good season

Chapter 126 She Didn’t Drink the Bowl of Bird’s Nest (Two Chapters in One)

My uncle continued, "Then came that day, when someone came to our house and told us that your mother had been sued, and asked us to go to the government office to carry her away.

When we went there, your mother was already the same as you see now.

The government said that she had used strong medicine on the woman in labor, which resulted in her death, leaving two lives. According to the Dayong Code, she was sentenced to 100 strokes of the cane as a quack doctor for killing or injuring someone.

Originally, they could have paid a fine to redeem the sentence, but the family refused to agree to it, so all the 100 strokes of the cane were applied to your mother. Your mother is a woman, how could she bear this?
But, child, your mother is still alive, she is not dead. Your uncle has found Wang Wenpo, who has a good relationship with our family, to take care of her. Your mother told me that she was framed, so we must leave the capital. Don't worry, after your uncle has settled your aunt and your cousin, he will return to the capital and redress your mother's injustice."

In this way, Li Laohu lived in his cousin's house. The Li family and his uncle gave him money. In the first two or three years, his cousin treated him very well, paid for his studies, and he even had his own room.

Three years later, two letters came from the capital. One was from the Li family, telling him that his grandmother had passed away and his uncles and aunts felt that he had grown up and since he had returned to his family, he should stay in Fuling County and get married and have children there.

The Li family asked the escort company to bring twenty taels of silver. The Li family was divided, and this was given to him. From then on, whether he lived or died had nothing to do with the Li family.

The other letter was written by his uncle, who told him that the family who harmed Dai Chunniang suffered retribution and were killed by rocks rolling down the mountain when they returned home to worship their ancestors.

His uncle and his family have returned to the capital, and Dai Chunniang is still alive, but she has a mental problem. His uncle knows that the Li family has split up, so he wants to bring him back to the capital and asks him if he is willing to go back.

The journey was long and Fuling County was remote. The letter was written three months ago, but Li Laohu received it three months later.

Li Lao Hu was very happy and wrote a letter immediately, saying that he wanted to go to the capital to reunite with his mother and uncle.

He also told his uncle about his decision and asked his uncle to take his reply letter to the post station in the city.

He was too naive and didn't realize that his uncle tore up the letter as soon as he left the house.

He lived in his cousin's house, and his uncle would ask the escort company to send him thirty taels of silver every year. Thirty taels of silver were enough for his cousin's family, who lived in the countryside, to eat and drink. If he returned to the capital, he would no longer have these thirty taels of silver.

After Li Lao Hu sent the letter, he waited for his uncle to pick him up, but after waiting for a long time, he received another letter from his uncle.

In the letter, my uncle said that because his mother would occasionally wake up and say some things when she was awake that scared my uncle, so my uncle told him not to return to the capital ever again.

At that time, Li Lao Hu was only thirteen years old and still a child. He didn't know what his mother had said to his uncle. He just knew that he could not return to the capital.

He burned the letter and from then on he stayed in his cousin's house. However, his uncle never sent him any more money. His cousin's attitude towards him plummeted. First he did not allow him to go to school, and later he signed a ten-year contract for fifty taels of silver and asked him to work as a servant for a traveling merchant.

He followed the merchant to sell goods everywhere. One year, he came to Ding'an Prefecture, which was very close to the capital. He asked for leave from the merchant and returned to the capital to visit his mother and uncle.

But when he arrived at the place, he found out that his uncle's family, including his mother, had all been burned to death. Counting the date, it was the time when he received the last letter from his uncle.

It turned out that at that time, something had happened to my uncle's family.

He didn't believe that all this was just an accident. He remembered that his aunt had a sworn sister who was also a midwife. It was this midwife named Wang who took care of A Niang when she was born. So he went to find the midwife. The old midwife was terminally ill and didn't have much time left. When she learned that he was a tiger, she burst into tears.

"Your mother told me some things intermittently while she was recuperating here. Later, your aunt came to see me before she died and told me some things. I learned all this from your mother. Your aunt asked me to tell you everything I know if I see you in the future. I was dying, and I thought I would take this secret to the underworld. Now that you are back, I can finally close my eyes."

Although Dai Chunniang survived the injury, she became stupid and foolish afterwards, always talking to herself. Worried that she might get into trouble, her uncle locked her up in a room in the backyard and never mentioned her to anyone else.

But Dai Chunniang would occasionally wake up, and she would tell her uncle and aunt what happened that year in bits and pieces.

The family that asked her to deliver a baby was named Zou. When she went there, there was only an old woman and a young daughter-in-law in the Zou family. Dai Chunniang followed the maids and called her the eldest lady.

Because she didn't see any men from the Zou family, Dai Chunniang suspected that this lady might be a concubine of some family. She grew up in a family of midwives and had seen a lot of such things. As long as she was given enough money, it didn't matter whether she was the main wife or the concubine.

The Zou family was very polite. Every night, the eldest lady would bring a bowl of the bird's nest that she drank to Dai Chunniang.

Dai Chunniang was overjoyed, but soon she realized something was wrong.

She had always had trouble sleeping and would always wake up two or three times at night. But since she came to the Zou family, she had been sleeping with the maid in the mistress's outer room and had been sleeping soundly until dawn.

On the fourth night, Dai Chunniang quietly poured out the bowl of bird's nest, and as usual, washed the bowl and returned it to the kitchen.

Sure enough, she woke up again that night and heard the lady talking to a woman.

The eldest lady said: "Madam Wei, the midwife Dai also said that my baby must be a boy. The Dai family has been in this business for generations, and they can tell at a glance."

Madam Wei: "That's great. As long as you have a boy, I will send you and your eldest son away to a faraway place, and I will ensure that you and your son will have no worries about food and clothing."

The eldest lady said: "That's just what you said, Madam Lipin, what if..."

Madam Wei: "Princess Li? Humph, without my family and the Marquis Baoqing's Mansion, she is nothing in the palace. Don't worry, as long as I promise to let you leave, she won't stop me."

The eldest lady said: "Okay, with Madam Wei's words, I feel relieved. The midwife said that it will be in the next few days. Madam Wei can wait to come and hold the baby then."

Madam Wei: "Your child is a blessed one. When he becomes a rare talent, you, as his mother, will also enjoy the blessing."

The eldest lady said, "No, no, I dare not. This child just happened to be born in my belly. I have no fate with him. Don't worry, Madam Wei. I will never give birth to him in my life and I will never see him until I die."

Mrs. Wei: "You are a smart person. Smart people live longer."

Dai Chunniang was very frightened, but she suppressed her fear and continued to pretend to sleep. Before leaving, Mrs. Wei asked the nanny she brought with her to pinch Dai Chunniang's face. Dai Chunniang turned over and continued to sleep.

Mrs. Wei smiled and said, "You slept soundly."

Then he left gracefully.

After Madam Wei left, although Dai Chunniang closed her eyes, her heart was as racing as a thousand horses, and she could no longer fall asleep.

At this moment, she heard the eldest lady talking to herself: "Even after entering the palace, she still thinks about him and misses him. She even wants to snatch the child he and her wife had. I don't believe that the Baoqing Marquis's Mansion wants a male heir. It's obvious that she is the one who wants this child. She is such a slut, such a slut!"

Dai Chunniang wished she could cover her ears. She regretted not eating that bowl of bird's nest. How great it would have been if she knew nothing.

The next day, Dai Chunniang lied that she was worried about her family and wanted to go back, but was kept back by the old woman and the maid. They changed from their usual gentle and amiable demeanor and threatened her with stern faces, saying that if she left, they would go out and tell others that she was dishonest and had stolen things from her master's house.

A midwife hates being talked about like this the most, as it damages her reputation as a midwife of the Dai family, especially since she is not the only midwife in the Dai family.

In the next few days, Dai Chunniang drank the bird's nest obediently every day. It was better to know nothing than to hear something she shouldn't hear.

A few days later, the eldest lady went into labor and the situation was not good. Dai Chunniang was busy all day long. At night, the eldest lady finally gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

Mother and child are safe. The old woman gave Dai Chunniang a big red envelope and told her to go and have a rest and go home after daybreak.

Dai Chunniang received the red envelope and breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that she could finally leave this place of trouble. The maid brought her some bird's nest. She thought about it and decided that this last bowl wouldn't make any difference, so she drank the bird's nest and went to sleep peacefully.

When she woke up again, she was already in prison. She was brought to the court in a daze, and then she found out that she was sued by the Zou family. The Zou family accused her of using strong drugs indiscriminately, resulting in two deaths.

The coroner said that after an autopsy, it was confirmed that the woman had died from an overdose of drugs and was unable to give birth to a child before she died.

Dai Chunniang defended herself, saying that she delivered a baby boy herself and never used any medicine on the mother from beginning to end, but no one believed her. The maid said that she saw her use the medicine with her own eyes, and the people from the yamen even found unused medicine in the bag she carried.

With all the evidence, the Jingzhao Prefecture sentenced her to 100 strokes of the cane. She heard the old woman who had greeted her with a smile yesterday shout at the top of her lungs: "We can't pay with silver. We don't want silver. Beat her. Beat her to death!"

Li Lao Hu said goodbye to the midwife and left the capital. Since then, he never came back. Even when he came back with Meng Hu this time, he insisted on staying in an inn outside the city.

The capital city has become a forbidden area for him.

At that time, Lipin was already Lifei, and the lady Wei was her cousin, the lady of Baoqinghou Mansion, who later became the old lady of Baoqinghou Mansion.

Later, after ten years, he regained his freedom. He did not return to his family in Fuling, but went to Wanquan County. A few years later, he was unable to afford a wife, but was noticed by his father-in-law, and became a son-in-law of the Yang family in Yexiang.

Li Lao Hu finished speaking in one breath and said to Zhao Shiqing, "The midwife said that when my mother was conscious, she told my aunt that the baby boy had a long, thin red birthmark on his left waist."

Zhao Shiqing nodded, indicating that he had made note of it.

Li Lao Hu smiled bitterly: "I couldn't protect my own mother, I couldn't avenge my own mother and uncle, and later I couldn't protect my beloved wife. If it weren't for the help of my benefactor, I wouldn't even be able to clear her name, I would be a useless person."

Zhao Shiqing stood up and said, "In that case, then you should be a father who can protect your daughter."

The grandfather and grandson turned to leave and heard Li Lao Hu's voice behind them: "I will, I will!"

There was no conversation along the way. When they returned to the capital, Zhao Shiqing asked Zhen Wuduo, "Grandpa, where did you say the old lady of the Marquis of Baoqing took the child?"

The coroner's autopsy was definitely true. A pregnant woman did die from taking strong drugs in that house that night. However, that pregnant woman was not the lady who delivered Dai Chunniang, but another person. The Zou family got the body of a pregnant woman and pretended to be that of the lady in order to frame Dai Chunniang.

Even though Dai Chunniang knew nothing, she delivered the baby for the eldest lady, so she had to die.

If the Dai family's midwife, who was well-known in the capital, was killed secretly, the Dai family would definitely find out and come here, which would only cause more trouble.

But if they let her die with a stick under the pretext of the government, then everything would be fine. Even if the Dai family felt that she was wronged, they would be powerless to do anything.

A full hundred strokes of the stick would be difficult for even a man to bear, let alone Dai Chunniang, who is just a weak woman.

They just wanted Dai Chunniang to die in court.

Zhen Wuduo said, "Oh, right, didn't Uncle Dai say that the Zou family was crushed to death by rocks? Something that Uncle Dai knows about must have happened near the capital. Let's have someone investigate this matter."

Although this incident happened more than 40 years ago, money makes the world go round, and the people Zhen Wuduo sent out quickly brought back the news.

The Zou family was indeed killed by rocks, including Old Mrs. Zou and her two sons.

Old Mrs. Zou had a daughter, who was the lady who was "killed" by Dai Chunniang before. She died early, so she did not die with her mother and brothers.

This is all the information we can find. It is very likely that the Zou family members were silenced.

Zhao Shiqing sat there for a long time, enduring it again and again, and finally decided to speak out his guess.

"Grandpa, do you think that child could be Zhu Yu's father, Marquis Baoqing?"

Zhen Wuduo glared at her: "My dear granddaughter, do you really think so?"

Zhao Shiqing touched his nose: "Yes."

Zhen Wuduo: "Do you know why grandpa loves you the most?"

Zhao Shiqing: "Because of my mother."

Zhen Wuduo: "That's because you are most like me! Smart, courageous, and dare to think and do! Tell me, what are you thinking about?"

Zhao Shiqing laughed dryly: "I didn't dare to say it at first, but Grandpa forced me to say it, so I will say it."

Zhen Wuduo nodded. He wanted to see if his eldest granddaughter thought the same as him.

Zhao Shiqing cleared his throat: "Grandpa, if that child is alive, he would be almost 40 years old, the age of the one in the palace, hehe, do you understand?"

Zhen Wuduo: "I understand."

Zhao Shiqing stretched lazily: "Hey, where's Xiaoyao? Did she go out with Dapang again? I'm going to look for the cat."

Having said that, he ran away.

Zhen Wuduo looked at her back and nodded. This child who grew up in a palace was smart, clever, knew her limits, and knew her limits.

Zhao Shiqing came to the yard and looked at Xiao Yao and Dapang who were fighting each other on the rockery, but what he was thinking about was the life experience of Emperor Yongjia.

It's a pity that Xiao Zhen was not here. Xiao Zhen had met Emperor Yongjia and must have known whether Emperor Yongjia and the retired emperor looked alike.

Thinking of Xiao Zhen, Zhao Shiqing slapped her head. She had been in the capital for ten days, but she had never been to Su's Teahouse.

By the way, not only does she want to find Xiao Zhen, she also wants to find Yang Shengqiu.

The letter left by Doctor Yang should be handed over to Yang Shengqiu.

It is not difficult to find Yang Shengqiu, because he is a celebrity in Beijing.

In this year's spring examination, Yang Shengqiu won the first place and was selected by Emperor Yongjia as the top scholar.

It’s a pity that I arrived two months late and missed the chance to see the top scholar parading through the streets with flowers in his hair and seeing all the flowers in Chang’an in one day.