Chapter 96 It was July. Jiang Zhenniang and the others had left in the spring, and arrived...
Jiang Zhenniang and the others left in early spring, and the first letter didn't arrive until March. Yinghong nestled beside Su Zhihan, their heads huddled together as they read the contents of the letter. It was Jiang Zhenniang's first time traveling so far, and the letter was full of amazement at the sights, customs, and people along the way.
It wasn't until the last few pages that the content concerned the Northern Frontier. The Northern Frontier was a vast area, and communication between armies in different regions was not easy. Although the group had Su Lifeng's letters, they still had to travel to many places before they found his place.
Su Lifeng is currently living in Maozhou Prefecture, where the majority of the inhabitants are Qiang people. They are known for their fierce and rugged nature, and their customs and food are vastly different from those in the capital.
After arriving there, everyone felt quite out of place. In her letter, Jiang Zhenniang also mentioned witnessing a Qiang ethnic wedding ceremony. Apparently, a man who was rejected in his marriage proposal went to the girl's house and abducted her. The next day, he went to the girl's house and abducted her back home.
What was shocking to Jiang Zhenniang and others was commonplace there, leaving people stunned.
In addition, Jiang Zhenniang was attracted by the local market and packed up and sent back a lot of local special medicinal herbs and spices. At the same time, she also complained in the letter that the lambs that cost Su Zhihan dozens of strings of cash last time only cost one string of cash each in Maozhou, which can be described as a huge profit.
"Always the same head!?" Yinghong was shocked.
“If something unique to us goes there, the price will be many times higher, that’s normal,” Su Zhihan replied with a smile, unable to suppress her laughter.
The next page made Su Zhihan pause in surprise. It was Jiang Zhenniang talking about the development of Maozhou. The area lacked labor and had been recruiting immigrants to go there for many years. However, because Maozhou had a large Qiang population and was close to the Tubo Kingdom and Dali Kingdom, there were frequent wars, so very few people were willing to migrate there.
Therefore, the majority of the immigrants to this area were the soldiers who came to serve in the army and their families.
Su Lifeng will most likely return to Beijing to report on his work, and then return to Maozhou, which means he will settle there permanently.
Jiang Zhenniang said she would stay for a few months before returning to the capital, but according to Yinghong's parents, they would stay longer.
Yinghong saw this and immediately felt disappointed.
Before Su Zhihan could comfort her, she mustered her energy again: "Maybe by the time my parents come back, I'll have already graduated from my apprenticeship."
Su Zhihan wholeheartedly agreed, and afterwards became even stricter with Yinghong's education. By then, it was too late for Yinghong to regret it.
Su Zhihan turned around and started writing a letter as well, beginning with a discussion of the family business.
The braised meat shop is doing incredibly well. The number of employees has grown from three to six, and the person in charge of cooking has become very skilled. Su Zhihan only needs to do a couple of routine checks and doesn't need to manage the business much.
Across the street is a shop specializing in braised pork rice, which is doing quite well. From its initial self-service braised pork rice, it has now added various other items and is now a well-known affordable shop. Many students from the Imperial College and even nearby schools have ordered takeout meals for the entire month.
In addition, there are branches in Dongcheng and food stalls in pavilions.
Finally, there's the catering business that Su Zhihan manages. In fact, at her current level, it's not easy to rise any higher, so Su Zhihan doesn't fill her catering schedule as full as she used to. Instead, she chooses to slow down and reduce the frequency.
Nowadays, she only accepts four to five banquets a month, charging several tens of strings of cash for each banquet, sometimes reaching a hundred strings of cash, and the price even exceeds one hundred and eighty strings of cash during festivals.
Su Zhihan spent more of her time instructing Yinghong and the other two apprentices who came to learn, letting them take over the slightly lower-end banquets.
After writing all this, Su Zhihan brought up another matter. All of these things combined brought in a considerable income, and as the family became increasingly wealthy, they also attracted the envy of many people.
There are fewer people like the Peng family who intend to use Su Zhihan as a favor; instead, quite a few people have emerged who want to marry her, take concubines, and seize her skills and wealth.
Especially after hearing that Jiang Zhenniang had gone far away, leaving only Su Zhihan, a young maid, to manage the household, all sorts of strange and unruly people suddenly appeared.
First, someone asked Yao's daughter-in-law and neighbors to visit and sound out what was going on, and then someone else directly asked a matchmaker to visit.
These people are normal; they usually don't visit again after being politely refused by Su Zhihan.
Later, some poor scholars, feeling that they were good-looking, deliberately showed up at the shop, hoping to catch Su Zhihan's eye. Some even went so far as to offer themselves as wives and children, expressing their willingness to marry into the family.
These types... their ambitions were written all over their faces, and Su Zhihan looked down on them all, rejecting them outright.
After one, two, three, or four times, Su Zhihan got annoyed. Just as she was about to make an example of someone, someone else jumped out on their own.
This man, having somehow learned that Su Zhihan was from Su Family Village, brought two old men from there to the shop. They said that they had paid money years ago to arrange a marriage with Su Zhihan, but Jiang Zhenniang had run away with Su Zhihan, which is why he had finally found her.
Upon hearing this, Su Zhihan laughed in anger. Unperturbed, she immediately ordered the shop assistants to surround the three men and drag them to the government office to report the incident.
The idler, unafraid, went to the government office and, accompanied by two old men, began to distort the truth, claiming that Su's father had borrowed money and, unable to repay it, had arranged for Su Zhihan to become engaged to him.
Who would have thought that after Su's father died, Su Zhihan ran away with her mother... The idler's words were logical and reasonable, and at first glance, they really did seem to make sense.
The official sitting on the high platform remained noncommittal and then asked Su Zhihan if she had any evidence.
Su Zhihan took out a few receipts and presented them to the official: "My mother and I were unable to pay off our debts, so we sold ourselves to the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion and used the money we received to pay off our debts. These receipts are clear and have the signatures of the broker and the steward of the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion."
“Sir, please look, the people my father borrowed money from are all wealthy households, pawnshops, pawnbrokers and money houses around Su Family Village.”
“Our family has very little money, so how could we possibly come all the way to the capital to borrow money from this idle man?”
"As for this idler, he is a local of the capital and has almost never left the capital. So why would he go to Sujia Village, a place he doesn't know at all, and lend money to my father without writing an IOU?"
"I have witnesses here!"
"Sujia Village suffered a great calamity, with most of its inhabitants already dead or injured, not to mention..."
Su Zhihan sneered. She was just worried about not having a chance to find the people from Su Family Village and take revenge, but who knew they would dare to show up in front of her again.
She took out another stack of letters: "My brother is a military officer in Maozhou. In previous years, he would often bring back money. I never expected that the people of Sujia Village would keep this a secret and hoard the money. They were unwilling to pay off my mother and me debts with a single penny. In the end, my mother and I were forced to sell ourselves to pay off the debts."
“We only received the news a year ago. We would like to ask this young man, you said you were engaged to me, so why did only you and these two elders know about it, while my mother, my brother, and I were unaware?”
Not to mention the three idlers whose expressions changed, even the official sitting in the hall looked surprised.
He hurriedly ordered the yamen runners to fetch the letter and then used Su Zhihan's name to verify it. Once he confirmed the news was true, he immediately composed himself and ordered the yamen runners to investigate the idler's situation, summon his family and neighbors to the yamen for questioning, and then arrested two old men suspected of defrauding officials and imprisoned them in jail for further interrogation.
Before the idler's family arrived, the two old men were so frightened that they knelt down with a thud: "Injustice, sir! Injustice! We are not, we are not from Sujia Village. It was, it was the young man in front of us who paid money to come and help us."
It turned out that most of the people in Sujia Village had died or been injured, and the rest had disappeared without a trace. Since the idler could not find anyone, he looked for two old men in the surrounding villages to help him. He promised to give each of them one string of cash first, and then give each of them five strings of cash after the matter was settled.
The two old men had some dealings with the people of Sujia Village and knew a little about the inside story. Upon hearing about the amount of money involved, they readily agreed and came to give false testimony.
When the idler's family and neighbors arrived, they provided further evidence: this idler spent his days loitering in the streets, unwilling to work, and when he had no money, he would ask his parents and brothers for money. If they refused, he would smash things and verbally abuse them, causing his two brothers to lose their jobs several times.
As for the money given to him, it was either thrown into gambling dens or given to brothels. Usually, it wouldn't even stay in his hands for a single night, let alone be able to take out dozens of strings of cash to lend to others.
Upon hearing this, Su Zhihan asked, "Then where did the money he gave the old man come from?"
After going around in circles, the matter eventually led to Granny Chen. It turned out that Granny Chen had a hard life in the Marquis's mansion and harbored resentment. After the Marquis Zhongyong died in battle, she was convinced that Su Zhihan's brother had also died outside the city.
In particular, after learning from a temple outside the capital that Jiang Zhenniang and Su Zhihan had erected a cenotaph for Su Lifeng, she became even more convinced of this, which is why she secretly spread the word and piqued the interest of this idle man.
Later, Granny Chen was also arrested and imprisoned. Because she was a slave and falsely accused a good citizen, she was sentenced to three years in prison and twenty strokes of the cane.
As for the idler who forged documents, the authorities imposed a heavier punishment, sentencing him to six years in prison and one hundred strokes of the cane.
The two elderly men gave false testimony, but because of the law that "the punishment should be reduced to 40 strokes for the elderly and children," the original punishment of 80 strokes of the cane was reduced to 40 strokes.
After this news spread, those who used to fawn over Su Zhihan or seek her hand in marriage vanished without a trace.
Later, when Cao Daya came, she mentioned to Su Zhihan: "After Granny Chen was sentenced, the mansion sold Old Man Hu and Hu Xiaohong."
Just like those servants who disappeared from the Marquis of Zhongyong's mansion before, no one knows where they were sold.
Su Zhihan shook her head and didn't mention it again.
She picked up her pen and told Jiang Zhenniang about these things one by one. After finishing writing, she read through the letter Jiang Zhenniang had sent her again, and a thought arose in her mind to go out for a walk and see the world.
Let's wait until everything is over.
After the story ended, she went out for a walk, to see the beautiful landscape and taste the delicious food of the world.
Su Zhihan thought for a moment, then unfolded the letter and wrote down all her thoughts on it before sending the letter back the next day.
Jiang Zhenniang originally said she would only stay for two months, but later said she would extend it by two months. Yao's wife, Madam Lü, sat in the shop with her daughter in her arms and asked Su Zhihan, "Your mother hasn't said when she'll be back yet?"
"They said they wanted to stay for another two months."
"If that's the case, we won't be back until July or August?" Madam Lü calculated the time and shook her head: "It will be hot then, and it's easy to get heatstroke on the way. It's better to come back earlier or later."
Su Zhihan agreed. At the same time, she also remembered that the three-year period was approaching and wondered if the rebellion in the Rong Prince's Mansion would break out. So she picked up her pen and wrote a letter to Jiang Zhenniang, advising her to stay a little longer and return home when the autumn weather was clear and crisp.
In addition, there are Pearl's letters. Pearl became pregnant just two months after marrying Su Lifeng.
Judging from the contents of the letter, she seemed to be doing quite well. At the same time, she apologized to Su Zhihan on behalf of her parents. Because of her pregnancy, Pearl's parents planned to stay for another year and asked Su Zhihan to continue to take care of Yinghong.
"I can clearly take care of myself." Yinghong looked at the contents of the letter, very dissatisfied. She gripped the letter tightly and shouted that she would write back and give him a good talking-to.
However, although she seemed annoyed, her face was full of smiles when she wrote the letter, so she probably didn't write many complaints, but mostly interesting things about the capital.
Then, we corresponded.
Soon, it was late July.
It was the height of summer, with the sun high in the sky relentlessly pouring down its scorching rays, baking the ground until it was completely dry. Every step people took stirred up a cloud of dust, and the air was so stifling that it was hard to breathe.
Whether they were people inside the shops or ordinary people walking outside, they were all impatiently holding fans, pulling open their clothes, and trying their best to fan themselves.
The high temperature continued into the afternoon, when a dark cloud covered most of the sky. A huge bolt of lightning swept across the entire capital city, and suddenly the sounds of countless hooves and footsteps rang out on one side of the city.
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