☆, Chapter 199: Good riddance, a brilliant death!
Qili Village was burned down last night; only women and children survived.
Zhou Mujiao received the news the following afternoon, while she was returning from Liuan Village.
Yesterday's experience was arguably the most disgusting since Zhou Mujiao arrived in this time and space, so she felt physically nauseous whenever she heard the words "Qili Village".
To be honest, everyone has a sense of compassion, but the evil of the men in Qili Village and the numbness of the women made her feel no sympathy whatsoever. Recalling how the group of men discussed how to detain her and ruin her in front of all the women in the village yesterday, she felt that those men deserved to die.
"Madam, the constable from Qili County came over half an hour ago, saying that their Magistrate Chen will be coming to ask you some questions later. Madam, when I went back yesterday, I found out..."
After listening to A-Tu's words, Zhou Mujiao nodded: "Wang Ying has a strong motive for the crime, but if she dies..."
"She didn't die, but her face was completely disfigured and her legs were severely burned. She was already seriously injured when she stabbed herself yesterday, so she definitely couldn't have escaped when the fire started. It was only because someone remembered her that they went to save her. It's normal that she was burned like this."
But it's precisely because being injured like this is all too normal that it seems somewhat abnormal.
—All the men in the village burned to death, and only the women survived. Moreover, these women did not save their own men and elders, but instead went to save Wang Ying. Isn't that strange?
Half an hour later, Magistrate Chen arrived. Zhou Mujiao explained the situation to him, and Magistrate Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
Magistrate Chen's sigh of relief was so loud that Zhou Mujiao heard it. She raised an eyebrow and said, "Judging from your tone, Magistrate Chen, you seem to know the situation in Qili Village."
"Madam Zhao, you may not know this, but although my governance skills are not very good, this Qili Village is really... too complicated to describe!"
The villagers of Qili Village were uncivilized, unreasonable, and extremely lazy. When he first arrived in Qili Village, he was thwarted. Later, he always thought about educating them and even built a primary school in their village. He paid for a teacher himself, but the teacher returned in less than a month, saying that he dared not stay in Qili Village and would rather go to jail than go to Qili Village.
In the following years, Magistrate Chen tried every means to promote Qili Village, but all his efforts ended in failure. Eventually, Magistrate Chen ran out of enthusiasm and decided to tactically ignore it, thinking that as long as it didn't come to his doorstep, it was fine.
When he learned yesterday at noon that Zhou Mujiao had only taken two people with her to Qili Village, he was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. He was about to set off to pick her up when he heard that Zhou Mujiao had returned safely. He thought that the matter was over, but he did not expect that Qili Village would be burned down that night, and that all the dead were men.
He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. With those people dead, he could finally sleep peacefully at night. What worried him was that so many people had died at once. If it was arson, it would be equivalent to a massacre of the village. Such a terrible thing had happened under his jurisdiction. If he didn't handle it well, his job as county magistrate would be over.
After listening, Zhou Mujiao nodded slightly.
Magistrate Chen hesitated several times before finally asking, "Madam Zhao, I've come here to ask if anything happened to you yesterday in Qili Village?"
“Even Lord Chen, who brought his officials into the village, didn’t get away with it. I’m just a woman, and I only have two people with me…” She didn’t say it outright, but she believed that Lord Chen would understand.
As expected, Lord Chen remained silent for a moment before erupting in fury, spewing profanities: "These bastards! A leopard can't change its spots! They even dared to plot against you! They deserve to die..."
This doesn't sound right.
Zhou Mujiao said, "Lord Chen, my husband is an official of the imperial court. Even if I suffer a great injustice in Qili Village, he will not allow his subordinates to do such a thing as massacring the village. Officials should know and abide by the law, and as a family member, I should naturally keep this in mind at all times."
"Is it really not Madam who did it? Nor is it Lord Zhao who secretly sent someone to do it?"
“Lord Chen, our Great Liang has laws,” Zhou Mujiao emphasized. “Zhao Yunjing would not break the law. If he were the kind of person who would bend the law for personal gain, the Emperor would not have put him in charge of such an important livelihood project. Lord Chen, Wang Ying is still alive. You can go and ask her.”
Oh right, Wang Ying!
Lord Chen slapped his forehead, finally remembering. He cupped his hands and said, "Madam Zhao, I was very rude just now. I will come to apologize formally after I have closed this case."
"You're too kind, Lord Chen."
"By the way, Madam Zhao." Upon reaching the door, Lord Chen turned around. "Ten miles north of Qili Village, there is a mountain. At the foot of the mountain is a village called Wuqi Village. The entire village is made up of women, and they are all suffering from a strange disease. Over the years, I have consulted many doctors, but none of them are willing or dare to go in."
He turned back, cupped his hands to Zhou Mujiao, and said very sincerely, "If Madam Zhao is not in a hurry to travel, I would like to ask Madam Zhao to come with me to Wuqi Village. I do not ask Madam Zhao to stay and treat them, but I hope that the population of Wuqi Village will not increase any further."
Zhou Mujiao said calmly, "Lord Chen, my surname is Zhou."
Magistrate Chen paused for a moment, then immediately became happy: "Dr. Zhou, I will take you to the village first thing tomorrow morning! I thank you on behalf of the villagers! I won't bother you any longer, Dr. Zhou. Goodbye!"
As Magistrate Chen spoke and retreated, he didn't pay attention to his footing and tripped over the threshold at the door, falling flat on his back in a comical manner. However, he didn't care at all, got up, and ran away with a grin. The man in his forties had one shoulder higher than the other, looking like a young lad.
Eighteen giggled, "Sister-in-law, this Lord Chen is so funny!"
"Lord Chen is a good official."
Zhou Mujiao made a comment and then went back to her work.
That evening, Zhou Mujiao received a letter from Zhao Yunjing, who had sent someone to deliver it. Knowing that they had traveled safely and were still three days away from their destination, Zhou Mujiao breathed a sigh of relief.
When she replied, she hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to briefly mention the matter of Qili Village. After all, even if she didn't mention it, Atu and the others would report it anyway.
She wrote down her observations and gains over the past few days, Shi Ba's progress, her own thoughts, and finally her longing for him. Zhou Mujiao wrote three pages of her long and detailed account. After finishing and rereading it, she felt it was a bit pretentious. They had only been apart for a few days, and she was already impatient to say she missed him. Zhao Yun Jing hadn't said anything like that!
She put the letter she had written aside, intending to rewrite it, when a head popped out of the window: "Madam, the master has something he wants us to tell you in person."
Two other heads popped up: "The ancients said that a day apart feels like three autumns. I think the ancients were wrong, because these few days apart have felt like thirty years."
"Now that I have seen you, how could I not be happy?"
"If two people want their love to last, they must be together every day and night."
"Gillian, you are my only one."
...
The three people took turns reciting a line each, presenting Zhou Mujiao with a grand display of cheesy pick-up lines. Zhou Mujiao was very touched after listening, and then decisively crumpled up her three pages of letter paper and threw them away.
"Tell him, I don't have time to spend every day with him, I'm going to sleep!"
Once Zhou Mujiao fell asleep, the servants pulled out the three pages of paper, not bothering with any embellishment, and rode off on horseback—this was a love letter from the lady to the master, and someone was waiting with bated breath!
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