Volume 5: Fellow Traveler Chapter 827: Throwing a Tantrum Meets an Iron Plate
Zhang Shou personally came to see him off when he came, and of course Zhang Shou personally came to pick him up when he left. He did not mobilize a large army, only a dozen guards and two carriages. After all, the New Year was approaching, and there were endless carriages on the official road. In addition to the officials sent by local governments to report to the capital, there were also local wanderers and merchants rushing back to the capital to celebrate the New Year. He did not want to be too conspicuous.
However, this time there was no King of Jiangdu and no Crown Prince, so he did not need to hide his tracks. When the carriage stopped, it was at the door of the big house of the village chief of Baijia Village. As soon as the carriage stopped, he heard a messy sound coming from inside. If it was just for Zhang Chen and the Fourth Prince to practice, it was obviously too noisy.
After opening the car door, lifting the curtain and helping Zhang Shou get out, Ah Liu went in without saying anything. After a while, the young man came out quickly with a subtle expression, coughed and whispered, "It was Zhang Chen who was helping Miss Ye to curse, and he cursed the shrew to the ground... I didn't expect him to be so righteous."
Zhang Shou was stunned. You know, Zhu Ying had tried to match Zhang Chen and Ye Shi, but it obviously didn't work. However, Zhang Chen didn't have any big complaints or regrets afterwards, and Ye Shi seemed to be doing fine.
The reason he had thought of asking Ye to be the judge was not to force a matchmaking, but because he thought that she had once made it all the way to the re-election when the prince's wife was selected. Since she seemed unwilling to get married, it would be a good idea to let the third prince, the crown prince, have an idea of such a person. Then Miss Ye would not have to worry about gossip and family pressure.
Even when he came last time, when Ah Liu brought the Third Prince with him, and during the two visits in between, he had not discovered any interaction between Zhang Chen and Ye. Moreover, Ah Liu had carefully questioned the village chief. How could that sophisticated but timid village chief have the guts to hide such a matter between a man and a woman from Ah Liu?
So, was it really that Zhang Chen's chivalrous temper suddenly flared up? But in a place like Baijia Village, who would dare to provoke Ye, a powerful woman who dared to cut off someone's ear and take him to the government?
With the intention of watching the fun, Zhang Shou immediately told Ah Liu to lead the way, and followed him in with a smile. Sure enough, he soon heard a voice that cried out to the heavens and the earth: "God, please open your eyes. There are evil people bullying a chaste widow like me. They want to take advantage of their family's wealth and power to snatch my daughter to be a maid. This is simply unjust!"
Faced with such noisy shouting, Zhang Shou couldn't help but have the urge to cover his ears. When he looked at other people, he only saw that the village chief had a look of exasperation on his face, but he didn't come forward to stop them. Other villagers were pointing and talking. Although he didn't see the cause and effect, he roughly understood what had happened just from the crying of the woman who claimed to be a widow.
Sure enough, the next moment, he heard a girl's calm voice: "Didn't you say I was a burden before? When did you ever treat me as your daughter?"
Widow Gu, who had lost her husband but was a bully in the village because of her fierce and aggressive temper, was suddenly retorted by her stepdaughter. At first, she seemed to be choked and stunned, but then her crying voice suddenly rose by more than an octave.
"You little bitch, if it weren't for me you would have starved to death! I should have sold you long ago..."
"Unfortunately, I'm not good-looking, so I can't sell it for the price you want. So now you're planning to extort as much as you can, right?"
Zhang Shou couldn't help laughing when he saw that ordinary-looking girl was choking him with words again. But the next moment, the widow jumped up like a firecracker and yelled, "Bullshit, you are the daughter of that dead ghost, but you are my daughter. If I say no, you can't go anywhere!"
"Miss Ye, you are just a person who wanted to be a prince's consort but failed. Now no man dares to marry you, and even your family doesn't like you, so you hide in our village and pretend to be noble! You put on a cold face but flirt with that pretty boy named Zhang, do you think no one can see it! You picked a girl and brought her home, God knows if you want to sell her off!"
"You want to take him away? Fine. One hundred strings of cash, not a cent less. Otherwise, I'll go to the government office and hang myself on his doorstep!"
Seeing that Zhang Chen was so angry that veins on his forehead bulged, he rushed forward with clenched fists. Cao Qingqing beside Ye was also holding the slingshot tightly in her hand, and Ye had a dagger in his hand. They were about to take action. The Fourth Prince on the side was so angry that he jumped up and down, and was yelling at Xiao Cheng, the little peanut, so he immediately shouted.
"A-Liu."
In a flash, Ah Liu, who was following behind, rushed out like a gust of wind. The next moment, he appeared behind a noisy widow before Zhang Chen, grabbed her by the collar, and suddenly jumped high.
Although the woman who claimed to be a widow was big and strong, and was very heavy, Ah Liu, who was holding her, threw her, kicked her, and finally successfully threw her onto the roof. After putting her down, the boy clapped his hands, and didn't care about her at all, and landed on the ground lightly with a flat sand falling wild goose style.
This sudden scene made everyone around silent instantly, while the widow Gu who was thrown on the roof, after the initial shock, kept her mouth shut, and then her voice of shouting for help became louder. And in the midst of her abuse and even curses, Zhang Shou just picked his ears indifferently, and then said lightly: "Let the wind blow for a day, let the northwest wind wash her mouth well!"
Ah Liu immediately looked at the village chief with sharp eyes: "Young Master said one day, if you lose one hour, I will throw you up!"
Such overbearing words and actions were never seen before by the men, women, young and old in the village. Seeing the village chief nodding hurriedly after the initial shock, they could not help but remain silent.
Zhang Shou glanced at the girl who was obviously in a daze, then he hooked his finger at the village chief. When someone came up, he asked casually, "Is the one on the roof the girl's stepmother?"
The village chief had never thought that Zhang Shou would be so strong. He was stunned for a moment before he hurriedly said, "Yes, yes, that widow Gu is from the neighboring village and is the stepmother of this girl. This girl has a miserable life. Her mother died when she gave birth to her. Later, her father married that she-devil, so her good life is over. If her father hadn't died, the she-devil wouldn't have wanted to sell her for a good price..."
Hearing the village chief's constant calls of a female demon, Widow Gu, who was trying to get down from the roof, was furious. However, before she could jump up and curse, she saw the handsome but extremely cruel boy below raise his head, look at her with interest, and then smile slightly.
"So you wanted to take advantage of your stepdaughter. It's a pity that you don't have eyes."
After saying this, Zhang Shou ignored the widow's expression and looked at the village chief and asked, "You said she married the girl's father, so she is someone's stepmother? Since it's a marriage, there is a marriage certificate filed in the Tongzhou County Office. Has the Yellow Book been changed to the household registration?"
Faced with such a question, the village chief was even more confused. After a long while, he said cautiously: "There should be no marriage certificate, and the household registration has not been changed in time. After all, she had been married for less than a year and her husband died..."
Zhang Shou immediately laughed. "Without a marriage certificate and without changing her household registration, she claims to be someone's mother and wants to sell her for money? How dare she! Ah Liu, don't let her sit here on the rooftop in the northwest wind. Tie her up and send her to the Tongzhou County Office to be prosecuted for impersonating a woman and selling innocent people!"
How could this be possible? Zhang Chen, who had just been so angry that he wanted to chop the man into pieces, suddenly felt refreshed. This time, he truly understood what Zhang Shou often meant when he told him to use his brain before doing things!
Even Ye couldn't help but raise her eyebrows in surprise. She felt that she had once again met the man in the legend who had charmed the eldest daughter of the Duke of Zhao with just his face, and thus transformed himself into the perfect son-in-law of the Duke of Zhao.
Although Widow Gu on the roof was trembling with fear, she was about to cry, but she didn't expect that Ah Liu was the kind of person who would immediately execute orders after hearing them. He jumped onto the roof.
The young man brought the person down in the same way as he had just brought her up. As a result, Widow Gu screamed in fear in mid-air. But as soon as she landed on the ground, before she could even take a breath, a piece of rag was stuffed into her mouth, and then she was tied up. She could not speak or move.
The village chief was a little panicked when he realized that Zhang Shou was serious. Widow Gu was indeed a nasty she-devil, but this evil woman knew a lot about the messy things in this village. If she made a fuss in court, wouldn't she be embarrassed?
However, who would have thought that this evil woman would be so bold as to think that Miss Ye's family was in decline and easy to bully, and she even dared to slander her for having an affair with the eldest son of the Duke of Zhao's mansion... If you want to die, please don't bring trouble to our entire village! I was just watching the fun, but it was because I was exhausted by those two young masters who I couldn't afford to offend in recent days, and I was resentful that my granddaughter was not chosen. When he saw Zhang Shou coming, he was almost scared to death!
Therefore, the village chief rushed to the side of Widow Gu and cursed fiercely in a low voice: "Put aside those messed up thoughts and shut your stinky mouth! Do you know who that pretty boy named Zhang you scolded is? He was the eldest son of Duke Qin! Do you know who the person who wanted to send you to the government just now was? He was the son-in-law of Duke Zhao's mansion!"
"That kid you don't take seriously, that's... I'm too lazy to tell you!"
The village chief, who almost exposed the Fourth Prince's identity, took a deep breath. Seeing that Widow Gu, who had just been like a shrew, finally showed deep fear, he made up his mind, swung his right hand and slapped Widow Gu twice, beating her unconscious. Then he turned around and smiled at Zhang Shou.
"Master Zhang, our village is unfortunate to have such a nonsense-talking shrew. If you hadn't told me, I would have forgotten that she didn't have a marriage certificate. At best, she was having an affair, and she had no right to control Xiao Wei's whereabouts! This is such a small matter, there's really no need to send it to the government. How can the county magistrate have so much free time to deal with a shrew like her? Let's open the ancestral hall and deal with this shrew!"
Widow Gu was filled with grief and anger. The ancestral hall was usually used to scare those newly married young wives with no foundation, or to deal with some troublemakers in the village. How could it affect her? What's more, she had just received two heavy slaps!
However, the fierce look of the village chief fell on her like a knife. The usually fierce female demon was finally frightened and shivered at this moment, and finally realized what she had just heard. Although she was only the king in this rural area, the countryside of Tongzhou could barely be considered the foot of the emperor, and she still knew who the eldest son of the Duke of Qin was.
He was a real little bully who was countless times more tyrannical than her. Did she just go crazy because of her greed for money?
As for the Duke Zhao's son-in-law, that scholar Zhang... Even she, a country girl, had heard of his reputation. Seeing him today, she realized that he was indeed good-looking, but his schemes were also extremely cruel. Without saying a word, he fabricated a crime and wanted to send her to the government office for trial! This was not some kind of immortal banished from heaven... This was simply a murderer from the underworld!
At this moment, she would be satisfied as long as she was not sent to the yamen. She no longer cared about the consequences of opening the ancestral hall. She huddled in a panic and dared not move. She prayed desperately in her heart that these nobles from the capital in front of her would let her go.
Zhang Shou did not respond to the village chief's plea, but nodded slightly to Zhang Chen and Ye, then waved his hand to call the fourth prince over. After gently touching the little guy's head, he said indifferently: "Since the little girl is not the daughter of that she-devil, her parents are gone, so she is a free person. As long as she is willing, she can follow Miss Ye."
If they were the scoundrels from the streets or the lackeys of the rich and powerful, Ye would have beaten them up right away.
However, the widow Gu insisted that they were bullying her by taking advantage of their power, so she acted like a fool, made a fuss, and even threatened to ask the censor for justice. The villagers were just watching the fun. She remembered that Zhang Chen and the Fourth Prince had been teaching here for a month, but no one came out to say a fair word for Zhang Chen. The feeling of pity for their misfortune and anger at their lack of resistance was gone.
When Zhang Shou used such a simple and crude trick to frighten the widow Gu and forced the village chief to come out, she finally came to her senses and secretly laughed at herself for being like those talented women, being afraid to act rashly and feeling sad about the passing of time. Therefore, when Zhang Shou said this, she saw that the widow Gu's stepdaughter Xiao Wei actually came forward to pay her respects, and she laughed.
She didn't say anything to ask Xiao Wei to go with her, but turned around and walked in front of Gu Gu Gu, raised her right hand, and cut the hemp rope that tied the man with the short knife. The next moment, her short knife cut off the man's hair bun with a cold light, and then turned the handle of the knife upside down and hit the man's mouth hard. This time, the man's mouth was full of blood, and he actually broke several teeth from this!
Seeing the woman rolling on the ground in pain, she turned around and saluted Zhang Chen and Zhang Shou, saying, "Thank you, Master Zhang, for today. It was because of my weakness that you, Master Zhang, were humiliated by this bitch. Qingqing, let's go, take Xiao Wei with you."
