Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 264: The Ugly Behavior of the In-Laws

"That little girl with only two taels of flesh on her chest can't withstand your abuse. You'd better change her." Since the other party didn't sign up, Aunt Xue could only refuse politely.

"I didn't expect a woman like you who sells her ass to be so cherishing of her body." Luo Yangxing sneered, lifted the corner of his clothes to the right position and said, "Stop talking nonsense and give me the price."

Aunt Xue's brow furrowed when she heard this, and she was about to explode. But when she saw the three faintly visible small characters on the tooth-shaped plaque under the hem of her clothes, her anger immediately subsided. "Excuse me, what is your relationship with General Shen?" Aunt Xue asked tentatively.

"Why are you asking so many questions?" Luo Yangxing frowned and said, "I'll pay the money to redeem the person. You give him to me. Once the money is paid and we sign the agreement, it's done."

"Oh, my lord! It's not that I don't want you to redeem her. It's that Nuanxiang Pavilion has already signed a contract with General Shen. If I redeem two people, there's no need for you to come. Shuntian Prefecture will have to punish me." Aunt Xue made a bitter face and begged, "If you really like Miss Miaotong, please go to General Shen first to cancel the contract."

Aunt Xue had seen enough of the jealousy between men to develop a natural way of dealing with it. If it was just one of the rich, then the highest bidder would win. After the matter was settled, she could then tactfully appease the other man, so as not to damage the relationship and affect business. If two or more parties were unbearable, then the only option was to deflect the conflict. Let the men fight among themselves, and she would stay away.

"After the contract is signed, she's still singing here?" Luo Yangxing was puzzled. Although he rarely visited brothels, their market conditions, like those of other commodities in the market, were closely monitored by the Imperial Guards. If there were a key target for investigation, the assigned Imperial Guards would even use the government budget to indulge in brothels. Therefore, he knew that while Nuanxiang Pavilion wasn't the most prestigious in the capital, the young prostitutes there weren't easily redeemed by the meager income of the General Head of the East Office. A single night in such a place could equal over a month's salary for the General Head.

"It's like this," Aunt Xue explained. "General Shen is an honored guest here. He's attracted to Miss Miaotong and wants to redeem her. But he doesn't have enough money, so he signed two deeds with Nuanxiang Pavilion. One to redeem her, and one as an IOU. Both deeds have been taxed in Shuntian Prefecture and are registered."

"Wow. This guy really knows how to think of things." Luo Yangxing reached into his sleeve pocket and asked, "How much does he still owe you?"

"Seven hundred and twenty-five taels, three qian and nine fen of silver." This amount of money has little to do with Aunt Xue and must be turned over.

"Here." Luo Yangxing pointed out seven large 100-liang silver notes and three 10-liang silver notes and handed them to Aunt Xue. "The code is attached to the first one, and you can redeem it yourself. The extra ones will be my reward. Prepare a car for me, I need to take the person to General Shen's house."

"So you're here to help General Shen repay his debt!" Aunt Xue took the note, her face immediately lit up with joy. A small reward of five taels of silver was no small sum. However, out of basic caution, she still asked, "Has General Shen become wealthy recently? Why doesn't he come himself?"

"Are you questioning me? Why don't you become a Jinyiwei?" Luo Yangxing lost his patience. "Get the car ready! I'll wait outside."

"Don't you want to see Miss Zhou?" asked Aunt Xue.

"Why should I look at someone else's lover? Do you dare to give me a fake one?" Luo Yangxing turned around.

"Then please do me the honor of having a glass of wine." Aunt Xue invited.

"Hurry up!" Luo Yangxing left without looking back. He didn't want to stay any longer. It was normal to run into acquaintances in a place like Huanghuafang where people were looking for fun and spending money.

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Hey, hey, hey.

At about the same time, the messenger, a lieutenant in embroidered uniforms, grabbed the doorknob and knocked on the gate of the Li family's mansion. The lieutenant waited only a few breaths before a sturdy, but not overweight, man opened the door. This was Li Mingcheng's eldest son, Li Guochen.

The contemporary Marquis of Wuqing, Li Mingcheng, had two living sons: Li Guochen, named by Li Wei, and Li Guorui, named by Li Wenquan. These two sons were born from the same mother and had a significant age difference, leading to considerable conflict. If they were placed under the same roof, without someone to keep them in check, they would surely clash. Therefore, when Li Mingcheng moved from Qinghua Garden outside the city to the Li Mansion within, he brought Li Guochen with him.

"Excuse me, what can I do for you?" Li Guochen's attitude was very polite, almost humble.

"Delivering a letter. Please give this to your master." The Jinyi captain who came to deliver the letter had never seen a member of the Li family, so he subconsciously thought that the person who answered the door was the housekeeper of the Li Mansion.

"Whose letter is it?" Li Guochen asked.

"Who else could it be? Of course it's Admiral Luo from our East Office." The captain chuckled.

"Is it for official business or personal matters?" Li Guochen asked again.

"How should I know?" The captain took a step forward, straightened his bent arm, and said with some dissatisfaction, "You'll know once you open it and take a look."

"Okay." Li Guochen finally took the envelope from the captain's hand. "Anything else?"

"That's all." After handing over the letter, the captain turned around and left decisively, obviously not intending to waste any more time talking to Li Guochen.

A moment later, Li Guochen trembled as he brought the envelope to the portly Li Mingcheng. "Dad, it's from Luo Yangxing."

The recent scandals had left Li Mingcheng very upset. To relieve his growing unease, he drank whenever he could, and cursed when he got drunk. If cursing didn't relieve the pent-up anger in his heart, he would resort to violence.

When Li Guochen came over, Li Mingcheng was already a little drunk. But fortunately, he hadn't drunk enough to be so drunk that he wouldn't recognize anyone and would beat up anyone who came near him. "What did you say?"

"Luo Yangxing brought you a letter." Li Guochen handed it to Li Mingcheng. "It's from that bastard from the Luo family!" Li Mingcheng pushed aside the maidservant and roughly snatched the envelope from Li Guochen's hand.

Although Li Guochen didn't want to be alone with Li Mingcheng, he still winked at the leading servant. "All of you, get out."

The servants, as if they had been pardoned, immediately fled from this place of trouble with their male and female servants as if they were escaping for their lives.

Li Mingcheng opened the envelope and found it contained the memorial he had asked the clerk to draft and a folded sheet of letter paper. Li Mingcheng first looked at the memorial, finding it written in black on white paper, the same contents as before, without a single speck of red. Angrily, he tossed the memorial aside and then roughly tore the letter paper apart.

Li Guochen silently picked up the memorial and huddled back into the corner, standing against the wall, fearing that he would be affected by Li Mingcheng's anger. As expected, Li Mingcheng got hysterical and angry as usual. "Fuck you! Bastard!"

"Father. What's written in this letter?" After Li Mingcheng calmed down a little, Li Guochen asked with gritted teeth.

"This damn Luo Sigong is about to get out, and I'm letting his son of a bitch get on with me!" This question angered Li Mingcheng again. He tore the letter into pieces and threw it all over the floor.

Although Luo Yangxing had ordered the palaces of the nobles and relatives surrounded, he did not prohibit their inhabitants from entering or leaving. They could still go to the imperial court for tea. Therefore, that morning, each noble or relative who felt insulted and provoked wrote a protest letter to the emperor, either personally or through someone else, expressing their dissatisfaction with the Imperial Guard. Only Yongning Earl Wang Tianrui remained silent, believing the Imperial Guard were simply there to protect him.

The emperor's response wasn't swift, but it wasn't slow either. An hour before the court session ended, the Tongzhengshisi (Commonwealth Office) sent the unauthorized original protest letter, along with the emperor's decree, to the Dongsifang (Eastern Secretariat). The imperial decree was simple: it demanded that the Dongsifang provide an immediate and reasonable written explanation for their actions. Furthermore, to facilitate the protesting nobles' timely response to the Jinyiwei's explanation, the emperor also required that the Dongsifang not only submit a self-defense letter but also attach the contents of the letter to the original letter and return it to its source.

"What exactly does the letter say?" Li Guochen asked anxiously.

"Bullshit!" Li Mingcheng turned his fat face and stared at Li Guochen fiercely. "That's all fucking bullshit!"

Luo Yangxing's wording varied depending on the protest, but the underlying message remained the same: The Eastern Secretariat believed that the contents of the impeachment memorial filed by Tianjin Guard Governor Shen Zhengping were shocking. This was likely due to negligence on the part of certain individuals within the Rear Military Governor's Office. Therefore, a more in-depth investigation of the Rear Military Governor's Office was necessary. In the interim, more meticulous protection must be provided to ensure the personal safety of key personnel.

Li Mingcheng was not only angry, but also terrified. Moreover, compared to Luo Yangxing's high-sounding perfunctory response, the original memorial written in black and white without any official approval was what made him more uneasy.

"That stupid idea of ​​yours is totally useless! Now that the man has been killed, Luo Sigong is still holding on to the Governor's Office." Li Mingcheng stood up and subconsciously reached for his waist, but his jade belt had been taken away by the servants in advance. He could only kick Li Guochen twice to ease the panic brought to him by the unknown.

"Father is right. It's my son who is stupid." Li Guochen knew that his father was shirking responsibility again. But he had no choice but to swallow his resentment and listen to the lecture and beating.

Compared to his father Li Mingcheng, who was a playboy when he was young and violent when he was old, the eldest son Li Guochen, who is now over 30 years old, is obviously smarter or much more restrained.

Years ago, when Li Mingcheng learned from Zhang Weixian that the Jinyiwei were about to take action and was about to send someone to Tianjin to inform Shen Caiyu to flee, Li Guochen tried to dissuade him. He advised Li Mingcheng to either ignore it and pretend he knew nothing, or simply find a way to kill Shen Caiyu. But Li Mingcheng completely ignored him, saying that if he did so, no one would send money to the Li family to buy peace.

Afterwards, the Jinyiwei came to investigate as expected, and Li Mingcheng was anxious to send people to Shen Caiyu's hiding place to kill him and silence him. Fortunately, Li Guochen persuaded Li Mingcheng to stop.

There was a reason for this contrast between father and son. Unlike his father, who was destined to inherit the title and family fortune, Li Guochen, though the eldest son, was born out of wedlock. Unless he could quietly eliminate his legitimate brother, Li Guorui, he had no hope of inheriting the title. Li Guorui and Li Mingcheng were practically identical: greedy, violent, and overweight. In the 36th year of the Wanli reign, his grandfather, Li Wenquan, passed away, and Li Mingcheng's ugly side was fully exposed during the struggle for the family fortune. Given Li Mingcheng's struggles with his brothers for the family fortune, Li Guochen was truly worried that he wouldn't get much of the inheritance after his father's death.

To gain some support, Li Guochen, after receiving the rank of Jinyi Qianhu (a thousand households) through imperial favor, spent a few days in the Jinyiwei system. Although he didn't learn much, he did make some good friends by treating people to drinks and visiting prostitutes.

He knew full well that the Jinyiwei couldn't investigate a case without undercover surveillance. If he sent someone out of the capital to silence the witness after the Jinyiwei had filed a case, they would likely be caught red-handed by the Jinyiwei's imperial guards. If that happened, Shen Caiyu would be taken to Beijing for trial by the Ministry of Justice or even the Three Courts. He would be left with no defense. If that happened, even if the Emperor was willing to protect the Li family for the Empress Dowager's sake, the censors would likely punish them severely.

But man proposes, God disposes. In Tianjin, the Imperial Guard drove Shen Zhengping mad, so disregarding his own options, that he filed a petition impeaching nearly every official in the Guard. The court received the report that day and, the next day, decided to send a governor to oversee Tianjin Guard affairs. Li Mingcheng, now restless and anxious, immediately ordered Li Guochen to secretly execute the servant who had provided information to Shen Caiyu. This time, Li Guochen complied, and even proposed disguising the body as Shen Caiyu's to provide an explanation to the court. However, it seemed that the Imperial Guard, and even the Emperor, did not want this explanation.

Li Guochen endured his father's outburst while trying to think of a solution. But no matter how much he thought, he couldn't find a good way to deal with it. Gradually, Li Mingcheng's blows became more and more severe, and Li Guochen began to suffer the pain. He dodged left and right, which only angered Li Mingcheng further.

Li Mingcheng tried to lift the chair beside him and throw it at Li Guochen, but the life of wine, women and gentle pleasures had hollowed out his body, and he couldn't lift the solid chair at all. He had no choice but to pick up the wine pot and throw it hard at Li Guochen. Li Guochen instinctively dodged the attack and easily avoided it.

"You bastard, I'm teaching you a lesson and you dare to hide!" Li Mingcheng shouted angrily.

Li Guochen wasn't angry, just sad. He smiled bitterly and said indifferently, "Father, you are old."

"You!" Li Mingcheng was completely enraged. He roared hysterically and tried to launch a more violent attack on his own son, but Li Guochen dodged them one by one.

"Father, you are truly old. Please report your retirement to the Emperor and put your money where your mouth is." Li Guochen raised the memorial in his hand. "If the Emperor doesn't express his opinion, perhaps he's waiting for you to do so."

"The Emperor is forcing us to kill the eunuchs in the palace. Will he let us get away with it?" Li Mingcheng suddenly softened. He said miserably, "The Empress Dowager has been dead for seven years. Will he still remember her kindness?"

"Alas!" Li Guochen sighed, "Father, the Imperial Guards didn't storm into the Li Mansion because the Emperor still remembered the Empress Dowager's kindness."

(End of this chapter)