After the man knocked on the door a few times, Uncle Mu Su upstairs immediately responded, speaking in their Shuizhai language.
Liang Yuanque lay down quietly in the darkness, and then Mu Su walked downstairs holding a flickering candle.
After he came downstairs, he didn't rush to open the door. Instead, he held a candle and glanced in the direction of Zhuang Youjie and Liang Yuanque.
Seeing Zhuang Youjie sitting by the bed, he said, "I thought you were asleep."
"Uh, ah, well, wasn't there someone knocking on the door? I just got up." Zhuang Youjie quickly found an excuse.
The man outside the door must have heard the sound of their conversation, so he knocked on the door a little harder, just like a bandit coming to the door.
Mu Su stopped talking to Zhuang Youjie and hurried to open the door. At the door, the two exchanged a few words in Shuizhai language.
Zhuang Youjie felt strange that since they could communicate encrypted in their own language, why did they shout in Chinese when they first knocked on the door?
Could it be that what the man just said was not meant for Uncle Mu Su, but for the two of us?
Zhuang Youjie sat beside the bed and held Liang Yuanque's wrist to encourage himself.
The man and Mu Su seemed to have an argument for a while, and then the man pushed Mu Su away, grabbed hold of him, and Zhuang Youjie walked straight over.
The man was very muscular, and the strong muscles on his shoulders could be seen in the dim candlelight.
Zhuang Youjie was frightened when such a man who looked like a bear standing up came toward him menacingly.
He couldn't help but tighten his grip on Liang Yuanque's wrist, and it was likely that a circle of red marks would appear.
The man held the candle in front of Zhuang Youjie, as if observing his appearance.
The blazing flame was right in front of him, and Zhuang Youjie felt that if he moved even one inch closer, the candle would burn his eyelashes.
"Brother, what are you going to do?"
Seeing a drop of hot candle tears falling on the candlestick, Zhuang Youjie stuttered and spoke.
The man's Chinese is extremely fluent. He is the best among the people Zhuang Youjie has met in Shuizhai so far. His accent is almost indistinguishable.
"Stranger, where do you come from?"
Zhuang Youjie couldn't tell whether he was asking about his place of origin or his hometown. He could only think about it and said, "North, north, a place further north than here."
The man's expression softened slightly when he heard him say "North", but soon returned to seriousness, which made Zhuang Youjie wonder if he had seen it wrong for a moment.
"What is your brother's disease?"
The man glanced again at Liang Yuanque, who was lying on the bed pretending to be faint.
"It's a strange disease, it's just that the whole body is full of disease."
Zhuang Youjie didn't know how to describe the disease. Thinking that the inside of Liang Yuanque's body was very strange, he came up with such an explanation.
As if to prove his words, Mu Su walked over and nodded at the man, "Liu Yun, this child is indeed seriously ill."
The man named Liu Yun didn't seem to be softened by this. He handed the candle back to Mu Su, turned around and left with a quick stride, "You can leave the village early tomorrow morning."
When Zhuang Youjie heard this, he thought, "How can we do that? We managed to sneak in. How can we leave without even investigating?"
So he stood up and said quickly, "No, you saw it. My brother is very ill and he needs treatment from Uncle Mu Su."
The man stopped and sneered,
"Don't you Han people have good doctors? You have hospitals, you can perform surgeries, and you have all kinds of medicines. You are no better than us. Stop making excuses here!"
Zhuang Youjie's heart was beating wildly after what he said. Did he see through it?
His head was spinning rapidly, thinking about how to find a reason to refute. Unexpectedly, Uncle Mu Su came to help at this time.
"Liu Yun, you are too aggressive. If they had hope outside, would the two brothers still come this far to find our village?"
"Uncle Musu, you..."
Liuyun wanted to refute, but Mu Su pushed him back.
"This child's illness is very strange. Only my father has been able to control it for so many years. If we drive them away now, maybe he will die on the road."
Mu Su said this not only to Liu Yun, but also to Zhuang Youjie and the others.
"I am a doctor. I cannot just watch the patient die. I will do my best to save him!"
These words were very sincere, and Zhuang Youjie was very moved when he heard them. He felt quite embarrassed when he thought that they were actually deceiving Uncle Mu Su's feelings.
Liu Yun had nothing to say at this moment. Mu Su held his shoulders and pulled him to the door. Shui Zhai's words seemed to persuade him some more.
After seeing him off, Mu Su came back with a candle and comforted Zhuang Youjie softly, "Don't worry, I won't drive you away until your brother's condition is stable."
Seeing him being so sincere, Zhuang Youjie felt very uncomfortable. He could only pray in his heart that Wang Ming's death at least had nothing to do with Uncle Mu Su's family.
Uncle Mu Su went upstairs. Liang Yuanque heard the sound of the room closing, then he sat up and whispered in Zhuang Youjie's ear,
"This Liuyun is quite interesting."
"What's so interesting about it?" Zhuang Youjie was puzzled. "I just think it's quite scary."
"He seems to know the outside world very well," Liang Yuanque said, "He understands hospitals, surgeries, and medicines quite well."
Zhuang Youjie thought about it carefully, and it was true that based on Liu Yun's views on the outside world and his fluent Chinese, he should be a reformist who had once left the village.
If he is a "renovator", why is he so resistant to outsiders?
Looking at Zhuang Youjie's appearance, Liang Yuanque patted him on the shoulder and said, "Okay, don't think about it now. Just sleep peacefully. If you have regained your energy tonight, we will officially start work the next day."
Zhuang Youjie found it difficult to fall asleep in such a strange and strange place at first, but maybe it was because he was really tired from the journey. One moment he was still thinking about things, and then his consciousness became blurred.
However, he woke up quite early the next day, probably because of the habit of getting up early as a teacher for more than a year.
Not long after he got up, Mu Su also walked downstairs and went outside to fetch water for Zhuang Youjie to wash up.
He didn't bring many toiletries with him, so he simply rinsed his mouth with a cup, and Liang Yuanque also woke up at a suitable time.
Ah Shiya seemed to be very interested in Liang Yuanque. After seeing him wake up, she kept asking questions around him. Zhuang Youjie thought to himself, it seems that Liang Yuanque is quite attractive to girls of this age group.
So Liang Yuanque took the opportunity and asked Ashiya to take them for a walk in the village, just to enjoy the scenery.
Ashiya had a good chat with him, but when she heard his request, she suddenly fell silent.
Liang Yuanque was also open-mouthed when it came to coaxing people. When she didn't agree, he looked disappointed.
"I just want to experience the scenery of this world more. If I close my eyes one day, I will never see it again."
Ashiya is a gentle and soft-hearted girl. Seeing his appearance, she quickly explained,
"I, it's not that I don't want to take you there, you might die if you show up in the stockade!"
Asiya finished speaking in a low voice, and looked around warily, and was relieved when she found that her father was not around.
