"Did you check the side chamber yet?"
Yang Chuxiaâs expression darkened slightly, that Cao Lingling sure ran fast.
"Not yet!"
"Have your mother take a look in the side chamber later, to see if thereâs anything dirty in there." She suspected it wasnât clean; otherwise, Cao Lingling wouldnât have tried to lure Brother An into the side chamber.
The next day
Sister-in-law Li came over early in the morning.
"How is it? Is the side chamber dirty?"
Sister-in-law Li felt like she was incredibly unlucky, Cao Lingling was always causing her trouble.
"Yes, there was a sedative and that kind of drug." Not only that, but the drug packets hadnât even been thrown away; she took them directly to the doctor.
Yang Chuxia just nodded, "She got off easy, running off that fast. I hadnât had time to deal with her, and she ran away on her own."
But it was strange when you think about it, how come Cao Lingling was so timid this time and just ran away?
"Whatâs wrong?" Ye Ziâan emerged from the inner room, seeing that everyoneâs expression wasnât very good, so he asked.
"Did you run into Cao Lingling last night in the front?"
Upon hearing the name Cao Lingling, Ye Ziâanâs expression soured. What kind of woman was she to act like that?
"My wife, we should send her away as soon as possible, ideally for good, so she never comes back to our house again." Mentioning Cao Lingling filled Ye Ziâanâs face with disgust.
Seeing his reaction, Yang Chuxia and Sister-in-law Li couldnât help but find it amusing.
"She ran away last night."
"Ran away?" Ye Ziâan was genuinely astonished. In his view, Cao Lingling was the type of person akin to a bloodsucker, so how could she leave so easily? "My wife, I doubt it, given her past behavior. She doesnât seem like someone who would give up so easily."
"No worries, if she comes, she comes. Iâll handle it if she does." Yang Chuxia then asked Sister-in-law Li and the others to bring breakfast over.
"I have to go out today; I probably wonât be back tonight, so donât wait up for me." After having breakfast, Ye Ziâan gave her a heads-up.
Hearing he wouldnât return, Yang Chuxia was surprised, "Are you going far?"
"Iâm heading to the next county!"
"Alright then, be careful on the road." After thinking it over, Yang Chuxia added, "If youâre planning to dig ditches and are short on money, I can allocate some for you. When I came to Funan, I brought along some of the corals and things that the old monster gave us. They would be worth a fortune if sold in the prefecture."
Ye Ziâan laughed upon hearing this, "No need for now, Iâll try to find other ways first. Besides, Mianyang is so full of loopholes, we canât always rely on our familyâs money to patch things up, and it wouldnât be enough either."
Improving Mianyang would require solving the fundamental problems. If the issue of flooding wasnât resolved, the people of Mianyang couldnât recover and thrive. Out of the twenty or thirty towns in Mianyang, only three or four were out of the disaster zone, one of which had a large reservoir.
"Leave these worries to me." He embraced her, then Ye Ziâan headed out.
He couldnât help but wonder if he had let anything slip last night that had led his wife to speak like this.
It seemed he would have to be more careful in the future.
He needed to gather some money from neighboring counties and others to at least widen the river channels a bit. With this yearâs heavy rainfall, if next year was the same, next summer would be a disaster. If the river channels were widened, they could probably hold up for another two years, and then the civilians of Mianyang might have a chance to improve their lives, with opportunities to rebuild embankments and dig channels for diversion.
At this very moment, at Zhou Familyâs place!
Cao Lingling had just opened her eyes, feeling somewhat groggy. Just as she was recalling events, she realized her whole body ached.
Suddenly, it occurred to her that last night she seemed to have seen her cousin.