On the second day, Chunniang went to the dock early to check, but until noon, there was still no sign of Xiao Chengjun's ship.
At this point, she had already understood that the young master of the Xiao family had really abandoned her and her daughter here.
Chunniang was angry, but the only way now was to find a way to go home.
Yingbao was not in a hurry. She went to the market leisurely with Chen Zhao, eating, drinking and shopping.
Not only did she buy a small charcoal stove and a basket of charcoal, she also bought a lot of local vegetable seeds. Once at the market, she met a man selling tangerines on his shoulder. She picked out the ripe ones with yellow skin and bought a large bamboo basket.
Mandarin oranges are worthy of being called mandarin oranges, they are sweet and sour, with a refreshing fragrance.
She collected all the peeled tangerine peels and secretly put them into the cave to dry, preparing to go back and steam the tangerine peels.
Chunniang was anxious and wanted to go to the county town to hire a carriage to go back home, but was stopped by Yingbao.
"Don't worry, mother. This is a dock with many merchant ships coming and going. We just need to take a ship to Qinchuan County. At most we can just pay them the ship fare." Yingbao said.
Chunniang sighed and nodded in agreement, but she would wait at the dock every day. Whenever a large merchant ship approached, she would ask whether it passed by Qinchuan County.
They guarded for several days without encountering any merchant ship that could pass through Qinchuan County, but they saw an acquaintance.
Li Xu, a thin scholar, came to the dock carrying a bookshelf on his back. When he saw Chun Niang sitting under a big tree, he was stunned and hurried over to greet her.
"My dear Aunt Jiang, why are you here alone?"
Chunniang returned the gift and said with a wry smile: "To be honest, the ship that originally carried us has left. I am here to find a merchant ship going to Qinchuan County to take us back."
Li Xu frowned and said, "Aunt Jiang, there are very few long-distance merchant ships docked at this pier. Why don't you follow me and take a boat from my house?"
Chunniang was surprised: "There are so few large merchant ships docked here?"
Li Xu nodded: "This is a small dock. It's good if two or three long-distance merchant ships can dock here in a month. Most of them are short-distance ships carrying passengers. My hometown is close to Mingjiang River. There are many large merchant ships passing by. Maybe we can meet one that goes directly to Qinchuan County."
Chunniang frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "I'll go back and discuss this with my daughter."
It was the first time in her life that she was alone outside. She was completely clueless about the things around her and had no idea what to do. Now she could only ask her daughter for advice.
Li Xu nodded: "I will wait for Aunt Jiang here."
Chunniang responded and hurried to the inn to find her daughter.
Yingbao and Chen Zhao had just returned from the market. Seeing Chunniang's anxious face, they hurriedly asked, "Mother, what's wrong?"
Chunniang recounted her encounter with Li Xu.
"Mr. Li said that there are few long-distance ships docking here, so he asked us to go to his place and find a ship to transfer to."
Yingbao thought for a moment and nodded in agreement: "Then let's go with him."
It would definitely be safest for them and their group to follow Li Xiucai, a man of honor and merit.
Chen Zhao quickly packed up his things when he heard this: "Then let's go."
She was tired of staying here and wanted to move to another place.
So, Chunniang and Chen Zhao each carried a backpack filled with the sundries they had purchased.
When we arrived at the dock, we saw that Li Xiucai had already found a fishing boat and was negotiating the price with the fisherman.
"Two guan is too much to go to Chashu Township in Anyang County. The boat I hired last time only cost one guan."
"We are more than a hundred miles away from the tea tree village. It's more than a hundred miles by water. How can it be more?" The boatman said unconvincedly: "Go ask around somewhere else. Is there a more reasonable price than mine?"
Li Xu thought about it and turned around to ask other fishing boats.
Seeing that the business was about to run away, the boatman also became anxious. He jumped onto the shore in a few steps and grabbed Li Xu's backpack. "Hey, hey, hey, don't go. I haven't finished talking yet. How about this, at least one guan and eight, no less."
Li Xu hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, but I have three companions, so you have to wait a moment."
"What? There are still people?" The boatman felt that he was at a disadvantage, but was afraid that the scholar would go to other boats to ask, so he had to agree: "Okay, okay, I'll make it clear first, I'll only wait for one hour."
As soon as he finished speaking, a little girl's voice was heard: "Mr. Li, we are here!"
Li Xu was very happy to see Yingbao, and bowed to her respectfully: "Little Doctor."
Yingbao also returned the greeting: "Thank you, Mr. Li."
"No, no, let's get on the boat."
Li Xu got on the boat first, put down the backpack on his back, and went to help Ying Bao and the others.
After everyone was on board, the fishing boat poled away from the dock and floated downstream.
Yingbao sat on the fishing boat and kept observing Li Xu. Seeing that he was still very weak and coughed from time to time, she asked, "Mr. Li, are you feeling better?"
Li Xu said softly, "Much better, thanks to the doctor's medicine."
"Now that you're feeling better, why don't you go take the exam?"
This year is the year for the provincial examination, which is held every three years. As long as Li Xu rushes to the provincial capital, he should be able to catch up with the examination in August.
Li Xu shook his head: "Little Doctor, you don't know. I have been ill for several months. Not only has my body been worn down, but my studies have also been delayed. So I want to wait a few years before leaving."
In fact, there was another important reason: he had run out of money to go to the state capital.
The reason why he had money to hire a boat to go home today was because he sold two pills given by the young doctor and got four strings of money.
He felt quite ashamed when doing this. After all, the pills were given to him by the doctor, but he sold them to outsiders at double the price to earn money.
But if I don’t sell it, I won’t have the money to go back home, so…
Li Xu looked at Yingbao guiltily and coughed softly a few times with his hand covering his mouth.
"Oh." Yingbao nodded, seeming to understand.
The fishing boat was sailing with the wind and with the sails hoisted, it was moving very fast.
It took only one day to reach the destination by water, covering more than a hundred miles.
Li Xu took Ying Bao and a few others ashore. It was already dark.
So they went to find an inn nearby to stay.
No words were spoken that night.
They checked out of the hotel before dawn in the morning, and Li Xu hired an ox cart to take the three of them back home.
He wanted to go home to see his old mother first, and then personally send them to the big pier on the Mingjiang side.
While he was sick in Anping County, he sent a letter back home, but no one came to pick him up. He didn't know if it was because something happened at home.
After several hours, the ox cart finally arrived at a small village in Chashu Township.
As soon as he entered the village, someone recognized Li Xu and shouted, "Hey! Isn't this the scholar from our village? Did you take the exam in the city? Did you pass the exam?"
Li Xu bowed to the man and said, "Uncle, I didn't go to the city."
"You didn't go to the capital? Where have you been for so long?"
The middle-aged man called Fourth Uncle glanced at the ox cart and said in surprise: "Hey, why did you bring a wife back? Did you get married outside?"
Ying Bao said to the man coldly: "We are doctors passing by here, uncle please don't speak nonsense."
Chunniang's face also turned dark, and she quickly picked up her hat and put it on.