Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 284: Delivering Meals and Visiting the Sick
Along the way, Lu Sanlang walked and talked proudly. When he finally boasted about his achievements, he had already arrived at the gate of the Imperial College. He licked his lips with satisfaction, and was about to talk about the suggestion that Zhang Shou made to his father through him, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of a person not far away. Almost without thinking, he flashed behind Zhang Shou.
Oh my god, there is a new scar on Master Zhu’s face, which makes him look deeper than before... No, it’s more ferocious!
Although he seemed to be justified in front of Lu Wan, Lu Sanlang was very aware of the destructive power of the rumors about his marriage with Zhu Ying in the past. Not everyone could understand his painstaking efforts like Zhang Shou, especially Zhu Tingfang. Therefore, since the return of Master Zhu, he had been hiding as far away as possible, trying to avoid a direct encounter. For example, he slipped away yesterday...
Zhang Shou was speechless for a while because of Lu Sanlang's behavior, but what made him even more speechless was that Zhu Tingfang had just sent him off in the morning, so what was he doing now? Before he could ask, a guard came up to him with a smile on his face, holding a three-layer food box in his hand: "Mr. Shou, the eldest son said that the food outside is not as clean as at home, so I brought it to you just on the way."
On the way? Zhu Tingfang doesn't have a real job yet, and he's not the kind of person who likes to go out and call friends. What the hell is on the way?
Just as he was thinking this, Zhang Shou heard Zhu Er's voice from behind: "Hey, Fatty Lu, why are you sneaking around like this? My eldest brother is not a monster, can he eat you?"
After making a triumphant sarcastic remark, seeing that Lu Sanlang dared not say anything, Zhu Er swaggered over. Seeing the food box carried by the guard, he was immediately surprised and happy. Hearing that Zhu Ying no longer personally or sent someone to deliver lunch or even dinner to Zhang Shou, he had no idea where to get lunch. Therefore, he immediately said with a smile: "Brother, you are so nice. You still remember to deliver lunch to us!"
Zhu Tingfang glanced at Zhu Er calmly and said lightly, "The small kitchen at home only prepared Zhang Shou's portion. As for you, you have so many friends, you can have a meal anywhere you go."
Brother, are you really my biological brother? Why do I feel like I was picked up and Zhang Shou is your biological brother! Zhu Er suddenly became sad, and his resentful expression was heartbreaking.
Zhu Tingfang stared at him expressionlessly for a long while before he spoke: "Luckily Yingying thought of you as her brother and asked the kitchen to prepare an extra portion for you."
Before Zhu Er, whose face was beaming with joy, could cheer, he added, "But if you can't get into the first class when the classes are divided in the future, it will be a shame for Yingying's kindness. You know the consequences. After all, Dad said before that your punishment was only temporarily recorded in the account, and it will be forgotten for real."
At this point, Zhu Tingfang glanced at Lu Sanlang who was gloating behind Zhang Shou, and laughed again: "Didn't Mr. Lu Sanlang and my second brother have a close relationship in the past? You haven't come to my house recently. My father and I have been thinking about you for a long time. Although you should be very busy as the head of Jiuzhang Hall, you shouldn't be so busy that you forget the old place and old friends."
Lu Sanlang felt his tailbone explode, and a chill ran down his spine. He tried to force out a smile, but his expression seemed to be frozen. It was not until Zhu Tingfang raised his hand and made a gesture, and another guard came up and put down a food box, and then everyone followed Zhu Tingfang on horseback and left in an orderly manner that he could not help but wail.
"Young Master, you must help me! Master Zhu is not as useless as Zhu Er. He is very ruthless! He has been very powerful since he was a child. If anyone dares to criticize the Zhu family behind their backs, especially if it involves the wife of Duke Zhao, he will never let them go. He can beat people without leaving any scars. Zhu Ying must have learned that from him yesterday!"
If someone else spoke ill of his elder brother, Zhu Er would have been furious and retorted, but he had just been threatened by his elder brother, and he couldn't help but feel sad at this moment.
"Lu Sanpang is right. My eldest brother is simply not a human being! I have never seen him lose since he was a child. Whether in studying or practicing martial arts, he has always been the first. The sons of the same generation as him are considered to be unlucky. Everyone will be compared with him by the elders in the family! But I am not him. How can I stand such a torment!"
After complaining for a while, Zhu Er said bitterly: "Why didn't my father give birth to more sons..."
"My father gave birth to one more son than your father, but what happened? He still disliked me?" Lu Sanlang sneered, but the gaffe he had just shown when he was wailing disappeared. He walked over, picked up a food box, and stuffed it into Zhu Er's face, who was looking depressed. He picked up another one for himself, and then he smiled.
"Young sir, shall we go to your room and have a meal while we talk?"
Zhang Shou felt somewhat helpless about Zhu Tingfang's overly attentive behavior from yesterday to today, but he knew that he was doing it for others to see, so he really had no choice. At this time, he agreed to Lu Sanlang's suggestion without thinking too much.
When they followed Zhang Shou into the cell, Zhu Er and Lu Sanlang put aside their previous depression for the time being. When they took out the various foods inside, they were shocked again.
Because, in one of the boxes, there was not only a reasonable combination of meat and vegetables, but also pleasing colors, while in the other, there was just ordinary braised fish, steamed pork with rice flour, scrambled eggs, and cold-mixed shepherd's purse. Even though it was actually a hearty lunch, it somehow revealed a sense of perfunctoriness. So, Zhu Er couldn't help complaining again: "Needless to say, this must be for me!"
"Okay, okay, just consider it your cook's careless mistake." Zhang Shou didn't want to turn this meal into a complaint meeting. After distributing the chopsticks and signaling Zhu Er to stop talking and start eating, he said to Lu Sanlang who came to eat and drink for free, "By the way, as the head of Jiuzhang Hall, please go visit Dr. Yang on my behalf this afternoon."
Lu Sanlang was immediately dissatisfied: "Why? That old man's reputation in the entire Imperial College is ruined now. You know, Xie Wanquan came to his rescue but he turned the tables on him. Too many people saw this. Xie Wanquan quit the Ruxing Hall in anger because of him. He has completely shattered the meaning of being a role model! I heard that Da Si Chengdu wished he was dead!"
"I asked you to visit him for no other reason than to tell him that the Ratexing Hall has been handed over to Dr. Li of the Guangye Hall. Dr. Li was able to manage the Guangye Hall with 700 to 800 people in an orderly manner, so it is natural that the Ratexing Hall with only 200 people will not be a problem for him. So, Dr. Yang, please do not worry about the Imperial College being unable to survive without him. Just take good care of yourself."
Zhang Shou looked at Lu Sanlang who had suddenly realized something with a half-smile, and continued as if nothing had happened: "Since he could think of slandering me to induce Yingying to take action, hoping to kill two birds with one stone and arouse public indignation, he must be prepared to be abandoned by the public and have nothing left. Compared to a gentleman's revenge, which is never too late, I prefer to take revenge overnight. This time I have to wait overnight, and I already feel that I have lost."
Hearing that Zhang Shou asked Lu Sanlang to visit Yang Yiming for this purpose, Zhu Er immediately became more energetic: "If Lu Sanpang refuses to go, I will go! I am best at making people angry! Lu Sanpang, don't fight with me, I will go now! By the way, you have to prepare some gifts when you go to visit someone, right? I'll go to those places that specialize in funeral items and so on!"
Seeing Zhu Er put down his chopsticks and stopped eating, Lu Sanlang rushed out the door. Seeing Zhang Shou didn't stop him, he couldn't help but laugh dryly and said, "Young Master, you must have been planning to let Zhu Er take action, right?"
"He has just been provoked by his eldest brother. Let him go to Yang Yiming and make a big scene to vent his anger." Zhang Shou paused, looking indifferent. "As for whether Yang Yiming will get hurt because of this, I believe he still has some sense of propriety." Besides, after he sent Yang Yiming home yesterday, the doctor said that Yang has a good physical condition and will not die!
"That's right. Even though Zhu Er becomes a worm in front of his eldest brother, he is actually very cunning. He is a bad person at heart and weak on the outside." Relying on his deep understanding of Zhu Er, Lu Sanlang approved of Zhang Shou's deliberate attempt to provoke Zhu Er to visit Yang Yiming. He immediately supported the table with one hand and moved his head closer to Zhang Shou.
"After listening to my suggestion last night, my father didn't say yes or no, but he said he would think about it carefully."
Zhang Shou was already very satisfied with Lu Wan's reaction. After all, a big shot who had become the Minister of War could not be easily frightened... or fooled. Even if the situation was not good, he would not easily admit defeat. Because such a person had his own connections and channels, and would not be easily convinced.
So, when Lu Sanlang came closer and asked in a low voice if there were any follow-up plans to deal with his father, Zhang Shou's face suddenly became tense and he immediately scolded with a smile: "Is there any son like you? When you and the girl from the Liu family had a quarrel, your father stood firmly on your side!"
"He didn't do this to protect me, but to protect the Lu family's reputation and his old face."
Lu Sanlang looked unappreciative, but under Zhang Shou's stare, he finally whispered, "Duke Zhao, I had a good relationship with Zhu Er back then, so I got to know him out of curiosity . Even though he's quiet and has been very low-key for the past decade, he's a very vengeful person! My father did something like that, don't think he'll get away with it!"
"So, instead of letting Duke Zhao deal with him, why not let me scare him...right? At least I'm doing this for his own good."
Seeing that Lu Sanlang, a fat boy, blinked at him and looked quite cute, Zhang Shou couldn't help but laugh. But he felt more that Lu Sanlang, a seemingly rebellious son, actually cared about his father from the bottom of his heart.
It was just like Lu Wan, who showed contempt and distrust towards her son Lu Sanlang, but at the same time came forward to protect him at the critical moment instead of throwing this fat son away like a pawn.
"You are such a cunning boy. It's a pity that you don't go to the court to compete with those old men!" Zhang Shou shook his head and smiled, then said in a relaxed tone, "We don't need to do anything from now on. We just need to watch the show from the sidelines. Yesterday, Yingying and I, together with Yang Yiming and Xie Wanquan, made such a big fuss. Now it's time for others to take action."
Zhu Er didn't know that Zhang Shou and Lu Sanlang had teamed up to instigate him to cause trouble for Yang Yiming. He didn't feel hungry after just eating two mouthfuls of food, so he found a nearby restaurant after leaving the Imperial College and bought a few cheap cakes - according to his personality, he originally decided to buy inferior ones, but after thinking about it, he decided to be a little more generous.
It doesn’t matter if others criticize his sincerity, or doubt his intentions, but at least they can’t let people throw dirty water on him!
As for the previous mention of buying funeral supplies to annoy people, Zhu Er finally entered the store and then left. Because after examining the common people's burial objects such as various pottery and clay dolls with great interest, he suddenly remembered two words, so he dropped the things and left in a hurry as if they were hot.
Those two words were the most rampant crime in the Western Han Dynasty, and have brought misfortune to people in every dynasty since then - witchcraft.
So after much thought, in addition to a box of cakes, Zhu Er also brought the best prescription for visiting patients that Emperor Taizu had popularized to his ministers - fruit. In March, the season of spring, fruits are not abundant on the market, and the paper bag in his hand contains the most expensive cherries.
Therefore, when he arrived at the gate of the Yang family and found that there were two runners from the Shuntian government guarding the gate, he was slightly stunned, then he took the initiative to step forward and handed over the things he brought.
"Dr. Zhang from the Imperial College asked me, the acting head of Banshan Hall, to come and see Dr. Yang. I bought a box of snacks and six taels of cherries. Do you have anything to test poison? Let's try it first, so that Dr. Yang won't blame me for poisoning him later!"
The two detectives secretly complained. But knowing that Zhu Er was doing it on purpose, they still had to check the "gift for visiting the patient" that Zhu Er brought, even though it was not their responsibility at all. After watching Zhu Er walk in arrogantly, the two looked at each other and exchanged their views.
"Mr. Zhu, are you trying to irritate me on purpose?"
"The doctor who's on duty here said that although Dr. Yang fainted from anger yesterday, he might have been faking it. Even though he's a scholar, he's very healthy and thrifty. If that's the case, how could Dr. Zhang swallow this anger?"
The two smiled at each other. They all despised Yang Yiming because of that case. The former Minister Zhang, who pretended to faint, was once again used as a negative example. Naturally, they had no respect for Yang Yiming in their conversation. He failed to frame Zhu Ying and instead made a fool of himself. He was angrily accused by the prestigious student, who even quit the Ruxing Hall to accuse him of being unworthy of being a teacher. Does such a person still have a future?
Sure enough, in a moment, they heard an angry roar coming from the house: "Get out! Get out! Even if I, Yang Yiming, am in such a bad state, it is not my turn to be laughed at by a playboy like you!"
Following the sound, the two constables who had poked their heads out of the courtyard saw Zhu Er coming out of the house with a smile on his face: "Dr. Yang is so strong, it seems that nothing serious has happened. By the way, the doctor has tasted the cakes and cherries I brought. If you are worried, then consider it as my reward to the doctor for taking good care of you. Well, Dr. Yang, we will see each other later! "
