Uncle from a poor family

Chapter 66 Communication
When the two brothers arrived home, they saw a carriage parked at the door and servants waiting there.

Zhang Heling smiled and said, "Is this a gift for us?"

As he said that, he pulled his brother into the door.

Normally, Jin would come out to greet guests, but that day, Jin seemed to have something to do, so she stayed in the kitchen. From the open door, she could see that there were guests in the main hall. Zhang Yanling recognized them at a glance as the shopkeeper Qin and Wang Ji, whom he had met before.

There were two boxes in the yard. Just as Zhang Heling said, the other party really came to give gifts.

"Don't go in and disturb them."

Jin waved to the two brothers in the kitchen, and they were called over.

At this time, the stove was burning. The eight-year-old Zhang Yi helped Tang add firewood to the stove. In the ear room connected to the stove, Zhang Yu was embroidering with needle and thread in her hand.

"Wow..."

Tang added a ladle of water to the pot, and the aroma instantly filled the air.

Zhang Heling smacked his lips and asked, "What about cooking fish?"

Jin said, "You two are growing up, so bring back some fish to replenish your body."

Zhang Heling went forward and smelled it, then asked dissatisfiedly, "Why is it salted fish?"

In the pot was salt fish stewed with cabbage. It didn't look very good, but for this small courtyard, it was a very good dish.

Jin scolded, "You are spoiled! If you don't want to eat, don't eat!" Then she looked at her youngest son, and saw Zhang Yanling looking sideways from the window towards the main hall.

At this time, Zhang Luan came out to see the guest off, and Wang Ji said, "I will definitely come to visit you when I have time."

Zhang Luan seemed very enthusiastic: "No need to come here, if you have something to do, just go to the clinic. I basically stay there before the New Year. People from the Imperial Hospital also go there frequently these days."

Speaking of this, Zhang Luan's face was full of pride.

Ever since Li Zisheng came to the clinic to help him out, the people in the Imperial Hospital immediately began to pay attention to Zhang Luan. In the past, they just randomly found someone to do the job, but now there are people from the Imperial Hospital who go there to take charge every day. And with the promotion of the work, the number of people who come to grow medicine has increased a lot compared to before.

Zhang Luan saw the guest off to the gate of the courtyard.

Shopkeeper Qin had a somewhat graceful demeanor. Before leaving, she looked towards the window where Zhang Yanling was. Their eyes met, and she smiled and nodded to Zhang Yanling, seeming to be somewhat interested in this young man.

"She's looking at you?"

Zhang Heling heard the noise outside, looked over, and saw Shopkeeper Qin's bright smile, so he asked curiously.

Zhang Yanling did not answer.

Obviously, Manager Qin, a man who has experienced many big occasions, has long seen that Zhang Luan's medical skills and academic level are quite average. But now the Zhang family's reputation is growing. With his countless experiences, he will of course cast his suspicious eyes on the Zhang family. Zhang Yanling often appeared beside Zhang Luan in the past, so he naturally became the focus of attention.

……

……

Zhang Luan saw the guest off and watched the carriage go away before returning. He closed the door and quickly bolted it.

"Come out, come out."

Zhang Luan’s target was naturally the two boxes.

When Zhang Heling heard the call, he rushed to his old father and before his father opened the box, he impatiently handed him a stick.

"What are you doing?"

Zhang Luan asked in confusion.

Zhang Heling replied as a matter of course: "Aren't we going to pry it open?"

Zhang Luan took the stick and pointed it at his son, cursing, "These gifts, including the box, belong to our family. Do you think you are a thief?"

Zhang Heling took two steps back angrily, and Zhang Luan took out the key from his pocket and opened the two boxes.

Jin and her family gathered around curiously. When they saw the silks and satins, jade carvings, silverware, bronzeware, ceramics and other exquisite utensils in the box, as well as some writing brushes, inkstones, paper and inkstones, Jin couldn't help but exclaimed: "It must have cost a lot of money to buy all this, right?"

Zhang Luan casually took out two pieces of cloth from the box, and when he opened them, he saw that they were actually two pieces of clothing.

"There are actually ready-made clothes... The bright red coat is indeed a dowry for my family." Zhang Luan smiled happily.

Jin came forward to take a closer look and said confidently, "Master, it is indeed a dowry... Could it be that they are here to give a betrothal gift and want to get engaged to Heling?"

Zhang Luan said, "Wrong, wrong. They are not trying to arrange a marriage with us. They said they knew I was going to marry my daughter, so they specially sent some dowry to add some festivity... I think they are just looking for an excuse to send gifts. They asked me for the prescription for the disease and where I got it from. It's obvious that they want to ask for something."

Zhang Yanling reminded him, "Haven't we informed the court of our prescription long ago? They will know it as soon as they check it out. Why would they ask us?" Zhang Luan said, "It is my father's hard work anyway. If they don't come to me, will they go to the Imperial Hospital? Let's not talk about whether the Imperial Hospital will pay attention to them. Even if they go to ask, who can tell the truth?"

Zhang Yanling looked at his cheap father's confident look, and suddenly felt that the old man had a strong ability to deceive himself, as if he had the attitude of "even if I don't know where the recipe came from, but I really did it, I'm awesome."

"Second brother, come into the room with your father. There is something here."

As he spoke, Zhang Luan took Zhang Yanling to the main hall.

Zhang Heling protested unhappily from behind: "Dad, if you have any secrets, you always tell the second brother. I want to hear them too."

"What the hell are you listening to? With your pig brain? It's good enough that you don't cause trouble for your father... Help your mother carry the things into the house... Yanling, this time our family is going to have a great thing..."

Zhang Luan looked excited, but didn't want to say it in front of his family.

……

……

The whole family was very curious.

But Zhang Luan was able to keep his composure at this moment. He pulled Zhang Yanling directly into the main hall and closed the door carefully.

Then he took out a letter from his bosom and handed it to Zhang Yanling: "You know, this letter... is probably a reply from the prince himself. After I got it, I didn't even dare to open it."

When Zhang Yanling saw that Zhang Luan's hands were shaking, he knew that his old father was very upset.

Although Li Zisheng was also a powerful figure in the court, the crown prince... was of extraordinary significance. The crown prince's handwriting was equivalent to an imperial decree. In the past, Zhang Luan would never have dared to hope that he could have any relationship with the crown prince.

Zhang Yanling took the letter without any beating of his heart or shaking of his hands. Just as he was about to tear open the seal, his hand was grabbed by Zhang Luan.

"What are you doing?"

Zhang Luan stared.

Zhang Yanling asked curiously, "The prince has replied, don't you want to take a look?"

"Let's take a look...it seems like we should take a look, but we can't rush it."

Zhang Luan reminded, "Should we pray first?"

Zhang Yanling didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "There are only two of us here, who should we bow to? Maybe my father will tell others about it and say that we bowed first and then opened the box to read it."

"Uh……"

Zhang Luan thought about it and found nothing wrong.

Zhang Yanling asked, "Who sent it?"

Zhang Luan said, "Your uncle personally came to the clinic and handed it to me, saying it was from the East Palace. He was vague about it, and I don't know whether it was written by the prince himself or someone else. In any case, this is the glory of our Zhang family. Wait, should I hang up the portrait of our ancestors first?"

Zhang Yanling looked indifferent: "Dad, please don't trash our ancestors. It's just a letter."

This time, Zhang Yanling did not wait for his father's permission. He directly opened the envelope, took out the neatly folded letter paper inside, spread it out and started to read.

Zhang Luan stretched out his hand to block Zhang Yanling's sight: "Who is this letter written to? To your father, or to you? Or to your sister?"

Zhang Yanling closed the letter after hearing this, and said with a serious face: "It should be considered to be for my sister... Father, I think you should not read it. Let me take a look and help my sister figure out how to reply later."

"Do you want to reply?"

Zhang Luan frowned, "With this letter, it's enough to say hello to the prince. If I write another letter, it will be bad if someone finds out and reports me."

Zhang Yanling said, "We have already passed the letter, are we still afraid of being reported? Besides, there is nothing substantial in our letter, and we need evidence to report it."

Zhang Luan snatched the letter from his son's hand, unfolded it and read it carefully, frowning: "Is this written by the prince himself? Why are the words so obscure and difficult to understand? What... is this nonsense?"

In this letter, Zhu Youtang inquired about the purpose of the letter and brought out a lot of profound principles.

Perhaps it was because as a crown prince, Zhu Youtang had been in contact with scholars from the Hanlin Academy all his life and was accustomed to written articles, which led to him showing off his bookish knowledge even when writing a letter. After just a few words, he began to correct the mistakes in the letter he had sent before, just like a nerd.

Zhang Yanling said, "Maybe they are suspicious of our motives and are deliberately not explaining things in a simple and easy-to-understand way. After all, the idea of ​​a Taishan earthquake is so illusory. As the crown prince, I won't easily believe such nonsense, right?"

Zhang Luan said sternly, "Since you know it's nonsense, why do you let me make it up?"

Zhang Yanling smiled and said, "I thought the prince would wait until Mount Tai shook before replying, but I didn't expect it to be so early. It seems he takes it very seriously.

"Don't worry, father. Leave this matter to me... I'll go talk to my sister and ask her to treat the prince as her pen pal and have a good chat."

(End of this chapter)