Bai Sheng chuckled, "Uncle Four wants to play too? Go ahead, but be careful."
Lu Yun, Wu Wa, and Si Zai were all good swimmers and knew first aid, so she wasn't too worried. Only Uncle Four was a landlubber.
Upon hearing this, Uncle Four yelped and hopped away. The sight of the tall, lanky old child made Bai Sheng and Lu Ye's eyes water.
The Zuo family members all smiled.
Old Madam Zuo seemed to recall something and quickly asked her daughters-in-law and granddaughters-in-law to prepare food in the kitchen. The sensible Zuo Zhi and Zuo Gui also went to help.
Yang Ming carried a freshly slaughtered sheep from the carriage into the kitchen, then brought out several large fish and strings of cured meat.
As Lu Ye, Prince Yu, Third Uncle, and the three Zuo brothers gathered to chat, Bai Sheng joined her master, Mei Fei, beside Old Master Zuo.
When Old Madam Zuo heard that Granny Wu and Bai Sheng were doctors, she exclaimed in surprise and immediately made way, inviting Granny Wu to examine him.
Granny Wu took his pulse, and then Bai Sheng did.
Granny Wu said that Old Master Zuo's illness was caused by an external wind-cold invasion of the body.
Bai Sheng's diagnosis was similar to her master's, but using modern medical terms, she stated that Old Master Zuo likely had a severe stroke, accompanied by pneumonia and diabetes.
The old man was strong to have persisted until now with so many ailments, but any later discovery might have been irreversible.
Heaven was kind to have them arrive sooner.
Granny Wu asked Bai Sheng to write the prescription. She felt that Sheng'er had surpassed her, diagnosing the illness from many unexpected angles and with advanced thinking, learning a great deal from Sheng'er herself.
Bai Sheng asked Old Madam Zuo to bring the dregs from Old Master Zuo's previous medicinal decoctions. She smelled them and found that the herbs were mainly for expelling cold and health maintenance, with little effect on treating the illness, which explained why Old Master Zuo had seen no improvement after years of treatment.
Bai Sheng prepared a new prescription for Old Master Zuo and also provided a food list and cooking methods, advising him to eat less sugar.
Under the pretense of getting something from the carriage, she retrieved several packets of prepared medicine from her spatial dimension and gave them to Old Madam Zuo.
Old Madam Zuo was so moved that tears welled up in her eyes, and she almost knelt to Bai Sheng and Granny Wu. Bai Sheng, startled, jumped up and supported her.
This old lady was her grandmother, and she would never allow her grandmother to kneel to her.
Bai Sheng asked Elder Brother Zuo Song to fetch the decoction pot, insisting on brewing the medicine herself. The sooner her grandfather took the medicine, the better. Fortunately, they had found him; otherwise, he wouldn't have lasted much longer.
Third Uncle called the three Zuo brothers into a room, closed the doors and windows, and told them the whole story of how he and Fourth Brother were still alive.
The three brothers excitedly embraced Third Uncle. They had originally thought the Baili family had been wiped out, but they never expected Baili Rong Mo and Baili An An to still be alive. Nothing could have been more thrilling than this.
Without Third Uncle needing to emphasize it, all three agreed that this matter must be kept absolutely secret.
However, Zuo Lichuan was a bit confused. Since Lu Ye called Baili Rong Mo "Third Uncle," it meant that Baili Ran Ran, Fourth Brother's fiancée, was also alive. Then, who was Baili Ran Ran's husband? Could it be... Fourth Brother had gone to find Baili Ran Ran?
The thought made Zuo Lichuan's heart skip a beat, and his muscles tensed.
When Zuo Lichuan voiced his confusion, Third Uncle remained silent for a long time before telling the three brothers about the possibility of Zuo Hanchen having assumed Lu Dajiang's identity. Their current visit was to confirm if Lu Ye's father was indeed Zuo Hanchen. However, he did not mention Bai Sheng's spatial abilities. Whether the Zuo family would be allowed to see Zuo Hanchen's remains in the spatial dimension was up to Bai Sheng.
Upon hearing that Fourth Brother was dead, the three brothers broke down and wept, but the thought that Fourth Brother had four children, and now had very beautiful and adorable quadruplet grandsons, brought them some solace.
Zuo Siming wiped his tears and said to Third Uncle, "Lu Ye's father must be my Fourth Brother, because Fourth Brother was definitely capable of such a thing. Rong Mo, you don't know how happy my silly Fourth Brother was after getting engaged to your eldest sister; he'd wake up laughing from his dreams every night. And the first time I visited your home and saw that little girl Lu Hua, she looked so much like my Fourth Brother that I was suspicious even then."
Zuo Mucheng sniffled and added, "I also think it's my Fourth Brother. When Elder Brother went to school, I always played with Fourth Brother, so I understood him better. My Fourth Brother has three 'cowlicks' on the crown of his head, a mole on the back of his neck, and a noticeable scar on the second knuckle of his left index finger. That happened when we were playing with swords as children."
"Alright, I'll ask Xiao Ye later if his father has these markings," Third Uncle said. "Please bear with your grief. For Old Madam Zuo and Old Master Zuo, we must keep this a secret for now. However, we won't have to hide it for too long. After all, if the elders learn that Xiao Ye and Xiao Yun are their grandchildren, they will surely be overjoyed."
The three brothers all nodded.
Lunch was almost ready. Zuo Song went to call the children for their meal, only to find over a dozen children and Fourth Uncle returning covered in mud. Zuo An and Lu Yun carried small bamboo baskets. The buttons on the clothes of Lu Yu, Zuo Shan, and other children had been removed, their clothes hanging askew, and Jiu Ji and Lu Yu had scraped their foreheads. The four little ones looked like mud figures, with only their big eyes rolling around. However, the children were very excited, enthusiastically telling each other who had punched whom, who had kicked whose backside, who had slapped whom several times, and who had pressed whom into the mud... Realizing that the adults were all looking at them, their laughter abruptly stopped, and they all widened their eyes, carefully observing the adults' expressions.
Fang Shi, Zuo Song's wife, glared, about to scold her eldest son, but Zuo Song stopped her, nodding towards Zuo Siming. Fang Shi looked at her father-in-law and then suppressed her temper.
Zuo Siming looked at Zuo An, the eldest, and asked calmly, "An'er, you'll be eleven after the New Year. You're the oldest, so you tell me, what exactly happened?"
Zuo An and Lu Yun exchanged glances, cleared their throats, and said, "Grandpa, we got into a fight with children from the neighboring village just now. We achieved an overwhelming victory, but they started it. I followed your principle of 'first yielding, second yielding, third never yielding,' so I chose to let my younger siblings fight back."
Third Uncle held his forehead and exchanged a look with Lu Ye and Bai Sheng. They needed to acknowledge their kinship quickly, otherwise, Zuo An would keep calling his paternal cousin "younger brother," and the generational order would be completely messed up.
Zuo Siming stroked his short beard and nodded with a smile, "Yes, you did very well. How did they start it? Tell me."