In ancient Cao County, there was a village five kilometers away from the Mawang River, and there was a scholar in the village named Zhang Qinghe, who was a well-known filial piety in the neighborhood.
It is said that Zhang Qinghe lived a rich life when he was a child; his father Zhang Lang was a famous local businessman.
At that time, the Zhang family was also a big family, and Zhang Qinghe was naturally a rich young master in the eyes of ordinary people, living a life like the stars and the moon.
Although Zhang Lang was rich, he lived quite frugally and had strict requirements for his family; he was not only kind to his subordinates, but also willing to be charitable, often taking money to do good deeds and help the poor people in the vicinity.
Under the influence of Zhang Lang, Zhang Qinghe did not travel like other gongzi brothers, but studied diligently.
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Qinghe was eighteen years old, and at this time, Zhang Lang's body was getting weaker and weaker. He thought that he might not have much time, so he wanted to let his son start a family as soon as possible while he was alive, so that he would not die with regrets.
Later, after discussing with his wife Song Shi, Zhang Lang decided to select a suitable daughter-in-law for the Zhang family through a competition of talent and conduct.
Soon, from the rich to the ordinary women, they came to participate in the selection.
After several rounds of competition, the Zhao family won the first place in the thousand gold and gold Zhao Ruyan, and was finally identified by Zhang Lang and his wife as the daughter-in-law of the Zhang family.
It is said that Zhao Ruyan was born rich, not only beautiful, but also talented, and Zhang Qinghe was a match, and the two could be called a match made in heaven.
A few days later, Zhang Lang officially betrothed to the Zhao family, and then sent a dowry, and the two families unanimously decided to hold a wedding banquet for the two half a month later.
Who knew that after only five days, Zhang Lang fell ill and died.
At this time, Zhang Qinghe was busy dealing with his father's affairs, he was not in the mood to organize the marriage, and he even proposed to retire.
It turned out that Zhang Qinghe planned to guard filial piety for his father for three years, and he was afraid of delaying Zhao Ruyan's youth.
Although the Zhao family agreed, they believed that retiring from relatives would damage the face of the Zhao family and would also affect Zhao Ruyan's reputation, so Old Master Zhao not only occupied the dowry, but also cheekily asked the Zhang family for compensation.
Seeing that her father was acting so dirty, Zhao Ruyan was very angry, and she angrily rebuked her father for being too despicable.
Although she has not yet married into the Zhang family, since the two families have been married, she believes that she is already the daughter-in-law of the Zhang family, so when the Zhang family has a drastic change, she has no hesitation in standing on zhang Qinghe's side.
Seeing his daughter's arm turn outward, Old Master Zhao was furious and directly gave Zhao Ruyan a slap.
At this moment, Zhao Ruyan was disheartened, and she thought that the Zhao family had no sense of affection and were all greedy and snobbish people.
Later, Zhao Ruyan left the Zhao family and accompanied Zhang Qinghe. It was not until after three years of filial piety that the two officially worshipped and became relatives.
Since following Zhang Qinghe, Zhao Ruyan has been protecting her husband and filial piety to her mother-in-law, and the family has a relatively comfortable life.
As the saying goes, "people have misfortunes and bad luck", a few years later Zhang Qinghe failed to do business, lost a lot of money, and owed a bunch of debts.
In order to repay the debt, Zhang Qinghe had to sell his property; coupled with the fact that Mr. Zhao had always been grumpy about his daughter defecting to the Zhang family, when Zhang Qinghe had difficulties, he joined forces with other merchants to take advantage of the fire and robbery, which eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Zhang family.
Old Master Zhao thought that only after Zhang Qinghe became a poor egg, his daughter would return to the Zhao family.
Unfortunately, he thought wrongly, even if Zhang Qinghe had nothing, Zhao Ruyan still did not give up.
From then on, Zhao Ruyan never stepped into the Zhao family for half a step, and Old Master Zhao ruthlessly broke off the father-daughter relationship with his daughter.
After bankruptcy, Zhang Qinghe moved back to his old house in the countryside with his family, and the family has lived a poor and destitute life ever since.
Unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and after returning to his hometown for three years, Zhao Ruyan died of illness.
Grief-stricken, Zhang Qinghe swore in front of his deceased wife's grave that he would not marry again for the rest of his life.
Although Zhang Qinghe had a deep affection, he had not yet left a queen for the Zhang family, so his mother Song Shi bitterly advised him to start a family as soon as possible.
The ancients Yun "no filial piety has three, no queen is greater", in the face of his mother's pleading, Zhang Qinghe resigned again, until a few years later, after his mother was ill and bedridden, he agreed to start a family as soon as possible.
But at this time, Zhang Qinghe was no longer the personable and beautiful teenager; plus there was a mother who was seriously ill, which girl was willing to marry him?
Perhaps it was God who pitied the Zhang family, so that Zhang Qinghe had the privilege of meeting the widow Chen Meiling.
It turned out that in the early morning of that year, Zhang Qinghe went to worship his father and pray for the safety of his family.
On the way home that day, he first met Zhao Hang, a hunter in a neighboring village.
At that time, Zhao Hang hummed Xiaoqu home, carrying a black bag on his shoulder.
After seeing Zhang Qinghe, Zhao Hang took the initiative to greet him.
Probably to show off, only to see Zhao Hang point to the bag, smiled and said: "Brother Zhang, there is a good baby here."
Zhang Qinghe came over to see that it was a pangolin.
At this moment, Zhao Hang was extremely excited, thinking that the pangolin was worth a lot, and he sold it for money, which was enough to make himself live a good life for a while.
After a few words of greeting, Zhao Hang immediately left.
He had just taken a few steps when Zhang Qinghe quickly stopped him and persuaded him to release the pangolin.
Seeing Zhao Hang's refusal, Zhang Qinghe touched his pocket.
After hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and took out all his belongings, indicating that he wanted to buy the pangolin.
Although the money was not much, Mr. Zhang had been kind to Zhao Hang, so Zhao Hang finally agreed.
After saving the pangolin, after Zhao Hang went far away, Zhang Qinghe sent the pangolin back to the mountain forest.
After the release of the pangolin, Zhang Qinghe rushed home.
When he arrived at the entrance of the village, he saw the town scoundrel Li San pulling and pulling at a young woman.
Seeing Li San flirting with the woman in broad daylight, Zhang Qinghe was indignant, and immediately ran over, protected the woman on his body, and warned Li San to leave quickly, otherwise he would go to yamen to report to the officials.
Li San's heart was weak, and he glanced at it a few times before leaving.
It turned out that this woman's name was Chen Meiling, and she was from Jiangzhou. A few days ago, there was a fire in the house, and my parents were killed at the same time.
After taking care of her family's affairs, she is homeless and plans to go to Cao County to join her relatives. As a result, when passing through Zhangjiaba, I was unfortunate to meet a rogue, but fortunately I met a kind person Zhang Qinghe.
After listening to Chen Meiling's encounter, Zhang Qinghe felt that she was quite pitiful, and there was still an empty room in the house, so he took in Chen.
Since Chen Meiling came to the Zhang family, she has behaved very diligently and carefully taking care of the Song family.
After a period of contact, the Song family admired Chen Meiling more and more, and hoped that she could become the daughter-in-law of the Zhang family as soon as possible.
As the saying goes, "long time love", Chen Meiling and Zhang Qinghe met every day, and the two soon had feelings.
Originally, the two agreed that after their mother's condition was stable, they would hold a wedding banquet.
Who knew that one night, Song's condition suddenly worsened.
Lang Zhong arrived in time as soon as possible, but he shook his head and said that there was only one herb that might save his life.
Although it was raining heavily at that time, in order to save his mother, Zhang Qinghe braved the rain to go in search of medicine, while Chen Meiling stayed at home to take care of Song.
A few hours passed, the rain outside was getting heavier and heavier, Chen Meiling's eyelids were jumping, and she always had a sense of uneasiness.
Sure enough, as she expected, Zhang Qinghe searched for medicine in the mountains, although he worked hard to find herbs, but at the foot of the mountain, suddenly the mountain collapsed, and Zhang Qinghe was buried in the cave in an instant.
After a while, Zhang Qinghe's breathing became more and more difficult.
At this time, he was unwilling, how much he wanted to survive, but he knew that he could not survive.
Just as he was dying and his eyes were blurred, suddenly there was movement from all sides of the cave.
After a while, he faintly saw the light.
Soon, he saw a dozen pangolins digging holes with force.
It turned out that they had saved themselves.
Seeing the pangolin at the head, Zhang Qinghe shed tears of excitement.
Finally he saw the light again.
Later, Zhang Qinghe went home non-stop and boiled the herbs into a soup for his mother to take.
A few days later, a miracle happened and Song recovered.
Later, Zhang Qinghe married Chen Meiling, and the family has lived an ordinary life ever since.