Chapter 22: It's easy to go up the mountain but hard to go down
"You're finally here. I thought you weren't coming and were going to go by yourself. Hey... who is he?"
Zhu Hao quickly walked over and looked at the complaining look on the boy's face. His eyes quickly swept to a child behind him whose face was full of shrewdness but a little snotty.
The young man said as a matter of course: "It's okay to bring a helper with you when you go out, or to have a follower, right?"
Zhu Hao pretended to be reluctant and frowned: "We agreed to divide it by the number of people. What will he say? You two can only be counted as one share."
Before the young man could bargain with Zhu Hao, the child behind him grabbed him and pulled him to the side for a distance. He looked around cautiously and then whispered, "Third sister, let's go back. Father won't let us go out. He said it's very dangerous outside."
Or maybe the little guy is really honest, or he has little contact with outsiders. Just this one sentence made Zhu Hao feel like he had discovered a treasure.
Could it be that this child...
Is he the future Ming Emperor Zhu Houcong?
"We agreed. You have to listen to me when you come out. And you can't call me Third Sister. You have to call me Third Brother. And don't say anything when you go back. Then I will give you half of the rabbits we catch."
After instructing his brother, the young man came over and said to Zhu Hao, "There are two of us and we contributed more. How can we only get half? This is not fair."
"Yes, it's not fair!"
The child who had just been arguing with his sister about whether to return to the palace has begun to support his sister.
Zhu Hao said: "But I am the one who contributed the most, and I discovered the place. I only asked you to come along because I thought you would treat the rabbits well. Why are you being unreasonable?"
The child immediately said to his sister, "What he said does make sense. We don't know how to catch rabbits anyway."
"Hey, who are you helping?"
The boy glared at his brother.
The child rubbed his head, obviously not good at bargaining with others.
It’s not that this child lacks the skills to communicate with others. In fact, there are many people in the palace who can talk to him. But he has no experience at all when it comes to talking to strangers on an equal footing and involving conflicts of interest.
Zhu Hao said, "If we don't leave now, it will be too late. When the weather gets cooler, the rabbits will go out to look for food... How about this, if we catch a rabbit, I'll give you one or two more, how about that?"
"good!"
The young man seemed to know that he was in the wrong, so he decided to bring one more person and give the other person an extra share. If the other person was not happy about it, he would just not take it, and that would be a waste of time.
"We are going to leave the city and come back before dark. Are your two families okay?"
Zhu Hao deliberately tested.
The young man raised his head and said, "No problem."
Child: "If we leave the city..."
"You are just here to help me, kid. If you want to go back, leave now. If I don't stop you, you will never have a chance to leave the city again... Are you going or not?"
As an older sister, the boy acted very strong at this time. She knew her younger brother's character better and made him shut up with just a threat.
…
…
The three children set out on their journey out of the city.
Zhu Hao knew that doing so was extremely dangerous. If the child was really Zhu Houcong and something happened to him on the way, then the history of China would be rewritten. People would know that he had abducted someone from the palace out of the city, and he would definitely suffer the consequences.
Fortune and wealth are achieved through risk.
Think about being taken back to the Zhu family and living in darkness from then on. These two children... have to be used.
The three of them followed the crowd out of the city smoothly. On the way, Zhu Hao tried to ask the two children's names.
"Why are you asking so many questions? Do you have any intentions?" The young man was alert.
Zhu Hao said unhappily, "Everyone must have a name. My name is Zhu Hao. Since you guys don't want to reveal your names, I'll call you Ah Da and Ah Er."
The boy frowned: "Ada and Er? Such ugly names... are they used to refer to dogs?"
"Third...brother, the guards in the outer courtyard raised a dog named A Da, who was very fierce." But there was someone around to spoil his plans.
The boy shouted angrily: "Shut up!"
The child immediately became a good follower.
The boy turned and glared at Zhu Hao: "How far is it?"
"It's only a mile or two out of the city. You guys must be doing some exercise, so you're complaining after walking such a long distance... who is that?" Zhu Hao looked at them with an unfriendly look.
The boy was very angry: "Who did you hear complaining? Besides, we have names. You can call me Zhu San and call him Zhu Si."
Zhu Hao became more certain about the identities of the siblings.
"Hey, they are from the same family as me...Asan and Ah Si, they seem to be not much different from Ah Da and Ah Er." Zhu Hao muttered loudly on purpose.
Zhu San sneered: "Who says we are from the same family? Your Zhu is a wild boar, a wild pig, there is no comparison with our Zhu Ke."
This is the pride and arrogance of being a royal family.
Looking down on ordinary people has a bit of class discrimination meaning.
"Also, don't add anything in front of it, just call me by my real name. Are you going to leave? We agreed to catch rabbits, so don't leave before dark!"
…
…
The group of three finally arrived at their destination half an hour later.
On the way, Zhu Hao tried to ask about the identity of "Mr. Lu", but Zhu San obviously didn't know it very clearly. She said that Teacher Sui told her that this man was the best in poetry and painting in the world, and that was all.
In front of me is a forest near Nanhu Lake, about half a mile away from the official road. Not many people come here, and it is even quieter when you go deeper into the forest. You can only hear the "cuckoo" sound of birds. After walking for about a quarter of an hour, a small hill appears in front of me, which is only about a hundred meters high at most.
Zhu Hao walked quickly ahead and soon reached the halfway point of the mountain. He stood on a large protruding rock and looked back at Anlu City. The ancient city was indescribably majestic and magnificent under the sunlight.
Zhu San urged from behind: "We are almost there, why are you dragging your feet?"
"Third brother, it's so dangerous here. Are there wolves?" Zhu Si asked nervously, looking at the dense bushes surrounding the mountain path.
Zhu Hao jumped down from the rock: "This place is not far from the official road, there can't be wolves..."
Zhu Si just breathed a sigh of relief when Zhu Hao added, "There are quite a few snakes in the summer."
Zhu San's face immediately changed when he heard this, while Zhu Si looked confused and asked curiously, "Is it the kind of snake in the story of the farmer and the snake? Where can I see it?"
The implication is.
The little guy has never seen a snake, so this time he wants to see one.
Zhu San scolded, "Are you stupid? Snakes are so dangerous. A bite from them could kill you. I'm afraid you'll live to see the show, but not to get home alive!"
Zhu Si was scolded by his sister. He stood there in silence, looking really angry.
Children still have tempers. Given their age, who wants to be scolded all the time?
Zhu Hao waved in front: "Let's go, let's go, the rabbit nest is just ahead, and the rabbit path is not far away, everyone be careful..."
Zhu San asked, "What is Rabbit Road?"
"It's the path that rabbits usually take... They are very careful when they go out to forage, and usually have a fixed route. If it is destroyed, or they smell the scent of other animals, they will be alert and will not go there next time, or even move to another place."
Zhu Hao had no problem at all fooling the two half-grown children with the knowledge he had.
"oh."
Zhu San nodded to indicate that he understood.
Zhu Size looked at him with envy, and felt incredible that Zhu Hao knew so many things.
…
…
There were no native rabbits on the hill, let alone any rabbit roads. All traces were fabricated by Zhu Hao.
Recently he has been running outside the city to check on the salt fields. After obtaining a doctorate in literature in his previous life, he studied history for a period of time. Before entering university as a doctoral supervisor, he worked at the Beijing Cultural Relics Research Institute. He has a natural sensitivity to geography and is very good at research and summarizing. He has long been familiar with the topography outside Anlu Prefecture, and knows which area has what terrain, the acidity and alkalinity of the land, the layout of mountains and rivers, etc.
There is a rabbit nest on the top of the mountain. Inside is a nest of little rabbits that Zhu Hao bought from a hunter. The rabbit path shows some traces that he had laid out himself.
Even people who know the business wouldn't be able to find any major faults with these things, let alone these two little kids who know nothing.
"Attention, there is a pond on the left side of the road ahead. Don't get close to it. The terrain here is a bit steep. You must follow my footsteps..."
Zhu Hao suddenly stopped and reminded him.
Zhu San leaned forward and looked to the left. "Ah, the water is so blue, it must be very deep... None of us can swim, right? Lao Si, don't get close."
"oh."
Zhu Si responded.
Zhu Hao pointed to a steep slope about six or seven meters high that meandered upwards next to the pond and said, "Let's go up from that side."
Zhu San looked up and immediately became discouraged: "It looks so dangerous...will I fall into the water?"
Zhu Hao said unhappily, "It's a little steep, but the road is wide and there are grasses to grab on to. What's there to be afraid of? I'll lead the way, and you just follow my instructions."
Then Zhu Hao took the lead and walked forward.
The brother and sister looked at each other, then tiptoed to follow.
The group of three climbed up the slope carefully. Halfway through, Zhu Hao wanted to reach out to pull Zhu San, but Zhu San didn't appreciate it . Zhu Si, however, was very tactful and took the initiative to stretch out his hand and let Zhu Hao pull him.
The three of them went up to a high place.
Zhu Hao pointed down and said, "I told you a long time ago that this place is not dangerous. I heard there is a sport called rock climbing, and some people like to climb steep slopes."
"Nonsense, who would torture themselves like this... It's so high, let's go, let's go! Where is the rabbit?"
Zhu San looked down and found that the road was not actually very high. It was only because she was young and short that the road seemed extremely steep.
Zhu Hao then took the two siblings to the "rabbit nest".
"Be careful, it's nearby."
Zhu Hao pointed to the grass ahead and said, "I'll go up and take a look. The little rabbit is in the grass. If the big rabbit finds it, it will take it away ."
Zhu Si lowered his head: "It's not good for us to steal the little rabbit like this, right? The rabbit father and mother will be sad..."
Zhu San was puzzled: "Why don't we catch the big rabbit as well?"
Zhu Hao said helplessly, "Do you think it's so easy to catch a big rabbit? To describe someone running fast, we say they run like a rabbit...Have you heard of "moving as fast as a rabbit"? How can we catch them?"
“It’s a trap.”
Zhu San has a very flexible mind.
Zhu Hao said, "You set a trap at the door of someone's rabbit nest, but the rabbits noticed it and didn't move away? Why are you so stubborn?"
"Who are you calling a stubborn person?"
Before they caught the rabbit, the two started quarreling.
Zhu Si, who was standing by, was scratching his head anxiously: "You guys... should you stop fighting for now? Don't disturb the rabbit father and mother and take the baby rabbit away."
Zhu Hao and Zhu San fell silent immediately.
Then the three of them tiptoed carefully to the "rabbit nest". Zhu Hao lifted the grass and sure enough, there were seven little rabbits in the nest made of dry grass. They were huddled together and shivering, as if they had not yet been weaned.
Zhu Si was about to reach out to catch him, but Zhu San reminded him, "Hey, Zhu Hao, it's so easy to catch him, why don't you do it yourself instead of calling us?"
Zhu Hao said, "I told you that I can't raise them all if I catch them all. You have to take them back and raise them. When they grow up and give birth to cubs, you can give me two."
At this time, Zhu Si had already ignored Zhu San's attempt to stop him, and picked up a little rabbit and held it in his arms, stroking the rabbit's snow-white back, with a look of delight on his face: "Wow, so cute."
Zhu Hao said, "There are seven rabbits in total, three for me and four for you. Is this fair? Divide the rabbits now and hurry down the mountain. The city gates will probably be closed by now."
"good!"
The three divided the loot on the spot.
The seven rabbits each had an owner. Zhu Hao took out a piece of cloth, lifted the four corners to make a bundle, then put the rabbits in it and gave them to the two siblings.
Zhu Hao pointed to the way they came and said, "Let's go down the mountain the same way we came. Do you want to go first or should I go first? Never mind. You go first. I'll be behind you. If there's any danger, I can help you."
