Xu Ling had been working hard these days, originally planning to go back after a few days away from home, but now more and more things were happening, which actually tied him up and made him unable to go home.
Helpless, Xu Ling had no choice but to ask someone to write a letter, and then found the Xiang Family Martial Arts School and asked someone to help send the letter home together with some of the things he bought.
Previously, he was selling vegetables in the city while delivering vegetables to Deyuelou. A woman asked him to buy a cart of vegetables to send to the martial arts gym. After that, Xu Ling sent vegetables to the martial arts gym again. Knowing that the martial arts gym was also in the bodyguard business, Then I thought of them.
Xu Ling didn't go to the door empty-handed this time. He pulled a cart of cabbage to the back door of the Xiang Family Martial Arts Hall. The maid who opened the door for him heard that he was delivering food to Madam Ma, so she went to call her mistress.
After a while, Lady Ma walked over from the front and said, "I didn't ask anyone to bring food!"
Seeing Xu Ling pulling the dishes, he suddenly realized, "It turns out it's you, Brother Xu!"
Xu Ling laughed loudly, cupped his hands and said, "Mrs. Ma still needs food. If not, I will take her home."
"Hey, I was worried about running out of food at home. This year I recruited another group of disciples, and there are seven or eight more mouths in the house. Brother Xu came at the right time!"
Madam Ma smiled from ear to ear, asked the servants to unload the vegetables, and took Xu Ling to the front to get the money.
The Xiang family martial arts hall is a large courtyard with three entrances and three exits. The front is the martial arts hall and the escort agency, the middle is the kitchen and miscellaneous room and the disciples' living quarters, and the back is the residence of the Xiang family.
When Xu Ling came, he was catching up with the warriors in front of him practicing martial arts. Madam Ma went into the house to get money, and Xu Ling looked at it curiously.
There are eighteen kinds of weapons on the weapon pile in the courtyard. The disciples are as young as six or seven years old and the older ones are in their thirties and forties. Some are standing on the pile, some are boxing, and some are practicing swordsmanship. In the winter, they are wearing thin clothes and breathing heavily. The ground was steaming.
They practiced with all their concentration. Xu Ling was dazzled by what he saw and felt itchy in his heart.
I don’t know if he can still practice martial arts at this age, even if he can protect himself more when he is away from home!
"Brother Xu, count whether the money is enough!"
Madam Ma interrupted Xu Ling's thinking. He counted the money and said, "That's enough. Sister Ma, I have something to ask you."
"Haha, tell me!"
"I see there are still twenty or thirty disciples in the courtyard. Do you think I can practice martial arts?"
Madam Ma obviously didn't expect that Xu Ling was going to ask about this, she couldn't stop giggling, "I don't know about this, you have to ask the head of my family."
Her man is the head of the Xiang Family Martial Arts School, and has taken over the Martial Arts School from his ancestors for more than ten years.
While the two were talking, a mighty man came over wiping his sweat. Madam Ma quickly stopped him: "Master, come quickly and take a look to see if this young man can practice martial arts!"
Xiang Jin came over with a frown and looked at Xu Ling opening his mouth: "Who is he? Why did he come to the martial arts gym?"
Without waiting for Lady Ma to explain, Xu Ling hurriedly said: "I'm here to deliver food to the martial arts school. My name is Xu Ling. By the way, I want to ask the escort agency to help escort some things back to my hometown. When Sister Ma brought me the money, I became curious. , just watching here, thinking that it would be inconvenient for me to travel around, so I wanted to practice martial arts to protect myself, so I asked a few more questions."
Xiang Jin looked better after hearing what he said.
"If you want to escort the escort, go to the front. Outsiders are not allowed to enter here easily." Xiang Jin glared at Madam Ma and seemed to blame her for acting inappropriately. "You are a businessman. You don't have time to practice martial arts. If you have such skills, you might as well hire a martial artist as a guard." Bodyguard, follow me."
Compared to the friendly Lady Ma, Xiang Jin is serious and hard to talk to. He took Xu Ling to the front escort office, asked him clearly what he wanted to escort, explained the price, and asked him to find a time to deliver it, but he didn't want to talk about it at all.
Xu Ling's fantasy of practicing martial arts was disillusioned, so he sent letters and things he bought for his family to the escort agency. He was charged three taels of silver for just such a small thing. The price was so high that most people couldn't afford it.
Xu Ling learned from the previous experience of being deceived by asking fellow villagers to bring things, and would rather spend more money to ensure that the letter was sent home.
What he had to do was so sudden that Gu You must still be at home, waiting for him to come home, and he didn't know if he would be sad when he received the letter.
Xu Ling was in a hurry and had no other skills, so he had to do this.
Chai Yanjun has a residence in Lingbao Town. He has no wife or children at home. I heard that he has three apprentices, two of whom have completed their studies and become apprentices. Only the younger apprentice Hetong is with him. The people Xu Ling rescued had no place to live for the time being, so Chai Yanjun kindly gave Xu Ling permission to place them at home.
These people survived, but they still had many problems, such as frostbite and malnutrition, and they still needed a few days to recuperate.
He was picking up living people in the city, while the old man he met in Yizhuang was picking up dead people. When Xu Ling met him again, the two smiled happily at each other.
Xu Ling helped Mr. Peng transport the collected corpses to Yizhuang. Mr. Peng knew that he had rescued many poor people living on the streets, and repeatedly sighed: "You are a kind-hearted person. If you save them, it will not hinder you. Do such good deeds." What a great virtue!"
Xu Ling said: "I didn't save them for nothing. I plan to transport them to Yazhou to farm for me in two days. It's not without any intention of repaying them. Compared with you, I'm really ashamed."
Peng Lao laughed and said: "Have you ever heard the story of Zigong who refused gold? Even a saint is like this. If you do good deeds without expecting anything in return, then who will dare to do good deeds in the future? Regardless of deeds and heart, just do what you want. Just do it.”
Xu Ling stayed in Yizhuang for a short time. Before leaving, he left a small amount of money for Mr. Peng, asking him to use the money to find some coolies to help him, so that he would not have to run to the city as an old man in the cold weather.
After leaving Yizhuang, Xu Ling took a walk around the city. During the day, there were occasional wealthy people giving alms in the city. Now that the sun was rising, there were fewer poor people lying unconscious on the streets due to cold.
As soon as Xu Ling returned to Yongchun Hall, he saw many people watching the excitement around Yongchun Hall. A voice came from inside: "What? How much money do you think it takes to save someone?"
Chai Yanjun said arrogantly: "Eight taels, even one tael less will not cure the disease!"
"Why don't you go and grab it! Saving a person for eight liang is not a trick, but something else!"
"Let's go, let's go, what's going on here?" Xu Ling squeezed in and asked the person next to him curiously.
Immediately, a kind-hearted passerby explained: "The man's surname is Lin. He is a wealthy businessman. He wants to sell his concubine at home. The concubine was a strong-willed concubine. She hit a pillar in Yaxing to show her ambition. The bleeding stopped, so she was taken to Yongchun Hall."
People living on this street all know that the doctors at Yongchundang have superb medical skills, but they have a dark heart. It is best not to treat minor illnesses that are usually fatal and are too expensive.
But if you really have a serious disease that can cause death, you must send it to Yongchun Hall. It is expensive, but at least you can survive!
After the woman who hit the pillar was brought, Chai Yanjun treated her immediately, but now he had to collect money. The wealthy businessman was not happy and told him that the woman had been in his family for seven or eight years and was old and yellow. She was no longer worth anything. If you sell it to others through Yahang, you can get it for only 70 to 80 taels at most.
If he had known that medical treatment was so expensive, he might as well not have saved her!
