dognovel Chapter 187 Thinking of
Chapter 187 Thinking of
Meng Bochang was taken aback. Only after being reminded did he realize that there was now a wealthy family in their Hanhua Village—the Lu family. Du Zhong and Qi Liang would also have to change their names on the household registration to Lu Sen and Lu Zhi.
Having served as village chief for so many years, he naturally understood Guo Lizheng's intentions. Without asking any further questions, he led the man to the former Chief Du, now known as Master Lu.
Guo Lizheng's third son followed along. Guo Zifan, the youngest son, had finally managed to get in, so he wanted to wander around the village and see how well the families were doing.
Upon seeing the man, Guo Lizheng thought Meng Bochang had come to the wrong person.
Old Master Lu, dressed in thin clothes, was directing the villagers to dredge the well. He would scold anyone who disobeyed him, and he could make the workers cry out in pain just by raising his hand.
With his burly build and burly clothes, this Mr. Lu looked nothing like a merchant. You could believe he was a bandit.
After confirming it several times, he reluctantly accepted the fact. Remembering that what he was about to say could not be heard by outsiders, he went up to ask someone for help himself.
Meng Bochang watched the two figures disappear into the distance and then left with peace of mind.
The two discussed the matter for almost half an hour. After seeing the person out of his yard, Lu Sen spat out a loud "What a piece of trash!"
He looked thoughtful, paced back and forth in his courtyard for a while, then put on his outer robe and went to find Meng Fuqing.
Meanwhile, Guo Zifan was strolling around the village when he encountered someone staring intently at him.
He felt uncomfortable being stared at. "What are you looking at?! Let me tell you, I'm Guo Lizheng's son. Dare to lay a hand on me and see how my dad deals with you!"
The person staring at him was Meng Shitou. He had been staring at Guo Zifan because he thought the pendant on his waist was nice. Startled by the other person, he quickly looked away.
"Don't hit the stone, don't hit..."
Guo Zifan noticed something was wrong with him, his eyes darted around, and he stopped Meng Shitou, who was carrying water and about to leave.
"Are you a fool?"
Meng Shitou angrily shook off his hand, unaware that water from the bucket had splashed all over him. "Father and Mother said Shitou isn't stupid! He isn't!"
Upon hearing this, Guo Zifan immediately concluded that he was an idiot. He looked around and, finding no one paying attention to them, whispered to Meng Shitou, "Your name is Shitou? I saw that the people from your village brought back a lot of horses. Could you take me to see them?"
Meng Shitou immediately shook his head, remembering the village chief's instructions, "Outsiders cannot go."
"How can I be an outsider? I'm the son of the village headman..."
Meng Shitou shook his head again, "We don't have a village head in our Mengjia Village."
Guo Zifan: ...
He kept pestering Meng Shitou to let him leave, saying that if Meng Shitou took him to see it, he would bring him candy next time he came.
Meng Shitou was somewhat tempted, but then became frustrated because Hu Zi wouldn't let him eat food from outsiders.
He was annoyed because there was no candy to eat and he was stopped from leaving. Tiger had also told him that he shouldn't hit people in a new place, and he remembered that.
He said sullenly, "Come, come with me."
Guo Zifan was overjoyed, thinking that the fool had been persuaded by him, and quickly followed.
Seeing two people standing together talking in the distance, Meng Shitou ran over with the water in his hand.
"Qingqing, my dear niece, Chief, there's an outsider who wants to see our village's big horse!"
He ran too fast, and Guo Zifan didn't have time to stop him. When he saw the two of them looking at him, he instinctively wanted to slip away, but then he thought, why should he be afraid of these refugees, especially since he hadn't done anything?
Upon approaching and recognizing the woman's appearance, Guo Zifan was stunned and couldn't look away for a moment.
The woman before him was dressed in a moon-white dress with a cloak draped over her shoulders. Her long hair was simply tied up, and she had delicate features and fair skin. She didn't look like a refugee who had just fled from disaster. Could she be the young lady of a wealthy family?
Meng Shitou was still complaining, "I didn't want to take him to see it, but he insisted on pestering me and even said he would give me candy..."
Coming to his senses, Guo Zifan straightened his back, cupped his hands in a salute, and said, "I am Guo Zifan, the youngest son of the village head. When you passed through our Guo family village earlier, there were many carriages and horses, and I became curious, so I..."
Seeing that his gaze was fixed on Meng Fuqing, Lu Sen felt even more disgusted with Guo Lizheng's family. He stepped forward and blocked Meng Fuqing's way, saying in a gruff voice, "The village head has already left Hanhua Village. Why didn't Young Master Guo leave with him?"
Guo Zifan reluctantly withdrew his gaze, then took a step back when facing Lu Sen, stammering, "My father's gone? Then I'll..."
He paused for a moment, then mustered his courage to ask, "It may be somewhat offensive, but may I ask your name, young lady?"
"You know you're being offensive, yet you still ask?" If it weren't for the fact that his father was the village head, Master Lu would have slapped him long ago.
Guo Zifan hadn't expected that even after introducing himself, the man would remain so impolite. His face flushed red. "You...my father..."
"Young Master Guo would be better off leaving as soon as possible. There are wolves in Hanhua Village, and we can't control the beasts from hurting people."
Before Guo Zifan could figure out the meaning of the crisp, melodious sound, a white wolf with a gray rabbit in its mouth suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
The white wolf put the rabbit on the ground, its wolf eyes fixed on Guo Zifan, baring its teeth as it walked towards him step by step.
Guo Zifan was so frightened that he almost lost his mind, and ran towards the village entrance screaming in terror.
Meng Shitou was excited as he watched, clapping his hands and quietly telling the white wolf to go after it.
The white wolf made a move to chase after them, but Meng Fuqing called out "Little White." Only then did it scratch the ground with its paws, turn around, and place the rabbit it had caught at Meng Fuqing's feet.
Meng Fuqing stroked its ears and looked at Lu Sen. "Manager Qiao told me that another reason why Jing'an Prefecture is no longer taking in refugees is the lack of food reserves. If there is any news of relief food, he will send someone to inform us directly. I'll trouble you, Chief, to deal with that Village Chief Guo a bit lately."
Lu Sen was overjoyed, "This Steward Qiao is truly a man of integrity! No wonder he can serve as the steward for a noble family; he considers everything so thoroughly!"
After discussing that matter, the two then talked about building a house. Lu Sen said that he would go to the prefectural city the next day to find a carpenter to make furniture, and while he was there, he would buy some bricks and inquire which craftsmen were good at building houses. He suggested that the two families build together to save trouble.
Meng Fuqing was naturally very happy to agree, "We'll find people from the village to help out, and pay them wages. We won't let the profits go to outsiders."
Her gaze fell on Meng Shitou, who was squatting on the ground wanting to play with the white wolf. She casually took out a piece of malt candy and handed it to him as a reward for what he had done right.
Meng Shitou happily accepted the gift and bowed repeatedly to express his gratitude, but was dismissed by Lu Sen with a few words.
Meng Fuqing asked the head of the gang, "Is he living alone now?"
After the passing of the two elders of the Meng family, Meng Shitou was left all alone. She disliked the two old people, but she would not implicate innocent people.
"Originally, Meng Cheng'an wanted someone to stay at his house. Although your Uncle Shitou is not very bright, he is over thirty years old and it would be inconvenient for him to stay there. It just so happens that Doctor Zheng is all alone and also old. So the village chief asked Doctor Zheng to recognize him as his godson, so that the two of them could live together and take care of each other."
After Lu Sen finished speaking, he added, "Doctor Zheng lives right across from the village chief, did you know that? The village chief made this arrangement so that he could keep an eye on these two at all times."
Meng Fuqing nodded and didn't say anything more.
Nowadays, not many of the people left in the village are very resourceful. If they see someone in trouble, they will help if they can, because that's how they've always gotten by.