A Western Doctor’s Happy Farming Life[1] chapter 57

The round face man looked close to despair after receiving the message from Song Qinghan.

Seeing that, Song Qinghan asked back with a sense of sympathy, “Are you that kind of hurried? Go and find those butchers for the spices.”

Shaking head, the man then answered with a gloomy face, “That’s not enough and I need more. After all, it’s such a strength-consuming thing for me to come here. And if it’s not because… Whatever, but no one can predict when the next time will be for me to come again. And maybe this is the last time I’m here.”

Song Qinghan shrugged, showing his pity for this man. But just as the couple turned around and ready to leave, Song Qinghan caught a glance at the strange marks on the man’s wrist.

Noticing that Song Qinghan was pausing all of a sudden, Wu Dahu turned his head and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Song Qinghan stared at Wu Dahu, asking tentatively, “Don’t we possess an unused room? Why don’t we just let him stay and once we’ve made the seasonings and spices, we can deliver him directly.”

Hearing so, the round face man regained his hope in his eyes, and then showed his eagerness to the response from Wu Dahu with half expectation and half anxiety.

If it was other man who heard that his femina husband was showing a great willingness to invite a stranger at home, he would probably be furious all at once. But Wu Dahu gave his answer without hesitation, saying, “Alright. Would you love to come back with us?”

“Yes, yes, I’d love to! Please wait for me for some minutes, I will go back the lodge for my package now.” answered the round face man, nodding hurriedly.

“Sure, take your time. And we’re heading to buy something, you can wait for us there.” responded Wu Dahu, pointing at the place in a distance.

It seemed that this chubby man was afraid that the couple would just leave without taking him while considering that he couldn’t even leave his package in that lodge, he pondered for a moment, saying, “Alright. I will be right back. If you guys finish your purchasing before I come back, please wait for me a bit.”

After that, he ran away and disappeared in a flash, as if he was launched by cannonball.

After the chubby man left, Wu Dahu turned his head to Song Qinghan and asked curiously, “Why did you just change your mind? Aren’t you afraid that he will steal our secret recipe?”

Well, Song Qinghan was regretful either, after all, the secret recipe to make spices or seasonings was their trump card that they had to strictly keep as a secret. Taking a stranger home was rather risky.

But recalling what he had seen just then on the man’s wrist, Song Qinghan had no choice and then he spoke to Wu Dahu, “That man once made a suicide before. I noticed the trace on his wrist, it’s how he cut his wrist.”

Taking a pause and showing a shocking look, Wu Dahu mumbled, “Did you notice the face of him when he heard that we have no seasoning left, he was showing a face of despair. Maybe he meets some troubles himself and attempts to grab a chance from our spices?”

Song Qinghan sighed, pondering and then answering, “Let’s play it by ear. As long as we don’t take him to the mountain and never show him how we process the spices. I think everything will just be fine.”

For a further thought of this matter and despite the negative impact, Song Qinghan would regarded it as a perfect virtue if he could lit up the flame of hope for the man who probably now was suffering a great depression.

Nodding, Wu Dahu didn’t show any special personal point in this matter. As long as it was Song Qinghan’s decision, he would just accompany with him.

The couple then headed to various shops to buy something for their daily needs. And in considering the upcoming trip, Wu Dahu required a blacksmith to help him make a crossbow, a quite portable gadget for him for a self-protection. He was informed to take the finished product after three days.

But just when they were at the iron shop with the blacksmith taking a smooth conversation with them. It was kind of awkward for Song Qinghan to balance the situation, he wanted the blacksmith to shut up about the scalpel kit stuff. But the blacksmith didn’t care that much, he then came to ask whether Song Qinghan would love to forge another one. Song Qinghan refused without demonstrating a reason.

However, just as they were about to leave, they received an interesting news from this blacksmith: Lin Dafu had expanded his business to the capital of the country already. Probably this time the Lin guy would be “promoted” to be a man of upper class.

Song Qinghan and Wu Dahu stared at each other without words. But Song Qinghan then relieved finding that Wu Dahu showed no any sign of jealousy in his eyes.

At the same time Wu Dahu relieved either while he found no any sign of expectation to that Lin guy in Song Qinghan’s eyes.

On the way back, Wu Dahu couldn’t help but still expose his thought hidden deep in his mind after pondering for a while.

“Han, do you know why I showed so much eagerness to the trip of Laifu’s business? I didn’t tell you that I’m going to attend a tournament held by the central government as well.”

“A tournament?” repeated Song Qinghan, and then he continued to say, “And the winner from that competition will be honored the name of Zhuang Yuan of Martial Skills (No.1 Scholar of Martial Skills)?”

Nodding, Wu Dahu came to a shock knowing that Song Qinghan exactly comprehended the tournament thing, he then continued to explain, saying, “Yes, you’re right. And the sponsor of this tournament started its enrollment right now. Those who would love to attend the competition are required to pay five hundred silver coins for the registration fee. So I am thinking about taking the remuneration of this trip to attend this game.”

“Five hundred silver coins?”

Song Qinghan took a deep breath and asked dubiously, “That’s not a tiny amount of registration fee, isn’t it? How come? So this game is only open for those who can afford it? That’s rather unfair to those who are poor without money.”

Wu Dahu smiled bitterly and came to explain, saying, “Well, indeed. The martial arts are supposed to be the daily exercises for the noble. The poor, while owning a life of scarcity and unknown illness, couldn’t even pit against the noble in their inborn physical status. Five hundred silver coins, well, for those sons of the families of pedigree, are just something unconspicuous. In this case, the registration fee had never changed at all since the competition’s founding.”

“More importantly,” Wu Dahu continued to say while taking a pause a bit, it seemed that it was hard for him to finish his words, “The attenders will face various risks. Some might get slight injuries from it, but what’s worse, some might die. So the registration fee is used to compensate the family members.”

The couple talked while walking along the way, and not long they reached the place where they had made a promise with that chubby man. Coincidentally, the man was running over behind them while hearing something about registration fee from the two, and then he replenished the demonstration of Wu Dahu, saying, “Yes, you are right. The family of the dead one is able to gain ten thousand silver coins from the competition for their compensation. It’s quite normal to see that there are some people who show no willingness to live love to attend this game, they will borrow five hundred silver coins from other family and head to the ‘Game of Death’ for their families.”

Song Qinghan stared at the chubby man with his wide-open eyes, as if he was quite shocked over this incredible affair.

“What? Are the coins worthy of a man’s life? That’s so ridiculous.” shouted Song Qinghan.

The chubby man sighed heavily, and it seemed that something deep in his mind just occurred to him all of a sudden, he then uttered in a gloomy face, “If they aren’t forced by their pitiful life, who will just take this shitty choice? Those who would see this loophole as an advantage are just some pitiful guys. And what’s worse, if they aren’t able to die from this game, and are just kicked out from the arena. The registration fee will be wasted. That’s not a tiny amount of money, isn’t it?”

Song Qinghan turned his head looking at Wu Dahu, and saying seriously, “I don’t mind if you are going to attend this game or not. But you can’t have this kind of thoughts. Okay?”

Wu Dahu smiled big. Seeing the serious face of Song Qinghan, he then withdrew his smile, promising, “Don’t worry. I will take the initiative to admit defeat, and lend no chance to the other party to punch me on my face.”

Being informed like that, Song Qinghan finally delivered a bright smile, and then patted Wu Dahu on his shoulder, saying, “That’s my man! It’s really no use to stake one’s life for a so-called competition. Oh, so does the winner of this competition have a chance to be an official? Or there’s a reward?”

Pondering for a while, Wu Dahu answered, “It should be a chance. But as for what position, it depends. And as for the reward, except the money for remuneration, the rest will all be rewarded to the winner.”

Blinking, Song Qinghan seemed to sink into an illusion that numerous ingots are showing in front.

Probably the chubby man had just regained his attention from his emotional thoughts, he then echoed with a smile, saying, “The official position of the Zhuang Yuan of Martial Skills isn’t one lower down the pecking order. At least it will be higher than the fifth-rank official.”

Fifth-rank Official? Although Song Qinghan couldn’t even figure out the ranking system of this official arrangement. But since he knew that the ninth-rank official was called “The Official of Sesame”, namely the lowest ranking official, he could know that the fifth-rank was right in the middle. It probably was nothing for the court, but as for someone who pursued a promising future in the court, it was quite a nice start.

However, it was just something difficult to make come true. No one would consider the winning of this competition was easy to get. He didn’t expect that Wu Dahu would win that game, but just hope everything will be fine by his side.

As the three were talking, the ox cart came. They took what they carried onto the cart heading to the village.

In a further conversation, Song Qinghan finally came to know the name of this chubby man- Yuan Boshu.

Not only that, he also had acquired the information of what the man did and why he would require seasonings and spices in such a large quantity.

It turned out that Yuan Boshu was running a restaurant in his town. He was kind of rich benefiting from his business though in the very beginning. But beyond his expectation, a group of outsiders flocked into his town, and they not only opened another restaurant within a short time, but also resorted any possible means to trick his regular customers to come over.

At first, Yuan Boshu didn’t pay much attention to them at all. But since he could sense that everything had just run strangely for half a month, he finally came to know the fact.

However, when he realized the fact, he had lost the greatest chance because the rival restaurant had already diffused some information bad for his reputation in order to misinform the customers for their business.

With another half month passed by, he got no idea at all but just witnessed his employed chef and waiters leaving him for that more promising restaurant.

He was kind of confident on everything including his restaurant dishes, that’s the crucial reason why he could run his business so successful. But now, he got nothing since his main chef left.

It never rains but it pours. it would be not that bad with just a failed business, the most heartbreaking fact for this poor man was that his husband put forward a move to get divorced with him and confessed that he had made a secret affair with the chef.

Yuan Boshu was such a man with a soft character who was willing to show mercy to people. He didn’t even signed an announcement himself to kick his husband out of his family, but just reached an agreement to sign a peaceful divorce paper with him. But the worst consequence just came out of his expectation, his husband was kind of wicked and the divorce paper had become a weapon for him to accuse Yuan Boshu at the court.

Yuan Boshu, who was sued by his own husband on various charges, had no choice but to compensate his husband with all his properties.

If not considering that he still got a toddler to raise, he probably would have committed suicide himself.

However, even though he had children as a support for his survival, he still tried to commit suicide several times, but every time he just failed to make it. That’s why Song Qinghan would notice bunch of scars on his wrist.