Thousand Dusts Ferry Me - Chapter 87

He Lanqing naturally dared not lack sincerity.

He made up his mind to perform well, hoping that perhaps the immortal lady would see his hard work and remove the shared fate gu from him.

He told Yun Qing that he could write some reward notices and have the government offices distribute them layer by layer.

With the government’s guarantee and substantial rewards, there would surely be people who coveted the money and would send their female family members for selection. This wasn’t selling them into slavery, and they wouldn’t need to be responsible for any children born later, so these people shouldn’t be too resistant.

As long as enough people came, they would surely be able to select suitable ones.

Yun Qing nodded. She felt that this He Lanqing, as long as it didn’t involve women, could still use his brain. What an odd man.

Having received approval, He Lanqing immediately ordered people to write the reward notices. He wrote a personal letter for someone to deliver to the county magistrate, briefly explaining the situation. Of course, the letter also demanded that the county magistrate arrest the courtesan Liangxiao.

After finishing these tasks, He Lanqing looked at Yun Qing ingratiatingly. He didn’t dare make excessive demands, only saying, “Immortal lady, could you help me divine where that wretched woman Liangxiao has fled to?”

Yun Qing looked at him curiously, “How exactly did you offend her?”

“I never offended her!” He Lanqing was both angry and aggrieved. “I spent silver to support her, dressed her in gold and jade. Everyone on Jade Street knows that I, He Lanqing, am generous with money. Plenty of women want to get close to me! She simply didn’t know her good fortune and was ungrateful!”

Fu Xue curled her lips, “Either you caused romantic trouble elsewhere and she was unhappy about it.”

When this topic came up, He Lanqing actually became proud, “I have plenty of romantic debts. Who knows which one made her—uh.” He suddenly stopped, as if remembering something. His eyes shifted, and his expression gradually became serious.

Cheng Suiyan raised an eyebrow, “So it really was a romantic debt?”

“No, I…” He Lanqing hesitated, somewhat uncertain, “I think I once got drunk and said some things in front of her.”

“What things?”

“Nothing much, perhaps I remembered wrong.” He shook his head and hurriedly took leave of everyone.

“This man,” Cheng Suiyan said disdainfully, watching his retreating figure, “lustful by nature. Now that he’s fallen into a woman’s hands, he deserves what he gets.”

Fu Xue said curiously, “I wonder what romantic trouble he actually caused.”

****

After climbing through the window, Liangxiao ran out through the back door of Yixiang Tower. She first entered a clothing shop, borrowed a set of simple clothes and shoes to change into, and put on a veiled hat. Then she left the clothing shop, quickly walked through several alleys, and came to an inn.

This inn was called Rugui Inn. Its conditions naturally couldn’t compare to Zhenxia Inn, but it could be considered clean and comfortable. Liangxiao entered the inn and said to the attendant, “I’m looking for Chen Sanlang from Zhuze City. Please inform him.”

The attendant smiled, “May I ask if you are Lady Liangxiao?”

Liangxiao nodded.

“Chen Sanlang has instructed that he’s waiting for you in his room. I’ll take you there.”

Liangxiao followed the attendant to a certain room marked with the character “Ren.” The attendant knocked on the door, saying, “Chen Sanlang, Lady Liangxiao has arrived.”

The door opened from inside.

A pale, beardless man of about thirty stood in the doorway, examining Liangxiao. Liangxiao lifted her veiled hat and nodded to him.

Under the veiled hat was a woman with a powdered peach-blossom face and autumn-water eyes, with thin red lips and a small brown mole like a sesame seed beside them.

Seemingly stunned by Liangxiao’s beauty, Chen Sanlang was momentarily dazed.

Then he invited Liangxiao into the room.

Though Chen Sanlang stayed in a simple inn, his words and behavior still showed some refinement. He invited Liangxiao to sit, poured tea for her, and then made small talk.

Since they were meeting for the first time and didn’t really know each other, they could only chat about weather and scenery. Fortunately, Liangxiao also came from Zhuze City, so they had some common topics and weren’t left in awkward silence.

However, the room was cramped, and Chen Sanlang felt embarrassed, appearing somewhat uncomfortable.

But Liangxiao wasn’t one to drag things out. Hearing Chen Sanlang’s idle chatter, she grew impatient and said directly, “Chen Sanlang, let’s get straight to the point. You must have already read the letter I sent you, otherwise you wouldn’t have come here.”

Chen Sanlang opened his mouth and said, “Yes. You said in the letter that there were hidden circumstances behind my sister’s death?”

“Yes. Your sister Jinniang was beaten to death by her husband.”

“What did you say?!” Chen Sanlang jumped up from his chair, staring with wide, incredulous eyes, “You’re saying He Lanqing he…?”

It turned out that the Jinniang they spoke of was actually He Lanqing’s deceased wife from the previous year, Chen Jinshu, who had died at only twenty-one years old.

This Chen Sanlang’s full name was Chen Fengchun, and he and Chen Jinshu were siblings from the same mother. The Chen family had once been a scholarly household, but starting from Chen Fengchun’s father’s generation, the clan’s descendants proved worthless, and the Chen family gradually declined.

The clan did produce one extremely intelligent descendant with exceptional scholarly talent, but unfortunately it was a daughter—Chen Jinshu.

Chen Jinshu had a marriage contract with He Lanqing from childhood. She married at eighteen, and after only three years of marriage, Chen Fengchun received news of his sister’s death, separating them forever.

The siblings had always been close. When Chen Fengchun learned last year that his sister had died of illness, he cried until he nearly fainted. So when he received the letter this time, Chen Fengchun came to Zhuze City with confusion, never expecting to hear such shocking news.

Despite the winter cold, Chen Fengchun broke out in a cold sweat. He composed himself and said gravely, “This matter is extremely serious. Are you certain?”

Liangxiao nodded firmly, “I’m certain.”

“How did you come to know this?”

“To be honest, I’m a courtesan from Yixiang Tower, and He Lanqing is my…” Liangxiao gritted her teeth and squeezed out two words, “patron.”

Hearing her say this, Chen Fengchun’s expression became somewhat strange. An unfamiliar courtesan had actually sought him out on her own initiative to tell him the cause of his sister’s death, and the culprit was her own patron.

Liangxiao continued, “That day He Lanqing got drunk and let it slip in front of me. He said Jinniang was stubborn, disobedient, and looked down on him. One day when he was drinking and saw that she was always cold and indifferent toward him, he decided to teach her a lesson.

He had four maids hold down her hands and feet while he whipped her with a cane. Later he forced her to kneel on thorns, then used a silver teapot to strike her head, even knocking off her eyelids…”

“Don’t say anymore,” Chen Fengchun listened with tears streaming down his face. Unable to maintain his dignity now, he crouched on the ground in pain, “Don’t say anymore…”

Liangxiao said quietly, “Jinniang died that very night. The next day, He Lanqing bribed the coroner who examined the body, and the autopsy result was sudden heart failure. The matter was dropped.”

“Jinniang, brother is incompetent to only learn the truth now. You must have died with unrest. Brother has failed you!” Chen Fengchun crouched on the ground, crying as he held his head.

Liangxiao looked down at him, “What use is crying? Can your tears cry He Lanqing to death?”

“Then what do you suggest?”

“Go to the yamen and beat the drum to cry injustice. File charges against He Lanqing for murder.”

Chen Fengchun looked up at her incredulously, “Do you think beating the drum to cry injustice is child’s play? We have no evidence. What if he counter-sues us for false accusation?”

“Just go beat the drum. I naturally have ways to make him confess.”

“How can you do that?”

A flash of determination crossed Liangxiao’s eyes, “Because I’m betting my life on it.”

****

The next day, when Yun Qing saw He Lanqing again, she discovered that half his face was actually swollen.

It looked like someone had slapped it swollen.

Yun Qing pointed at his face, “What happened to you?”

At the mention of this, He Lanqing immediately became teary-eyed, “Immortal lady, save me! Our house is haunted!”

“Haunted?”

“Yes, yes, yes!” He Lanqing rapidly recounted what had happened the night before.

Last night he had been sleeping with his arms around one of his concubines when he was awakened by pain in the middle of the night.

Opening his eyes, he realized someone was slapping him in the darkness. Thinking it was the concubine attacking him in the night, he became furious and sat up abruptly, calling for someone to light candles so he could properly punish this concubine who dared ambush him.

But the concubine was cowering in the corner of the bed, trembling and looking terrified—not like someone with the courage to ambush him.

He felt around on the bed and touched an embroidered shoe.

He Lanqing threw the embroidered shoe to the floor and grabbed the concubine, scolding, “Was it you!”

Just then, the embroidered shoe on the floor suddenly jumped up and slapped him across the face with its sole!

He covered his face, dumbstruck.

The maid who had come to light the candles hadn’t left yet. Seeing the embroidered shoe hit someone, she screamed, “Ghost!” and ran away like smoke.

He Lanqing also trembled as he ran away, changing rooms and embracing a different concubine to continue sleeping.

As soon as he blew out the light and lay down, slap across his face.

The same familiar sensation.

He had no choice but to get up and have people hide the embroidered shoe.

But it was useless. Who would have thought an embroidered shoe could break out of prison? The hidden shoe ran back and continued slapping him.

When he ran, the shoe could chase him through the air and continue hitting him.

Like this, he was beaten by the embroidered shoe for over half an hour, his face swelling until it hurt to touch.

After finishing his account, He Lanqing asked Yun Qing, “Immortal lady, tell me, was it that wretched woman Liangxiao who did this?!”

Yun Qing shook her head, “I don’t think so.”

Cheng Suiyan muttered to himself, “This method seems so familiar…” It was just like when he was molested by the snowman…

He leaned closer to Jiang Baiyu and whispered, “Brother, was it you?”

Jiang Baiyu glanced at him sideways.

From that look, Cheng Suiyan felt that if he continued asking, the next person to have his face swollen by a shoe would be him.

So he wisely shut his mouth, stood behind Jiang Baiyu, winked at Yun Qing, then silently pointed at Jiang Baiyu.

Yun Qing looked at Jiang Baiyu with a half-smile, then said to He Lanqing, “You offended an immortal yesterday, which is why you’re being haunted. It shouldn’t happen again tonight.”

He Lanqing felt relieved and asked, “Then what immortal did I offend? I’ll go home later and burn some incense to apologize to the immortal.”

“Yes, what immortal indeed…” Yun Qing stroked her chin, murmuring.

At this moment, Jiang Baiyu suddenly spoke up, “The Vinegar God.”