Chapter 127 Li Yang Saves Her Husband (2) Do good deeds without worrying about the future...

Zhuang Ziyang asked this question in a serious tone, as if he were accusing someone.

Li Yang was horrified, fearing that his grandfather had wrongly accused Chen Junbo.

She quickly said, "He advised me to get a divorce. He said a lot of things to persuade me to do so."

Zhuang Ziyang looked at Li Yang, "Why is that?"

“Grandpa, Chen Junbo explained it clearly. He analyzed the pros and cons for his granddaughter and clarified the key points.” Li Yang looked at Zhuang Ziyang. “But, Grandpa, I don’t believe it.”

"What don't you believe in!" Zhuang Ziyang's words were as cold as ice.

Upon seeing this, Zhuang Shutong exclaimed, "Father..."

Zhuang Ziyang didn't look at her, he just stared at Li Yang.

Li Yang: "Grandpa, I don't believe there's no justice in this world. Chen Junbo didn't embezzle. When we got married, neither of us knew we'd end up like this. He didn't curry favor with the powerful, and the Zhuang family had no ulterior motives."

She paused, noticing Zhuang Ziyang still staring at her, and said, "Grandpa, I don't believe the world can be so upside down, with no regard for right or wrong! No matter who it is, there should always be a sense of reason."

Zhuang Ziyang: "Do you know who you're trying to reason with?"

"Your Majesty!" The grandfather and granddaughter stared intently at each other as they spoke. Li Yang knew that she could not back down now; if she took a step back, it would be Chen Junbai's grave.

In a flash, Zhuang Shutong looked at his daughter and then at his father, and was startled when he heard his daughter say this.

Her daughter had actually figured this out.

Knowing all this, why was she still willing to strike the petition drum?!

"You love him so much?" Zhuang Shutong couldn't find a reason, so she could only ask her daughter this question.

“Mother, when I was setting up a stall on the street, I caught his embroidered ball. He didn’t mind and took me into the Chen family.”

After I married into the Chen family, whenever my mother-in-law made things difficult for me, he would step in and take the blame for me.

He taught me how to do business, he took me to see the shops, and he helped me win my own shop.

When he was in a difficult situation, he left only a letter of divorce to protect his daughter and the Zhuang family.

"Mother, I can't let him have his home ransacked and be exiled." Li Yang looked earnestly at his mother, emphasizing each word, "Mother, I want to save him."

Zhuang Shutong bit her lip and remained silent. It wasn't that she couldn't understand her daughter. When she was young, she was able to abandon everything in the capital and elope with Li Lang. Now her daughter had inherited her traits. She had no right to stop her daughter. "But, Zhaozhao, if we beat the Dengwen Drum, then your grandfather will have completely offended the Emperor."

Li Yang took a deep breath, her lips trembling. "I know," she said with difficulty. "Mother, as long as you don't acknowledge me, I will have nothing to do with the Zhuang family."

Zhuang Shutong never expected her daughter to come up with such a method, and Zhuang Ziyang seemed to be surprised as well.

“Mother, according to the household registration, I am an orphan girl from Songshan Town. They can’t find out our relationship. As long as you don’t acknowledge it, no one will know that we are mother and daughter. You just need to say that you have severed all ties with me, and this matter will not involve the Zhuang family.”

Hearing her daughter's words, Zhuang Shutong was overwhelmed with mixed feelings. On one side was her father and the Zhuang family, and on the other side was her daughter. She didn't know how to answer her daughter's question.

Then, with tears in her eyes, she looked to her father for help.

Zhuang Ziyang listened carefully to the conversation between the mother and daughter.

"Father!" Zhuang Shutong cried out to her father for help.

Li Yang looked at her maternal grandfather with her watery eyes, "Grandfather, from now on, Zhao Zhao will have no further connection with the Zhuang family."

Zhuang Ziyang remained silent.

Neither of them could convince the other that night, and Li Yang packed his things and returned to the teahouse.

On the very second day, a storyteller appeared in every teahouse in the capital, and they all told the same story.

The farmer's daughter was beautiful. One day, she went out and had a dispute with the daughter of a wealthy man. The farmer's daughter was bullied by the wealthy man's stable boy. When the farmer's daughter's brother saw that his sister was being bullied, he took action and fought with the stable boy.

The story revolves around a wealthy family's daughter who, out of jealousy of a peasant girl's beauty, murders a severely injured stable boy and frames the peasant girl's brother. She then colludes with the authorities to have the peasant girl's brother exiled. As a result, the peasant girl's family loses its main breadwinner, and her parents, unable to bear the shock, pass away. Ultimately, the peasant girl decides to beat the drum to appeal for justice and clear her family's name.

Overnight, the people of the capital all knew about this storybook, and it even reached the imperial court.

When Emperor Qing heard about this, he was furious.

Li Yang: "Sister Ziyan, thank you for your hard work."

Ziyan raised an eyebrow at her and stroked Liyang's hand with one hand, "I hope this storybook will be of some help to you."

The two looked at each other, and Li Yang was filled with gratitude.

Ziyan seemed to remember something, "By the way, Zhaozhao, are you really sure? No one in this dynasty has ever beaten the Dengwen Drum."

Li Yuhan: "Yes, yes, if one wants to appeal to the emperor, one must first be flogged thirty times before the case can be accepted."

Li Yang: "I know."

Li Yuhan: "If the case can be overturned after it's accepted, that's fine; otherwise, you'll be punished. This is a case personally handled by His Majesty; you're making the Emperor slap himself in the face. Is that acceptable?"

His words were like a bucket of cold water, and everyone looked at each other in silence.

Li Yang knew in her heart that since the emperor had set the tone, it would be extremely difficult to overturn the case. There would be physical pain and punishment if the case failed to be overturned, but fortunately she had already severed ties with her maternal grandfather's family. If she couldn't save Chen Junbo, she would go into exile with him.

Seeing this, Bi Fang hurriedly said, "Whether it succeeds or not, this is the only way to save the young master. We have to try it."

Youfeng: "You make it sound so easy. Try it. You'll hit the young mistress, and then you'll be the young mistress punished."

Bi Fang: "You Feng! It was only because the young master gave his consent that you were able to..."

Bi Fang is right. If the case is overturned, Chen Junbo can return to the life he should have lived. It was my fault that he ended up like this. Even if there is only a one in ten thousand chance, I have to try.

Li Yang: "Thank you everyone for everything you've done for Chen Junbo and for me. Tomorrow's journey is uncertain, but I will do good deeds and not worry about the future."

However, as the author said, this is the only thing I can do right now. Whether tomorrow's outcome is good or bad, I will not regret it.

However, this matter has nothing to do with you all. I cannot let you all be put in danger with me, so please wait for news at the teahouse tomorrow and do not go to the scene.”

After saying that, without waiting for anyone's response, Li Yang turned around and went back to his room to rest.

She lay down on the bed with her clothes still on and her shoes and socks still in. The curtains were hanging on hooks, and through the window, a full moon could be seen hanging in the dark blue light.

There were no birdsong, no cicada chirps, not even the sound of wind rustling through the leaves.

This silence weighed heavily on Li Yang's heart, so dense it was suffocating.

Last month, on a night like this, in this very room, she kept Chen Junbo talking to her, not letting him sleep. So he stayed up and kept coaxing her to talk.

Over the course of the night, the two talked a lot, including about going to the temple to find the master after returning to Songshan Town, and then going to Manager Zhou's banquet hall to eat a bowl of wontons.

But right now, he's in jail, and she's here.

Whether the two will be able to return to Songshan Town after tomorrow is unknown.

If she were to strike the petition drum tomorrow, what would her grandfather and uncle think? How much of a chance would she have this time? She had no chance at all.

Thinking about it, I felt uncomfortable lying down, so I got up and took out the accounts that I had previously calculated with Bi Fang, and looked through them page by page.

She knew this account book by heart; anyone who understood accounting could see it and know who had embezzled the money and who had made a mistake.

But can such an account really save Chen Junbo? Or will it plunge them into an even deeper hell?

Thinking about it, Li Yang lost interest in looking at the accounts and didn't want to move to the bed. He just sat there listlessly at the table, sometimes dozing off and sometimes waking up, watching the sky gradually darken.

Suddenly, several piercing bird calls startled Li Yang awake.

At first, it was a bird chirping in her ear, making three whistling sounds in a row, then it changed its tune. Gradually, it seemed to have attracted all the birds nearby, who chirped and sang together, their sharp calls keeping her wide awake.

"I was exhausted last night." Li Yang sighed to himself. Looking at the sky outside turning pale blue, he felt listless, so he fetched some water and washed up before he felt a little more energetic.

Li Yang took a plain white long gown from the wardrobe, leaving her face bare and without any makeup. She rummaged through her makeup box for a while and finally chose the peach and bat hairpin that Chen Junbai had given her, inserting it into her hair bun.

Before dawn, Li Yang closed the door, turned around and walked to the stairs, then quietly went downstairs.

She thought, "I'll just set off alone like this. Mr. Zheng and Sister Ziyan have already done enough for me."

The fact that Li Yuhan and Liu Yitong chose to stay at this time shows that, regardless of the circumstances, they did not choose to take advantage of Chen Junbai's misfortune, which already demonstrates their consideration for their childhood friendship.

For Chen Junbo's sake, Bi Fang first wrote account books, then copied painting books for several days in a row, and contacted storytellers in the capital, going from restaurant to restaurant and teahouse to teahouse. He lost a lot of weight.

Needless to say, Xiao Lu was in even more dire need. Without her, the entire family would have struggled to feed themselves. For one thing, before Liu Yi and the others were released, everyone's expenses were covered by the money Xiao Lu had earned at the teahouse…

Thinking about all the little things that had happened these past few days, Li Yang felt a lump in his throat, and every step he took felt like a heavy weight.

Li Yang sniffed, took a deep breath, and continued forward after pausing. Turning the corner of the stairs, the scene before her made her unable to hold back any longer.

Ziyan stared intently at her, with Zheng Qingbo smiling behind her. Xiaolu cautiously watched her, fidgeting with her fingers. Bifang, standing beside her, held a stack of account books, while Liu Yitong and Li Yuhan, each holding a stack of account books, were leaning against the wall.

Hot tears fell onto the back of my hand, and my heart felt as if it were being burned.

"you……"

Ziyan stepped forward, wiping away her tears with a handkerchief, then smiled and took her hand, leading her into the crowd.

"Let's go."

Someone spoke up, and Li Yang laughed heartily, "Okay, let's go!"