The Whole Village Thrives After Adopting a Lucky Girl

After a moment, Yingbao sneaked a peek at Wu Daozi. Seeing he didn’t seem angry, she tentatively asked again, “Uncle Wu, are you really…” not going to try?

Wu Daozi didn’t wait for her to finish before putting down his book and good-naturedly stretching out his wrist, “Then you go ahead and take my pulse.”

He estimated if he didn’t let her take his pulse, this little girl could nag him the whole way without stopping.

Yingbao blinked, almost thinking she had misheard.

Wu Daozi was actually letting her take his pulse. Wasn’t he a Divine Doctor? Why would he let a child take his pulse?

But such a question could only be contemplated in her heart, she was not going to ask it out loud.

Though pretending to be calm on the surface, Yingbao thrusted out three fingers in a fake proficiency and took Wu Daozi’s pulse.

But she was still a bit nervous. After all, he was a future Divine Doctor.

When he became famous as the Divine Doctor, she would hire a painter to capture this moment, with the caption: “On a certain day, month, and year, a three-year-old child prodigy took the pulse of the Divine Doctor.”

Heh, she could make a name for herself just based on this story alone.

Yingbao carefully felt his pulse and said, “Uncle Wu, your pulse is smooth and slightly sticky, indicating a stagnation of liver energy and the energy mechanism of the lung and stomach is not smooth. Are you often frustrated?”

She pointed at Wu Daozi’s neck and continued, “Subsequently, dampness accumulated to form a disease, and phlegm-energy blockage occurs in the neck. As a result, you have a swelling in your neck, and the neck mass grows bigger.”

Wu Daozi nodded in approval, “Your diagnosis isn’t bad.” He rubbed his neck and mockingly asked, “So does young Doctor Yingbao have a cure?”

After pondering for a moment, Yingbao took out a few boiled water chestnuts from her pocket and handed them over, saying earnestly, “This is a good medicine.”

Wu Daozi laughed heartily and took the water chestnuts gratefully, “Thank you for the medicine, young doctor.”

He just assumed it was a child’s game and didn’t take it seriously.

Yingbao saw him continuing to read his book, showing no intention to “take the medicine,” and impatiently urged, “Uncle Wu, why aren’t you taking your medicine? Taking the medicine is how you get better.”

Wu Daozi looked at her and had no choice but to stuff a water chestnut into his mouth and started to crunch.

Only after seeing him finish three of them did Yingbao finally look away, satisfied.

After that, they didn’t speak much. Yingbao even fell asleep. When she woke up, the mule cart had stopped in a courtyard.

“Get off and stretch your legs.” Wu Daozi lifted Yingbao down from the mule cart and set her on the ground.

A few soldiers with large “Post” characters embroidered on their backs came over and respectfully asked, “Sir, will you be stopping here for a rest or lodging?”

“Rest for a while. Bring us some food to eat, we’ll leave once we’re finished.” Wu Daozi instructed with his hands behind his back, “Also, bring a brazier over.” “Yes, sir. I’ll go handle that right away.” The postal soldier ran off quickly. Yingbao tilted her head and looked at Wu Daozi, thinking to herself, it turns out he’s an officer.

Not just anyone could rest in a postal station. This was a place controlled by the government office, and without any official rank, one wouldn’t even be allowed to stand at the entrance.

Yingbao looked around and saw a latrine at the edge of the courtyard. She called to a postal soldier to take her there.

Now she could bluff around a bit, playing a little fox borrowing the tiger’s prestige.

After using the latrine, the postal soldier brought hot water for her to wash her face and hands, then took her to eat.

Of course, she was eating with Uncle Wu.

The food was quite ordinary, just steamed buns, tofu, pickles, not even a single egg.

Judging from this treatment, Wu Daozi’s official rank wasn’t very high.

Food and warm water at the postal station were free for passing officers, but the quality of food was directly linked to an officer’s rank. What rank you were determined what kind of food you got. This was a rule from the Imperial Court. If you weren’t satisfied, you could pay extra for additional dishes.

Yingbao took a sip of the warm pickle soup, her eyes darting to Wu Daozi from time to time. She finally couldn’t help but ask, “Uncle Wu, where do you serve as an officer?”

Wu Daozi leisurely took bites of his steamed bun and pickles, saying, “You sure ask a load of questions, kiddo.”

Yingbao curled her lip, took a large bite of her bun, and stuffed her mouth full.

After finishing their meal and warming their feet a while, Wu Daozi instructed his servant to hitch the mule cart and get on the road again.

A few hours into their journey, they came to a fork in the official road where they paused. The cart driver asked, “Master, which road should we take?”

“It’s getting late, let’s head to the county town first,” Wu Daozi instructed.

“Yes, sir.” The cart driver, who had already inquired about the direction to Qinchuan County while they were at a relay station, flicked the whip to spur the mules towards the county town.

Before nightfall, the mule cart finally reached the town, and following Wu Daozi’s instructions, the servant stopped at an inn.

Though they had arrived back in Qinchuan County, Yingbao remained on her guard. Before stepping out of the cart, she wrapped a thin blanket around her face, leaving only her big bright eyes to goggle at their surroundings.

Wu Daozi was unfazed by Yingbao’s peculiar dress, while the two servants couldn’t help but laugh.

The behaviors of this pint-sized kid were hilarious and sure enough to amuse people.

Regardless of their laughter, Yingbao knew that the husband of the little Han family was a subordinate in this county town, and there was a chance that they might cross paths.

Though Chen Guanglu might not recognize her, he was surely privy to her appearance from his wife’s mouth.

Although Wu Daozi was an officer, he had brought along only two servants. Arriving on someone else’s turf, they could easily be ambushed by an enemy if they were not cautious.

Upon entering the inn, the innkeeper checked in the travellers. Realizing that one of them was an incoming officer, he quickly ran out from behind his counter, bowing and scraping as he led them to the room upstairs. He urged his helper to bring up hot water and a brazier as quickly as possible, then had his wife brew a big pot of ginger jujube tea sweetened with brown sugar to help the officer stave off the cold.

Yingbao also received special treatment. Not only was she given her own room, but she also enjoyed the warm hospitality of the inn.

The innkeeper’s wife personally carried in hot water for this young lady to wash her face and hands, smiling as she asked, “Little miss, why didn’t your mother come along?”

Taken aback by her question, Yingbao answered briefly, “She’s at home.”

“Oh, why would she say that?” the innkeeper’s wife said with a sly smile, then whispered, “Did the officer not want to bring along someone to take care of him on this long journey?”

The question was anything but respectful, but the innkeeper’s wife thought this toddler wouldn’t understand anything and, moreover, she had no maids or female servants around her. The woman assumed it would be easy to pump some information out of the little girl.

But Yingbao, who had grown up so quickly in her past and present lives, had both her parents from the village and had not been taught what was proper to listen to and what wasn’t, so she did not catch the innuendo in the matron’s question.

Upon hearing the innkeeper’s wife’s comment, she was reminded of Wu Daozi’s miserable, neglected old age. She seemed to never have heard him mention a wife or children, and considering he had only brought some gifts to present when assuming office, and the two servants hadn’t mentioned anything about their master’s wife or children, she wondered, could it be that Uncle Wu had never married?

Ah, that might be possible.

So she replied, “Uncle Wu hasn’t assumed office yet. He’ll handle such matters once everything is properly arranged.”

Overheard her earlier, the innkeeper had been respectfully addressing Wu Daozi as Mingfu and officer.

Who was Mingfu? Naturally, he had to be the magistrate of a county.

Therefore, Wu Daozi was most likely going to assume the position of a county magistrate.

That was wonderful news.

As long as she maintained a good relationship with Uncle Wu, why would she have to fear Chen Guanglu?

But Chen Guanglu was a big fish in their local pond, so she couldn’t afford to be The innkeeper’s wife was taken aback when she heard Yingbao called the Mingfu “Uncle Wu”, but she quickly forced a smile and said, “So, it turns out you’re the officer’s niece.”

Yingbao: …

Alright, let her guess what she wanted. After all, she would be going home the next day anyway.

The innkeeper’s wife’s smile became even more pleasant. She said to Yingbao in a low voice, “The officer said you’ll be staying at the inn for a couple of days.. My niece isn’t doing anything tomorrow, why not let her come over to keep you company?”