Chapter 39 (Catching Bugs)
The moon sets in the frosty sky, and the stars are twinkling.
A man in apricot yellow clothes walked out of the street where the lantern festival was held and walked towards the Flower Street with a depressed look on his face.
The lantern festival was bustling with people, but the other streets and alleys that were not illuminated by the lights were like beasts lurking quietly in the dark, mysterious and dangerous.
Fortunately, just across the street is the Flower Street with red lanterns hanging high, and the lights are bright again.
As the man in yellow was walking along the only way to leave the lantern festival, something suddenly covered his head, blocking his vision. He was so scared that he was about to scream when he was hit hard in the abdomen. The severe pain made him curl up, and the scream that was about to come out of his mouth suddenly faded away.
He was kicked hard on the buttocks and fell into a dark alley, where sticks rained down on him.
The man in yellow was beaten so hard that he cried for his parents. He curled up in the sack with his hands on his head and said, "Please stop beating me! Please stop beating me! I have money. I will give you all the money I have. Please let me go!"
No one responded, but I was punched a few more times in the face through the sack.
The yellow-shirted man screamed even more miserably. Passersby who heard the screams coming from the dark alley were afraid of getting into trouble and dared not step forward to help. They ran away and shouted, "Hurry up and report to the police! Someone is being beaten in the alley over there!"
Upon hearing this, Fan Changyu, in order to avoid leaving any evidence behind, put away his hammer and carefully pulled off the sack that was covering the upper body of the man in yellow.
However, the force was too strong, and the man in yellow was smashed on the ground with his face, breaking one of his front teeth. His scream was so shrill that it could be heard in the distant red-light district.
Fan Changyu was stunned for a moment, then heard some chaotic footsteps coming from the street corner. He didn't care about anything else and ran to the other end of the alley.
In order to ambush someone, she deliberately chose a dark alley with streets on both ends to facilitate her escape.
Xie Zheng and Chang Ning were waiting at the end of the alley. The two of them greeted each other, and without saying a word, they tacitly left the scene quickly.
After walking two blocks, Xie Zheng asked, "What did you do to him?"
Listening to the miserable screams, it didn't sound like the man was just beaten.
Fan Changyu said: "I didn't do anything to him. He was just too stupid. When I was pulling the sack, he stumbled and fell face first, breaking a tooth."
Xie Zheng glanced at her sideways, seemingly not believing what she said.
Fan Changyu: "...I really didn't lie to you."
Xie Zheng asked: "Do you want to teach the others a lesson?"
Fan Changyu thought to himself that this guy thought nothing of himself, and said, "No, if I beat them all up in one day, it would just be telling them that I did it. This guy has a dirty mouth. I'll beat him up first to vent my anger, and I'll teach the others a lesson later when I get the chance."
At the same time, the man in yellow who was still lying howling in the alley was finally helped up by the police who rushed over.
Both of his eyes were bruised, and he had broken a front tooth, so his mouth was full of blood, and there were two tubes of blood hanging from his nose. With the light of the torch, he finally saw his broken front tooth on the ground, and cried out, "My teeth are broken, how can I enter the government in the future!"
He was the nephew of the county magistrate, and he shouted at the detectives: "Why don't you go and investigate for me! Arrest the criminals who beat me up!"
The constable on duty today wiped the sweat off his forehead and asked, "Sir, have you made any enemies recently?"
The man in yellow thought about it carefully, grinning in pain and said, "The other day, that idiot from the Wang family competed with me for the top girl in Fengyue Tower, and I humiliated him. It could be him! And the son of the Liu family, who claimed to be noble but failed the imperial examination and was ridiculed by me, could also be him. And the Li family..."
The constable was overwhelmed when he heard him list a bunch of people who had grudges against him.
At the end of his speech, the man in yellow finally remembered what happened at the Lantern Festival tonight and said, "Tonight, I also ridiculed Brother Song's ex-fiancée on his behalf."
This incident was not very glorious to talk about. After all, so many people at the Lantern Festival watched several talented people from their county school being silenced by a son-in-law. He stopped talking and asked, "Were Brother Song Yan and the others injured by the criminals?"
The constable shook his head, and he immediately said, "A butcher's daughter and her sickly rich son-in-law, I don't have the courage to forgive them, you guys go and check the families I mentioned earlier!"
The detectives went to investigate, and he was then helped to go to a nearby hospital to see a doctor, groaning.
-
When Fan Changyu arrived at the temporary residence arranged by Yixianglou, the housekeeper had not yet gone to bed.
When they saw them, they asked with a smile, "Will the lights look good?"
Chang Ning fell asleep on Xie Zheng's shoulder on the way back. Fan Changyu still felt a little guilty about the beating, so he just said vaguely, "It's beautiful, there are people everywhere, it's quite lively."
The housekeeper led them to a room, opened the door and said with a smile: "This is the only room that is empty. You can stay here for one night."
Fan Changyu thanked him and asked for a pot of hot water for washing. After simply washing Changning's hands and face, he put him to bed.
She washed her face and found that there was not much hot water left in the kettle. She didn't want to ask the housekeeper to boil another kettle for her in the middle of the night, so she poured the water she used to wash her face into the foot bath basin and soaked her feet in it.
When Xie Zheng finished washing his face with the remaining hot water in the kettle, she still had her feet in the footbath. Seeing Xie Zheng was about to take the water out and pour it out, she hurriedly said, "Pour it into the footbath."
Xie Zheng hesitated for a moment, then walked over with the basin of water.
Seeing this, Fan Changyu lifted his feet and placed them on the edge of the wooden basin to make it easier for him to pour water.
Perhaps because she had not seen the sun for many years, her feet were extremely white, and under the candlelight they looked the color of warm jade. There was a small black mole on her ankle that was inexplicably eye-catching.
Xie Zheng only took a glance and then lowered his eyes to cover his sight.
In the capital, if a woman's feet were seen by others, she would be considered to have lost her virginity. However, in this border town, people's customs were much more open than those in the capital. Women waving their clothes by the riverbank were often barefoot, and they did not seem to take being barefoot seriously.
She has always been carefree, so this behavior was not out of line, but Xie Zheng still felt a little strange.
Seeing that he sat far away after pouring the water, Fan Changyu asked, "Aren't you going to soak your feet?"
Xie Zheng said, "You wash first, I'll go outside and rinse it with cold water later."
Fan Changyu glared at him and said, "It's so cold, and you want to wash your feet with cold water? Won't you catch a cold tomorrow?"
During the month they had been together, she had discovered that Yan was a very clean person. She thought he didn't want to wash the water he had used, so she said, "We used to use the same basin of water to soak our feet. I forgot that you have a cleanliness fetish. I'll go talk to the housekeeper later and then go to the kitchen to boil some water for you."
Xie Zheng frowned and finally said, "No, just use this water."
The Fan family members are very clean and change their shoes and socks frequently, so the used water doesn't look dirty.
He was a little confused.
When I put my feet into the basin, I saw the water marks on the edge of the basin, and subconsciously my mind flashed with her feet resting on it.
Xie Zheng's brows wrinkled even tighter instantly, and as soon as he put his foot in, he hurriedly stood up to pour some water.
Fan Changyu was sitting at the table. He opened his mouth when he saw this. When he came back, he said with a complicated mood: "It's okay for you to have a cleanliness fetish. I don't think you are complaining about anything. You don't need to push yourself to this extent..."
Xie Zheng looked at her sincere and clear eyes under the candlelight, and saw a hint of self-loathing between her pretty brows. He just said, "It's not what you think."
There was only one bed and one quilt. He put the wooden basin back into the room and walked out: "You should go to bed early."
Fan Changyu thought this man was a little strange and asked, "What about you?"
We can't just sit outside all night. The housekeeper just said that this is the only room left.
Xie Zheng said: "I'll go ask if I can spend a night with the staff at Yixianglou."
Even after he left and the door closed again, Fan Changyu still looked a little confused.
Why do you suddenly treat her like a monster?
Was the sack scaring him?
Or was it that the basin of foot washing water was too harmful?
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