Volume 3: Dragon and Snake Movement Chapter 334: Domineering, Stupid Crying
Early the next morning, Ah Liu came to the palace again and found the house where the Jiang father and son were temporarily staying. He saw two guards with panda eyes in front of the door. When they saw him coming, one had a resentful look and the other had an angry face. But when they heard that he was going to take Young Master Jiang away, they were stunned when they were about to curse.
"Take...take him away? Didn't he commit a crime, so he was imprisoned with his father who stopped Commander Du's horse and wanted to commit suicide? Is he going to be taken back to the county government to be interrogated by General Zhu or Doctor Zhang?"
Young Master Jiang inside had also been tossing and turning all night without sleep, but he was startled awake when he heard Ah Liu's voice just after closing his eyes. He rolled and crawled to the door, listening to the noise outside with his ears perked up.
"He didn't do anything wrong."
Ah Liu summarized the truth in four concise words. Seeing that the two guards looked unconvinced, he had to explain patiently, "He wanted to plead guilty and accept punishment for his father. The young master appreciated his filial piety and let him spend a night with his father. Now the time has come, of course he has to be taken back. The Jiang family is not the same as the families that attended the banquet with him last night."
The guards of the two Sharp Cavalry Battalions knew that Ah Liu was not a talkative person. Now that he had explained so much patiently, they were relieved and thought that they could finally explain to Commander Du. But even so, the more experienced guard still said with a smile on his face: "Then go see Commander Du first, and then come to our side to pick up the person."
But as soon as he said this, he saw Ah Liu, who had just been smiling, frown, and his eyes looking at them revealed a bit of sharpness. Just as he was about to explain himself, he saw a flash of cold light in Ah Liu's hand, and the next moment, the lock on the door that separated them from the Jiang father and son fell.
He watched Ah Liu push the door open and pick up Young Master Jiang like an eagle catching a chick, but he didn't even look at Master Jiang who was struggling to get up, and turned around and walked out. Although he knew he had better step forward to stop him, his eyes only collided with Ah Liu's for a moment, and all his courage disappeared in an instant.
He looked at his other companion and saw that he was also standing there , not even saying a word, let alone trying to stop him. Seeing this, he was so ashamed and angry that he couldn't help but curse in a low voice: "Hurry up and chase him, or how are we going to explain ourselves?"
"It's strange that we can catch up..." He muttered quietly, but the guard said unhappily, "Don't look at his young age. I heard that he was praised by the emperor. Instead of chasing that evil star, we might as well report to Commander Du! The lock has fallen off, so we can just say that we dare not stop him for fear of causing a conflict, and then endure the humiliation, isn't that enough?"
Seeing that Big Brother was still hesitant, he emphasized, "If we try our best to stop them, but they still let them go, isn't that the same as just letting them go?"
This really makes sense...
Since there was nothing they could do, the two guards finally chose to save themselves and reported to Du Heng that Ah Liu had taken Young Master Jiang away. Du Heng was reluctant to accept this hot potato from Master Jiang at first, but when Zhang Shou sent Ah Liu to take Young Master Jiang here last night, he acquiesced. But who knew that he would take Young Master Jiang away again in the morning.
He didn't want his subordinates to see his angry side, so he could only coldly dismiss them. After they left, he angrily slammed the armrest: "Come as you like, leave as you like. Who do they think I, Du Heng, am?"
But even though he was angry, Du Heng knew that he was sent out this time because the emperor felt that the Ruiqi Battalion was unable to deal with the civil uprising in Cangzhou, so he asked him to come and suppress the morale of the army. As for the civil uprising in Cangzhou and other cases, the emperor did not give him the authority in this regard, and he was unable to intervene even if he wanted to.
But the boy next to Zhang Shou is really too domineering!
On the other hand, when Zhang Shou saw Ah Liu carrying Young Master Jiang in front of him and heard him tell the whole story, he could not help but say, "Ah Liu, what do you want me to say? Can't you just go to Du Heng and tell him before bringing him back?"
"I can't speak." Ah Liu's answer was simple and straightforward, and then he said nonchalantly, "Besides, they just asked them to guard on their behalf. The one who makes the decision is you, Master, not Commander Du. The guards in front of the door have been replaced, and I don't want to argue with them."
Zhang Shou knew that Ah Liu definitely didn't want to talk just because he was afraid of trouble. He just brought Young Master Jiang back without paying attention to anyone around. He probably really wanted to fight for him. In addition, Du Heng had previously taken the dagger away and tested his attitude, which made the young man unhappy. He found that the guards in front of the door were indeed replaced by those who might be from the south, so he did this simply and roughly.
Thinking about it, there was really no need for him to make friends with Du Heng, who had shown some hostility from the beginning. Moreover, as an outsider, making friends with someone of the level of the commander of the Ruiqi Battalion, was he planning a rebellion? He decided to ignore it immediately and instead glanced at Young Master Jiang, whose eyes were dark and obviously he had not slept well.
Young Master Jiang happened to be peeping at Zhang Shou's expression, and their eyes met. Young Master Jiang lowered his head hastily, but he couldn't help smacking his lips in his heart. When Ah Liu sent him to the palace yesterday, he didn't go to visit Commander Du, but directly sent him to "reunite" with his father. He didn't think there was anything wrong with it, but when Zhang Shou said that just now, he tasted something wrong.
Yesterday he didn't know who the so-called Commander Du was, but after chatting with Mr. Qi last night, he realized that he was the only one who was really locked up at home and had no information. People like Mr. Qi all had people outside passing messages to the inside by throwing stones or passing notes, so they all knew that in addition to General Zhu Tingfang, who arrived earlier, there were two more imperial envoys behind.
He had met Zhang Shou last night. As for the other person, it was Du Heng, the commander of the left camp of the Ruiqi Camp. Such a person is often respectfully called the commander of the imperial guards by the people, but Zhang Shou's follower who was like a guard didn't take him seriously? Although he learned from Mr. Qi that Zhang Shou was about to be the son-in-law of the Duke of Zhao's mansion, this attitude was really too domineering, wasn't it?
When his brother-in-law, the third son of the Hua family, came to Cangzhou to marry, he seemed gentle and elegant, but he was actually arrogant. But that was because the Hua family was indeed stronger than the Jiang family. Although Zhang Shou was a doctor of the Imperial College at a young age, it was said that both his parents had passed away and he now had only an adoptive mother. With such a family background, it was a far cry from the Duke of Zhao's Mansion. How could he be so confident in facing Du Heng?
Zhang Shou noticed that Young Master Jiang seemed to be distracted, so he kept silent for a while, and then suddenly said, "Looking at Young Master Jiang's face, I'm afraid you spent the whole night talking with your father, so you didn't sleep well?"
Young Master Jiang suddenly came to his senses. How could he care about why Zhang Shou was so confident?
Thinking of what his father had revealed to him, although he had planned to get out as soon as possible during the commotion last night and find a way to meet Zhang Shou or Zhu Tingfang to save his father who was being threatened and in danger of his life at any time, when the time came, he couldn't help but back off.
What if they didn't want to investigate the conspiracy behind it, and just wanted to kill a bunch of Cangzhou locals to set an example and suppress the disturbance? Would he make things worse? Wait, when he was making a fuss last night, the two guards at the door even warned him, saying that Mr. Xu had sued them...
He raised his head hurriedly and asked nervously, "Dr. Zhang, I heard from the guard that someone sued us yesterday?"
At this moment, he still held on to a one in ten thousand chance that it might not be the famous Mr. Xu, but someone with the same surname.
However, Young Master Jiang was soon disappointed, because Zhang Shou said calmly: "It was Mr. Xu who opened the famous Wendao School in Cangzhou. Someone asked him to be a witness. As a result, he saw with his own eyes that several corpses were fished out of the stinking pond behind a charity funded by the Qi family. The coroner has already examined them. They are underage children, and one of them must have died only a few days ago."
Young Master Jiang turned pale and shouted instinctively, "It wasn't me!"
Hearing such an explanation, Zhang Shou couldn't help but feel that there was something fishy going on here.
If it weren't for the information Zhu Ying had found out, plus what Xiao Huasheng had said, proving that although the Jiang family was also rich and unkind, their greed was at least better than the other families, he would have believed that the person behind the charity was not Mr. Qi, but Young Master Jiang.
If it were someone else, they might think that Young Master Jiang had personally thrown a corpse into that stinking pond...
This young master...is not just a little stupid, he's so stupid that it makes me cry!
After Young Master Jiang finished yelling, he realized that he had made a mistake and said hurriedly, "I just heard that the charity is famous in Cangzhou. It seems that anyone who finds an abandoned baby and cannot raise it at home will send it there. However, there are also people who would rather drown their children than send them to the charity if they cannot raise them. I thought it was very strange when I heard about it before."
He smiled unnaturally as he spoke, and his voice became softer: "It's better to live a miserable life than to die a good death. Even if the children in the charity have a hard life, it's better than drowning, right? Giving birth to a child but preferring to kill it rather than sending it to the charity... It's really too cruel."
Okay, let me correct myself. This stupid young master who cried so hard is really ignorant of the ways of the world!
Zhang Shou couldn't help but sigh helplessly. Seeing that Young Master Jiang seemed a little suspicious after seeing his expression, he said calmly, "Of course, most smart people know that if they can't afford to raise a child after giving birth, they can just drown it. That will at least be less painful than sending it to a charity and dying at any moment in the future."
He briefly recounted what Xiao Huasheng had said and what Zhu Ying had found out. Young Master Jiang was first incredulous, then filled with indignation, and finally he was shaking with anger.
"This is why Mr. Xu was willing to stand up and call for the elimination of harm for the people. Otherwise, why do you think such a highly respected old scholar would come to the county government office with a group of ordinary people at night to petition?"
Zhang Shou ignored the hidden story of Zhu Ying threatening Mr. Xu, and then teased Young Master Jiang: "The Qi family's charity is just the tip of the iceberg. The charity of other families is mostly fake. Now the county government has put up a notice to collect their illegal activities. Of course, the same applies to your Jiang family. If someone sues you for illegal activities..."
"We in the Jiang family are not like them, who take human life lightly!"
Young Master Jiang was so angry that his face turned blue. His initial fear and panic were all gone. He shouted, "Before, Dad was negotiating with the eldest prince with those old men, but that was because the eldest prince was both a prince and an imperial envoy, and Dad was afraid that if he offended him, the whole family would suffer... Dad's so-called leadership was just because he lost the lottery, so he had to take action!"
As he spoke, he said angrily: "As for the means used later, yes, it was indeed dishonorable and excessive, but that is commonly used in the business world. My father never sent anyone to intimidate or coerce them, nor did he burn down their houses. It was not our Jiang family who did it. It was the eldest prince who personally instructed the old man surnamed Qi to send someone to do it. My father even advised against it! Many people know about this!"
Having said this in one breath, Young Master Jiang felt that he was a little too bold. However, this matter involved his father's life and death, honor and disgrace. He paused for a moment, but still said with a stiff upper lip: "I've said before that I will plead guilty and accept the punishment. If someone really reveals that my family has done something that is against the will of heaven and earth, I... I will take full responsibility for my father!"
"Okay, just remember what you said."
Zhang Shou laughed and saw Ah Liu tilt his head slightly, as if listening to something outside. He thought that maybe the boy noticed someone eavesdropping outside the door, but Ah Liu suddenly turned around and walked to the door and opened it abruptly. However, the person who came into his sight was not only Zhu Ying, who he guessed, but also an unexpected person.
Under Zhang Shou's surprised gaze, the visitor chuckled, then bowed deeply outside the door and said, "Young Master."
Zhang Shou immediately laughed: "I sent someone to Xingtai to deliver a letter to you yesterday, and you arrived today. Is it because the messenger knows how to send letters by wild geese, or you have super fast legs, or maybe you just got a new BMW that can travel a thousand miles at night?"
"Hehe, I heard that Cangzhou was hoarding cotton and shutting down businesses, so I thought something might happen. After discussing it with them, I decided to come over to take a look. But halfway through, I heard that the palace had been occupied and the eldest prince had been held hostage!"
"How could I dare to enter Cangzhou in such a chaotic situation? I found a place in the suburbs to hide and wait and see what would happen. But two days later, Boss Zhu came, and you, Mr. Xiao, also came with Du Heng! I wanted to sneak back quietly, but I thought you would definitely send someone to find me, the 'culprit'. Even if I refused, Ah Liu might come to arrest me personally, so I had no choice but to deliver myself to your door!"
Seeing Zhang Chen's confident and humorous words, and thinking of how he was the overlord of the dandy circle in the capital, but now he has changed a lot, Zhang Shou couldn't help but laugh and said, "If you really don't come, of course I will have to release Ah Liu! You came at the right time. The guys who followed the eldest prince are now in prison. You can take this kid from the Jiang family to visit each family and see how to resume work!"
