Jiying was speechless for a long while.
Zhou Shaojin didn't dare to rush her, so he just sat with her quietly.
After a while, Ji Ying suddenly sneered and said, "Forget it, why am I telling you all this? There are some things you don't understand!" Then she took Zhou Shaojin's hand and said sincerely, "Thank you for coming to see me. I feel much better." She smiled bitterly and said, "I'm afraid I'll have to live in the Cheng family for a few more years. I hope you don't find me annoying!"
"How could that be?" Zhou Shaojin didn't know how to comfort her, so he could only say seriously, "If you feel uncomfortable one day, come and talk to me. Although I don't understand, sometimes, when you say it out loud, you won't feel so uncomfortable."
Just like the years she spent at the farm in Daxing, she seemed fine on the surface, but in fact she was in great pain. If she hadn't set up a small Buddhist shrine at home where she could tell the Buddha all the words she couldn't say, she would probably have gone crazy long ago.
Zhou Shaojin's kindness and gentleness made Jiying hesitate.
Yes, what does it matter whether Zhou Shaojin understands some things or not? She is someone who truly cares about me, and that is enough.
She suddenly felt the urge to tell the story again.
"People from our Ji family once escorted Fan Qi all the way to the capital," Ji Ying thought for a moment and said, "You must have known that our Ji family is different from ordinary families, right?"
Zhou Shaojin nodded.
She suspected that the Ji family was seeking business in the underworld.
"Of the four major martial arts schools in Cangzhou, our Ji family is one of them, and it has been passed down for nearly two hundred years." Ji Ying said, "The poor learn literature, the rich learn martial arts. People who practice martial arts have to eat well to have a good body. But how much money can you make from running a martial arts school, being a bodyguard, or being a security guard? So our family secretly sells contraband salt..."
Zhou Shaojin was shocked.
Ji Ying smiled and continued, "In the past, smuggling salt would steal salt from the salt fields, which was risky and easy to be targeted by the imperial court. When it came to my great grandfather, our family started to do this business with the Cao Gang. Jiao Ziyang's family is one of the three major families of the Cao Gang. This is how Jiao Ziyang and I met.
“You know what happened later.
"But what I didn't expect when I went back this time was that your Uncle Chi actually made enemies with the Cao Gang. The Cao Gang couldn't do anything to your Uncle Chi, so they set their sights on our Ji family. I was engaged to Jiao Ziyang, and not only did the Cao Gang know about it, but the entire martial arts world knew about it. Your Uncle Chi let me go back, and the Cao Gang set their sights on me. They actually wanted Jiao Ziyang to trick me into marrying them, and after I gave birth to a child, they would force my father to help deal with Cheng Zichuan. That bastard Jiao Ziyang even said that he agreed to his father's request just to be with me, and that if we had a child in the future, the child would be both my father's grandson and his father's grandson, and for the sake of the child, his father would definitely not force me to do anything I didn't want to do..."
"So you believe it?" Zhou Shaojin instinctively felt that Jiao Ziyang was unreliable. If he really liked Jiying, even if he had misunderstood that Jiying was Uncle Chi's concubine, he should have confronted Jiying or asked for clarification after he calmed down. He turned around and left without any news, and when Jiying returned home, he tricked Jiying into eloping with him. This was not something a responsible man would do.
"If I believed him, why would I come back?" Ji Ying said, her eyes reddened, "The one who is engaged is the wife, the one who elopes is the concubine. If I really eloped with him, and had a child, I would be following Jiao Ziyang without any legitimate reason. To the Jiao family, neither I nor my child would be anything. Maybe the Jiao family would have another reason to threaten my father! I was furious..." She looked at Zhou Shaojin with a guilty look, and her voice lowered, "I cut off Jiao Ziyang's sword arm with one sword... He is the only son of the Jiao family... If his son cannot stand on his own before his father retires, the Jiao family will definitely not be able to keep his position as one of the three major families... My father can't protect me either... I had no choice but to follow your uncle back."
It turns out that she came back to avoid disaster!
Zhou Shaojin's eyes widened and he said, "Well done! People like Jiao Ziyang should be severely punished to let him know what happens when he bullies a woman casually!"
She admires Jiying very much.
Jiying is much stronger than her. When she encountered problems, she just cried, but Jiying avenged herself.
Zhou Shaojin looked at Jiying with admiration.
Ji Ying was a little confused and said, "You, aren't you afraid that I will bring disaster to your family?"
Zhou Shaojin had never thought about this.
She said honestly: "Since your father asked you to come back with Uncle Chi, he must think that Uncle Chi can protect you. Otherwise, even if he diverts the trouble to another place, he still can't protect you. It would be better to hide you in a temple or a nunnery!"
Ji Ying laughed out loud and couldn't help pinching her face, saying, "How come you suddenly become so smart! You usually look quite stupid!"
Zhou Shaojin knocked her hand down and said unhappily, "I'm not stupid, I just don't want to think of those people as badly sometimes."
Jiying looked at her and laughed.
Zhou Shaojin thought of Cheng Chi's noble and graceful appearance, and began to worry belatedly, saying: "Uncle Chi should be able to protect you, right?"
This caused Jiying to laugh again.
Zhou Shaojin was so angry that he said, "I'm talking to you about something serious. If you do this again, I will ignore you."
"Okay, okay, okay. I won't laugh at you." Ji Ying finally stopped laughing and whispered, "Cheng Zichuan has another name in the martial arts world, and no one knows his background. The Cao Gang wanted to target me because they knew I was Cheng Zichuan's maid, and they thought I must know where Cheng Zichuan's home was, so they wanted to threaten Cheng Zichuan with his family." As she spoke, she showed a look of contempt, and said, "My father said that as long as I stay by Cheng Zichuan's side, even if the Cao Gang knows, they can't do anything to me."
Zhou Shaojin's heart beat wildly for a few seconds and then calmed down.
In the previous life, the Cheng family was executed by the imperial court, not massacred by the gangsters.
She couldn't help but say, "Then you better be careful in the future and don't go out and hang around anymore. Just stay home." After thinking for a while, she said, "Follow me and learn some needlework. It will help you pass the time. When you get married, you can also make some small things for your children."
Jiying's expression looked a little strange, as if he was trying hard to hold back his laughter.
Zhou Shaojin asked: "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Jiying said hurriedly.
She thought that after the ten-year period was up, who knew whether Cheng Zichuan would still protect her. Instead of learning needlework, she might as well find a way to practice martial arts to protect herself and save her life. This was better than anything else!
But she knew that Zhou Shaojin was not from her circle, and telling her these things would only make her worry, so she simply went along with what Zhou Shaojin said.
Zhou Shaojin couldn't help but wonder, "How did Uncle Chi get into trouble with the gangsters?"
Is it because of this that when the entire Cheng family was executed, Uncle Chi was able to instruct those people in the underworld to rescue Cheng Xu from the execution ground
Ji Ying laughed and said, "What do you think Jianghu is? Jianghu is all kinds of people! Whether they are scholars, merchants, or people who travel by boat or on horseback, they are all just one of the three kinds of people. If Cheng Zichuan wants to trade in the world, how can he do it without dealing with Jianghu people?"
Zhou Shaojin still felt something was weird.
Are all the businessmen going to be like Uncle Chi
But why are the businessmen she knows so cautious and afraid to make any wrong moves
Or is it because Uncle Chi’s business is so big
Zhou Shaojin comforted himself in his heart and asked Ji Ying: "Will those people come? Is the man we met at Jiangbei Bridge that day also a gangster?"
Will those people come
Jiying doesn’t know either.
She now just instinctively believed her father's words and believed in Cheng Zichuan's ability.
So she avoided answering this question, but smiled and said: "You have a good vision. The man we met at Jiangbei Bridge that day was called Xiao Zhenhai, from the Northeast, and his family was in the medicinal material fur business, which was quite powerful. In the early years, Cheng Zichuan didn't know what disease he had, and went to Changbai Mountain to dig ginseng. As a result, he met people from the Xiao family. That was the Xiao family's territory. He went to dig ginseng without even saying hello. The Xiao family must have been unhappy. Later, he destroyed the Xiao family's ginseng field. The Xiao family had no choice but to issue a gag order. After that, Changbai Mountain became Cheng Zichuan's backyard. He went there for a stroll when he was in a bad mood. The Xiao family was annoyed by him."
"Well, that guy must be very powerful, right?" Zhou Shaojin thought of the scene when Ji Ying met Xiao Zhenhai.
"Yeah!" Ji Ying said, "My father would be on high alert whenever he met him." As she spoke, she slowly understood her father's intentions and her speech slowed down. "Cheng Zichuan is actually quite powerful. He has offended so many people, and no one can do anything to him. The main reason is that he knows how to do business. The Mi family in Guizhou did not dare to offend him. After he went there, they treated him well and whatever he said was what he wanted. As a result, the Mi family, led by him, dug silver mines with the court. The court also gave the Mi family a hereditary title of fourth-rank envoy..."
Zhou Shaojin also gradually understood what was going on. She asked, "Are families like theirs very poor?" At this point, she thought of Ji Ying's family. "Or are they rich but the money came from shady sources? So they want Uncle Chi to find a way to make money or help them do legitimate business?"
"That's what I mean." Ji Ying didn't need to say anything more, and breathed a sigh of relief, saying, "Anyway, whether it's threats or inducements, most people mean this."
As for a small number of people, she thought it would be better not to tell Zhou Shaojin.
Zhou Shaojin breathed a sigh of relief.
As long as you need help from others, Uncle Chi has a trump card in his hand, so there is no need to worry too much.
Ji Ying's father made a bet with Uncle Chi, and finally gave his daughter to Uncle Chi as a maid. Maybe it was for this purpose... It's a bit like the letters of surrender and hostages during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period described in books.
She became happy again and was about to ask Jiying about her journey when someone coughed outside the door and said, "Miss Jiying, the Fourth Master wants you to come over and talk!"
Zhou Shaojin quickly stood up and winked at Jiying, signaling her to be submissive and not go against Cheng Chi.
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Sisters, today’s extra update!
O(∩_∩)O~
Keep asking for pink votes...
PS: I have to go out for something in the afternoon, and the update will be around 1 o'clock in the evening.
※(To be continued)