The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 660 Misbehavior
The storefront of Hexinglong Cloth Shop in front of us is quite large, with a three-courtyard residence in the back. The front is for business and the back is for living, which shows that the owner of the cloth shop is very wealthy. It's just a mystery why he was so despondent that his whole family hanged themselves, even the infants who were only a few years old were not spared. It was truly a tragic sight.

"Make way, make way, don't block my Third Master's way!" Jinbao and Muye shouted, pushing aside the crowd at the door, allowing Jia Huan and Ahemaiti to reach the front of the cloth shop.

Even though Jia Huan was a veteran of countless battles and had seen countless corpses and seas of blood, he couldn't help but feel a little suffocated when he saw the scene inside the house.

The room was dimly lit, and ten stiff corpses hung from the beams, their eyes rolled back and bulging, their tongues lolling out. A gust of cold wind blew, and the corpses swayed eerily, making it impossible to look directly at them and giving one goosebumps.

"What a tragedy! The Zhou family was driven to their deaths by that Wan family!"

"How tragic, the entire family line has died out!"

"Sigh, there are plenty of families worse off than this one!"

The onlookers around whispered among themselves, their expressions ranging from fear and sympathy to grief and indignation and indifference.

Jia Huan frowned and stepped into the house. The other people looked at each other in surprise. Who was this young man? He was really bold. Even if he wasn't afraid of bad luck, wasn't he afraid of getting into trouble?

Ignoring the surrounding chatter, Jia Huan entered the house and looked around. He saw that the doors and windows were tightly closed, and there was an overturned stool on the ground. All signs pointed to suicide as the most likely explanation. There was also a house behind the cloth shop, which was obviously where the owner usually lived. This family did not choose to commit suicide in the back house, but instead went to the front shop to hang themselves. They probably wanted more people to see them.

Suddenly, Jia Huan's gaze fell on the counter in the room, where a blood-written letter was clearly pressed down with a paperweight.

Jia Huan hurriedly went over and glanced at it briefly. Just as he was about to pick it up and examine it closely, a shout came from outside: "When the government is handling a case, all irrelevant people should get out of the way."

Jia Huan quickly folded the blood-written letter and stuffed it into his bosom. Ahemaiti glanced at him with a puzzled look, but said nothing.

Soon, a constable led several yamen runners in. They were taken aback when they saw Jia Huan and the others, then shouted sternly, "Who are you? Who let you in?"

Jia Huan cupped his hands and said, "We just happened to be passing by. We heard that the Zhou family, the owner of the cloth shop, had all ten members hanged themselves, so we came in out of curiosity."

Several constables looked at Jia Huan with strange eyes. When others encountered a murder case, they would rather go around it. This kid wanted to go into the house to check. Was he sick?
The head constable shouted sternly, "Since you were at the scene of the murder, you are suspects. Come with us to the yamen and arrest us!"

Several constables immediately stepped forward to arrest the man, but Jinbao and Muye blocked their way, shouting angrily, "Are you blind? My Third Master is an imperial envoy escorting a bride, and this is the wedding envoy from Hami Kingdom. You dare to touch him!"

The constable was taken aback. He took a closer look in the dim light of the room and recognized Jia Huan. It turned out that he had also accompanied Judge Liu out of the city to welcome the marriage procession the day before.

"So it's you two marriage envoys. I'm so sorry I didn't recognize you. Please forgive me." The head constable quickly bowed and apologized.

Jia Huan waved his hand and said, "It's alright. Ignorance is no excuse. You're just doing your job. I just don't know what grievance this family had that led to them all hanging themselves here overnight."

The constable's eyes flickered as he cautiously said, "Rest assured, Your Excellency, this is a matter of life and death. The Prefect will naturally investigate and, if there is any injustice, will certainly give the deceased justice."

Jia Huan nodded and said, "That's good. I won't interfere with your investigation any longer." Then he walked out of the house.

The head constable breathed a sigh of relief and personally escorted Jia Huan out. Although this young man was merely a marriage envoy and had no authority over local affairs, he was still an imperial envoy sent from the capital, and his background was not simple. If he were to use his connections to intervene in this case, it would be very troublesome. After watching Jia Huan and the others enter the restaurant next door, the head constable turned back to the cloth shop. He only glanced at it briefly before having the body collected and taken away, closing the shop and sealing it off. Clearly, he had no intention of conducting an investigation and was simply closing the case as a common suicide.

"Alas, the Zhou family died in vain!" The restaurant owner stood at the door, shaking his head and sighing. He watched the constables take the bodies away, and even showed a look of sympathy for the dead.

"Shopkeeper, another pot of wine!" Jia Huan called out, and the shopkeeper responded, bringing over a pot of wine with a smile, "Please enjoy, sir!"

Jia Huan smiled and said, "There are no other guests at the moment, why don't you sit down and have a couple of drinks, innkeeper?"

It was still early morning at the market, and there weren't many customers to begin with. After what had just happened, the few tables of diners that were left also took the opportunity to skip out on their bills while watching the commotion. Only Jia Huan and Ahemaiti's table returned to continue their meal.

The shopkeeper hesitated for a moment, but finally sat down and said with a forced smile, "Then this old man will benefit from your kindness!"

Jia Huan poured the shopkeeper a cup of wine, and the latter quickly stood up to thank him, saying, "Thank you so much!"

Jia Huan gestured for the other person to sit down, and asked, "Shopkeeper, you should know Boss Zhou from Hexinglong next door, right?"

The shopkeeper said somberly, "Old Zhou? Of course I know him. We were drinking together a while ago. I never expected this..."

"Then Mr. Zhou must come from a well-off family, I wonder why he would be so despondent." Jia Huan took a sip of wine and said with feigned sorrow.

The shopkeeper remained silent, only drinking two cups in silence. Perhaps the alcohol was taking effect, but he seemed to have made up his mind and sighed, "Fine, I have to get this off my chest. I'll go all out today. This gentleman's identity must be extraordinary. If he can help seek justice for the Zhou family, that would be wonderful. Not only will the spirits of the Zhou family be grateful, but I believe the people of the entire Luoyang Prefecture will also remember his kindness."

Jia Huan cupped his hands and said, "I am all ears!"

The shopkeeper sighed, "This story goes back two years. A silver mine was discovered in our Luoyang Prefecture, which should have been a good thing, but it turned out to be a disaster. Soon after, the imperial court sent a eunuch named Wan An to supervise the mine. However, the silver mine turned out to be a poor mine. Thousands of miners worked for half a year, but the amount of silver they dug out was pitifully small, not even enough to pay the miners' wages."

In his desperation, Eunuch Wan came up with a terrible idea: to make local wealthy families mine owners and guarantee their losses. He didn't care how much the mine produced, he only cared about collecting taxes. He also went around prospecting for mines, pointing to any mountain and claiming it had a mine, and then contracting it out to local gentry.

At first, some people believed it and contracted the so-called mines, only to lose everything. Later, when no one believed it anymore, Eunuch Wan used various means of coercion. His most common trick was to throw ore into people's yards and then lie that there was a mineral vein under their houses, threatening to demolish their houses and dig up their yards if they didn't comply, leaving them equally destitute. In just two years, almost all the wealthy households in the prefecture had been plundered by Eunuch Wan.

Mu Ye couldn't help but exclaim angrily, "How could such a ridiculous thing happen?"

The shopkeeper sneered, "There are many more outrageous things than this. This eunuch Wan is quite adept at making money. He invents all sorts of pretexts to collect taxes from the people. He charges a crowing tax for raising chickens, a piglet tax for raising pigs, and even taxes the dogs that guard the house. That's why he's nicknamed the Tax Lord Wan."

Old Zhou ran a cloth shop and was quite wealthy, but Wan An set his sights on him, forcing him to lease a mountain as a mine. His family's savings of tens of thousands of taels were quickly wiped out. Seeing that he couldn't squeeze any more money out of them, the eunuch Wan then set his sights on Old Zhou's cloth shop and house, claiming there were mineral veins beneath the house. Well, that's exactly what drove the whole family to their deaths. And in the entire Luoyang Prefecture, Old Zhou's family wasn't the only one driven to ruin. Alas, who knows when it will be my turn!

Jia Huan frowned and said, "This man is behaving so recklessly, are the local officials really going to ignore it?"

The shopkeeper sneered, "Who cares? Above Wan'an is Shi Dayong, the director of the Eastern Depot. Who dares to offend him now? Look, the prefect and the assistant prefect of this prefecture were recently arrested and brought to the capital for questioning because they submitted a memorial impeaching the eunuch faction. It's still unknown whether they will survive. In this world... natural disasters and man-made calamities, it's tough!"

(End of this chapter)