Six, though new acquaintances also old friends

  Before long, Xiaolian ran back and the little girl clapped her hands and said: "What did your young master say?"

  Xiao Lian didn't respond, but instead ran to the main room and after a while, she took out a roll of paper and slowly spread it open on the table in front of the girl.

  This is a three-foot-long and two-foot-wide paper, with curved lines on it that don't look like writing. Upon closer inspection, there are some small characters annotated on the side.

  "What does 'Map of Huaxia Territory - Unmeasured Version' mean?" The girl thought to herself.

  "The young master of our house said that this is a map of the Chinese territory. This side is the legend, this side marks the latitude, and this side marks the longitude."

  At this time, the knowledgeable scholars of the Great Ming Dynasty referred to their own country as either Hua Xia or China, but more commonly used was the term "Great Ming". The girl looked at the map and she was extremely intelligent, understanding it in just a moment. It turned out that this was actually a map, only the territory of Hua Xia on this map was much larger than what she knew, especially in the south, with large areas of coastline marked with wavy lines.

  "So, according to Lu's theory, our Huaxia should be between 15° and 55° north latitude..."

  "Impossible, our Great Ming territory should be between 20° and 40° north latitude..." The girl thought of her cousin's new manuscript draft and immediately denied it.

  "Our young master said that this is the ancient land of Huaxia, China's territory, how can we allow foreign invaders to occupy it forever?" said Xiaolian.

  After saying this, the young girl suddenly fell silent for a while before speaking again: "If my elder brother were here, he would certainly get along with your master."

  Her elder cousin was an extraordinary young hero, and it goes without saying that he would draw his sword and sing a heroic song. Even the slaves in their household were all practicing martial arts every day. The girl had always thought that there were few young heroes like her elder cousin in this world, and she did not expect that there would be another one in this remote village.

  Xiao Lian smiled at this time, when she smiled, her eyes didn't curve, but were wide open and bright: "My young master asked me to ask, is the young lady's elder brother surnamed Fang?"

  The girl was taken aback for a moment before nodding: "It's surnamed Fang."

  "But isn't Tongcheng very big?"

  "This... is."

  "But what about Fang Mizi?"

  Mi's real name was Fang Yizhi, a member of the prominent Fang family in Tongcheng. The girl could no longer contain herself: "Could it be... that your esteemed master and my brother are acquainted?"

  Xiao Lian smiled and bowed to her, then retreated. After a while, the girl heard footsteps, followed by a clear voice of a young man outside: "I've long heard of Fang Mi's name, although I haven't had the chance to meet him, but I admire him deeply. Today, being able to see his sister is also a fortunate event. My name is Yu Guo Zhen, and I'm not yet wearing a hat (i.e., still young). I recently sent a servant to Tongcheng to deliver a letter to Fang Mi, asking for his guidance, and received a reply. Please, miss, take a look."

  Immediately afterwards, Xiaolian entered the house again, ran to the back and was busy for a while, then handed over a letter to the girl. The girl took it and saw that it was indeed her cousin's handwriting, with "My brother Yu Guozhen personally opened" written on the envelope. Apparently, this young man had made friends with her cousin just by virtue of one letter.

  In that case, the two families can be considered close friends. She was originally here to avoid the storm and still had some unease in her heart, but at this time she could finally put her mind at ease. Moreover, although the young man spoke to her, he stood outside the window and didn't even approach the gate, proving that despite his youth, he was very cautious. This made the girl feel a sense of strangeness in her heart, and she got up and slightly bowed towards the blurry shadow outside the window: "Zi Yi has met Brother Yu."

  If it were another family's daughter, she might not be so generous, but Fang Ziyi was different. She and her siblings Fang Yizhi and Fang Yaoyi were all raised by their aunt Fang Weiyi, so they also learned a lot from this aunt's heroic spirit. Moreover, Fang Ziyi had always been strong-willed since childhood, taking charge of her own family matters, and wasn't afraid to meet outsiders.

  "Zi Yi..."

  Yu Guozhen thought this name sounded great, that's natural, when you see the woman you have a crush on, of course, you will think her name sounds good.

  Thinking that the other party was probably only thirteen or fourteen years old, Yu Guozhen also had some self-deprecation. He casually asked a few questions, all about Fang Yizhi's recent writing of "Physics Xiao Shi". Fang Ziyi was indeed full of interest in these miscellaneous knowledge. She originally just wanted to talk to Yu Guozhen for a few sentences to fulfill her courtesy, but as she spoke, she was moved by Yu Guozhen's insights on miscellaneous studies and couldn't help but continue.

  At her age, she was also at the height of her curiosity. She had an erudite and talented older cousin whom she admired, and she herself had developed a habit of asking questions. As a result, she had accumulated a brain full of strange and unusual questions, which she one by one asked Yu Guozhen to explain. Yu Guozhen was very patient, answering the ones he could answer, although each time he answered might give Fang Ziyi more doubts, and telling her honestly when he couldn't answer them.

  It's not just her, but also her sister Zi Ning who came with her, is also a clever and mischievous one, occasionally inserting questions, Yu Guo Zhen responded calmly and steadily, without being evasive or slow because of her young age. This made Fang Zi Yi's good impression of Yu Guo Zhen rise even more.

  The two of them chatted to their heart's content, and before they knew it, more than an hour had passed. Although they were reluctant to part ways, the wind and rain outside had subsided, and the sky was gradually darkening. It was time to bid farewell. Fang Ziyi secretly sighed in his heart, thinking that if he were a man, he could stay here and listen to Yu's elder brother's teachings for longer.

  "It's getting late and the wind has stopped. Goodbye, Master Yu." She bowed through the window.

  The figure outside the window seemed to pause for a moment, and after a while, he said with a hint of melancholy: "I'm leaving now... May you have a smooth journey, and please give my regards to Brother Mi when you return to Tongcheng."

  Yu Guozhen's sigh was not feigned, he knew very well that in this era, women like Fang Ziyi were extremely rare, and to have met one could be considered a stroke of luck.

  But it was precisely this dynasty, even if he had a good impression of Fang Zi Yi, he couldn't say much more, lest he offend the noble lady. Now that the two of them were parting ways like this, there would still be opportunities for them to meet again in the future, but if they became too entangled, not only would it be difficult for the two of them to see each other again, it might even cause him and the Fang family to become enemies.

  Fang Ziyi saw Yu Guozhen's figure seemingly bowing and then walking to the side, his footsteps quickly disappearing into the next room. Although she also had a hint of melancholy in her heart, she didn't show it, but instead walked out with big strides.

  "What a pity, sister. When we get back, let's ask Big Brother to invite this Yu family brother to our place. Then I can listen to Yu family brother talk about those interesting things every day." said Yu Ziniang.

  This was a silly girl's nonsense, and couldn't be taken seriously. Fang Ziyi sighed inwardly and couldn't help but glance sideways towards the window by the wall.

  That was where Yu Guozhen started standing, but now the person is no longer there. Fang Ziyi was meticulous and saw that the ground under the window had been wet by water for a long time, and a large area of the wall was also wet. Suddenly, he remembered that the wind was strong just now, and from time to time, the side wind rolled up and hit that place.

  That is to say, Yu Guozhen has always been standing in the rain talking to her and patiently answering all sorts of questions she asked.

  If a woman takes a liking to someone, then some small things that person does can move her deeply for a long time. For example, Fang Zi Yi is now feeling extremely moved, and almost slips in her step.

  However, she was aware of her identity. She was not only herself but also the daughter of Fangshi from Tongcheng. Outside, she absolutely could not lose face for the Fang family and let her aunt, who had raised her sisters, be humiliated!

  So she didn't say a word and returned to the boat, a small boat, drifting downstream, entering the Yangtze River, then going upstream westward, heading towards Tongcheng.

  Fang Ziyi was on his way to Suizhou to sweep the tomb of his deceased parents, and it just so happened that he passed through Xiang'an. This was merely a coincidence, although Fang Ziyi had left an impression on Yu Guozhen's mind, there were more important things for him to attend to.

  "Lao Gao, Dazhu, Erzhu, let's get to work." Yu Guozhen said after the flat boat had completely disappeared from his line of sight.

  "Start work?"

  "What's being raised in the river pond should be harvested now, I need to prepare some gifts for my uncles and aunts." Yu Guozhen said with a smile.

  Yu Guozhen was preparing a gift for his uncle, and Yu Yigou was also preparing a "gift" for him. Moreover, Yu Yigou's gift was already ready.

  "Fourth brother, are these IOUs true or false?"

  After Fang Ziyi left for three days, looking at these loan receipts in front of him, the clan leader Yu Yiqin was somewhat displeased.

  "What does 'Second Brother' mean? Am I still going to fake it? These handwriting, you can clearly see that they are all written by the deceased Old Third himself. And these handprints, look at the impressions, they are all old marks from over ten years ago. How is it possible to fake them? Did I know ten years ago that Old Third would die?" Yu Yigou said indignantly.

  Yu Yiqin coughed, pondered for a while, then sighed: "Fourth brother, whether it's true or false is another matter, but what does it mean that you're showing me this IOU?"

  "Second Brother is the clan head, so naturally he should be in charge of clan affairs. This IOU with my signature and red seal will have to be settled someday." Yu Yigou snorted coldly: "Please let Second Brother take charge and have the Third House repay the debt."

  "This sum of money, the Third Master's family may not be able to afford it now. When the Third Master went to Nanjing to do business, he used the clan's capital, and his own share was only enough to build a house... Otherwise, that house can be used as collateral for the debt?"

  "That mansion isn't even one of the three houses, since it was earned with the clan's own capital, it naturally belongs to the clan's property, and should be handled by the clan leader." Yu Yigou cursed silently in his heart, then said: "I only acknowledge this IOU as being repaid from Old Three's private house, everything else is not my concern!"

  "It's not good to be too afraid, according to this IOU, Guo Zhen will probably not even have a single acre of thin land or a piece of tile left, after all, he is our nephew, we should at least give him something to eat..."

  "We treated him like a nephew, but he didn't treat us as uncles. It was only when my second brother reminded me last time that I realized I had been cheated by this little beast! If giving him a meal to eat is all right with me, then there are still some public fields in the clan that can be rented out to him, and he can make a living from them." Yu Yigou was scolding again in his heart, this was clearly trying to make him take on the name of a bad person, but since it's beneficial, let him be a bad person then!