After following Sun's daughter-in-law into the thatched cottage, the old lady asked, "What do you want? The door was very tight."
"Old lady, I'm here to report. Just now I was selling tofu on the street. When I was walking in the county government office, I saw an official pressing Qingchen's child. His legs were bloody. I went to ask in secret. It turned out that it was the Zhao family who complained, saying that Qingchen was against him. Miss Zhao has evil intentions and has been detained. I hurriedly ran back to send a message to my wife to try to rescue him."
The old lady asked: "Is this true?"
"How dare you lie?"
Sun Qingchen's mother was already weak. The child did not come back yesterday and the day before yesterday. She just thought that Qingchen was sleeping in the school again. There were many errands outside. If he was tired, he would sometimes rest in the school dormitory. , but didn’t expect him to be arrested.
When the old lady heard this, she was so angry that she shook all over.
"How is this going?"
The daughter-in-law suddenly remembered that two days ago, someone from the Zhao family came to invite the ministers. She also gave him the engagement contract and asked him to break off the engagement so as not to delay the future of the girl.
Disasters fall from heaven.
The old lady was very old, and she cried and scolded her, saying that Qingchen was definitely not that kind of child. The Zhao family had lost their conscience and slandered Qingchen. The daughter-in-law was also very anxious, and she wanted to comfort her mother at the same time.
The old lady's saliva suddenly became clogged with anger, and she fell to the ground. Sun Qingchen's mother hugged the old lady and shouted: "Mom, wake up!"
She screamed several times, but was unable to save herself. She saw that the old lady's face was as green as a green leaf, and she was completely breathless. The old lady was usually strong and strong, but she never imagined that this day would come. The old lady was standing straight and cold all over.
After shouting "Oh God," the Sun family's daughter-in-law couldn't help but burst into tears.
When he had cried enough, he stopped crying and said, "Your Majesty is still in prison. I have to try to save him."
A young woman went to the county government office every day, complaining about injustice.
The people from the county government didn't even look at her and kicked her out as soon as she came.
She had no choice but to organize the funeral for the old lady first.
But there was not a straw or a piece of linen at home, and there was no way to make even Lingbo.
She cried and brought in some broken bricks from the courtyard and set up the limbo.
He also thought about finding some hemp money strings to hold Lingbo.
Her eyes were red from crying, and there was no one at home to help. The neighbors heard that the minister was going to be executed soon. This incident completely angered the Changzhou Zhao family. None of them dared to come forward to help, and just pretended not to see it. The Sun family is in trouble.
Not long after, she found the hemp money string and gathered the straw with effort. After sweating a lot, she finally built two stands of bricks, put the lingbo in place, packed a set of clean clothes and put the old lady's The corpse was placed on top.
Someone knocked on the door, and she opened the door with red and swollen eyes, "Who is it?"
Seeing that the visitor was a little girl, the Sun family's daughter-in-law asked, "Who are you?"
Zhao Lan didn't dare to say who she was, so she stammered for a long time, "I am... a student of Mr. Sun's academy."
She asked, "When did the school accept female students?"
The first lie comes out, and the rest are easy to follow.
"I am the daughter of Mr. Xuetang. My father said that if the Sun family needs help, let me try my best to help."
He took out the silver he had accumulated on weekdays and stuffed them all into her.
Mrs. Sun shook her head and said, "This is unbearable."
Zhao Lanyin felt guilty, and the old lady of the Sun family must have known about it when she died. Thinking about this, she became even more helpless, "It doesn't matter, this is Mr. Sun's reward for the year he spent in school. I was supposed to meet him in a few days." Fa, if something happens to the Sun family now, it doesn’t matter if you give it earlier."
In this way, the funeral of the Sun family was completed.
Sun Qingchen's body was covered with wounds. He raised his eyes and looked: the wall was high and full of thorns, and the people who were punished were wearing shackles and ropes, and their feet were shackled and their faces were unkempt.
A few days later, the jailer entered the cell and said, "Sun Qingchen, your mother gave me money and told me to tell you that your grandmother has passed away."
Sun Qingchen's eyes were red, like a little beast, and he opened the prison door and shouted, "It can't be like this. My grandmother was healthy and never got sick. Why did she suddenly die?" The jailer said unconcernedly: "I heard that it seems After hearing your sin, I was so angry that I couldn't breathe for a while."
He finally broke down. He could endure the punishment, and he could grit his teeth and survive being wronged by the Zhao family. However, his grandmother, the only relative he had left, suffered misfortune because of him.
Five or six days passed.
Neighbors came and asked questions, coming and going outside the prison gate.
The prison guard was taking a nap there when he suddenly heard someone calling the door. He was too sleepy to open his eyes and cursed angrily. He stood up, looked outside and asked, "Who called the door?"
The neighbor said, "It's me."
"What are you shouting about?"
"I heard that Sun Qingchen will be executed in the next few days. I will bring him food."
The jailer said, "This is a forbidden area for the imperial family. Who dares to open it privately? If the prisoner escapes, who can afford it? Go ahead, this door will not be opened."
After hearing this, the neighbor said in a low voice: "Uncle Jailer, Master Zhao Qingyun asked me to come here. I have a few hundred dollars here. I can give it to you to buy a cup of tea for your convenience."
The jailer heard that Mr. Zhao asked him to come and said, "Go in, don't stay too long."
He led his neighbors outside Sun Qingchen's cell, entered the cell, and said, "Sun Qingchen, your neighbors have brought you food."
Then he turned back and said, "You come in, say a few words to him, and come out quickly. It will be very inconvenient if the warden who inspects the prison comes to see him. I will go outside the prison door and have a look."
After saying that, he wandered away.
When the neighbor entered the cell, he saw Sun Qingchen, who was usually clean and disheveled, skinny as a stick, with bloody sores on his legs soaking through his clothes. He couldn't help but pity him.
To stop his grief, he still did what Mr. Zhao said: "Eat some food to satisfy your hunger."
Sun Qingchen then asked: "Has my mother handled grandma's funeral? Is she well at home?"
The neighbor said, "Everything is fine."
Qing Chen asked again: "What's going on with my mother at home? If I don't tell the truth, I won't be able to survive."
The neighbor pretended to have tears in his eyes and said it from beginning to end.
Sun Qingchen was startled when he heard this and said, "When did this happen?"
The neighbor said: "He has been dead for several days."
He said that in order to avenge him, Sun Qingchen's mother beat a drum outside the gate of the county government office and begged to see her. However, the county government office refused to retry her, so she actually hit her head on a pillar of the county government office and died.
Sun Qingchen burst into tears. After all, he was still a child, isolated and helpless, and his family was ruined within a few days. At this time, he really had no hope for life and only wanted a quick death.
The neighbor said, "You are suffering in prison and have no relatives or friends to help you. After eating this meal, you went over there and met your mother and grandmother as soon as possible. You don't have to worry about what happened after you. We, as close neighbors, should lend a helping hand." With a handful, your mother’s funeral arrangements have been arranged.”
Seeing that he was silent, the neighbor told him how to bury him.
But he remained silent.
Zhao Lanyin met her father outside the prison and saw her father ordering Sun's neighbors with her own eyes. She immediately cleared the air.
His father was sitting high on the carriage. Through the curtain, Lan Yin said, "Father really wants to put him to death?"
"Shouldn't he die?"
Zhao Lanyin said, "Father already knew that, didn't he? The damn one is the one from Prince Jingsi's Mansion. You don't dare, so you have to let him be the scapegoat.
(End of chapter)