latelenovela Chapter 350 Fugitive Slave
Chapter 350 Fugitive Slave
Chen Wenfang asked Uncle Hu to carry a jar of syrup and led Aunt Hu to the village to teach the villagers how to make dried peaches.
Making dried peaches is extremely simple: just remove the pits, add sugar, marinate overnight, then cook and let them air dry until semi-dry.
Because time was tight and their village was really poor, Chen Wenfang taught them how to make sugar-free peaches. They used firmer peaches, peeled and pitted them, cooked them, and then dried them in the sun for two days. Alternatively, they could dry them on a heated brick bed. Looking at the hillside covered with thatch, Chen Wenfang also had Aunt Hu teach them how to make syrup.
It was too late, so Wang Erniu and his group had to stay overnight in the village.
The next morning, someone actually brought over some dried peaches that had been made.
"My lady, please try my dried peaches and see how they are." A girl of about thirteen or fourteen years old came over carrying a small basket of dried peaches.
"Mmm, it's delicious. It's slightly sweet and sour, chewy, and the moisture is just right. It's very good." Chen Wenfang picked up a dried peach and ate it. "Did you dry it on the kang (heated brick bed)?"
"Yes, I was afraid it would burn, so I even got up last night to turn it over." The little girl was dark-skinned and thin, her sweaty, yellowish hair stuck to her face, her round eyes full of pride, and she watched her eat with satisfaction, holding the winnowing basket.
The other children immediately looked on expectantly.
"Sister, give me one to try." Chen Xuanyu said sweetly.
"Okay! You can have whatever you want!" The little girl generously stuffed the whole winnowing basket into his hands.
"Thank you, sister, you're so kind." Fifteen quickly accepted, her sweet words making the little girl's face turn a deep red.
"No, you're welcome." The little girl mustered her courage to communicate with him.
"How can I take it all? Here, take the money." Aunt Hu was picky but soft-hearted, so she took a small piece of silver and stuffed it into her hand.
"No, that won't do. The sir even taught us how to make dried peaches. What's wrong with eating some?" The girl hurriedly refused, and in her haste, she dropped the silver and ran away.
"That's right, that's right, these peaches are nothing." A villager saw this and offered a word of advice.
"This child, sigh!" Aunt Hu dusted herself off and picked up the silver again.
"Go and give her the money. She worked hard all night to make this. She can't just eat it for free," Chen Wenfang instructed the children, not wanting them to develop a habit of taking advantage of others.
Chen Xuanyu responded and left. No one knows what they said to the child, but the little girl, with tears in her eyes, took the silver and came out to thank Chen Wenfang.
With the matter settled, Wang Erniu led his troops away. Before leaving, he bought two hundred catties of peaches, putting some on the cart and distributing the rest to the soldiers as a kind of fruit supply for the journey.
The village chief watched them leave, then realized he had forgotten to ask the important person's name.
"Second Girl, did you hear what they called that general yesterday?"
"I think his name is General Wang. Grandpa Lü's little brother gave me a jar of this. He said it's delicious, but a bit spicy. Have you tried it?" Er Ya opened the jar and swallowed hard, looking at the green and white, oily, fragrant chili sauce.
"This is it!" The village chief picked up the jar and examined it carefully, touching the large, specially made "Chen" character on the jar. "So she was Madam Chen! No wonder she was willing to teach us. She's truly a kind person!"
Behind an old house in the village, Zhao Yang and his two companions sat in a corner eating peaches.
"This Wang Erniu is actually a really good official!" Zhao Yang hesitated for a moment. So far, it seemed Wang Erniu was even paying for peaches, and his wife was teaching people how to make dried peaches for free!
"Big brother, how about we stop killing them?" After finishing a peach, Ah Xing took out a bag of dried peaches from his pocket and started eating them. This bespectacled guy had been eyeing the other person's food for a long time.
"Smack!" A-Yue punched his head hard and snatched the dried peach. "What are you thinking? If we don't do it, someone else will. The master is only letting it go because of our years of working together. You try not doing it? You'll be floating in some river tomorrow!" Hmm, this thing actually suits her taste, so A-Yue put it directly into her bosom.
"You hit me again!" Ah Xing rubbed his head, but didn't snatch it back. He didn't like sweets, so surprisingly, he didn't argue. He was just testing him...
"They're off! They've set off!" Zhao Yang watched as Wang Erniu's army set off and followed them.
They followed closely along the way, but Wang Erniu was so good at protecting Chen Wenfang that they couldn't find any opportunity to assassinate her alone. Wang Erniu's martial arts skills were not weak, and they dared not make a move without a chance of success.
After more than a month, and having finished eating dried meat on the fifteenth, the carriage crossed Jiangxi and entered Fujian. The destination of this trip was Quanzhou. Chen Wenfang changed the children into light clothes. The weather in July was already very hot, and they often traveled in the early morning and late evening. On this day, they found a forest with a pond to set up camp and rest.
While adults are tired and need a midday rest, children are full of energy and don't need to sleep at all at noon. Usually, once the carriage starts moving around three or four in the afternoon, they fall asleep as if they're on a rocking horse.
At this moment, the three children in the carriage were banging on the carriage out of boredom, wanting to get off and play.
"Brother, take us to play in the water? It's so hot, I want to catch fish." Fifteen clung to First Year's hand and acted coquettishly.
"Brother Chu Yi, I'm really hot, I'll just play for a little while." Chen Xuanyu quickly hugged his other hand.
After playing in the woods for a while, the three kids complained about the heat and wanted to go into the water, so they used all their tricks to pester the first-year student.
Being forced to watch these three monkeys in the first year of junior high is already annoying enough, but now they want me to go into the water too? What are they thinking? That's too dangerous, of course not.
"No, you can just play in the woods. It's too hot and sunny outside, and we don't know how deep the water is. You can't play there."
In the first month, he adopted the imposing manner of an older brother, his face drooping fiercely.
"Ugh, I hate you!" Fifteen pleaded for so long, but she didn't expect First Year to be so uncooperative. Suddenly feeling embarrassed, she ran away.
"Hey, don't be angry!" Chen Xuanyu, who was actually giving advice from behind the scenes, saw that things had gotten out of hand and hurriedly chased after them.
Xiao Hao followed.
"You come back here!" Chu Yi roared from behind, furious.
The forest was quite large, and the soldiers were all stationed in one place. On the first day, worried that they would make noise, he took them to another place to play.
It was already somewhat remote, but who knew that the fifteenth would still go out.
After practicing their light-footed skills, the children ran incredibly fast, disappearing in the blink of an eye.
"Oh dear, I really am..." The first-year student resignedly chased after the boy, covered in sweat. This kid just keeps getting more and more mischievous as he gets older. Give me back my cute and well-behaved fifteenth child...
"How was it? I did a good job, didn't I?" Fifteen said, running around and boasting.
"Very good!" Chen Xuanyu gave him a thumbs up.
"Hurry up, they're about to catch up," Xiao Hao urged.
It turned out that when the carriage passed through the woods, Chen Xuanyu glanced out of the carriage and saw a messy head of hair on a tree with red flowers. The head turned around and saw a child.
Chen Xuanyu swore he hadn't misread it.
Xiao Hao and his companion said they didn't see it.
The three argued incessantly in the carriage, and finally decided to take advantage of the rest to come and see, since it wasn't too far away anyway.