When Zheng Haizhu woke up, he found himself lying on the bamboo couch in the hospital.
What woke her up was not only the burning pain on her forehead and the back of her hands, and the discomfort caused by the wet clothes wrapping her body, but also the sound of conversations that were slowly getting closer and closer.
"Wake up! Auntie is awake!"
Zheng Shoukuan, who was leaning in front of the couch, was the first to see Zheng Haizhu slowly open his eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief and turned around to report happily.
Immediately afterwards, the faces of Han Ximeng and Lu Xiangsheng also appeared above Zheng Haizhu.
Zheng Haizhu, who regained consciousness, remembered the previous frames of audio and video.
The flames suddenly shot up without warning, causing people to flee in fright and the bullock carts to shake violently.
She fell into the fire and instinctively shrank into the cocoon-like robe.
Before his mind could be completely occupied by the fear of dying, there was a sudden loud crash, and the overwhelming river water, like a heroic army outflanking the rebellious ministers and traitors, rushed towards the burning white horse with great momentum.
The bright and dazzling fireball was swallowed up by the turbid river water in an instant, but the woman on the white horse, who was so good at water that she could save people, hit her head hard against the frame of the car...
At this moment, Zheng Haizhu's eyes were on Lu Xiangsheng, who was dripping wet.
I was probably fished out by this Lu Xiandi?
Han Ximeng finalized the story of the hero saving the beauty: "Azhu, while we were waiting at the Chenghuang Temple, we suddenly heard that the bullock cart caught fire and fell into the river. We were frightened to death. Fortunately, Mr. Lu was there at the time."
Zheng Haizhu became more awake, stared at Lu Xiangsheng and said, "Thank you, Mr. Lu. Someone called Liu Daqiang's name at that time, was it you? Are Daqiang and his sister okay?"
As soon as she opened her mouth, she immediately felt that her throat was in good condition. There was no sign of coughing when she spoke. It could be seen that she had not burned her airway due to inhalation of smoke, and she immediately felt relieved.
Lu Xiangsheng replied calmly: "Da Qiang is very brave and helped me drive the cattle down the river. He and his sister just heard from the doctor that you are fine and have gone home so that my parents won't worry."
Zheng Haizhu composed herself and immediately said to her nephew: "Go back to the house quickly, pawn the two hairpins in my money box, collect thirty taels of silver, and send them to the Liu family. His family is in urgent need of money and needs all the money." I’m selling my little girl.”
Originally, Zheng Haizhu was not the kind of person who would always ask for the privacy of those who were beneficiary after doing charity, but now that he was in trouble, he could not handle the matter personally, fearing that if he did not explain it truthfully, his nephew would not understand the urgency.
When Han Ximeng heard this, he said urgently: "Is that Mr. Liu's family? What kind of hairpin are you selling? The pawnshop guard looks so hurried that he must lower the price. Don't waste a lot of time, I'll give you thirty taels."
The eldest lady took a breath, and then continued to talk to Zheng Haizhu: "Azhu, I know that you are proud and self-possessed, and you are determined not to let me get involved in the good deeds you have done. I didn't give it to you in vain. Our Han family’s monthly salary will be deducted from the money, right?”
Zheng Shoukuan looked at the hostess and then at his aunt. He didn't stop walking out the door until he heard his aunt weakly say, "Okay, I'll listen to the lady."
In his mind, what he was concerned about at the moment due to doubts was of course the reason why the white horse caught fire. He was really not in the mood to go to the pawn shop.
Fortunately, Mr. Lu seems to be very concerned about today's strangeness. He has just briefly described what he saw at that time, and he didn't even want to change into dry clothes. He just waited for his aunt to wake up and ask what happened.
At this moment, Lu Xiangsheng went straight to the topic and said: "Miss Zheng, my brothers and sisters from the Liu family and I were very close to your ox cart. At that time, the area around the ox cart was crowded with women from the Canhu family. If someone goes to light a fire, how about everyone watching? Not being seen? If it was the sparks from the firecrackers in front, how could they suddenly burn so brightly? So, Miss Zheng was in the car, looking down from a high position, did she see anyone or anything suspicious? "
Zheng Haizhu frowned, thought for a moment, and said with certainty: "I am not a role in the troupe, and I am really not used to looking at crowds, so I lowered my head and looked at the small area around me. The flames suddenly burst out. And all four horses’ legs caught fire at the same time.”
She paused and looked at Lu Xiangsheng inquiringly: "Does Mr. Lu know about the flints used as everlasting lamps in the ancient tombs?"
Flint is an ore containing phosphorus. The tombkeeper soaked it in water. When the wooden door was opened, air entered, and the flint with extremely low ignition point lit up when it encountered oxygen. When the stone door is closed, oxygen is cut off, and the flint automatically goes out again.
The name "phosphorus" and its characteristics as a spontaneous fire are recorded in "Natural History" written by Zhang Hua of the Jin Dynasty.
Therefore, Lu Xiangsheng, who is from the Ming Dynasty and has always loved studying kerosene and artillery, answered without hesitation: "The phosphorus fire that Miss Zheng said can be ignited without being ignited. I was just wondering about this reason. However, at this time, It’s hot in the afternoon, and phosphorus powder will ignite in a matter of seconds as soon as it is exposed. If you had placed phosphorus powder under the horses’ feet in advance, the ox cart would not have been able to move more than a few steps, and the horses would have burned. How could it have been running for so long before it suddenly caught fire?”
Zheng Haizhu fell into silence, lamenting to himself that he was poor in chemistry. He only knew that white phosphorus would spontaneously ignite in the air, but he did not know of any chemical combination methods to control the timing of spontaneous combustion of phosphorus-containing substances.
Han Ximeng, who was on the side, was obviously also a woman with a liberal arts physique. She was confused, but she was very clear-minded on a more critical issue.
"Ah Zhu, Mr. Lu, no matter what method is used to start the fire, what is the purpose of the person who started the fire? Burn Ah Zhu to death?"
Lu Xiangsheng looked at Zheng Haizhu: "Have you offended anyone recently?"
Zheng Haizhu smiled faintly: "I have offended too many people in the past year. I have stabbed the water bandits in Qiandun Town, uncovered the Huizhou merchants who had committed murders and framed the blame, and also offended the large merchants in the Fujian Sea. Li Dan’s eldest son.”
She looked at Han Ximeng and was about to say, "Is it because my grandma hated me for exposing my uncle?" when she saw the door curtain was raised and the doctor from the medical center respectfully invited in two women in fine clothes.
"Little grandma, eldest aunt."
Han Ximeng hurriedly stepped forward to salute as a junior.
The visitors were Miao Atai from the Gu family and the head of the family's daughter-in-law, Mrs. Shen.
Zheng Haizhu also struggled to get up, but Miao Atai stopped her with a gentle voice: "Girl, you lie down, I'm too tired and you've been robbed."
Mrs. Shen also personally came up to support Zheng Haizhu and said softly: "Today, after watching you get on the float, Mrs. Shen went to the Sheshan Temple to offer incense and worship Buddha. When she heard that something had happened to you, she stopped sitting on the sedan chair and changed it. The carriage bumped all the way, and I finally found out that you were rescued and brought here for treatment, and the color on Auntai's face calmed down a little."
When Mrs. Shen came in, she already saw Lu Xiangsheng, whose clothes were wet.
That day, she deliberately took Han Xiying to the backyard of Gu Mansion to meet Mrs. Miao in the name of asking for advice on embroidery. Atta Miao wanted to ask Miss Han San how the school on the other side of Zheng Haizhu was doing.
Han San followed Shen's instructions and praised Zheng's school with every word of praise. After the third lady left, Mrs. Shen looked for an opportunity and mentioned in a seemingly casual way that Zheng Haizhu invited a young Mr. Lu from Yixing and settled in the library. He said that he admired his talent and fame. He was also grateful for the insights he had given the boy about studying things and developing knowledge. In fact, both he and Miss Han San could see that the two of them were quite a match for each other.
At that time, Mu Atai listened, and indeed followed Shen's judgment. Although he did not judge Zheng Ya's move, he sighed meaningfully that the third lady of the Han family, despite her young age, had a very tight mouth and did not care about people behind their backs. When Mrs. Shen turned around, she naturally regarded this praise as sweet fruit and fed it to Han Xiying so that she could continue to drive her to do things.
At this moment, Mrs. Shen saw that the person who rescued Zheng Haizhu was actually Lu Xiangsheng. The disappointment in her heart about today had finally dissipated.
The old lady should believe it more. This girl surnamed Zheng is a woman who behaves badly in making a living and in love. No wonder she will be punished by God.
Just as he opened the curtain and came in, he heard Lu Xiangsheng and Zheng Haizhu discussing the cause of the fire. After introducing Mr. Lu to Miao Atai, Shen sighed softly, expressed half hesitantly and worriedly, half sincerely, and said: " This fire is so hot, if it comes from some scoundrel, my family won't be so worried about Miss Zheng."
