Yingbao went to call her younger brothers to come home for dinner, and saw her two younger brothers and Wei Zhan digging in the orchard.
Jiang Wu saw his sister and pointed to the dug-out area excitedly and said, "Look, this is what Wei Zhan and I dug."
Yingbao's eyelids twitched, and she pulled her two brothers back: "Why did you ask him to dig the ground?"
Jiang Jie defended himself: "He wanted to do it."
Jiang Wu: "He wanted to eat vegetables, so he went to dig the ground."
Sakura: …
When I got home, I washed my brother's hands and face and let them go have breakfast.
Jiang Sanlang drank his porridge and said, "Let's send the child to the Chen clan leader later. After all, he is a guest of Chen Laoshuan's family."
After all, Chen Laoshuan is also a member of the Chen clan, and can be considered a relative of the Chen clan leader.
"It's better to send it there. It's not a big deal here." Chunniang's family and Chen Laoshuan were enemies, so she didn't dare to get involved too much with his relatives and friends.
But thinking of the child's miserable situation, Chunniang couldn't bear it, so she took an egg and two mooncakes and sent them to him.
When Wei Zhan received the things sent by Chunniang, his nose felt sore and tears fell. He thanked her with sobs, peeled the eggshell and ate it.
He wandered outside for several days, and although it was exciting and stimulating, it was also very hard.
There were several times when he regretted his decision and wanted to run to the post station for help, but he always held back.
After begging and sleeping in the open air along the way, I finally returned here.
Thinking about it now, all the hard work was worth it, as he finally accomplished a great feat in his life on his own.
Seeing the child crying, Chunniang felt even more sorry, so she patted his head and said, "I'll take you to the home of Patriarch Chen later. After the festival, they will find a way to contact your elders."
Wei Zhan was stunned when he heard this and quickly shook his head: "No! I'm not going anywhere! I'm staying here."
Seeing Chunniang remained silent, Wei Zhan blinked and began to wipe his tears again. "Aunt, please don't send me away, okay? I can work and dig the ground."
Then he stretched out his hands to Chunniang and said, "Look, I got blisters on my palms from digging in the ground this morning, but I'm not afraid at all."
Chunniang exclaimed softly, holding up his little hands, "How did it become like this?"
She also has children, and when she saw the miserable plight of this child she naturally thought of her own children and couldn't help feeling heartbroken.
"I'll go back and get you some medicine."
After saying this, Chunniang hurried home, took the medicine powder and went back to apply it to Wei Zhan.
She didn't notice the sly smile that flashed across Wei Zhan's face.
After applying medicine to Wei Zhan, Chunniang returned home and said to her husband, "That child is so pitiful. Let's take him in for a while. Alas, when I saw him like that, I thought of the scene when Baoer was kidnapped."
Jiang Sanlang frowned, and finally nodded: "Okay, after the festival is over, we will send him to the village anyway."
In the evening, the whole family celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival together, and Chunniang simply called Wei Zhan to have dinner.
By now Wei Zhan had already washed himself and changed into Yuanbao's old clothes. He even replaced his broken deerskin boots with Yuanbao's cloth shoes.
Before dinner, Jiang Cheng lit up the lanterns one by one and hung them on the bamboo tower outside the yard, a total of eighteen lanterns.
Jiang Dalang and Jiang Erlang carried out the incense table and placed it on the south side of the bamboo pagoda.
A plate of moon cakes, a bowl of dates, a plate of duck pears, a plate of persimmons, and a handful of tied rice ears are placed on the incense table. Incense is then inserted into the incense burner, and the children in the family are invited to come and worship the moon one by one.
There are certain rules for worshiping the moon here. Only unmarried men and women can do so, hoping to ask Yue Lao to help them find a good wife (or husband) in the future.
When a full moon rose, starting with Jiang Cheng, the children of the Jiang family came forward one by one, burning incense and kneeling in worship.
Seeing that they all bowed, Wei Zhan followed suit and knelt down and kowtowed.
After worshiping the moon, the whole family returned to the yard to have a reunion dinner.
There were two tables in Jiang Dalang's yard, one for adults and one for children.
Yan Ru was in charge of cooking tonight, and she cooked chicken, duck, fish and meat in different ways, filling two large tables.
After dinner, Yanru took the children to release river lanterns.
Of course, there was no river on the south slope, so they could only go to the pond to fish.
Several children, each holding a lantern, came to the pond, lit the prepared river lanterns, put them into the water one by one, and then gently pushed the lanterns away with bamboo poles.
Wei Zhan also took a river lantern, and imitated the little girls, clasping his hands together to make a wish, then lit the river lantern with a fire stick and put it into the water.
The red river lanterns reflected on his face, making his eyes sparkle.
After releasing the river lanterns, a group of children carried the lanterns home.
Wei Zhan was allowed to live with Yuan Bao, so he went back to the Jiang family with him.
Yuanbao was very curious about the boy and asked him how he got back to Chuanhe Town.
Then, Wei Zhan told Yuanbao about his glorious deeds with great excitement, leaving Yuanbao dumbfounded.
"You actually walked over a hundred miles by yourself? And it took you more than ten days?" Yuan Bao couldn't believe it. "Where do you sleep at night?"
Wei Zhan smiled proudly and said, "I sleep on trees or in haystacks at night. If I meet a kind-hearted family, they will let me sleep in their kitchen."
Yuan Bao clicked his tongue, full of admiration: "You are really amazing."
"Hehe." Wei Zhan pretended to be mysterious and said, "Do you know what I ate along the way?"
"What?" Yuanbao asked, stretching his neck.
Wei Zhan quickly pulled out a small dagger from his leg. "I ate vegetables from other people's fields, and I ate rice raw. Once I even caught a fish and ate it raw."
In fact, he also killed a man while escaping. The man tried to rob him of the jade pendant, but was killed by him with one blow.
Yuan Bao felt sick after hearing this, "Stop talking, raw fish is so fishy, how can you eat it?"
"If you're really hungry, you'll naturally be able to eat." Wei Zhan wiped the dagger and inserted it back into his leg.
This adventure will allow him to brag about it for the rest of his life.
Humph! When I get home, I will definitely discipline the guards.
Originally he was with his eldest brother, but a guard deliberately stopped his horse to separate him from his eldest brother.
As a result, the bandits caught up with him and he had to turn around and run to a safe place.
Wei Zhan didn’t know whether this was an unintentional act by the guard or someone wanted to harm him, but no matter what, this made him alert.
My mother was right. I was a thorn in the eyes of some people and would be eaten up if I wasn't careful.
My father had many concubines, including a noble concubine and a good concubine, and their sons were older than himself.
The mother also said that they wished she would die, so she asked him to be extra careful and not trust anyone, including his eldest brother Wei Wenbo.
The moon was setting in the west, and the lanterns on the bamboo towers were extinguished one by one. The south slope was silent again.
Soon, the roosters crowed, awakening the dawn and a new day began.
After the festival, Yingbao and Erni went to school.
Yuanbao, Huzi, Jiang Jie and Jiang Wu also went along.
Wei Zhan also insisted on following him to school and coming back after school, as if he was a member of the Jiang family.
Patriarch Chen had already learned about this from Jiang Sanlang, so he wrote a letter and sent it to a courier, who then delivered it to the Wei family in the city by express horse.