The thought of spending the next few days alone in his room, without even a chance to be intimate with Qingqiu and Pei Yunxi—and the fact that there would be no such opportunity if more than two women were present—made Jing Zhe's mood plummet.
However, Jing Zhe was the only one who was disappointed. Pei Yunxi and Lin Wan'er couldn't help but smile when they saw his unlucky appearance.
"Let's not just stand there. Since Third Sister went to check out the rooms, I'll take Fourth Sister to see them too!"
"OK!"
After they finished speaking, they turned around and glanced at Jing Zhe.
"You should come with us too!"
"..."
What other options did Jing Zhe have besides following along?
Upon arriving at the backyard, Jing Zhe realized that the room Lin Wan'er had chosen was much larger than her previous boudoir. After all, her previous boudoir was fine for one person, but now that three women were sharing it, even the bed wasn't big enough.
After entering the room, he took a special look at the big bed, imagining himself playing with his sisters on it. Jing Zhe nodded with great satisfaction, but the reality was far from that, so he could only shake his head.
"How did you get here?"
Seeing Jing Zhe being brought over by Pei Yunxi and Lin Wan'er, Qingqiu still felt a little guilty.
"We heard that our third sister couldn't wait to see our room, so we came over together."
Hearing Lin Wan'er say that, Qingqiu breathed a sigh of relief.
But then she asked curiously, "Seventh Sister, don't you usually have your own room? Why did you prepare such a big room in the backyard? And this bed is too big, there's plenty of room for the three of us to sleep on. You probably can't even sleep on it normally, right?"
Upon hearing this, Lin Wan'er blushed immediately. She casually brushed her long hair back before saying, "Wasn't this prepared for my sisters? I was thinking that we sisters would definitely reunite someday. Even if all seven of us sisters couldn't get together, three or four of us should be fine, right? That's why I prepared this room and this big bed. I didn't expect it to come in handy so soon!"
"I see, Seventh Sister is so thoughtful!"
Qingqiu and Pei Yunxi nodded in approval without any suspicion. Only Jing Zhe looked at her strangely, expressing strong doubt about her statement. Of course, he could only doubt; he dared not say anything more for fear of being attacked by the three women.
Afterwards, Lin Wan'er showed Qingqiu and Pei Yunxi Jing Zhe's room, which was right next to theirs. The reason for living so close was to keep a close watch on Jing Zhe. With him sleeping here at night, Jing Zhe would not only be unable to slack off next door, but he would also be unable to sneak out.
...
After walking around the room, the four people came out.
The three women, including Qingqiu, were satisfied with the room they were about to move into, but Jingzhe was the only one who was unhappy.
Seeing Qingqiu chatting and laughing happily with the other two sisters, Jingzhe sighed inwardly: My silly fairy, you've been sold out, and you're still happily helping them count the money?
When I came out of the backyard, it was already dark.
Jing Zhe's first day in Jiangling was so fulfilling. He spent the whole day running around outside, and before he knew it, he was getting a little hungry.
By this time, Lin Changjun had already instructed his servants to prepare dinner. The group sat down together and began to eat, chatting and laughing.
During the conversation, Lin Changjun asked Jing Zhe how the business deal with Feng Family Restaurant went. Jing Zhe then gave a general account of the matter, only mentioning that he purchased it for 15,000 taels of silver, without mentioning any of the guarantees, adultery agreements, or other such nonsense.
Lin Changjun nodded repeatedly after listening.
After talking for a while, Jing Zhe suddenly remembered something and asked, "Uncle, I heard that this Feng Family Restaurant used to be the Zhou Family Restaurant?"
Hearing this, Lin Changjun laughed: "It seems that my nephew has found out quite a bit on this trip!"
"I only heard a little bit about it, and I hope Uncle can tell me the details!"
"Okay, actually I was planning to tell you tonight too!"
Then, Lin Changjun began to speak.
It turns out that more than ten years ago, there was no Feng Family Restaurant. At that time, there was a restaurant in this location, but it was called Zhou Family Restaurant.
One night, a fire suddenly broke out at the Zhou family's house, and no one in the family survived. It was a tragic accident, and the Zhou family restaurant lost its owner and should have been taken back by the government.
At this moment, Madam Feng took out a sales contract, which stated that she had bought the Zhou Family Restaurant for five thousand taels of silver. The payment had already been made in silver notes and the Zhou family head had signed it. However, the property deed had not yet been amended.
After being appraised by Magistrate Xu, the contract was deemed valid, so the Zhou Family Restaurant changed hands, and the Feng Family Restaurant came into being.
After listening, Jing Zhe narrowed his eyes: "Uncle, do you think that fire was an accident, or murder?"
After Jing Zhe finished speaking, he thought Lin Changjun would need to think about it, but to his surprise, Lin Changjun didn't even hesitate and said directly, "It's murder."
"..."
Seeing Jing Zhe's doubt, Lin Changjun said, "Before the Zhou family met with misfortune, I had some connections with them. Before the incident, I heard from an old friend that Madam Feng and Prefect Xu had approached him together, expressing their desire to buy the Zhou family's restaurant. They had approached him many times, but he refused each time."
Jing Zhe nodded: "But that doesn't prove that the Zhou family was murdered, does it?"
"What if I have witnesses?"
"Witnesses?"
Looking at Lin Changjun, Jing Zhe was somewhat bewildered.
Lin Changjun nodded: "Nephew, since you're new here, your uncle has prepared a generous gift for you, and this is it."
After Lin Changjun's explanation, Jing Zhe learned that not everyone in the Zhou family was home on the day of the fire. The youngest son of the Zhou family got up in the middle of the night and happened to see someone setting a fire. By the time he wanted to go back, the fire had already spread.
So he ran out the back door to find Lin Changjun. By the time Lin Changjun arrived at the Zhou family, it was too late. So he hid the Zhou family's son. Because there was no evidence, and at that time, Prefect Xu and the Feng family's backer, Grand Tutor Bai, were in the limelight, Lin Changjun knew that even if he sued, he would not win.
So they had Zhou's son hide his identity and sent him to the countryside. Now he is married with children and living a different life.
“At that time, Hong Tao was still young. Even if we took him to testify against Prefect Xu and others, we would not have a chance of winning. After all, not many people would believe the words of a child. So I chose to have Hong Tao hide his identity and tell others that he was a distant relative of my Lin family, and sent him to the countryside.”
Hongtao is naturally the name of Zhou's son, now called Lin Hongtao, but his real name is Zhou Hongtao.
"I think my dear nephew can now help and get justice for Hong Tao!"
"..."
————
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