"The Cao Min was not instigated by any means. Everything was caused by the Cao Min's own narrow-mindedness and trivial grudges accumulated from dealing with the people of Changping Village in the past."
"I was very happy to see them flooded now. I wanted to add insult to injury, so I deliberately buried the Double Dragon Stele in the canal..."
"My lords, if you want to beat or punish me, please come to me alone. My mother, wife and children at home don't know about it. Please let them go..."
Gu Laojiu explained everything thoroughly like he was pouring beans out of a bamboo tube, and then knocked his forehead on the ground.
There was a banging sound on Chao Wei Yixiao's side.
…
Wei Yixiao and others took Gu Laojiu and the Double Dragon Stone Tablet and returned to the county town to collect the charges. Here, Li Zheng and others left one or two people to guard the canal.
The others rushed back to Changping Village and called everyone to a meeting in front of the Tutu Temple overnight to discuss the matter.
Li Zheng was standing on a high platform where two tables were put together, telling the whole village the ins and outs of this incident.
The villagers were surprised when they heard this, and after working on it for a long time, they found out that Gu Laojiu had buried the Double Dragon Stele!
Everyone is familiar with Gu Laojiu.
Suddenly, everyone was condemning Gu Laojiu.
In the past two days, the cloud of terror that had hung over everyone's heads had disappeared because Gu Laojiu was arrested and the Double Dragon Stele was taken away.
Li Zheng finally announced that starting from tomorrow, the canal will continue to be excavated.
Then, he jumped down from the high platform and sent everyone back to their tents to sleep and start work tomorrow.
That night, almost every tent was discussing this matter, and everyone fell asleep very late.
In Widow Liu’s small tent.
Mu Zichuan squatted in front of Widow Liu and was immersed in washing Widow Liu's feet.
The wooden basin was filled with warm hot water. Mu Zichuan held Widow Liu's feet with both hands and rubbed them gently in the water.
"Mom, my son is unfilial. He has been gone for so long and left you alone in the village."
"When the flood started, I wasn't with you and you were frightened."
"When you were sick, I wasn't by your side either. You suffered."
"My son is unfilial..."
Muzichuan whispered, with endless guilt in his voice.
Widow Liu was sitting there. The woman raised her hand and caressed Mu Zichuan's head, with a look of kindness on her face.
"Silly son, you studied so hard and got the honors to make your mother proud."
"Your hard work in disaster relief and flood control has brought benefits to our fellow villagers."
"Mom thinks that you are doing these big things, and she feels happy. She is even happier than drinking honey water!"
Widow Liu said.
Mu Zichuan nodded silently.
"Mom, now that my son is back, why don't you come with me to live in Qing'er's compound and insist on holding on to this small tent?"
he asked again.
Since the first night back, he came to pick up his mother and live with him.
But my mother refused.
Until now, my mother has been living alone in this humid little tent.
Widow Liu smiled after hearing Mu Zichuan's words.
"Silly son, I don't want to cause you any trouble. I don't want the villagers to say that I am special because of you," she said.
Muzichuan didn't like hearing this.
"I am your son. The kind of life I live must be the same kind of life for my mother. Others have no right to gossip like this!" he said.
Widow Liu said: "I don't want to cause trouble to Qing'er either."
"Her second uncle's family also lives in a tent next to the Earth Temple."
"If I live there, her second uncle and second mother will have to make trouble again."
"No matter how big the yard of Qing'er's house is, the room is limited. Besides, it's fine for me to live in this small tent."
"I felt uncomfortable when I went to that big courtyard."
Hearing what Widow Liu said, Mu Zichuan didn't know what to say.
"Mom, don't worry, although the progress of the project has been delayed for a few days because of the Shuanglong Stone Monument."
"Next, my son will speed up the progress and strive to drain away the flood as soon as possible, rebuild the house, and let his mother live in his own yard!"
"Well, okay, mother, wait!"
…
"Tangyaozi, why did you go to hold on to Gu Laojiu for so long? If you don't come back, I'm going to look for you!"
In the room, Yang Ruoqing couldn't help but said to Luo Fengtang.
Luo Fengtang said: "That Gu Laojiu is so cunning."
"The cunning rabbit had three burrows and hid everywhere. I lurked near his house for a day and a night, and finally waited until his wife went out to deliver food."
"After following him, we finally found Gu Laojiu in an old house." He said.
Yang Ruoqing thought for a moment: "If nothing else, Gu Laojiu should be the one who ordered Wei Yixiao and the others."
"He took everything on his own, probably because he didn't dare to offend Wei Yixiao for fear of harming his family."
After listening to her analysis, Luo Fengtang nodded in agreement.
"I am also like this."
"When I interrogated Gu Laojiu beforehand, I gave him a pill as you told me, threatening him that it was poison."
"That Gu Laojiu is afraid of our poison."
"On the other hand, I was afraid of the revenge of Wei Yixiao and others, so Xin Yiheng took it on myself," he said.
Yang Ruoqing sneered: "Extending your head is a knife, and shrinking your head is also a knife."
"This Gu Laojiu, it's no wonder that he couldn't stand the coercion and inducement of Wei Yixiao and others, so he embarked on a road of no return."
On this trip to the county seat, Gu Laojiu dared to carve the royal symbol 'dragon' in private.
This crime alone made it impossible for him to escape death.
"Hey, from now on, we have lost a senior mason in Mianniu Mountain." Luo Fengtang couldn't help but sigh.
Yang Ruoqing twitched her lips: "Without anyone, the sun will still rise from the east tomorrow."
"Besides, everyone has to take responsibility for their own actions. Gu Laojiu doesn't deserve sympathy!"
…
The turmoil at the Double Dragon Monument finally ended with the best outcome.
I finally had a comfortable sleep, and the next day, everything was back to normal.
As usual, the men followed Li Zheng, Luo Fengtang, Mu Zichuan and the others to dig river channels and carry river mud.
Mrs. Sun and a group of women were busy doing logistics.
After several more days like this, the floods in this area began to flood as the canals were dug forward, as well as the rain stopped and the sun came out in recent days.
Water levels are falling at a noticeable rate every day.
When the villagers saw the effect of the canal, they were all very excited.
Everyone is praising this strategy, saying it is good in a thousand or ten thousand ways.
But Yang Ruoqing still couldn't stay idle.
She frowned as she looked at children like Mianmian and Kang Xiaozi with bumps on their bodies.
It is already the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which is the hottest time of the year.
At this time of year, there are already a lot of mosquitoes, especially after evening, when there are a lot of them.
Coupled with the heavy flooding, the humid and hot environment is a paradise for mosquitoes.
They specifically pick out these little ones to bite, perhaps because they think they are delicate and have the scent of blood.
Mosquitoes are picky eaters, causing harm to children.
