good season

Zhao Shiqing shook her head slowly: "No, no."

Old man: "Isn't it one thousand taels?"

Zhao Shiqing: "Add the five hundred taels on this IOU, and I'll owe you one thousand five hundred taels."

Old man
"Then I won't change my name. I have thought about it for a long time. That day, I saw the misty white clouds and suddenly realized something. That's when I got the name 'Fang He'. What's the meaning of 'Gui He'? When you reach my age, you will understand the beauty of 'Fang He'."

Zhao Shiqing was a curious child: "Why do we release the cranes? Isn't it better to let them go? They can eat well and live well at home, and have their families accompany them. How wonderful!"

The old man shook his head: "What are relatives? They are all wolves, tigers and leopards, you can peel their skin and dig out their bones!"

Zhao Shiqing looked at the old man's abnormal head and decided not to discuss this topic with him.

"Well, I won't let you change your name, but it won't work if you only have the two characters Fanghe. What if you refuse to pay me back? I'll report you to the government. But when they check the household register, they won't find anyone with the last name Fanghe. Who can I complain to? You went out without a pass?"

The old man blinked his cloudy eyes and said, "What is a road pass? I don't know what a road pass is."

"Then how did you get into town?"

As soon as Zhao Shiqing said this, she remembered that among the places she had been to, except for the capital and Liangdu, other places didn't seem to check the pass strictly. For example, in places like Zhaoting Town, no one checked it. There was a check at the city gate of Bailu County, but when the three of them entered the city together, they only checked Niu Qiu's pass. As for the elderly, women and children, they didn't even look at them and let them go directly.

Zhao Shiqing and Ling Bo were women, so the yamen runners at the city gate did not check them. The old man was an elderly man and was also among the people who were exempted from inspection.

Sure enough, the old man said, "That's how I walked in. No one dared to stop me."

Zhao Shiqing thought to himself, people just don't want to bother with you because you are old, and no one dares to stop you. Who do you think you are, the emperor?

"Since you don't have a pass, please write down your name and place of origin, such as Zhang San from Bailu County or Li Si from Qinglu County."

When the old man heard this, he wrote on the IOU for five hundred taels of silver: Zhao Xingzhou of Gaoying County.

Zhao Shiqing's eyes widened: "Is your last name Zhao?"

The old man shook his head and said proudly: "One of the hundred surnames, Zhao from the Zhao, Qian, Sun and Li family."

Zhao Shiqing said hurriedly: "What a coincidence, my last name is also Zhao, Zhao as in Zhao, Qian, Sun, and Li. We were one family five hundred years ago."

The old man grinned and said, "No wonder we are so destined to be together. It turns out we are from the same family."

Zhao Shiqing took out ten taels of silver and said, "Since we are from the same family, you can spend the ten taels of silver and write me an IOU for one thousand taels."

The old man's smile froze on his face. "We are all relatives, and you still asked me to write you an IOU for 1,000 taels. Are you so short of money?"

Zhao Shiqing sniffed and said in a crying voice, "Grandpa, you don't know that my adoptive mother kicked me out of the house before my adoptive father's body was cold. I also have a frail and sickly brother at home. Do you think I can be rich?"

A father who passed away early, a heartless mother, a sickly brother, a broken home, and a strong her!
Zhao Xingzhou sighed: "Alas, I thought everyone in the Zhao family was well-dressed and well-fed, but I didn't expect there would be a pitiful child like you."

He looked at Zhao Shiqing and said, "Good boy, you acted well. Don't act like that next time. You don't look like someone who would be kicked out of the house by your adoptive mother."

Zhao Shiqing: "I swear, I was really kicked out of the house by my adoptive mother. It's true, even Pearl is not so real."

Zhao Xingzhou: "Is your adoptive mother still alive?"

Zhao Shiqing was confused: "She is alive."

Zhao Xingzhou: "You didn't throw her into the pit and drown her?"

Zhao Shiqing: "Oh, old man, you misunderstood me, am I that kind of person?"

Zhao Xingzhou: "You are!"

Zhao Shiqing was very sad. It felt really bad to be misunderstood.

Zhao Xingzhou was amused: "So, you are now an orphan? That's right, they are your adoptive parents. You are an orphan to begin with."

Zhao Shiqing frowned, "No, I'm not some Monkey King that popped out of a crack in a rock. Of course I have a father and a mother, I just haven't found them yet."

Zhao Xingzhou snorted coldly: "Isn't that still nothing?"

Zhao Shiqing clenched his fists: "I will definitely find them!"

Zhao Xingzhou: "I feel that I have a great affinity with you. How about this? Since you can't find your biological father and your adoptive father is dead, I will take a loss and adopt you as my adopted daughter. From now on, you can call me foster father. Of course, you can just call me dad if you want to save trouble."

Zhao Shiqing was stunned. What did that mean? This old man wanted to adopt her as his adopted daughter?

This old man is old enough to be her father.

She shook her head like a rattle: "No, no, I am free and easy, I can't think of finding a father for myself. Is there any benefit in recognizing you as a father? No! Can I get rich? No!"

Zhao Xingzhou seemed to be deeply hurt: "You said there is no benefit in recognizing me as your father?"

Zhao Shiqing: "You are so poor that you don't even have five taels of silver. I recognize you as my father. Can you give me a red envelope?"

Zhao Xingzhou.
He felt around his body and found a small seal: "Call me daddy, and this will be yours."

Zhao Shiqing took the small seal, which was not the same one as before. On this small seal, the three words "Zhao Xingzhou" were clearly engraved.

"Hey, old man, you are so cunning. This seal clearly has a name, but you used something like the Crane Releaser to fool me."

Zhao Xingzhou: "I'm old and my memory is not good. I just forgot about it."

Zhao Shiqing held the seal and asked, "How much is this seal worth?"

Zhao Xingzhou thought for a moment and said, "It should be worth at least 70,000 or 80,000 taels."

Zhao Shiqing dipped the wolf-hair brush into ink and handed it to Zhao Xingzhou: "Then write me an IOU for 80,000 taels, and you can keep this little seal."

Zhao Xingzhou. How could such a pretty little girl become obsessed with money?

"I wrote you an IOU and you call me daddy?"

Zhao Shiqing: "Of course."

Zhao Xingzhou wrote the IOU in a few strokes and stamped it with the seal with his name on it. Zhao Shiqing was still worried, so she asked him to put his fingerprints on it, the kind that required ten fingers.

Then, she accepted the IOU and said to Zhao Xingzhou, "Father."

Zhao Xingzhou smiled and was about to agree, but he heard Zhao Shiqing say, "Grandpa, I called you, do you keep your word?"

Zhao Xingzhou: "Why are you calling me Grandpa again? Shouldn't you call me Daddy?"

Zhao Shiqing: "Grandpa, you only told me to call you daddy, but you didn't tell me how many times to call you."

Zhao Xingzhou understood, which meant that the word "Dad" was just used to exchange for the IOU and should not be taken seriously.

"Why don't you kneel down and serve me tea?"

Zhao Shiqing: "Of course not, I don't know you, you don't even have a pass, what good person would not have a pass? What if you are a bandit? Then I would be acknowledging a thief as my father. If my father knew, he would jump out of his coffin and scold me."

Zhao Xingzhou pointed at her: "You, you, you!" Zhao Shiqing: "Grandpa, you are old now, you should open your mind and stop being petty all the time, so that you can live a healthy and long life."

Zhao Xingzhou: "Good, very good, very good, you are worthy of the surname Zhao."

Zhao Shiqing clasped his fists and said, "Let's encourage each other."

Zhao Xingzhou died!
When they left the official post station with their rented horses, the postmaster who had lent them the pen and ink and had been sitting next to them as a background looked at their backs and said to himself, "You really think that those with the surname Zhao are relatives. Aren't you afraid that the wind will blow your tongue away? Our Great Yong Dynasty is also surnamed Zhao. If you have the guts, go and discuss your kinship with the emperor, ha!"

Although he failed to successfully adopt a cheap daughter and was tricked into writing two IOUs, Zhao Xingzhou soon became excited again.

Because he rode a horse!

He likes riding horses, but he is not very good at it.

Fortunately, the horses for rent in the official post station were very docile, otherwise he would have fallen off the horse countless times along the way.

Bailu County is not close to Luzhou City. They set out on the journey early in the morning and arrived in Luzhou in the evening.

But the city gate was closed.

Unfortunately, there was no official post station or even an inn outside Luzhou City. Zhao Shiqing was careless and did not pay attention to whether there was an inn when she left Luzhou. Also, because other places she had been to, there were always official post stations or inns not far from the city gates, so she took it for granted that there were some.

Loach knew this, but Zhao Shiqing kept urging them to hurry up, and he thought that even if the city gates were closed, the second young lady would still be able to enter the city.

So now, all I can do is stare blankly at the closed city gate.

Seeing that there were people who were locked up outside the city like them, Niu Qiu hurried over to ask and soon came back with a smile: "Second Miss, go up this road and there is a village. Every household in that village can stay overnight. There are many merchants coming and going in Luzhou. People like us who missed the place to stay all go to that village to stay overnight."

As he spoke, Loach pointed to a wooden sign erected next to the city gate. Unfortunately, it was dark and the words on it could not be seen clearly. Loach said, "That is a road sign, pointing to that village."

The village was not far away, and the four of them soon arrived at the entrance. They saw two trees on the left and right of the entrance, with two large lanterns hanging on each tree. Under the lanterns stood a dozen people, both men and women, old and young, all with smiling faces.

Zhao Shiqing and his four companions, together with the people who came with them, were the first group of people to be locked outside the city gate today. The people standing under the lanterns were the village greeters, who were here to attract customers.

There were four people including Zhao Shiqing, an old man and two little girls. The only young and strong one was Niu Qiu. Although he was sixteen years old, he was thin and looked only fourteen at most, so he was still a child.

So they were quickly taken to her home by an aunt.

"Hey, now that you're here, just treat this place as your own home. If you need anything, just tell me. Don't be polite. You're the first group today. The east wing, west wing, and the rooms at the back are all empty. You can choose whatever you want."

Zhao Shiqing asked for two rooms in the west wing. She and Lingbo lived in the inner room, and Niu Qiu and Zhao Xingzhou lived in the outer room.

They ordered some food from the aunt, including a pot of meat, a plate of blanched vegetables, a big pot of noodle soup, and ten eggs.

As the saying goes, a grown-up boy can eat me to death, and girls aged fourteen or fifteen can also eat me.

Needless to say, loach has a bottomless stomach. Zhao Shiqing and Lingbo's appetites are no less than theirs. They eat at least ten buns.

Only Zhao Xingzhou, who was old and didn't eat much, had a piece of rice cake in the morning and was not hungry until now.

Half an hour later, the aunt's daughter-in-law brought the meal to the west wing.

Ling Bo put the noodles into a bowl and placed it in front of Zhao Shiqing, but Zhao Shiqing was not in a hurry to eat. She was patiently peeling eggs, removing the eggshells, putting the egg whites into her own bowl, and then mashing the egg yolks to feed Xiao Yao. As for Xiaoguai, don't worry about him, Xiaoguai will find food by himself.

It was only then that Zhao Xingzhou saw Xiao Yao. He widened his eyes, pointed at Xiao Yao, and said to Zhao Shiqing, "You brought a cat with you when you went out?"

Zhao Shiqing nodded: "Yes, this is my little demon."

She pointed at Zhao Xingzhou and said to Xiao Yao, "Call me Grandpa."

Little demon: "Meow~"

Zhao Xingzhou remembered that night when he fell into the pit, the cat's meow he heard was not a wild cat passing by, but the cat that Zhao Shiqing raised.

"You let a cat call me grandpa?"

Zhao Shiqing: "She has already called you, why don't you say anything?"

Zhao Xingzhou, how could one day I have fallen to the point of being a grandfather to a cat?

"I owe it first!"

Zhao Shiqing said to Ling Bo: "Write it down in our little notebook."

Like a magician, Ling Bo took out a small notebook and a charcoal pencil and wrote on it: In a certain year and month, Zhao Xingzhou owed Xiao Yao a gift.

Zhao Shiqing: "And there's also a fee for changing your words. The little demon is calling me grandpa now."

Ling Bo wrote again: One fee for changing one’s words.

Zhao Xingzhou: It turns out that it’s not the end of falling into a pit, but there are pits at every step.

Although it was early winter, the group had been traveling all day and were eating steaming hot noodle soup, so they felt a little hot and opened the window.

As soon as the window opened, a voice came in: "Is there only the east wing? What about the main room? Clean up the main room. I want to live in it."

Zhao Shiqing was stunned. Why didn’t she think of living in the main house?

There is a main house, who lives in the side rooms?

She was about to praise the guest who was going to stay in the main room when she heard a familiar voice.

"When you're out, can't you be more quiet and just stay in the wing room!"

Zhao Shiqing's hearing and sense of smell are different from ordinary people, not to mention that the voice is so beautiful that she will remember it for a lifetime.

Xiao Zhen!

Zhao Shiqing didn't bother to feed the cat. He stood up suddenly and stuck his head out of the window to look outside.

There were several lanterns hanging in the yard, and the two people who were talking were standing under the lanterns, and the light illuminated their faces clearly.

Zhao Shiqing doesn’t know him!

These are two unfamiliar faces!
But soon, she saw someone she knew.

Big and strong!

Yes, his name is Da Zhuang. He is the big guy standing outside the door every time she went to Su’s Tea Shop. She heard Xiao Zhen call him Da Zhuang.

Da Zhuang is here, so that voice must be Xiao Zhen's.

She looked at the two strangers again. One of them was a fat old man who was not tall and had a big belly. This man was definitely not Xiao Zhen, unless he not only changed his appearance but also had the skill of shrinking his bones.

The other one, although he had an unfamiliar face, his head was similar to Xiao Zhen's.

Zhao Shiqing was so focused on studying the two faces opposite her that she forgot that she was also under a lantern. She couldn't recognize Xiao Zhen at first glance, but Xiao Zhen recognized her at first glance. (End of this chapter)