Chapter 121： Looking for Magistrate Wu

The mule cart quickly entered the county town, turned around and entered an alley, and stopped at the door of a house.

The door of the house was wide open. Yanru's aunt Xiao stood at the gate and was looking forward to it. When she saw the mule cart arriving, she ran over immediately. "Oh, Yan Ru is back."

Jiang Erlang carried his little niece out of the car, helped his wife down, and then went out to get the gifts.

Two pieces of cloth, four boxes of snacks, two jars of wine, eight kinds of gifts, quite satisfactory, nothing more, nothing less.

“Auntie.” Yanru gave her a gift and introduced Yingbao to her aunt. “This is Yingbao, the third uncle’s daughter. She is coming to the county town with us today, and she will go to the Yamen later to meet with the high officials.”

Yingbao saluted the lady at the inn, "Hello, aunt."

"Okay." Mrs. Xiao saw Ying Bao's face turned into a smile, and quickly took her hand and said, "Come in and talk."

"If we can't see our aunt, we have to go back." Since we are going back, we must go back to our parents' house.

Although Yanru’s biological mother has passed away, her old father, stepmother and others are still at home.

Mrs. Xiao didn't try to stop her, she just whispered: "If you don't want to leave food over there, take your husband and come to your aunt's place."

"Yeah." Yan Ru responded in a low voice, picked up eight gifts from the mule cart, and went to her parents' home with Jiang Erlang.

The Lu family is not far from Aunt Xiao's house, with only four or five houses in between.

Yingbao followed Lu Yanru and Jiang Erlang into the Lu family's courtyard and saw several people standing under the eaves of the main house.

Standing in the middle is a bearded man in his forties with a weathered face. He is wearing a Hu silk floral robe and a bright silk flower on his head. He is probably Yan Ru's father.

Beside him stood a middle-aged woman, wearing a green summer cloth dress. She didn't say a word when they came in, and her expression was cold.

Next to the woman stood a girl of fifteen or sixteen years old. The girl's face was fair, her eyebrows were similar to Yan Ru's, but her lips were thin and she had a somewhat mean look.

There was also a boy of thirteen or fourteen who acted like a fool. When he saw Jiang Erlang coming in with several gifts, he shouted loudly, "New brother-in-law, what gifts did you bring? Do you have any from me?"

Jiang Erlang didn't say anything, but the bearded man glared at the young man and scolded: "No one will think you are mute if you don't speak!"

The young man snorted and said nonchalantly: "I just want to ask, Dad, why are you staring at me?"

The man stopped paying attention to him, looked at Jiang Erlang, and then looked at Ying Bao with a frown.

Jiang Erlang saluted Yanru's parents, and Yingbao followed his second uncle to salute.

I heard my stepmother say angrily: "Hey, I can't give birth to a child myself, so I brought someone else's child to my house. Don't blame me, the stepmother, for talking about you. Yanru, your life is to raise other people's children."

Yan Ru was so angry that her face turned red. She was about to argue with her stepmother when she was pulled back by Jiang Erlang.

Jiang Erlang said calmly: "Auntie, you misunderstood. This is my niece. We just brought her here because we had something to do. If you disturb us, we will leave immediately."

Stepmother snorted and turned back to the house, followed by the girl beside her.

Ying Bao only felt that this family had some serious illness.

No wonder Sister Yanru is so eager to get married. With such a family, staying for one more day is a waste of life.

Yanru's biological father was also quite alienated from his daughter and son-in-law. He let his son-in-law sit alone in the main room and walked away by himself.

 Yingbao and Erbo looked at each other with small eyes and big eyes.

Yan Ru went back to the house to pack her things and prepare to take them away.

After a while, Yan Ru came out carrying a big package and said to her husband, "Let's go."

“Okay.” Jiang Erlang stood up, took the package from his wife, and asked, “What’s in here?”

“I took the old clothes from childhood to paste the soles of my shoes.” Yan Ru said lightly: “There are also some old things from my mother.”

The three of them walked out of the Lu family's house and went straight to Aunt Xiao's house.

Jiang Erlang put the package on the mule cart, and then he and his wife walked into the yard of his aunt's house.

“You’re back.” Aunt Xiao leaned out of the kitchen with a smile, “Erlang, please sit down first, lunch will be ready soon.”

“Okay.” Jiang Erlang and his niece sat under the persimmon tree in the yard.

In the kitchen, Xiao is cooking and Yan Ru is helping to light the fire.

“Is the Jiang family nice to you?” Ms. Xiao asked. Yanru nodded: "The Jiang family are all very good."

Ms. Xiao: "Do Jiang Erlang's children treat you respectfully?"

“Er Nihuzi is very good, aunt, don’t worry, they all treat me like their own mother, there is nothing disrespectful about me.”

"That's good." Mrs. Xiao felt relieved and sighed softly: "You have finally come to the end of your hardships, and my sister is at peace in heaven."

Yanru was silent.

Mr. Xiao put a fish into the pot, and it made a sizzling sound.

"Your stepmother wishes you had a bad life. She met me on the road today and she was so angry with me. Humph, what the hell!"

"Let my aunt worry about it. You don't need to pay attention to her next time. Anyway, I don't plan to go back after I come back today. I will come to you in the future. Aunt, you are my natal family."

Ms. Xiao burst into tears when she heard this.

Wiping his eyes, he choked and said, "Good boy, from now on my aunt's place will be your natal home."

My niece lost her mother when she was young. If she hadn't been there to take care of her, her stepmother would have tortured her to death. Fortunately, she finally married into a good family.

Ms. Xiao cooked a few vegetables, went to a braised vegetable shop to buy some braised vegetables, and came back, barely managing to prepare a table of noodles.

At this time, Uncle Gao also came back and had a few drinks with his niece-in-law.

After dinner, Yan Ru stayed to talk to her aunt, while Jiang Erlang took Ying Bao to the county government office.

The gate of the county government office is overgrown with weeds, making it even more desolate than in winter.

Ying Bao jumped out of the mule cart and ran to the gatekeeper: "Uncle, I'm here to see Uncle Wu."

The two yamen servants still recognized the little baby and asked with a smile: "Why do you want to see the high official?"

Ying Bao took out a few yellow apricots from his pocket and gave them to the yamen servant, "Give Uncle Wu apricots to eat."

The yamen servant teased her and went to the inner hall to deliver the message while biting apricots.

After a while, Wu Rui ran out and said, "Yo! What a cherry blossom. Come on, come on, come in with me. The official is at leisure right now."

"I also brought delicious food to Uncle Wu. Uncle Wu, please help move it." Yingbao came to the mule cart, pointed to the bamboo basket and said, "This is the basket."

Jiang Erlang quickly got out of the car to greet Wu Rui.

Wu Rui smiled and waved his hand and said, "You two come in with me."

So, Jiang Erlang carried the bamboo basket and followed Wu Rui and Ying Bao into the county government courtyard.

There is a huge kudzu trellis in the middle of the inner courtyard. The kudzu vines grow lush and green, and there are countless wisteria flowers hanging there.

Wu Daozi was sitting on the bamboo couch under the pergola, shaking his cattail leaf fan and reading a book.

“Uncle Wu!” Yingbao jumped up and ran over, “Uncle Wu, do you still recognize me?”

Wu Daozi glanced at her and smiled: "It's hard to recognize her. Why do you think of me today?"

Yingbao smiled, sat down on the small bamboo table next to the bamboo couch, and whispered: "I prepared a good medicine, specially given to Uncle Wu."

“Oh? What good medicine?” Wu Daozi asked, shaking his cattail leaf fan.

Jiang Erlang stood in the bright sun carrying the bamboo basket cautiously, neither putting it nor not.

Wu Rui stepped forward to help him carry the bamboo basket under the pergola.

Yingbao took out one thing from the bamboo basket and murmured: "My apricots are ripe. I specially picked some for you to try last night. And this bag of golden ears is grown by me myself." , cook it for Uncle Wu. Hey, where is my medicine?"

He took out a clay pot from the bottom of the basket, took it out and handed it to Wu Daozi: "These are the pills I prepared for you. Uncle Wu, you must take one pill a day."

Wu Daozi sat up, opened the lid of the jar, and instantly smelled an indescribable fragrance.

He pinched one out, looked at it, and asked, "What disease can this pill cure?"