Wu Daozi led Yingbao down the mountain, saying, "I'll take you to an old friend's house to stay for a few days. When I'm done with my business here, I'll send you back to Qinchuan County."
"Okay, thank you Uncle Wu."
The two men walked in the snow, passing through two streets. When they passed the alley near Chen Dasao's house, they saw a mule cart driving out of it.
Yingbao was startled and subconsciously hid beside Wu Daozi.
That was Xiao Han’s mule cart. Why did she come back
Wu Daozi also noticed Yingbao's vigilance, glanced at the mule cart, and asked, "What's wrong?"
Yingbao whispered, "It's that kidnapper. She's back again."
"Gee! Gee!" The driver whipped the mule repeatedly to urge it. The mule cart drove away quickly and gradually disappeared in the distance.
Yingbao kept her head down, her fingers tightly clenched on Wu Daozi's sleeve, and only dared to look up when the mule cart was no longer in sight.
Xiao Han must have bad intentions coming here now. Maybe she wants to silence us, otherwise it doesn't make sense.
The distance from Qinchuan County to Zhouhe County is not just one or two miles, but more than a hundred miles. Xiao Han just went back the day before yesterday, so there is no reason for her to rush here again today.
It must be that A Niang reported to the authorities, and the government had found some evidence, so Xiao Han hurried back to Zhouhe County and wanted to get rid of herself.
No, she had to go home as soon as possible.
Only by returning home can the danger be eliminated and the murderer brought to justice.
After walking for a while, Yingbao followed Wu Daozi to a house with two horse-mounting stones at the door.
I went forward and knocked on the door knocker. After a while, a teenage servant opened the door. Upon seeing the person coming, he immediately opened the wooden door and said with a big smile: "It turns out to be Mr. Wu. My master is taking a day off today."
Wu Daozi nodded at him, pointed at Ying Bao and said, "This is a girl from the village. I plan to take her to Qinchuan County and would like to stay at your house for a few days. Can you please tell your master for me?"
The servant boy said hurriedly, "Since it was Wu Langjun who brought her here, I will report to the mistress later and will make good arrangements for her. Please bring her in quickly."
"Thank you very much."
Only then did Wu Daozi take Yingbao over the threshold.
Afterwards, Wu Daozi was led to an outer courtyard, while Yingbao was taken by a servant boy to a maid with a rough and dark face.
The maid was about thirteen or fourteen years old. She looked at Yingbao with disdain, but still brought her a basin of water and washed her hair and face.
Fortunately, although Yingbao's head and face were dirty, her body was not dirty.
After she was barely able to wash herself and look like a human, the maid was very surprised. While wiping her hair, she asked, "What happened to you, little girl? Did you fall into the mud ditch?"
Yingbao nodded.
The maid wiped her hands and face and led her to a courtyard.
"Madam, I have already cleaned the girl that Mr. Wu brought. Do you want to see her?" the maid asked while standing under the eaves.
Then I heard the grandma inside say, "My wife has seen it. Take her to the guest courtyard and find a room for her to stay in. Don't leave the courtyard unless necessary."
"Yes." The maid took Yingbao to the guest house, opened a door and let her in.
The room was not big and was covered in dust. It seemed that no one had lived there for a long time. There was no bedding on the small wooden bed.
However, the maid quickly brought another bed and a pot of hot tea to her.
Yingbao thanked her, climbed into bed, spread out her bedding, and went to sleep.
The snow outside was falling heavier and heavier, soon covering the ground with a layer of white.
Qinchuan County.
Xu Chunniang held her elder sister-in-law Jiang Yunniang's hand and burst into tears. "That damn Han, she must have hired someone to snatch my Bao'er away, wuwuwuwuwu... I will never let them go."
Jiang Yunniang sighed, wiped the tears from her third sister-in-law, and consoled her: "Don't worry, Li Zheng Sun has already submitted your petition to the county government, and I believe he will give an explanation soon."
Jiang Liu was also wiping her eyes, "Don't cry, Chunniang. I feel bad too. Although we didn't catch anyone, someone recognized one of them as Chen Ergou. That damned beast hasn't come home in these days. I don't believe he will never come back."
That day, two masked men snatched the child away and quickly disappeared into the reeds. The villagers chased them for a long distance but couldn't find them. Later, after a careful search, they discovered that they had escaped from the other side.
But someone still recognized the figure of one of them, it was Chen Ergou from Xicun, and the other person was probably Chen Ergou's friend or relative.
So Old Man Jiang went to the head of the village to file a complaint.
Village head Sun and his men searched several places but couldn't find him. Finally, they went to the home of Chen Ergou's adopted daughter's husband, only to find out that Chen Ergou had been living there all these days. However, when he found out that the village head and his men had come, he had already run away, and even his son-in-law ran away.
Since the person was not caught, Sun Lizheng wrote a complaint on behalf of the Jiang family, accusing Chen Ergou of kidnapping the child. At Chunniang's strong suggestion, the two sisters Han, the second daughter-in-law of Chen Laoshuan, were added to the complaint because they were also suspects.
Originally, they wanted to sue Fourth Aunt Wu as well, but she knelt down and swore that she knew nothing. She only accepted five taels of silver from Han and told him that Han's little girl had a birthmark on her wrist. She knew nothing else.
So Chunniang left her twin sons to the care of her eldest sister-in-law, and went to the county town with her parents-in-law and Sun Lizheng.
After handing the complaint to the yamen, Sun Lizheng went to his son's house. Chunniang and her parents-in-law went to stay temporarily at her eldest sister-in-law's house, waiting for news from the yamen.
But after waiting for several days, there was no movement from the government office.
Chunniang and the others didn't know that after the petition was handed over to the chief clerk of the county government, he did not present it to the county magistrate.
He took the complaint to Chen Guanglu and said with a smile, "Chen Guanglu, your wife is in big trouble."
Chen Guanglu was surprised: "What do you mean by that, Lin Zhubo?"
Chief Clerk Lin shook the petition in his hand and said, "Someone is accusing your wife of colluding with others to hire a killer to snatch a child. Thirty villagers have put their fingerprints on the petition to prove that this is true."
"What? Let me see." Chen Guanglu reached out to take it, but was moved away by Lin Zhubo.
"You can't watch it, you can't watch it." Lin Zhu said with a smile: "This matter is very serious. You should go back and ask for clarification. It just so happens that our Mingfu is about to step down, so let the lawsuit and other matters be postponed for a while, otherwise I will not tell you about this matter."
Chen Guanglu frowned and could only clasp his fists towards Lin Zhubo: "Thank you for letting me know. I will go back and ask for clarification. I will also trouble you to give me some guidance."
Master Lin stroked his beard and smiled without saying anything.
Chen Guanglu hurried back home and asked his wife when he saw her, "What did you do in Chuanhe Town this time?"
Xiao Han was startled and said slowly: "I'm just going to visit my elder sister, what can I do?"
"Tell the truth!" Chen Guanglu slammed the table and shouted, "They have already submitted the complaint to the county government, and you are still telling lies! Tell me! What good things have you done!"
Little Han was startled and the teacup in her hand fell to the ground with a snap and broke into pieces.
Seeing that her husband looked like he was going to kill someone, Xiao Han no longer dared to hide anything and told him everything she had done in Chuanhe Town.
"…The child that the Jiang family picked up was obviously my eldest sister's, but they just kept it and wouldn't let go. So I gave my eldest sister an idea and asked her to pay someone to bring the child back… Is that wrong?"