Chapter 103 Enthusiasm

Carpenter Zhang bent down and put his mouth close to her ear, "I think the woman at the stall next to me was cheated away by someone."

Then why don't you go to the government office to report the case? What's the point of looking for her? Su Ruojin said, "There are the city guards and the mayor. If it's not enough, there's the city magistrate. You can report it to them!"

Carpenter Zhang shook his head, "Others won't believe it, this is just my personal feeling." Just now he wanted to follow quietly, but there were so many people in the market, and in a blink of an eye, the person disappeared. When he was running around in a panic, he saw Su Er Niang. Because of the walker incident, he did not treat Su Er Niang as a child, and even wanted her for advice.

Su Ruojin: ...

Seeing that the young lady didn't want to meddle in other people's business, Carpenter Zhang was sweating in the middle of winter, "Madam Su Er, do you remember what I told you about Carpenter Li?"

She nodded and remembered, but what does it have to do with this matter?

"Did you recognize the liar?"

"no."

"Then how can you be sure that the woman was deceived?"

Before Carpenter Li disappeared, Carpenter Zhang had contact with him. Zhang Liang remembered clearly what state he was in at that time. The state of the woman who was deceived today was exactly the same as it was then.

Carpenter Zhang talked a lot, and his expression was a bit confusing, but Su Ruojin finally understood, "You mean there are people who specialize in defrauding craftsmen?"

The summary seemed to have opened Zhang Carpenter's eyes, and he suddenly became enlightened. "That's right...that's right. The woman just now wove very good cloth. The master and the servant said they wanted to buy more cloth. They wanted her to take them home to see how much cloth there was. If the cloth was good, they could buy it all."

In his previous life, Su Ruojin had heard of deceiving people into working in mines to dig coal, or deceiving people into giving them labor, or deceiving people into paying pensions. The former was abominable, and the latter was so cruel that one would be sent to hell after death. Now, was it deceiving craftsmen?

In ancient times, owning a skill could support one's family and even create a small fortune. Some unscrupulous landlords and powerful people would even trick craftsmen into working like slaves for them.

"Then hurry to her house and see if she has returned home. Then you will know if she has been cheated or not."

Zhang Liang shook his head, "We occasionally set up stalls together. I only know that her name is Madam Kong and she is good at weaving. The rest..." He didn't know why he was so worried and meddlesome. It was because the incident with Carpenter Li left too deep an impression on him. He always felt that the two people today were very similar to the incident that year when they tricked Carpenter Li into drinking.

Whether it was because the incident with Carpenter Li left such a deep impression on Carpenter Zhang, or because Carpenter Zhang was enthusiastic towards people he met by chance, since he had the chance to find her, Su Ruojin, she also showed some enthusiasm.

"Walk!"

Zhang Liang: ...Where to?

"Ask where Madam Kong's home is!"

"Oh oh." Zhang Liang finally came to his senses. As expected, he was not mistaken about Su Erniang. Carpenter Zhang seemed to have found his backbone and hurried back to where he set up his stall.

Shu Tong frowned. The weather was too cold and he wanted to take the second lady home early. He didn't expect Carpenter Zhang to be nosy. He wanted to stop them out of dissatisfaction, but the second lady had already left. He had no choice but to move the casserole onto the mule cart and trot after them.

After returning to the market, Zhang Liang asked several vendors and finally found out about Madam Kong, who often came to sell cloth. "Her husband died of illness a few years ago, and her son was taken away by her in-laws. Now she is alone and rents a room in the Houqiao area to sell silk and weave cloth to make a living. She is a pitiful person."

Alone? For some reason, Su Ruojin thought of those villains who harassed single women in later generations. It was obvious that they had made inquiries before they took action!

It was not until this moment that Su Ruojin felt that Carpenter Zhang's intuition was correct. She quickly asked, "Then Carpenter Li is also alone?"

"He is not, but he has no relatives in Beijing, so he came to Beijing from Xiangshan to make a living."

If you have no relatives in Beijing, you are all alone. It seems that the scammers are organized and have been committing crimes for a long time. Behind them are either black-hearted rich people or some kind of interest group with a purpose.

No matter which one it is, it is not something that common people like Carpenter Zhang and Su Ruojin can get involved in.

"Uncle Zhang, let's go to her house in Houqiao Lane to check on her. If she comes back, we've been worrying for nothing. If she doesn't, you can report the case to the government office. That will be considered as doing your best."

As long as someone believes in him, Zhang Liang feels that he has done his best.

Zhang Liang left his two remaining carts with a merchant he knew, and took the Su family's mule cart to the back streets. He asked his way from the entrance of the alley to the place where Madam Kong rented, and then went to talk to the landlady next door.

Zhang Liang and Su Ruojin didn't look like bad people, but the landlady still looked at them warily, "Who are you to her?"

Zhang Liang said matter-of-factly, "We were setting up a stall together in the market. Today, two men with foreign accents said they wanted to buy cloth from Madam Kong's house. I thought they were scammers and was afraid that Madam Kong would be cheated, so I went to her house to see if she had returned."

The landlady shook her head and said, "He definitely hasn't come back."

Zhang Liang and Su Ruojin were shocked. What they didn't want to admit had happened, but they had no evidence. Could they go to the government office to report the case? Would they be tricked out?

Zhang Liang asked, "What should we do?"

"Wait a minute, if he hasn't come back by dark..." Generally speaking, there is a time limit for reporting a missing person, at least one day and one night.

Carpenter Zhang obviously knew this rule through Carpenter Li’s experience. “I’m afraid that if I report the case after dark, the yamen will not accept it!” Besides, by then all the people in the yamen would be off duty, so who would care whether a weak woman is missing or not!

"Wait, Uncle Zhang, what were you mumbling just now?"

Carpenter Zhang was stumped by Su Ruojin's question, "I didn't say anything, I'm just a weak..."

Stop, it’s these three words - weak woman.

It is good that there is a time limit for reporting a case, but if the personal safety of the missing person is threatened, or the other party may be harmed, then you can report the case to the government at any time.

"My dear, have you thought of a solution?"

"Didn't you say that two grown men, a master and a servant, took Madam Kong away?"

Carpenter Zhang nodded. "Everyone in the market saw it."

"That's easy. A weak woman being taken away by two big men, do you think it's dangerous?"

"Of course it's dangerous?" That's why Carpenter Zhang felt uneasy.

Without further ado, Su Ruojin asked Shu Tongshu to drive the mule cart and report the case to the government office before they were off duty.

Just as they worried, there was no evidence and they were not relatives, so the two reported the case, but the Jingzhao Prefecture refused to accept it. Fortunately, they met the clerk who handled the shop procedures last time. This person seemed to know Hua Ping, and through him, the yamen finally accepted the case. However, Su Ruojin and Zhang the Carpenter could not decide when to send out soldiers to find the person.

The two stood at the door and didn't want to leave. Liu Zhubo smiled and said, "Young lady, you don't know her at all. You are very generous. It's getting dark. Go back quickly."

Su Ruojin sighed like a little adult, "Uncle Zhang said that two craftsmen around him have disappeared. I wonder if many craftsmen have disappeared in places he doesn't know about. I don't know if someone has gathered the craftsmen together to do something bad."

(End of this chapter)