After that, he brought the water scoop to his mouth, and was about to drink it, when Miao Peilan next to him grabbed the water scoop with his hand: "Brother Zuo, you can't drink it!" ”

Sang Xiaomei was also so frightened that her face turned white, she rushed over, slipped up the stone steps, almost fell, shook twice and stopped, and said hurriedly: "What are you doing?" ”

Zuo Shaoyang said with a smile: "Don't worry, what I said is true, this well water is really not poisonous, so I drank it for you." ”

"How do you know?" Huang Qin asked on the side.

"It's very simple," Zuo Shaoyang pointed to his head, "You have to use your brain to think about problems." He squatted down and beckoned to them, pointed to the well, and said, "Come and see, what's in this water?" ”

Sang Xiaomei, Huang Qin, Miao Peilan and other girls and daughters-in-law all gathered around and looked in with wide eyes. I didn't see anything wrong.

Zuo Shaoyang smiled bitterly: "You guys are gathered here, blocking all the light, what are you looking at?" Please, let's see if it's okay one by one? ”

Huang Qin hurriedly turned around and said, "Exactly, everyone get out of the way, and we'll see later." As he spoke, he pulled a few girls and daughters-in-law and retreated, leaving only Sang Xiaomei and Miao Peilan.

The second daughter squatted beside Zuo Shaoyang, staring at the water surface of the well with wide eyes, and suddenly, Miao Peilan shouted: "Shrimp! It's shrimp! ”

Sang Xiaomei also saw it, and said happily: "It's really a shrimp!" Ouch, why didn't we think of that? If there are shrimp in the water, it means that there is no poison, otherwise, the shrimp in the water would have been poisoned to death! ”

Miao Peilan also nodded excitedly.

"Let me see!" Huang Qin and several girls and daughters-in-law all gathered around, Zuo Shaoyang, Sang Xiaomei and Miao Peilan hurriedly got out of the way, and several girls and daughters-in-law squatted down to take a closer look, and sure enough, they found a few small shrimp in the water by the well, swimming leisurely and slowly, with long beards floating in the water.

Zuo Shaoyang said: "There is no poison in the water, everyone can rest assured that the water is fetched!" ”

Miao Peilan hurriedly took the bucket and stepped aside, letting them come first and fight first. Huang Qin also took the lead, carrying a bucket and began to scoop water. Just scooped a few scoops, a little daughter-in-law hesitated on the side and said: "Although there are shrimp, but it may not be poisonous, everyone says that it is poisonous, I think, it is still ......, it is better not to draw water first, and it is good to talk about it when it is clear." ”

Huang Qin also stopped when she heard this, and looked at Zuo Shaoyang hesitantly.

Zuo Shaoyang said with a smile: "People and shrimp are both animals, shrimp are much smaller than people, poisoning shrimp, only a little poison is needed, poison that can poison people, how can it poison shrimp?" Therefore, as long as there is a little bit of poison in the well, there can be no live shrimp, don't you understand this truth? Let's hurry up and fetch water, to be honest, if there are really rebels sneaking into the city, they will poison the well, and if the well is not poisoned today, it does not mean that there will be no tomorrow. It's better to get more water now. Especially Xiaomei and sister-in-law Qin, your tea shop, without water, your tea shop will not be able to do business! ”

Sang Xiaomei said: "Zuo Gongzi is right, sister-in-law, hurry up and fetch water, fill the water tank today!" ”

Huang Qin muttered: "What's the use of filling it up, no one comes to drink tea!" ”

Zuo Shaoyang said strangely: "No one drinks tea? Why? Is it because the rebels are coming? ”

Sang Xiaomei lowered her head and said: "Yes and no, anyway, since I pretended to be crazy last time, there has been no business in the tea shop, except for the old man Zhu of Hengchang Pharmacy and a few old tea customers." There are almost no tea drinkers who come to drink tea. Now that the rumors are that the rebels are coming, no one is coming for tea. ”

Zuo Shaoyang said: "Didn't Dr. Ni come to explain this matter?" ”

"It's coming......" Sang Xiaomei said, suddenly remembered something, and said in surprise: "You asked him to come?" ”

Zuo Shaoyang smiled: "He owes me a favor, I told him the truth, and asked him to do a good job of explaining." What did he say? ”

"He came yesterday afternoon and apologized to my father and mother, saying that he said that I was crazy and didn't understand the situation without a careful examination last time, and that it had brought a bad influence to our tea shop, and apologized. It also compensated us for the loss of a thousand cents. Mom and Dad were very happy. ”

Huang Qin added: "Dr. Ni also posted a notice at the door of the tea shop, which was written by him, and wrote the content of the apology. also said that he had had a lot of copies copied and posted them all over the city to clear his sister's grievances. ”

"Hehe, isn't that good. Dr. Ni is also a well-known doctor in Hezhou, and he is doing free publicity for your tea shop, maybe your business will be better because of this. ”

"I hope so, I just don't know when, now the rebels are coming, who knows what will happen."

"What are you afraid of, so many imperial armies have already entered the city, and I am afraid that he will not succeed in rebels!"

Sang Xiaomei also said: "Exactly, hurry up and carry the water back, no matter what, fill the water tank first." ”

While they were fetching water, Zuo Shaoyang asked, "By the way, there was a fire last night, do you know what's going on?" ”

Sang Xiaomei said: "I heard that several rice shops of the Qu family were burned!" ”

"Huh? Why? ”

"Shopkeeper Qu swallowed so many people's money, and several of them were forced to commit suicide, so they couldn't be angry, so they set fire to it. In fact, I can't burn anything, I heard that the rice in the Qujia rice shop has long been gone, and there is no rice in it at all. ”

"Youmi Yamen and the officers and soldiers have long been strictly controlled, so they can still succeed."

A daughter-in-law whispered, "I heard that it was not the creditors who set the fire, but the rebels." Because not only the Qujia rice shop was burned, but the two silk shops in the backstreet of the Qujia rice store were also burned last night. And it was at the same time that it caught fire. ”

"Really?" The eyes of the crowd widened, and there was a bit of fear in their expressions.

Zuo Shaoyang said: "Okay, now that the rebels are pressing the border, and the two armies are facing each other, the most taboo thing is to listen to these rumors and rumors, disturbing the people's hearts, everyone had better not believe it, let alone spread it, otherwise the people of the yamen or the army will hear it, and they will be arrested as a rumor." ”

These women never thought that the problem was so serious, and they all quickly shut up.

When Sang Xiaomei and the others picked up the water and left, Miao Peilan fetched the water and went back.

Back at the pharmacy, Miao's mother and eldest son had already cleaned the pharmacy, wiped the doors and windows of the medicine cabinet, and even swept a section of the street at the door. Liang was very embarrassed to see that Miao's mother was lame and busy, and wanted to rush to do it, but Miao's mother didn't follow.

At this time, Miao Peilan had already finished picking up the water. Originally, the water tank was full, so there was no need to pick too much.

Miao Peilan put the bucket away and asked Zuo Shaoyang: "What should I do next?" ”

"Aren't you resting?"

Miao Peilan smiled and shook her head gently.

"You can help me concoct medicinal materials." Zuo Shaoyang taught them how to sort, wash, and slice the medicinal materials, these are very simple preparation procedures, and Zuo Shaoyang said that they would do it.

The Miao family concocted medicinal materials in the processing room.

Zuo Gui had already gotten up, sitting in front of the long table with the tea brewed by the Liang family.

At this moment, Fennel and Houpu came with two children, Soybean and Beancurd, and when they entered the door, Fennel asked urgently: "Dad!" Mother! Are you alright? ”

Zuo Gui snorted: "What can it be?" What's wrong? ”

"No ......, nothing wrong." Fennel wanted to speak and stopped, first went to the concoction room to greet the Miao family, and then went over to ask about the old lady Qu's condition.

The two little guys of soybean and bean curd are still too young, so they don't know what it means to be sad and afraid, and they saw the four children of the Miao family at the door, the eldest son is almost ten years old, a little older, especially the second son, the second grass and the third grass, the age is similar to them, and now there is a new partner, and soon they will be familiar Hou Pu is worried, found a round stool and sat down next to Zuo Gui's long case, beckoned Zuo Shaoyang over, and said in a low voice: "Tell you one thing, don't pass it outside!" ”

Zuo Gui has always paid great attention to the words of the son-in-law of this yamen scribe, and when he heard him say that the situation was a little bad, he immediately panicked, nodded, and said in a low voice: "Of course not, what's the matter?" ”

"It's not going to be good!"

"Huh? What's wrong? ”

"The granary of the yamen was burned down last night!"

Zuo Gui and Zuo Shaoyang were taken aback, and Zuo Shaoyang said: "Didn't you say that it was the Qujia rice shop or the silk shop next to it?" ”

"It's not! That was deliberately said by the yamen for fear that everyone would know about it and disturb the people's hearts. In fact, it was a fire in the granary of the Yamen, and the entire granary was burned down! ”

Zuo Shaoyang frowned and said: "When the officers and soldiers went to Hezhou, they had already encountered a sneak attack by the rebels on the road and burned all the grain and grass, why didn't they learn a lesson and not strictly guard the yamen granary?" ”

"It's been strictly guarded!" Hou Pu said in a low voice, "However, it was not burned by outsiders, but by the officers and soldiers guarding it!" ”

"Why is that?"

"I don't know, the one who set fire to the granary was an officer and soldier in charge of guarding, there were three or four people, and they set fire to it in several places, and they ran away when they were done. Now the officers and soldiers and the Yamen are setting up checkpoints all over the city to patrol and search, suspecting that these people are undercover agents of the rebels! Or they were bought by the rebels and waited to go into the city and set fire to the forage! ”

Zuo Shaoyang immediately thought of the fact that on the way to fetch water, the officers and soldiers on patrol compared the images and checked it, it seems that the news of his brother-in-law should be true.

Zuo Gui said in a low voice: "Then what now?" ”

Hou Pu spread his hands: "It's over, tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, on the way to Hezhou, the grain and grass were burned by the rebels, I was counting on coming to the county seat, relying on the grain of the yamen in the city, and then requisitioning some grain and grass for the people, the city held on, and should be able to hold on to the follow-up grain and grass, so the army did not go directly to the mountain to quell the rebellion, but came directly to our Hezhou city, I didn't expect that the yamen granary was also burned!" It really made matters worse. ”

"Is the loss big?"

"It's okay, fortunately, the officers and soldiers have already transported some of the grain, and the rest was burned before it could be transported."

"Then what are the plans of the officers and soldiers now?"

"I don't know about this, but I heard that this morning I sent a rescue detective horse to ask for help from nearby states and counties. However, now that there is a grain shortage in the whole country, it will be difficult to gather enough grain and grass for tens of thousands of officers and soldiers within a few days. ――By the way, how much rice and noodles do you have at home? How many days is enough to eat? ”

(To be continued)