Upon hearing Wu Rongzhou's inquiry, Meng Zhao couldn't help but ponder. The household registration office in this county was mainly responsible for land, household registration, taxes, and corvée labor, and the only point of contact between him and them was the current tax issue.
The workshop's monthly taxes were handled by the village head, but she would also check the accounts frequently. There were no problems. She paid the shop's taxes herself, but she always abided by the law and kept clear and accurate accounts. There was no tax evasion.
Then there's this stall. Since most of the vendors are mobile vendors, the county government doesn't levy taxes on them; they only need to pay rent. This is the case for all the other stalls at the dock, so why is she being targeted specifically?
Meng Zhao shook his head slightly. "I'm just an ordinary merchant, and I rarely have any dealings with people in the government. I don't know where things went wrong that I'm being targeted like this."
Wu Rongzhou frowned, unsure of what to do. Although the head of the household affairs office did not hold an official position, he was a clerk under the jurisdiction of the imperial court. Even the county magistrate could not arbitrarily dispose of him. Wu Rongzhou was just a yamen runner, and if he made a mistake, the yamen could easily find a pretext to replace him.
"I'm just a nobody, and I couldn't be of much help," Wu Rongzhou sighed softly, a hint of frustration in his voice.
Meng Zhao quickly said, "At a time like this, the fact that you're still willing to help me find out information is already a huge help."
“I used to have a stall at the dock, and Aunt Zhang took good care of me. It just so happens that I braised a few rabbits yesterday. I know Aunt Zhang likes to eat them, so I packed one for her. Could you please take it back for me?”
Meng Zhao's tone was light and sweet, making it hard to refuse her words. Upon hearing this, Wu Rongzhou's face flushed slightly. "Alright, then on behalf of my mother, I thank Madam Meng."
When Meng Zhao got home that evening, she was still thinking about the matter. She wanted to find someone to discuss it with. The two children were too young, and Gu Shi would probably only be anxious and unable to help. So Meng Zhao waited for Shen Qinghe to come back, thinking of talking to him and seeing if she could find out the reason.
As soon as Meng Zhao mentioned the head of the household affairs office, Shen Qinghe's expression changed. Noticing the change, Meng Zhao immediately asked, "What's wrong, Second Brother? Have you discovered something?"
Shen Qinghe hesitated for a moment, his face full of guilt, and slowly lowered his head, saying in a low and hoarse voice, "This matter has implicated my sister-in-law because of our Shen family."
Meng Zhao asked curiously, "What does this mean?"
Shen Qinghe took a deep breath, raised his head, and looked at Meng Zhao, "Sister-in-law, do you still remember the day of our wedding, the day my elder brother was forcibly taken away by the constables?"
Upon hearing this, Meng Zhao immediately lowered her head, somewhat guiltily touching the strands of hair on her forehead. How could she not remember? Since she had come here, she had rarely mentioned this matter, because what the original owner had done was indeed somewhat inappropriate.
The original owner had met Shen Qing'an by chance in the county and was immediately attracted by his outstanding appearance, secretly vowing to marry him.
To achieve her goal, the original owner went to the back mountain of Shenjia Village and pretended to be injured, luring Shen Qing'an to rescue her. However, when Shen Qing'an carried her down the mountain, she said that Shen Qing'an had taken liberties with her in the mountains. Because Meng's parents doted on their daughter, they went to the Shen family in a fierce manner to pressure Shen Qing'an to agree to marry the original owner.
At the time, it had been less than a year since Shen's father passed away. The Shen family was in the midst of grief, so they wanted to negotiate a postponement of the wedding, citing the lack of money in the family and the fact that they were in mourning. They wanted to save some money and wait until after the mourning period. However, the original owner of this body did not care about these things and did not want to wait a moment longer. This forced the Shen family to get married during the mourning period, which caused them to lose face.
Although she wasn't the one who schemed the marriage, since she had spent the original owner's money and taken over the original owner's body and parents, she had no choice but to take the blame. So, she skipped over the wedding and got straight to the point.
"Does Second Brother mean that this matter is related to your eldest brother's military service?"
At that time, because Shen Qinghe was studying, the family's economic situation was getting worse and worse. In order to earn money, Shen's father went to work on a ship with others. However, he encountered an accident and died far from home. Fortunately, his fellow travelers were willing to help bring his body back home, so that Shen's father could be laid to rest.
The Shen family was extremely grateful and gave them a lot of money, but their situation became even more unsustainable. Even the funeral for Shen's father was only completed with the help of the villagers.
Not long after Shen's father passed away, Shen Qing'an appeared on the list of new border guards. In principle, the imperial court had regulations for levying corvée labor and military service.
Shen's father was dead, and Shen Qinghe was still young. Shen Qing'an was the only able-bodied man in the Shen family, and he did not meet the conscription criteria, but his name was still on the list. In order to avoid being sent to the border, Shen Qing'an sold his land and paid to have his name removed from the list. However, on his wedding day, he was still forcibly taken away.
“When my elder brother was taken away that day, he was unwilling and wanted to get back the money he had used to bribe officials. However, he was beaten and injured all over. If it weren’t for that, my elder brother would not have passed away so early, given his strong physique.” Qinghe’s voice trembled slightly as he said this.
After calming himself down, he continued, "All this time, I've been secretly keeping an eye on things, trying to find out who did this. I never expected that this person would actually come forward on their own."
Upon hearing this, Meng Zhao was slightly startled, his mind racing with a myriad of thoughts.
She hadn't thought of this before, firstly because she deliberately wanted to forget what had happened to the original owner of the body, and secondly because she had read the original book and knew that the mastermind behind this matter actually held a higher official rank, being the county magistrate at the time, who had now been promoted to prefect.
This is someone Shen Qinghe can't deal with no matter what. After thinking it over, Meng Zhao decided not to tell him the truth for the time being, lest he act impulsively and do something rash, which would bring even greater disaster to her and the Shen family.
Meng Zhao asked curiously, "Then why did this person jump out on his own? Aren't he afraid we'll report him to the county government?"
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