In the spring of that year, the Yong family encountered a bully who committed bullying, and the little family business that Father Yong had accumulated over the years of hard work was destroyed.
Father Yong has been a cook since elementary school. He is smart, diligent and motivated, and has excellent craftsmanship. When he was almost forty years old, he saved enough money to buy a small yard in Shuangxi Hutong and opened a private restaurant—Yongjia Restaurant. Father Yong was in charge of cooking by himself, and he brought a young apprentice to help the cook. Mrs. Zhou collected the money to settle accounts, and invited two young boys to run the hall.
But not long after, a large nearby family wanted to expand their house and needed his homestead, so they wanted to buy that small yard.
The Yong family didn't dare to stand up to the big family, so they wanted to ask the big family to pay a little more money so that he could find another place to reopen. As for the loss of old customers caused by the relocation of the restaurant, I dare not care about it. But that big family was very hateful. Not only did they not want to pay more, but they were also picky about their small yard and quoted a price that was lower than the market price.
Father Yong had entrusted his life savings and hard work in this small restaurant, so he naturally quit and refused to sell it.
It didn't take long for something to happen in the Yong's restaurant—a customer had diarrhea after eating in the restaurant. He thought it was an outbreak of an epidemic and reported it to the government. The government checked, good guy, there are more than a dozen people who have diarrhea, please ask a doctor! After further investigation, these dozen or so people who had diarrhea and invited a doctor had all eaten at Yong's restaurant!
All the people in the restaurant, except for the woman named Zhou, from father Yong to the apprentice, to the two guys, were taken to the court without falling.
After the board was laid down, the elementary student confessed: Father Yong wanted to sell the restaurant and return to his hometown, so he wanted to make more money before selling the restaurant for travel expenses and capital for reopening. In order to save costs, the pork that died of illness at home was used as raw material for cooking, and the homemade red sauce was used to suppress the taste and enhance the freshness.
The yamen servant went to the door to copy it, and actually found a few pieces of pork marinated in red sauce in a jar in the kitchen. A few days ago in the Yong family, indeed, a pig died of diarrhea. When they dug up the pig carcass buried deep in lime, the meat on the back of the pig's leg had been cut off!
Now that there are all the witnesses and material evidence, Father Yong was tortured and finally couldn't bear it anymore and confessed.
According to the law of the imperial court: those who deliberately sell spoiled or poisonous food and cause death shall be sentenced to hanging; those who cause serious illness but not death shall be sentenced to sixty sticks and one year in prison.
In the case of the Yong family, no one died, but many people had diarrhea and collapsed, almost dying. Father Yong was sentenced to eighty sticks and one year's imprisonment, and he also compensated the victim for his tattoos.
Father Yong was not young at all, and he died in prison before he was released from prison after being tortured. In order to pay for the money and manage the business, Zhou had to sell the small yard to the big family at a low price, and pawned and sold his dowry and the slightly valuable things in the house. Their family also had to move from their original residence to the current broken yard.
"My father is timid, cautious, and sometimes a little stubborn. The most he said to us is: To be a man, you must have a conscience, and you can't make money without conscience, otherwise you will lose your old capital sooner or later. In this way How can a person cut off dead pork and cook it for guests?!"
Yong Ruo let out a long breath, and said again: "There are many strange things in this case. But we have no evidence, so we can only take the blame and accept our fate."
"The key person in this case is the little apprentice. Do you know his whereabouts?"
Yong Ruo shook his head: "I don't know. That little apprentice has been with my father for more than ten years. We have never seen him since the case was settled. He was originally from Ruzhou. He fled to the capital and his parents died. My father pity He was lonely and helpless, but he was smart, so he was accepted as an apprentice, but he didn't want to lead wolves into the house."
Feng Liao thought about it. His fingers circled the armrest of the chair again.
Yong Ruo said again: "Not long after the case of my family was concluded, another incident happened in the alley. A silk and satin shop next to my house caught fire at night. Not to mention the seriousness, the head of the family was also taken into the Yamen for the crime of arson, and was beaten fifty times. A few days after the beating, the head of the family died. His wife dragged the old man and children and couldn't hold on, so she sold her I moved out of the house and went to seek refuge with relatives and friends in other places. Now, the homestead of my small yard and the homestead of that silk and satin factory have all become the back garden of that big family." She smiled sarcastically.
"Who is that big family?" Feng Liao asked. His expression was flat, showing no signs of happiness or anger.
"The big family's surname is Wei. They used to be in business. Later, a son of the family became a Jinshi and became a family of officials. Now his son married the daughter of a high-ranking official in the court and is in charge of the Ministry of Industry."
"After your father died, what did you live on?"
"I rely on my mother and I to do needlework and wash clothes for others. It's a pity that we are not very good at embroidery, so we can only do some ordinary jobs and earn two hard money..."
"Don't you have any relatives you can rely on?"
"No. My mother was sold by my stepmother since she was a child. She used to be a maid for others, but she was released from the house and married to my father. My grandfather also died early, and had no place in the clan, so he was exiled to the capital. , became the door-to-door son-in-law of my grandmother's family. My grandmother only gave birth to my father, and there are no relatives in the family..." She smiled, "I once thought about selling myself as a slave and going to a rich family to be a maidservant, in exchange for better things for the family. But my mother disagreed with her life and death. She said: She herself was born as a slave, and she was not willing to let her daughter bow to her knees as a slave. No matter how hard life is, as long as the family is together, it is also suffering. Sweet."
"Your mother loves you very much!"
Yongruo nodded, put his elbows on the table, raised his hands full of chilblains and cracks, turned them over and over twice, and said with a smile: "So, how many of us are you?" Just rely on my own hands to support myself. Isn't it amazing?" With smiling eyes, she looked at Feng Liao.
Feng Liao's gaze also fell on her hands, and there seemed to be a touch of distress in her eyes.
"It's amazing!" He said in a very gentle voice, "I'm sorry for you!"
When he was feeling sad, Yong Ruo's expression and tone suddenly changed: "However, to live, one must not only have the spirit in his heart, but also eat and dress. The yearning for delicious food is human nature, engraved in the blood Things. The daily life of our family can only ensure that we don’t starve to death. It’s been a long time since we tasted the taste of meat! Young Master spends money to invite me to dinner tonight. Take the leftovers home!"
She shrugged her head and shrugged her shoulders, clenched her fists lightly on her chin, raised her brows and pursed her lips, staring helplessly at Feng Liao with a pitiful look of grievance, and shamelessly pretended to be pitiful: "Please." …”
Feng Liao was a little dazed by this sudden change in painting style.
He looked at Yong Ruo very surprised, and blinked, she still had the same expression! She blinked again, she still had the same expression! ! This... this is a different person, right? ! What about her previous strength of character? What about her previous arrogance? ! Where was she steadfast before? !
Gradually, a look of realization appeared on his face, and then he could not help but smile, and finally he pointed at Yong Ruo and burst out laughing.
"Hahaha..." He laughed so hard that he pounded his feet on the table, tears were about to come out, and he didn't have the slightest bit of etiquette of a nobleman.
Yong Ruo sighed in his heart: I haven't been cute for a long time, but it's such an ending to go back to my old job... I'm heartbroken! In this era, no one can understand cute culture!
She put away her pretending to be pitiful, and also found it funny to see Fengliao succeeding in this way. Shaking her head, she picked up a piece of tofu with her chopsticks, and while eating the tofu, she admired your son's rare gaffe.
Feng Liao laughed for a long time before she had enough.
"Why do you make that weird look?" He asked Yong Ruo, "Just to take away a few plates of leftovers?"
Yong Ruo shook his head: "Our family usually can't eat such leftovers even if we want to!"
Feng Liao thought for a while, coughed lightly, and said seriously: "It's disrespectful to bring leftovers to your relatives. I'd better ask the store to make some new dishes for you to take back!"
Yong Ruo shook his head, and said solemnly: "Take the leftovers home, I will feel at ease and my family will eat more securely."
Feng Liao looked straight at her. Yong Ruo looked at him frankly. After a long time, Feng Liao smiled helplessly, shook her head again, and had no choice but to say, "It's up to you!"
The two chatted while eating.
Yong Ruo no longer talked about his own family, but picked up a few absurd and interesting stories about the various incidents caused by poverty in the poor area of Mopan Hutong, so that he could know a little about the sufferings of the people. , but not too uncomfortable to listen to. After all, it's the Lantern Festival, so you have to be happy!
"There is a little daughter-in-law in the alley. Not long after she got married, she discovered a strange thing. Every time she came back after washing her clothes, her mother-in-law was not happy, and she always had to find a reason to point at Sang and scold Huai before giving up. Once or twice That's all, it's like this every time, the little daughter-in-law felt strange, prepared a gift, and asked her sister-in-law sincerely. The sister-in-law told her to wash the clothes less frequently, don't be so diligent, and don't use washboards, laundry hammers and other objects Laundry! Do you know why?"
Feng Liao stared at her intently, her eyes filled with interest: "I don't know! Why?"
"Because that mother-in-law is a very stingy person. She thinks that washing clothes too much will damage the material and break quickly, so they should not be washed too much, let alone scrubbed with a washboard or washed with a washing machine. Therefore, when she washes her own clothes, she always Dip the clothes into the water and wash them lightly for a few times, then it is considered washed... "
"'Traveling' clothes?" Feng Liao's eyes widened in disbelief, "Is the 'scouring' clean?"
"Of course it's not clean. So her daily clothes are always dirty!"
"... Once, this mother-in-law wore a new set of clothes to sit at a relative's house, and the front skirt was stained with oil, which made her heart ache! She took the clothes to the river, and she didn't want to go into the water to 'wash' them. She took it home. Not long after, she went to sit at someone else’s house, only to find that her dress still looked like it hadn’t been in the water, but there was a nondescript pear flower patch on her chest. It turned out that this mother-in-law was reluctant to put her new clothes in the water , and was reluctant to embroider a flower with silk thread to cover the oil stain, so she took a piece of white cloth, cut it into the shape of a pear flower, and covered the stain with the pear flower on the white cloth with embroidery stitches. The little girl got closer to the pear blossom and smelled it, and she could still smell the smell of ginger and garlic sauce, so she said, "Your pear blossom is so unique, it can compete with the kitchen..."
Feng Liao laughed again and fell down.