Chapter 117: You Are Not In Exile You Are Clearly Traveling!
Chapter 117: Trouble
In the end, Chen Yuan accepted the Wu family.
Although their interaction was brief, Chen Yuan noticed that Wu Zhang was somewhat similar to him, prioritizing the well-being of his wife and daughter over his own.
People like this were mostly not bad people.
Otherwise, even if he had skills, Chen Yuan wouldn't have accepted him.
But I digress.
The matter of Wu Zhang and his family was just an episode. They continued to distribute ginger soup to others, but it seemed that because they saw Wu Zhang's actions, many people followed suit and came running over, wanting to serve Chen Yuan.
This caught the Chen family off guard; they hadn't expected things to turn out this way at all.
It was impossible to accept all these people as their own servants. Let's not even talk about anything else; just consider the food distribution. If all these people became the Chen family's servants, then they would have to provide their own food. With so many people, their food reserves would be depleted.
So, doing this would be both difficult and thankless.
To speak bluntly, after these people became their own servants, they wouldn't need them to do anything, but they would still receive food and other supplies. It was precisely because they thought of this that these people acted this way.
So, the Chen family's first reaction was to reject them. But since they had already accepted Wu Zhang, rejecting the others would only anger them.
If they intended to bring these people under their control now, refusing them would probably make it even harder to do so later.
So, Wu Zhang's unintentional actions ended up causing trouble for the Chen family.
Chen Xue quickly said a few words to the guards beside her, and then the guards immediately stepped forward and angrily shouted, "Enough!"
When the crowd heard the guards' anger, they were immediately frightened and dared not say anything more. At this time, Chen Xue came out.
"We, the Chen family, are also exiled criminals like you. How can we take in servants? If the court finds out, all of us will be charged with treason and executed publicly."
Hearing Chen Xue's words, the crowd was instantly shocked. The words "treason" and "public execution" filled them with fear.
"What about them?"
Suddenly, one of the criminals pointed at Wu Zhang and others, questioning. The man was the same one who had questioned the Chen family's distribution of ginger soup earlier. Chen Xue had someone inquire about him; his name was Li Ming.
Upon hearing Li Ming's words, the others chimed in, "Yes, why can they?"
Chen Xue replied, "Who said they became our servants? They only thanked us because we sold them food and clothes before."
The crowd was stunned, and some frowned. They weren't too far away at the time and clearly heard that Wu Zhang said more than just thank you.
At this moment, Chen Xue gave Wu Zhang a meaningful look.
Wu Zhang quickly stood up. When he saw the crowd gathering, he regretted it deeply and felt guilty for causing trouble for the Chen family.
So, upon hearing Chen Xue's words and seeing her meaningful look, he knew what he had to do.
"That's right," Wu Zhang stepped forward and said, "If it weren't for Master Chen's willingness to sell us clothes and food, we would have frozen to death long ago. Kneeling to Master Chen was just to express our gratitude..."
He deliberately didn't mention becoming servants of the Chen family. After all, they had benefited and caused trouble for the Chen family. If they didn't cooperate, it would be ungrateful.
Upon hearing Wu Zhang's words, the crowd was disappointed. They knew that the Chen family had enough to eat and wear, so they wanted to become servants of the Chen family.
After all, most of them were originally servants and slaves. Serving anyone wasn't a big deal, especially since the Chen family seemed better than their previous masters.
But unfortunately...
"What are you doing, what are you doing!"
Zhao Guang and several others rushed over, seeing a group of people gathered together, and immediately became angry. "What are you doing, planning a rebellion?"
Slap!
Zhao Guang swung his whip, making a crackling sound. The crowd was startled and seemed to be back in the days when Captain Sun and others were still around, hurriedly dispersing.
"After drinking the ginger soup, leave quickly. If you gather here again, be careful of my whip."
Zhao Guang glared fiercely at the crowd, who dared not say anything but obediently left.
As the saying goes, evil breeds evil.
Although some of them weren't evil, they were more afraid of evil. So, Zhao Guang easily intimidated them.
If it were Xu Tian, he couldn't do such a thing because everyone already knew his character and knew that even if he was angry, he wouldn't whip them.
But Zhao Guang was different. When Zhao Guang held a knife and threatened the Chen family in front of everyone back then, it left a deep impression on them.
"Not bad!"
Seeing Zhao Guang's expression, Chen Xue was very satisfied.
"It's nothing, it's nothing."
Hearing Chen Xue's praise, Zhao Guang was somewhat flattered and quickly said that this was what he should do.
"How was it? What do you think!"
Next to her, Chen Yuan turned to ask Xu Tian, who had hurried over.
Xu Tian remained silent, knowing what Master Chen meant. If it were him, he might make things worse, and even Master Chen might not be able to get off the hook.
But now, Chen Xue first scared the crowd, then calmed them down, and finally had Wu Zhang clarify things.
After that, Zhao Guang showed his authority. This method of giving a stick after giving sweet dates was something he couldn't do before.
"I understand."
After a long time, Xu Tian finally made up his mind and said solemnly, "Sometimes kindness can actually be indulgence."
"That's right." Chen Yuan nodded in agreement, "When necessary, you have to be firm. And when necessary, you have to be gentle."
"Is this approach okay?"
Suddenly, Xu Tian asked a somewhat inexplicable question.
Chen Yuan understood what he meant. These people, although driven away by Zhao Guang, would surely not give up easily and would try to become servants of the Chen family by any means necessary.
"You can spread some rumors like this," Chen Yuan thought carefully before saying, "Just say that they don't need to become servants of the Chen family; pledging allegiance to the Chen family is enough..."
Xu Tian nodded, seeming to understand Chen Yuan's intention as dissuading these people from their thoughts.
"Will this method dispel their thoughts?" Xu Tian asked.
"Not in a hurry. Later, I will release other rumors," Chen Yuan said after careful consideration.
Xu Tian nodded and immediately went to make arrangements.
Meanwhile, Chen Yuan had his subordinates settle the Wu family, then came to his wife and daughter's side.
But Wu Zhang knelt down again, apologizing for the trouble he had caused earlier. Chen Yuan waved his hand, indicating that he didn't mind.
"This time, it was Xiao Xue's cleverness that resolved the crisis easily."
Chen Yuan praised.
"It's nothing, it's nothing."
Chen Xue walked arm in arm with her mother, extremely happy to hear her father's praise, her smile like a blooming flower swaying in the wind.
"It's just a bit regrettable for Xiao Xue."
Suddenly, Chen Yuan apologized, "Xiao Xue collected so much ginger, but it was used up by me."
"Bought ginger is meant to be used, isn't it? Besides, this time it wasn't used in vain. At least it let us know..."
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