Chapter 109 Chapter 109 is the only genuine version...
Everyone shuddered.
Some people were frowning, some were pressing their temples, and they were all thinking hard, looking as serious as if they were in an imperial examination hall.
Sun Er was the first to speak: "Brother Can, a concubine's daughter from the Wuchang Earl's family died suddenly a few days ago. She went to a brothel with her aunt's brother to get drunk. I heard him crying, saying that his aunt strangled his sister. He was crying so sadly."
Gu Yican threw a longan over, and Sun Er happily took it, peeled it and ate it.
"Minister Wu's daughter got married the other day. I think she married...was..." Mo Qi clapped his fists and said, "Oh, that's the short guy who sells wontons on Flower Street up ahead."
"We've met before. Do you remember him? He was the short guy Fang. He was only this tall."
Mo Qi gestured exaggeratedly with his hands, only reaching near his chest.
After he said this, someone remembered.
"Minister Wu gave a generous dowry and even bought his daughter a three-story house in the east of the city." Mo Qi grabbed the longan fruit Gu Yican had thrown and said as he peeled it, "Why would Minister Wu choose such a son-in-law? He's really too desperate."
The waiter knocked on the door and came in to serve the dishes.
Mo Qi pointed at the teahouse and asked casually, "Is your house going to collapse too?"
"Sir, how could that be possible?" the waiter said with a gracious smile. "His house is infested with termites. The beams have been chewed through. How could it not collapse? We get rid of termites every year, so it's definitely not going to collapse. Enjoy your meal, sir. This is a flower wine our boss gave you."
Zheng Si, who was half drunk and half awake, grabbed the wine pot and gulped down the whole pot of wine in one breath.
"No more?"
He swung his hand casually, and with a bang, the wine jug shattered. He shook his heavy head and fell to the ground again.
Gu Yican threw a silver ingot to the waiter as compensation.
The waiter went out happily, and Gu Yican urged: "Keep thinking."
"Brother Can, the fourth daughter of the Ning Palace eloped with a prostitute. Does this count?"
When Zhou Liulang heard the word "elopement", his heart was pounding with fear. Fortunately, it was not his family that was being talked about.
Gu Yican looked at his sister and said, "Forget it."
The speaker was Song Wu, the grandson of Prime Minister Song. "You must recognize that prostitute. A while ago, the Marquis of Wu'an's mansion was raided, and all the women in the mansion were sent to the Jiaofang Bureau. Wang Qijun, that boy, had a male body and a female appearance, so he switched with his sister and asked her to die in his place. He was sent to the Jiaofang Bureau in her place."
As soon as these words were spoken, the private room suddenly became lively.
"Really?"
"I only heard that he was a prostitute, but it turned out to be that kid named Wang?"
"This hasn't been discovered yet. Are the Jiaofangsi blind?"
Gu Zhizhuo looked out the window and saw the old blind man sorting the copper coins and silver coins on the stall. A piece of silver coins fell from his hand, and the old blind man immediately bent down and picked it up accurately.
"...When Prince Ning held a banquet, that boy infiltrated the singing girls. Somehow, he hooked up with the fourth daughter of Prince Ning's mansion. The fourth daughter was born to a concubine and had always been favored. She begged Prince Ning to transfer her to the mansion to be a singing girl. But a few days ago, the fourth daughter eloped with this boy, and he deliberately made a big fuss about it, afraid that others would not know."
The fourth daughter of Prince Ning was a member of the royal family, so there was no way she could marry a lowly prostitute.
If Prince Ning wanted to save face, he had to find a way to change his status to a good citizen, which was a piece of cake for Prince Ning.
"Brother Can, where are my longans?" Song Wu said to Gu Yican with a playful smile.
Gu Yican threw a longan to him.
"And more..."
As soon as the topic was brought up, the atmosphere became more lively.
They hang around the capital all day long, and their sources of information come from all walks of life.
However, it is difficult to judge without seeing the person. After all, whether it is marrying down, sudden death, death from illness, or even elopement, it is not uncommon in this huge capital city.
At most, these things can be talked about after dinner.
Even if it was Zhou Jinuo, if Gu Zhizhuo hadn't happened to meet her, whether she died suddenly or from illness, she would have only "heard about it" at most. It was like throwing a small stone into a pond, the ripples it caused would at most affect her family.
"Sister, is that enough?"
Gu Zhizhuo made a quiet gesture to him.
"You bastard, I'm going to beat him to death!"
Zheng Si raised his head and cried with tears and snot. He had drunk too much, his face was red, and he cried so loudly that he interrupted everyone else's conversation. So they gathered around him, trying to get him wine and comfort him.
"Burp!" Zheng Si burped and spoke incoherently, "Liu Ling went to ask for a marriage talisman for Sister Lin a few days ago, and now he's talking nonsense again, determined to force Sister Lin to death."
Marriage talisman?
Gu Zhizhuo's mind moved.
"You bastard! You said you wanted to take a concubine." Zheng Si cried and cursed, slamming the table and talking incoherently. "Sister Lin, Sister Lin will never fall for a groom. Hiccup."
"I'm going to kill him right now!"
He was so drunk that he couldn't even tell the difference between a door and a window. He kept clinging to the window and insisted on jumping down. Zhou Liu, who was closest to him, rushed over and hugged his waist tightly. A strong smell of alcohol lingered in his nose.
"It's a window, it's a window!"
"Don't jump."
Several people rushed over and together they twisted his hands to drag him inside, causing passers-by on the street to look up.
Gu Zhizhuo: "Splash water on him to wake him up."
The others didn't care whether there was wine or water in their glasses, and poured all of the liquid onto Zheng Si's face. Even the iced mung bean soup and rice dumplings with fermented rice wine were no exception, and the liquid splashed all over his head.
Gu Zhizhuo: “…”
She looked at Gu Cancan with a little pity: "You have worked hard." It is not reasonable to accept this group of people as your subordinates.
Gu Yican slapped his forehead. Shame on him, so shameful. When his sister gets back, he's going to beat them all up.
After a few bowls of iced mung bean soup were poured down, Zheng Si shuddered and his drunkenness faded a little. His face was wet and water was dripping down. He licked it in confusion. Hey, sweet?
"Master Zheng Si," Gu Zhizhuo asked bluntly, "where did he get the marriage talisman you just mentioned?"
"Marriage Talisman."
Zheng Si suddenly remembered what he had just said and his face turned pale.
"Hurry up and tell me." Zhou Liu nudged him with his elbow. "What's there to hide from Brother Can? Who knows, maybe I can save your sister."
"Even if you don't say it, the Liu family will. Go outside and listen to what they say. I can't stand it."
Zheng Si's shoulders drooped.
The kid named Liu wanted to take revenge on them and was talking nonsense everywhere. Sister Lin was almost dead.
The dandies in the capital were also divided into factions. This group of them, usually under the thumb of Gu Yican, had always been very close, and their relationship was more than just drinking buddies. Zheng Si simply made up his mind and said, "The Liu family and my sixth sister, Sister Lin, were engaged three years ago. After Sister Lin came of age at the beginning of the year, the Liu family came to request a date, and the wedding was set for September. But last month, the Liu family came to our house and said they wanted to take a concubine before the wedding. Of course, my family refused. How could we take a concubine before the wedding?"
Many people nodded.
When families like theirs arranged marriages for their daughters, they wouldn't necessarily choose one that forbade concubines. But this didn't mean that the son-in-law could take a concubine before marrying his legal wife.
"At the time, my father said to cancel the engagement, but the reputation of the Zheng family girl couldn't be damaged, so he would make it clear to the public that it was the Liu family who acted dishonestly."
Zheng Si rubbed his aching head, wiped the mung bean soup off his face, and continued, "When the Liu family heard about the cancellation of the engagement, they refused to agree. A few days later, they came and said the woman was already married, and that they had agreed to take a concubine only after she turned 40 and had no children. So my father reluctantly agreed to continue the marriage."
Zheng Si felt gloomy. In his opinion, since the engagement had already been cancelled, it should be over once and for all.
"What happened next?" Mo Jiu urged.
"Liu Ling repeatedly came to apologize and sent us marriage talismans, acting so servilely in our family. Lin Jie'er even thought he had changed his mind. But then!" Zheng Si gritted his teeth as he spoke, his voice growing increasingly bitter. "My grandmother had her birthday the day before yesterday, and the Liu family came to congratulate her. The Liu family said that Lin Jie'er and the lame groom were having a heart-to-heart in the stable, calling her fickle. This morning, the Liu family returned the engagement letter and all the tokens of love."
"Sister Lin was so humiliated that she almost hanged herself, and he said she wanted to commit suicide with the groom."
Many people had heard rumors about the Zheng family's affairs. Zhou Liulang whispered to Gu Zhizhuo, "I've inquired about it. Liu Ling even brought a lot of people to the stables that day. They heard Miss Zheng Liu and the groom say that she would marry no one but him."
That's why Zhou Liulang wondered if Miss Zheng Liu would be like his sister Nuo. Otherwise, a decent girl wouldn't go to her grandmother's birthday party and talk about love with a lame groom. She wasn't crazy.
Gu Zhizhuo agreed with this and asked again, "Where did you get the marriage talisman?" Zheng Si was really something, his words and actions were all messed up.
Zheng Si grabbed his hair and thought again and again: "I don't know. Liu Ling asked for it himself. Oh, right..." He rummaged in his pocket, "This is it!"
Zheng Si threw everything in his purse onto the Eight Immortals Table, and finally took out a crumpled lucky bag. He originally wanted to throw this thing at Liu Ling's face.
The rough, big red lucky bag had the words "Marriage Talisman" written on the front and "Match Made in Heaven" written on the back. The vertical strokes of these words all had a small hook at the end, just like... Her gaze shifted to the window.
The sign on the fortune-telling stall with the words "Fortune Telling" written on it swayed in the wind.
The handwriting habits are exactly the same.
Gu Zhizhuo flattened the lucky bag and opened it. Inside was a talisman folded into a triangle with a strand of hair stuck in it.
"Mr. Saturday."
Gu Zhizhuo looked at the talisman and suddenly asked, "Do you still remember which direction Mr. Zhang's finger pointed when he died last night?"
Before Zhang Xiucai died, he stretched out one finger for the last time and stared ahead with his eyes open.
Zhou Liulang remembered it clearly: "Right front, that's..." He leaned out and looked, his eyes landing on the fortune-telling stall, "It's this direction."
Yes.
Zhou Liulang remembered it correctly.
After she sat here, she looked around carefully. This street was quite lively. In the direction that Mr. Zhang pointed, there were fortune-telling stalls, shops selling herbal tea, shops selling crispy bone fish, stalls selling beads, and some other shops.
She glanced at the fortune-telling stall several times.
Mr. Zhang was selling calligraphy and paintings next to the fortune-telling stall, the dwarf was selling wontons on Hua Street, and even the Jiaofangsi was not far from Maoer Street.
The handwriting on the lucky bags is so similar, and an idea is about to come to mind.
"Brother, go ask the blind man if he has a marriage talisman... No, no, you look too much like a nobleman, it probably won't work." Gu Zhizhuo rejected it before he finished speaking.
She glanced around.
They were all dressed in gorgeous clothes, with jade crowns and hair tied up. So, it can only be...
"Master Zheng Si, go ahead. You look the most embarrassed."
Zheng Si was covered in wine and mung bean soup, with small dumplings hanging in his hair, his collar was disheveled and his clothes were wrinkled, and he looked extremely down and out.
"Go ask the blind man for a marriage. Don't say the wrong thing. Whether Miss Zheng Liu's reputation and life can be saved depends on you."
After hearing this, Zheng Si immediately became energetic.
Gu Zhizhuo explained everything he needed to say from beginning to end and sent him downstairs.
The others didn't quite understand what he was saying either. When they heard that Zheng Si was going there to seek marriage, they all gathered around the window to watch curiously.
Zheng Si staggered out of the tavern with drunken steps.
It was only about a hundred steps from the tavern to the fortune-telling stall. He rubbed his head and was about to cross the lane when a carriage suddenly passed in front of Zheng Si, forcing him to step back. The carriage stopped in front of the fortune-telling stall, and a girl of about fifteen or sixteen got out.
Zheng Si recognized her at a glance. She was the third prince's sweetheart, the one with the surname Ji.
The carriage just blocked Zheng Si, so Ji Nan Ke didn't see him, and even if she did, she might not recognize him.
Zheng Si now looks like a drunk with a hangover on the street. He no longer has the demeanor and style of the fourth young master of the Zheng family.
After getting off the carriage, Ji Nanke went straight to the fortune-teller's stall. She sat down in front of the blind man and said with a smile, "I heard that the marriage talismans here are particularly effective, so I wanted to ask for one."
The blind man rolled his eyes upwards, revealing only the whites. He shook his head left and right following the voice and said in a hoarse voice, "Young lady, are you here to calculate your marriage?"
He pushed a fortune stick over and said, "Young lady, please draw a fortune stick first. I will interpret it for you."
Ji Nan Ke didn't even look at the fortune-teller box. She took out a handful of golden melon seeds and threw them on the stall.
Each of these golden melon seeds weighs two coins, and this handful weighs a full ten taels. Under the sunlight, they emit the unique and attractive luster of gold, which almost made the blind man regain his sight.
He resisted the urge to raise his hand to take it, and said with a smile: "Girl..."
Ji Nanke interrupted him calmly: "I only want a marriage talisman, and I can give you all these."
The blind man hesitated.
He once swore to the immortal that he would use these talismans to save those who were down and out and to gain merit for himself. Wouldn't it be bad if he used them to make gold now?
But, this gold.
The blind man swallowed.
Ji Nan Ke grabbed another handful of golden melon seeds. She raised her hand and let the golden melon seeds fall from her palm one by one, clattering onto the fortune-telling stall. The sound of each falling seed made her heart pound.
"A marriage talisman."
"These are all yours."
Ji Nan Ke occasionally learned that the marriage talisman in the old blind man's hand was extremely effective, as if it had been cast under a spell.
At first she was skeptical.
How could a mere talisman control people's love, hatred, anger, and ignorance? But then...
She believes it now.
My aunt firmly believed that the emperor had feelings for her, but was forced to not welcome her into the palace.
However, a few days ago, she asked Xie Jing to take her to the palace to meet the emperor in the name of presenting the Divine Arm Crossbow to him.
She tried to test the emperor a little, tactfully mentioning her aunt's "serious illness" and the neglect of the Duke of Zhenguo's Mansion. As a result, she discovered that the emperor had no affection for her aunt at all.
She thought about it and decided that if she wanted the emperor to willingly take her aunt into the palace, her only hope now was this marriage talisman.
"how?"
Ji Nanke asked again.
The blind man hesitated even more, and his throat felt dry.
So, Ji Nan Ke smiled and put in the third handful of golden melon seeds.
The blind man finally couldn't bear it anymore, and gathered all the golden melon seeds together with both hands and held them in his palms.
The Immortal gave him ten marriage talismans in total. He has already saved nine people. The last one should be for himself, right?
Ji Nanke smiled and waited calmly.
The blind man took out a red lucky bag and handed it to her.
He spoke in a calm and inscrutable voice, saying, "Just give it to your sweetheart, and you'll get what you want."
Ji Nan Ke reached out to take it, opened the lucky bag and took a look. Inside was a talisman folded into a triangle.
She put the lucky bag into her sleeve pocket, stood up and said, "I'll lend you my good wishes."
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