good season

Chapter 98: Strange Family (Two Chapters in One)

Almost all the neighbors nearby knew that Yan'er was Zhong Ziyang's mistress, and they looked down on her.

But now, seeing her with her big belly, her face covered in blood, and crying her heart out, the neighbors felt sympathy for her again.

Someone went to ask a doctor to bandage her wounds, and someone else asked a midwife to stay here to prevent her from being frightened and having a premature birth.

As a victim and witness in this case, Yan'er was supposed to be taken back to the yamen. However, due to her condition, the people in the yamen showed leniency and only informed her that she could not leave Baifeng City and was to be on call at any time. They did not take her to the yamen.

An hour later, the Zhong family went to the yamen.

No one expected that the person who came from the Zhong family was the third old master.

In the yamen, the third old master held Zhong Ziyang's body and burst into tears. He offered a reward of one thousand taels and asked the yamen to catch the real murderer.

After leaving the yamen, the third old master did not return home, but went to pick up Yan'er.

Yes, Yan'er was brought back to the Zhong Mansion by the third old master himself.

She was pregnant with Zhong Ziyang's posthumous child. No matter whether the child was a boy or a girl, his (her) biological mother could not be a lowly concubine.

Therefore, although there has been no news from the Zhong family yet, Yan'er will definitely not be a concubine anymore, at the very least she will be a concubine.

When Xiao Zhen and Zhao Shiqing left Baifeng City the next day, they saw arrest notices everywhere in and outside the city.

I don’t know which artist created this masterpiece, but the two people on the notice are not just ugly, but so ugly that they don’t look like human beings.

After all, this is a fictitious character.

Zhao Shiqing smiled all the way, and when he returned to the mouth of Baifeng River, he met Lu Niuer.

Lu Niu'er had been waiting here for two days. When he saw Xiao Zhen and Zhao Shiqing, he was extremely happy.

"Miss Shi, guess what, you are right. There are indeed some eccentric families in Shilipu."

Zhao Shiqing was very happy to hear Lu Niu'er change his words and call herself "Little Lady Shi", so she asked with a smile: "What's so strange about that?"

Lu Niuer then recounted in detail what he had found out.

Shilipu is the largest village in Qinglu County, and even in the entire Luzhou.

This one is the largest, not because Shilipu has a large population, but because it covers a large area.

More than half of Qingzhu Mountain belongs to Shilipu, and the remaining small half is divided into seven or eight villages.

It is for this reason that there is a saying in Shilipu that there are three on top, three in the middle and four on the bottom.

What are the top three, middle three and bottom four?
The entrance to Shilipu village is at the foot of the mountain, and the road after entering the village is uphill.

Forty percent of the households live at the foot of the mountain, thirty percent live on the mountain, and the remaining thirty percent live on the road from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain.

Therefore, except for 40% of the residents in Shilipu who live at the foot of the mountain, the remaining 60% live in scattered areas.

It was for this reason that new residents moved into the village, and the villagers only knew about it a year later.

Ten years ago, after the bandit incident at the market, seven families moved into the village one after another.

These seven families all live on the mountain.

It was more than a year later before the villagers knew that a new family had moved in.

Ten years ago, there was no disaster, so there were no refugees, and there was no government office forcibly assigning refugees to become citizens. Therefore, unless they came to the village to live with relatives, it was impossible for outsiders to settle down in the villages.

These seven families all came to live with their relatives.

Three of them came to live with Old Lady Feng. Old Lady Feng had no children, her husband died early, and all her in-laws died. She had lived in the village for decades, and no relatives had ever looked for her. But suddenly three families of relatives came to Shilipu to live with her. Although the villagers had some doubts, Old Lady Feng insisted that these three families were her distant relatives, and she even had several quarrels with the villagers over this.

There were two other families who came to live with an old bachelor. The old bachelor was poor and ugly, and lived alone in the mountains. Like Old Mrs. Feng, he suddenly had two more distant relatives who came to live with him.

There are also two other families who are distant relatives of the village head. Villagers can question Old Mrs. Feng and the old bachelor, but no one dares to gossip about the village head. Therefore, although these two families also live in the mountains, they do not attract gossip.

These seven families have lived in Shilipu for ten years. They hardly interact with the villagers and usually live in the mountains. They have no land and rely on the mountains for their livelihood. But strangely enough, there are other families living in the mountains. Those families go to the town from time to time to sell mountain products and exchange them for some money to buy firewood, rice, oil and salt.

But the villagers had never seen these seven families take their mountain products to the town to exchange for money. They would go to the town, and each time they came back from the town they would return with a full load. Therefore, the villagers privately discussed that these seven families were very rich.

Once, there were two hooligans in the village who went to a family to borrow money. However, they were beaten out by the family. Their faces were swollen and their noses were swollen, which was a terrible sight.

Under normal circumstances, if these two hooligans suffered a loss, they would definitely call their playmates to fight back. However, strangely enough, not only did these two hooligans not retaliate, but they ran away from the village and hid for several months before daring to come back.

From then on, no one bothered these seven families anymore. Although they were outsiders in Shilipu, they lived a very comfortable life.

After Lu Niuer finished speaking, Zhao Shiqing and Xiao Zhen both fell silent.

After a while, Zhao Shiqing took out ten taels of silver and stuffed it into Lu Niu'er's pocket. "What you found is very useful. This is a reward for you. But I want to remind you not to tell anyone about this matter, and don't go to Shilipu again. Stay as far away as possible."

Although Lu Niu'er didn't understand why Zhao Shiqing told him not to go to Shilipu again, he was also a man with experience.

Listen to others and eat enough.

With the ten taels of silver given by Zhao Shiqing, Lu Niuer's net worth is as high as one hundred and ten taels, and he also has the Meng brothers to rely on. From now on, he will have a backer in the village.

Life is so wonderful, it makes me happy just thinking about it. Who can resist a good life?
Lu Niuer took the silver and went back to Zhuxitang happily.

Seeing him walk away, Xiao Zhen asked Zhao Shiqing: "Do you suspect that those so-called bandits are these seven families?"

Zhao Shiqing nodded: "They deliberately beat people and robbed things at the market so that people would not dare to go to Shilipu to buy things. Gradually, Shilipu became the deserted place it is now.

The terrain of Shilipu is very suitable for hiding, but I don’t know if these people have anything to do with the death of my family.”

In principle, it doesn't matter.

After all, those killers should have been sent from the capital. They came to Zhuxitang only because Doctor Yang was temporarily staying there. There was no need for them to stay nearby after killing people.

But if there is no connection, Zhao Shiqing feels it is too coincidental.

After all, Shilipu is very close to Zhuxitang.

There is also the map that Doctor Yang left to Yang Shengqiu, which also shows this area.

Zhao Shiqing actually wanted to go to Shilipu to find out what was going on, but she knew her own limitations.

There were only her and Xiao Zhen. If they went there now, they would either alert the enemy or fall into the tiger's mouth.

Xiao Zhen said: "Let's go back to Luzhou City first and discuss it with your grandfather before making a decision."

Zhao Shiqing thought so too, and the two of them did not stop and headed straight for Luzhou. They hurried as fast as they could, but still could not get into the city before the city gate closed, so they had no choice but to go back to the village where they stayed last time.

The landlady still remembers Zhao Shiqing and Xiao Zhen.

The aunt's eyes were full of stars: "Oh my, I remember you two didn't come together last time, it seems like you came one after the other?"

Zhao Shiqing knew what the aunt meant. Well, the gossip was now her fault.

Zhao Shiqing pointed at Xiao Zhen and said, "This is my uncle. He came with my grandfather last time."

It turned out to be my uncle's niece. The stars in my aunt's eyes disappeared and it became boring.

However, the aunt remembered another thing.

She said to Zhao Shiqing, "By the way, the old man who came with you last time, he said he was your father?"

Zhao Shiqing immediately knew who the aunt was talking about.

Zhao Xingzhou!
"Yes, he is my father. Has he been here again?" She just touched his upper lip to her lower lip, not really recognizing him as her father.

The aunt looked at Xiao Zhen and thought: It would be fine if the uncle and niece were almost the same age, but the brother-in-law is old enough to be a grandfather to his brother-in-law. Wow, he really knows how to have fun.

"Yes, yes, yes, that's right. Your father came again on the third or fourth day after you left last time. But he seemed to owe a lot of money. He had just settled down when his creditors came looking for him. Your father asked me if there was a back door. I just pointed it out to him and he ran out through the back door. Oh, and although he didn't stay overnight, he did have a bowl of noodles, and he hasn't paid for it yet."

Zhao Shiqing had no doubt at all about what the aunt said.

That old man Zhao Xingzhou may not be good at anything else, but he is the number one troublemaker, so it is only normal for his creditors to come to his door.

Zhao Shiqing said to the aunt, "The money for his noodles will be put on my account, and I'll give it to you when you pay."

When the aunt saw that Zhao Shiqing admitted his mistake, she left happily.

Xiao Zhen asked, "Is she talking about the old Taoist priest who was with you last time?"

Zhao Shiqing said: "Yes, it's him. That man is crazy and wants to adopt me as his goddaughter. Ha, he is old enough to be my father's father."

Xiao Zhen frowned deeply. He remembered the dirty old Taoist priest: "You said his last name was Zhao?"

"Yes, Zhao Xingzhou, have you heard of such a person?"

Xiao Zhen shook his head: "I have never heard of the name Zhao Xingzhou, but he looks familiar."

"Look familiar?" Zhao Shiqing became interested. To be honest, she really thought that Zhao Xingzhou was a man of some background, otherwise she wouldn't have tricked him into writing her an IOU.

Xiao Zhen: "I must have seen him, but I can't remember where I saw him. This shouldn't be the case."

Zhao Shiqing didn't care and said with a smile: "Maybe you will suddenly remember it someday."

Xiao Zhen thought so too, and the two of them quickly put Zhao Xingzhou out of their minds.

The next day, as soon as the city gates opened, they entered the city.

When he arrived at the door of the rented small courtyard, Zhao Shiqing thought he had come to the wrong place.

The small courtyard is being expanded and craftsmen are working on it.

Zhao Shiqing and Xiao Zhen looked at each other, wondering if the landlord had taken back the house.

Fortunately, they saw Loach and found out after asking that Zhen Wuduo had bought this yard. Not only this yard, but also the two yards next to it. Now these three yards are going to be connected and expanded.

Hearing that they were back, Zhen Wuduo ran over and took Zhao Shiqing to see the new yard he had bought: "My dear granddaughter, I heard from Lingbo that you rented this yard because you liked the lotus pond in front of the gate. Grandpa bought all three yards and built a big house. You can come whenever you want. This is your territory. Are you happy?"

Zhao Shiqing didn't know what to say anymore: "Grandpa, you are so nice, rich grandpa, you are so nice!"

The old man said proudly: "It's just a small house. Grandpa will buy you a better one later."

"No need. I already have two mountains and a house in Zhuxitang. With this one, it's enough for me to live in." Zhao Shiqing said.

The old man: "How can there be enough space? Don't you still need to rent a house?"

Well, if you want to buy it, go ahead. I won’t argue with you.

Zhao Shiqing pulled the old man aside, told him about the letter, and showed off the bracelet her mother had left for her.

When he learned that her mother was reluctant to wear the pair of bracelets when she was alive, the old man's eyes were filled with tears. It was just a pair of bracelets of slightly better quality, but his daughter, Zhen Wuduo, was reluctant to wear such a pair of bracelets.

Zhen Wuduo wanted to go to ten or eight jewelry stores and buy all the bracelets to bury his daughter.

Zhao Shiqing quickly advised him: "Grandpa, if you want to make amends, come to me. I can handle it. Please don't bother my mother."

Zhao Shiqing mentioned the seven families in Shilipu again. The old man narrowed his eyes and said to Zhao Shiqing, "You are right. Don't alert the enemy. Grandpa will send someone to inquire."

In the next few days, Zhen Wuduo sent people to Shilipu, while Zhao Shiqing stayed in Luzhou City.

Shen Guanyue was already very familiar with Luzhou City. He knew all the delicious food and fun things in Luzhou City. Zhao Shiqing followed him and, taking Xiuxiu, Lingbo and Niuqiu, began their days of eating, drinking and having fun in Luzhou City.

Luzhou is prosperous and full of merchants. Although it is just a provincial capital, its prosperity is no less than that of Liangdu. Zhao Shiqing quickly fell in love with this place.

Xiao Zhen had a generation gap with them and did not go out to play with them, so within two days, Zhao Shiqing had forgotten about his uncle Xiao Zhen.

When she remembered, she realized that Xiao Zhen was not in Luzhou City.

"Hey, where did he go?" Zhao Shiqing asked while eating breakfast.

Zhen Wuduo was reading the official bulletin. The official bulletin of the Yong Dynasty could only be seen in the government office, but this did not pose a problem for Zhen Wuduo. There was nothing in this world that could not be done with money. If there was, it must be because the money was not enough.

For example, these three official reports, worth fifteen taels, were sold to him by the yamen's legal advisor.

"Oh, the four great kings of the Censorate have been replaced."

Zhao Shiqing: We must change people. Censor Jin, the leader of the Four Heavenly Kings, has become a useless person.

"Where did Master Zhen go?" Zhao Shiqing continued with the previous question.

Zhen Wuduo: "That unfilial son left without even saying hello. How would I know where he went?"

Zhao Shiqing pointed at the newspaper: "Besides the Four King Kongs, are there any other new things?"

Zhen Wuduo: "Yes, there is. The court newspaper said that your cheap second brother got into a fight with someone and was punished by His Majesty."

Zhao Shiqing was stunned. Cheap second brother? Her second brother? Zhao Tingxuan?