Chapter 39

Meng Yao hurriedly entered the room and saw scratches on both sides of Qin Zheng’s shoulders and ribs. Some places had already formed scabs, while others had pus sticking to his undergarments.

The scratches probably happened when Qin Zheng forced his way through the dog hole. The dog hole was enough to fit a dog, not for someone as chubby as Qin Zheng.

“Did your parents push you from behind?” Meng Yao asked softly.

Qin Zheng’s body trembled, but he remained silent.

Meng Yao sighed and thought Qin Zheng must be shocked about the whole situation.

“I’m going to separate your clothes from your skin. It’ll hurt a little, so you have to bear it,” Meng Yao said.

Meng Yao took the small embroidery scissors and sterilized them over a fire. It would be great if she had alcohol swabs, and the fire was still lacking. Meng Yao froze, and a small porcelain bottle appeared in her hand.

Fortunately, Meng Yao had her back facing Zhao Dahe and Qin Zheng. She opened the porcelain bottle with trembling hands, and just as she expected, there were alcohol swabs in the bottle.

Indeed, the pocket dimension had many uses. The next moment, Meng Yao realized she could store things in her pocket dimension and obtain items from them.

No, to be exact, the pocket dimension was like a trading platform because one tael of silver went missing from the forty-eight taels of silver Meng Yao stored there. She now had only forty-seven silver taels.

In other words, the bottle of alcohol swabs cost one silver tael. The value of one silver was high in ancient times. After all, pork was about sixteen to seventeen yuan per pound, and one silver tael could buy more than sixty pounds of pork.

The bottle of alcohol swabs, excluding the porcelain bottle, was no different from a hundred bottles of alcohol swabs in the future. A single piece was equivalent to a little more than one and a half pounds of pork.

‘That’s too f*cking expensive!’ Meng Yao thought.

However, it was impossible to return the goods, and Meng Yao needed them. So what if it was expensive?

‘Then I’ll have a bottle of saline too,’ Meng Yao spoke inwardly.

The next moment, a porcelain bottle containing 250ml of saline appeared in Meng Yao’s hand. Then she calmly sanitized the scissors with an alcohol swab.

Zhao Dahe sniffed. “Where’s the smell of alcohol coming from?”

“Oh, I got these from when Xiaoshu was injured,” Meng Yao said calmly.

It was a ubiquitous porcelain bottle, so Zhao Dahe did not ask further.

Meng Yao cut Qin Zheng’s clothes stained with his skin and flesh down the middle and washed them in saline water. After that, she carefully disinfected Qin Zheng’s wounds with the alcohol swabs.

Meng Yao heaved a sigh of relief. Only two of Qin Zheng’s wounds were infected, and the rest were shallow.

Afterward, Meng Yao instructed Zhao Dahe to help clean the rest of Qin Zheng’s wounds and told Zhao Dahe not to let the wounds come into contact with water.

Then Meng Yao went to the kitchen to cook some porridge. She recalled the news from Zhao Dahe about the Qin family.

The Qin family’s business scope was relatively broad, so they profited quite a bit. When an official committed a significant crime in that era, the government officials would send the offender and his family to jail if the crime were not enough to warrant a beheading.

Meng Yao wondered why the Qin family got incarcerated.

Zhao Dahe inquired about the people who confiscated the Qin family’s property. Otherwise, they would not have left Qin Zheng out. Therefore, Zhao Dahe thought the Qin family got involved in shady business dealings.

In other words, Qin Zheng’s side of the family should be a branch of the main Qin family that had a high-ranking official among them. The so-called high-ranking official had committed a crime, implicating their clan members.

That was how a prominent family rose and fell.

When one was a high-ranking official, one’s family members would be under one’s protection. Everything they did would go smoothly no matter what. However, if a high-ranking official was caught committing a crime, their family could not come out unscathed.

Meng Yao made the porridge and brought it to Qin Zheng.

“There’s still more in the pot. Dajiang, Dahe, you can get some for yourselves if you’re hungry,” Meng Yao said.

After sending Zhao Dahe and Zhao Dajiang away, Meng Yao placed the bowl of porridge in her hand in front of Qin Zheng.

“Your parents pushed you to the abandoned courtyard next door for you to survive, not starve to death. If that’s the case, wouldn’t it better if you got incarcerated as well?” Meng Yao said.

However, Qin Zhen still remained silent.

“Dahe brought you here on account of your friendship. He didn’t want you to die alone,” Meng Yao continued to ramble, “You must pull yourself together, young man. You can’t let down your parent’s painstaking efforts.”

“It’s just incarceration. Who knows? There might still be room for change. What if the officials pardoned your parents? They’ll be fine when that time comes, but you’d be dead because you gave up. Do you have the heart to let your parents see you die?”

Qin Zheng violently trembled as tears gushed from his bloodshot eyes. It’s good that he cried because it meant Qin Zheng accepted what had happened. He would be halfway through this hurdle after crying.

Meng Yao stood up and left because she wanted to give Qin Zheng some privacy.

Zhao Dahe was still eating his porridge in the kitchen while Zhao Dajiang had already returned to his room.

“Has Qin Zheng eaten yet, Mother?” Zhao Dahe asked.

“He hasn’t eaten yet. Maybe he will when he gets tired of crying,” Meng Yao said, “So? How do you want to help Qin Zheng?”

Zhao Dahe scratched the back of his head. “I-I don’t know. He didn’t say anything, so I don’t know what he’s planning to do.”

“Qin Zheng can’t continue his studies,” Meng Yao said.

“Why?” Zhao Dahe’s reaction was a little exaggerated. “Mother, if I work hard, I can help pay for more than half of Qin Zheng’s studies with your help. I’ll return what I owe you in the future. What future will Qin Zheng have if he doesn’t study?”

“Why can’t you think straight? What do you think incarceration means?” Meng Yao rolled her eyes. “It means the Qins are guilty of something. Won’t Qin Zheng reveal himself if he goes to school?”

“W-We can hide his identity!” Zhao Dahe blurted.

Meng Yao wanted to whack Zhao Dahe’s head with a stick. “How do you expect him to do that and go to school simultaneously?”

Meng Yao understood Zhao Dahe’s intention. He wanted Qin Zheng to take the imperial examination. However, Qin Zheng could not leave the house unless someone could change his identity. But who could do that?

Zhao Dahe hung his head dejectedly. “Then what should we do?”

“We’ll figure something out,” Meng Yao said, “Even if it looks like a dead-end now, we’ll come up with something sooner or later. All right, hurry up and go to Xiaoshu’s room to rest. You have to go back to school tomorrow while Qin Zheng stays here for the time being.

Zhao Dahe sighed in despair.

“If you want to help Qin Zheng, you have to make a name for yourself first,” Meng Yao said, “Maybe the problem will be solved when that time comes.”

“How long will that take?!” Zhao Dahe had a bitter expression on his face.

“I don’t know, but it’s better than doing nothing,” Meng Yao said.

What else could Zhao Dahe say? His mother was right.

Meng Yao woke up before dawn the following day. It seemed she hadn’t slept much that night. She wasn’t as carefree as Zhao Dahe, who thought everything would be okay when he returned.

Meng Yao feared Qin Zheng would take things too hard and constantly wake up from his sleep, so she went back and forth to check on Qin Zheng throughout the night.

However, Meng Yao became mentally and physically exhausted as the night progressed. She was sleepy but still forced herself to get up. Meng Yao was like a bitter mother who had to care for her son.

Meanwhile, Song Xiu’er got up and helped Meng Yao prepare breakfast as Zhao Dajiang cleaned the courtyard and fed the chickens.

Zhao Dahe woke up halfway through the meal. Then he rubbed his tired eyes and returned to his room before sneaking out again.

Although Meng Yao’s voice was shallow, one could hear its joy, “I’m going to bed.”