The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 635 - 624: Snatching Disciples

Chapter 635: Chapter 624: Snatching Disciples

The young man kneeling on the ground repeated the whole incident with tearful eyes and a runny nose, while Shopkeeper Zheng and Doctor Ji sitting to the side looked quite embarrassed.

However embarrassing it was, they still had to sit quietly.

Manbao slowly widened her eyes.

In fact, it was Shopkeeper Zheng who wanted to know where Manbao lived and what kind of family she had...

He was trying to gather more information about her, but who would have thought that such a clever person, who often engaged in this kind of snooping, would be led right to the doorstep of the County Governmental Office by a young girl?

Two people, both over fifty years old and with skins nearly as thick as city walls, bowed their heads slightly under Manbao’s scrutinizing gaze, looking somewhat ashamed.

Watching their unease, Manbao held back laughter and finally couldn’t restrain herself, "Manager, if you wanted to know where I live, you could have just asked me directly. Why send someone to follow me, you really scared me to death yesterday."

County Magistrate Tang, who sat at the head and had just picked up his tea cup, nearly sprayed out the tea in his mouth when he heard this.

Scared, my ass. You were so excited yesterday, yelling and screaming.

He put down his teacup, deciding it was best not to drink for the time being.

Manbao went on and on, "I now live on Kangxue Street, would you like to visit my home? My teacher was planning to invite you to a meal at a restaurant sometime, but actually, visiting my home wouldn’t be bad either. Aunt Rong is really a good cook..." and it’d be cheaper.

"You never asked me, so I didn’t say anything. I came to Yizhou City to study. This is my teacher. Currently at home, there are two junior brothers, one niece, an Aunt Rong, and a Daji. My fourth brother has been traveling back and forth delivering goods recently, so he’s often not at home..."

Shopkeeper Zheng and Doctor Ji looked dumbfounded at Manbao, while County Magistrate Tang lowered his head to suppress a laugh, his shoulders shaking. After lifting his head, he asked, "Do you want to settle this privately or...?"

"We’ll settle privately," Manbao immediately responded. After thinking it over, she added, "Actually, there’s no need for that. Since it’s a misunderstanding, then clearing it up is fine."

Shopkeeper Zheng and Doctor Ji looked at each other and sighed in relief.

County Magistrate Tang nodded and said, "Alright, then pay the fine and you can leave."

Manbao cocked her head, "A fine?"

"Oh," County Magistrate Tang corrected himself, "It’s for what he ate and used last night. The County Governmental Office has limited funds and can’t provide food and lodging for free."

The kneeling young man felt like crying. Did he ever ask to be put in there?

Last night, he did get two lashes, but apart from that, he didn’t even get a drop of water to drink.

Shopkeeper Zheng, though, breathed a sigh of relief, and after thanking the magistrate profusely, went to pay the fine, oh, no, the lodging and food fees.

Regarding this farce, County Magistrate Tang didn’t make things too difficult for them. Once Shopkeeper Zheng and the others went to deal with the formalities up front, and only he and Manbao’s teacher were left in the rear hall, he tapped his teacup with a smile and asked, "I really wonder what it is about you that prompted Jishi Hall’s shopkeeper to have someone follow you."

Scratching her head, Manbao looked towards her teacher and said with a hint of guilt, "Because of my teacher?"

Mr. Zhuang glanced at her and then, with a smile, said to County Magistrate Tang, "There’s been some misunderstanding. Shopkeeper Zheng and Doctor Ji were simply motivated by their appreciation of talent."

County Magistrate Tang asked meaningfully, "Is it appreciation for talent or for wealth?"

Mr. Zhuang smiled, "My disciple comes from a modest family, with generations of farmers. There’s not much inheritance to speak of, she’s just clever and quick-witted, so it’s naturally appreciation for talent."

County Magistrate Tang nodded slightly, he had done his duty by warning them, and clearly, Mr. Zhuang understood. With that, there was no need to harp on the subject any longer.

He said to Manbao with a slight nod, "They have paid the fine and can go now. If something like this happens to you again, just bring the person to the County Governmental Office, and if you can’t catch them yourself, just call out for the yamen runners to help."

Manbao agreed, and meekly took her book box, bidding farewell with her teacher.

The teacher and disciple walked leisurely towards the front hall. When they reached an open area, Mr. Zhuang stopped, tapped Manbao’s forehead, and said, "Talk less later. Let your teacher handle it."

Manbao nodded repeatedly; she was still somewhat confused, "Why would Shopkeeper Zheng send someone to follow me?"

Mr. Zhuang didn’t answer her but had already formed a conjecture in his mind.

Starting when the confession was heard, he reviewed everything that Manbao had reported back during this period, and combined with Shopkeeper Zheng and Doctor Ji’s previous reactions, their intentions weren’t hard to guess.

In Manbao’s heart, there had always been only one true teacher, Mr. Zhuang.

Dr. Mo was out of reach, their formal interactions were even conducted through correspondence. Their relationship was profound but didn’t compare to the daily teachings and everything else Mr. Zhuang imparted upon her.

Mr. Zhuang had a wide range of knowledge. He studied Confucianism but preferred Taoism, and of course, he had read medical texts as well, which meant his learning was quite eclectic.

So he could teach Manbao a bit of everything, and thus, when they didn’t yet have a study, a very young Manbao would often consult Mr. Zhuang with botanic medical texts in hand.

Latter, when Manbao formally studied medicine, she would occasionally discuss medical knowledge with Mr. Zhuang as well.

Although she had taken a job at a pharmacy as an intern, Mr. Zhuang didn’t show it, but he was deeply concerned. Therefore, he was attentive to her stories about her daily learning experiences at the pharmacy, the peculiar illnesses she encountered, or the odd patients she witnessed.

Mr. Zhuang would listen seriously and then use examples to teach her some life lessons.

Thus, regarding what Manbao was doing at the pharmacy, Mr. Zhuang wasn’t bold enough to claim he knew everything but at least he knew the majority.

They weren’t trying to find her "teacher." If they were, they would have started following her earlier.

They didn’t pursue it at the time, most likely because they respected her "teacher."

Now that they were inquiring, it was probably not just for the "teacher," but also for Manbao herself.

Or rather, for her intellect and natural talent in medicine.

To be honest, Manbao’s medical talent astounded even Mr. Zhuang.

With just those few medical texts, she managed to study and understand them on her own. Without even having seen the herbs, she memorized all their names and properties.

It was this remarkable talent that left Mr. Zhuang unwilling to hold her back from anything related to medicine, for fear of hindering her.

So along their journeys, whenever she wanted to dig up wild herbs and flowers, Mr. Zhuang would stop to let her dig; if she occasionally saw someone looking unwell and wanted to offer a pulse diagnosis as a convincing act, he’d reluctantly play along to let her proceed...

Mr. Zhuang didn’t know that Manbao had a Keke in her mind or that inside Keke there was a teaching room, and in that teaching room, a Dr. Mo.

All he knew was that Manbao, using her spare time, had learned several medical books by heart, practiced acupuncture, and somehow taught herself everything in those texts.

They wanted to take his disciple away from him, maybe even take her altogether!

This was Mr. Zhuang’s first realization after knowing the whole affair, so he braced himself.

He didn’t mind if Manbao had additional teachers to guide her, but taking her away was crossing the line.

So when they met Shopkeeper Zheng and the others at the entrance, Mr. Zhuang showed them a distant yet polite smile.

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