newborn
Outside the county government office, the girls who had been questioned walked out. The warm sunshine shone on them, and the autumn wind blew, bringing a hint of coolness. They looked at the shining sun through the gaps between their fingers. The dazzling light made them feel the meaning of life.
In the early morning light, Ruan Yunsheng looked at the group of girls who had survived the disaster and asked softly, "What are your plans for the future?"
Everyone was silent.
After a long while, a thin girl timidly said, "I...I want to go home."
"Me too......"
"But will my family still want me?" Another girl suddenly choked up, twisting the corner of her clothes with her fingers. "I've been kidnapped for so long, and my innocence is gone. The villagers will definitely..."
Needless to say, one can imagine how difficult it is for a woman to live in this world.
Ruan Yunsheng felt a tightness in his chest as he looked at their dim eyes. The best years of these women's lives were almost ruined in that dirty cellar.
"How about..." She suddenly clapped her hands, her eyes lighting up, "How about coming to work in my haunted house?"
The girls were stunned.
"I, we don't know those..."
"It will also ruin your reputation."
Ruan Yunsheng smiled and shook his head: "Who is born with the ability?"
She counted on her fingers, "Ticket selling, hawking, serving tea and snacks, haunted house NPCs... these aren't hard to learn." Seeing they were still hesitant, she added, "Food and lodging provided, ten taels per month."
"As long as you don't dislike that place."
"Ten taels!" The girls widened their eyes. This was equivalent to half a year's salary for an ordinary embroiderer!
"Let's go!" Ruan Yunsheng pulled up the most timid one, "Let's go buy you some new clothes first!"
On the long street, the girls were timid at first, until Ruan Yunsheng stuffed a piece of crimson brocade into their arms and said, "Try this!"
"Too, too gorgeous..."
"What are you afraid of?" Ruan Yunsheng raised an eyebrow. "You girls have decent jobs now. The brighter you dress, the more customers will think we have the ability to suppress evil spirits!"
Seeing that the girls were still hesitant, Ruan Yunsheng simply waved her hand and bought most of the beautiful clothes in the store. She also asked the girls to change into new clothes immediately, otherwise they would not be allowed to go home with her.
Looking at the young ladies in their prime wearing beautiful clothes and with bright smiles on their faces, she couldn't help but smile with satisfaction. This is what a woman should be like.
"Oh, right." Ruan Yunsheng bit into a string of candied haws and asked vaguely, "Do you know what a haunted house is?"
The girls looked at each other, and the youngest, A Luo, said timidly, "Is it... a haunted house?"
"wrong!"
Ruan Yunsheng suddenly turned around, gesturing with her hands. "This is a great place to make fake ghosts scarier than real ones!" Seeing their bewildered faces, she took out a handkerchief and wiped the sugar residue off Ah Luo's face. "For example, let Wan Niang float in a white dress in the corridor..."
"I, I'm pretending to be a ghost?" Wan Niang almost dropped the silk flower in her hand.
"That's called an NPC!" Ruan Yunsheng's eyes lit up. "They're the ones who specialize in scaring customers. If they scare a customer to tears, they'll get a reward!"
Although she was also planning to find a few decent ghosts to work for her as before, some things had to be made public after all so as not to arouse suspicion.
"This is too good to be true!" The girls gasped. This amount is enough to buy an acre of thin farmland!
Ruan Yunsheng continued counting on his fingers: "Sister Qing is good at accounting, A'Luo is the guide with her loud voice, and the others take turns playing the roles of vengeful spirits, grave weepers, and hanged ghosts..."
Suddenly lowering his voice, he said, "It's actually very simple. Just act out the grievances you suffered in the cellar."
The girls looked at each other, their eyes full of encouragement for each other: "Don't worry, miss, we will do our best."
In the evening, the west wing of the Ye Mansion was tidied up and looked brand new. Ruan Yunsheng pushed open the carved wooden door and said, "From now on, this is yours..."
Before she finished speaking, the youngest girl, A'Luo, suddenly knelt down and said, "Miss! I..."
"Get up quickly!" Ruan Yunsheng hurriedly supported her, but saw that all the girls had red eyes.
Under the candlelight, the once numb face finally came alive.
"We are a family from now on. Don't kneel down at every turn." Ruan Yunsheng looked at the girls with tears in his eyes, and a warm feeling welled up in his heart. "Let's work hard together."
Ruan Yunsheng waited until the girls fell asleep before leaving Ye Mansion and returning to the village. A timid and crying little girl was still at home.
The moon was bright and the stars were sparse. Huarong squatted beside the plum tree in front of the farmer's door, her fingers unconsciously tugging at the hem of her skirt. Finally, a familiar figure appeared on the street corner in the distance.
"Miss!"
Hua Rong suddenly jumped up, like a bird returning to its nest after being frightened, and threw herself into Ruan Yunsheng's arms: "You are finally back! This servant, this servant, was almost scared to death..."
Ruan Yunsheng was knocked back half a step by her, and rubbed her head with a smile: "What are you afraid of? Didn't I leave An Yue and Song Tinghe to protect you?"
"That's different!" Hua Rong raised her tearful face, "The Zhuang family father and son are so vicious, what if..."
"Three days from now at noon," Ruan Yunsheng suddenly interrupted her, wiping away the tears on the little maid's face with his fingertips: "He will be executed in public at Caishikou."
Huarong's sobbing stopped abruptly.
"The county magistrate has investigated all the evidence." Ruan Yunsheng pulled a notice from his sleeve. The word "beheaded" outlined in cinnabar was as bright as blood. "[The sentence about □□, trafficking, murder...] will be punished for all the crimes."
Hua Rong stared at the notice for a long time, then suddenly burst out laughing: "Serves you right!" She took Ruan Yunsheng's arm, her eyes sparkling: "Miss, let's go and see it when the time comes, okay?"
“…”
Ruan Yunsheng poked her forehead and said, "How can you be so bloody, little girl?"
"I will see them suffer retribution with my own eyes!"
Hua Rong pouted and suddenly lowered her voice: "Oh, right..." She took out a bundle mysteriously, "I stole it from the Zhuang family's ancestral hall during the chaos!"
When a corner of the bundle was opened, a golden light suddenly appeared. It turned out to be half a box of gold ingots, and several account books were placed underneath.
Ruan Yunsheng raised an eyebrow: "Hua Rong..."
"This servant is acting on behalf of Heaven!" the little maidservant said confidently, "They don't need it anyway!"
"I don't blame you." Ruan Yunsheng touched her head with amusement, "Well done!"
Hua Rong couldn't stop smiling when she heard the young lady's praise.
"By the way, Miss, please tell me how you brought the Zhuang father and son to justice, and the words you asked An Yue to bring to me..." Hua Rong took the Miss's arm and skipped back to the house.
In the cellar a day ago.
"We have to resist." Ruan Yunsheng tried to wake up the numb woman. Her fingertips drew a clear route map on the mud and the various mechanisms in the cellar. The girls sat in a circle, and the fear in their eyes was gradually replaced by determination.
"But...we take cartilage powder every day, so we can't run far."
"The antidote to cartilage powder..." Little Stone bit his lip, suddenly turned around and climbed onto the wooden box, "I know where Zhao Dahu is hiding!"
His thin figure disappeared in the secret passage, and soon he brought back a celadon bottle. The girls passed the pills to each other with trembling hands. As the medicine took effect, Wan Niang was the first to stand up. She kicked off her tattered embroidered shoes and crushed a pottery bowl with her bare feet. The sharp fragments were sharpened into blades in her palms.
"Is it good enough?" She passed the bowl to the next person, a fire burning in her eyes.
In the corner, Sister Qing sharpened a wooden stick with an iron chain, A'Luo split the hemp rope into thin threads, soaked it with lamp oil and weaved it into a tinder, and the most silent Qiu Niang even removed the supporting beams of the house and hung a large net full of sharp torture instruments in the air.
Ruan Yunsheng looked at their bloody fingertips, asked Xiao Shitou to bring him some writing brushes and ink, and whispered to An Yue, "Give this to Hua Rong."
The note clearly read: Zhuang Xianming and his son have long-term financial transactions with Zhao Dahu, and there must be an account book. You should secretly go to his study to check and make sure to find it. Make a mess of the study and forge a note saying that Zhuang Xianming and his son have been kidnapped and are required to pay a sky-high bail. Lure Shen Ru here and persuade her to report to the police.
An Yue then asked, "What are you going to do?"
"Why don't I go?" Song Tinghe also agreed.
"No." Ruan Yunsheng looked at them firmly: "All of you go. This step is very important. We must ensure that no accidents will occur."
"But..." Song Tinghe was still worried.
Ruan Yunsheng smiled faintly: "I promised you that I would not put myself in danger, and I will definitely keep my promise."
That night, the dealer was in chaos.
"ah--"
Huarong's scream pierced the tranquility of the Zhuang family's backyard.
When Shen Ru hurried over with her skirt lifted, she saw the study in a mess, with books scattered all over the floor, the inkstone overturned, and ink spilled on the ground. Hua Rong was slumped on the ground, her face pale, and a note tightly clutched in her hand.
"What's going on?" Shen Ru asked sternly.
"Madam!" Hua Rong trembled as she held up the note, her voice filled with tears. "I just came in to clean, and I saw this... This, this note says..."
Shen Ru snatched the note and scanned the scribbled words on it:
[The wise father and son are in my hands. Prepare a thousand ounces of gold, or I will send them to hell.]
Her fingers suddenly tightened, and the note instantly crumpled into a ball.
"Who is it?" Shen Ru's eyes burned with anger: "Who did it?"
"Slave, slave, I don't know..."
Hua Rong sobbed and shook her head. Suddenly, as if remembering something, she frantically grabbed Shen Ru's sleeve and said, "Madam! Do you want to report to the police? The master and the young master..."
"Shut up!" Shen Ru shook off Hua Rong's hand, but knocked over the pile of books when she turned around.
A dark red account book fell to the ground with a "bang". On the opened page were written the three words "Zhao Dahu", followed by dense numbers and dates.
Hua Rong picked it up curiously: "Madam, what is this..."
Shen Ru snatched the account book away, but her face turned pale the moment she saw the contents. Her fingers trembled uncontrollably. The account book clearly recorded the "expenses" that Zhuang Xianming and his son had spent with Zhao Dahu over the years. Behind each amount of money, the corresponding goods were marked:
On March 15th, I bought a woman in blue, sixteen years old, for eighty taels.
July 22nd, twin sisters, virgin, price 200 taels
The amount of each transaction is consistent with the "gambling debt" owed by Zhuang Xianming.
Shen Ru's chest heaved violently. She stuffed the account book into her clothes and said in a hoarse voice, "Don't reveal a single word about what happened today!"
Hua Rong nodded timidly, but the moment Shen Ru turned around, a barely visible smile appeared on the corner of her mouth.
When Shen Ru rushed into the county government office holding the "kidnapper's letter", her hair was disheveled like a mad woman: "Hurry up and save him! My master has been kidnapped by that beast Zhao Dahu!"
When the yamen runners rushed into the backyard of the inn with torches in hand, they saw exactly this scene...
Everything happened so naturally.
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