Chapter 101 No conscience
The morning light was dim, swallows were chirping, and the daffodils in the clay pot in the corner of the wall quietly bloomed in the early morning.
After Zhuang Wan woke up naturally, she slowly simmered fish porridge in the stove, and then stood under the hibiscus tree in the courtyard to do morning exercises.
A chubby little yellow dog was circling around her, wagging its tail happily as it spun around, as if asking for breakfast.
This was brought by Zhuang Wan from Aunt Liu's house two days ago.
Aunt Liu's dog had given birth to six puppies, and Zhuang Wan had brought them home to raise them right after they were weaned. These chubby little dogs, with their yellow fur and dark eyes, were incredibly cute with their silly, innocent looks.
After a while, someone knocked on the door: "Sister Ruyi, are you awake?"
It’s Erya.
Erya was a teenager, just looking for companionship. Zhuang Wan was only six or seven years her senior and quite good-looking. Most importantly, Zhuang Wan was a skilled cook, able to make a wide variety of pastries and treats. Erya would come to play with her almost every moment she had free time.
Zhuang Wan was unfamiliar with Luyang County, and she was very happy to have Erya as her companion.
Seeing Erya carrying a wooden bucket, she asked, "What is this?"
Erya smiled and said, "This is what my mother got when she went fishing this morning. She caught this and said Sister Ruyi would like it."
Zhuang Wan stopped and walked over to take a look.
Wow, it’s actually a tiger grouper.
"Is this your mother calling?"
Erya nodded proudly: "My mother is very capable."
Zhuang Wan also admired her. She saw that Erya's mother was a thin and petite woman who worked very efficiently and her fishing skills were no less than those of men.
"But this is too valuable," Zhuang Wan said. "Although Luyang County is full of seafood, catching one like this might fetch a lot of money."
"My mother made several and sold the others. She saved this one specifically for Sister Ruyi," Erya said. "My mother said that thanks to Sister Ruyi, we were able to get back the twenty taels of silver that the witch cheated our family out of. That was all the money we had left. If it weren't for Sister Ruyi, we wouldn't even have money for my father's medicine."
Zhuang Wan asked, "Is your father's illness getting better?"
Erya: "My mother listened to Sister Ruyi and later asked a doctor to see her. The doctor said that this disease is not a big deal. Many people have it. It's not a case of evil spirits or anything else. As long as you take the medicine well, you will get better slowly in the future."
"And..." she continued, "After listening to Sister Ruyi's advice, my father's stomach aches no longer after he stopped taking the floating grass ash, and he can even work in the fields."
Previously, a fairy used floating grass ash mixed with water, claiming it could exorcise evil spirits and cure illnesses. After drinking it for a month, Erya's father's eye sockets became sunken, his face became sallow and thin, and he suffered from frequent abdominal pain. Now, after stopping for a few days, he can walk again and his complexion looks better.
Zhuang Wan couldn't help but sigh that superstition was deadly! Can you eat wood ash? Eating too much can kill you.
But almost everyone in Luyang County believed that the witch could cure diseases. In the past three years, no one knew how many people had died at the hands of the witch for no reason.
Thinking of this, she asked, "By the way, how is the matter I asked you to find out for me going?"
Erya shook her head: "I haven't heard anything about it."
"Huh?" Zhuang Wan was puzzled. "The government clearly arrested the fairy lady and the others, so why is there no news?"
When Zhuang Wan decided to expose the witch's scam that day, she even went ahead to report it to the authorities. Later, the authorities sent people to arrest the witch and her accomplices. The story spread like wildfire in Luyang County, but after a few days, no one knew how the authorities handled it.
Erya whispered, "Sister Ruyi, I heard the fairy was released by the county magistrate, but no one dared to mention it."
"Why did the county magistrate let her go?"
Erya still shook her head: "I don't know either."
Zhuang Wan was suspicious.
Recalling something, Erya said, "Sister Ruyi, there's a theatre troupe coming to our county. They're going to set up a stage at Caishikou in a couple of days. How about we go and watch the show then?"
Zhuang Wan was preoccupied with other matters and didn't pay much attention. She simply nodded, "Okay."
.
That night, Pei Xingju arrived in the capital.
Although it was approaching autumn, the weather in the capital was still a bit hot. After taking a bath, Pei Xingju did not feel sleepy.
I just put on my clothes and went out.
When I walked to the corridor, I suddenly saw that the roses planted under the flower bed had grown very high. Some of them were so lush that they covered the eaves. A little moonlight fell through the gaps, casting hazy shadows.
He stopped to admire it for a while, and a sense of tranquility and peace arose in his heart.
He had not known what peace was in the past twenty years, but today a cluster of roses under the moon made him feel at home.
After a while, he turned back to the house, asked someone to bring him an ice basin, and then took a book from the bookshelf to read.
But he didn't look for long before he suddenly stopped.
There was a note tucked into the book's pages. Zhuang Wan had left it there while making pastries. He had been in the government office at the time and, not wanting to be seen, had simply slipped the note inside the book.
He had completely forgotten about this incident, and only remembered it when he saw the note again today.
After a moment, Pei Xingju slowly unfolded the note. On it was a line of crooked words: "Hmph! Considering your good attitude in admitting your mistakes, I forgive you!"
One can imagine how she felt and looked when she wrote this. She was bold and reckless, yet also as careful as a hair. Sometimes she was as cunning as a fox, and sometimes she felt...
Suddenly, his mind flashed back to the day when she met him at the door on her way to the tea party at Marquis Xiayang's residence, and she tilted her head and asked him if he looked good.
In fact, she is really beautiful, like a playful fairy who has strayed into the human world.
"Someone come!" he shouted in a moment.
Guard Lu came in: "What are your orders, sir?"
"Any news from the south?"
Xuanzhao Pavilion received daily news and letters from all directions. Normally, these letters were sorted by a dedicated person and delivered to Pei Xingju in order of urgency. Routine correspondence, of course, wasn't a big deal, but Pei Xingju had recently been paying particular attention to events in Hezhou. So, when the messenger learned of his inquiry, he hurriedly retrieved the Hezhou letters and placed the one from Luyang on top.
Pei Xingju glanced at them, picked up the top one and unfolded it.
The letter came from Jingzhe, who had quietly followed Zhuang Wan out of the capital. Members of the Xuanzhao Pavilion were given names based on their date of admission, and Jingzhe, having joined on the seventh day of the first lunar month, was given the name Chuqi. She excelled in tracking, evasion, concealed weapons, and swordsmanship, and her calm demeanor led Pei Xingju to assign her the responsibility of protecting Zhuang Wan.
Jingzhe lived up to Pei Xing's expectations and recounted every detail of Zhuang Wan's life in Luyang County. She even shared details about her life, including the puppy she had named Wangcai and how she often cooked with the neighboring children, Erya and Tiedan.
At least from the letter, it seems that Zhuang Wan is living a very comfortable life in Luyang.
Unconsciously, Pei Xingju smiled slightly and said lightly, "You have no conscience."
However, when he read in the letter that Zhuang Wan had recently fallen in love with listening to operas and would occasionally spend money to reward a fair-skinned young man in the troupe, the smile on his brows suddenly fell.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
