Chapter 109 [VIP]
Everyone shuddered.
Some people were pinching their brows, others were pressing their temples, all deep in thought, their serious demeanor like that of someone taking an imperial examination.
Sun Er said first, "Brother Can, a concubine's daughter in the Wuchang Marquis's family died suddenly a few days ago. She went to a brothel with her aunt's brother to drown her sorrows. I heard him crying, saying that his sister was strangled to death by his aunt. He was crying so sadly."
Gu Yican tossed a longan to Sun Er, who happily caught it, peeled it, and ate it.
“Minister Wu’s daughter got married the day before yesterday. I think she married…” Mo Qi clenched his fist and clapped his hands. “That’s right, he’s the short man who sells embroidered wontons on Flower Street up ahead.”
“We’ve met before, do you remember? It was that short guy, Fang, who was only this short.”
Mo Qi gestured exaggeratedly with his hand, indicating that it only reached about his chest.
When he said that, someone remembered it.
“Minister Wu brought a generous dowry and even bought his daughter a three-courtyard house in the east of the city.” Mo Qi reached out and grabbed the longan that Gu Yican tossed to him, peeling it as he spoke. “How could Minister Wu have chosen such a son-in-law? He must have been really out of his mind.”
The waiter knocked on the door and came in to serve the dishes.
Mo Qi pointed to the teahouse and casually asked, "Your house didn't collapse too, did it?"
"Sir, how could that be?" The waiter smiled ingratiatingly. "His house has termites; they've even gnawed through the beams. How could it not collapse? We get rid of termites every year, so it will never collapse. Please enjoy your meal, sir. This is a complimentary flower wine from our manager."
Half-drunk and half-awake, Zheng Si snatched the wine pot and gulped down the entire pot of wine in one go.
That's it?
He casually swung his hand, and *bang!* The wine jug shattered. He shook his heavy head and collapsed back down.
Gu Yican tossed a silver ingot to the waiter as compensation.
Xiao Er left excitedly, and Gu Yican urged, "Keep thinking."
"Brother Can, the fourth daughter of Prince Ning's concubine eloped with a courtesan. Does that count?"
Upon hearing the words "elopement," Zhou Liulang's heart pounded in his chest. Thank goodness, it wasn't about his family.
Gu Yican looked at his sister: "Okay."
The speaker was Song Wu, the grandson of the chief minister: "You must recognize that courtesan. A while ago, the Marquis of Wu'an's mansion was raided, and all the women in the mansion were sent to the brothel. That kid Wang Qijun looks like a man, so he switched bodies with his sister and had his sister die in his place. He took his sister's place and went to the brothel."
These words immediately caused a stir in the private room.
Really?
"I only heard she was a courtesan, but it turns out she's that kid surnamed Wang?"
"Did the Imperial Music Bureau not notice? Were they blind?"
Gu Zhizhuo looked out the window. The old blind man was tidying up the copper coins and silver scraps on his stall. A piece of silver fell from his hand, and the old blind man immediately bent down and picked it up accurately.
"...When Prince Ning hosted a banquet, that boy mingled among the singing girls. Somehow, he got involved with the fourth young lady of Prince Ning's mansion. The fourth young lady was born to a concubine and was always favored. She begged Prince Ning to transfer her into the mansion as a singing girl. As a result, a few days ago, the fourth young lady eloped with this boy. The boy deliberately made a big fuss about it, as if he was afraid that others would not know."
The fourth daughter of Prince Ning was a member of the imperial family, and there was no way she could marry a lowly courtesan.
If Prince Ning wanted to save face, he would have to find a way to change his status to that of a good citizen, which would be a piece of cake for Prince Ning.
"Brother Can, where are my longans?" Song Wu said to Gu Yican with a grin.
Gu Yican tossed him a longan.
"And there's more..."
Once the topic was brought up, the conversation immediately became even more lively.
They wander around the capital all day long, and their sources of information are truly from all walks of life.
However, it's hard to judge without seeing the person, since whether it's marrying down, dying suddenly, passing away from illness, or even eloping, it's not uncommon in this vast capital city.
These are things that are at most talked about over tea or after a meal.
Even with Zhou Jinnuo, if Gu Zhizhuo hadn't happened to be there, whether she died suddenly or from illness, Gu Zhizhuo would have at most only "heard about" her. It was like a small pebble thrown into a pond; the ripples would at most affect her family.
"Little sister, is that enough?"
Gu Zhizhuo gestured for him to be quiet.
"You bastard, I'm going to beat him to death!"
Zheng Si raised his head, sobbing uncontrollably. He had drunk quite a bit, his face was flushed, and his crying was so loud that it interrupted the conversation of the others. So, they surrounded him, plying him with alcohol and trying to comfort him.
"Hiccup!" Zheng Si hiccuped and said incoherently, "Liu Ling went to ask for a marriage talisman for Lin Jie a few days ago, and now he's talking nonsense again, trying to force Lin Jie to her death."
A marriage charm?
Gu Zhizhuo had a sudden thought.
"You brat! You were saying you wanted to take a concubine!" Zheng Si cried and cursed, slamming his fist on the table. His words were incoherent. "Sister Lin, Sister Lin would never be interested in a stable boy. Hiccup."
"I'll go and kill him right now!"
He was so drunk he couldn't even tell the difference between a door and a window. He was yelling and clamoring as he clung to the window, threatening to jump. Saturday, who was closest, rushed over and hugged him tightly around the waist. A strong smell of alcohol filled his nostrils.
"It's a window, it's a window!"
"Don't jump."
Several people rushed over and dragged him inside by pulling his hands, causing pedestrians on the street to look up.
Gu Zhizhuo: "Splash him awake."
No one cared whether their cups contained wine or water; they all splashed it all onto Zheng Si's face, including the chilled mung bean soup and sweet rice balls in fermented rice wine, leaving his head covered in liquid.
Gu Zhizhuo: "..."
She glanced at Gu Cancan with a hint of pity: "You've had a hard time." She'd taken these people as her underlings, but they had no respect for her at all.
Gu Yican slapped his forehead. So embarrassing, so incredibly embarrassing. He was going to beat them all up when his sister got home.
After several bowls of chilled mung bean soup were poured over him, Zheng Si shivered, his drunkenness subsided a bit, his face was wet and water was still dripping down, he licked it blankly, and hey, it's sweet?
“Young Master Zheng,” Gu Zhizhuo asked directly, “where did he get the marriage charm you just mentioned?”
"Marriage Talisman".
Zheng Si suddenly remembered what he had just said, and his face turned pale.
"Tell me quickly." Saturday nudged him with his elbow. "What's there to hide from Brother Can? Maybe I can even save your sister."
“Even if you don’t say it, the Liu family will. Go outside and listen to what they’re saying. I can’t stand it anymore.”
Zheng Si's shoulders slumped down.
The young man surnamed Liu wants revenge on them and is spreading rumors everywhere, almost threatening Lin-jie'er's life.
Even among the纨绔 (playboys) of the capital, there were different factions. This group, usually kept in check by Gu Yican, was extremely close, their relationship going beyond mere drinking buddies. Zheng Si steeled himself and said, "The Liu family and my sixth sister, Lin'er, were engaged three years ago. After Lin'er turned 18 at the beginning of the year, the Liu family came to request a wedding date, which was set for September. But last month, that Liu fellow came to our door, saying he wanted to take a concubine before the wedding. Of course, my family refused; how can one take a concubine before the bride is even married?"
Many people nodded in agreement.
Families like theirs wouldn't necessarily insist on marrying their daughters to men who aren't allowed to take concubines. But that doesn't mean the son-in-law can take a concubine before the legal wife arrives.
“At the time, my father said that the engagement should be dissolved, but the reputation of the Zheng family girl could not be affected, so he would make it clear to the outside world that it was the Liu family that did something dishonest.”
Zheng Si rubbed his throbbing head, wiped the mung bean soup off his face, and continued, "When the Liu family heard that the engagement was to be dissolved, they refused to agree to it no matter what. A few days later, they came and said that the woman had already married and that he could only take a concubine if he was forty years old and had no children. My father then reluctantly agreed to let the marriage continue."
Zheng Si felt gloomy. In his opinion, since the engagement had already been called off, it should be over and done with.
"And then?" Mo Jiu urged.
"Liu Ling came to apologize several times, even bringing marriage charms, and humbled himself before our family. Lin'er even thought he had changed his mind. But what happened!" Zheng Si said through gritted teeth, "My grandmother celebrated her birthday the day before yesterday, and the Liu family came to offer their congratulations. The Liu family said that Lin'er and the lame groom were having a heart-to-heart talk in the stable, and that he called her promiscuous. This morning, the Liu family returned all the betrothal gifts and engagement tokens."
"Lin Jie'er was utterly humiliated and almost hanged herself. He said she wanted to commit suicide with the coachman."
Many people had heard rumors about the Zheng family's affairs. Zhou Liulang whispered to Gu Zhizhuo, "I inquired and found out that Liu Ling even brought a lot of people to the stable that day. They all heard Zheng Liu and the stableman say that they would marry no one but him."
That's why Zhou Liulang wondered if Zheng Liu's daughter was like his own daughter, Nuo'er. Otherwise, a perfectly good girl wouldn't go to her grandmother's birthday banquet to flirt with a lame coachman; she's not out of her mind.
Gu Zhizhuo agreed wholeheartedly and asked again, "Where did you get the marriage charm?" Zheng Si really is something else; his words and actions are all a mess.
Zheng Si scratched his head, thinking hard. "I don't know. Liu Ling asked for it himself. Oh, right..." He rummaged through his purse, "It's this!"
Zheng Si threw everything from his purse onto the octagonal table, and finally pulled out a crumpled lucky bag, which he originally intended to throw at Liu Ling's face.
The rough, bright red lucky bag had the words "Marriage Charm" written on the front and "Match Made in Heaven" on the back. The vertical strokes of these characters all had a small hook at the end, just like...
Her gaze shifted to the window.
The sign that read "Fortune Telling" on the fortune-telling stall fluttered in the wind.
Their handwriting habits are exactly the same.
Gu Zhizhuo flattened the lucky bag and opened it. Inside was a talisman folded into a triangle, with a strand of hair tucked inside.
"Young Master Zhou Liu".
Gu Zhizhuo looked at the talisman and suddenly asked, "Do you remember which way Zhang Xiucai's finger pointed when he died last night?"
Before he died, Zhang Xiucai stretched out one finger and stared ahead with his eyes wide open.
Zhou Liulang remembered it clearly: "To the right front, that's..." He peeked out and looked around, his gaze landing on the fortune teller's stall, "...that's the direction."
Yes.
Zhou Liulang remembers correctly.
After she sat down, she looked around carefully. The street was quite lively. Just in the direction that Zhang Xiucai pointed out, there were fortune-telling stalls, shops selling herbal tea, shops selling crispy fish, stalls selling beaded necklaces and other items, as well as other shops.
She glanced at the fortune-telling stall several times.
Zhang Xiucai sells calligraphy and paintings next to a fortune-telling stall, the dwarf sells wontons on Flower Street, and even the Jiaofangsi (a type of entertainment venue) is not far from Cat Street.
The handwriting on the lucky bags was so similar, and a thought immediately came to mind.
"Brother, go ask the blind man if he has any marriage charms... No, no, you look too much like a noble young master, it probably won't work." Gu Zhizhuo rejected the idea before he could finish speaking.
She glanced around.
They were all dressed in brocade robes, their hair bound with jade crowns; so, there could only be…
"Young Master Zheng, you go ahead. You look the most pathetic."
Zheng Si was covered in wine and mung bean soup, with small glutinous rice balls hanging in his hair. His clothes were disheveled and wrinkled, making him look extremely downcast and dejected.
"Go ask the blind man for a marriage proposal. Don't say the wrong thing, because whether Miss Zheng's reputation and life can be saved depends on you."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Si immediately perked up.
Gu Zhizhuo gave him a thorough explanation of what he needed to say and then sent him downstairs.
The others didn't quite understand either, but when they heard that Zheng Si was going to seek a marriage match, they all gathered around the window to watch the spectacle.
Zheng Si staggered out of the tavern, his steps swaying from drunkenness.
It was only about a hundred steps from the tavern to the fortune-telling stall. He rubbed his head and was about to cross the road when a carriage suddenly sped past Zheng Si, forcing him to swerve to avoid it. The carriage stopped in front of the fortune-telling stall, and a girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old stepped out.
Zheng Si recognized her at a glance; she was the Third Prince's sweetheart, the one surnamed Ji.
The carriage blocked Zheng Si's view, so Ji Nanke didn't see him, and even if she did, she might not recognize him.
Zheng Si's current disheveled appearance is like that of a drunkard with a hangover on the road; where is the former demeanor and style of the fourth young master of the Zheng family?
After getting off the carriage, Ji Nanke went straight to the fortune-telling stall. She sat down in front of the blind man and said with a smile, "I've heard that the talismans for finding a partner here are particularly effective, so I'd like to ask for one."
The blind man rolled his eyes upwards, revealing only the whites, and swayed his head from side to side as he spoke, saying in a hoarse voice, "Young lady, are you here to have your marriage fortune told?"
He pushed a fortune-telling container over: "Young lady, please draw a fortune stick first, and the old blind man will interpret it for you."
Ji Nanke didn't even look at the divination tube; she just took out a handful of golden melon seeds and threw them on the stall.
Each of these golden melon seeds weighs two qian (approximately 6 grams), and this handful weighs a full ten liang (approximately 50 grams). Under the sunlight, they radiate the unique and alluring luster of gold, almost restoring the sight of a blind man.
He resisted the urge to reach for it and smiled, "Miss..."
Ji Nanke calmly interrupted him: "I only need one marriage talisman, I can give you all of these."
The blind man hesitated for a moment.
He once swore to that master that he would use these talismans to save those who are down on their luck and make good deeds for himself. Now, wouldn't it be a bad idea to use them to make money?
But this gold...
The blind man swallowed hard.
Ji Nanke grabbed another handful of golden melon seeds. She raised her hand and let the seeds fall one by one from her palm onto the fortune-telling stall with a clattering sound. Each falling seed made his heart pound.
"A marriage charm."
"These are all yours."
Ji Nanke only learned by chance that the old blind man's marriage talisman was extremely effective, as if it had been cursed.
At first, she was skeptical.
How could a mere talisman possibly control a person's love, resentment, anger, and delusion? But later...
She believes it now.
Her aunt firmly believed that the emperor had feelings for her, but was forced to not welcome her into the palace.
However, a few days ago, under the pretext of presenting the Emperor with a divine crossbow, she asked Xie Jing to take her to the palace to meet the Emperor.
She subtly probed the emperor, mentioning her aunt's "serious illness" and the neglect she had received from the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion. She discovered that the emperor had absolutely no affection for her aunt.
After much deliberation, she realized that the only hope for getting the emperor to willingly bring her aunt into the palace was this marriage charm.
"how?"
Ji Nanke asked another question.
The blind man hesitated even more, and his throat became dry.
So, Ji Nanke smiled and placed the third handful of golden melon seeds.
The blind man could no longer hold back. He gathered all the golden melon seeds together in his hands and held them in his palms.
The master gave him a total of ten marriage charms. He has already saved nine people. Shouldn't he use the last one for himself?
Ji Nanke smiled and waited calmly.
The blind man took out a red lucky bag and handed it to her.
He spoke in a calm voice, adopting a mysterious demeanor, and said, "As long as you give it to your beloved, you will get what you want."
Ji Nanke reached out and took it, opened the lucky bag and glanced inside. Inside was a talisman folded into a triangle.
She tucked the lucky bag into her sleeve pocket, stood up, and said, "Thank you for your kind words."
A note from the author:
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
