After coming out of Wen Mansion, Ye Anyian finally felt better.
Seeing that it was still early, he went to a sweet shop and bought some candied fruits, some cakes and fruits, and then went to where Jiangzhu set up a stall.
The streets were quiet and leisurely in the middle of the afternoon. Ye Annian looked from a distance and saw that Jiang Zhu's stall was empty. Everything was well arranged, but people didn't know where they were.
Just as I was wondering, I suddenly heard an old wailing voice: "You kid, can't you let me play a round?"
Ye Annian walked a few steps quickly, turned the corner, and saw a group of old men sitting against the wall. Among a pile of gray and black clothes, the only touch of blue brightened his eyes.
Jiang Zhu won the chess game and unceremoniously brought the pile of peanuts in front of the old man to his side: "Mr. Chen, I'm willing to admit defeat. You can't cheat at your age."
"Well, as I get older, my brain just doesn't work as well as that of young people." The old man sitting opposite him patted his head in annoyance.
"Mr. Chen, these are five-spice peanuts today. They are so fragrant." Jiang Zhu was peeling the peanuts and deliberately snarled in front of Mr. Chen.
The old man was so angry that his beard flew up: "Old man, that's what I kept for drinking at night! You stinky boy!"
"What's so delicious about peanuts? Mr. Chen, I bought some candied fruit for you to try." Ye Annian walked over at the right time and put what he was carrying on the chess table.
When he saw Ye Anyian, Old Chen's depressed face suddenly became happy: "Brother Nian, you are here!"
"Look at this brat, he beat me in four out of five games. He doesn't know how to respect the old and love the young!"
Ye Annian was held by Old Man Chen's affectionate hand, and he also smiled and agreed: "It's because he is ignorant. I will teach him a lesson when I get back. If you keep eating, we will go back first."
After giving the old man a good comfort, he pulled Jiang Zhu away from the pile of old men.
After Jiang Zhu cleaned up the stall, the two held hands and walked towards the shop.
"Why do you bully Mr. Chen all day long?" Ye Anian couldn't help but ask, remembering that every time he came to Jiang Zhu, Mr. Chen would cry like a ghost.
"I didn't!" Jiang Zhu suddenly felt aggrieved, "He is just a bad chess player. He forces me to play chess with him every day. Whenever he wins, it will be over."
"Every year, you come to pick me up. You don't ask me if it's hard, but you always speak up for that smelly old man."
Ye Annian gave him an unceremonious look: "I see you are having a lot of fun playing chess. What's the hard work?"
Jiang Zhu:...
"There are no patients."
"Ah! Someone is bleeding!"
A sharp and piercing sound suddenly exploded on the street.
The two of them were stunned for a moment, and saw that not far ahead, more and more people had gathered, forming a circle and blocking the good road.
This road was also the only way for the two of them to return to the shop. After a little hesitation, the two of them walked over.
There were so many people around that the two of them couldn't squeeze in, but they vaguely heard the onlookers saying things like "being beaten" and "covered in blood".
"Let's go, stop looking." For some reason, Ye Anyian suddenly felt uneasy and pulled Jiang Zhu's hand.
Jiang Zhu was not interested in any of this either. He nodded and pulled Ye Anian away.
But suddenly someone in the crowd shouted: "Looking for Brother Nian! Quickly find Ye Anyian!"
Ye Annian's steps out suddenly stopped, but someone around him already recognized him.
"Here it is!"
As the man shouted, a hand stretched out towards him from the crowd.
Ye Anyian was still confused. He hid for a moment and was surrounded by Jiang Zhu in his arms, blocking the outstretched hands one by one.
"What are you doing?" Jiang Zhu asked coldly.
"That man said he was Brother Nian's father!" a voice from the crowd replied.
Ye Annian's hanging heart finally sank with a thud.
The crowd that had been surrounding them a moment ago took the initiative to separate to both sides, making way for the two of them.
Now, they couldn't leave even if they wanted to.
Jiang Zhu noticed that the shoulders of the person in his arms were shaking, and he lowered his voice and said, "If you don't want to go there, we'll leave."
Ye Anyian pursed his lips and shook his head.
He shook Jiang Zhu's hand, let go, and walked toward the center surrounded by crowds.
Only a few steps away, Ye Annian could vaguely see a vague figure lying on the ground, which was dark. The closer he got, the more pungent the smell of blood became.
His stomach suddenly started to churn again, and he took another step forward when his eyes were suddenly covered from behind.
The familiar scent of medicine filled the whole body, and Ye Annian felt a sense of peace of mind, and the nausea was suppressed a little.
"I'm fine." He whispered, holding Jiang Zhu's hand that was covering his eyes.
He insisted on looking, and Jiang Zhu let go.
What caught his eye was Ye Chenghe lying on the ground covered in blood.
Ye Chenghe's clothes were torn, his legs were twisted in strange postures, and they were obviously broken. The hands were bruised and bloody, and the face was so bloody that it was difficult to see the facial features.
Looking at such a scene, Ye Anyian couldn't help but feel sick.
But he saw Ye Chenghe's bloody fingers moving as if he was about to make a gesture, and he made an indistinct sound from his mouth.
Ye Anyian took a deep breath and squatted down.
"Nian...Brother Nian, money, money..."
Before he finished speaking, there was no sound, and Ye Anyian felt a chill down his spine.
"He's not dead, he just fainted." Jiang Zhu put his arm around Ye Anyian's shoulders and said softly.
Ye Annian breathed a sigh of relief. Thinking of Ye Chenghe's intermittent words and the movements of his fingers, he tried to turn through his clothes while holding back his nausea.
Jiang Zhu grabbed him and said, "I'll do it."
Following where Ye Annian pointed, he quickly pulled out a bulging money bag and opened it to see that there was a thick stack of silver notes inside.
Ye Annian took it and took out the banknotes and counted them. No more, no less, exactly eighty taels.
"It seems that Zhou Zaiqian chose to break off the engagement." Jiang Zhu said leisurely.
Ye Anyian put the banknotes back in and put them on his body for the time being.
He knew Ye Chenghe's temperament, and what he just said was probably just to make sure the money was still there, not to give it to him.
But this money was on Ye Chenghe, and it would be troublesome if he lost it. It would be better to wait until he met Ye Quan and the others and give it to him in person.
Anyway, when he was counting the money just now, many onlookers saw it, and they were not afraid of not being able to tell clearly.
"What should people do?" Jiang Zhu asked.
Of course, he couldn't just throw it on the street, but it was impossible for Ye Anyian to bring Ye Chenghe back to the shop, let alone ask Jiang Zhu to treat him.
"Send him to the hospital." Ye Anyian said after a moment of silence.
He wanted to move it, but Jiang Zhu stopped him: "I'll do it. He's very dirty with so much blood on his body."
Jiang Zhu moved neatly, pulling off Ye Chenghe's rotten clothes, briefly fixing his two broken legs, and then ran to the nearest hospital and called two little medicine boys to carry him. .
Just kidding, he would be disgusted if he was asked to carry it.
Fortunately, he was familiar with the people at various drug stores and medical clinics in the town, and he managed to persuade the doctors at the medical clinics to accept him.
The two came out of the medical center and drove the bullock cart back to Crescent Village.
On the way, Ye Annian asked Jiang Zhu: "Will Ye Chenghe die?"
Seeing that he was not in a high mood, Jiang Zhu deliberately teased him: "Then do you want him to die, or do you not want him to die?"
Ye Anyian said nothing.
Jiang Zhu thought to himself and continued: "If I were to treat him, he could still live, but he would be paralyzed on the kang for the rest of his life. If it were another doctor, it would only last a few months."
Ye Anqing breathed a sigh of relief and leaned his head on Jiang Zhu's shoulder.
"You're so busy, so just leave it alone," he said.
Jiang Zhu's hand swinging the whip paused, and his peach blossom eyes smiled like a crescent moon: "Hey, I think what Nian Nian said is very reasonable."
Returning to Yueya Village, the two tied up the ox cart, put down their things, and went to Lao Ye's house.
Wu Xianglian came to open the door and when she saw the two of them, she rolled her eyes so hard that she almost went to heaven.
"What are you two doing here? There is no food for you two at home!"
Ye Annian ignored her and took off Ye Chenghe's money bag and stuffed it into her hand.
"What is this?" Wu Xianglian held the money bag and was confused for a while.
Jiang Zhu said: "Ye Chenghe was beaten at the hospital in the town. He asked us to give you this money bag. There are a total of eighty taels of silver notes in it."
After he finished speaking, he pulled Ye Anyian and turned around to leave.
Wu Xianglian screamed from behind: "Come back!"
"What do you mean by this? What do you mean Cheng He was beaten by someone? Who was he beaten by?!"
"I don't know." Ye Anyian said calmly.
"How could you not know?"
"Did you two watch him being beaten?"
"Damn it! He is your biological father! Brother Nian, what are you worried about?!" Wu Xianglian cried and howled again.
Ye Annian was too lazy to listen to her acting out any more, so he pulled Jiang Zhu away and left.
The two of them walked faster and faster, leaving the crying behind them without looking back.
In the old Ye family, Wu Xianglian cried for a while and attracted Ye Quan.
Ye Quan snatched the money bag from her hand, took out the banknotes inside and counted them.
After counting, the old man's hand holding the pipe and pot shook like chaff, and his wrinkled old face quickly turned gray.
"Old man?" Wu Xianglian was startled by his appearance.
"What's wrong with you? Don't scare me!"
"What did they both say just now?" Ye Quan tried his best to control his trembling hands and took a deep puff of the flue.
"Just, let's just say that Cheng He was beaten by someone at the hospital. Cheng He asked them to give us this bank note."
Ye Quan's eyes suddenly turned red and he sighed: "What a sin. It's me, I'm the one who harmed San'er!"
After he finished speaking, he blew out a bunch of smoke rings and said to Wu Xianglian: "Let's go, pack up and go to town."
Although Wu Xianglian didn't quite understand what was going on now, she still considered her son important at the moment, so she hurried back to the house to pack her things.
Ye Quan, who was standing in the yard, clutched the bulging money bag tightly in his hand, his legs went weak, and he collapsed on the ground.
He was so self-righteous that he actually thought he had a handle on Zhou Zaiqian.
He also said that Zhou Zaiqian could either get married or pay to cancel the engagement, so that Zhou Zaiqian could make his own choice.
He looked at the money bag in his hand and smiled bitterly.
Zhou Zaiqian has now given him an answer, eighty taels and a beating, the marriage must be withdrawn.