Chapter 16 Thrown to the Ground

  "Oh, I see. So this was just a temporary place to stay after all. I thought of helping the old man fix up the house properly, but now it seems there's no need for that." Guo Jia said, he didn't have the leisure to explain the meaning of those modern terms to others.

  As soon as the old man heard Guo Jia's words, his eyes twitched, but he also understood that even if he hadn't said so before, Guo Jia would never help him repair his house.

  For breakfast, Lao Ren Jia simply boiled some congee to drink, while Guo Jia and the others continued eating the leftover dog meat from yesterday.

  Seeing this, the old man felt a little heartache. Of course, he wasn't regretting the meat, but rather pitied his dog.

  However, the old man kindly reminded him

  "Dog meat is delicious, but it's best to finish eating it as soon as possible. If you leave it for too long before eating, you'll get sick."

  "Thanks for the reminder. But don't worry, we have a big eater here. I think if he doesn't take it away, this meat will be gone soon." Guo Jia patted Guo Yuan beside him.

  Guo Yuan, who was gnawing on a bone without stopping, only managed to return a silly smile.

  After that, the old man didn't say much. Nonsense, from start to finish, they were all victims, how could they possibly have a good conversation with you, Guo Jia, this criminal?

  Soon after finishing his meal, Guo Jia made some simple inquiries about the route from the old man and set off.

  In front of the old man's house, Guo Jia grasped the old man's hand,

  "A thousand miles of escorting you on your journey, but in the end we must part! Old man, don't see me off any further!"

  The old man hesitated for a while, seeing that Guo Jia still didn't intend to let go, and could only utter one sentence: "Take care!"

  Guo Jia patted the old man's hand.

  "Old man, it's fate that we met by chance. I see you're alone here, it's really too dangerous."

  "I plan to pack up and leave in two days." The old man replied, after the disturbance caused by Guo Jia, he really didn't want to stay here anymore, and now the only dog that accompanied him was also gone.

  "It's really troublesome to say, last night was indeed a disturbance. The student thought it over and over again, even if the old man is clean and upright, not planning to accept the student's gratitude. Whether or not to accept is your business, whether or not I am grateful is my own business!" Guo Jia suddenly said, then nodded at the maid Ming'er beside him.

  "Tomorrow, let's give some of our travel expenses to the old man as a payment for last night's accommodation and food."

  For a moment, Ming Er hesitated and didn't care about the strange term "accommodation fee and food expenses". Should he pay this money or not? If so, how much should he pay? Ming Er couldn't understand Guo Jia's idea at all.

  The old man was also hesitant and couldn't understand Guo Jia's thoughts, so he didn't dare to accept the money.

  "If the old man doesn't accept it tomorrow, just throw the money on the ground!" Guo Jia said, turning around and walking to one side.

  Has this kid suddenly turned over a new leaf? Or is he actually a good person to begin with?

  Just as Lao Lao was starting to think this way, he heard Guo Jia's words, which had been spoken "unintentionally" and "accidentally", drift over from the other side.

  "Adopted child, if it were me, I would absolutely not accept a little girl's money, how embarrassing!"

  "I won't receive it either!" Guo Yuan chimed in with Guo Jia, of course, he was absolutely unintentional.

  On the other side, the old man's face turned red with anger, and he shook his head, "I won't accept this money."

  As soon as he heard this, Guo Jia rushed over and grabbed the old man's hand again, shaking it up and down excitedly.

  "Good guy! Really good guy! Since you're a good guy, you must have good fortune! Tomorrow, throw the money down."

  "Am I really going to throw it away?" Ming Er asked weakly.

  "Throw it!" Guo Jia nodded in agreement.

  "Oh." Ming Er spat out his tongue, spread his hand, and the money all fell to the ground. Although there wasn't much, for Ming Er who was doing this "generous" thing for the first time, it felt very special.

  "We're leaving!" Guo Jia waved his hand and turned around with Ming'er and Guo Yuan.

  The old man stood still, looking at the money on the ground, confirming that he wasn't seeing things, then looked up at Guo Jia who showed no intention of turning back, and was almost ready to squat down and pick up the money.

  As a result, Guo Jia's voice came over again, slowly and leisurely.

  "Huh? Aizi, I just saw some money on the ground, don't know who dropped it, go pick it up. Since we've encountered it, it must be heaven's guidance, can't ignore it. Why are you looking at me like that? I'm not keeping it for myself, I'm picking it up to return it to its owner!"

  The old man who really couldn't take it anymore suddenly turned around and rushed back into the house at a speed of 70 yards, slamming the door shut with a bang. I guess this time he really won't open the door even if you kill him.

  Outside

  "Hahaha!" Ming'er couldn't help but burst out laughing again, and Guo Yuan also followed suit with a silly grin after picking up the money.

  Guo Jia suddenly stiffened his face,

  "What are you laughing at! Do you still remember what I said yesterday? I, Guo Jia, hate people who do not respect the elderly and love the young!"

  As soon as they saw Guo Jia's appearance, Ming Er and Guo Yuan immediately put away their smiles. However, Ming Er pouted her small mouth, somewhat discontented. In her heart, she thought: This young master is difficult to get along with, his emotions are unpredictable, not easy to serve!

  He clearly played others around his fingers, but when it came to himself, he couldn't even crack a smile.

  Guan Yu continued to say,

  "In times of extreme difficulty, one must do extremely difficult things. That is unavoidable. But the most basic sense of propriety and shame cannot be abandoned; otherwise, this person would be no different from a beast." This was probably Guo Jia's humanistic thought in his heart.

  It turns out that Guo Jia's behavior of teasing the old man was just to retaliate against his initial act of shutting the door and setting the dog on him. However, as Guo Jia himself said, the old man's actions were also understandable, so Guo Jia didn't take any substantial revenge, but simply wanted to vent out the anger in his heart. After all, at that time, in front of Ming Er and Guo Yuan, Guo Jia's face was completely lost, how could someone who loves face like Guo Jia bear it?

  But Guo Jia was angry in his heart. Tomorrow, he and Guo Yuan would not be so lucky. As bystanders, they were completely in a state of watching the excitement, so they couldn't laugh!

  Inside the house, while cleaning up and muttering curses at the unlucky old man, he suddenly froze because he found a moderate-sized piece of silver quietly lying on Guo Jia's bed from last night. Was it carelessly dropped? Impossible! Such an obvious place, and that little servant girl had specially tidied up, it was impossible not to have discovered this piece of silver.

  So this silver ingot is, without saying, the "thank you" in Guo Jia's mouth.

  For a moment, the old man was truly at a loss for whether to laugh or cry.

  "Does that guy want to distinguish between gratitude and resentment? Haha, it's Guo Jia, what an interesting kid! I wonder if we'll have the chance to meet again."

  ······

  Back on the official road, the three continued to advance in the direction of Luoyang.

  Guo Jia spoke up and said to Guo Yu,

  "Yuanzi, I think you shouldn't be called Yuanzi from now on."

  "What? Big brother, this is the name my father gave me." Guo Yuan hastily called out.

  "I'm not asking you to change your name, you're still called Guo Yuan, it's just a different title." Guo Jia said irritably.

  "It's better not to change names. Then what should I be called?" Guo Yuan asked.