Chapter 54
Chu Huan got angry after hearing this, and the system, which was used to eating melons, was also angry, especially since it had already seen the corresponding details.
Whether that idiotic county magistrate believed it or not is hard to say. He didn't go around shouting about it, so he might have been desperate, but he really did it.
Chu Huan: […Heh.]
The system could hear something like "The weather is getting cold, that stupid county magistrate should lose his head" in this cold sound.
The Second Prince's wife and others don't know Chu Huan very well, but the Chu family has witnessed Chu Huan's growth, and the Jinyiwei follow her every day, so they know her quite well.
——This is the result of being extremely angry and filled with murderous intent, but knowing that he has no right to do so and trying his best to restrain himself.
The last time she was so angry was when she learned that Wanyan Hong, a prince of the Western Rong, had collaborated with the enemy and betrayed his country in order to eliminate dissidents, killing the general's family and countless border soldiers and civilians.
Because it was a foreign country's political affair, there was nothing he could do to make Wanyan Hong pay the price, and he had no place to vent his anger.
Chu Huan was also angry when the Ye family set up a charity and sold their children, but she didn't feel so aggrieved because the Ye family from top to bottom paid the price.
——Some of those people had their heads chopped off, all their property was confiscated, and their reputation of many years was ruined. After they cooperated with the Jinyiwei and yamen runners to settle the children who were sold, they would be paraded through the streets and then beheaded.
Unless the crime committed is very controversial, the person involved has a unique identity and outstanding talents, and there are people in the court who will protect him and may come back, otherwise the Dasheng Dynasty rarely uses the method of exile three thousand miles away.
This time, Chu Huan was probably infuriated by the county magistrate's stupidity.
As the local official, he should have protected the people, but he used all kinds of tricks to make money, treated human lives as a joke, and used the people as tools to climb up the ladder. He deserves to die!
Wen had two children of her own and hated to hear others harming children. She couldn't bear the thought of the abuse that the nine pairs of boys and girls might have suffered.
"How can there be such a fatherly official? Doesn't he have any children?"
After becoming a parent, isn't it natural to show more or less kindness to other children?
This trip to the south of the Yangtze River brought Chu Qin huge gains, one of which was witnessing the various aspects of human life and the ugliness of human nature. He was not surprised that there would be such scum.
"There are parents who cherish their children, and there are parents who sell their children."
"Some parents can't survive natural disasters, so they sell their children to earn money to support themselves and their other children, and to find jobs for their children. They're likely to live better than if they were living with them."
"Some parents, for their own selfish desires, use the money earned from their children's prostitution to gamble, give their children away to curry favor with others, and so on."
Chu Ping patted the back of Wen's hand to comfort her: "Your mother just didn't expect someone to be so vicious."
The Ye family's affairs caused a sensation in the city, and Wen was naturally aware of it. She was just used to speculating about others with kindness rather than malice.
Furthermore, the fact that this was possible was most likely due to the consent of the nine pairs of boys and girls’ parents, which is even more chilling - are there really parents who would send their children to death with their own hands?
While they were discussing this, the system continued to speak.
[According to Zhu's request, the stupid county magistrate found nine pairs of boys and girls who met the requirements, had them dress in red, and tied to the pillars until they bled to death.]
Chu Huan didn't know how painful it would be to die from excessive blood loss. She really wanted to retaliate and let that stupid county magistrate experience this kind of death and experience the fear, pain and despair of those children before they died.
System: [If they cut the aorta, they would die quickly and suffer less pain. This person chose a part of the body that bleeds less, allowing their blood to flow onto the altar, forming a strange pattern.]
The county magistrate had never seen this before, so he asked what it was used for. Zhu explained that it was a ritual offering young boys and girls to the gods. The gods would accept the offerings and bless the tower's completion.
The ceremony lasted half an hour, and the nine pairs of boys and girls endured until the end before dying. As soon as the ceremony ended, a chilling wind blew through the mountains, ghosts wailed, and cats meowed shrilly, frightening the county magistrate to the point of pissing himself on the floor.
[There has always been a rumor that people wearing red will transform into evil spirits after death to seek revenge. The rumor also goes that the more tragic the death, the stronger the evil spirit. Little ghosts are difficult to deal with. He thought that young boys and girls would transform into evil spirits to seek revenge on him as soon as they died.]
Chu Huan was speechless. He was afraid but still did it. What was wrong with this guy?
System: [The stupid county magistrate asked Zhu to do something for him. He hid at home for several days and left many things to Zhu to do.]
[Later, when the tower was built, the foolish county magistrate believed that the sacrifices were useful and treated Zhu as a distinguished guest. In fact, Zhu, under the pretext of arranging the formation, modified some parts of the tower's structure, increasing its stability and load-bearing capacity, which prevented it from collapsing further.]
Chu Huan was just about to ask how this weird formation could possibly work?
Sure enough, it all comes back to science and mechanics.
As Chu Huan listened, she noticed something fishy: "Since Zhu knew from the beginning that the tower's structure was flawed, why did he still use nine pairs of boys and girls for the ritual and formation?"
The system revealed a big secret: [Because Zhu is here for revenge.]
Chu Hua: ???
I thought Zhu was a liar and a troublemaker, but how come there is a hidden story here?
The word "revenge" doesn't sound like a good thing. There is a high probability that there is an injustice involved, and Zhu was once a victim.
Everyone pricked up their ears. What’s going on? Is there a melon inside the melon?
The system slowly explained: [Zhu was originally called Zhuzi, born in Liujia Village. He is a descendant of the royal family of the previous dynasty. During the palace coup of the previous dynasty, the young prince was secretly sent away by the Empress's maid. He changed his name and settled there.]
Chu Huan subconsciously asked: [How many years has it been since the previous dynasty?]
Everyone silently calculated in their minds that it had been 127 years since the founding of the Great Sheng Dynasty, and the previous dynasty, the Great Jing, had lasted for 82 years, totaling 209 years.
So much time has passed, two dynasties have changed, and the personnel have changed for more than a dozen generations. How can they still bring up the affairs of the previous dynasty?
I don’t know whether to say they have a good memory or are good at bringing up old things.
System: [In the year 209, before the Queen escorted the young prince out of the palace, she told the maid that she had no other requests, as long as the child lived. The maid remembered the Queen's request and raised the young prince as her own son. She revealed the truth only before her death.]
By then, the prince already had grandchildren and had lived an ordinary life for decades. The palace maids supported him by embroidery, and their lives were not easy. Upon learning of his true identity, he was unwilling to accept it, so he passed on the secret.
[This kind of thing is generally only of interest to the person involved. The prince's descendants have been farming and working since childhood, facing hardships and even difficulty studying. There's always a sense of strangeness in hearing this story.]
This is normal.
If anyone has lived an ordinary life for half their life, and suddenly someone tells you that you are a descendant of the royal family, everyone's reaction will be astonishment: How can you make such a boring joke?
The sense of separation is too strong and no one will take it seriously.
System: [Liujia Village gradually developed into a large village. No one else knew about it, only the successive heads of the families knew that they were descendants of the royal family of the previous dynasty.]
[He's called the head of the family, but he's actually just the village chief. He knew about this because he was worried his status as a descendant of the royal family would cause trouble. But since nothing has happened in all these years, they don't really care.]
Everyone silently complained in their hearts: You have explained it in such detail, and there is also a revenge plan. There must be someone who cares about it.
Chu Huan made a bold guess: [The identity of the descendant of the previous dynasty has been exposed, right?]
System: [Yes, Zhuzi accidentally overheard the conversation between his father and grandfather. He was only six years old at the time and didn't understand what this identity meant. He told his good friend about it while playing outside.]
What does a six-year-old know? Zhuzi thought this was a novelty, and so did the child. When he went home and told his parents about it, those people started to have evil thoughts.
This is why adults often deliberately hide important things from their children.
Children do not understand the importance of things, and sometimes their careless words may bring great disaster to the family.
No one knew what had happened in Liujia Village. Considering that Zhuzi chose to take revenge in this way, it might be a disgusting, even cruel thing.
As they expected, the system said: "In the eyes of ordinary people, how rich are the royal family? Liujia Village is also well-known for its wealth. Every household has a blue brick and tiled house. They believe that they can live such a good life because of the treasures left by the previous dynasty."
[Whether in storybooks or legends, whenever a dynasty falls, the emperor will leave behind treasures to restore the country, or a particularly loyal person will take the treasure and the prince away, hiding their identities somewhere, waiting for the restoration of the country.]
They were convinced that Liujia Village also had a share of the treasure they needed to restore the country. However, Liujia Village was large and united, so using ordinary methods would be impossible. Therefore, they decided to kill people and seize the treasure.
Everyone: “…”
People die for money and birds die for food. This is indeed a famous saying since ancient times.
Chu Huan had a question: [How many people are there in Liujia Village?]
The system flipped through the melons: [Let me see, Liujia Village has a population of over 200 people, making it a medium-sized village.]
Chu Huan was confused: [How many people are there? Where did they get the courage to kill people and steal treasures?]
System: [There are only a dozen or so in total, so the number difference is huge. They came up with a solution.]
They bought some candy, taught Zhuzi's friends some things, gathered the children of Liujia Village, and gave them candy.
Chu Huan: “…”
There are so many scammers and kidnappers these days that teachers and parents teach their children not to eat anything given by strangers. But in ancient times...
Sugar is a very precious thing. Many children may not eat it once a year, so they probably can't resist the temptation.
really!
The system said: [The candy was spiked with drugs. The child fainted shortly after eating the candy.]
These people had drugged the water from the village's two wells in advance, leaving most villagers powerless. Even if someone used water from their home water tanks and didn't fall ill, they wouldn't dare act recklessly with so many children being held hostage.
They tied the children to pillars and ordered the adults to tie each other up. Each household sent one person home to collect the money. When the villagers returned with the money, it wasn't enough. Furious, the group slashed the children repeatedly.
Despite their threats, the villagers were unable to come up with more money. They could only kneel down and kowtow, begging the insurgents to pay them and let them go. The insurgents then turned their attention to the village chief, forcing him to hand over the treasures of the previous dynasty.
The village chief then realized that his grandson had let the cat out of the bag, attracting the bandits. No matter how he explained, they refused to believe him. Feeling ashamed of the villagers, the village chief hit his head and died.
When they heard that these children were tied to the pillar and slashed again and again, everyone suddenly understood why the pillar was determined to cause nine pairs of boys and girls to die from excessive blood loss.
——An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
——I will take revenge for everything you did to the children of Liujia Village.
I'm afraid there will be more to this matter.
System: [In order to escort the little prince out of the palace smoothly, the palace maid only took a few pieces of jewelry, aside from a jade pendant with a dragon pattern that proved his identity. Later, she used up all of them to raise the little prince.]
How much does it cost to raise a child? The palace maid pawned her jewelry and sold her embroidery, struggling to raise the child while saving up the dowry for him. She never married in her life and never spent much money on herself. She truly couldn't be more loyal.
[The dragon-patterned jade pendant is a proof of identity, collected by successive family heads. Even in times of hardship, it was never sold and was hidden in the beams of the house.]
[Among this group of people, there was a knight in shining armor who also owned the drug. He found the jade pendant on the beam and thus confirmed that the people of Liujia Village were descendants of the royal family, further convincing them that there were treasures from the previous dynasty here.]
Then, the entire Liujia Village, more than 200 people, were killed and the entire village was burned to the ground. Zhuzi was saved by his mother hiding him in a well.
silence.
Everyone within a radius of fifty meters was shocked by the bloody incident.
Just for a treasure that may or may not exist, he killed and burned an entire village, causing the children to bleed to death. This is what the most vicious robber could do.
Chu Hua: [This group of people has clearly lost their minds. I'm afraid they've been planning to kill everyone and then burn the bodies to destroy all evidence.]
System: [Yes, they escaped with all the money they looted.]
Zhuzi hid in the well for a day and a night, burning until he lost consciousness. He was rescued by a passing Taoist priest and lived in a Taoist temple. However, he could not forget the tragic events of his childhood, and suffered nightmares every night, filled with the cries of his parents, uncles, aunts, brothers, and sisters.
He was convinced that the villagers blamed him for attracting the robbers and wanted him to take revenge, otherwise these people would not be able to reincarnate. Determined to seek revenge, he became a wandering Taoist priest and searched for those people everywhere. After eight years of searching, he finally found them.
Eighteen years passed, and some of those people became wealthy, while others fell into poverty. He was just thinking about how to take revenge, but the foolish county magistrate was looking for talented people everywhere. He went with the birth dates of eighteen boys and girls he had collected, and began his revenge.
After this happened, everyone didn't know what to say.
Because of an unintentional remark made by Zhuzi in childhood, he accidentally attracted greedy wolves, tigers and leopards, who killed everyone in the village. He lived in regret and shadow for the rest of his life.
Those inhumane jackals, tigers and leopards live a carefree and wealthy life with money stained with human blood.
Chu Huan's temples throbbed with pain: "Zhu Zi treated the child like this, so he must not have let those murderers go, right?"
System: [Zhu Zi insisted on having these eighteen boys and girls. The foolish county magistrate used all kinds of threats and inducements for political achievements. The poor family handed over the children first, while the wealthy family delayed for a while, and finally handed over the children after paying money and using connections.]
After the sacrificial ceremony, Zhuzi returned the eighteen children who had bled to death. They were pale, bloodied, and still wearing red clothes when they died. They went completely mad.
[In order to seek revenge, Zhuzi completely transformed into a fierce ghost. He gave those who had nothing to do with the events of the past a quick death, and then slowly tortured and killed those who were involved, both mentally and physically.]
After killing the man, he finally stopped having nightmares. Then, remembering that he had grown up in a Taoist temple, he felt guilty about the teachings of his master and fellow Taoist priests, so he committed suicide by slitting his wrists.
Chu Huan was slightly surprised: [Cutting wrists?]
This way of death was very rare in ancient times. Most people died by hanging, jumping into a river, or taking medicine. Why would Zhuzi choose this?
System: [Yes, there was no hesitation when I cut, just one cut.]
Generally speaking, people may not be able to control the strength of cutting their wrists due to fear of death, resulting in repeated wrist cutting scars.
Only one cut showed that Zhuzi was very decisive when he took action and had a strong desire to die.
Chu Hua: [He probably regrets taking such revenge on those innocent children.]
It could also be guilt.
That's why I chose to die in a similar way.
At least this time, Zhuzi knew what those children and friends felt before they died, what they were thinking, and whether they were afraid.
Chu Hua: [Where's that stupid county magistrate?]
The system spent some time to search: [Damn! This stupid county magistrate got promoted based on his political achievements. More than ten years later, he is already a prefect.]
Chu Huan's eyes were blank: [How do you get rid of a prefect?]
Everyone: “…”
You have even gotten rid of the prince and the Minister of Revenue, are you still afraid that you can’t get rid of a prefect?
The system suddenly exclaimed: [Sister Huan! Do you still remember Li He and Li Chen?]
These two people may very well be Chu Huan's right-hand men in the future, how could she forget them?
【Remember, what happened? 】
Chu Qin tilted his head slightly. Could something have happened again? This father and son had been through so much trouble.
System: [They are in Yining County, which is under Zhuangzhou.]
[Hehe...if we get rid of this idiotic prefect, will Li He be able to get promoted?]
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