Chapter 51: The Herbalist's Domestic Affairs, the Closed Door

The entire next day, the human Warriors in the troop registered with Xueya Site in batches to go out. Following Jier's requirements, they carried only a Soldier Sword each, then happily took their coin purses and wandered off to various parts of the town.

No one cared what they wanted to do with their money, but it was best not to stir up trouble they couldn't handle themselves, lest Jier have to bail them out or clean up the mess.

As for Jier himself, after having Xueya Site and the Dwarves guard the camp in the inn's backyard, he took the Herbalist Zuojigela out.

Following what they had discussed and planned yesterday, they first headed to the several Merchant Guilds that had participated in the banquet and planning session. After reporting his name and the location of his camp, he had these guilds, which supported the counterattack plan, send the various agreed-upon supplies to Caimen Inn.

Jier had also spoken with Xueya Site in advance about receiving the supplies, so as long as things were delivered, there would be someone there to accept them.

Immediately after, under the guidance of Zuojigela, the two rode horses to find the latter's ex-wife.

The Herbalist Zuojigela lacked some confidence, but the bulging coin purse at his waist gave him a measure of it; he firmly believed that with his skills and abilities, he could surely provide a good life for the person he loved.

This was firmly reinforced by the three types of potions and ointments he had been pondering recently.

As long as the potions were concocted, relying on the efficacy that Knight Jier had tried and praised, he would certainly gain more support from the Knight, as well as sell them for wealth that would allow everyone to profit.

After Zuojigela went missing, the person his wife remarried was a Merchant. The man was a shrewd fellow; his original wife had died of illness, but someone had to take care of the children in his home, right? Rather than spending money to hire a nanny, it was more cost-effective to marry a widow who was diligent but had lost her husband!

Therefore, this middle-aged Merchant looked around Yemei Town, picking and choosing, and set his sights on Zuojigela's former wife. Although this lady had been driven out of her home by Zuojigela's relatives and was still carrying a child, fortunately, she was a native of Yemei Town and could still stay at her own home at the time, so she was not left with nowhere to go.

But a widow with a child, even if staying in her own home, had to endure the cold glares of her own family; she had to be careful in every aspect of life.

And when this middle-aged Merchant came to propose, the two hit it off and formed a new family in a rather makeshift manner.

The Merchant could rest assured handing the children at home to this lady to take care of (with the money kept with his own children), and this lady finally no longer had to endure the cold glares of her family, feeling like she was eating and living for free.

But in the new family, this lady did not live happily either.

Because to this Merchant's family, it was less like finding a new wife and more like finding a nanny or maid who didn't cost money. She needed to carefully prepare the food for the whole family every day, wash and dry the clothes changed by everyone as quickly as possible, and the entire two-story brick house of the wealthy family, which included a backyard, had to be kept spotlessly clean.

Such days were arduous and saw no end.

Especially the child she brought with her when she remarried, who suffered even more cold glares and sarcasm in the new family. The little boy couldn't even sit at the table during meals and could only eat by the kitchen stove; it was impossible to have a tailor come to make new clothes for him, so he could only wear the old, tattered clothes that others in the house didn't want, after his mother altered them. Furthermore, he had to help his mother clean the house, otherwise, his mother truly couldn't finish so much work.

Even though he was a young lad of eleven or twelve, he was short and thin, looking like a child of seven or eight.

But this lady had no other way; divorce was impossible. After all, her family was from Yemei Town, and her new husband was also from Yemei Town; unless the other party died accidentally while doing business abroad, divorce was impossible.

Although such a bitter life was arduous and saw no end, at least it could maintain the life of her and her son. As long as the child grew up, as long as her child grew up healthy, he could help his stepfather go out to do business. Even if he couldn't inherit the other party's position in the Merchant Guild's Caravan, he could still be a common Shop Assistant and accumulate wealth, so he could establish his own family after his twenties.

By then, perhaps he could even buy a house in a corner of the town and bring this hardworking lady over to live together.

Perhaps by then, this lady would have reached the end of these bitter days.

Such thoughts and plans were completely changed on the day Suoye-Zuojigela reappeared in Yemei Town.

When Zuojigela rode the borrowed prairie horse and rode side-by-side with Jier to the residential area on the east side of the town, before they even entered the alley formed by the densely packed buildings, Zuojigela saw his ex-wife cautiously poking half her body out from the half-open wooden door of the house.

That figure was thin, yet possessed a kind of tenacious vitality. It seemed as if she were waiting for something, or perhaps it was just an unrealistic hope.

"Mo—ya! Mo——ya! I'm here! Your Suoye is here!" The Herbalist froze for a moment, then jumped off his horse and ran over quickly, calling out loudly as he ran to his ex-wife—no, he should say his wife—with whom he had been in love since childhood.

After all, his wife's remarriage had not been agreed to or known by him; it was done by his siblings in his absence after everyone assumed he had been missing for a long time.

Therefore, to Zuojigela, the middle-aged lady in front who looked quite weary and whose face was weathered, was his wife whom he had always loved!

"Soye..."

The middle-aged lady named Moya had tears streaming from her eyes, but her actions were very strange; she hid her body back into the room, then slammed the door shut with a bang, locking Zuojigela outside.

After all, she had already remarried. Although she lived quite arduously and laboriously in the new family, such days were plain and normal, and the news of Zuojigela's return had instantly destroyed her heart, which had already somewhat resigned itself to fate.

After all, the Herbalist's disappearance had been ten years ago. At that time, she had just given birth to their child a year or two prior; the couple was at their most affectionate, and they were preparing to raise the child well together, perhaps even planning to have one or two more children by then.

And the income from the Herbalist profession was fully capable of supporting the entire family; it was even considered a high-income job in Yemei Town, and the family's life would have been much more decent and leisurely.

But the Herbalist's disappearance during a trip to gather herbs had completely changed all of this.

To Zuojigela, his longing and love for his wife remained the same as it was before he fell into Babotali Valley; because of guilt, he had even brewed this emotion to be more intense.

Just like his performance at this moment: he sprinted to the door and pounded on it hard, but the thick wooden door did not budge, and there was no response from inside.

That incident of his disappearance was merely the beginning of a life of sorrow and hardship for his wife, Moya, over these years.

The whole process was like falling off a cliff.

First, there was a year of anxious waiting, then the discussions of everyone around her about Zuojigela being dead, and later, others didn't even bother to hide it from her when discussing the matter.

After all, when the Herbalist had been missing for a whole year, even Zuojigela's parents had concluded that their second son, the most promising Herbalist, had died in the process of gathering herbs. Therefore, as a matter of course, everyone began to mourn him and even handle his estate based on the point that Zuojigela was dead...

At that time, what was placed before Moya was a set of negotiation terms where she would suffer heavy losses no matter what she chose: either hand over Zuojigela's child to be adopted and raised by Zuojigela's siblings, and she herself, as a widow, could only take a tiny bit of property and roll back to her own home; or she could take Zuojigela's child, and she would be able to take slightly more property.

After all, the bulk of Zuojigela's wealth would still be divided and taken by his siblings.

In the end, Moya chose the latter, not because she wanted to take more of the inheritance, but because she couldn't bear to be separated from her child—the child she had with Zuojigela. After all, losing the husband who loved her and whom she loved was painful enough; being separated from her child would only add pain to pain.

And at that time, the child was only two or three years old. If the child were adopted by Zuojigela's siblings, the child would never realize when growing up that his biological mother was not the family that adopted him, and Moya would lose her child forever.

Even if she knew it was her child, her child would likely not easily believe it.

And living with the child in her own home was not easy either. Every day she had to endure the complaints, cold glares, and criticisms of Moya's parents. Moya also went from arguing with her parents at the beginning to quarreling later, and then to erupting into physical conflict, making her understand that raising a child by herself, even if living in her own home, was a matter that was much criticized in society.

By the time she finally remarried and moved out of her home, what greeted her was arduous and long-term labor. The Merchant family she remarried into chose her with a harsh standard for a maid or nanny who could work, not purely to form a complete family.

But Moya had no way back by then; remarrying again was impossible. No one in town would be willing to marry a middle-aged widow with a child who had been married twice. And there was no work in the town that a woman like her could do.

Although Yemei Town's commerce had flourished in recent years due to the development of mineral dyes, the time had been too short, and the products were too singular. This was just a place for the distribution and sale of mineral dyes; no corresponding dyeing workshops had been built. The main population of the local society was still the more numerous and vast backward agricultural Villages outside the town that focused on planting wheat.

There were not that many jobs in society to support a woman living alone. In such a society, she could only rely on a family dominated by patriarchy to survive.

This was this world, and this was the other side of Yemei Town's tradition.

"Moya? Why did she reject me! I clearly saw her waiting for me, saw the expectation in her eyes!" Zuojigela kept patting the wooden door and turned to ask Jier, who was slowly riding over.

This house faced the street, had two stories, and included a backyard of considerable size; it looked like the house of a decent, wealthy local Merchant.

On the side facing the street, the first floor only had small ventilation windows, while the second floor had several windows with flower pots.

Jier jumped off his horse and replied to Zuojigela: "How would I know? I'm so young, how could I know a woman's mind? Perhaps she is just hesitating?"

The Herbalist shouted at the tightly shut wooden door: "Moya! What are you hesitating about? Didn't we agree before? Come with me! Leave this place with me!"

"But I..." A panicked female voice came from inside the door.

"I, I have already remarried..." She paused and said, then continued to explain: "I am no longer your wife. Everyone has long since assumed you were dead. I, I will not go with you."

"You are my wife! You always have been! They thought I was dead, did you think I was dead too? Our marital relationship never received my response! In my heart, you are still my wife. What about our child?"

Jier looked up, and by the second-story window of this family's house, several young children were peering out in a panic. At the same time, the neighbor next door, who was also a relative of this Merchant, had their house built on the same family land, so when Zuojigela shouted loudly over here, people from the neighbor's side were already looking out.

Seeing someone harassing their relative who was away on business, they immediately grabbed the sticks from their home and ran out.

But once they came out, they were dumbfounded, because Jier, a mighty Warrior riding an Armored Warhorse, was turning his head to look at them; Jier smiled, and these people automatically retreated, only daring to watch from a distance of five or six meters.

"Quick, go call the Town Guard! It looks like that Herbalist who died a long time ago has come back!"

"Hell! He even brought someone riding a horse! Looks like a tough guy!"

Jier let them call the Town Guard responsible for public order, while he stepped forward to pat Zuojigela on the shoulder and gestured for him to look up.

"Of these children, which one is your son?" Jier asked.

Zuojigela looked up abruptly at the half-grown children peering at him from the second floor of the house; most of these children looked at him, the "madman" harassing their home, with panic, but one child, who looked no more than eight or nine years old and had a hint of hostility in his eyes, was staring at him intently.

Zuojigela's heart wavered, and as if possessed, he looked up and shouted: "Baomusi! Baomusi-Zuojigela! My child! Is that you?"

The child seemed startled and shrank back into the room, but the other half-grown children at the windows shouted: "His name is Baomusi! He is Baomusi-Zuojigela! Whoever you are, take him away and stop harassing our family! Otherwise, when our father's brothers arrive, they will definitely make you pay! And there are many Town Guards, tall Town Guards, they have Long Spears and Long Swords, and they will arrest you two!"

Jier chuckled: "That's not necessarily true."

Sure enough, the Town Guard arrived, but these people were well-informed, so as soon as they saw the warhorse Jier was riding, they guessed a bit, and once they saw that Jier was a young man clad in heavy Heavy Armor Plates, they immediately understood who this was.

"Knight Jier, Lord Knight Jier!" they called out.

"May I ask what business you have that requires you to seek out someone from the Feilier-si Family? He is not here; only his wife and children are at home. If you have business with him, you can come with us to find his family elders, or for business matters, you can find the Merchant Guild he belongs to."

The Squad Leader leading the group asked Jier cautiously.

Jier waved his hand: "It has nothing to do with that man, and it is not me looking for someone, but the Herbalist in my group, this one, Suoye-Zuojigela. He is looking for his wife and children."

As soon as Jier spoke the Herbalist's name, everyone present was shocked, and many already understood what had happened.

"Is that the man who went missing and died many years ago, only to suddenly appear a few days ago?"

"If you ask me, little Feilier-si shouldn't have married a widow with children in the first place. Look at it now, the widow's ex-husband isn't dead, and she isn't a widow at all. He should have gone to a Cunzi outside the town to marry a tall, sturdy young farm woman, preferably one who hadn't given birth, so there wouldn't be so much trouble!"

"Who's to say otherwise? It's just that little Feilier-si is greedy for money and couldn't bear to spend it to marry a young woman. Heh, look, this ex-husband who showed up actually has such a powerful backer."

The people of the Feilier-si Family whispered among themselves, their mouths curled in mockery, discussing the stingy middle-aged Merchant in a voice that was not quiet.

Jier lowered his head and briefly explained the situation to the Town Guard who had approached, which left these Town Guards at a loss; they had never handled such a bizarre matter before, and had never even seen such a thing.

"Please call the door open first. This Ms. Moya keeping the door closed all the time is not a solution. My time is limited, and I cannot wait for her to ponder and hesitate for a long time. If you cannot get the door open, shall I use my own method to handle these matters?"

Jier narrowed his eyes, putting pressure on the Town Guards present.

With no other choice, the Squad Leader of the Town Guard had to bite the bullet and step forward, signaling for Zuojigela to move aside, and then began knocking on the gate to persuade them.

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