Chapter 28
"It's true," Xue Shun pursed his lips. Fearing she wouldn't believe him, he told her a story he didn't want to mention. "When I first came here, there was a maid named Tieye who always made me eat her leftovers. She would pick out any good things in my allotment, and I didn't get angry. It wasn't until later that she actually stole something that woman had left for me and broke it. Then I had her beaten with a stick, but I didn't expect her to die after only ten strokes."
"Sir...what did you say then?"
"I didn't say anything, really. I just told them to focus on it so she would remember the lesson."
"Did he die immediately?"
"Well, at first I didn't say how many times I would hit her, but when I heard her screaming miserably, I said ten times, but then...
I know they all say I have a bad temper, but I only did something stupid that one time. Normally, when I curse or punish someone by making them kneel, there are reasons for it. Even when I beat them, I only use the cane. That's how my teacher beat me, too. Is that not okay?"
Shen Jiao didn't say no, he was a little anxious.
"Stealing someone's property will get you a beating even if you're sent to the government office, not to mention she bullied her master. Young Master, what you did wasn't excessive. It's just that someone's dead, and regardless of whether it was intentional or not, there will always be people complaining. But in my opinion, ten strokes of the cane shouldn't be enough. Who will carry out the execution?"
"My two former servants were also dishonest people, but they didn't have any conflicts with each other on a daily basis, and they would occasionally joke around. I don't think it was that serious. Perhaps he just used too much force at that moment."
Shen Jiao was puzzled and asked again, "So they were kicked out because of this?"
"Do I look so unreasonable? This is my fault. What's the point in putting it on them? Something happened later. There's nothing much to say. Let's go. It'll be late before we have to copy the books again."
He didn't want to talk much.
After Shen Jiao returned, he went to ask Jin Yu.
She curled her lips: "Why do you think of asking this?"
"I just saw other young masters with servants around them, and suddenly I remembered it. I'm curious. Is there something I can't say?"
"There's nothing to hide, it's just things like this that make me sick," Jin Yu said with disgust. "Those two guys are usually smooth-talking and cunning. There are many people like them, so it's not a big deal. But one day they were peeping through the window... The maids in the courtyard caught them and beat them up, so the young master kicked them out. Later... I think they were assigned to do odd jobs in the kitchen. Lian Gua saw them once last year, looking so dirty and miserable. It was really satisfying. It must be retribution. I don't know how they're doing now."
Liao'eyuan has always been out of touch with the news.
No one would pay special attention to such things.
Xue Shun had a delicate stomach and usually ate meals prepared in the small kitchen. The maids cooked the food and whatever was left was enough for them to share. As long as he seldom visited them for anything he wanted, it was not surprising that he didn't know.
"So they really deserve it. Sister, do you still remember their names and what they look like? Tell me so I can stay away from them next time I see them."
"It seems... there's someone named An."
Jin Yu really didn't remember a thing. She looked through the window and saw Lian Gua in the yard and called out to her, "Lian Gua, come here."
"Sister Jinyu? What's going on?"
"It's nothing serious. I just want to ask you if you still remember the names and appearances of the two servants in our courtyard."
"I think their names were Antai and Wang'er. I don't know what they looked like... I don't know. Who would remember them? I just remember that they yelled at me not to hit him in the face, so I hit Antai in the face. When I saw him later, there was a scar there. It was really ugly."
Liangua's fingers slid down from above her eyebrows, across her eyelids and all the way to her cheek. One look and you'd know it was a very vicious claw. No wonder she smiled happily when she said it. It feels so good to beat up the bad guys.
Jin Yu felt a little regretful: "I didn't even squeeze in. It would have been better if the young master had let us beat them up again."
At this moment, Jin Yu thought of the benefits of Xue Shun's bad temper.
However, Xue Shun must have been scared by the incident with Tie Ye at that time, so naturally he didn't dare to do that.
"Don't feel bad, sister. A dog will always eat shit. Maybe there will be another chance someday."
Shen Jiao said softly, squinting his eyes in thought.
Jin Yu and Lian Gua looked at each other, and both burst out laughing.
Jin Yu reached out and embraced her, smiling and saying, "Look at you, you have such a sinister look on your face. I don't know what you're thinking. That was three years ago. Don't do anything rash. Even if there really was something wrong, we wouldn't know about it."
She pinched Shen Jiao's cheek and went back to her own business.
Shen Jiao pursed her lips and muttered, "Three years isn't a long time."
"Sister Liangua." Shen Jiao remembered something and waved at Liangua again.
Liangua smiled, walked over and said, "If you have something to say, just tell me. Why call me sister?"
"The one who's older than me is naturally my sister," Shen Jiao looked around and asked carefully while sitting by the window, "Does my sister know about Sister Tieye?"
"I know a little bit. What do you want to ask?"
"I heard people say that Sister Tieye was beaten to death by them. Is this true?"
"That's right, they are the only ones in the hospital. We don't have the heart to kill them, but if we had known they would be so ruthless, we should have snatched the job away."
Lotus melon is a little sad.
Shen Jiao seemed confused and said, "We're all from the same courtyard, why wouldn't they show any mercy?"
"He is still the Seventeenth Young Master. You must hit him harder. Once you hit him harder, he will lose his sense of proportion. They will be scared to death." She whispered, obviously feeling some resentment towards Xue Shun.
"Is the young master watching?"
"Not really... He gets easily sick when he loses his temper. He just gave the order and went back to the house." Liangua frowned.
Shen Jiao asked again, "Shouldn't this kind of thing be dealt with lightly? The young master has a quick temper, and his anger comes and goes quickly. I don't know what will happen afterward."
"Indeed, but..." Liangua thought for a moment before saying, "Young Master Seventeen had only been here a few months at the time, and he had always seemed good-tempered. But over a broken fan, he suddenly became furious. We didn't understand his temperament, so we were all a little frightened.
"I guess those two saw the situation wasn't going well, so they kind of tried to curry favor with him. They were so eager to get things done that it ended up making things worse. We were all young back then and couldn't handle the fright. The two older ones were the most cunning, but they wouldn't have dared to intentionally kill anyone, right?"
Liangua said and shook his head.
As far as Shen Jiao knew, Xue Shun was only eleven years old when he was found, and now, five years later, he is only sixteen.
It's best for servants and maids to have grown up with their masters, but in order to take care of them, they'll be a little older, but not too much. Unless they're born with supernatural powers, it would take a lot of effort to kill a living person with ten boards. Only if the iron sheet is made of paper would it be so fragile...
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