20 Sir, don’t you want the pork?
◎ "It's as full of ups and downs as a storybook..."◎
As usual, Aunt Hu set up a small stall outside her shop today. Opposite Hu's butcher shop is Qiongzhen Pavilion, which sells hairpins and earrings as well as incense and rouge. Even Aunt Hu's butcher shop is filled with the faint scent of rouge.
The people of Lingnan County are poor, and the jewelry and rouge of Qiongzhenge are very valuable, so business should be bad.
However, there are dozens of wealthy families in Lingnan County, so there are many girls and maids coming to Qiongzhen Pavilion to sell things every day, and Aunt Hu's butcher shop business is also booming.
But today is a little different.
When Aunt Hu was tearing pork fat with all her might, she unexpectedly saw a woman with ordinary appearance and dress entering Qiongzhen Pavilion. She couldn't help but look at her curiously for a few more times.
Perhaps it was just a woman from an ordinary family who wanted to come to Qiongzhen Pavilion to broaden her horizons. Aunt Hu forgot about it after she saw it. She took the kitchen knife in her hand and chopped off the pork ribs that the customer had ordered with a few "clang, clang" sounds. This kind of meat is oil-free and naturally cheap:
"Eleven cents, and I'll give you half a bone. Take it back and boil it..."
Before Aunt Hu finished her words, an angry roar rang out from Qiongzhen Pavilion:
"Bitch! I told you to come out! You're dressed like this to seduce some wild man!"
"Caught in adultery!" Someone in the crowd shouted, and as soon as these words were spoken, they caused a huge uproar.
Recently, every household has been busy with autumn sowing, which is really boring. Finally, news of such entertainment came out. Soon, people coming and going to watch the fun surrounded the Qiongzhen Pavilion.
Aunt Hu was no exception, but at the moment she was busy chopping half a pig on the counter, so she had to prick up her ears and listen carefully.
From the crowd, there were voices of women arguing and men cursing. After waiting for a while, the crowd suddenly gasped at the same time.
"What's going on? What's going on? What happened?" Aunt Hu was cutting meat with her hands, looking curious and asking the customer who was buying meat anxiously.
The butcher was wearing a satin dress. He had just squeezed out of the crowd, frowned, and straightened his clothes, saying indifferently: "What else could have happened? The man got angry and hit someone... Cut this way, this piece of pork is fat..."
Before the butcher could finish his words, Aunt Hu slammed her knife down on the butcher block and shouted, "What?! How dare you hit someone in broad daylight!"
Aunt Hu was born with a chivalrous heart and she slaughtered pigs all day long. When she glared at someone, she had a murderous aura that scared the people who bought the meat.
She wiped her hands on the hem of her clothes and said to the butcher in front of her, "Please wait a moment."
She turned sideways again and said to the vendor nearby, "Please help me watch over the butcher shop. I'll be right back!"
Then Aunt Hu picked up the kitchen knife and strode into the crowd.
"That's someone else's family affair, why bother to meddle in it? I'm still waiting to get the meat back to make dinner!" The butcher shook his sleeves and said angrily.
The vendor nearby tried to comfort him, explaining, "Aunt Hu is kindhearted and can't bear to see others being bullied. Her meat is extremely fresh. Please wait."
The butcher's face showed no disdain: "If you can't bear to see others being bullied, you'll become a constable, why sell pork?"
The vendor sighed, "Well, you don't know, Aunt Hu is also a pitiful person. Her parents died early, and she raised her younger brother by herself. It was not easy."
"When they were young, they were often bullied by others. Later, Aunt Hu got married. Her husband was a teacher in a wealthy family. She thought life would get better and better. But who knew that the man, who looked gentle, would actually hit her after getting drunk!"
The butcher became interested and asked curiously, "And then?"
"And then?" the vendor laughed. "And then Aunt Hu chopped off that man's life with a single blow."
The man who bought the meat felt a chill down his spine when he heard this: "Then...then...then why...didn't she...go to jail?"
The vendor stopped laughing and asked, "Sir, you're not from Lingnan County, are you? Aunt Hu's incident caused such a big stir back then, and you didn't even know about it?"
"Aunt Hu had already been imprisoned, but the government discovered that the eunuch was the murderer sought in Yongzhou. Aunt Hu turned a disaster into a blessing, and even received a reward of fifty taels of silver."
The vendor pointed to the shop sign and said with a smile, "That's how we got Hu's Butcher Shop."
The butcher wiped the sweat from his forehead and forced a smile. "This sounds... like a storybook with all its twists and turns..."
The vendor saw someone coming and hurried to entertain the customer. He took the time to reply to the person buying the meat, "Who says it's not true? If it were you, Aunt Hu suffered enough in the first half of her life. Even God couldn't bear it. She should live a good life in the second half! Don't you think so? Hey, where is she..."
The vendor leaned over and peeked into the distance, vaguely catching sight of a bright satin hem, and called out, "Sir, don't you want the pork?"
"Why hasn't Aunt Hu come out yet? If she's any later, all the customers who bought meat will have left!"
A customer who was selecting soy sauce nearby heard the vendor's words and said nonchalantly, "Oh, don't wait! Aunt Hu is in there cleaning up the animals. I think she's going to the county government office today."
Aunt Hu, who was in the crowd, held a kitchen knife in her right hand and slapped the man in the face with her left hand, scolding him:
"She's your wife, how could you hit her? If she really cheated on you, why didn't you divorce her? Besides, you insulted her for cheating on you, what about the man?"
Aunt Hu's words were full of wisdom and her tone was aggressive. She didn't look like a butcher but rather like a well-read female official.
"That's right!" a voice rang out from the crowd.
"Women who cheat on their husbands will be beaten, but how come men who cheat on their husbands have never been beaten?"
"Catching a thief and seizing stolen goods, catching an adulterer in bed, how can you catch an adulterer in public? I'm afraid you, a bastard, are just making up stories."
The man who had just been slapped to the ground looked up at the crowd. Facing the accusations of so many strangers, his face felt hot. He pointed at them and was speechless for a long time: "You...you...you guys..."
Aunt Hu sneered and was about to speak when she saw the fallen man rolling and crawling out of the crowd.
"Why did you run away?"
"Why did I see him heading towards the county government office?"
"Is he going to report it to the police?" Someone in the crowd laughed. "Let's go! Let's go see what it means to bring disaster upon oneself!"
Aunt Hu helped the beaten woman up, and a group of people walked towards the county government office.
~
"Who was beating the drum just now?" Ye Yunzhao changed into a dark blue official uniform and sat in front of the hall with a serious expression.
The man bowed quickly and said, "My name is Huang Sigou, and I'm from Gouqiao Village."
Ye Yunzhao understood that there were a total of twenty or thirty households in Gouqiao Village. Judging from the distance, Gouqiao Village could be classified as Xixiang.
"What grievance have you suffered?"
Huang Sigou was furious. He turned around and pointed at Aunt Hu, scolding her, "This woman just beat me in the street! She even got a bunch of people to insult me! Sir, look, I still have the marks on my face! Please, sir, help me."
Ye Yunzhao glanced at Huang Sigou, whose face was swollen. He wondered why the usually gentle Aunt Hu had gotten into a conflict with someone, so he turned to ask her, "Is what he said true?"
Aunt Hu, still holding the kitchen knife, replied, "It's true, but he..."
"Which of you two started it first?" Ye Yunzhao interrupted her.
Aunt Hu hesitated for a moment: "I...made the first move..."
Perhaps Ye Yunzhao's question made Huang Sigou mistakenly believe that he was right, so he snorted coldly: "You must compensate me with one or two ounces of silver before I stop!"
"You!" Aunt Hu's eyes widened and she pointed at him with a kitchen knife.
One ounce of silver! That's a whopping amount of money!
One tael of silver can buy two large pieces of wasteland!
Ye Yunzhao looked at Aunt Hu and Huang Sigou, then looked at Zhuang Xue behind them, and vaguely guessed the reasons:
"Why did you move people to hit people?"
Speaking of this, Aunt Hu, who had been clearly lacking confidence just now, became interested and said confidently, "He—Huang Sigou—beat his wife in the street. I couldn't stand it, so I took action."
Aunt Hu squeezed out a few tears, tugged at Zhuang Xue's sleeve, and said angrily, "My lord, you don't know, if I hadn't taken action just now, I'm afraid this lady would have been beaten to death by him!"
Zhuang Xue wasn't stupid. She could tell that Aunt Hu was kind and wanted to help her. She dropped to her knees, weeping profusely, "Sir! If it weren't for Aunt Hu saving me, I would have died long ago."
Upon hearing this, Huang Sigou blurted out in frustration: "You bitch! What nonsense are you talking about!"
"How dare you! The court is not the place for you to act like a spoiled child! Come here! Five lashes of the board!" Ye Yunzhao slammed the gavel angrily and winked at Liu Mazi. Liu Mazi understood what he meant and stepped forward to grab Huang Sigou.
Five slaps of the cane?!
Without waiting for Huang Sigou to react, Liu Mazi and two or three yamen runners clamped him to a long bench. The executioner swung the board hard and hit Huang Sigou hard on the butt!
"Ah--" The screams were mixed with the sound of the board. Huang Si's buttocks swelled up rapidly and twitched involuntarily. Before the pain passed, the next board hit him hard.
Although there were only five hits, Huang Sigou wailed in pain, his face covered with tears and snot.
It’s really refreshing!
Zhuang Xue watched carefully from the side, feeling very happy, but her hands were clenched tightly. She rolled up her sleeves and cried, "Please, sir, make the decision for me! After I married Huang Sigou, I served the elders, gave birth to children, and never had any second thoughts!"
"But he's got into the bad habit of gambling! Every time he loses money, he beats and scolds me when he gets home. If I hadn't met so many chivalrous men today, I would have already..."
The arms under the sleeves were covered with red marks, some old scars, and some new bruises, which made people feel heartbroken.
The crowd in front of the county government office gasped and started to speak up:
"God have mercy on me! This little girl is so pitiful!"
"That beast should be beaten to death!"
Seeing this, Huang Sigou endured the pain and said, "Sir, I am innocent... I beat her... because she cheated on me!"
Ye Yunzhao slammed the gavel, his clear voice filled with suppressed anger: "Cheating? Do you have any evidence? What's the man's name? Tell me quickly, and I will make the decision for you!"
As soon as these words were spoken, Huang Sigou whimpered for a long time and couldn't say anything. All the things that had happened recently were just his own imagination. There was no such thing as a wild man.
"I... I don't know..."
Ye Yunzhao's eyes grew increasingly angry, but his face remained calm. He stared at Huang Sigou intently: "How dare you fool an official appointed by the imperial court!"
"Someone, come and beat him up!"
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