Chapter 224 The meanest man in the world
Only then did Chang Nuo realize that Feng Yang had only one aunt, Feng Jiugu, who was a widow. What he said that his aunt got married with a dowry of 14,000 liang silver referred to his real aunt. Damn it, he couldn’t relax for a moment when dealing with He Danggui. She actually found many of his backgrounds. Fortunately, she was not his enemy, otherwise he would worry about whether to kill her.
He Danggui didn’t know what he thought. She continued, “In consideration of what you said before that you could go to the Emperor’s feast, so you do be a rich man with distinguished status.” She breathed a sigh of relief, “You’ve already known many of my secrets, but you are still keeping eyes on me. At least now, I know something about you, or if one day I die, I don’t know how to tell Death.”
Chang Nuo knocked her head and said, “I often scold Yuan as an old man because he is often worrying about nothing. Today I see an old lady, who is you! Why should I kill you for no reason? I’d like to fawn on you, and soon I can get 20,000 liang silver.”
He Danggui rubbed her forehead and suddenly said with wide eyes, “I see. He Fu didn’t lie. The 20,000 liang silver belongs to my mother! He must have stolen my grandfather’s 4 treasures, so he had so much silver and left my mother with a dowry of thousand liang silver without hesitation. Therefore, on the fourth day after he left, my mother knelt in front of my grandfather’s memorial tablet and cried! That’s because He Fu stole the only four things left to her by my grandfather. And those things were privately given to her, so she couldn’t ask Luo’s Family to get things back, nor could she notify the local Yamen. Damn it! He Fu does evil enough!”
Chang Nuo was surprised, “What 4 treasures are worth 20,000 liang silver?”
He Danggui explained, “I read about it from my grandfather’s book. He said that Zhenlong Composition (Go game; global ingenious creation) was kept with my mother and I could study Go skills by using the ancient jade Go stones. But I never see my mother has that. The 4 treasures that represent ‘Qin, Go, Calligraphy and Painting’ had been stolen by He Fu before I saw my grandfather’s book. ‘Qin’ is Jiaowei Qin of Three Kingdoms period, which sounds like the cold spring; ‘Go’ is Zhenlong Go of Northern Song Dynasty, and the Go board is five inches square, which is carved with green emerald; ‘Calligraphy’ refers to the Four Treasures of the Study. The ink-stone and writing-brush washer are the rarest, who are all from the Master Su Dongpo; and ‘Painting’ is my grandfather’s copy of the Master Wu Daozi’s painting. It is so vivid, which might be regarded as the authentic painting and stolen by He Fu.”
Chang Nuo frowned and asked, “What can we do? Do I need to send a letter to the capital and let someone ‘ask’ He Fu to tell where they are?”
He Danggui hesitated for a moment, and said, “I guess He Fu must have pawned those things in the pawnshop. Such the valuable things which are worth so much money must be the unredeemable pawn. No doubt we can’t redeem with money. It’s useless to ‘ask’ He Fu. I can only blame my grandmother for not knowing people clearly. When she first saw He Fu, she regarded him as her son-in-law, which caused my mother to be injured for the second time. This is truly retribution.” Speaking of her dead grandmother, she gnashed her teeth.
Chang Nuo comforted her, “Fortunately, the silver is back with a total of 21,424 liang. Plus, my 300 liang, and it is a total of 21,724 liang. Well, girl, now you are richer than all my sisters.”
He Danggui smiled and said, “Thanks to that I have a generous friend like you. You don’t even take any commission, and give me the money, which includes whole and change amount. Didn’t the government even leave 1 liang silver to He’s Family when searching the house and confiscating the property? By the way, do you know what happened to He Fu’s mother, sister, brother-in-law and his concubines?”
Chang Nuo answered, “I heard that as soon as he was in prison, one of his concubines left his four-year-old daughter and went away with a fellow, but I didn’t know others’ conditions.” Suddenly, he smiled and continued, “If you want to know, you can ask Lord Ning in a few days. He is coming from the capital, and he is so concerned about you. He will definitely inquire about it clearly.”
He Danggui didn’t know what to say. If Zhu Quan could inquire about those people’s situations, she would use his last name and write her name upside down.
At this moment, it was about to dawn. They had spent the whole night in the Bitter Bamboo Grove unknowingly.
Chang Nuo found a dogskin plaster from his sleeve and put it on the crack on his face. Then he turned his face to He Danggui and asked, “Is the wound on my face covered? I’m going to visit Madam Luo. It’s better not to be found.” He sorted out the tattered and muddy robe and smiled bitterly, “It’s too embarrassing to meet people like this. Maybe I should steal a clothing from Childe Luo.”
“You carry plasters with you. Is your mask often broken?” He Danggui teased him, “Zhoushi, are you often slapped by others?”
Chang Nuo glared at her, “Hey, you did it on purpose, right? When did you find out that I was wearing a human-skin mask?”
He Danggui walked up the bamboo trail leading to the outside, and explained, “When you and me passed the energy face to face in the cave, I found that your facial skin was amazingly good without any pore and more delicate than a woman’s skin. I suspected that it was because the fire was not bright enough, so I ignored it. Later, I almost fell on the dark mountain road, and you lit Huo Zhe Zi. Your face was dazzled by the light of phosphorous fire, so I saw the scene that surprised me the most. Except for the eyebrows, you don’t even have a tiny hair on your face.”
Chang Nuo couldn’t help but touch his face. It was extremely smooth. He remembered the various appearances of Taoist Sage he had ever seen. Each mask was an artwork and flawless. The hair and beard all seemed to grow from inside, and eagle-eyed people couldn’t find any shortcoming. There was a huge difference between him and Taoist Sage.
The 2 people walked side by side leaving the bamboo grove. He Danggui continued, “Thinking of that Bai Yangbai also acquaints with you, so I guess you also have learned his disguise skill and put on a mask. But your behaviors are indeed Feng Yang I have known for 3 years, so I guess that maybe there is no Feng Yang in the world, but a mysterious man wearing Feng Yang’s mask, right, Zhoushi?”
Chang Nuo nodded with a smile, “You are smart but not wise enough. You’ve already told me all of these, but aren’t you afraid that I’m going to kill you?”
He Danggui patted her chest and glanced at him, “It’s really scary to kill all the time. Let’s set one more rule. When you have to kill me, please do it briskly. Don’t be always much cry and little wool. Or before you kill me, you will scare me to death.” She took a deep breath of the morning breeze with mist in the bamboo grove. She sighed, “What a bad night. I’ve been frightened a lot with you, and I even saw the human bones. I’m afraid that I’ll have nightmares again in these days.”
Speaking of those dozens of mandibles, Chang Nuo was also a little scared, “I didn’t expect Luo’s Mansion has such a terrible thing. Not only you, even I have to sleep during the day for these days. Qingyi, there is such an evil lurking in Luo’s Mansion. I am really worried about you staying there. Anyway, after dawn, I will invite you to Feng’s Mansion in the name of the ladies of Feng’s Family. Why don’t you go with me this morning? There are surprises in my separate courtyard for you. I promise you will be delighted, and never want to return to Luo’s Mansion.”
“Your surprises usually shock me. I have learned about this long time ago,” He Danggui said while looking down at the road, “I said that I can’t go during the New Year’s Day. Even if I have to wait upon Lord Ning, I’ll go after these days, and I don’t want to stay overnight there. I’d like to return to Luo’s Mansion at night. As for the human bones, although I don’t know who put them there, I remember a case of extermination 3 years ago. At that time, the government had concealed a lot of the truth about it because the case was too bloody. I heard about it when I visited my Elder Cousin.”
Chang Nuo slowed down and waited for her. He looked down at her and said, “You are talking about the rape and murder case 3 years ago? All the dead people who were raised outside were Luo Baiqian’s concubines and children. What are the hidden secrets in this case?”
He Danggui said quietly, “I heard that female lower jaws are slightly rounded, while male lower jaws are more square and wider. Didn’t you notice? The mandibles in the caves are semicircular without exception, but the edges are very thin.”
Chang Nuo was frightened. He took a breath and almost lost his voice, “You mean... Those all are...”
He Danggui nodded and said, “After the case happened 3 years ago, I heard that my Elder Cousin often had nightmares, waking up in shock. He was spaced-out and didn’t want to take a meal during the day. If such things continued, Zhu might lose his father in early age. So, I visited him and felt his uneven pulse, which was a very serious heart disease. After my several probes, he told me the dark memories hidden in his heart. It turned out that when he heard that his women had an accident, he went to the courtyard and wanted to find out what happened. However, there were several government officials guarding the courtyard gate, and he was not allowed to enter. But he knocked down the few people in anger and rushed in. After only one glance, he understood why the government officials wanted to stop him, and he knew why the government did not encoffin the women but burned them together with the courtyard, as a collective cremation.”
Chang Nuo shivered involuntarily. Regarding the unclaimed bodies, the government always chose to send them to the mortuary, waiting for the relatives of the deceased to receive or worship. However, if the corpse was incomplete, or there was only a part of the corpse, then in order to quell the grievances of those who had no whole corpses as soon as possible, they usually chose cremation, which meant dust to dust, ashes to ashes, and all stared from the beginning.
He Danggui said after she was silent for a while, “My Elder Cousin told me that after he entered the courtyard, he found that those women... had no chins and eyes, and the parts that were taken away could not be found at the scene. It means after the murderer raped and killed them, he took away their chins and eyes one by one as a souvenir. He kept those things until he passed by Luo’s Mansion recently, and on a whim, he put his ‘collectibles’ into the caves where he lived in the past.”
Hearing this, Chang Nuo retorted fiercely, “You’re talking nonsense. How could Yuan be a murderer! He hasn’t been to Yangzhou City for 3 years. Now he’s in the capital, and has never been to the caves again, or why are the puppets with your face still there! And as far as I know, he has never beaten women, let alone killing so many women! You misunderstand him so deeply!”
“Well?” He Danggui sneered, “Zhu Quan never beats women? How do you know? He will not beat women in front of you!”
Ha, in the several months of her previous life before she died, the most impressive thing was that Zhu Quan kicked her chest violently. At that time, she vomited blood which flew a few feet. Then she got up and hissed to him, “I don’t hate Zhou Jinglan, Xu Siniang, or Xie Qiaofeng. I understand what they thought... Zhu Quan, do you know that what I hate the most is the man who beats women! The person I hate the most is you! I am regretful. I have worked for you for more than 10 years and lost my children. What I get is your kick!” However, Zhu Quan didn’t say a word. He asked people to burn her throat with hot charcoal, and then throw her into the Water Dungeon in late autumn to soak to death.
Chang Nuo said with wide eyes, “Of course I know he never beats women. He told me personally! He said, what you hate the most is man who beats women, so in order not to be hated by you, he has never beat women in 3 years!”
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