Chapter 41

In the early morning, Yang Shouwen opened his eyes.

Recently, he hadn't been dreaming of anything strange, and his sleep had been good, which improved his spirits.

He had been telling stories until just before midnight, and it was only when Lady Yang came over that she forcibly carried the captivated young lady away.

Yang Shouwen slept until dawn but then heard a series of sobs coming from the doorway.

The sobs were not from the young lady; Yang Shouwen could tell. At such an early hour... Yang Shouwen immediately got out of bed in a bad mood, angrily got up, put on his clothes, and walked to the door, pulling it open. The sun had already risen, and the air in the courtyard was particularly fresh. The crying seemed to be coming from the front yard, so Yang Shouwen walked out barefoot, following the corridor to the front yard.

He had thought that Yang Rui would cry, or Qingnu would cry...

But he never expected that when he reached the front yard, the person crying was actually Yang Molihua.

The big guy was sitting on the threshold, crying like a teary-eyed person. However, while crying, he held two large pancakes in each hand. He would cry once, take a bite of the pancake, cry again, take another bite, with snot and tears streaming down his face, not bothering to wipe them. When the snot reached his mouth, he would suck it back in, then take a big bite of the pancake and continue crying...

Lady Yang and Lady Song stood beside him, at a loss.

And Yang Rui was sitting on the porch, watching Yang Molihua eat and cry, drooling silently...

In the end, who was the real son?

"Xizi, you came just in time, quickly comfort Molihua."

Seeing Yang Shouwen appear, Lady Yang and Lady Song seemed to have found a savior and called out loudly.

Lady Song was gently persuading Yang Molihua, "Molihua, your husband has come. If anyone bullies you, tell your husband."

As she spoke, she glanced at Yang Rui.

Yang Rui felt incredibly aggrieved: He was so big, with arms thicker than my legs. How could I dare to bully him?

The feeling of not being a real son grew stronger, and Yang Rui felt very wronged.

"It's Yang Molihua."

"Right, right, it's Yang Molihua."

Yang Shouwen walked past Yang Rui, patted his head, and then walked barefoot down the porch to Yang Molihua.

"Mother, Aunt, you go and do your work. Leave this to me."

Yang Shouwen squatted down.

"Yang Molihua, tell me, what's wrong?"

"Master, it's broken!"

"Huh?"

Yang Molihua's sudden statement left Yang Shouwen confused.

He saw Yang Molihua take a big bite of the pancake, chew while crying, and mumble, "The hammer, it's broken."

Yang Shouwen was a bit impressed by Yang Molihua.

To cry with such character, how the hell do you do it?

He followed the direction of Yang Molihua's finger and saw three iron lumps not far away. Upon closer inspection, Yang Shouwen recognized them as the laundry hammers made by Yang Molihua's mother, Lüzhu. They looked very sturdy, so how could they break? Yang Shouwen walked over, picked up the broken hammer, and examined it closely.

Yang Molihua's laundry hammers weighed 42 catties and 36 catties respectively.

The broken hammer was the 36-catty one. However, Yang Shouwen noticed that it wasn't broken by external force but was originally connected, with a loose joint that had split into two pieces.

Yang Shouwen smiled and tried to put the hammer back together.

Hmm?

As he aligned the broken ends, he suddenly noticed that the hammer was hollow in one section, as if something was inside.

Perhaps because of this hollow section, the hammer's weight had been reduced.

Yang Shouwen was surprised and took out what was inside, which turned out to be a sheepskin scroll.

He unfolded the scroll and found it was a map. It had various arrows and strange symbols in some places.

"Mother, look at what's written here."

Lady Song heard Yang Shouwen's call and walked over with Yang Rui.

She glanced at it and shook her head, "I don't know... I can recognize characters, but these are not characters."

"Mother, these are Turkic characters."

Yang Rui spoke up, pointing to a string of symbols, "These are Turkic numbers, which I recognize... In the past, the government caught a Turkic merchant, and I took good care of him, so he taught me some Turkic characters."

"Numbers?"

Yang Shouwen asked in confusion, "What numbers?"

"These two numbers mean eight and ten; this one means eight and twenty-six; and this one means twenty-eight... There are so many eights. Big brother, what do these numbers mean? And this map, I think I've seen it somewhere."

"You've seen it?"

"Um!"

"Then think hard, where have you seen it?"

Yang Rui scratched his head, deep in thought.

On the other side, the seemingly forgotten Yang Molihua couldn't help but say, "Master, the hammer... I'm hungry."

It seemed that crying was also a tiring job; otherwise, how could he still be hungry after eating two pancakes, which weighed nearly a pound? Yang Shouwen quickly walked over, squatted in front of Yang Molihua, and held the two pieces of the hammer.

"Yang Molihua, no more crying.

Look, Master will perform a magic trick and fix the hammer for you, okay?"

"Okay!"

Yang Molihua immediately stopped crying and watched Yang Shouwen with wide eyes.

Yang Shouwen quickly put the hammer back together, waved it a few times, and handed it to Yang Molihua, saying, "You can play with it for now. Master will fix it properly later so it won't break again."

"Um, Yang Molihua understands... but, Yang Molihua is still hungry."

"Aunt, are there any more pancakes in the kitchen?"

Yang Shouwen stood up helplessly and called out to the kitchen.

Lady Yang appeared with a basket containing five or six steamed buns and two boiled eggs.

"Is Xizi hungry?"

This was clearly Yang Shouwen's breakfast, but seeing Yang Molihua's pitiful look, Yang Shouwen sighed and handed the basket to him.

No wonder Yuan Xunyu was so eager to send this big guy away; if he stayed in Guzhu, his appetite would surely put pressure on Yuan Xunyu. Yang Shouwen always thought he could eat a lot, but compared to Yang Molihua, it was nothing.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't eat the shell... peel it first."

Yang Molihua took the basket and stuffed an egg into his mouth.

Yang Shouwen quickly stopped him, a bit exasperated, "You need to peel the shell first."

As he spoke, he peeled the egg, revealing the white inside. Yang Molihua took the egg, looked at Yang Shouwen, hesitated for a moment, and slowly put it in his mouth. A moment later, he smiled and said, "Master, it's delicious."

"Um, if it's delicious, eat more."

Damn, why does this sound so familiar?

Yang Shouwen calmed Yang Molihua and then stood up to look at Yang Rui.

"Big brother, I remember... this is the map of Feihu."

"Feihu?"

"Oh, Feihu is not nearby; it's in Dingzhou, southwest of Changping, quite far away."

"Are you talking about Feihu Pass?"

"Oh, that's Feihu Pass."

Yang Rui nodded quickly, "I remember once when I was delivering something to the county magistrate, I saw a similar map in his room.

At the time, I asked the county magistrate where it was, and he said it was Feihu... He also said something about far water not quenching near fire, but I didn't hear it clearly."

Yang Shouwen was surprised but then thought, Wang He was from the Taiyuan Wang family, so his perspective was naturally different. Although he was just the county magistrate of Changping, it wasn't unusual for him to have a map of Feihu, but it was unclear what he meant by far water not quenching near fire.

This had nothing to do with Yang Shouwen.

What he was concerned about was whether this map was related to the secret of Lüzhu's murder.

"Second brother, prepare the horse."

"Huh?"

"We need to return to the county town immediately and give this to Father."

Yang Shouwen didn't explain the reason, and Yang Rui didn't ask.

"Mother, don't go out today. I'll have Molihua stay here to guard.

As for the matters at Little Maitreya Temple, I'll deal with them when I return. I'll go change clothes and come back."

Seeing Yang Shouwen's expression, Lady Song knew it was serious.

She nodded, "Be careful on your way."

Yang Shouwen hurried back to his room and changed his clothes.

At this moment, the young lady came out of the house, still half-asleep, "Brother Xizi, are you going out again?"

Hearing this, Yang Shouwen immediately stopped and said softly, "Young lady, be good. Brother Xizi is going to the city to do some errands. When I return, I'll continue the story of the monkey."