They are all flat-headed Baixin, and it takes a lot of silver to send a letter on weekdays, and the front is in Xiahe Village because it is too remote, so they can't even send the news in, let alone send the letter out, but when they come to Snake Mountain Village, they can't say that they can send the money for the livelihood of so many people, but looking at Zhao Ziyue's appearance, he always thinks it's better to send a message back first.

Zhao Ziyue couldn't wait to be in Kyoto immediately, but he couldn't go far because he was not in good health, so it was good to think that it would be good to write back a little first.

He took the coarse paper that Li Yan prescribed the prescription and wrote a few sentences of his own situation before sealing it, and sent it directly to Su Ruolan in the Li Mansion, his father was in the palace, and the letter naturally could not be sent in, and the Mu family could not be sent in the Mu Mansion in Suzhou, so after thinking about it, it was finally sent to the Li Mansion.

The letter was sent out early, but there was no news until April of the following year, and Zhao Ziyue was still looking forward to when his father would find this place every day, but he didn't know that the letter was not delivered to Kyoto at all, and the person who received the money and sent the letter asked those robbers to kill the robbers on the way, and even those letters were burned clean.

Zhao Ziyue knew that there must be something wrong with the letter, otherwise according to Su Ruolan's temperament, seeing that the letter would definitely be looking for his father, he would definitely not ask him to wait for the past few months in vain.

By the time he arrived in April, he was almost in good health, and the matter of going to Kyoto was put on the itinerary again, and everyone had no objections, after all, their home in Xiahe Village had returned, and it was the same everywhere. It's just that they have lived in Snake Mountain Village for a long time, raised rabbits and chickens, and some of the herbs they have hoarded have to be dealt with.

Yu Dalang thought that he had to use money to eat and drink along the way, and he went to the remote mountains every day to collect more medicine to sell it for a few days, and now he is very familiar with the surrounding mountains, and he also knows a lot about those common medicinal materials.

Zhao Ziyue always remembered that morning, Yu Dalang bit a dry pancake in his mouth, and said to him while going out: "Let's set off later, I'm going to the mountains, and strive to come back early, so that Brother Yan can be concocted and sold the day after tomorrow." ”

Zhao Ziyue saw him go out, and told him: "Uncle Yu, be careful, don't come back late." ”

Yu Dalang also smiled: "I know." ”

It was a sparse and ordinary day, but no one expected that Yu Dalang hadn't come back until it was completely dark, and the dinner made by Chun Tao was hot again and he hadn't seen anyone yet, so he began to be anxious, and pulled Li Yan and asked, "Will something happen to my father?" On weekdays, I don't come back so late. ”

Li Yan and Zhao Ziyue looked at each other, their hearts were like mirrors, Yu Dalang was honest, thoughtful and delicate, and he was most afraid that his family would worry, he had never tried to come back so late when he went up the mountain with Li Yan on weekdays, and he hadn't returned yet, maybe something had happened.

"I'll look for it." Li Yan stood up, took the coarse firewood, wrapped it in a rotten cloth, and poured some soybean oil on it as a torch.

Chun Tao was anxious and hurriedly said, "I'll go with you." ”

But asked Li Yan to persuade: "It's dark in the mountains, don't go to a girl's house of yours, and what if you leave a few of them at home, what if something happens?" ”

Chun Tao tilted her head and saw Xia He and Hu Ziju looking at herself, tears in her eyes, she was worried about Yu Dalang's safety, and she was afraid that her younger siblings would have something to do at home in the middle of the night, and she hated herself more and more for a while.

It was still Zhao Ziyue who said: "Brother Yan, why don't you pay a few dollars to ask the men in the village to help find it, after all, I don't know which mountain Uncle Yu went to." ”

This snake mountain village is surrounded by mountains, and no one knows which mountain Yu Dalang went to, but those villagers who are collecting medicine everywhere are also distributed in various mountains during the day, if you see it, you can know where the bottom has gone, and another one is afraid that there will be some birds and beasts in the night, if there are many people, there is no need to be afraid.

As soon as Zhao Ziyue said this, Li Yan did not hesitate, it would definitely cost a few taels of silver to go, but compared to Yu Dalang's safety, those pieces of silver were nothing.

Li Yan turned around and left, Chun Tao took out two cold pancakes from the stove and chased them into his hands: "You haven't eaten yet, let's use this to cushion your stomach first." ”

Her eyes were red, and she looked like she wanted to cry but didn't dare to cry, and she bit her lip and said, "You must bring my father back well." ”

"Don't worry." Li Yan couldn't get used to Chun Tao's pitiful appearance, so he couldn't help but reach out and touch her cheek, and assured with a solemn face: "Don't worry, with me, I won't let Uncle Yu have anything to do." ”

Although he wanted to call Yu Dalang a father-in-law, he still held back in the end.

Li Yan turned around and left, and after a while, the prime of life in the village lit torches one after another and went out of the door, fortunately, someone had seen Yu Dalang during the day, but there was no need to look for people mountain by mountain.

After Chun Tao stood at the door and heard those noisy voices calm down, her heart became more and more unpleasant, but Zhao Ziyue and Xia He heated up the meal and beckoned the sisters and brothers to eat.

"Well, where can I eat?" Chun Tao raised her chopsticks and put them down again, at this time she was only worried about where Yu Dalang still had the appetite to eat.

Zhao Ziyue knew that she was not sure, but if Yu Dalang really had an accident, where would she be worried that she could solve it, he picked up the chopsticks and stuffed them into Chun Tao's hand: "Sister, let's eat something, they will have to be busy when they come back." He added: "Uncle Yu will definitely be fine." ”

There are only a few of them left in the family to eat, the atmosphere is weird, Huzi looked at his sister and brother and wanted to ask his father what was wrong, but he asked Xia He to teach him not to say anything, only to lower his head and pick up the rice.

Chun Tao stiffly picked up half a bowl but couldn't eat it anymore, Zhao Ziyue was not reluctant, and took the initiative to clean up the dishes and chopsticks with Xia He, boil water to wash Huzi so that he could sleep first.

Huzi is young, although he has always remembered that his father has not come back, but when the time comes, his eyelids still can't be opened. Xia He poured the water for washing his feet, and when he entered the door, he saw that Huzi had fallen asleep by Zhao Ziyue, and his eyes were red and he hurriedly put him on the bed and covered the quilt.

Although she was not very old when her aunt died, she still had the impression that she was not happy about the children who had been called motherless for so many years.

Zhao Ziyue didn't notice that Xia He was wrong, and when she saw her coming to take care of Huzi, she got up and went to the stove to add a few handfuls of firewood to boil a pot of boiling water for preparation.

The moon is high, the night in April is still a little cold, Chun Tao added a thick coat and stood at the door waiting, Zhao Ziyue sat under the dripping eaves with a cotton cloak and didn't know what to think again, Xia He, who had slept with Huzi, wrapped his clothes and came out to sit next to Zhao Ziyue.

Asked him: "I haven't come back yet, will my father be okay?" ”

Zhao Ziyue glanced at her sideways, and then lowered his head and touched the stitches on the cotton cloak but did not speak, this time he has not come back, something must have happened, just to see if it is serious, he sighed secretly in his heart, I am afraid that the matter of returning to Beijing will have to be stranded for a while, and I don't know if his father is okay now.

Xia He sat there for a short time when he felt that a pair of feet were numb from the cold, so he stood up and walked two steps to make himself hot and a little bit, and saw Chun Tao shouting: "It's back, it's back......"

I could only see the light of the torches from a distance, and I couldn't even see the figures, but Chun Tao knew that it must have been Li Yan who had brought Yu Dalang back.

"I'll go out and have a look." Zhao Ziyue hurriedly got up, wrapped the cotton cloak tightly on his body and trotted all the way into the night.

It didn't take long for him to run back into the night, there was still fine and dense sweat on his forehead, and before Chun Tao could ask, he hurriedly said, "Sister Chun Tao, quickly clean up the house, Uncle Yu is injured." ”

The house they rented was not big, but only three rooms, in the past, Yu Dalang slept with Li Yan and Zhao Ziyue, because Zhao Ziyue was not in good health, the bed in the house had always been his sleep, and Li Yan and Yu Dalang used wooden planks to build a simple bed.

At this time, Yu Dalang was injured, and Zhao Ziyue naturally wanted to let out the bed in the house so that Yu Dalang could sleep more comfortably.

But Chuntao was startled when she heard this, grabbed Zhao Ziyue and asked, "Injured?" Where was the injury? Serious or not? ”

"Sister Chuntao, don't ask, Uncle Yu will be back soon, you better pack up quickly." Zhao Ziyue didn't know where Yu Dalang's injury was, whether it was serious or not, when he ran over, he only saw a few young people in the village carrying Yu Dalang, he was covered in blood, his clothes were also tattered, and he was unconscious with a herb in his hand.

Chun Tao's heart was drumming, and her hands were a little trembling, but she still forcibly turned around and went into the house to clean up the bed, and when Yu Dalang was carried back, she stood at the door and watched, almost fainting.

Zhao Ziyue stood beside her, coughed violently because of eating a few mouthfuls of cold wind, pulled Chun Tao's sleeve and hurriedly said: "Sister, Uncle Yu is injured and must clean the wound, you ask Brother Yan what needs to be done." ”

Chun Tao bit her lips so that she wouldn't faint, and pulled Li Yan to ask, "Why did my father become like this?" ”

Li Yan's brows were frowning tightly, his body was stained with mud everywhere, and when he heard this, he said: "We'll talk about this later, you go and boil some boiling water first, Uncle Yu is only afraid of hurting his muscles and bones." ”