good season

Chapter 114: Watching the Moon and Stars (Two Chapters in One)

Mrs. Li is just a vulgar woman. What she pays most attention to on weekdays are the affairs between men and women. What she talks about most is whose wife is cheating on her husband and whose husband is sleeping with his mistress (author: I am afraid of catching bugs, I know I am wrong and I can write). If she talks about these things too much, it is inevitable that there will be some exaggeration, and it is common to make groundless accusations.

Because of her hobby, she was often visited by people and her husband often scolded her, but Mrs. Li never got discouraged and continued to be unrestrained and free, regardless of the rain or the wind.

Therefore, this time, when Mrs. Li walked out of the snack shop with two big gold ingots in her pocket, she held her back straight. She had never thought that she could make money by pulling her wife's tongue.

These were two large ingots of ten taels each, a total of twenty taels. Neither her husband, the jailer, nor her son, the yamen runner, had ever taken back twenty taels.

From now on, she, Mrs. Li, is the number one person in the family. Let’s see who dares to accuse her of being a gossiper.

As for the black boy who gave her the silver, Mrs. Li regarded him as her own mentor. The black mentor told him to continue to pay attention to County Magistrate Cui and Madam Wang.

Thinking that there would be money to be earned in the future, Mrs. Li was like a chicken with its blood pumped up. She walked towards the county government office with her head held high, without caring about her relatives.

Niu Qiu brought Cui San Shao, who served as the background, to meet Zhao Shiqing and told her the address of Li Pozi's cousin's home. When Xiao Wu heard that the place was called Erliying, he said, "What a coincidence, this place is not far from Banshan Village."

No wonder Mrs. Li said this place was remote. She hadn’t been there for several years. It turned out that she had already left the city.

After leaving Banshan Village, it took about an incense stick of time to reach Erliying.

Erliying got its name because it was a military camp in the past. It is no longer a military camp now, but there are still not many residents and it is rather deserted.

Li Po's cousin's house was easy to find. There was a big tree in front of the door, and the girl that Li Po mentioned lived in the yard next to it.

Xiuxiu painted and smeared, and actually disguised herself and Zhao Shiqing into two little old ladies.

Now, two little old ladies knocked on the door of that house.

The person who came out to open the door was a maid. Seeing that they were two strangers, the maid asked, "What's the matter?"

Little Old Lady A: "Of course there is something wrong. My eldest daughter eloped with someone and is hiding here."

The little maid was startled: "What big girl? We don't have any here."

As she said this, the little maid was about to close the door, but the door did not move at all. The old lady was pushing it with her hands. She did not expect that such a skinny old lady could have so much strength.

Little old lady B: "Is there anything? Let us in and take a look!"

Before he could finish his words, the little maid was pushed aside and two little old ladies walked in.

The little maid chased after him while shouting, "Help! It's bad! There are robbers!"

The shout also alarmed other families in the alley. Some curious people ran over to see what was happening. Well, who were these robbers? They were clearly two little old ladies.

The person in the room came out upon hearing the noise. It was an old woman. Before she could say anything, she saw two little old ladies coming towards her.

"Who are you?" the old woman asked alertly.

Little old lady B: "We are here to look for our daughter. My daughter was abducted here. Kidnapping a decent girl is a serious crime."

The maid who was chasing after them hurriedly asked, "You just said it was elopement, how come it's kidnapping now?"

The woman pointed at the newcomer and said sternly, "What a mess! You've come to the wrong place! Get out now!"

But it was too late. Before she could finish her words, little old lady A bent down and actually crawled under her outstretched arm. Then, little old lady B followed suit and also crawled under her.

The woman in the house heard the noise, came out carrying her child, and ran into two little old ladies head-on.

"It's really you, my dear girl. Your family has arranged a very good marriage for you, but why didn't you learn your lesson and run away with someone else? Oh, now that you have a child, how can I explain to my good in-laws?"

The little old lady said that there was thunder but no rain, but the neighbors who came to watch the fun didn't know that. They only heard the little old lady crying at the top of her lungs and thought she was really crying.

"I've long discovered that this woman is not a good person."

"In hindsight, when someone came to your house to buy a chicken during her confinement period, didn't you happily sell it to them?"

"What about the man not coming back from doing business outside? That's all nonsense. I've seen men come to her house."

"I've seen it too. He's been here several times, and he always brings a lot of stuff."

"Here are ten copper coins. Please tell me in detail about the man you saw."

"Why only give it to her? I saw it too."

"Everyone come over here, there will be rewards for speaking well."

At this time, the young woman in the room had been subdued by the little old lady A. Although the little old lady A's martial arts skills were mediocre, she had a special trick, which was incense ash. When she sprinkled a handful of incense ash over, the woman would only cover her eyes and scream.

In the end, a great victory was achieved. The three people in the family, the young woman, the old woman, and the maid were all tied up and strung together with ropes. The little old lady B walked out in a grand manner, holding the child.

There was no one at the door. The neighbors who were originally watching the fun now went to provide clues and get the ten copper coins.

Zhao Shiqing and Xiuxiu didn't expect that they could get the person out so easily.

The carriage was just outside, and Loach was driving the carriage there. He stuffed the three people and the child in, and the group hurriedly left Erliying and returned to Banshan Village.

It was not until an hour later that Shen Guanyue and Ling Bo, who were responsible for collecting clues in Erliying, returned.

At this time, the little maid had already confessed first.

The little maid and the old woman are aunt and niece. They were bought by Aunt Wang to take care of the woman.

And that woman was definitely the young lady that Mrs. Li had seen in the back yamen.

She was indeed Aunt Wang's niece, and the child was born to her and Cui Rong.

In other words, this child and Master Cui are half-brothers.

Aunt Wang's niece was named Wang Honghong. She was pretty and could have had a good marriage, but she wanted to marry an official like her aunt. Even being a concubine was better than marrying an ordinary person. So after discussing with her family, she came to her aunt, hoping that her aunt could help her find a good marriage.

That year, Cui Rong got into trouble because of an earthquake. He knew very well that his boss was a lustful man. It happened that Wang Honghong came to him for help, so he decided to give Wang Honghong to his boss.

But he thought things were too simple. The earthquake alarmed King Liang, who personally intervened. Not to mention sending one Wang Honghong, even if there were ten Wang Honghongs, his superiors would not be able to save him.

After Cui Rong was punished, he was put on standby.

Although he moved out of the county government office, Cui Rong's quality of life did not decrease thanks to the money sent by the Cui family of Luzhou. At least in the eyes of Wang Honghong, who came from a poor family, his uncle was still a wealthy official, and his aunt still had clothes made and jewelry bought.

She was extremely envious of her aunt's life and admired her uncle even more.

As she admired him more and more, she even went to her uncle's bed. When her aunt found out, instead of beating or scolding her, she took her to a silver shop and bought her two gold hairpins.

From then on, she became Cui Rong's anonymous concubine.

She did want to record her name, but Cui Rong wanted to continue to be an official. If he took his niece as a concubine, he would be reported.

Later, Cui Rong moved around and spent money like water. A year later, he finally got a reward. Cui Rong continued to serve as the county magistrate and took over the mess of Fuyun.

Wang Honghong came to Fuyun with her uncle and aunt to take up her post, but she did not expect that she was pregnant.

She was still an unmarried girl, so of course this matter could not be spread. So, before she was pregnant, she was sent to Erliying, where she gave birth to a boy.

This child is only one year younger than Cui Jiushao. According to his seniority, he is the tenth young master of the Cui family.

The little maidservant spilled out everything she knew, and Young Master Cui, who was sitting next to them, had a face as black as the bottom of a pot.

There is nothing more embarrassing than hearing about your father's love affair in public, especially when this affair is so shameful and obscene.

Not only did his father favor his concubine over his wife, kill the legitimate wife and promote the illegitimate child, and was incompetent, he was also shameless and disregarded human ethics.

Young Master Cui felt that from now on, if someone told him that Cui Rong was a flower thief who was at large, he would not be surprised.

But this is just an appetizer.

Wang Honghong was not a strong-willed person. If she still had fantasies when she became pregnant with her uncle's child, then when she gave birth to the child alone in this remote little courtyard and lived without a name or status for such a long time, the little bit of love she had for her uncle had long been worn away by time.

Since she moved in, her uncle had only come twice, once after she settled down and the other time after she gave birth to a son. After that, her uncle never came again, but only asked his close associates to send some gifts and money from time to time.

If she said she had no regrets, she would be deceiving herself.

She regretted it so much that her intestines turned green. If she had not been coaxed into bed by her uncle, she would still be a good girl with a clean conscience. She would have had plenty of opportunities to marry into a good family. But now, it was all gone, all gone.

Therefore, when she learned that the little maid had confessed, Wang Honghong suddenly laughed. Yes, her uncle and aunt had both wronged her, so why should she hide it for them.

When Zhao Shiqing came to interrogate her, Wang Honghong told everything without hesitation.

In addition to having a child with her uncle, she also talked about something more important.

That is, the last case where the uncle wanted to seize his nephew's property was not as simple as Cui Rong's confused and arbitrary judgment.

Before the case was brought to the government office, the uncle of that family came to see Cui Rong and gave him one thousand taels of silver.

For a county magistrate in a small place, one thousand taels is not a small sum.

Of course, this cannot be compared with those officials along the coast who colluded with pirates and embezzled amounts measured in tens of thousands.

But for a county magistrate of a middle-level county, giving one thousand taels was already a gesture of great sincerity.

As a result, Cui Rong decided to ask the elder sister to break off the engagement and become a grandmother-in-law, in order to force her to give up managing her parents' business.

Because in Cui Rong's view, this is just a small case of family property dispute. With the family and elders around, even if the siblings are dissatisfied, they can only swallow their anger.

Because there are too many such incidents, everyone believes that bringing the matter to the government office is just a formality, and in the end it will have to be returned to the clan for the final decision.

The clan will definitely favor uncles and aunts; after all, they are the elders.

But they never expected that the frail younger brother would report the matter to the prefect, and that the weak and pitiful widowed mother would risk her life to seek justice for her children.

The matter became uncontrollable, and Cui Rong lost all his face and dignity.

In addition to this one thousand taels, Wang Honghong also mentioned two other bribes received by Cui Rong, both of which were also one thousand taels. It seems that this one thousand taels is the market price.

During those two times he accepted bribes, one time a rich man's son stepped on someone with his horse. When he saw that the person was not dead, he was afraid of being blackmailed, so he simply stepped back and stepped on the person again, killing him alive.

There were multiple eyewitnesses in this case and the evidence was irrefutable; the rich man's son should be executed according to the law.

The rich man first gave Aunt Wang one thousand taels of silver, and later gave her a complete set of pure gold and ruby head ornaments, and then transferred a rouge shop to Aunt Wang at a very low price.

In the end, the victim's husband accepted the 500 taels of silver as compensation from the rich family and withdrew the lawsuit. The rich family's son swaggered out of the yamen.

Another case was about a Phoenix man who wanted to wipe out his entire family. His wife eventually realized her mistake and angrily asked for a divorce, but he refused. The case was brought to the government office, where he secretly sent 1,200 taels of silver. In the end, the wife was sentenced to go home and take care of the family. There was no chance of a divorce.

In a rage, the wife poisoned the Phoenix man with a bowl of medicine and then slit her own throat.

The case ended with two lives lost.

While Zhao Shiqing was examining the case, he asked Ling Bo to take notes. After the notes were completed, he asked Wang Honghong to sign and seal her name.

This is a witness.

Unfortunately, this is only Wang Honghong’s confession.

Zhao Shiqing gave Wang Honghong's confession to Cui Sanshao, who turned pale and slammed his fist on the table: "Beast, beast!"

As soon as he said this, he suddenly remembered that the beast's blood was still flowing in his body, and the big boy squatted on the ground and started crying.

After crying enough, he raised his head and his eyes swept over everyone in the room, finally falling on Zhen Wuduo's face.

"Master Zhen, I heard from Nibao that you have many godchildren. From now on, I will take your last name and call you dad, okay?"

Zhen Wuduo.
No, it’s already known to everyone that he has many godsons, right?

Zhao Shiqing pinched her waist and yelled, "I'm helping you with good intentions, but you want to be my elder. I'll spoil you!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the person arrived and acted as fast as the wind, giving Young Master Cui a big blow.

Young Master Cui was stunned. Okay, he remembered that the Second Miss was Grandpa Zhen’s granddaughter. He didn’t want to be Grandpa Zhen’s son, he wanted to be the Second Miss’ uncle.

He is not that kind of person.

"Then I'll take your surname. Your surname is Zhao, so I'll also be Zhao from now on, okay?"

Just don’t let him have the surname Cui.

Zhao Shiqing: "No, I don't have the right to let you take my last name, you should change your last name."

Cui Sanshao looked at Niuqiu: "Nibao, I..."

Loach: "I'm an orphan. I don't even know my last name."

Cui Sanshao looked at Shen Guanyue again, and Shen Guanyue was happy: "You should take my surname Shen. If I don't have the surname Shen anymore, someone will inherit it."

There may not be someone with the surname Gu in the storybook, but there must be someone with the surname Shen.

Young Master Cui didn't understand, but as long as the surname wasn't Cui, any surname would be fine.

Not only did he change his surname, he also changed his name.

Shen Guanyue changed his name immediately and changed it to Shen Wangxing.

Watch the moon and stars.

Zhao Shiqing wrote a letter and asked Zhen Wuduo's guard to go to Baihe Village and ask Manager Li to register Shen Wangxing's household registration.

From then on, Shen Wangxing was a native of Baihe Village in Liangdi and had nothing to do with the Cui family in Luzhou.

Even if the entire Cui family were executed, he would not be the target of the crime.