Chapter 69: The Wealthy Chi Family

Mo Junheng looked at his hand and called Imperial Physician Wen to examine him.

After examining him, Imperial Physician Wen shook his head: "Your Highness, his hand, I fear it cannot be restored."

"Cannot be restored?" Mo Junheng exerted force, and another wave of cramping pain came from his abdomen: "What do you mean?"

"The bones are already shattered and cannot be set." Imperial Physician Wen sighed: "If you do not want it to worsen further, the only option is to chop off this hand."

"Chop off?" Gao Han said anxiously upon hearing this: "Imperial Physician Wen, is there truly no other way?"

Imperial Physician Wen shook his head: "This old man's medical skills are shallow; I am powerless to help." Leaving aside the fact that Imperial Physician Wen truly had no method, even if he did, he would not treat a mere bodyguard.

His master was the Emperor; this time the Emperor had ordered him to accompany the Crown Prince to treat Prince Li. For the Crown Prince to say his medical skills were insufficient was one thing, but to actually attempt to have him treat a bodyguard was simply a fool's dream.

With his head bowed low, Mo Junheng did not see the fleeting disdain in his eyes.

Just then, Gao Han suddenly thought of someone.

"Your Highness, that woman who treated His Highness Prince Li might have a way."

Upon hearing this, Mo Junheng's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Even His Highness Prince Li sought her out for treatment, which shows her medical skills are superb."

Imperial Physician Wen heard his words, and the expression on his face grew even uglier, but he said nothing, only standing silently to one side.

"Your Highness, you must not." His personal bodyguard Gao Feng stepped forward and said: "Since she is Prince Li's person, how could she truly wish to treat Gao Han? Prince Li and you have long been at odds; if you have that woman brought here by force, Prince Li might well use this as a pretext to cause trouble."

"That is reasonable." After weighing the pros and cons, Mo Junheng said indifferently: "You should leave this hand to Imperial Physician Wen for treatment!"

To leave it to Imperial Physician Wen meant his hand could only be chopped off.

But as a close guard of the Crown Prince, he naturally understood his master's temperament.

Since he had said so, it meant there was no room for reversal.

"Yes." Gao Han lowered his head, his eyes concealing a deeply buried look of unwillingness.

"Your Highness, this subordinate has investigated thoroughly. General Zhao has been staying at his residence in recent days and has not seen anyone else, nor has he left the residence."

"Has not left the residence?" Mo Junheng gave a cold laugh: "My second brother most likely went straight for Zhao Anqi, that old fellow, only to be given a cold shoulder."

"Your Highness, will you be going tomorrow?"

"Naturally." Mo Junheng raised his chin slightly, a trace of disdain flashing in his eyes: "Mo Junyan is a useless cripple; I am different from him. I should think that if Zhao Anqi is not a fool, he ought to be able to understand whose side he should stand behind."

Construction on the Chi Family's house had already begun. Since it needed to be torn down and rebuilt, the family was temporarily staying in an empty house belonging to the village chief.

When they first moved in, the village chief even brought over some vegetables once; after that, it was always the Chi Family delivering vegetables and meat to their home.

Zhao Xifeng and his wife, née Qian, looked at the full bowl of braised pork, their chopsticks hovering for a long while, not knowing where to begin.

"Old man, I say the Chi Family only got fifty taels of silver, and with both repairing a house and eating and drinking lavishly, that little bit of silver will likely be squandered away before long. Tomorrow you'd better go have a word with the Chi Family, so that when the time comes the villagers finish building their house for them but can't be paid their wages."

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xifeng nodded, set down his chopsticks, and headed outside.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to the Chi Family right now."

What née Qian said was exactly what he was worried about.

If wages could not be paid, the villagers would surely come make trouble at his door.

His empty house was located at the foot of the back mountain. Normally no one came to live there, and it had always sat vacant. Now, from far away, voices could be heard coming from inside, and carried out along with the voices was the wafting aroma of food.

Most importantly, the aroma of meat from inside.

There was no one passing by their doorway who did not wipe the corners of their mouth of drool.

"Little sister, your method is still the best. This braised pork is so fragrant and tender, truly delicious." Chi Huai Qian added another bowl of rice and could not help but sigh: "Refined rice really is delicious. I never thought that one day I would be able to eat refined rice without any hesitation."

Zhao Xifeng stood in the courtyard, his brow deeply furrowed.

"Cough, cough, cough."

His coughing sounds came from the courtyard.

"Village Chief Zhao." Seeing the visitor, Chi Ting Song hurriedly rose: "What brings you here?"

Zhao Xifeng looked at the food on the table and, for a moment, did not know where to begin.

"Village Chief Zhao, is there some matter?" Seeing him not speak, née Shen could not help but ask: "Is it about the house?"

"No." Zhao Xifeng thought for a moment and said slowly: "I did not come today for any other reason; it is mainly about your new house. According to your plans, this house is quite large, and the cost of building it will certainly be several tens of taels. I know you received a reward from the authorities, but to build such a large house, fifty taels probably won't even be enough. Yet before anything has really begun, you are already so extravagant. If the villagers' wages cannot be paid, I will not stand for it." He looked up at Chi Nan Yi: "Chi Family girl, our village may owe you a debt of gratitude, but business is business. You can't have the villagers work for nothing, can you?"

From the moment Zhao Xifeng walked in, Chi Nan Yi had already guessed his intention; sure enough, it was about this matter.

"Village Chief, if it is about this matter, you need not worry." Chi Nan Yi took out a coin purse containing nearly a hundred taels of silver.

She did not take out any silver notes, mainly for fear of frightening the old man.

"This... this much silver..."

Sure enough, this amount of silver alone already astonished him.

"Rest assured, Village Chief. Anyone who comes to work at our home will have their wages settled daily, with no delay."

"Where did all this silver come from?"

Chi Huai Qian stepped forward and said loudly: "Naturally it was earned by my little sister."

"Earned?" Zhao Xifeng thought for a moment—where could one earn silver?

"Earned from selling medicine."

"Selling medicine?"

Chi Nan Yi briefly explained the general idea of earning silver by selling medicine. Zhao Xifeng listened in confusion; he knew nothing about medicinal herbs, but one thing he understood clearly.

"You mean, next year your family's land will have half of it converted to growing medicinal herbs?"

"That's right."

"No, no, that won't do. Without grain, what will you eat? Wait to drink the northwest wind? Our village's land is already barren; even growing crops barely survives, and growing medicinal herbs would fare even worse."

"The soil quality can be improved. Besides, many medicinal herbs are like wild grass by the roadside—they grow lush and thriving without anyone tending them at all. We can simply plant some that are easy to keep alive."

"You know how to grow medicinal herbs?"

"Of course."

Zhao Xifeng eyed Chi Nan Yi suspiciously; this little girl is young, but she really knows a lot.

Chi Nan Yi actually wanted the villagers to grow medicinal herbs with her; she would handle the recycling, and the villagers could earn extra silver, leading the whole village to prosperity—this would also be a merit, and who knows when the space might upgrade.

But just from Zhao Xifeng's attitude one could guess that the villagers would mostly not agree.

After all, they had grown grain for a lifetime; as the saying goes, food is heaven to the people. If switching to medicinal herbs failed, they wouldn't only be unable to pay taxes in grain, they'd also go hungry, so Chi Nan Yi swallowed the words she was about to say.