novelhk Chapter 107 Suspicious
Chapter 107 Suspicious
Guo Ruo had been watching everything closely, pinched the flesh on his arm hard, took a deep breath in pain, and murmured, "This is real..."
The grandparents in front of me looked like kind people. I thought they would not repeat the dirty deeds that happened in Guojia Village...
Guo Xin pulled the three of them to sit at the small round table and told Guo Ruo what had just happened in the restaurant. Guo Ruo was a little stunned, but after a while he smiled and said, "Then Ruo'er will have grandparents in the future, and she will have someone to rely on!"
Although Guo Xin is the one who earns money to support the family now, ultimately, she is the eldest person and must shoulder the responsibility of the entire family. She must not act like a child and act spoiled.
But now my grandma and grandpa are here, and I have several uncles and aunts. I think it will be easy to get along with them. I don't have to act like an adult, and I can act like a spoiled child in front of my elders occasionally.
"Ruo'er, can I call you that?" Mrs. He asked cautiously.
"Yeah, grandma."
"Hey!" Mrs. He was a little excited. She turned her head to look at He Xiangan with a proud look on her face, as if she was showing off that her granddaughter called her first instead of him.
"Grandfather." Seeing this situation, Guo Ruo called Han He Xiangan again. For some reason, he always felt that he was a little absent-minded and had not come back to his senses until now.
He Xiangan lowered his head slightly when he heard this, smiled, looked at Guo Ruo and said, "You look a lot like me when I was young, so when I saw you, I was stunned for a long time, and it reminded me of some past events."
Guo Ruo was a little surprised. How could she look like a woman? But she still smiled and said, "It means that my granddaughter and grandfather are very destined to be together. It's just that my grandparents came in a hurry, and I didn't prepare any gifts."
"Even my brothers and sisters are not at home. They are still studying in the academy."
Guo Xin said hurriedly: "Just now I asked Liu You to go to their academy to ask for leave to go home. When they come back, we will go back to the village together to sweep the graves of our parents."
……
Guo Xin's small carriage was already a bit crowded for the four members of the Guo family, not to mention the He couple, so the He couple took their own carriage, and Guo Ru also took a carriage with the He couple.
"Were your grandparents generals? I heard that when you were young, you fought on the battlefield together to defend your country."
Guo Ruo had heard Guo Xin mention it the day before, but he was a little unsure. After all, the grandmother in front of him was already very thin, and there was a strong smell of medicine. She looked like a sickly young lady who never left the house.
Madam He said cheerfully, "Yes, I was a female general that everyone was afraid of at the beginning! It's just a pity that your father was lost later, so I didn't care about him anymore. Your grandfather was the pillar of the family, so he had to stay on the battlefield, and later he retired and returned to Beijing."
Guo Ruo said: "I have also learned some martial arts, but they are just small fights, but they are enough to protect myself."
He Xiangan was very surprised and asked, "Martial arts?"
"Yes, it was Xin'er who taught us. She said that she received guidance from an immortal in her dream, and asked us to learn so that we can protect ourselves and not be bullied by others."
Hearing this, the He couple felt sad. Learning martial arts is a good thing, but it is definitely not without reason that they can receive guidance from the immortals. They were also told to protect themselves, which means they must have suffered a great injustice.
"My children, you have suffered a lot. Now that we are here, others dare not bully you." Mrs. He continued, "But I still have a doubt. I was anxious to find you at that time, so I didn't ask more questions. I want to know how your father died?"
Hearing this, Guo Ruo sighed. When his parents had just passed away, he had nightmares day and night, resenting his uncle's family for being ruthless and ungrateful, resenting the greed of the officials, and resenting his own incompetence...
But fortunately, life got better day by day, the nightmares gradually faded away, and was replaced by longing for my parents.
He said with some regret: "My parents committed suicide. Last year was a year of famine, but the tax revenue did not decrease at all. We had a hard time saving and frugality to collect enough grain tax for our family."
"But we didn't expect that the tax collector had no conscience at all. He kicked away the sacks of grain we had in our bag, and the grain inside the sacks spilled all over the ground. We wanted to pick it up, but the tax collectors wouldn't let us do what we wanted."
"It was like this in previous years, but it wasn't a famine then, so we just accepted it. It's still like this now, and we have no other options, so we want to borrow from our uncle's family."
"Because our family had not yet split up at that time, but taxes had to be paid separately, so we still had a lot of grain that was squeezed away by our uncle's family, so we wanted to get that part back, but that family was cruel and just ignored us."
"We could borrow from other families in the village, but it was a famine year and everyone was having a hard time. They didn't have any extra money to lend to us, so my parents gave up and committed suicide the next day. In order to pay off the debt, I married the landlord as a concubine, but Xin'er didn't want to, so she found a way to break off the engagement with me."
The He couple looked at Guo Ruo with eyes full of pity. They thought to themselves how scared and helpless a little girl must have been to marry a landlord as a concubine in order to pay off her family's debts.
He Xiangan looked at the ever-changing scenery outside the window and began to doubt whether the emperor, whom he had always firmly supported, was really so wise.
When he was young, he was not from a noble family, but a commoner. At first, he was annoyed because he always had a feminine face, so he thought about changing his appearance. He heard that joining the army could not only earn fame, but also make people handsome.
He went there when he was young, and accidentally gained a lot of fame and honor. He was promoted step by step and was highly valued by His Majesty. He reached a position that was difficult for ordinary people to achieve. Later, when his achievements surpassed his master, he returned to the capital.
But he has always been very grateful to His Majesty, and in his impression, His Majesty has always been benevolent, the people in the capital are very wealthy, and the soldiers on the border can also have enough food and clothing, and the entire Zhao Dynasty should be a thriving scene.
Last year, there was a famine and Your Majesty also issued favorable policies, but why did things change when it came to the lower levels?
He kept thinking about it, but couldn't figure out which step of the supervision went wrong?
Suddenly, several voices sounded in unison not far in front of the carriage.
"Is it Guo Xin's carriage?"
Guo Xin was a little confused. He lifted the car curtain and saw several women and strong men standing together in front of him. They looked familiar. They should be from Guojia Village, but he couldn't remember what they did.
"You are from Guojia Village, right? Is there anything going on?"
"We are the guys in the workshop. We would like to ask you whether you still want to continue running this workshop?" said a sturdy man standing at the front.