Chapter 247: Unless it's to report a death

The moment he fell, his waist gave a creak; it had actually fractured.

Old Man Zhao tried to crawl up, but a sharp pain shot through his old waist, and he fell back into the mud pit.

The wind was cold, the rain freezing, and he felt he was having the worst luck imaginable.

He hated Zhao Liuniang to the bone.

He cursed filthily under his breath.

"You money-losing goods, you unfilial rot, relying on your husband's family to make me, your father, lose face. Just you wait, sooner or later I'll make your mother pay..."

After cursing for a good while, Old Man Zhao's tattered cotton-padded jacket was completely soaked through, and he was so cold that his upper and lower rows of teeth collided, making a *da-da-da-da-da* sound.

Only then did he remember to shout for help.

"Is anyone there? Help! Help!!!"

Old Man Zhao shouted, but with rain this heavy, no one was out. Even if someone was traveling, they were hurrying past, and with the sound of the rain so loud right in their ears, no cries for help could be heard.

Unable to call anyone over, Old Man Zhao had no choice but to think of a way to save himself. He crawled upward bit by bit, his speed as slow as a snail.

He eventually crawled out and, to avoid the rain, huddled under a thick, sturdy tree.

Old Man Zhao was soaked to the bone, shivering, and his mind was hazy and muddled.

He was in luck; before he passed out, someone passed by.

The man wearing a bamboo hat saw a figure under the tree and stopped in his tracks. On such a rainy day, a person suddenly popping up was quite frightening.

Fortunately, he was brave enough.

Muttering red quotations to bolster his courage, the man stepped forward.

Old Man Zhao felt someone there and woke from his haze, a gleam appearing in his gloomy eyes.

"Save me, save me."

He grabbed the man's pant leg and pleaded.

Since it was a human life after all, the man took off his bamboo hat without a word, put it on Old Man Zhao's head, and carried him on his back.

Old Man Zhao's waist was injured, and the slightest tug made him shout in pain.

"Gently, my waist!!"

The man lightened his movements, thinking to himself that this was a nuisance.

Out of consideration for the fact that the man was an elder, he didn't say it out loud, only asking loudly: "Where is your home?"

Old Man Zhao stated the name of the brigade.

Hearing that they were going the same way, the man's tense expression relaxed.

"With rain this heavy, why did you go out?"

Hearing this, Old Man Zhao remembered the things he had scavenged and began to struggle.

"My things, my things..." he shouted anxiously.

The young man carrying him stopped, wiped the rain from his face, and felt irritable. "What things?"

He had given his bamboo hat to Old Man Zhao, his hair was completely wet, and he was freezing cold, desperately wanting to go home and warm himself by the fire.

"In the ditch, the things my daughter gave me out of filial piety," Old Man Zhao said.

"With rain this heavy, forget about things, we have to get home to escape the rain!" the man shouted.

At this moment, he somewhat regretted stepping forward.

This person was nothing but trouble!

"No, my things!" Old Man Zhao struggled vigorously.

The young man couldn't hold him and had to put him down first. Sticking to the principle of seeing a rescue through to the end, he went down into the ditch to look for what the troublesome old man was talking about.

It was fortunate that he had waterproof urea bags tied around his pant legs, otherwise he wouldn't have gone into the ditch.

There were limits to helping others.

Being young and strong, the young man dragged the things from the ditch up.

"Is it these?" he shouted.

The rain grew heavier, and bean-sized raindrops fell on his head, making his brain feel numb.

"Yes." Old Man Zhao pulled them to his side.

The young man carried him on his back again, walking toward the brigade one muddy step at a time.

It had been raining for a while, the dirt road was completely wet, and every time a foot stepped down, it inevitably sank in, making it very strenuous to pull out. He was also carrying a soaked person, making the walk even more difficult.

The young man's face was wet; he didn't know if it was rain or sweat from exertion, he only knew to keep walking forward, only wanting to get home quickly.

Thick earthworms emerged on the dirt road, and toads hopped about freely.

There was no one on the road, and it stretched out of sight.

The young man gritted his teeth and quickened his pace.

Old Man Zhao couldn't help but sigh, "One still needs a son; having a son is truly good."

The terrible experience at the Harvest Brigade surfaced in his mind, and his bark-like face wrinkled up.

The young man: "?"

He didn't speak, walking with difficulty.

Fortunately, he was a person used to heavy labor and had great strength, so he could hold up even while carrying someone, moving forward one footprint at a time.

Time passed.

The young man's hair was soaked through, and the jacket on his upper body was also waterlogged.

Finally, they arrived at the brigade where the troublesome old man lived.

"Which way to your house?" the young man turned his head and shouted.

Old Man Zhao was about to fall asleep and was jolted awake by this sound.

He pointed in a direction vaguely.

"Walk forward."

The young man: "..." This was a true master.

He resigned himself to his fate and continued walking forward.

With great difficulty, he saw someone coming and going in a hurry.

He hurriedly called out to the person, his voice still hoarse.

"Wait!"

The person who was about to run home stopped abruptly and looked over. "What for?"

The rain was too heavy, so they had to howl to speak.

Through the curtain of rain, one couldn't see the figure clearly.

The young man took a few steps forward and came under the eaves to avoid the rain. He put Old Man Zhao down and said as if relieved: "This elder is from your brigade, right?"

Once close, the villagers saw Old Man Zhao's familiar face.

"That's right, this is Old Man Zhao from our village. What happened to him? Did you hit him?" The person speaking looked at the young man suspiciously.

The young man stared. Just as he was about to say something, a sharp glint flashed in Old Man Zhao's murky eyes, and he grabbed the man's wet cotton jacket, shouting: "Yes, this is the person who hit me!!"

"Pity me for being so old, pushed into the water ditch, pulling my waist, ouch, it hurts me to death..." he wailed.

The young man was dumbfounded.

He stood frozen on the spot.

He couldn't come to his senses for a long time.

He turned his head to look at Old Man Zhao, his expression serious. "Elder, you must have remembered wrong. You fell into the ditch yourself, and I saved you."

"No, you pushed me." Old Man Zhao emphasized, "My waist is injured, you have to compensate me with money."

The young man was shocked.

No, wasn't he doing a good deed? How did he suddenly become the perpetrator?!

He really had a belly full of dirty words he wanted to curse.

"I didn't push you. When I passed by, you had already fallen." The young man's emotions were still relatively stable; he just thought this old man had a bad memory.

"It was you who pushed me. If it wasn't you who pushed me, why would you carry me back? It was you, you have to pay, don't even think about leaving without paying." Old Man Zhao grabbed his jacket tightly, acting like a rascal.

The commotion outside the door startled the people inside. This family put on rain gear, rushed into the rain, and came to the doorway.

"What's wrong, what's wrong? What happened? On such a rainy day, why aren't you going back to your own home, what are you doing here?"

The young man who witnessed the farce told the truth about the current situation.

The person who had just come out looked down at Old Man Zhao, who was lying on the ground. "Were you really pushed by someone?"

Old Man Zhao was very angry and straightened his waist to reason with him, but before he could get up, he wailed in pain.

"Ouch, it hurts me to death."

He gasped and said: "If he didn't push me, how would I have fallen? It was him who pushed me."

The young man hurriedly said: "I didn't push you. Why are you like this? I kindly carried you back, and you actually frame me. How can there be a person like you? Isn't this a real-life version of the farmer and the snake? I am the farmer, and you are that heartless snake!"

He became angrier the more he spoke, and with a forceful tug, he pulled back his leg that was being gripped.

Old Man Zhao's waist hurt severely, so he didn't dare to use force.

He shouted to the villagers: "Quick, hold him, make him pay! At least... at least five yuan. You pushed someone, don't think about leaving without paying!"

Old Man Zhao's reputation was rotten, and the villagers didn't know whether to believe him.

At the moment of hesitation, the kind-hearted young man angrily gave Old Man Zhao a punch, snatched back his bamboo hat, and ran away.

He didn't even return the things Old Man Zhao had plucked from his daughter.

The young man shouted as he ran: "No good deed goes unpunished, you old thing will get your retribution sooner or later!"

Seeing him take away his things, Old Man Zhao was so anxious he slapped his thigh. "My things—!"

But he only saw that figure disappear quickly.

He looked at the villagers in a rage. "What are you all standing there for? Why don't you go and catch him? He took my things!!"

A young man from the village said: "That person is running so fast, and the rain is this heavy, every step is mud, how are we supposed to chase him!"

The owner of this house nodded. "That's right, it's hard to chase."

In reality, he was half-believing Old Man Zhao's words.

This black-hearted old man was probably trying to extort that young man.

He was simply rotten to the core.

They couldn't let a kind-hearted person feel cold, could they? Not chasing, no matter what, they wouldn't chase!

"Forget it, consider those things a thank-you gift, he at least sent you back," he said.

Old Man Zhao was so angry he almost passed out.

"That was what my daughter gave me out of filial piety!" He lay on the ground, his whole body feverish, his face as red as if he were drunk, and his eyes were also red.

Filial piety?!

The people present sneered in their hearts.

Robbed, right?!!

"Then what should we do? The person has already run away." The young man shrugged, his words very irritating. "We don't even know which way he ran, where are we supposed to chase him? We don't know that person either, besides forgetting it, what other way is there?"

With every sentence he said, Old Man Zhao's head became congested. He was feverish and passed out directly.

"Oh, what should we do?" Seeing that he had angered Old Man Zhao until he fainted, the young man was so scared his face changed.

The owner of the house squatted down, pinched Old Man Zhao's philtrum, felt that he was still very hot, and sighed: "He has a fever!"

They lifted Old Man Zhao, sent him back, took off his wet clothes, covered him with that smelly, rotten quilt, and boiled herbal medicine for him to drink.

"Should we call the health worker?" The young man remembered Old Man Zhao saying he had an injury on his waist and asked suddenly.

The answer he got was the other person shaking his head.

The other person's tone was solemn.

"With rain this heavy, where are we going to call a health worker? Besides, if we call a health worker, who pays? Will you pay?"

The young man hurriedly shook his head. "... Why should I pay? I have no money."

The person speaking gave him a "so that's why you want to call a health worker" expression, shook his head, put on his bamboo hat, and walked away slowly.

Seeing him leave, the young man closed the door and hurriedly left as well.

Because of this, Old Man Zhao's waist injury was completely neglected.

When he woke up the next day, he couldn't even get up.

Actually, he couldn't even move his lower body.

Having struggled through the night with difficulty, his face was full of gray and white, no longer having its usual spirit, looking like a skinned jackal.

He shouted and screamed.

He threw things.

None of it was any use.

His daughter was abused by him and wasn't close to him; except for the New Year, she never came to the door.

The neighbors were all at home, who could hear his voice?

He was a terrible person, and there was no one who would visit him.

Old Man Zhao twisted his body, fell off the bed, crawled to the door, reached a wooden stick, and began to knock on the door.

"Dang dang dang—!"

One sound after another.

Finally, someone heard it and knocked on the Zhao family's door.

"Old Zhao?"

Old Man Zhao had been feverish all night and hadn't even had a sip of water; his voice was so hoarse that his words were unclear.

He tried to make a sound, but failed.

He continued to knock.

The person knocking on the door was very puzzled.

After hesitating for a good while, he pushed the door and entered.

Seeing Old Man Zhao lying on the ground covered in mud, he hurriedly walked over. "Old Zhao, what happened to you?"

Old Man Zhao couldn't speak and stretched out his finger to point at his waist.

The person had a decent relationship with him, so he told him to wait, called his own son, and helped Old Man Zhao onto the bed.

He also ordered his son to call the health worker.

At this time, health workers were almost all trained for a few months and then started work, learning while treating people.

In Old Man Zhao's severe situation, the health worker naturally couldn't handle it.

He didn't treat him blindly either, prescribing some medicine for fever and pain, and suggesting the patient go to the county hospital.

How could Old Man Zhao bear to spend the money he had painstakingly saved? At this moment, he thought of his daughters.

The moment Zhao Liuniang received the news, a dark thought emerged in her heart.

Why didn't he fall to his death?

Was this kind of scourge living to torment them?

Heaven was truly blind!!

Finding an excuse to dismiss the messenger, Zhao Liuniang acted as if she knew nothing and busied herself with her own affairs.

Yu Yu was still young, and Laimei was injured, so how could she leave?

Lin Zhao heard about this matter from Gu Mu.

"Gu Gu Ersao isn't going back, right?" she asked.

"Not going back," Gu Mu said. "Laimei was bullied to that extent; if she goes back, she's a fool. Your Gu Gu Ersao said that from now on, she considers herself to have no maiden home."

Unless the villagers report a death, she will never step foot in the Zhao house again.

"Hmm." Lin Zhao didn't say much.

It seems Gu Gu Ersao is still very clear-headed.

Gu Mu had been called by Lin Zhao to sew a quilt; she was nimble, and in the time it took to speak, one quilt was already finished.

"Where should I put the finished one?" she asked.

Lin Zhao stepped forward. "Give it to me, I'll put it in the cabinet and take it out when the weather gets colder."

Gu Mu folded it and then handed it to her.

After her daughter-in-law left, she said to Yubao and Hengbao: "Your mother is truly attentive to you. Look at how thick that quilt is, it weighs six jin. No matter how much it snows, you two won't be cold."

The twins were currently covered by a thin quilt; when the weather turned cold and they took out the thick one to cover it on top, they didn't know how warm it would be.

Yubao touched the thick quilt, and because of this, he was no longer afraid of the cold winter.

"Hehehe, my mommy is the best, and Grandma is good too." The little child held an enamel mug, drinking sweet malted milk, feeling happy.

Hengbao knew the principle that if you want a horse to run, you have to feed it grass; he diligently served Gu Mu a cup.

"Grandma, drink some malted milk, it's very sweet, we each have a cup!"

Gu Mu was surprised. "... There's even mine?"

"There is," Hengbao said, "there's enough for everyone."

Yubao: "My mommy said Grandma worked hard sewing the quilt."

"What's hard about sewing a quilt?" Gu Mu's mouth curled up, showing she was very happy. "Sewing for our Yubao and Hengbao, Grandma isn't tired at all, I'm full of strength."

She took the enamel mug, lifted the lid, and steam rose. She blew on it and took a sip; her already warm body became even warmer, and the warmth spread to her limbs and bones, making her feel incredibly comfortable.

Gu Mu busied herself all afternoon, helping the Third Branch sew several quilts.

Just as she was about to go back to cook, Lin Zhao stuffed five jin of cotton into her hands.

Gu Mu was puzzled. "What is this for?"

"For you," Lin Zhao said. "Aren't your and Father's quilts no longer warm? It just so happens there's extra cotton, fill it in..."

Gu Father and Gu Mu's quilts had indeed been covered for several years, the cotton was hard, and they weren't very warm. When it got colder, they relied entirely on heating the *kang*, and heating the *kang* was only comfortable when they first went to sleep; in the morning, their hands and feet were cold.

Gu Mu didn't decline and took it, laughing: "Alright, your father and I will also cover ourselves with new quilts." ===== CHAPTER 248 =====