Chapter 106 A murder caused by a bucket of water
The Bamboo Garden is quiet, and the room is full of books on weekdays.
This was the first time Chen Ping smelled alcohol here, and his expression couldn't help changing.
"Teacher?"
The drunk person turned out to be Zhao Wenhe.
The old man who was always strict with himself never showed the slightest moment of misconduct in front of his students.
At this moment, he was leaning on the bamboo coffee table, smelling of alcohol, and his eyes were filled with sadness.
Chen Ping hurriedly stepped forward, "Teacher, what's wrong with you?"
Zhao Wenhe remained silent, squinted his eyes for a moment, and then said after a long time: "It's you."
"It's cold at night, how can the teacher drink cold wine here!" Chen Ping poured warm water.
Zhao Wenhe is nearly sixty years old. Drinking alcohol is harmful to the body, and getting drunk is even more undesirable.
"What?" Zhao Wenhe puffed up his sleeves and sounded aggrieved like a child, "Why don't you just drink some wine!"
Chen Ping tilted his head and looked carefully, "Teacher? Someone made you angry?"
"Human?" Zhao Wenhe grabbed the wine glass and smashed it on the table, "Did you know that there is another war in the north? The Yi and Di people are disturbing the country. I don't know when it will stop!"
War, war again.
Chen Ping was silent, running his hand along Zhao Wenhe's back, and said: "Teacher, please calm down, the court is handling it."
"The imperial court has long been overwhelmed with care for itself..." Zhao Wenhe paused, looked up to the sky and sighed, "With the war, I don't know how many people will be displaced again."
It is still a bit unreal to Chen Ping that war will come so close to him one day.
Zhao Wenhe was so drunk that he fell asleep and said nothing, so he helped him to rest.
Chen Ping suddenly thought of Li Feng.
I don’t know how Li Feng feels in his heart at this moment.
At noon the next day, Cheng Cheng returned to Zhuyuan. Before he put down his things, he knocked on his window.
"I happened to see your signature at the concierge," Cheng Cheng handed over the envelope, "It must be your home letter."
Chen Ping had just finished washing up, with some drops of water on his face, "I just received a letter at the beginning of the month..."
I took it and opened it to browse quickly, but my eyes suddenly stopped.
"Something happened at home?"
Cheng Cheng saw that he looked wrong and subconsciously moved closer.
In the letters, the handwriting is clear and the sentences are sonorous.
"A war broke out in the north, resulting in heavy casualties. Mr. Li mourned the misfortune of our people's livelihood and was angry with his ambitions. Now he has joined the army in anger and went to the northern border to guard his country! Chen Jun is young and also has an angry heart, so he goes with me.
If you know this, you will need to find another reliable person for future correspondence."
With less than a hundred words, Li Feng wrote so powerfully that his anger reached the sky.
The two looked at each other with mixed emotions.
What Chen Ping thought about was that on this battlefield of cold weapons, victory was almost achieved by piles of corpses, but both Li Feng and Chen Jun actually went.
Cheng Cheng, however, was thinking about the probability of the recruits dying in battle on the border battlefield, and looked at Chen Ping with a little more sadness in his eyes.
Recruiting troops to enter the customs at this critical moment is certainly a good time to make achievements.
But for most people, it is extremely difficult to leave the battlefield alive.
"Do you want to reply?" After a long time, Cheng Cheng said gently: "The recruit team may not have set off yet."
Chen Ping was silent for a moment, shook his head and said, "They have made up their mind, not to mention they have already joined the army. If they quit, they will be deserters."
Li Feng is a scholar with an awe-inspiring character, and he disdains it.
As for Chen Jun, his mother Zhou couldn't stop him, so how could he persuade him to come back?
"Don't worry, although there is a war at the border, new soldiers still need to be trained before they can go to the battlefield."
But everyone knows that the war is urgent, and even if you train, you won’t train for too long.
Chen Ping nodded gently, obviously not comforted.
Cheng Cheng wanted to comfort him, but couldn't find a way for him, so he had to take a small glass bottle from his waist and hand it to him.
"Don't think about it. I'm going to give you something. It's a popular thing in the streets now. I asked someone to wait in line for several days to buy it. It's called perfume. You've never seen it before!"
Chen Ping stared at the perfume bottle and smiled slightly, "It is indeed rare."
"This is something from He's Jinxiu Pavilion. It's a pity that his products are too small, otherwise I really want to order ten or eight bottles from him in advance..."
The topic changed and the war was not mentioned again.
After Zhao Wenhe woke up, he seemed to have completely forgotten what happened last night, and with a straight face, he added two more policy assessments to Chen Ping.
......
The time of studying always passes quickly, and a year goes by in a blink of an eye.
In the thirteenth year of the Apocalypse, news came from the north in May that the border had stabilized after several consecutive victories.
But Chen Ping has no news about Li Feng and Chen Jun.
The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and although it has rained a few times, it is only a drop in the bucket.
Chen Ping came to Tianxiang Pavilion in the evening. This was the store He Qing chose and everyone decided on the name together.
There were four or five hired workers working inside. When Chen Tianling saw Chen Ping arriving, he quickly entered the room and took out his account book, regardless of how sweaty he was.
"Young Master, you came just in time. My brother said yesterday that he was going to deliver the account book to you."
Chen Ping opened the account book and saw that there were more than 300 orders for perfume reservations alone, and he had collected nearly 2,000 taels of silver last month.
This does not include the income from the counter. Excluding costs and profit sharing, it is still a large amount of money.
Chen Ping looked at Chen Tianling, "The orders this month have doubled, are you busy enough?"
Chen Tianling smiled and narrowed his eyes, "Master, don't worry, now you don't have to run back and forth, and delivery is convenient."
Chen Ping put down his account book again and said, "The weather is too hot, so it's okay to put the delivery business on hold for now."
But Chen Tianling quit, shaking his head repeatedly and saying: "Young master, you don't know that many big families in this city have high status, and they have to visit in person to leave a good impression."
Just like the "Lu Mansion" she went to last time, she remembered clearly that the prefect's surname was Lu.
Chen Tianling wanted to tell Chen Ping about this, but was not sure whether his guess was right, so he muttered without saying anything.
At the same time, the atmosphere in the Lu Mansion was gloomy.
The prefect Lu Wei was sitting in his study, with a look of deep worry in his eyes.
Shaoyin sighed at the side, "Sir, the water level in the main river has begun to drop. Is there no reply from the capital?"
"The Ministry of Household Affairs' finances are tight. It rains less in Qianzhou than in previous years. How can the imperial court take care of us?"
Lu Wei sighed, stood up and came to the window, looking at the cloudless sky.
"I hope the situation will be better in June and July."
......
The weather was cloudy for a while in early June, but there was still no rainfall, and then the high temperature quickly returned.
In July, the scorching sun overlooks the earth like a magic eye, making people almost unable to open their eyes.
The weather was too hot, so Cheng Cheng didn't go home and spent every day hanging out in the Zhuyuan.
There are secluded areas all over here, and it’s much cooler than outside.
Chen Ping is always sensitive, but it has only had seven or eight light rains since May.
If this situation continues, I'm afraid that an inevitable drought will come soon.
"The weather is so abnormal," Cheng Cheng murmured, "If there is a drought, it will be troublesome."
"It's not certain yet," Chen Ping said with luck. "The temperature has been cold these years. Maybe it will rain if we wait a little longer."
Zhao Wenhe's expression did not relax and he said worriedly: "Lack of water is certain."
Zhao Wenhe's prophecy came true, and soon a well in the academy sank, with moss peeling off both sides of the well.
The temperature suddenly increased sharply again, and even the bamboo garden felt like a steamer.
The high temperature continues throughout Qianzhou, the farmland has dried up and cracked, and the soil is as hard as stone.
The government sent people to dig wells everywhere in an attempt to solve the water shortage problem, but ultimately found nothing.
When the news reached the ears of the people, they suddenly became panicked.
"The beaches of the dry river are all chapped by the sun, what should we do!"
"Oh, the well in my house has dried up, and irrigation is a problem. What will I do with the autumn harvest?"
"The fields look like this. Is there still an autumn harvest? It's better to go to other places and buy some food quickly."
When Chen Tianling came to deliver the account books, he also complained, "It has been too dry in the past two months. We don't have enough well water, and the scheduled volume has dropped a lot."
Seeing her frown, Chen Ping comforted her: "Relax, you will get better after this period of time. Besides, business is not the most important thing right now."
He continued, "I see that people in the city are in panic, and even the academy has been affected. You must prepare in advance."
"Master, do you want us to collect grain?" Chen Tianling asked.
"Yes." Chen Ping nodded: "If possible, prepare more for emergencies."
Although several rice shops in the city are open, there is a lot less food, and people have already begun to stock up on food.
Things are more valuable when they are scarce. Once a drought occurs, food prices will inevitably rise.
Chen Tianling smiled and said, "Don't worry, sir, we started stocking up on food a month ago. This is just to prevent food grabbing in bad years."
Only then did Chen Ping remember that they were all people who had gone through hardships, and he was afraid that they might be more experienced than himself in filling their stomachs.
Chen Tianrui looked troubled: "It's just that the water shortage problem is not easy to solve."
"Hey, there is a tributary of a dry river in the center of Zhengxing Mansion. Who would have thought about the lack of water on weekdays?" Chen Tianling sighed.
After Chen Ping explained, he left the academy and prepared to go to Wanhe to have a look.
The sky is getting dark, and people are walking around carrying wooden barrels on both sides of the river beach. However, the bottom riverbed is almost exposed, and there is still much available water.
Suddenly, a cry of surprise came from the front.
"The fight started!"
Chen Ping saw a burly man carrying a bucket from a distance, cursing: "You bastard! How dare you steal my water?"
"Who stole it? Who stole it!" A young man on the opposite side shouted with a red face, "Anyone can go to this river, why can you only draw water and I can't?"
"Fart! That bucket of water has obviously been prepared by me!"
"Who saw it? Who?"
The big man was so angry that he glared angrily, clenched his fist and hit the young man on the head, "I'm going to fucking let you steal the water!"
Not to be outdone, the young man also shouted loudly: "Oh, murder! Someone is committing murder in the street!"
The two punched each other hard, and blood was seen in a few blows, which scared the onlookers to screams.
Suddenly a shout came from outside the crowd: "Stop it! Anyone who dares to do anything again will be taken back to the Yamen!"
Several big-bodied government officials squeezed in and held the two of them down.
"What are you doing?" the Yamen scolded: "His head is covered with blood. Do you want to go to jail?"
The Yamen official frowned angrily and calmed down the scene.
The two people calmed down immediately, clenching their fists and not daring to speak.
The Yamen asked angrily: "I want to ask you a question, who made the first move?"
The young man covered his swollen eyes and spoke first: "It's him! This reckless man saw me passing by carrying water, so he accused me of stealing his water and beat me up."
The strong man yelled in response: "What happened to your mother was obviously you who stole my water and let me catch you!"
The Yamen's face was green and red, and he was very angry, "What do you think I am doing, just for a bucket of water?"
"I spent the whole day collecting that bucket of water!" The man jumped with anger, "Sir, you put it lightly. Of course there is water in the yamen, but where can we people find water to drink?"
"Okay," the Yamen official was upset. "If you fight in the street and disrupt people's livelihood, take them all away!"
The two of them panicked and wanted to argue, but the officials had no time to listen to nonsense and took the person away directly.
The river beach quickly returned to calm, but people's hearts could not calm down.