Hao Cheng followed Jiang Mengzhen's lead and enjoyed his rare initiative. After a long and lingering kiss, she pressed forward again. When the two of them were kissing passionately, her hand slid into Jiang Mengzhen's collar.
When both of them were somewhat moved, the carriage suddenly stopped.
Hao Cheng reluctantly separated from Jiang Mengzhen. She reached out to tidy up Jiang Mengzhen's messy clothes and said in a hoarse voice: "I swear to you, that day will never come. Otherwise, I will be struck by lightning."
"Don't say that." Jiang Mengzhen quickly covered her mouth.
Hao Cheng took his hand away, kissed the back of his delicate hand, and said nonchalantly: "Anyway, I won't change my mind, so it doesn't matter if I swear."
She looked at the strawberry mark on Jiang Mengzhen's neck, then reached out to fasten the top button on his neck, and then tidied up his scattered hair and said, "The most important thing between a wife and a husband is trust. I will try my best not to do anything that will cause you to misunderstand, but you have to give me more confidence. Otherwise, if you don't trust me, I will be sad."
She felt sorry for Jiang Mengzhen and was willing to do her best to give him a sense of security. However, if after trying hard enough, he could still be easily shaken by a word from an outsider and would rather believe others than her, she would feel disappointed.
Jiang Mengzhen hesitated for a moment and nodded very carefully.
They had just gotten married, so they could take their time. Hao Cheng also had confidence in herself and didn't say anything else. She thought she had already arrived at the mansion, but when she lifted the curtain of the car, the scene in front of her was very unfamiliar.
She asked the coachman: "What happened? Why did we suddenly stop halfway?" In ancient times, carriages were driven by horses, and there was no such unexpected situation as a carriage suddenly running out of gas.
The carriage woman pulled the reins and pointed ahead: "My lord, the road is blocked. If we turn around and take the long way back, it will take quite some time. You decide, should we wait here or take a detour?"
Hao Cheng looked in the direction she pointed, and sure enough, there was a crowd of people in front of him. This was a relatively narrow intersection, and normally only three single-passenger carriages could pass side by side.
Now that the road was blocked, pedestrians could still pass, but it would be difficult for a carriage as spacious as theirs to squeeze through.
Most of those people were dressed as scholars. They were not princes or nobles who needed to clear the way for them when they were traveling today. Even if servants went forward to ask them to make way, it would only cause gossip and create trouble.
Jiang Mengzhen also stuck his head out to take a look at the situation ahead and said, "Let's take a detour."
The carriage woman responded loudly: "Okay, please take a seat."
Jiang Mengzhen sat back first, and seeing Hao Cheng still leaning outside, he tugged at her sleeve again.
Hao Cheng still didn't move. He watched from outside for a while and then stopped the carriage woman: "Don't turn your head. Pull over first."
As soon as the carriage stopped, she jumped out of the carriage. Seeing this, Jiang Mengzhen also lifted the curtain and then walked down on the stool prepared by the servants.
He walked over quickly, caught up with Hao Cheng in a few steps, and grabbed her sleeve: "What happened?"
Hao Cheng slowed down his pace, turned his head and said: "Nothing, I just seemed to have run into an acquaintance. You go back first, it's so crowded ahead, I can go by myself."
Jiang Mengzhen shook his head: "I'll go with you." Hao Cheng didn't say anything, but just held his hand tightly to prevent the two of them from being separated by the crowd.
The guards hired by the Hao family also hurried over and opened a narrow path in front to ensure that the two masters would not be squeezed too hard.
There were many common people who came to join in the fun. Seeing that Hao Cheng and Jiang Mengzhen were both dressed in luxurious clothes and surrounded by many guards, they did not say much and some even took the initiative to make way for them.
When Hao Cheng saw the extremely embarrassed young woman in the circle, her expression suddenly changed from smiling to cold. She turned her head and asked a woman next to her: "What happened just now?"
The woman ignored her, but a man holding a child beside her said, "My dear lady, it seems that the man on the ground didn't pay and wanted to default on his debt, so he was beaten and thrown out by the store owner. It seems that there were other frictions, but I'm not sure."
He sighed and said, "There are still people who are so bold as to deny their debts under the feet of the goddess. I think this young man is a scholar, but he actually did such a thing."
After saying that, he teased the child in his arms: "Nannan, look carefully, don't be like her. We can't do such shameless things."
As soon as the man finished speaking, Hao Cheng released Jiang Mengzhen's hand, took two steps forward, bent down and squatted in front of the woman, with a hint of uncertainty in his voice: "Fang Yu?"
The woman's pretty face was covered with bruises and swellings, and she looked like a pig's head, extremely miserable, with only a pair of extremely beautiful eyes left.
When she called out the name, the man's body trembled. Fang Yu opened his mouth and uttered a few words, and there was a sigh of relief from the people around him. It turned out that the man who just now didn't say anything or make any excuses was actually a mute.
Hao Cheng immediately reached out and helped her up, and said to the shop owner who was still cursing, "How much money does she still owe you?"
The fat waiter was stunned for a moment and said, "She owes us a full one hundred taels of silver."
Fang Yu shook his head at Hao Cheng and glared at the waiter fiercely. There seemed to be a fire burning in his beautiful eyes.
Hao Cheng patted her shoulder gently to comfort her, then turned his head and asked Jiang Mengzhen, "Do you have a hundred taels of silver on you?"
Jiang Mengzhen was stunned for a moment, and whispered: "I have a five-hundred-liang silver note on me, and I don't have any smaller amounts."
Hao Cheng glanced around and saw a Datong Bank: "Can that bank accept this banknote?"
Jiang Mengzhen nodded and handed her the banknote: "Of course."
Hao Cheng took the banknote and called two strong guards over. He whispered some instructions to the waiter and said, "I will pay the money back for her. I just have one question. Who beat her up just now?"
The waiter yelled, "Just pay me back, why are you asking this?"
It's not that the waiter was tactless. There were many wealthy people in the capital. She also saw the carriage of Hao Cheng's house parked not far away. There was no sign that she was familiar with. It was obvious from Hao Cheng's accent that he was not from the capital. He should be someone they could afford to offend.
Besides, the woman on this land has a grudge against their boss. If she hands out those thugs, she will be the one who will be in trouble.
She refused to say anything, but the people loved to watch the fun, so someone immediately answered for the waiter: "It was those thugs in red clothes, and the waiter. She kicked them a few times, we all saw it!"
Soon, the two guards sent by Hao Cheng followed Hao Cheng's instructions and brought over one hundred taels of silver. They also exchanged the remaining four hundred taels for a sack of copper coins and silver coins. The two men took a lot of effort to carry it over.
Hao Cheng pulled in Fang Yu, who was beaten beyond recognition, and then said loudly: "My friend came to me for help. I know her character best. It is absolutely impossible for her to not pay back the money. Even if she did, she should hand it over to the government instead of executing her privately!"
After saying that, she threw the ten kilograms of silver directly at the waiter, who was caught off guard and was hit hard on the foot.
Just as the waiter was crying out loudly while holding his hurt foot, someone shouted, "I found some money."
As copper coins fell from the sky, a group of people rushed over frantically and drowned her and several thugs.
Hao Cheng took the opportunity to pull Fang Yu out, and with his other hand he held Jiang Mengzhen tightly. Taking advantage of the chaotic scene, he got on the carriage and took another route back home.
When Fang Yu was pulled onto the carriage, he was dirty and covered in blood, and even the blanket on the carriage was dripping with blood.
Jiang Mengzhen didn't like Fang Yu in the first place, and he looked a little uneasy when he saw this. Fang Yu was very sensitive to the changes in people's hearts, so he refused to sit in Hao Cheng's carriage.
Hao Cheng couldn't persuade her any more, so he asked Fang Yu to go to the back and instructed a careful maid to take good care of her and apply medicine to her.
After seeing Fang Yu sitting comfortably, Hao Cheng withdrew half of his body from outside the carriage and asked, "Why do you have to target Fang Yu like this?"
Jiang Mengzhen was still a little unhappy: "You said I should trust you, then I won't hide it. She and you are just casual acquaintances, and you have helped her once in Mingzhou City. Why are you so good to her? The Fang family is in decline, and she is likely to owe money to others. If she doesn't have money to pay the bill, it is common for her to be thrown out of the restaurant and beaten up."
If the person is handed over to the government, he will still be beaten with a stick, and the punishment will be severe. A weak store owner might let it go, but a wealthy or arrogant store owner would usually just beat him up and leave it at that.
It's not that he is not willing to save someone once, but if Jiang Mengzhen helps someone, he must have something to offer. A few hundred taels of silver is not a large sum. The fire rat fur coat that Hao Cheng wears in winter costs six hundred taels of silver.
But he didn't feel bad at all about spending the money on Hao Cheng, but he would be unhappy if it was spent on things that shouldn't be spent.
Hao Cheng pursed his lips and said, "Fang Yu is not that kind of person. If it was another scoundrel, I would never care and he would deserve to be beaten, but she is different."
Jiang Mengzhen said, "What's so different about her? She only has two eyes and a mouth, but she doesn't have anything more than others. I really don't understand why she deserves your treatment. You just spent so much money, you probably just want to vent your anger on her."
When he rescued him, Hao Cheng was reluctant to spend so much money on him.
Of course she believed Fang Yu intuitively, but after thinking about it, this was indeed not a good reason.
Hao Cheng said in a muffled voice: "Anyway, I just believe in her. We have the ability to do so. If we see him in trouble, why can't we help her?"
Jiang Mengzhen suddenly leaned forward and used his fingers to hook a red rope from her neck and took out a talisman: "This talisman is given to you by her. She was beaten like that, and you only saw her eyes in the crowd just now and recognized her."
He calmed himself down, his eyes changing several times, trying to suppress his thoughts, but he still asked in the end: "Tell me, are you attracted to her?"