Chunni made some delicious food; take it to him to nourish his body.”
“No need to make dinner tonight; saves a lot of trouble,” Su Yaoguang said. “Staying in the academy all day is really boring, but yesterday the teacher actually asked me to help take care of other sick scholars. I’d rather be bored than bring so much trouble on myself.”
“My daughter isn’t an old maidservant—why help take care of them? Don’t even talk about not paying; even if they pay, we shouldn’t do it. As long as the academy pays, they can hire as many people as they want to care for them. In the end, they just want free labor,” Zhang Zhaodi said. “Why not bring Wangshu back to take care of him!”
“I wanted to, but the academy wouldn’t allow it, saying they’re afraid of spreading the sickly aura to others.” Su Yaoguang grumbled a couple of sentences, said goodbye to Zhang Zhaodi, picked up the delicious food and pastries made by Chunni, and hurried back to the academy.
She had just entered the door and saw chaos in the academy; a few refugees were pinning down and beating several sick scholars, including a familiar unlucky guy—Xiao Yanci.
If it were just Xiao Yanci, she would have just stood by eating melon seeds, but besides Xiao Yanci, there were a few scholars she had a good impression of.
She stepped forward to stop them and chased the refugees away.
She saw the refugees holding big and small packages of things, while the beaten scholars shouted toward the refugees, “Put down my dry rations, put them down—that’s my half-month’s dry rations…”
Xiao Yanci said weakly, “They took my inkstone. That inkstone cost ten taels of silver.”
“What happened here?” The headmaster and teachers hurried over, saw the mess at the scene, and asked in shock.
“Headmaster, teachers, I don’t know either. I just got back from outside and saw a few refugees robbing their things,” Su Yaoguang said. “Good thing you came; handle it quickly!”
Xiao Yanci grabbed Su Yaoguang’s garment corner, looking at her aggrievedly: “You’re just leaving like this?”
“I’ve already explained this matter to the headmaster; it has nothing to do with me, so of course I’m leaving.” Su Yaoguang broke free from Xiao Yanci’s entanglement.
Xiao Yanci glared angrily in Su Yaoguang’s direction.
Su Yaoguang saw Zhou Wangshu come out and said, “Where were you just now?”
“I was resting in the room,” Zhou Wangshu said. “What happened here?”
