Miao Chu

Chapter 194 Mule Cart
Aunt Ma didn't answer immediately, but kept thinking about it in her mind.

She had experienced more than her sister-in-law and considered things more carefully, but when she thought about it, although there were a few downsides, they were insignificant compared to the advantages.

There's a saying that you should judge a person not only by how things go smoothly, but also by how they react when things are chaotic.

Although she hadn't known this Miss Song for very long, she had already witnessed her abilities by working with her on one occasion.

First, there was that group of disgusting cooks, and then there's this croton seed incident. Let alone a young lady like her, even an experienced manager would probably be caught off guard and flustered if suddenly faced with such a situation.

But when dealing with the situation, Miss Song was neither hasty nor impatient, and she clearly distinguished between what was important and what was urgent.

The subordinates were already filled with fear and anxiety, but when she spoke up and assigned tasks, and after the matter was resolved, she even gave rewards to those who had made contributions, which immediately calmed the situation and turned it around.

He has skills and abilities, and a good temperament, but he is also very assertive when it comes to establishing authority.

If someone like that can't run a business or accomplish anything, then who can?

Aunt Ma gritted her teeth and said, "We're a family like ours, and we don't have anything else to gamble with. Since you have such a strong desire to improve yourself, your brother and I will sell everything we own to support you!"

He added, "Don't wait for Miss Song to write a letter before going to the capital. Even if she thinks you're good now, once you return to the capital, which is so far away, there will definitely be other people eager to get close to you. By then, they might not even remember that you still exist in Huazhou!"

"Make a good impression now, and once things are settled on the river, just come to the capital with us. If there's nowhere to stay and the Wang family won't allow it, our family will give you money and find you a place to stay. You're already here, and this young lady is known for her kindness, how could she possibly send you back?"

Zhang Si Niang was younger, and upon hearing this, she felt very uneasy. She said, "Wouldn't this be like forcing someone? Wouldn't that be inappropriate?"

Aunt Ma sat closer and tidied her sister-in-law's hair, saying, "Where did this silly girl come from? Miss Song is kind-hearted and only refused to accept it because she was thinking of you. Otherwise, she would have gotten manpower for free without having to pay for it. Anyone else would have agreed long ago. Now that you're in the capital, at least you've shown your sincerity. It's better than doing nothing and just waiting around, isn't it?"

With her sister-in-law's support, Zhang Si Niang's previously anxious heart immediately calmed down, and she couldn't help but say, "Such a big matter, even if it may not work out, shouldn't our family at least give the Wang family a heads-up beforehand?"

Aunt Ma thought for a moment and said, "It's not good for the family to talk about this. Listen to your sister-in-law, you should tell Wang's third son the whole story..."

After saying this, she concluded, "The Wang family is all good, but they have too many people. Unlike us, who are so simple, we have brothers and sisters-in-law, parents-in-law, and even our teeth and tongues sometimes quarrel. Moreover, everyone has a different temperament. If we could settle down in the capital and start our own little family, that would be a really good thing."

***
The next day, Zhang Si Niang indeed found an opportunity to secretly meet with Wang San Lang.

The young man hesitated for only a moment before saying, "I definitely agree! You've always wanted to learn a skill, but you never had the chance before, and I couldn't help you. It's so lucky that you've met such a helpful person this time, why wouldn't you go!"

“Let’s try our best. My brother and sister-in-law won’t need to contribute any money. I’ll come to Beijing with you. I’m able-bodied and strong. I can support you by working as a porter at the docks!”

He turned around and went home, told his parents what had happened, and said, "Fourth Aunt was afraid that our family would overthink things, and she was also afraid that things would not work out, wasting money and effort."

The speaker meant well, and the listener took it even more seriously. Old Lady Wang quickly said, "What's there to be afraid of?! It's the capital, not some remote place! It's clearly a good thing!"

He added, "I know that Miss Song. Your Second Sister Hua, and several other ladies next door, all of them praised her cooking skills and said she knew how to get along with people. If Fourth Sister could follow her, would you still be worried about not being able to stand firm?"

"When the time comes, while your father and I are still young and able to walk, we can go to the capital to help take care of your children when you have them in the future. In all my decades of life, I have never been to the capital and have never seen what the outer walls of the emperor's house look like!"

Wang Sanlang said, "Because she said it's not a sure thing, and besides, both of our families are from Huazhou. If she goes to the capital, what will happen to the wedding at the end of the year?"

Old Mrs. Wang nearly jumped up in anxiety, saying, "Third son, you've never been this foolish before! You wouldn't find an opportunity like this even with a lantern. If you come along, we can see if we can move the wedding date forward. We originally planned to postpone it to the end of the year to give us some time to build the house. Now that we're going to the capital, whether we build the house or not isn't a rush!"

As he spoke, he quickly turned around and called out, "His father!"

Old Man Wang picked up a very low wooden stool and was sitting down when his wife called him. He then said, "We were originally going to build two rooms, one for you and one for our future fourth son. But he's lazy and good-for-nothing, so his marriage is uncertain. Right now, it's not even close to happening. Since you need money urgently, we'll postpone building the house. Once the river issue is resolved and the family has scraped together the money, we'll get you married and then head to the capital to see if we can make something of ourselves!"

The two families met on a chosen date, discussed the matter, and immediately reached an agreement. They promptly moved the wedding date forward and quickly set it, each preparing for their own eventualities.

After they both returned home, Old Man Wang couldn't help but say to his wife, "Everything is expensive in the capital. They are both inexperienced young people. There are many places to spend money when they are out and about. If you divide the money into six parts and only give two parts to the third son, it won't be enough."

Old Lady Wang said, "All you know how to do is have a big mouth—give it all to the third son. The eldest and second sons are both married with their own children. Don't they have any objections?"

"The fourth brother is a bachelor, and he's close to the third brother. I had to ask him before I dared to do this, and he'll have to pay for it later!"

"We're all brothers, this is the time to help each other out, a chance we might only meet a few times in a lifetime, why be so calculating!"

Old Lady Wang said "Oh," but then said, "Then take out the nine hundred coins hidden in the hole in the wall behind the wardrobe and give them to the third son to take to the capital."

Old Wang's face immediately changed color, and he said in a panic, "What hole in the wall?? I don't know anything about it!"

"If you keep pretending, I'll just assume you put them there yourself and take them all?"

"No! No!! I saved up for so many days to get this little bit, I was planning to go out for a couple of drinks!"

Despite his best efforts, Old Man Wang managed to save two hundred coins from his personal savings.

But while Old Lady Wang was counting the money, her eldest daughter-in-law and second son came over to call her.

Seeing that his wife had been out chatting for a long time and then returned with a complicated expression, Old Man Wang couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? What did they want to talk to you about?"

Old Lady Wang looked at the money that was half-stranded on the table and said, "Both the eldest and second sons' families said they are willing to give up their share of the money first, and have the third son and fourth sister take it to the capital."

Old Wang hadn't even had time to warm the two hundred dollars he'd just saved when he hurriedly said, "It's not necessarily all brotherly affection. I'm afraid he's thinking that if the third brother becomes successful one day, he can use that as an excuse to run off and seek refuge with him."

"Everyone hopes for the best and gives money, but that doesn't count as brotherly love. Only when you can't even part with two hundred coins for your own son can you be considered a true father, right?"

Old Wang fled with the money.
While everything was going smoothly for Zhang Si Niang, the investigation into the two incidents on the river by the government office was proving to be very difficult.

First, there's the matter of croton oil.

With everyone in the kitchen working together, they had already discovered that Fang Quanyou from the Fang family's car dealership was the culprit.

The authorities immediately sent people to arrest him, but after repeated interrogations, Fang Quan refused to confess. Only after repeated questioning did he finally confess to everything that happened that day.

It turned out that early that morning, he was on his way to deliver grain and supplies to the river kitchen as usual. It was still dark when he encountered two men who stopped his car. When he asked them, he learned that they were laborers rushing to work on the river embankment. They had drunk too much the night before because of family matters, and they were already late in the morning. They were worried that if they were late, they would not only have their pay docked, but they would also be criticized and would not receive any bonuses for three days. So the two men quickly stopped the car by the roadside.

These two men were not only extremely eloquent, but they also promised to give Fang Quan twenty coins to one of them.

Fang Quan, considering the money and feeling that it was just helping out, let the two men get on the train. To prevent them from being seen, he specifically told them to hide inside the carriage and not to let anyone outside see them.

Fang Quan kept protesting, "Sir, I truly meant well! If I had known these two were so cruel, I certainly wouldn't have dared to help them!!!"

When asked what the two men looked like, Fang Quan gave a vague answer.

On the one hand, it was still early and the sun hadn't risen much, so it wasn't easy to see people's faces clearly. On the other hand, both of them looked very ordinary, and their height and appearance were really unremarkable.

Based on Fang Quan's confession, the yamen drew up many arrest warrants, but Fang Quan examined them one by one and said he was not sure about any of them. They went out to search based on these warrants and checked the laborers who were late on the river that day. There were about ten of them, but after checking each of them, none of them were the correct person. The case suddenly ran out of clues and was stuck halfway. They had no choice but to interrogate and investigate repeatedly.

As for Li Laizi, who wanted to stir up trouble on the river and cause a brawl, he was a petty thief and a brawler. This was not the first time he had been caught and interrogated. He was very arrogant and refused to admit anything.

When asked why he did this, he said that he heard that people from Weizhou were stealing jobs from people from Huazhou. Everyone else in the city was just complaining, but he couldn't stand it and wanted to get revenge. He happened to have an upset stomach that day and was relieving himself in the river when he saw people coming from the other side. He had a sudden idea. He originally just wanted to capture the other party, but who knew things would escalate so much.

When asked where he got the money from the meal at that restaurant the night before, he said it was money he had saved up and spent in one meal.

If you ask again, she'll ramble on and on, stubbornly refusing to admit it.

Unfortunately, the Great Wei inherited the system of the Jin Dynasty, which made it difficult to use torture to extract confessions. For a time, the legal officials in Huazhou Prefecture were at a loss, whether intentionally or not, because they were completely helpless against this petty hoodlum.

Despite repeated urging from Cen Dezhang, the prefectural magistrate, the case remained stalled.

The message was quickly relayed back to the official post station.

The students of the Water Conservancy Bureau were in an uproar, especially Kong Fuyang, who was so angry that he almost wanted to take matters into his own hands. However, matters concerning the waterways were more important, and he couldn't spare the time. In addition, one of Cen Dezhang's retainers had promised to do his best to expedite the process and provide an explanation within three to five days, so he temporarily suppressed his impatience.

Han Li, on the other hand, has been busy assisting Wu Gongshi in following up on the construction of the river embankment. Because there are not enough craftsmen and materials, and in the past few days there have been many more laborers recruited by various county and town governments on the river, the number of whom has increased by more than a thousand. Moreover, their sources are complicated and chaotic, making management quite troublesome. As a result, he has been working from dawn to dusk and has been sleeping in the sheds on the river for several days in a row.

Since he couldn't come back himself, he asked Kong Fuyang to send a message back.

"To be honest, there's no progress on those two cases right now, and we don't have time to deal with them. We'll have to wait a couple of days before we can get around to them. We're just really worried that someone might try some underhanded tricks. Please be careful, Miss Song. Make sure you tell us what you want. Safety is the most important thing."

Since Han Li said so and sent Kong Fuyang to deliver the message, Song Miaoben was also very uneasy, so he simply and bluntly made his demands.

Someone capable of such a heinous act as poisoning wouldn't give up easily if they didn't achieve their goal.

To incite unrest, besides poisoning, one can resort to murder and arson.

However, at this time, almost all poisons had a strong odor or a very obvious appearance. Since the first attempt failed, the kitchen was already on high alert, and there was no chance of success afterward.

Song Miao then asked Han Li to allocate a patrol team to patrol the vicinity of the kitchen in shifts day and night.

The firewood was stacked separately away from the house, and fire prevention was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Beijing Fire Prevention Team. Oil and liquor were stored separately and locked. To start a fire, one would not only have to pass through several layers of patrols, but also avoid the ears of the Zhang family's warehouse keeper.

Ever since the incident with the croton oil, this man has been even more apprehensive, feeling day and night that there are always evil people trying to ruin things. He used to be unable to bear the chirping of mice and crickets, but now he's afraid that if an insect or ant accidentally crawls by and makes a loud noise, he'll be awakened in the middle of the night. After this job is finished, he'll probably lose a lot of weight.

If poisoning and arson are prevented, then only murder and injury remain.

Knowing that there was a shortage of manpower and that the government would not pay much attention to it, Song Miao ordered all the kitchen staff to form groups according to their respective streets and alleys. Every morning, they would come to the official post station together, take a carriage to the kitchen, and return in the afternoon. They would also be taken back to a fixed location by mule carts to avoid any accidents on the way. She also specially found a trustworthy driver and instructed him to drive slowly and steadily, and to pay attention to safety, etc.

With such caution in every aspect, several days passed peacefully and safely.

After being on tenterhooks for so long, everyone gradually relaxed as they saw that nothing had happened.

Early that morning, with only a sliver of light on the horizon, mule carts set off one by one from the official post station, heading towards the kitchen in the direction of the river.

Early in the morning, everyone closed their eyes to rest and had no interest in chatting. Once outside the city, there were few pedestrians, and the only sound along the way was the sound of mule carts.

As the carriage drove along, Song Miao began to sense something was amiss. She opened the front door and said to the driver, "Master Chi, let's be careful. It's alright to go slower; we'll make it today."

The driver said, "It's the same as usual. I'm even urging you slower today—this mule is very diligent today. It runs hard on its own without me having to shout."

He got off the mule cart, carefully inspected it, found nothing wrong, and then came back to continue forward.

After traveling for a short while, the mule cart reached a slope, and after going uphill, there was a long and steep downhill section.

The driver waved his hand, but before he could even crack the whip, the mule in front of him kicked its legs impatiently a few times, took two steps to the left and two steps to the right, and charged straight up the slope.

(End of this chapter)