spoiled brat

Chapter 98, Section 97: Self-Salvation (Part 7)

At this moment, an old beggar stood up from the corner, told everyone to stop, walked over to the child with his cane, gestured, and asked, "Is that girl not much older than you, and about this tall?"

The child nodded in agreement.

The crowd urged them to hurry and lead the way. They rushed there like a black wind and soon arrived at the place, Tianyi Bank, the largest bank in the county.

Just as they caught their breath, the curtain of the money exchange was lifted. First, a backside was revealed. The money exchange manager bowed and scraped as he backed out, carefully lifting the curtain to let Zhao Zhao out, his smile extremely obsequious: "Next time the estate needs to deposit silver, you and Miss Yue can send someone to fetch it; there's no need to use the grain transport cart—"

Zhao Zhao suddenly glanced at him sideways. The shopkeeper fell silent, realizing he had said the wrong thing, and said awkwardly, "Take care, take care..."

This extremely respectful attitude left the beggars dumbfounded, staring at Zhao Zhao in disbelief.

She walked past the crowd without saying a word, then headed into the alley. The old beggar, however, reacted quickly. He picked up his bowl, pretending to ask for money, and hurriedly chased after her: "Young lady, please have mercy! Give me some money!"

The alley is short; just outside is the rice market street, where all the grain carts from the village park. The people who came with her were also waiting for Zhaozhao.

She lowered her voice: "Have you heard anything from my mother?"

The old beggar shook his head. Zhao Zhao continued, "Help me investigate something."

The old beggar nodded slightly, then shouted even louder, "Five or six days ago, a group of men came from the county, armored and carrying swords, they were officials. I need their general movements."

A soldier? The old beggar was stunned.

The alley had come to an end, and the entrance was narrow. Zhao Zhao bumped into the old beggar. In a flash, she stuffed a silver note into his hand: "Fifty taels as deposit, I need it within half an hour."

The silver note was cool to the touch. The old beggar, who had lived most of his life, was stunned as he touched it for the first time.

Just then, he heard someone call out "stinking beggar" from the side. He looked up and saw several boys walking up to him menacingly, pointing their fingers at his nose and cursing, "Don't you know how to read people's faces? My girl clearly doesn't want to give you money, but you still insist on going after her. You've even gotten your clothes dirty."

"It's nothing." Zhao Zhao feigned disgust, frowning as she stared at the stains on her clothes. She said to one of the boys, "I have to see Miss Yue when I get back, so I don't have time to change. Could you please go to the tailor shop across the street and buy me a new set?" She handed him a bag of copper coins while gesturing for the old beggar to hurry up.

The young man who was being ordered around took good care of Zhao Zhao and set off immediately. However, the road was crowded with people, and no one gave him any leeway, unlike the old beggar who ran so fast that he stumbled and fell over.

The old beggar ran to the tailor shop first, took out a few copper coins from the sole of his shoe, and asked the owner to buy him some time. Then he rushed back to the dilapidated temple, shouted that he had struck it rich, and grabbed all the beggars to search for them.

Zhao Zhao sat in the carriage and waited. After a while, there was a knock on the window. She peeked through a crack and saw an old man selling sugar figurines. He smiled and asked, "Young lady, do you see any you like on these straw sticks?" She randomly picked one, and the old man handed it to her, saying softly:

"They've headed south out of the county. Today, some forestry workers saw them at Xujiamiao, dozens of miles away. They were turning the place upside down as if they were looking for something."

The beggars were surprisingly helpful. Zhao Zhao pulled out fifty taels of silver from her sleeve and said, "Thank you." She said in a soft voice, "There's one more thing I need to trouble you with. Please tell him that something seems to be brewing in Fan Family Village. Come quickly."

"That place is very far from our county..." The old man turned his head and saw several young men standing not far away. "Why didn't you send someone from the prefecture to deliver this message in person?"

“Just do as I say.” Zhao Zhao didn’t explain, and added another silver note: “Use whatever method you want, say whatever you want. If he comes within three days, I will reward you handsomely.”

As soon as the old man selling candy left, the young man who had bought her clothes returned, panting as he handed the clothes to Zhaozhao through the car window and asked, "Miss, shall we still go pick up your relatives and friends?"

Zhao Zhao glanced at the sky: "It's getting late, I have to hurry back to see Miss Yue, maybe next time."

-

At sunset, the sky was ablaze with fiery clouds, like blood.

More than a dozen grain carts drove through the boundless golden wheat fields and entered Fanjiazhuang.

As soon as we passed the fence, we heard a great commotion coming from the other side of the gatehouse.

Zhao Zhao lifted the curtain and saw a huge crowd gathered below the gate, but the vast fields on both sides of the road were deserted. She knew something was wrong and quickly ordered the caravan to stop, sending a few nimble men to scout ahead.

The group returned quickly, one of whom happened to have been there the night before. He was furious and said, "That guy surnamed Fan has no conscience! Last night he and his men beat more than a dozen people to death, saying they were going to bury them. Bury my ass! More than a dozen corpses are all hung on the gate tower for public display!"

Zhao Zhao's expression changed, and she vaguely guessed Fan Jin's despicable methods. Sure enough, she immediately heard another person say, "It was clearly those people who stole money and grain, but he made it sound like Miss Yue was framing an innocent person! He was crying and wailing on the wooden platform, and the villagers below all thought that we had killed someone!"

When had the people of the Prince of Ning's mansion ever suffered such injustice? How could these hot-blooded young men tolerate such humiliation? After shouting and cursing for a while, a dozen men abandoned their grain carts in the road, grabbed the iron wooden clubs used for bandit defense from the carts, and charged towards the gate tower. Zhao Zhao's attempts to dissuade them were useless, so she had no choice but to follow.

Upon arriving at the gatehouse, the situation was indeed as described earlier.

A dozen or so corpses hung from the tall beams, and buzzing flies formed a dark cloud. Fan Jin stood on the wooden platform, weeping as he complained to the throng below: "I've been a truly pathetic clan chief. I can't protect my people from outsiders, and I can't discipline the younger generation properly. When I was in charge of the estate, the rules were lax, and I never severely punished you for what you did. You've become so spoiled that you don't know what's right, and you even dared to steal money and grain from the Prince of Ning's mansion..."