Zhang Dadan finished speaking and quickly stepped forward with his lantern, "I didn't expect to see my benefactor again."
"You didn't leave?" Ah Jiu asked subconsciously.
"How could I leave? You saved my life. Now there are only about a hundred people left in the Yizhuang (funeral home/charity house), so they don't need my clumsy hands. I applied to be sent here to guard the gate."
As he spoke, Zhang Dadan led Ah Jiu further away:
"A big shot came to the inn yesterday and now the inn is heavily guarded."
"That's why they brought so many guards," Ah Jiu didn't know anything else, but with her night vision and having seen her father's hands always resting on his bow, she could tell that those people's hands had the same calluses.
It was just that their personal weapons were long sabers, while those calluses were from being constantly worn down by sickles.
"Huh, could it be the King of Nanming?" Ah Jiu suddenly remembered what Old Liu had said about the King of Nanming running away.
Zhang Dadan glanced back suspiciously and quickly gestured for silence:
"Definitely not. When I was on guard, I saw the luxurious carriage stop, and I didn't dare to raise my head, but I could hear the voice. That voice is definitely not that of a young person like the King of Nanming."
Ah Jiu was suspicious. The King of Nanming was already over forty, and he was still considered young?
Perhaps he was even older.
Never mind, it had nothing to do with her, Meng Jiuer: "You're all better now, what are you still doing here? Hurry home."
"To be honest, I, Zhang Dadan, have no one left at home," Zhang Dadan scratched his head, not looking very sad:
"My parents died when I was young. I'm a bachelor, so why would I go home? Here, the government sends food and water regularly. I don't have anyone to miss anyway. Oh, right, that alleyway up ahead is my home."
"Oh?" Ah Jiu was stunned. This was a good thing: "Can I stay for a day or two?"
"Yes, yes, yes, absolutely."
Zhang Dadan quickly lowered the lantern, helping Ah Jiu to see the path at her feet:
"It's just a bit too dilapidated. You know, a single man, no wife to help tidy up. If you don't mind, you can stay temporarily, no, no, you can stay permanently."
Ah Jiu covered her nose and chuckled. So people in the south called their wives "po niang" (old woman).
It sounded so old.
But when Ah Jiu saw Zhang Dadan's home, she froze. After thinking about it, she never expected it to be so dilapidated.
It was all just wooden frames, with only one dilapidated room no bigger than an outhouse, and the cooking stove was right by the bed.
If you got off the bed carelessly, you could step into the stove.
Ah Jiu's surprise made Zhang Dadan immediately feel embarrassed. He quickly rolled up the half-rolled, half-unrolled cotton quilt.
"Sorry, this was my swaddling clothes from when I was a child."
Indeed, there was still a smell of old urine.
"It's alright, as long as it can block the wind." It was already autumn, and the nights were particularly cold.
"Actually, if I hadn't picked up a piece of meat to eat this time, I wouldn't have gotten sick. The wife that Aunt Li introduced to me would have worked out. Later, all the money I saved to get married was spent on medical treatment. Then, they disliked my dilapidated home, and I got seriously ill again. That girl was unwilling to stay with me anymore."
Zhang Dadan said as he tidied up.
Ah Jiu sat on the edge of the bed. He took out the rations distributed that day, broke one in half, and offered it to Ah Jiu.
"Did you also pick up meat?" Ah Jiu didn't take it. She wasn't hungry at all now.
Zhang Dadan held two broken pieces of flatbread in one hand and took a bite himself:
"Yes, it's drought everywhere, and the crops aren't growing at all. I wanted to find a job in Nanming City. Moreover, I heard that the King of Nanming is benevolent and even releases water. I just left Nanzhou County and found a piece of fresh meat on the roadside."
Ah Jiu frowned. She had originally thought that sick people had eaten human flesh out of extreme hunger:
"So, everyone in Nanzhou County who got sick ate meat they picked up, just like you?"
"Benefactor, how did you know?" Zhang Dadan was stunned, then said,
"I don't know why, but on that day, many people said they picked up meat to eat. Some picked it up earlier than me. When I was moved to the front of the Yizhuang, I heard that my neighbor had already died. I was so scared. Later, the first doctor to see the patients was Doctor Liu Yuanxian from Nanming City. He studied it for a long time. After many people died, he discovered the common point was that they had all eaten meat, and it was human meat.
To understand the illness, Old Liu himself ate a piece."
At this point, Zhang Dadan couldn't help but want to vomit.