Jiang Zhen didn’t go to the county town for days.

The Qingfeng House in the county town had been developing on the right track for a long time, so there was no need for him to watch over it. The Qingfeng House in Fucheng City would not be opened for the time being . . . In that case, he stayed in Hexi and looked after his escort agency.

His escort agency would recruit people again, so he came to check on it. Before, Jiang Zhen did not have scholars under his hands, but currently, he could recruit any scholar, but he still mainly recruited escort guards.

He recruited an escort guard and looked after local people that have family nearby. These days were not like in modern times and there were no identity cards, so naturally, he could not rest assured to hire outsiders.

Jiang Zhen was very busy, but as long as he could, he would take Zhao Mingzhu with him wherever he goes. It was his first child, and he was already so old, so he simply liked this child very much. Because of this, when Zhao Mingzhu, who had always been very energetic, suddenly became ill, Jiang Zhen became anxious.

Zhao Mingzhu was a very good child and an easy child to take care of. In the past, even if she was crying, as long as someone hugged and coaxed her, she would be fine. But this time Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge took turns to hug her but she still looked very uncomfortable.

Not only that, Jiang Zhen also found that she seemed to be a little feverish. The child had a fever!

In modern times, it would be possible to get a thermometer to take the child’s temperature and go to the hospital for a checkup, but there was nothing here. Not even Baidu (Chinese Google.) which was full of all kinds of unreliable information.

Jiang Zhen immediately became anxious. “What are we going to do? Mingzhu seems very uncomfortable!”

Zhao Jinge was also a complete novice. As soon as Jiang Zhen became anxious, he also felt worse, and both of them became very worried. Naturally, Zhao Liu was also nervous.

Even Zhao Fugui, who has gained some of the old man’s authority these days and just returned from “inspecting” the fields in his new clothes, rubbed his hands together and became uneasy. “This . . . is . . . our two children, Jinhu and Jinge did not have something like this when they were children!”

“Either they did not or you just did not know.” Zhao Liu took a look at Zhao Fugui. The two children she gave birth to also had uncomfortable experiences when they were young, but they did not have much money at that time so even if children were ill they could only endure and after a few days they would be better.

But she doesn’t remember what happened.

Moreover, some children in this Hexi Village would survive even after becoming ill, while some others couldn’t make it. The more Zhao Liu thought about it, the more worried she became.

“Let’s go to the country town,” Jiang Zhen said without hesitation. In any case, it was better to show it to the doctor first.

Jiang Zhen held his daughter in his arms and hurriedly went to the country town. After arriving in the country town, he hurried to the doctor.

“Is this child ill? What kind of symptoms does she have? Did she throw up or took a spit? How many days has it been like this?” the doctor glanced at the child in Jiang Zhen’s arms and asked.

Traditional Chinese medicine was concentrated on looking, smelling, and asking questions. For such a small child, her pulse could not be taken, so they could only rely on the parents’ description of the illness’s symptoms.

“It started today. She’s fussing a lot and her body is a little hot,” Jiang Zhen said all the symptoms of Zhao Mingzhu’s illness.

“It’s only been one day. Maybe she was too cold, so she is a little fussy . . . I will take a look first,” the doctor said. He was not a doctor who specializes in pediatrics. If such a young child did not have visible problems, he would not dare to prescribe medicine to her at will.

“Doctor, but she has a fever.” Jiang Zhen was most worried about it at the moment.

The doctor touched Zhao Mingzhu’s forehead with his hand and said, “Nothing is wrong. It’s not too hot. It’s okay if she can eat.”

“She can eat, but she’s eating less,” Jiang Zhen said.

“Your child is sick. Let me take a look.” At that moment, a rather old woman suddenly came to the room.

Jiang Zhen nodded without hesitation and asked that person to help him take a look.

The woman looked for a while and then asked Jiang Zhen to open Zhao Mingzhu’s mouth.

Jiang Zhen nodded and opened Zhao Mingzhu’s mouth for the old women to see, then he heard the old women say, “It’s nothing but teething. Just make something hard and let her grind her teeth.”

Teething? Jiang Zhen looked carefully and found that Zhao Mingzhu’s gums were a little red. When he found this, he immediately felt relieved.

Zhao Jinge and others also breathed a sigh of relief. Since the child was only teething, there was no need to worry too much. Jiang Zhen took the Zhao family to the grain store to buy some good flour and sugar for Zhao Mingzhu to eat and then went back.

Throughout all that, he also met the Zheng family.

In Hecheng County, it could be said that there was the Zheng family everywhere. Jiang Zhen hurried to the city and went directly to the doctor. It was only natural that someone would report it to Zheng Yi; therefore, Zheng Yi sent people to ask around.

Zheng Yi couldn’t help laughing when he learned that it was just the child’s teething. He immediately put it aside and then asked his people: “You said that you lost the trail of Zhou Maohe?”

The official Zhou was coming to the south of the Yangtze River; it was a message from the capital sent by Second Master Zheng. In addition to this news, Second Master Zheng also asked Zheng Yi to keep an eye on Official Zhou.

Official Zhou was not clear about the affairs outside the imperial court. Second Master Zheng was by no means the only official he disliked, so Zheng Yi was not too worried at first, but later, he found that Official Zhou was very jealous and cynical, so he temporarily gave up on the construction of Qingfeng House in Fucheng.

He did not want the fact that he built Qingfeng House in Fucheng to be used by Official Zhou on the pretext of attacking his second uncle or feel that they were embezzling or accepting bribes.

Because of heaven and earth’s conscience, although their Zheng family has gained many benefits from his second uncle, his uncle has been honest and clean as an official; after all, his own family has money, and being too greedy . . . would not make a good political achievement.

Zheng Yi was afraid that Official Zhou would look for trouble during this imperial inspection and had been paying close attention to him. But it turned out, someone told him that Official Zhou suddenly disappeared.

This. . . did he go for a private visit? Zheng Yi thought about it for a while but did not come up with any reason, so he only let his people pay more attention to the news of the imperial minister.

He thought that he had done nothing wrong, so naturally, he was not afraid of being investigated.

After Jiang Zhen took Zhao Mingzhu back to Hexi Village, he found something for Zhao Mingzhu to bite. It was just that it was cold this time and Zhao Mingzhu wore a lot of clothes, so he was not happy to put things into her mouth, afraid that she would hurt herself. Thinking about it, Jiang Zhen simply washed his hands clean and then gave it to Zhao Mingzhu to bite.

With Jiang Zhen’s finger to bite, Zhao Mingzhu really did not make a fuss. She had not grown teeth yet, so she also had very little strength. Jiang Zhen’s hands were also full of calluses, so even if she bit him it did not hurt him much. At most, it just made his finger a little itchy.

When Jiang Xiaomei came looking for Jiang Zhen, she saw that her big brother, who had changed a lot, was giving her finger to Zhao Mingzhu to bite and play with.

Looking at Zhao Mingzhu, she suddenly remembered her own childhood . . . Her big brother at that time also would take care of her and be good to her. He just never talked, so as she grew older, she was not happy to follow the always silent him.

“What can I do for you?” Jiang Zhen asked.

Jiang Xiaomei bowed her head, a little embarrassed, but quickly raised her head and said, “I want to marry Zhang Bai.”

“Zhang Bai?” Jiang Zhen was stunned, and after thinking for a moment, he remembered that it was the son of the father-and-son duo who fired green bricks that he had brought back.

He bought the father and son, but in order to encourage them to burn more bricks, he gave them a reward. The father and son saved their reward and came to him not long ago, saying that they wanted to redeem themselves, but they were willing to continue to work for him, so he agreed. However, he did not expect that Jiang Xiaomei would take a fancy to Zhang Bai.

He remembered that Jiang Xiaomei seemed to be interested in Jiang Ming before? However, he had too many things to do, so he didn’t take care of the development of this matter.

“Yes, that’s him.” Jiang Xiaomei bowed her head.

She used to like Jiang Ming, but she only liked him because Jiang Ming had a good background. She had no contact with Jiang Ming, so she couldn’t say she was sure about marrying him. However, she went to work in the brick kiln every day these days, and she made eye contact with Zhang Bai.

This Zhang Bai has the craft of burning bricks, so he will not be short on money in the future. His job was also better than Jiang Ming’s who had to go out for months at a time. But if she married Zhang Bai, they could always be together.

“You can marry him if you want, but not until my mother’s birthday party is over,” Jiang Zhen said.

He had a good impression of this young man who worked hard burning bricks all day. If nothing else, he was quite honest and willing to work. He built only one brick kiln in Hexi; but later, it was not enough, so he went to the neighboring village to build another brick kiln and let Zhang Bai’s father take care of it.

The two brick kilns are of the same size, and so, Zhang Bai burned more bricks than ever. It was said that he spent almost all his time on the brick kiln except for eating and sleeping.

Jiang Zhen has no problem with this man and Jiang Xiaomei could marry him if she wanted. He doesn’t care. At this time, he still intended to finish the birthday banquet of Zhao Liu first.

When Jiang Zhen and Zhao Jinge got married, it was impossible to make the wedding reception lively at all. After all, they had too few relatives and friends, but this time was different.

This time, Jiang Zhen had countless people, so he could find a large group of people to celebrate Zhao Liu’s birthday!

 

Edited by: Faro

Proofreader: XLB

 

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