Chapter 11

Three years ago, Yu's father and brother were conscripted into the army. Actually, there were ways to avoid going to the battlefield: either pay money, provide grain, or provide manpower.

The Yu family were just ordinary farmers. The father hunted and farmed, while the mother washed clothes and did mending. The family saved every penny and finally managed to save up fifty taels to buy this restaurant in town. At that time, they didn't have much money left, and they didn't have enough grain to hand over, so they had to be taken away.

Nowadays, the men remaining in every household, except those from families with many men, are either those who contribute money or grain, or those who pull strings and use connections to get in through back channels.

The atmosphere was tense; the event had happened too suddenly.

Yu Cheng cried out in a childish voice, "It wasn't me! I didn't steal it!"

The burly man's anger intensified, his eyes widening to reveal large whites.

"I see you won't admit your mistake until you feel the pain. Today, I'll teach you a lesson on behalf of your parents!"

As they spoke, they were about to throw Yu Cheng to the ground, which made the people from Fumanju look worried.

"Stop!" Yu Wan's eyes flashed sharply, and her clear voice roared angrily, "Are you still not done? I've already said that no matter what the matter is, you should talk to me first, but you're still taking your anger out on a child. Do you think you're so capable? Besides, the facts haven't been investigated yet. Do you want to take over the case? Who gave you that right? If my brother gets hurt even a little bit today, you won't leave my restaurant! I'd rather fight you to the death!"

The people at Fu Man Ju kindly advised, "Both of you, calm down and don't be impulsive. Everything can be discussed. Don't rush into violence."

They hadn't expected the girl to be so strong; they had thought she would back down and plead for her brother.

They then advised the burly man, "Brother, if he really stole your money, and you caught him red-handed, the money must be on him. Why don't you put him down and see if he has your money?"

Yu Wan didn't believe her younger brother would steal money. In her past life, she had seen the world and met all sorts of people. Although she hadn't spent much time with Yu Cheng, she knew he wasn't a bad person; on the contrary, he was kind and sensible. Their mother was very strict, raising both children to be well-behaved, and would never tolerate them stealing. Even when they were so poor they couldn't afford food, Yu Cheng had never stolen anything; now that they had enough to eat, it was even less likely he would resort to petty theft or stealing money.

However, she could tell that the big man was deliberately trying to scare her, which is why she mustered up her courage and stood her ground.

If the big man really wanted to throw someone, he would have done it already; why would he pretend to hold him up like that?

“My brother just went to your house to buy wine, and he had twenty coins on him. Put him down. If he doesn’t have any more money on him, then he didn’t steal it.”

The people from Fumanju also chimed in to testify: "That's right. It was because we brothers wanted to drink that Madam Yu asked her younger brother to take the money to buy wine. Brother, put the child down first. He's only a few years old. Don't frighten him."

The burly man snorted coldly before putting Yu Cheng down.

Yu Cheng was also stubborn; he didn't cry even though he was frightened by a burly man. Once he regained his freedom, he quickly ran back to his sister's side.

"Sister, I really didn't steal his money, look!"

To everyone's surprise, he pulled out two money pouches from his pocket.

He panicked immediately and stammered, "This...this isn't mine."

The burly man snorted, "Caught red-handed, what else do you have to say? It's obvious you stole the money, the facts are right in front of us and you still won't admit it. If you don't give me a satisfactory explanation today, I'll report you to the authorities and have the county magistrate settle this case!"

Yu Wan carefully examined the two money pouches; one was the one she had personally handed to Yu Cheng, and the other she had never seen before.

"Sir, how much money did you just lose?"

The big man was no longer in a hurry when he saw that the money had been found. “Thirty coins. I saw the customer put the thirty coins on my table himself.”

Yu Wan opened the unfamiliar money bag and poured all the copper coins inside onto the table, a total of thirty coins.

The burly man, visibly agitated, pointed at the copper coin and exclaimed, "Am I right? This is the money that was just stolen from me. What are you going to do about it? Pay me back or report it to the authorities?"

Yu Wan pondered for a moment, then realized something was amiss and asked, "How did you see that customer put the money on the table? Did he just put the thirty coins on the table like that, or did he put the money bag on the table?"

The burly man thought for a moment, "It was thirty coins, and there was no money bag. Maybe your brother prepared an empty money bag beforehand, and when he saw I was busy with other things, he put the money in there. Anyway, the amount of money matches, right? I caught the man on the spot."

Yu Wan examined the purse, turning it inside out, and already had a conclusion in mind.

"Look at the material of this purse. It's made of top-quality brocade, embroidered with exquisite auspicious cloud patterns. If I'm not mistaken, the embroidery is from Suzhou. Now look at my purse, it's just plain, ordinary coarse cloth. This brocade purse alone is worth more than two taels of silver. Don't you find this very strange?"

The big man was stumped by the question and couldn't answer it. After thinking for a while, he didn't want to rack his brains, so he just accepted a principle.

“I don’t care about anything else. Maybe he stole this purse too, but he’s too young to know its value. Anyway, the thirty coins I lost are right here. I just found them on your brother, so he’s the one who stole them.”

Yu Cheng's face was stern, his eyes firm yet aggrieved: "I didn't steal it! If I stole your money, may I be struck by lightning!"

Yu Wan knew he was getting impatient, and if she continued to pester him, the child might break down.

She knelt down to comfort him, "Acheng, don't worry, I believe in you, I'll help you. Now, can you recall what happened on your way to get the wine? What did you see? Or hear? Anything is fine, just start from when you walked out of the restaurant."

Seeing his sister's unconditional belief in him, Yu Cheng felt wronged and his eyes reddened, but he still held back his tears.

He recalled for a moment, “I remember that my sister was carrying dumplings upstairs, and these guests wanted to drink, so you gave me a money bag with twenty coins in it. I carefully put the money bag in my arms, afraid that the guests would have to wait too long, so I ran very fast.”

Yu Wan encouraged softly, "Well, and then? Is there anything that left a deep impression on you, or that you care about?"

Yu Cheng thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up. "I was running too fast and bumped into someone. I apologized to him, but he didn't say anything and just left. I kept running and saw a candied hawthorn stall. I couldn't help but stop and look at it for a while, but remembering what my sister had told me, I continued running to the tavern. When I got to the tavern, there was no money on the table, nothing at all. The owner was busy and had his back to me, so I called out to him to buy some wine. But he glanced at the table and immediately accused me of stealing his money. I told him I didn't steal anything, but he didn't believe me and wanted to arrest me and report me to the authorities. I was so scared that I wanted to run home to find you, but he caught up with me and arrested me. That's what happened, sister. I really don't know anything."

The burly man was furious when he saw that the man was vehemently denying it. “I had just sold thirty coins’ worth of wine when I turned around and it was only a blink of an eye. There was no way it could have been anyone else, so it must have been you!”

The two sides are now stuck in a stalemate, each sticking to their own version of events.

Yu Wan gradually realized that the brocade money bag was most likely secretly stuffed into Yu Cheng's arms by the person who bumped into him.

"Acheng, what did the person who hit you look like? Do you remember them?"

Yu Cheng frowned slightly. "She should be in her thirties, a little chubby, not particularly tall, with a mole on her neck, and her clothes should be quite expensive; she's also wearing a wool coat."

The burly man said in a rough voice, "That's right, this is the man who bought my wine."

Based on Yu Cheng's description, Yu Wan felt like she had seen this person somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where.

“Then we’ll find this person; he’s a key witness. Finding him will reveal the truth. Boss, do you know him?”

The big man said with difficulty, "I know all the people who usually come to my tavern to buy wine. This person is a complete stranger. I really don't know who he is. How can I find him?"

Suddenly, someone from Fu Man Ju said, "Why does this sound so much like Chef Chen?"

Reminded, Yu Wan realized that he did indeed resemble Chef Chen, whom she had seen at the magistrate's residence.

But how do we find people now?

At this moment, everyone saw a pale-faced young man walk downstairs with a gloomy expression, and speak in a cold voice:

"I'll go find it."

Yu Wan looked him over from head to toe, but considering his frequent coughing up of blood, she wasn't quite sure.

"You? Are you okay?"

The burly man asked curiously, "Who are you? Didn't you say there were no men in this house?"

The people at Fu Man Ju watched silently, their faces filled with curiosity.

He Jing didn't answer directly, but pointed to Yu Wan and said, "Ask her."

Then the person walked out of the restaurant and disappeared from everyone's sight.

Yu Wan naturally knew that she shouldn't let too many people know about things, so she made up a pretext.

"This is my new hired helper, A-Su."

It's probably because the noise downstairs was too loud and disturbed that person.

Fortunately, the herbal soup my mother drank had a calming and sleep-inducing effect, otherwise she would have been woken up too.

The burly man asked suspiciously, "Can he really find that person? Could it be that you're deliberately deceiving me to delay my reporting to the authorities? Or are you going out to find some powerful helpers to deal with me? I'm not afraid of you, but since I've already found the money, I won't stoop to your level." He then reached for the money and tried to leave.

Yu Wan was not about to give up, so she put the money into her pocket before he could.

"Please have a moment before we find out the truth."

She had inexplicable confidence in the man surnamed He. After all, he was someone who could take on several assassins by himself. Finding someone should be a piece of cake for him, right?

The big man wanted to rob it, but he didn't dare.

Yu Wan curled her lips into a smile: "If you try to take it by force, it won't just be one lawsuit, it will be two. My brother definitely didn't steal your money, but you might end up with a charge of harassing a respectable woman, with so many people watching."