Chapter 172

Sitting on the carriage, Xu Ran looked around as well as at Gao Quan. Being driven out of the village, Liu Tiezhu should stay near Liu Village , but now he showed up near Xu Village, which must be because of Xu Cheng. Xu Ran didn’t expect that Xu Cheng was quite persuasive.

Even if being made homeless, Liu Tiezhu was willing to follow him.

However, he didn’t know that the reason why Liu Tiezhu did so was because of his misunderstanding. He thought that Xu Cheng was Xu Ran’s younger brother, so Xu Cheng would go back sooner or later. If he had a good relationship with Xu Cheng, with the help of Xu Ran, he would be able to go back as well.

But he completely forgot what Xu Ran had said. The person whom Xu Cheng wanted to kill was not only him, but his little child; in this case, how could Xu Ran forgive him?

Since being chased out, Liu Tiezhu had never eaten anything. He couldn’t find any food even wild fruit in the cold winter. Noticing a carriage followed by an ewe passing by, the idea came to him.  Xu Cheng didn’t know it, and he never thought he would have the misfortune to meet Xu Ran again.

The difference in force between Gao Quan and Xu Ran was obvious, which made their different questioning methods. Xu Ran would not hit anyone, at most threatened him verbally, but Gao Quan did the opposite!

Gao Quan went up directly and stepped Liu Tiezhu on the chest, which made him dared not even think of running away.

The tone of Gao Quan was even colder than Xu Ran’s. “Tell me, where is Xu Cheng now? Otherwise, in the wilderness, no one will discover you until your bones are rotten if you die here. So telling me or not, it is up to you!”

Although being told to choose on his own, Gao Quan didn’t dare to move, he knew he must tell him about Xu Cheng.

After all, there was not much friendship between Liu Tiezhu and Xu Cheng, for his own life, Liu Tiezhu  told Gao Quan their temporary hiding place, unhesitatingly and detailedly.

Hearing his words, Gao Quan turned to Xu Ran, who had already heard their conversation. Xu Ran nodded and said, “Now that he has told us, let him go!”

Without hesitation, raising his foot, Gao Quan kicked Liu Tiezhu and exclaimed, “Get lost!”

Picking himself up quickly from the ground, Liu Tiezhu fled in the direction that he told Gao Quan.

Until Liu Tiezhu was out of sight, Xu Ran said to Gao Quan, “Follow him! Take the rope and send Liu Tiezhu to the town today. If you don’t know how to find those people, go to Zhuo Yun, he knows it.

“Alright,” Gao Quan responded, taking out the rope from the carriage which tied the cured meat in the morning, and soon it would be used for something else.

Taking the rope, Gao Quan was about to leave, Xu Ran added, “Gao Quan, remember to come back tonight. You have to return no matter what happened to the two of them, okay?”

Stunned for a moment, Gao Quan nodded and walked in the direction in which Liu Tiezhu fled.

Xu Ran didn’t drove home until Gao Quan was out of sight.

…

Arriving at home, Xu Ran began to move the contents on the carriage into the yard. Tangtang and Guoguo were not at home. Only Liu Tong and Shao Yu were there. Seeing Xu Ran carrying something, Shao Yu came to help. It was not until they had finished moving all the things did she notice one person was missing.

Then Shao Yu asked Xu Ran, “Why didn’t Gao Quan come back with you?”

“I asked Gao Quan to do something for me, and he will come back late. You’d better leave some lunch for him,” Xu Ran said.

Shao Yu didn’t think much about it, nodded and said, “Then I’m going to cook first.”

Not telling her about it wasn’t not because Xu Ran wanted to hide something from her. He knew Shao Yu had experienced definitely more than he did. He just didn’t want them to know that their peaceful life was about to be broken.

Therefore, he didn’t tell the truth.

While Shao Yu was cooking, Xu Ran took out the remaining limestone from the room where the trash was placed. The limestone had to be mixed with glutinous rice milk to be sticky. Without the help of Gao Quan, he had to do it himself .

After moving the lime into the yard, Xu Ran smashed all the canes, with Liu Tong watching aside, full of pity.

Xu Ran smiled, “Tongtong, the canteens aren’t valuable, but being stuck onto the wall, they can keep us safe.”

Liu Tong said, “I just think it’s a waste.”

“Okay, just this once. I won’t do it again. If you don’t like it, go into the house and do not stay here with me.”

Hearing Xu Ran’s words, Liu Tong left.

Xu Ran rubbed his nose, having mixed feelings.

……

After lunch, Xu Ran climbed up a ladder to stick the broken ceramic and the iron nail he bought back to the wall with glutinous rice paste.

He learned it from others in modern times.

He was busy all afternoon and half the wall had been pasted. The sun was setting, but Gao Quan had not come back. Being asked several times by Shao Yu about what he had asked Gao Quan to do, Xu Ran only told her that Gao Quan went to find a person in the town whom she also knew.

But it had been so long that Shao Yu didn’t believe him. He stopped asking him and just paced up and down in the yard anxiously. Xu Ran wanted to persuade him but didn’t know what to say.

Tangtang and Guoguo saw this scene the moment they came back. They thought there must be something bad had happened and rushed into the house. Seeing Liu Tong sitting on the cold bed with Baozi in his hand, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Then they turned to ask Xu Ran. After learning about what had happened, Xu Ran asked them to comfort Shao Yu.

Putting their bags away, the two children came to talk to Shao Yu. In front of Shao Yu, they praised Gao Quan over and over again, convincing her that nothing would happen to a man of his ability.

There was finally a faint smile on Shao Yu’s face.

Gao Quan came back during dinner with his hands empty. Seeing him come back safely, Xu Ran was relieved.

Shao Yu looked Gao Quan up and down and served him dinner after confirming that he was really fine.

While eating, Gao Quan didn’t say anything. He had always been a man of few words, and only because something had happened these days to make him say more.

After lunch, Gao Quan went back to their room with Shao Yu for Shao Yu wanted to ask him something about today. Knowing that Gao Quan would take a chance to report to him, Xu Ran didn’t stop them.

Xu Ran went to check the homework of the two children. Today was Tangtang and Guoguo’s first day of school, the knowledge that Fuzi taught was very simple and easy for them.

Xu Ran knew it and asked them how they were getting along with their classmates.

Tangtang said, “We’ve played with Dahu. Xiaobudian and many other children in the village are at school too, just like usual.”

Xu Ran asked, ” Has Fuzi asked you to answer questions?”

Tangtang answered, shaking his head, “No, many children can’t read now, so Fuzi said that he would teach us how to read first.”

Thinking about it, Xu Ran said, “What Fuzi teaches first must be some simple characters that you’ve all known, but others don’t, so don’t tell others about it or show off about it. You should learn with them even if it’s a little slow.”

“Why?” Tangtang asked, tilting his head in confusion. Guoguo didn’t say anything, but looked just like Tangtang. Looking at their adorable faces, Xu Ran’s heart melted.

Xu Ran said, “People say that the gun shoot the bird which takes the lead. You must have never heard of that, but you should know that everyone knows that your dad is a Xiucai, and you definitely can read a few characters, but just a few. In this small place, we don’t know if anyone will come up with some bad ideas about us. Listen to me, you will understand when you grow up.”

His explanation amounted to nothing!

Tangtang and Guoguo nodded blankly and said, “We’ll listen to Dad.” In their minds, everything Dad said was right.

Then Xu Ran asked them to count the Arabic numbers and read Pinyin they had learned before to him.

Even though they learned those some time ago and were busy practicing kungfu, playing and doing some other things every day, it was not difficult for them to keep these in mind. After all, children’s memory was always good.

Xu Ran was very satisfied after hearing them, and then he taught them how to read Pinyin, which would help them read much faster in the future.

As for the Arabic numbers, to do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, they just needed to know the numbers. In this era, there was only addition and subtraction, no multiplication or division, which was much more useful than the first two. Mastering these methods, they would not have to count by abacus or their fingers.

Xu Ran wrote down two copies of the rules for addition, each of them had one, and asked them to recite it.

Only mastering some knowledge, people could use it independently and develop other associations with their endless brains. Therefore, people with a lot of knowledge in their heads would become top students, and those who with trash are still good-for-nothing.

Of course Xu Ran wanted Tangtang and Guoguo to be top students; they were clever indeed, and the credit must be given to their good genes.