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Tan Yiliang pushed open the door and hurried inside, making sure to quickly shut it behind him, as though trying to keep the cold wind from blowing into the house. “Father, great news!”
Old Tan, sitting by the fire, turned to look. “What’s going on? What good news?”
Tan Yiliang glanced at his travel-worn clothes, then smiled as he walked over and said, “Father, the Lingzhi is alive! It’s alive!”
Old Tan was taken aback and replied, “Is it really alive?”
Tan Yiliang nodded and leaned closer to the fire. “It really is.”
Old Tan slapped his thigh and laughed, “Well, that’s truly something! It really came back to life!”
The Lingzhi, which Tan Erqian had brought down from the mountain earlier, had been grown from a decayed tree that was filled with small Lingzhi clusters and seeds.
Tan Yiliang had been carefully nurturing it, and it had been doing well for a while, but as winter arrived and the weather turned cold, the Lingzhi couldn’t withstand the chill and was about to die.
To save it, Tan Yiliang had gone to seek help from some herbal farmers, setting up insulated tents to keep the Lingzhi warm, thus saving it from freezing.
Old Tan gave him a pat on the shoulder and said, “If your second brother knew, he’d surely thank you properly.”
Tan Yiliang stretched out both hands to warm them by the fire. “There’s no need for thanks. I was just afraid that I might kill the Lingzhi. He would’ve blamed me for that.”
Old Tan added more firewood to the stove, saying, “You brothers have such a good relationship. He would never blame you, not a chance.”
Tan Yiliang leaned in closer to the fire. “That Lingzhi… is his lifeline!”
Just then, while Wan Chunmei was feeding Little Qiyue some porridge, she asked, “By the way, did Erqian say when he would be back?”
Tan Yiliang looked up. “Mother, it should be soon. It’s already been more than ten days since he left.”
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a knock at the door.
“Father, Mother, Big Brother, Third Brother, Fourth Brother, Fifth Brother, Seventh Sister! I’m back!”
Tan Erqian’s cheerful voice rang out from outside the window.
Wan Chunmei, who had been holding the spoon, froze for a moment, then quickly turned around with a smile. “Erqian, you’re back!”
At that moment, the door was pushed open.
A young boy, dressed in a dark blue silk robe, rushed in and quickly turned around to close the door behind him.
Over the past few months, his skin had become pale and smooth, and from a distance, he looked like the young master of some household.
“Father, Mother, look at what I’ve brought you this time!”
He finished speaking and took a bundle of things from his hands.
Wan Chunmei waved at him and smiled. “It’s cold outside, come over and warm yourself by the fire.”
Tan Erqian laughed and moved over, squeezing in beside Tan Yiliang.
Old Tan stood up and began to open the bundle that Tan Erqian had brought. Inside, he found several large bundles of noodles.
In their area, rice was the main crop, and people mostly ate rice, with very few growing wheat. So, things like flour, noodles, and steamed buns were quite rare.
Fine noodles like these were even rarer.
Tan Erqian explained, “Recently, the Bai family’s rice mill started selling noodles. The shopkeeper, Bai, knows that we have two little children, and he said that noodles are good for children, so he asked me to bring some back.”
Wan Chunmei looked up and saw that they were indeed good quality, and the noodles, if broken and cooked well, would be just right for a child as young as Little Qiyue.
She couldn’t help but sigh, “The shopkeeper Bai is such a good person.”
Tan Erqian nodded in agreement, “Yes, the master is really a good person. He doesn’t have the airs of a wealthy family at all. He’s the best person I’ve ever met.”
Then, he lowered his voice and spoke quietly, “Mother, there’s something you might not know.”
“What is it?”
Old Tan leaned in to listen as well.
Tan Erqian glanced at the next door and said, “The eldest son of the Chen family, Chen Shian, was kicked out by the shopkeeper Bai. I think he’ll probably bring his family back tonight.”
Old Tan and Wan Chunmei were both surprised and asked, “He was kicked out? What did he do?”
Tan Erqian replied, “That Chen Shian has been giving me a hard time, thinking I’m too young to stand up for myself. But he didn’t know the master was watching all this. Recently, he even tried to falsify accounts to frame me, but the master caught him red-handed and kicked him out.”
“So easily kicked out? Doesn’t his father-in-law work at the medicine shop?” Old Tan asked.
Tan Erqian continued quietly, “Grandfather Sun was furious about it too. He was so upset, he just gave up on him.”
As soon as he finished speaking, loud shouting came from the next door.
“You little rascal, you’ve really embarrassed me! Get out! Get out!”