good season

Jiang Ping and Cai An were reminiscing about the green days that were gone forever, but Zhao Shiqing suddenly lay down. Xiao Zhen looked at her intently. The little girl's eyes were slightly closed, her expression was calm, and her thick eyelashes trembled slightly like butterfly wings. The sunlight shone through the dense bamboo leaves, and mottled light and shadows floated and flowed on her face.

The surroundings suddenly became quiet. After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Shiqing opened her eyes again. What she saw was a green barrier made of bamboo leaves. She sat up and slowly shook her head at Xiao Zhen: "I can't remember it."

The little girl's voice was sweet but with a hint of sadness. Jiang Ping and Cai An, two rough men who had been through wind and rain, were suddenly at a loss. Saving lives and coaxing little girls were things that Prince Consort Xiao was best at. How could these rough men understand anything?

Jiang Ping hurriedly said, "Don't worry, Miss. I know where the doctor lives. When you get there, you might remember him."

Cai An also said: "Yes, yes, you were injured at the time and kept crying. Later, you fainted while crying. It's normal that you can't remember it."

Zhao Shiqing sniffed and said, "Thank you, brothers. Please lead the way."

The four men walked out of the bamboo forest, jumped on their horses, and continued on their way.

Zhao Shiqing rode past Zhen Wuduo on horseback and saw the fat old man staring at her. Zhao Shiqing didn't understand why, so she smiled and greeted him, "Hello, Uncle Zhen."

Until Zhao Shiqing walked past him, Zhen Wuduo was still staring at her back.

Xiao Zhen slapped Zhen Wuduo on the arm. Zhen Wuduo was startled and almost fell off the horse.

"What are you doing? Scaring people can kill them." Zhen Wuduo covered his chest with his hands. The old man was scared to death.

Xiao Zhen asked coldly: "Why are you staring at that little girl? You are disrespectful to your elders!"

If it was any other old man it would be fine, but Zhen Wuduo is notorious for being a lustful man.

Zhen Wuduo quickly explained himself: "What do you mean by disrespecting the elderly? I am more wronged than Dou E on the stage. I just think this little girl looks like someone. The more I look at her, the more similar she is."

Xiao Zhen sneered: "Yes, she looks like you. You have said it once, but no one thinks so except you."

Zhen Wuduo shook his head like a rattle: "Wrong, wrong, she not only looks like me, but also like Yuzhu. Do you know who Yuzhu is? She is your mother, my one and only wife who has been married to me."

Xiao Zhen: "If you point at a little girl on the street and say that she looks like your wife, what do you think will happen?"

Zhen Wuduo was puzzled and asked humbly, "What will happen?"

Xiao Zhen: "Beat him up and then send him to the authorities, you scoundrel!"

Zhen Wuduo rubbed his old face. Not only was he beaten, but he was also sent to see the officials and was also called a lecher. It sounded quite embarrassing.

"My son, father did not lie to you. That little girl really looks like your mother." He said in a low voice, afraid of being heard by others.

Xiao Zhen: "How do they look alike? Don't even mention the eyes. I've already talked about the eyes. You said they look like you."

Zhen Wuduo said hurriedly, "It's not the eyes, nor the nose and mouth. Alas, I can't explain it clearly. It's just similar, very similar, but I can't tell exactly where it's similar. That's right, this is called feeling. I can feel it as soon as I feel it. Do you understand?"

Xiao Zhen shook his head: "I don't understand."

Zhen Wuduo: "How could you not understand such an obvious thing?"

Xiao Zhen: “I really don’t understand.”

Zhen Wuduo sighed. His eldest son was good in every way except for this one thing: he was too serious, too rigid and inflexible. He was only eighteen years old, but he was even more rigid than he, who was sixty-nine.

Compared to the bamboo forest, which is extremely similar, the village is much easier to find.

An hour later, they arrived at a village.

Jiang Ping and Cai An walked to a courtyard with ease, knocked on the door, and an old man opened it.

Jiang Ping asked, "Excuse me, is there a doctor living here?"

The old man said unhappily, "No, no, there is no doctor here."

Jiang Ping and Cai An looked at each other, and they were both certain that this was the doctor's home.

Although they were not the ones who brought the little girl in, they were outside at the time. It would have been fine if only one of them remembered it wrong, but not only did they both remember it, the doctor's home was here, and even Xiao Zhen had an impression of it.

Jiang Ping fished out a dozen copper coins from his bosom and stuffed them into the old man's hand: "Old man, we came to your village a long time ago and asked the doctor who lives here to treat our illness. Now we are passing by here again, and we want to pay a visit to thank him, but we didn't expect that he has moved away. I wonder if you know where he and his family have moved to?"

The village is different from the city. If you move away from the city, you will most likely lose contact with your neighbors. However, in the village, most people are related to each other and it is difficult to leave their hometown. The so-called moving means moving from the east end of the village to the west end.

After receiving the copper coins, the old man looked much better. He looked around seriously and said in a low voice, "From your accent, you must be from outside the village. No wonder you don't know. I'll tell you the truth. The doctor was beaten to death. His wife and children couldn't live in the village anymore, so they sold their house to us and went to live with her parents."

Jiang Ping asked: "When did this happen? Why was the doctor beaten to death?"

The old man said, "He is really lacking in virtue. The Sun family in the village has only one son for three generations. It was not easy to get such a big grandson, and we treat him like the apple of our eye. The child was naughty and fell from a tree, breaking his leg. He is disabled and walks with a limp, but this does not affect the continuation of the family line, right?
But the doctor was so wicked that he lured the child into his home, drugged him and then sold him!

There is a man named Wang Guaizi in our area. He was driven out of the village a long time ago. People from all over the place would beat him up when they saw him. Who would have thought that the doctor was in collusion with Wang Guaizi and sold the eldest grandson of the old Sun family to Wang Guaizi.

But even though he gave Wang Guaizi away, Wang Guaizi had already run away and even the government couldn't catch him.

The Sun family would never give up, so they beat the doctor to death. If it weren't for the doctor's wife begging, the Sun family would have almost made the doctor childless."

As soon as the old man finished speaking, he heard a woman's voice: "When was he beaten to death?"

Zhao Shiqing and Xiao Zhen had come over without knowing when, and they heard everything that the old man said. The old man saw that the two of them were well-dressed and looked like they were from wealthy families, so he didn't dare to be careless and said quickly: "This happened ten years ago. I remember it very clearly. It was the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, a day for family reunion. The old woman from the old Sun family cried and cried, so pitiful."

Zhao Shiqing's face was icy: "It seems that he got a taste of the sweetness of selling children. Since there are no children delivered to his door, he steals children from the village. Even rabbits don't eat grass near their nests. He deserves to be beaten to death."

Xiao Zhen asked, "Which village is Wang Guaizi from? You said the government couldn't catch him, so has he been reported to the authorities?"

The old man said, "He is from Xiwuli Village, which is very close to here. But he was driven out of Xiwuli Village a long time ago. You can't find him even if you go to the village. He is registered in the government office, and there is a warrant for his arrest posted in front of the city gate. It's a pity that he was not caught. Maybe he was beaten to death by his victims like the doctor."

The Dayong law stipulates that if a person is beaten to death by his victim for abducting a girl from a good family and there is irrefutable evidence, the murderer is not guilty.

Therefore, in Dayong, beating a kidnapper to death in the street was a good thing that made people happy.

Zhao Shiqing asked, "Does the old Sun family still live in the village? His grandson is missing, is there anyone to inherit the family line?"

The old man sighed and said, "The Sun family is also pitiful. Their eldest grandson is lost. Although they have a bunch of cousins and nephews who can adopt him, the one who is lost is their own child. The Sun family has been looking for the child for as long as he has been missing.

Old Sun and his son were all out looking for children. The family's land had been rented out long ago. Old Sun's wife and daughter-in-law stayed at home. The two women cried day and night. Not long after, the daughter-in-law went crazy and fell into the river and drowned. Old Sun's wife hanged herself with a rope at home. The villagers helped to arrange her funeral.

During the Chinese New Year that year, when Old Sun and his son returned, they found out that all the women in the family had died. The two sold the family land, took the money and left. They haven't come back for several years. No one has seen them alive or dead. I guess the child is still not found. If he is found, he should be brought back to visit his grandmother and mother's grave. Alas, how pitiful!"

Everyone walked out of the village in silence. When they reached the entrance, Zhao Shiqing stopped and turned to look at the small village she had been to before.

"Among the children I rescued from the evil beggar, there was one who was lame. He was later adopted by Doctor Han and studied medicine with him. He lived a good life. He was from Liangdi and was sold by his uncle. He was not a child of the old Sun family."

Zhao Shiqing seemed to be talking to himself, but also seemed to be telling Xiao Zhen beside him.

"I'm sorry." Xiao Zhen said softly.

Zhao Shiqing looked up at him: "Why do you want to apologize to me?"

Xiao Zhen took a deep breath and said, "I shouldn't have handed you over to a stranger who didn't know your background. If I had sent you to the government office and asked them to look for your relatives, as long as I left the medical fee, the government office would have asked a doctor to treat you."

Unfortunately, there is no "if" in this world. Ten years ago, Xiao Zhen was just an eight-year-old child. He didn't know that there were dangers everywhere and people's hearts were treacherous.

Zhao Shiqing grinned, revealing an eight-toothed smile: "Don't say that. If you hadn't happened to pass by and saved me, I might have died in the bamboo forest. Not all passers-by will save people. Besides, although that black-hearted doctor sold me, I turned a disaster into a blessing. I met my father, and my father treated me as his own son. In the past ten years, I have not suffered. I have lived a very good life. All of this is because of your help. So, Master Zhen, I want to thank you."

As he spoke, Zhao Shiqing lifted up his clothes and was about to kneel down. Xiao Zhen was quick to stop him. In an instant, he remembered that he had knelt down like this in the Observatory that day. He kowtowed three times to Zhao Shiqing to thank her for saving his parents' lives.

In a flash, Xiao Zhen understood!
No wonder, there was no Zhao Xiaosi in the previous life. The King of Liang in the previous life only had three children, and no adopted daughter named Zhao Shiqing.

He has always wondered why there are so many variables in this life.

His parents did not die in Wisteria Villa, Xiao Su did not die on the way to Liangdi, the Xiao family and the Liang Palace did not become enemies, and without the war between the Xiao family and the Liang Palace, the court would have no reason to send troops to Liangdi. Not only did Zhao Tinghan not die, but he also returned to Liangdi smoothly.

Zhao Shiqing was involved in all of these events.

In other words, the biggest variable among all the changes in this life is the addition of Zhao Shiqing.

Xiao Zhen had been unable to figure out something for a long time, but at this moment, he finally understood it.

Because of the dream he had when he was eight years old, he had actually remembered his past life at that time, but it was fragmented. He didn't know that it was his past life. The only thing the young boy could think of was to go to Baifeng City to see his cousin in person.

He had never had that dream in his previous life, so he did not go to Baifeng City and did not meet Zhao Shiqing.

He did not hand Zhao Shiqing over to the black-hearted doctor, so Zhao Shiqing was not sold to Liang, was not rescued by King Liang, and did not become King Liang's adopted daughter.

No matter whether she was alive or dead in her previous life, she was not Zhao Shiqing, nor was she the second lady of Prince Liang’s Mansion.

And in this life, because of her appearance, his parents were lucky enough to survive. Xiao Su was also saved by her, not to mention Zhao Tinghan. The crows in the capital knew what was going on.

"Just don't blame me for getting you abducted. Besides, you saved my parents and Xiao Su. If I'm to thank you, I should thank you more."

Zhao Shiqing thought about it and realized that, yes, she almost forgot that she had saved the eldest princess and Prince Consort Xiao. Of course, she also saved Xiao Xiaosu.

"Hey, didn't you already compensate me with a mountain? We are even now, so there is no need to thank each other anymore. However, I still want to thank you for telling me these things. Otherwise, I don't know how long I would have to wait to find out about these things."

Xiao Zhen said, "A wounded and blind child, even with the help of wild dogs, can't go very far. By the way, I found you in the early morning, which means you might have been lost at night. I think your home is nearby, not too far away. Let's ask around and ask if there was any family who lost a child ten years ago."

Xiao Zhen waved his hand and called Li Xi over: "Go to the government office and check if anyone reported their daughter missing to the authorities in April or May ten years ago."

Li Xi took the order and rode at full speed towards the nearest government office.

After Xiao Zhen finished giving the orders, he turned around and saw that Zhao Shiqing's eagle had flown in at some point. Zhao Shiqing was holding its head and whispering to it. It was unknown what he said to the eagle, but the eagle seemed to understand and actually nodded, then flapped its wings and flew away.

Then, Zhao Shiqing took out the cat again, and whispered to it for a while. As soon as he loosened his grip, the cat ran away.

Although Xiao Zhen had long discovered that Zhao Shiqing had an inexplicable affinity with animals, he was still stunned when he saw this scene. He then heard Zhen Wuduo's voice behind him: "Same, even liking cats is the same."

Xiao Zhen turned around and asked, "What did you say?"

"Your mother, she is the kindest girl I have ever met. All the cats in the village love to come to our house. She is always like this, whispering to the cats while holding them. She also said that she can understand what the cats are saying. I don't believe it, so she glared at me and shook her braids. Believe it or not,
You don't know how cute she is when she says this." (End of this chapter)