EBE Chapter 359 Danger
Chapter 359 Danger
Xiao Shi was overjoyed and immediately thanked him, "Thank you for giving me this opportunity, boss. I will definitely work for you for the rest of my life, until I'm old."
Then, Xiao Shi walked up to the old man and offered him two silver ingots, but was refused.
"You don't need that much. Two ingots of silver can be used to find a famous doctor at the biggest clinic outside."
Xiao Shi hurriedly said, "We've been searching all day and have seen several doctors, all of whom said that Ya'er is not going to survive. Those doctors' medical skills are nowhere near as good as yours. You are a compassionate doctor who saves lives and is truly deserving of the title of a miraculous healer."
The old man was amused by his words about a miracle doctor who could bring the dead back to life.
In the end, he only agreed to accept one ingot of silver and then "kicked" everyone out the door.
"Stop dawdling and leave already. Don't disturb my rest. Don't ever come here again. You're so annoying."
Although the old man was eccentric, he was also kind-hearted, and his act of helping others today earned everyone's respect.
Sitting in the carriage, Xiao Shi took out another silver ingot that the old man had confiscated, intending to return it to Lin Qingchuan.
He said, “Master, the old man only accepted one of these two ingots of silver. Please return the rest to you. I know you were giving me face just now, but I am a countryman with a dark complexion. I just say what I mean and don’t care about formalities. I am so grateful to you today. You drove us to town to find a doctor and gave me some silver. I really don’t know how to repay you.”
Such a good employer is hard to find even with a lantern; one can only imagine how much good fortune they must have accumulated in their past lives.
Lin Qingchuan reminded him, "Have you forgotten what the old man just told you? Let's go to the market first to buy some tonics for Ya'er, then buy a chicken, and some brown sugar and stuff. You don't have any silver on you, so what will you use to buy these things if you give me back this silver ingot?"
That's true," Xiao Shi's face gradually turned red.
In the end, he had no choice but to accept the money from his employer, but he repeatedly promised that he would return the money to his employer once he received his wages.
Lin Qingchuan is no longer the same person he used to be. He was no longer the one who worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk, treated like a mule by his parents, and was so poor that he couldn't even afford a single copper coin. Now, his family has more money than they can spend.
Along the way, Xiao Shi held his daughter in his arms, glancing at his sleeping wife from time to time. His eyes showed both heartache and worry for his wife, as well as the excitement of becoming a father for the first time.
He seemed to come alive again, and everyone was happy for him.
The carriage bumped along, and Ya'er woke up halfway through. She thanked everyone and, seeing that her daughter was safe and sound, breathed a sigh of relief and fell asleep again.
The newborn baby girl slept peacefully in Xiao Shi's arms, occasionally stirring, which was incredibly heartwarming.
They first went to the market and bought a chicken, ribs, brown sugar, and some pastries that Ya'er liked. For Ya'er's sake, Xiao Shi was willing to spend money this time.
Everyone loaded the things Xiao Shi had bought onto the carriage and together they took the family of three and the midwife back home.
The more somber the journey, the more joyful the return, with laughter echoing throughout the way...
……
Before we knew it, half a month had passed. As the heat dissipated, it was already autumn with clear skies and crisp air, and the crops in the fields were gradually ripening.
One day, Lin Qingchuan went to Wanhe Restaurant to find Manager Su. It was noon, and the restaurant was packed with customers. The manager and the waiters were all extremely busy.
It was also because Xiao Tang helped Manager Su's Wanhe Restaurant develop a unique menu that was different from the dishes at Qianzhenlou. As a result, Wanhe Restaurant and Qianzhenlou were the largest and most successful restaurants in Dushui County.
He found Manager Su among the busy crowd. Manager Su was busy directing the staff to arrange seats for the guests, so he silently went to the counter to wait.
As the owner of many restaurants, Manager Su is still so considerate of his employees and personally helps them. It's rare to see an owner like him.
A full hour passed before Manager Su finally had some free time. When he turned around and saw Lin Qingchuan waiting for him, he was very surprised. "Brother Qingchuan, when did you arrive? Why didn't you call me? I've kept you waiting here."
Lin Qingchuan smiled and said, "I just arrived and saw you were busy, so I waited patiently. There are many staff members at Qianzhenlou, and with Xiaotang and the others there, things won't fall apart even if I'm not there. It's different here. You're not in charge, so it's all the manager's responsibility to direct things. If the manager gets tired, there's no one to replace him."
Hearing Lin Qingchuan speak, the steward grinned and said, "Qingchuan, I can't tell if you're praising me or insulting me. Next time, tell me in advance and I'll take you to the manager's study to wait."
"It's nothing serious. I just had some free time right now, so I waited a little longer. There's no need to go to the study."
The manager nodded and continued to attend to the guests, busy with tasks and running around non-stop.
Manager Su led Lin Qingchuan toward the study. The erudite Manager Su first poured him a cup of tea before asking, "Are the herbs in the field almost ripe? Did you come to find me to go to the herb field to check on the situation?"
"As expected of someone from a prestigious family, highly educated and intelligent. Before I even explained my purpose, you guessed it immediately. Luckily, I don't have any ulterior motives, otherwise you would have seen right through me at a glance."
Manager Su shook his head and smiled, "I don't have that ability. I just guessed that the restaurant is operating normally and making a lot of profit every day. Only the medicinal herb field is about to be harvested, so I guessed that you came to me for this matter. Let's finish this cup of tea and then set off for the medicinal herb field."
"Alright, the carriage is outside, I'm all ready."
Manager Su felt that although the Lin family came from farming backgrounds and had little education, they were very well-mannered, upright, and considerate of others. Cooperating with such a family would be the most relaxed and pleasant experience.
After finishing their tea and chatting for a while, Manager Su went out to give instructions and make arrangements for the steward before leaving the restaurant with Lin Qingchuan. The two then boarded a carriage and set off for the medicinal herb field.
The carriage swayed and rattled along the way, and after about half an hour, they arrived at their destination.
In the boundless medicinal herb fields, the leaves were turning yellow, already in the golden autumn scenery, a sight that was breathtaking.
At a glance, one can clearly sense that this season's harvest must be good. Thanks to favorable weather, the medicinal plants in the field have thick roots and large leaves, and one can imagine that the medicinal herbs on the roots are also growing big and plump.
It was the harvest season, and the medicinal herb field didn't belong to him alone. After thinking it over, they decided that since they were planting it together, it would show their sincerity in cooperating by coming to check on the field together. If he always came alone, it would seem as if he had ulterior motives.
Although neither of them would think of the other that way, there are advantages to being together. They can discuss things together when they encounter problems, and after checking the maturity of the medicinal herbs, they can also decide on a date for the workers to start harvesting the herbs.
At this moment, the sun was high in the sky and the weather was unbearably hot. The workers in the medicinal herb field had already started going home for lunch and were gradually returning.
The two walked along the ridge, carefully examining the medicinal herbs along the way. Every now and then, they would dig up two herbs and pick the fruit from their roots for comparison.
These thousands of acres of medicinal fields are planted with many different kinds of medicinal herbs. In the past two years, they have gradually started to cultivate and plant rare and precious medicinal herbs. There are many things they don't understand, and they are exploring as they plant.
Shopkeeper Su walked into a field of angelica, and looking into the distance, he saw that a patch of herbs in the field seemed to have fallen over, which puzzled him greatly.
There's been no wind or rain lately, and the medicinal herbs' fruits are still on the roots and stems, while the leaves are gradually turning yellow. There's no reason for these herbs to fall over on their own!
So he immediately lifted one corner of his long robe and tucked it into his belt, then strode into the medicinal herb field, carefully avoiding the herbs as he waded through, afraid of trampling them if he were to damage the soon-to-be-ripe herbs.
When he got closer, good heavens! A large patch of medicinal herbs had been stolen. The stems and leaves of the herbs were lying haphazardly on the ground, and the roots had been completely stripped clean.
It's obvious that someone has been stealing medicinal herbs. It can't have been someone from too far away. People from other counties or even further away wouldn't know that medicinal herbs are grown here. It could only be a thief among the nearby farmers or... their own workers.
Manager Su frowned, his face darkening. He snorted coldly, picked up two medicinal herbs and their stems and leaves, and waved them at Lin Qingchuan.
"Brother Qingchuan... Brother Qingchuan, come here quickly!"
Not far away, he heard Manager Su calling him urgently. Lin Qingchuan looked up in confusion in the direction Manager Su was calling him.
"Manager Su, what happened?"
Shopkeeper Su was afraid that if he shouted the matter out loud and told Lin Qingchuan from a distance, the workers who were weeding on the other side of the field would hear it, so he could only continue to wave to Lin Qingchuan to signal him to come over.
Hearing the urgency in Manager Su's voice, he wondered if there was something wrong with the medicinal herbs.
He had a bad feeling!
Since pests sometimes occur when growing rice, the same thing might happen when growing medicinal herbs. Could it be that the medicinal herbs where Manager Su is standing have been infested with pests?
Pests are no joke. Insects reproduce extremely quickly. At first, there's only a small patch, but after three to five days, it becomes a large patch, and after a few more days, almost an entire field is infested with insects.
If insects grow in the medicinal herbs, the herbs on these thousands of acres of land will instantly become worthless!
How can this be done?
Lin Qingchuan realized what was happening and immediately ran over, not caring whether he would step on the medicinal herbs in the field.
He was extremely anxious, his hands were trembling, fearing that the medicinal herbs on these thousands of acres of land would go to waste, and that the hard-earned money would vanish in an instant, leaving him with very little money even if he tried to sell them.
When he ran over and stood in front of Manager Su, he saw that the medicinal herbs that Manager Su had pulled out were withered from the sun and looked like they hadn't been picked yet.
Manager Su was holding a tiny, incomplete piece of Codonopsis pilosula in his hand, his brows furrowed and his face dark with anger.
Lin Qingchuan asked, "What happened? How did someone pull out a piece of this Codonopsis pilosula?" It was obvious that a thief had been hired. He looked at Manager Su with a bewildered expression.
Suppressing his anger, Manager Su squatted down and piled up the scattered medicinal herbs and leaves on the ground, revealing the pitted soil where the codonopsis had been dug up. Some unevenly grown and extremely small codonopsis remained in the pits. Manager Su reached out and pulled out a few and held them in his hand.
“Look at these small, unremarkable Codonopsis pilosula plants. They were obviously broken off and left in the soil when people were harvesting them. I’m sure someone stole the herbs and pulled them out by hand.”
Lin Qingchuan nodded in agreement. Suddenly remembering something, he immediately said, "Manager Su, let's quickly divide the work and check if there are any other places in the nearby fields that are similar to the one that was stolen from."
"Okay, but don't shout it out loud, lest the workers hear it."
If they don't make a big fuss, only the two of them will know about this. The workers will continue working in the fields on the other side of the ridge, which will allow the two of them to act, confirm the area of the stolen medicinal herbs, and discuss countermeasures.
So they immediately pretended to be routinely inspecting the medicinal herbs and "strolled around" everywhere, but in reality they were carefully inspecting the medicinal herb fields.
One or two places would be fine, but they discovered that several medicinal herbs had been lost in the surrounding medicinal fields.
The situation was somewhat better in the medicinal fields closer to the edge of the field, but the area further away from the edge was much larger where the herbs were lost. A rough calculation of the lost herbs would immediately amount to over a thousand taels of silver, which is equivalent to several days' wages for all the workers.
"Someone actually dared to steal our medicinal herbs from our herb field! It's outrageous! When you called me just now, I thought the herbs in the field had been infested with pests. To think that something so terrible could happen is simply too much. We must find the thieves as soon as possible, teach them a lesson they won't forget, and then hand them over to the authorities. We must teach them a real lesson!"
Lin Chuan clenched his fists in anger, heartbroken at the loss in the medicinal herb field. He came from a farming family and had earned countless amounts of silver, but he was used to being frugal. After all, he was not someone who had grown up in a wealthy family and was not a person who had been raised in luxury. Losing several thousand taels of silver at once was no small matter for him.
If he hadn't called Manager Su over to check on the medicinal herb field today, he might not have discovered this matter if he had just wandered around by himself.
"It looks like that thief has been stealing for a while now," Manager Su analyzed, his anger barely concealed. "These days we've been so busy with the restaurant's business, thinking that with so many workers in the fields, no one would dare to have any crooked thoughts. But this still happened. It's infuriating!"
He was determined to find a way to find the thief, teach him a lesson, and make him return all the money he had earned from stealing medicinal herbs!
They knew beforehand that no one would be unmoved by these thousands of acres of medicinal herbs, but they thought that the herbs were not yet fully mature and the thieves would not be able to act so quickly. They sent some people to sleep in the medicinal herb fields at night to keep watch. They did not expect that the thieves had already started stealing.
Lin Qingchuan said angrily, "They are too arrogant. They treat our medicinal herb fields as their own money-making treasure trove. If we catch them, we will not let them off easily."
"Of course, we will not let them off lightly!"
"But who exactly is that thief? Maybe he's one of the workers in our medicinal herb field, since you always say that those who are near the water get the moon first?" Lin Qingchuan asked.