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Chapter 22 Bullying and Domination
The thin-faced man heaved a sigh of relief when she said that, but then a troubled look immediately surfaced on his face. "Young Master... could you... pay for the wine first so I can go to the market and buy some rock honey?"

Zhu Yu had not expected that the family could be so poor, so he reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small paper bag containing a few candied fruits.

"It's probably too late to buy some now. Tell your wife to soak the candied fruit in hot water and feed the child the water.

As long as he can wake up and eat some porridge and rice, everything will be fine."

The woman was already extremely anxious and didn't bother to be polite. She hurriedly took the candied fruit and ran to the kitchen. After a while, she came back with hot water for soaking the candied fruit. The couple carefully poured a large bowl of honey water into the child's mouth little by little.

After a while, the child's breathing gradually became stronger, and his hands and feet were no longer so cold. After a while, he finally woke up, opened his eyes, saw his parents, and cried in a mosquito-like voice: "Dad, Mom, I'm hungry..."

The woman was happy to see her child wake up, but when she heard these words, tears began to fall again.

Zhu Yu subconsciously felt around and remembered that he had given the cakes to the Lu family's servant, and had soaked the candied fruit in honey water for the child. Now, he had nothing on him, whether it was money or food.

Lu Qing took out a dime from his pocket and quietly put it into Zhu Yu's hand.

Zhu Yu quickly handed the silver to the thin-faced man and said, "Go ahead. Use the money for the wine you just had and the rest to buy some food. If you let him starve like this again, something bad might happen next time."

The thin-faced man was surprised, delighted, and terrified: "My benefactor, this... is too much... my wine... a string of money..."

"Let's not talk about this for now. The child is waiting." Zhu Yu looked at the little boy beside him.

The thin-faced man looked at his weak child, didn't refuse, and ran out.

Zhu Yu checked the child's condition again and confirmed that he was fine. He comforted the woman. The woman hugged the child and thanked him repeatedly, saying that it must be God's mercy that sent two noble people to help the child survive this disaster.

Zhu Yu felt uncomfortable with her gratitude, so she asked the woman to take care of the child first, and she and Lu Qing went to sit in the yard outside.

"I didn't expect the people in Qingshui County to live such a hard life..." Zhu Yu looked around and sighed, "On the way here, there were quite a few dilapidated houses like this.

But speaking of which, earlier today in the restaurant, the silver cakes you gave to the waiter were much more generous than before."

"That's natural.

If the waiter in the restaurant is lucky enough to meet a noble person, he will naturally have the opportunity to make a small fortune.

"But if this family, which has fallen to such a low point, suddenly took out a silver ingot, do you think it would be a blessing or a curse?" Lu Qing asked.

Zhu Yu thought about it and found that it was indeed true.

"You came out without eating enough just now? Why do you still have some snacks with you?" Lu Qing was curious about how Zhu Yu could take out so many snacks from his sleeves after eating cakes and candied fruits just now.

Zhu Yu smiled and said, "It's really busy when you're out and about, so you always need something to fill your stomach in case of emergency.

Well, it came in handy just now."

Lu Qing nodded and said nothing more.

After a while, the thin-faced man bought some ingredients and gave them to his wife to cook in the kitchen.

"Your Excellency saved my child's life today. I am a rough man and I don't know how to thank you!" The thin-faced man bowed deeply to Zhu Yu and Lu Qing, then looked up at the sky and said, "I am truly unable to repay your kindness. If you don't mind, please have dinner at my house today.

After dinner, when it gets dark, I'll get a few more jars of wine for my benefactor and go back under the cover of darkness. It shouldn't be so easy to be discovered!"

Zhu Yu had been wondering who to turn to for more information, but this suggestion was exactly what she wanted, so she readily agreed. The woman was a deft and skillful person, and she quickly prepared several dishes.

The Hu pancakes I bought from the market were still hot, the mutton soup in the basin was clear with a layer of green chopped green onions floating on top, and there was also a milky white fish soup.

Zhu Yu had eaten well in the Zhu family of Shuo Kingdom in the past, and Lu Qing, as the King of Xiaoyao, was even more well-off. The two were not surprised by such ordinary dishes, but they did not expect that this woman, who looked pale and thin and wore tattered clothes, had such good cooking skills and could make ordinary soups and dishes smell delicious.

"Please take a seat, benefactor. My wife's cooking skills are quite good." The thin-faced man warmly invited the two to sit down. Looking at the fragrant dishes on the table, he couldn't help but feel a little sad. "My family used to be well-off, and she and I lived a good life for a few years...but then we fell into poverty and became like this now."

"Could it be a natural disaster?" Zhu Yu asked.

In fact, she knew in her heart that Jin State had always been a country of outstanding people, good weather, and abundant wealth. For many years, there had not been any natural disaster that could make a wealthy family lose everything in an instant.

When she asked this question, it really touched upon the thin-faced man's sad memories, and he sighed and shook his head.

However, because Zhu and Lu saved their child, and Lu Ji had already suffered, he had fewer concerns. The thin-faced man did not hide anything and told his family's experience with a sad face.

It turned out that the thin-faced man was named Wang Shan. His ancestors had been brewing and selling wine for generations. Although the scale was not large, in addition to selling it in restaurants, he also sold it to neighbors. The money he earned was enough to support his family to live a prosperous and comfortable life.

In the entire Qingshui County area, there are about five or six small wineries like his. If you count the entire Qingshui County area within a radius of about 100 miles, there are more than a dozen such wineries, large and small.

Originally everyone lived in peace and harmony, leading a comfortable and peaceful life. Who would have thought that one day a family called Lu, who also ran a winery business, suddenly moved into the city, and everything changed afterwards.

At first, no one paid attention to these things. But not long after, the original wineries in Qingshui County began to close down one after another and stopped selling wine.

Wang Shan's family was confused until one day the head of Lu's family came to their house with some people and offered to buy their ancestral wine-making secret recipe for a large sum of money.

Of course, Wang Shan’s family would not agree, so they politely declined and sent them away. Not long after that, problems arose at the winery.

First, ruffians frequently harassed the family, and then someone went to the government to file a complaint, claiming that someone had died after drinking the wine brewed by Wang Shan's family.

The person who sold the wine was Wang Shan's father. After being taken to the county government office, the old man argued with reason, but the county magistrate beat him with a stick without giving him any explanation.

After all, the old man was very old and could not bear it. After being beaten, he fell ill and passed away soon after.

Later, Wang Shan heard from others that it was Lu Ji who was behind all this, but he had no choice but to close down his family's winery and never dared to brew and sell wine openly again.

Other wineries also closed down one after another, and soon Lu Ji was the only one left in the entire Qingshui County.

Wang Shan's family has made a living by brewing wine for generations, and the family does not have much land. After their only livelihood was taken away, he and his brother's family could only rely on a few acres of thin land to barely support their family.

Because there was too little land, the crops grown were not enough to feed the family, so the Wang brothers secretly brewed some wine, hid it in the cellar of their home, and sold it privately to old neighbors they knew in exchange for some money to buy rice.

Unexpectedly, this matter somehow reached the ears of Lu Ji. The master of the Lu family sent someone to beat Wang Shan's younger brother. Wang Shan's younger brother was beaten so hard that he vomited blood and fell ill. He died within a month.

After her brother's death, the sister-in-law took her baby back to her parents' home in another city, unwilling to stay in this troubled place. Under the successive blows, her old mother passed away in hunger and cold.

The originally happy family was reduced to a family of three with pale faces and thin bodies. Wang Shan became more cautious. In order to save his life, he would rather starve than sell his privately stored wine to others.

If he hadn't seen something happen to Lu Ji today and heard that Zhu Yu and the others needed wine as a medicine inducer, he probably wouldn't have dared to approach and chat with them.

Fortunately, this conversation took place, otherwise Wang Shan’s child would have starved to death and the family would have been almost destroyed.

(End of this chapter)