Chapter 268 Gong Xiu is here
Listening to the sound of reading coming from the tent, Cui Qingyi's troubled heart finally calmed down a bit.
Gong Xiu was the last to arrive at Luhua Town. As soon as she arrived, she apologized to Cui Qingyi: "Village Master, please forgive me. I just returned from another county yesterday. I heard you summon me and came to Luhua Town early this morning."
In fact, if Cui Qingyi hadn't asked her to come, Gong Xiu would never have come to Luhua Town.
At that time, she had just started to learn how to do business. In order to save a few cents, she was introduced to Luhua Town to purchase cloth. If she had not been careful at the time, she would have almost been cheated.
Cui Qingyi smiled and said, "I know you're busy, but I also have business to discuss with you, and I can't leave, so I have to trouble you to come."
Gong Xiu likes dealing with Cui Qingyi. Whether he was a female school teacher or the current Dongping Township Master, this person's style of doing things has not changed at all. Even though his status and position are now very different, the Township Master still treats people like them with the same courtesy.
After all, the two of them were friends, and since there were no outsiders here, they naturally spoke more casually and intimately. Cui Qingyi was also a benefactor in Gong Xiu's business, and Gong Xiu was quite talkative in front of her: "I went to Linshui County a while ago. There was a gossip that the village chief didn't want to hear."
Hearing her tone, Cui Qingyi guessed that the gossip was most likely related to herself. Since Gong Xiu was so interested in it, it must not be a bad thing for her.
"But it's okay."
Gong Xiu took a sip of tea and said, "The Yuan family in Linshui County has been making a lot of noise recently, and people from all over the county are waiting to see their excitement.
The master of the Yuan family said that he wanted to take his daughter, born to Madam Yuan, to the capital to find a good husband.
Mrs. Yuan happily packed up her daughter's belongings and sent her to the capital. Guess what happened?
Mr. Yuan married his own daughter to an old man in his sixties as a concubine. The nanny beside Miss Yuan risked her life to run back to Linshui County for help. Mrs. Yuan then learned that Mr. Yuan not only married his own daughter to a sixty-year-old man, but he had also bought another house in the capital, married a young and beautiful concubine, and now had a five-year-old son.
Madam Yuan went completely crazy and wanted to go to the capital to make trouble with Master Yuan, but she was stopped by her mother-in-law. Now, fighting breaks out every day in the Linshui Yuan family."
Cui Qingyi was shocked after hearing this. Is this what they call "evil will be punished by evil"?
It was Mei who instigated Yuan to send her to the capital to be someone else's concubine. Now, her own daughter has been sent into a den of tigers and wolves by her own hands. How can this not be retribution?
She had absolutely no sympathy for Mei's daughter Cui Qingyi. The girl looked exactly like her mother at such a young age. Whenever anyone came to her house, she would try every possible way to instigate Yuan to put her in solitary confinement or spank her.
Of course, she didn't suffer any loss at that time. She was too lazy to play tricks on the little girl and just beat her up when she was caught.
"Mei is not the kind of person who would just swallow her anger. There's no way she would just accept such a huge loss like that." Cui Qingyi was a little skeptical.
Gong Xiu's smile widened strangely, and she leaned close to Cui Qingyi and whispered, "Mei Shi will naturally not swallow this. She has a theater she frequents, and now martial artists from all over the world go to the Yuan family's house to perform opera every day.
It is said that the old lady of the Yuan family fell ill a few days later, but Mrs. Yuan was very filial and brought the man to the old lady's bedside every day to sing opera to relieve her boredom.
Oh my god, Cui Qingyi rubbed her nose, the ancients were really open-minded.
"Then no one in the Yuan family cares?"
Gong Xiu snorted coldly, "How can they manage it? That Mei is also a shrewd person. The shops in Linshui County are all managed by her people. Everyone in the Yuan family depends on her for their livelihood. Master Yuan is hiding in the capital now and dare not return. Who in his hometown is willing to meddle in such affairs?"
Cui Qingyi: "It turns out that whoever has the money has the upper hand."
Cui Qingyi's original impression of Mei was that she was a mean-spirited and evil-minded woman. But now, after hearing about this, she had a deeper understanding of Mei. Mei really had no internal friction at all.
"Thank you for bringing me the gossip. I feel much better after hearing it."
Hearing her words, Gong Xiu couldn't help but chuckle, "I noticed you didn't look very well the moment I walked in. The problems in Luhua Town have been going on for a long time, and even someone as powerful as County Magistrate Zhou couldn't solve them. You better not push yourself too hard."
"I know my limits. Please accompany me to the mountains for a walk. I have something to discuss with you on the way."
Naturally, Gong Xiu had no reason to refuse. She was a woman doing business in this world where men were in power. Since she met Cui Qingyi, she had met many women like her. They should have helped each other.
Wu Xiaowei's men and Wang Xiaoqian's men were not idle today. They were ordered by Cui Qing to go out and clean up Luhua Town. Of course, this cleaning does not mean just cleaning, but a comprehensive and thorough investigation of potential destabilizing factors in Luhua Town.
Although Wang Xiaoqian was upset by Cui Qingyi's criticism, he still did his job diligently. With his rich experience in handling cases, he gradually uncovered several people with problems from the homes of the people.
On the other side, Cui Qingyi and Gong Xiu took Wangcai, Xiaoba, Jingjiu, and several soldiers arranged by Captain Wu and went to the nearest mountains with ease.
Gong Xiu is busy with the embroidery shop business and has been traveling outside for most of the year. Now, walking in the mountains and forests, she really enjoys some of the wildness and is having a lot of fun walking around and looking around.
Cui Qingyi had a headache yesterday because of the strong smell of blood. She took a few deep breaths of the natural and fresh air in the mountains and forests, and the depression in her heart dissipated. She picked some wild flowers on the roadside as she walked, and soon there was a big wreath on Wangcai's head.
Wangcai also cooperated by holding his head high and wagging his big furry tail happily.
Gong Xiu looked at the dog and said jokingly, "I didn't expect Wangcai to be such a conceited dog."
Only when they reached halfway up the mountain did Cui Qingyi tell Gong Xiu about the business she wanted to discuss with her.
"You mean, you want to plant mulberry trees in Luhua Town?"
Gong Xiu herself had started out as a cloth shop, and when Cui Qingyi mentioned planting mulberry trees, she understood Cui Qingyi's intentions. "Growing mulberry trees here shouldn't be a problem, but just growing mulberry trees and raising silkworms is no easy task. At least for the next five years, don't even think about harvesting anything from your fiefdom."
Cui Qingyi squatted down, stretched out her hand and twisted the soil covered with green grass, her tone heavy: "Although I used tough measures to intimidate the people of Luhua Town, I also know that this is only temporary.
The root cause of the deterioration of the people in Luhua Town is that they cannot survive. They are huddled in such a mountain valley and cannot see any way to live a decent life. If people have no way to make a living, they have no time to talk about conscience, and it is inevitable that they will take other paths.
So if I want Luhua Town to improve, I have to find a way for them to survive. Simply killing them will only treat the symptoms and not the root cause."
Gong Xiu listened to her quietly, and suddenly her mind was confused for a moment.
The person in front of her was clearly the same person she had always known, but at this moment, in this situation, she was no longer herself.
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