The leading woman curled her lips, with an expression that showed she knew it was you, and then she waved her hand. The other women took out the ropes they had prepared and rushed forward. With their quick hands and feet, they tied Ding Zhu up tightly.
It was obvious that they were veterans, and their whole set of movements were as smooth as flowing water. Before the people in the old Ding family could react, Ding Zhu had been dragged to the gate of the yard by them like a chick.
Liu came to her senses and rushed forward like a madman. The eldest brother also wanted to follow, but they were stopped by several yamen runners.
"Dad, Mom, save me! Save me!" Ding Zhu only realized then that something was wrong and screamed and cried at the top of her lungs in fear.
"Damn your mother!" The leading old woman raised her hand and slapped her in the face. Soon she was dragged to the door and stuffed into the carriage.
"Where is Ding Youli? Hand him over quickly if you know what's good for you!" In the courtyard, several yamen runners shouted ferociously while holding water and fire sticks. One of them even poked the boss with the stick.
Earlier, these people had followed Wu Fengfu to Old Ding's house. Back then, they hadn't looked like they did now. Old Ding and Mrs. Meng were completely bewildered, both of them looking completely bewildered. The second brother wanted to go up and ask what was going on, but Mrs. Fang grabbed him.
Fang glared at him.
Gao also kept an eye on the third son to prevent him from taking the lead.
After Yang Wuqi had eaten and drunk his fill, he leaned against the kitchen door, picking his teeth with his little finger and watching the fun, looking as if he was enjoying the show while it had nothing to do with him.
After a while, it was Old Ding who came to his senses again. He stepped forward and asked tremblingly, "Excuse me, officers, what has my son Wu'er done that you want to arrest him for?"
"Humph! This is a serious matter!" said the leading bailiff. "He's done something shady and crippled the legs of our town magistrate's brother-in-law. He's going to be skinned alive this time. Hand him over now, or I'll arrest you, old man, and put you in jail. A son's failure to discipline is the fault of his father. Hand him over now!"
"Hand it over quickly!" Several yamen runners roared in unison.
"Hahaha..." Yang Wuqi, who was watching the fun on the side, laughed out loud. He was amused by what these yamen runners said. They actually dared to say that his master would be skinned alive if he didn't die. It was really funny. He hadn't heard such a joke for a long time.
"Catch him!" Meng suddenly pointed at Yang Wuqi and shouted excitedly to the leading yamen runner, "He's in cahoots with my Wu'er. My Wu'er hasn't been seen since this morning. He must know where my Wu'er is hiding. If we interrogate him, we can catch him."
The leading yamen runner pointed the fire and water stick in his hand at Yang Wuqi and said, "Take him away!"
Just as the runners were about to pounce, Yang Wuqi shouted, "Wait!" He fished out the Zhao Wang token Feng Qingzi had given him from his bosom and said, "Open your dog eyes and watch carefully. You guys are not strong enough for me to fight with."
The leading bailiff stepped forward and took a closer look. He was holding what turned out to be the token of King Zhao. However, the county magistrate was not as good as the current one. Besides, Yang Wuqi looked like an ordinary peasant, so who knew if the token he held was stolen? Lao Wu even dared to lay hands on the town magistrate's brother-in-law, demonstrating the cowardice of both of them.
He thought for a moment and said with a straight face, "We are also following orders. I don't care who you work for, but you'd better come with us. Don't make things difficult for us. It will make everyone look good."
Let's go, Yang Wuqi wasn't afraid. What could a mere town hall do to him? Besides, his master wasn't here, and he couldn't control the guards. If he stayed here, his master might blame him for being useless when he returned. It would be better to go with them, so he could have an excuse.
"Okay, I'll go with you." He said indifferently.
The yamen runners just took one person back to report. Before leaving, the leading yamen runner pointed at Old Ding and said, "If Ding Youli comes back later, it's best to have him turn himself in. Don't make us make another trip."
Yang Wuqi followed them outside, his brows furrowed. He leaned close to the leading yamen runner and whispered, "It's not easy for you all to come here, I don't want you to make a wasted trip. Let me tell you..."
He thought about how he hadn't had a proper meal here, how Meng had extorted ten taels of silver for nothing, and how she had even ordered him to do half a day's work. He felt really bad that he couldn't get rid of this anger. So he told the yamen runners that no matter what pretext they used to get the silver back, he would give them two taels of silver to treat them to a drink.
The yamen runners were naturally happy to have some wine to drink, so they returned to the courtyard and ordered Old Ding to hand over the ten taels of stolen silver. "He stole it. Are you risking your life to hide the stolen silver? Hand it over now!"
The leading yamen runner said with a gloomy face.
Silver is the life of Old Ding and Mrs. Meng. It is impossible to ask them to spit out even ten cents, let alone ten taels!
Since it was stolen silver, the yamen runners naturally had to search for it. They rushed into the main house like wolves and tigers, but they didn't find a single hair after searching through all the drawers and cabinets.
Yang Wuqi has experience in hiding gold, silver and jewelry. No matter where he hides them, he can find them even if he digs deep into the ground. He himself likes to hide them under the bed the most because only there does he feel the safest and can sleep soundly.
As soon as he leaned over to look under the bed, Meng and Old Ding became panicked and both tried to stop Yang Wuqi. This gave Yang Wuqi a clue. He was about to crawl under the bed when the leading yamen runner stopped him.
"Don't bother yourself, just stand aside."
Amid the wailing cries of Meng and Old Ding, the leading yamen runner personally crawled under the bed and, using his small knife, dug out the money box in a matter of moments. He expertly pried the lock open, revealing the bag of gold beans Feng Qingzi had given Meng, along with Yang Wuqi's ten taels of silver and the money from selling grain.
Old Ding and Mrs. Meng also tried to reclaim the gold beans and the silver they had earned from selling grain, but the yamen runners wouldn't let them and confiscated it as stolen silver. Mrs. Meng screamed and screamed, even receiving a blow from a fire stick. Old Ding stumbled after them, shouting incoherently, "Brother, grab your weapons and fight this gang!"
If it had happened on normal days, the eldest brother and his brothers would never have dared to fight with the government officials. However, we brothers had already learned from Meng's cries that the money from selling grain and all their belongings had been confiscated!
This was to kill them. Not to mention the brothers, even the Liu, Gao, and Fang families were furious. They even took up weapons with them, and the fifth brother's eldest son, Ding Fu, also picked up a bench.
It had been a long time since Old Ding's family had been so united. Old Ding was so excited that he became incoherent again. In the end, he kept repeating over and over again: "Good! Good! Good!"
The neighbors heard the noise and rushed over, surrounding the courtyard gate tightly. Meng stumbled out and saw the situation, so she used her trump card. She sat down on the ground, slapped her legs, and started crying and cursing.
"That damned Fifth Brother, I don't know where he got the stolen silver from, but that box also contains the money we've worked so hard to save over the years! And the damned Fourth Brother gave us the silver for breaking up the relationship, we all saw it with our own eyes that day! You have to give us some evidence and judge the situation! They insisted on making it up as stolen silver and robbed it in broad daylight. They're going to wipe out dozens of people in our Ding family..."
She cried in a rhythmic manner. She was not so sad when her parents died. This attracted the sympathy of some villagers, and they all testified for her.
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