In the new village, every household sent something over as a token of their appreciation.
Old Mrs. Li also brought Granny Chang with her, and personally selected a basket of things.
The Qi family provided two pieces of plain-colored fabric suitable for making jackets and trousers for children, plus two taels of silver.
The Zhao family simply gave them five taels of silver.
Tao Hongying, with her own mindset, wished she could exchange all of Qi's fabrics and silver for grain.
Even if Qi Dalu's wife wanted to leave, she couldn't take all the grain with her; she could only leave it for the two children!
But Old Lady Li still held onto a sliver of hope and saved face for Qi Dalu's wife.
Unfortunately, the funeral was held early the next morning.
Qi Dalu's urn was buried in the ground, forming a small mound.
The two children cried their hearts out, and the villagers from Xincun and Ercun all tried to comfort them and carried them home. By the time they arrived, the Qi family's courtyard was already empty.
Taking advantage of the chaos earlier, when most of the village was at the cemetery, Qi Dalu's wife secretly ran back and took all the valuables from the house, including the compensation money and the two pieces of new cloth...
The women of the second village were absolutely furious!
I always thought Qi Dalu's wife was a nice person, but I never imagined she would be so heartless.
"That damn woman, isn't she afraid of being struck by lightning?"
"They just abandoned their own child like that!"
"Was she forced into the bridal sedan chair by Da Lu with a knife? Why was she in such a hurry to leave the Qi family? If she had stayed until after the forty-seventh day memorial service for Da Lu, even if she got married immediately, no one could say she was wrong!"
"They rushed here so urgently, are they afraid we'll leave her to live a life of widowhood?"
Everyone wanted to spit on Qi Dalu's wife and drown her.
Seeing that the two children of the Qi family were standing there blankly, neither crying nor speaking, Xiao Cui quickly called out to the women and then carefully comforted the two children.
"Good children, don't be afraid! The Marquis has already said that he will give you money and food every month from now on, and no one will watch over you if anything happens. You can still live your lives even without your mother!"
The other women, realizing what was happening, quickly stepped forward to lend a hand.
"Yes, if you don't know how to cook, just bring your food to my house. I'll bring you meals every day."
"I'll do your laundry!"
"I didn't dare stay at home, so I came to my house to stay with Er Gouzi and the others."
The young man from the Qi family gritted his teeth so hard that his lips turned bloodless, but he never let go of his sister's hand.
After struggling for a long time, he finally managed to say, "Thank you, aunties, I can support my sister."
Everyone felt even more heartbroken upon hearing this, but there was nothing more they could do to persuade them.
So, everyone helped tidy up the yard, cooked a meal for the two children, and then dispersed.
When the news reached the new village, everyone was furious and kept cursing.
Tao Hongying took Granny Lin to the Qi family. When they returned, she called Xia Qing and a few others to quickly make two sets of new clothes and steam two pots of steamed buns.
The two children in the Qi family had worn out too thin clothes before. Now that they have new clothes, even if their hearts are cold, at least their bodies won't be cold.
Two pots of steamed buns yielded more than forty buns. Qi Jia's son only needed to cook a simple dish, and that would be enough for his siblings to eat for four or five days.
As for the future...
Children from poor families learn to be independent early, and children without parents need to stand up for themselves even faster.
After all, everyone can only help for a while; no one can help them forever...
Jiayin watched it from beginning to end and couldn't help but sigh.
Reincarnation is truly a skill.
Thanks to all the gods and Buddhas, she was born into the Li family.
If you're unlucky enough to have a mother like Qi Dalu's wife, you'll really have no way to express your suffering!
Thinking this, she felt even more fortunate, so she quickly got to work.
One minute she's massaging her mother's shoulders, the next she's cooking for her father, preparing snacks to go with his drinks...
Li Laosi was alright; he had just returned from the war, and he was overjoyed by how filial his daughter was.
Tao Hongying was careless and got annoyed by her daughter's constant pestering for half a day, so she went directly to the Liu family to talk to Liu Yang.
She planned to make a few pairs of shoes for Jiayi, but the boy hadn't been back for over two years, and no one in the family knew his shoe size anymore, so she could only ask Liu Yang...
Grandma Li really knows her granddaughter best; she watched her granddaughter bustling around, always smiling...
Leaving aside the minor changes that have occurred at home, let's just talk about the grand court assembly that day. There were more than a hundred officials of the fifth rank or above in the capital, all crowded together in the main hall, making it a bustling place.
But perhaps because the northern expeditionary force had returned and the Marquis of Xinting was stationed in the new capital, the court was unusually quiet.
The junior censor who used to bite people like a mad dog and hoped to gain fame by stepping on his colleagues is gone.
Because of a trivial matter, the officials who were blaming each other also fell silent.
The emperor sat down on the dragon throne, feeling slightly uncomfortable. After thinking it over, he said with a mocking laugh, "Why are you all so quiet today, my dear ministers?"
"Does this mean that my Heavenly Martial Kingdom is peaceful and prosperous, without a single troublesome matter?"
The courtiers all shrank back, forcing a dry laugh and remaining silent.
Of course, there were also officials who were good at flattery, who thought this was a good opportunity to stand out, so they stepped forward and said loudly: "Your Majesty, the northern expeditionary army has returned victorious, but I heard that the casualties were also seven or eight thousand."
"We are worried that Your Majesty will be distressed by this, so we do not wish to add to Your Majesty's worries with such a trivial matter."
Upon hearing this, others immediately followed suit.
"Yes, Your Majesty, we are just as heartbroken as you are."
"Your Majesty, please take care of your health!"
If the emperor weren't mindful of his imperial status, he would have loved to give these people a big eye roll.
If verbal sparring were effective, he would have already sent these people to Jiangbei to kill barbarians.
Unfortunately, while they're masters of flattery, they'd probably be terrified of barbarians the moment they saw them...
Just then, Imperial Censor Wen suddenly stepped forward, interrupting the chorus of flattery.
"Your Majesty, I have a memorial to report. Last spring, Lü Zhong, a secretary in the Ministry of Personnel, allowed his clansmen to seize water sources and beat three villagers from a neighboring village to death."
“Lu Zhong abused his power to cover up the matter and falsely accused the villagers of extortion, forcing them to leave and causing their families to be destroyed.”
Lü Zhong was a member of the sycophant army.
He was still reflecting on where he had missed in the shot when suddenly a large iron pot was slammed onto his head, leaving him no time to react.
In the end, it was someone next to him who couldn't stand it anymore and gave him a push.
He immediately knelt on the ground and shouted, "Your Majesty, I am innocent!"
Before the Emperor could speak, Li Lao Er, the Earl of Zhongshan, also stepped forward. "Your Majesty, I am writing this petition on behalf of Gao Jianzhong, an old man from the Relief Office, to sue Sun Baiquan of the Ministry of Works."
"Three years ago, when Sun Baiquan was in charge of repairing the river, he embezzled a huge sum of money and deducted the rations of the people who were performing corvée labor."
"As a result, hundreds of people starved or died from exhaustion, and later the river embankment was washed away by torrential rain, leaving more than a dozen villages and towns in the area, and thousands of people displaced."
"Old man Gao Jianzhong's three sons died at the construction site, and another died on the way to escape. Only he survived until now, just to report this matter to the emperor and rid the people of this scourge."
No sooner had he finished speaking than another censor stepped forward.
"Your Majesty, I hereby report that Wang Wei, the deputy commander of the city's defense patrol, has been condoning his subordinates' oppression of merchants, extortion of money, and forced abduction of women as concubines..."
And so, led by Imperial Censor Wen, six people stepped forward one after another, all of them to file complaints.
The six courtiers who were the defendants dared not be negligent and all knelt down to defend themselves.
In an instant, the once quiet courtroom seemed to explode like a raw chestnut suddenly placed on a fire, crackling and popping...
Here's the latest update! It's almost the end of the month, so if you guys have any must-read tickets, please send some to me! I'm going stir-crazy from being in quarantine, writing every day while also battling wits with my money-devouring husband. I'm begging you guys for a like or a five-star review, love you all!
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