Gu Shengchao asked passers-by about the location of the pier and rushed there. The town was not big. He soon arrived at the river and walked along the embankment towards the pier. Looking from a distance, the sails and rafters of the pier are swaying, and hundreds of boats are vying for water.
He walked to the boulder next to the river and suddenly heard a "plop" and someone jumped into the water behind the stone. At first, he thought that the children playing in the water were not paying attention, but when he walked over and looked back, he realized that something was wrong. If the other person was familiar with water, he would either surface and paddle as he pleased, or dive into the water without causing any trouble, but at this moment, there were a lot of things emerging from the water. Small bubbles, someone is obviously drowning.
Gu Shengchao jumped into the river without hesitation and swam towards the man with all his strength. He reached the spot where the bubbles had just appeared and plunged in. A man could be seen vaguely sinking slowly in the water. He lifted him up from behind the man. The two of them emerged together. Only then did he see that the other person was a woman, with a pretty face that seemed familiar. The woman's eyes were closed tightly, as if she was about to faint. Without any time to think, Gu Shengchao grabbed her robe from the back and swam desperately to the shore.
After landing on the shore, Gu Shengchao squatted down and asked the woman to lie on his lap and patted her back. Fortunately, the rescue was timely, and the woman vomited out a lot of water intermittently and gradually returned to normal.
"You only have one life. Since you are no longer afraid of death, what is there to fear? Just fight with the courage to die. I believe you can accomplish anything. There will be no difficulties in the world, right?" The ancient sage helped the woman sit up and comforted her.
The woman remained silent, just looked up at Gu Shengchao and stared at him stupidly, with tears in her eyes even more pitifully.
Gu Shengchao felt embarrassed. He smiled awkwardly and said, "Tell me, if you have any difficulties, maybe I can help."
"Brother, you are here." The woman burst into tears, with hot tears rolling down her cheeks. She threw herself into Gu Shengchao's arms and cried bitterly, because her body was rising and falling with sadness as she sobbed. In Gu Shengchao, Sheng Chao rubbed against him.
Gu Shengchao was completely petrified. It seemed that the two did know each other, but Gu Shengchao couldn't remember who the other person was. He had no choice but to gently pat the woman's back and comfort her: "Okay, what happened before is in the past. Let's be more open-minded. Life is always full of ups and downs. As long as we work hard to overcome it, there are no difficulties that cannot be solved. As long as we persist patiently, All suffering will pass.”
The woman's voice gradually became quieter as she sobbed, and her mood gradually stabilized. She took two steps back and left Gu Shengchao before she felt ashamed. She straightened her wet dress and said embarrassedly: "Brother Gu avenged the murder of his father for the little girl in the Dawu Dynasty. I have no repayment, but I saved my life again today and made my big brother laugh."
Gu Shengchao suddenly realized that she was the daughter of the clan leader who was killed by Liao Weikang, the east envoy of King Wu's Palace. He only glanced at her in a hurry that night, but she remembered her in his heart. "There aren't many of you, why are you the only one left?" Gu Shengchao was puzzled.
The woman had so many thoughts and she didn't know where to start in her sorrow. A man called out urgently from a distance: "Mei Wan, Mei Wan, where are you?" The woman waved in the direction of the man's shouting and responded: "Brother Ran, I'm here."
A moment later, a man rushed over in a panic. It was Ran Dengjia who secretly fired a cold arrow outside the window that night to kill Liao Weikang in the capital of the Dawu Dynasty, but the ancient sage was exposed. When he saw Gu Shengchao, he was stunned for a moment and then recognized him. He stepped forward and cupped his hands and said, "How come the young master has come to our country of Xileng?"
Gu Shengchao shook his head: "It's hard to put it into words. I got lost in the mountains and came here by mistake."
Ran Dengjia looked at the woman's wet appearance, stepped forward to grab her and said nervously: "Mei Wan, are you having trouble thinking about it again? Don't scare me."
The woman glanced at Gu Shengchao secretly and whispered: "If this big brother hadn't saved me, I almost fell into the river..." She lowered her eyes and couldn't help crying again.
When Ran Dengjia saw Gu Shengchao's similarly wet clothes, he immediately understood everything. He stepped forward and knelt at Gu Shengchao's feet and said gratefully, "Thank you, Master, for saving Wanmei. I kowtow to Master on her behalf."
Gu Shengchao quickly helped Ran Dengjia up and said, "Brother Ran, don't do this, but you are going to break me." Seeing the two people wearing ordinary and down-and-out looks, he guessed that something must have happened, and asked: "Do your people have any Whatever the difficulty is, maybe I can help." He thought that if it didn't work out, he would take them back to the Four Kings Valley. There were few people in the valley, and if they were willing, the Four Kings Valley would not refuse them.
Ran Dengjia sighed and said, "It's a long story. If you don't mind it, young master, please come to the humble residence and have a talk. At the same time, you can change your clothes and dry them out."
Gu Shengchao thought about it and followed the two of them forward. Not far away, there were many simple wooden houses built in a depression. Some of the wooden houses were large and some were small, crowded together. The road was narrow and muddy, making it difficult to walk. Walking through alleys of varying widths, some are about a foot wide and can only be passed sideways. Ran Dengjia stopped in front of a wooden house, took out the key and opened the door, asking Gu Shengchao to go in.
The wooden house is not big, with two floors. There is a ladder next to it to climb to the upper floor. The lower floor is dark and dark, with only a small bed, a simple stove, a table and chairs. The woman went upstairs to change her clothes first, then found a clean robe for Gu Shengchao to go up and change. Gu Shengchao climbed up the wooden ladder to change his clothes. There was a bamboo pole outside the window upstairs that could be used to dry, so he hung his wet clothes on it.
He didn't need any money when he was in the Four Kings Valley. Now he put down the things in his pockets and found that there was not much silver left. He regretted it a little. If he had known, he would have brought more money to help them.
There was no bed upstairs, just a few old wooden boxes placed in the corner, but it was clean and tidy without a trace of dust. Gu Shengchao went down but saw no woman. Ran Dengjia replied that he had gone to buy wine.
The two chatted, and Gu Shengchao learned that the woman's name was Jiang Wan. He was curious about how they could have two surnames since they were from the same clan. Ran Dengjia saw Gu Shengchao's doubts, "I am a hunter from the West Cold Country. I have been without parents since I was a child, and a few years ago I accidentally fell from a cliff and was in critical condition. Fortunately, Jiang Wan’s father led his tribe to pass by and rescued me. It happened that they also needed helpers who knew some kung fu, so they took me in.”
Gu Shengchao nodded and understood. He took a look at the furnishings in the room and asked curiously: "There is only one small bed here. Could it be that the eldest brother and her are already married and I want to call her sister-in-law?"
Ran Dengjia looked out the window nervously and whispered: "Master, you are making fun of me. I am from a humble background, how dare I have such an idea. I sleep downstairs on weekdays, and Miss Jiang Wan lives upstairs. She always puts the bedding directly on the floor." Go up. I bought the bed just for her to use, but she insisted on putting it underneath it, saying it was damp downstairs and sleeping directly on the floor would catch the cold, so there was nothing I could do to her."
Gu Shengchao saw the embarrassment of their lives, but it was inconvenient to ask more questions. Fortunately, Ran Dengjia did not shy away and took the initiative to talk about it. Only then did Gu Shengchao know the whole story.
They left the capital of the Dawu Dynasty and entered the Xileng Kingdom smoothly under the leadership of Jiang Wan's uncle. According to the advice of other tribesmen, they originally wanted to return to their ancestral home before making plans. After arriving here, it happened that the family of a teacher from Yunqi Palace in the West Cold Kingdom took the lead in opening a chamber of commerce, specializing in business between the West Cold Country and the Dawu Dynasty. Jiang Wan's uncle proposed to buy shares and do it together. They had been doing business all year round and should be familiar with it, so everyone agreed.
It turns out that when they were in the Dawu Dynasty, Jiang Wan's father, as the patriarch, was responsible for handling business affairs. The annual dividends were fair and just, and were distributed to each household according to the amount of money and effort. No one had any objections. After Jiang Wan's uncle took over, everyone naturally thought that it would be the same as before and just wait for the final dividends, so no one had any objections and did not pay attention to the specific matters of buying shares. Even if someone is worried and wants to participate, Uncle Jiang Wan will not say anything and it will be difficult for others to intervene.
In the end, the chamber of commerce was established as a partnership between five companies, with the family members of the instructor accounting for 40%, the Jiangwan clan members accounting for 15%, another family accounting for 15%, and the other two accounting for 20% and 10%. For the sake of fairness, the county magistrate was specially invited to testify. Each of the five families sent representatives to sign and sign. Of course, the Jiangwan clan member, her biological uncle, took the lead personally.
At first, everyone was in high spirits and felt happy that their lives would be settled in the future. However, as time went by, they noticed something strange. It seemed that the Chamber of Commerce had nothing to do with everyone, and even asking Uncle Jiang Wan was evasive. When everyone came to the Chamber of Commerce to inquire, they discovered that they were not buying shares in the name of their clan members, but in the personal name of Jiang Wan's uncle, Jiang Fanzheng. In other words, everyone worked hard to the end to make Jiang Fanzheng's wedding dress, and the Chamber of Commerce's dividends were only given to him.
Angrily, everyone came to Jiang Fanzheng to argue, but he hired someone to beat them out. Everyone was so angry that they went to the county government to complain. The county magistrate probably accepted Jiang Fanzheng's money to favor him, but beat the complainants half to death, saying that the signatures and black and white words on the paper were evidence, and the ownership of the shares purchased by the Chamber of Commerce should belong to Jiang Fanzheng alone. The case is closed.
In this way, all the hard work of the clan members was in vain. The most pitiful person was Jiang Wan. As the only flesh and blood of the clan leader, she was ruthlessly abandoned by her uncle. When the tree fell and the hozens dispersed, everyone had no way to complain, so they each looked for a way out. No one cared about Jiang Wan's life or death anymore. Ran Dengjia was thinking about the patriarch's kindness to him, and was afraid that Jiang Wan would be too sad to think about it, so he stayed with her all the time. In order to survive, Ran Dengjia temporarily worked as a coolie at the riverside dock to support the two of them.
Ran Dengjia said bitterly: "I am sincere to Wanmei, and she also knows that I like him, but the more she does this, the more she avoids me, and today she even jumped into the river to seek death. A girl's heart is really hard to figure out."
Gu Shengchao enlightened him: "Is it possible that Miss Jiang Wan also likes you? She is just afraid of dragging you down, so she wants to die. Firstly, she will be freed, and secondly, she will no longer drag you down. A better life for you.”
"How is that possible?" Ran Dengjia didn't believe it.
Gu Shengchao pointed to the small bed and explained: "Miss Jiang Wan was afraid that you would get damp and refused to sleep on the bed, so she gave the bed to you. Doesn't this just illustrate the problem?"
Ran Dengjia was noncommittal. He looked out the window uneasily again and said worriedly: "Mei Wan has been out for so long and she hasn't come back. Will there be an accident? No, I have to find her."
