Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 127 Annual Gift

At this time, Song Chunlin didn't know that the two Gu brothers had set their eyes on their bed. They were both thinking about how to get themselves a similar mattress. When washing up in the morning, Gu Fengyue whispered to Song Chunlin that the head of the Zhao family who had set fire to their house had fallen ill. The palace had invited an imperial physician, who said that he would not survive until spring.

Song Chunlin immediately became interested. His eyes were burning. "Are you serious? Wasn't he still very lively last time?"

Gu Fengyue's mouth twitched. You call being bedridden being alive and kicking?

"It is said that a huge amount of property was stolen from the palace, and no one cared after reporting it to the authorities. The emperor even sent someone to ask him what exactly was lost. How could Zhao dare to tell me? You have to know that many of the things in his warehouse are unique. Things that even the emperor cannot get are all kept in his private warehouse. If this word gets out, the emperor might dislike the entire Zhao family."

Now it was Song Chunlin's turn to have his mouth twitching. Even if the Zhao family didn't have those properties, the emperor would never be kind to them given how they had been domineering in the capital for so many years.

"This Zhao family really doesn't have much self-awareness."

"Still so stingy! Look, their family master is almost pissed off to death."

Gu Fengyue didn't lie. Zhao Fei was a narrow-minded person. So many treasured treasures were lost from his home, but he didn't get so angry that he had a stroke on the spot, which showed that he had a strong physique.

Song Chunlin was quite curious about this. While eating breakfast, he allocated a bit of his mental energy to spy on the situation of the Zhao family.

Just as Gu Fengyue said, the entire Zhao Mansion is in chaos now, not only because the private treasury was stolen, but also because of the "arsonist" who has never been caught. This has become a thorn in Zhao Fei's side, and now he gets scared whenever he hears the word "fire".

Song Chunlin did not expect that the effect of his arson would be so long-lasting that Zhao Fei even developed PTSD. During this period, he was worried and couldn't sleep all night. He was also anxious because the private vault was stolen. Song Chunlin thought, why not try adding another fire?

So that night, the Zhao family's house, which had not caught fire for a long time, caught fire again.

Zhao Fei was still half asleep when he suddenly heard someone outside shouting, "The fire is coming! The fire is coming! Put out the fire!"

Zhao Fei woke up with a start. He almost rolled and crawled off the bed, then crawled to the door of the room. It was a cold winter day, and he had moved back into the house and slept there for several days. He thought that there would be no fire in the house again, but after just a few days of peace, a fire broke out again.

Zhao Fei, who had been sick for so many days, was exhausted just by crawling to the door. He shouted for help in a hoarse voice, but his hands could not reach the bolt.

However, his concubine, who had always had a cold face, got down from the bed behind him, stood beside Zhao Fei, and looked down at him.

Zhao Fei still wanted to show off his master's power. He shouted breathlessly: "Bitch, open the door quickly!"

The other party ignored him and instead dragged him by his feet, dragging him into the room like a dead dog.

"Don't worry, you won't die so quickly while lying on the ground." The woman said coldly. She ignored Zhao Fei who was covering his chest, and calmly opened the secret compartment at the head of the bed. There was a large sum of silver bills in it. This money was the tribute just sent by people at the end of this year, and Zhao Fei had not had time to put it into the warehouse yet. In addition to the silver bills, there were also some gold and silver jewelry. The woman took out a cloth bag, put all the things in it and put it on her back, then put on a thick coat.

Zhao Fei, lying on the ground and shaking, watched her take away his belongings. He was shocked and angry. After the woman left with her belongings, he was so angry that he vomited blood. When the servants found him, his body was frozen and his breathing was almost weak. They dragged him out and settled him down. They called a doctor, but the doctor just shook his head.

Song Chunlin didn't expect that his fire would have such a good effect, but the most important thing was that woman. If she hadn't betrayed Zhao Fei, Zhao Fei might have lived a little longer.

As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. On the way the woman escaped, Song Chunlin silently cleared a lot of obstacles for her, which made her escape unusually smooth. Although the woman was surprised, she did not have time to think too much. After escaping from the Zhao Mansion, she did not leave the capital immediately, but came to Beicheng, rented an inconspicuous small courtyard, changed into gray clothes, and smeared yellow powder on her face. Her originally fair skin suddenly became dull, and her whole body exuded a sense of poverty and destitution.

If Song Chunlin's spiritual power had not followed her all the way, he probably would not have realized while walking on the road that this woman who looked like an ordinary village woman was actually the pampered concubine of the Zhao family.

She seems to be a smart woman who knows that the most dangerous place is the safest place.

Zhao Fei looked like he was doomed, so Song Chunlin stopped caring about it. Today was the day that Song Chunsheng would give Zhou Ning a New Year gift. According to the rules, after an engagement, the two families would visit each other, and the man had to give New Year gifts to the woman's family. Although it had not been long since the last gift giving, Grandpa Song felt that the sense of ceremony should still be there.

"There are few reliable relatives from your sister-in-law's family. If we don't support them, who will?" So this time the delivery of New Year gifts was the same as last time. Song Dazhuang brought his two sons, drove their own horse-drawn carriage, and went to the neighboring village with a cart full of New Year gifts.

Zhou Ning was still embroidering her wedding dress at home when suddenly there was a commotion outside. He thought it was his uncle causing trouble again, so he quickly put down his work and ran out to see what was going on. As soon as he got out of the door, he found that it was actually a member of the Song family.

"Uncle Song, Brother Song... Chunsheng, Chunlin, why are you here?" Zhou Ning walked out of the door to greet the Song family.

Song Dazhuang pointed at a car full of New Year gifts with a smile: "I'm here to give you your New Year gifts. Point to a place where we can put them down."

Zhou Ning looked at the car full of New Year gifts and felt a little at a loss.

"Uncle Song, we can't use so many. Please take them back quickly. We still have the things you brought last time."

Song Chunsheng was holding a basket and asked him in a cold voice, "Where should I put it?"

Zhou Ning's heart trembled, he bit his lower lip and pointed to his own warehouse.

Song Chunsheng walked around him, carried the basket and walked over, opened the door and put the things away.

The Song family brought a lot of New Year gifts, ranging from snacks and dry goods to fruits, cloth, and even a large piece of pork belly. It can be said that there was everything, which made the villagers watch the excitement for a while.

After all the things were unloaded from the car, Song Dazhuang sat in the main room, drinking the tea poured by his future daughter-in-law, feeling very happy.

Song Chunsheng stared at the top of Zhou Ning's head and asked him in a low voice why he didn't wear the hairpin he gave him.

Zhou Ning finally understood why his voice was so cold just now and touched his head uncomfortably.

"How can you wear something so valuable every day..."

"Yes, you should wear it. It will look good on you."

Song Chunlin and Song Dazhuang, who were watching the show on the side, looked at each other and silently gave a thumbs up.

After the Song family left, Zhou Ning's eldest uncle and second uncle came. Of course Zhou Ning knew why they came, wasn't it for those New Year gifts?

Uncle Zhou and his brother were standing at the door of Zhou Ning's house. No matter how much they knocked, Zhou Ning refused to open the door. The two were about to force their way in when suddenly something got caught around their ankles. They were frightened by the cold feeling and subconsciously jumped up.

"Snakes! There are snakes!"

“Don’t pull me, don’t pull me, ahhhh, there’s a snake!”

The two grown men were shouting and yelling in an unruly manner, which attracted many people to stick their heads out of their houses. Someone wanted to come out to catch the snake, but when he got closer, he saw only a small piece of vine on the ground. How could there be any snake?

But the two brothers didn't know any of this. They just thought they were bitten by a snake. They returned home crying and asked their family to call a doctor immediately.

Aunt Zhou lifted up her husband's trouser legs and saw nothing but mud. Feeling she had been fooled, Aunt Zhou threw the stinky foot away and cursed: "What are you yelling about? Don't you even know if you were bitten by a snake? Look for yourself, there is no wound. You have nothing better to do than to find something for me to do, and you yell so loudly, it's so embarrassing."

Uncle Zhou widened his eyes and found that there was indeed no wound on his ankle.

"But I clearly remember something wrapped around my ankle..." At this point he became a little uncertain. The feeling of being wrapped around didn't seem like a snake, but more like a plant. But how could a plant wrap around both his and his brother's legs?

Aunt Zhou was very unhappy that her husband returned empty-handed. She pushed the man in disdain and said unhappily, "I asked you to bring something back, but you didn't bring anything. You're so embarrassed. The Song family brought a whole carriage full of things. It doesn't make sense that the New Year gifts were only sent to Brother Ning's house when his grandparents are here."

Uncle Zhou was also very angry when he thought about this. He was extremely dissatisfied with Song Dazhuang's practice of bypassing Zhou's grandparents, and he also started to curse the Song family.

"I think they just look down on us. Humph, an outsider is trying to bully us. He will get what he wants sooner or later."

Aunt Zhou still couldn't swallow this breath: "You said there are so many things, Ning Ge'er won't be able to eat them all even if he eats them by next year, right? He is a person who knows how to enjoy life. It's a waste that we raised him to this age, but in the end he didn't get any benefits at all. He is really an ungrateful ungrateful person."

While the couple was still arranging things for Zhou Ning, Zhou Ning came to the door carrying a basket. He had just picked out some things from the New Year gifts, all of which were gifts that farmers would bring during festivals. There were two pieces of dark-colored cloth among the cloth prepared by the Song family. Zhou Ning knew at a glance that these were not prepared for him, so he took them all and prepared to give them to his grandparents.

When he entered the house, he did not say hello to his uncle's family, but went straight to Zhou's grandparents' room.

"Grandpa, grandma, I'm here."

"Oh, it's Ning'er, come here, come here, what are you holding, such a big basket?" Grandma Zhou enthusiastically took the basket brought by her grandson, and her face was full of smiles when she saw the basket full of gifts.

Grandpa Zhou's face showed no expression. They were naturally aware of the grand scale of the Song family's New Year gifts, and they were also dissatisfied with the fact that the Song family directly bypassed their two elders and sent a New Year gift to Zhou Ning.

It would have been fine if the Song family had bypassed them when they made the decision, since they had separated the family anyway and they couldn't make decisions for Zhou Ning. But now the two families have become relatives, and it is reasonable for the Song family to come and visit these two elders.

But the Song family didn't have that. Even Mr. Zhou had never met Song Dazhuang. He had some complaints about this, so he didn't smile at Zhou Ning.

Zhou Ning took out the gifts one by one, including red dates, mushrooms, wolfberries, and some rare mushrooms, which were found in Song Chunlin's space. These wild delicacies were considered relatively valuable gifts in ancient times. Grandpa Zhou's expression looked a little better after seeing these things.

Next came several large blocks of brown sugar, which were also collected by Song Chunlin from the space. The bulk brown sugar in the supermarket was of higher quality than the ancient brown sugar in both taste and color. Grandpa Zhou and Grandma Zhou did not expect that Zhou Ning would take out so much brown sugar at once, and they were stunned.

In addition to these more expensive ones, there were also some cakes on the market, hibiscus cake, plum blossom cake, lotus cake, and jujube paste cake, one serving each, and finally two pieces of silk cotton cloth produced in Wu. The silk cotton was thick, and the color was just right for the two old people.

Looking at the gifts covering the table, Mr. Zhou could no longer put on airs. He just sighed and said, "Ning, you have finally made it."

Zhou Ning did not comment.

After delivering the New Year gifts, Zhou Ning did not stay for long. When he went out, he happened to run into Uncle Zhou, who snorted coldly at Zhou Ning. Zhou Ning ignored him and did not even perform the most basic etiquette. He just walked past Uncle Zhou and walked out the door.

Uncle Zhou couldn't stand it anymore and pointed at Zhou Ning and shouted, "Stop!"

Zhou Ning ignored him. Uncle Zhou wanted to go over and pull him, but Grandpa Zhou slapped him on the back of the head from behind.

"What are you yelling about? Haven't you lost face enough just now?"

Uncle Zhou covered his head and dared not refute, but just stared at Zhou Ning's back fiercely.

"Just wait, there will be a time for you to cry."

Zhou Ning felt a chill on his back and his expression turned cold. He quickly returned to his home. After closing all the doors, he sat down with his hand on his chest. As the New Year was approaching, Zhou Ning always felt that someone was always watching him. Now that Aunt Wang had left, he was alone at home. Every night he had to close the doors and windows before he dared to go to sleep, and even if he fell asleep he was not very serene.

It was the same today. Zhou Ning was half asleep and half awake when suddenly a strange noise came from outside. He woke up from his sleep in an instant, quickly put on a piece of clothes and got out of bed, touched the stick beside the bed, carefully hid behind the door, put his ear against the door, and listened to the sound outside.