After leaving Su Yunfeng's house, Zhao Wenhao quickly found some relatives on his mother's side. They were his mother's cousins, and he had to call them "aunts." When they saw him, they warmly welcomed him inside. They heard that he was here to discuss business with Su Yunfeng, and immediately praised him. Zhao Wenhao felt a bit embarrassed but also a bit elated, as though he had accomplished something great with Zhao Ce.
As they were chatting, the older daughter-in-law suddenly remembered something. She said, "Oh, I remember now. I heard that the troublemaker from our village was taken away by someone with the surname Zhao. Could it be someone from your village?" Zhao Wenhao had a hunch about who they were talking about and said, "I'm not sure." But the two women in his aunt's house suddenly became excited and started talking.
They said that they saw Su Sanlin's second son, who burned the troublemaker's things behind the house, and they found out that the troublemaker was sent away by his family and was supposed to be married off, but a scholar took her away halfway. They didn't know if the scholar had been cursed by her and died.
Zhao Wenhao almost spits out the water he was drinking. His aunt scolded him for being careless and patted his back. Zhao Wenhao hesitated for a moment and asked, "Aunt, what's the name of this troublemaker?" His aunt said, "Her name is Su Caier. She wasn't originally surnamed Su. She had a different eye color, which made her a little monster. After she killed her father, her family didn't want to keep her surname, so her mother had to change her name to Su Caier and bring her back."
As she spoke about Su Cai'er, Zhao Wenhao couldn't help but think about Zhao Ce's wife and didn't want to ask too much about her. But his curiosity couldn't be suppressed. He asked softly, "This person with different colored eyes, is she the troublemaker?" Zhao Wenhao's aunt's voice became a bit shrill. "Yes!" "She killed her father in her original village." "This time she came back and killed her grandfather and mother!" "Most of the people close to her have been killed by her!" "Otherwise, everyone wouldn't call her a disaster!" "But the Su Sanlin family is too heartless." "They made her family cripple her leg and took her out to throw her away." "I don't know if the family that took her will be killed by her too."
It's unclear whether it was out of pity for Su Caier or scolding the Su Sanlin family. As she spoke, she spat out. "Pah! Let's not talk about her." "Talking too much will bring bad luck!" Zhao Wenhao took a cold breath. Was this troublemaker so powerful? Then isn't his cousin in danger? Zhao Wenhao's aunt continued to babble on about some things, but Zhao Wenhao was distracted. When he saw Zhao Ce again after dealing with the matter, he found that he was somewhat absent-minded.
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Zhao Ce asked with concern, "What's wrong, Wenhao? Did something happen?" Zhao Wenhao looked at Zhao Ce strangely, then dryly laughed. "Hehe, nothing..." He thought for a moment and asked cautiously, "Zhao Ce, your wife's eyes..." "Everyone says they're a bit strange." "You..." Seeing Zhao Wenhao's expression, Zhao Ce thought he might have heard some rumors. He said, "Her eyes are just sick. There's nothing wrong with them."
Zhao Wenhao looked away and laughed awkwardly. This young couple was so affectionate. He didn't know how to bring up what he had heard today. After thinking about it, he decided to ask his mother what to do. Zhao Wenhao could only vaguely say, "She's sick..." "Yes, that's what the doctors in the city say."
On the way back, Zhao Wenhao didn't say much. He just walked back with his head down. Zhao Ce didn't say much either. After all, he had already told them about the young girl's situation. If necessary, he would bring out the words of the sage again. But there shouldn't be any problems. After returning to the village.
Just as he arrived, Zhao Ce saw his uncle pacing in front of his fence. When Zhao Ce returned home, his uncle joyfully said, "Finally, you're back!" Zhao Ce only had a young wife at home, so his uncle couldn't directly knock on the door; he could only come by occasionally to check if Zhao Ce was home. After Zhao Ce bid farewell to Zhao Wenhao absent-mindedly, he asked his uncle what was going on. His uncle said, "We finished harvesting the crops in our field today. I went to your field earlier to take a look. Your grass is also ready to be cut. Those grasses have been well-fed, and while they're not crops, they can be used to feed pigs. How about we cut the grass and sell it to the pig-rearing village down below? We can sell this cartload of pig feed for around thirty to forty coins."
The last time when Zhao Ce was in his field, he heard an old man from the village saying that he could directly sell the grass in his field to the families that raised pigs. With everyone busy drying grain and paying autumn taxes after harvesting their crops, Zhao Ce didn't want to take up too much of his uncle's time. After all, they had only agreed that his uncle would help him manage the land and plant new crops, but not dispose of the grass in his field.
Zhao Ce said, "Your family has a lot of work to do. It's okay, I'll take care of it myself and sell it in the village below." Upon hearing Zhao Ce's considerate words, his uncle's dark face broke into a smile. "It's okay, I just came to let you know. We'll take care of it for you." His uncle said no more and left without waiting for Zhao Ce to say anything else.
Zhao Ce called out to him twice, but his uncle didn't turn his head and just waved his hand. Zhao Ce couldn't help but sigh and laugh, "Isn't this just making you do work for nothing?" Meanwhile, Zhao Wenhao returned home with a heavy heart. When his mother saw him come back, she poured him a bowl of water and asked him how things went and if he had visited his aunt's house.
Zhao Wenhao absent-mindedly replied and then hesitated before saying, "Mother, I heard some bad news while I was in aunt's house." Seeing the solemn expression on his face, Li Shi immediately sat down and asked, "What happened?" Zhao Wenhao then told her about Su Caier's situation. Li Shi was shocked and turned pale, covering her mouth with her hand. "Everyone was killed? What about Ce'er?"