After everyone had left, Zhou Chengkang returned home. He said that the villagers didn't avoid him at all during their discussions, or in other words, they meant to say these things in front of him on purpose.
In other words, the villagers told him almost blatantly that they had no intention of returning the money at all.
Zhou's mother sighed, "I always thought that I might not come back. Unless the Yang family can still save money."
This is impossible, the Yang family is really at the end of their ropes, they can sell the house and land, and save more than a dozen taels of silver. It's just saved up, don't forget that Xu's mother still has fifteen taels of IOUs.
This is not important. Li Qinghe thought of something and asked, "Did you see Yang Lanhong today?"
No!
Several people looked at each other and shook their heads. She asked, "If you can't catch the thief, will the Yang family still admit it?"
Zhou Chengkang frowned, and said for a while, "I saw a scratch on Master Yang's neck."
Li Qinghe asked in surprise, "Does he want to help his son take the blame?"
Zhou Chengkang thought for a while, "It's possible. I'll ask tomorrow."
The next morning, Zhou Chengkang took a carriage to the town again, and this time he brought his whole family with him. The mayor's house specially found a house to lock up the Yang family.
When they arrived, Boss Zhou was already there, "So you can't find who is the thief now?"
The mayor sighed, "Yes, he never let go of where Yang Lanhong went. We couldn't catch anyone, and naturally we couldn't find the rest of them."
"No matter what I say, he never opens his mouth."
Li Qinghe walked to the door of Father Yang's house, opened the door and saw him sitting on a chair, maybe the sun was too strong, he squinted his eyes, and after seeing the person clearly, he was quite surprised, "It's you?"
She walked to him and sat down, "It's me. I'm here to ask where your son went?"
Father Yang shook his head, "I don't know, he is no longer at home, you don't need to look for him. I took the things from your elder brother's house, but I didn't beat him. I didn't do anything, I was only responsible for taking the money."
"Then tell me who the rest are."
"I don't know them. Someone stuffed a note into my yard earlier. I opened it and told me to steal something. If I didn't do it, I pretended not to see it. I owe so much money to the villagers. Uneasy, so I went to the agreed place in the town at night. They all covered their faces and gave me a piece of cloth to cover it up. Tie him up, beat him up, and ask his wife to get the money... Speaking of which, I helped. Some of them saw your sister-in-law was pretty and wanted to spoil her, but I stopped her. If you don’t believe me, You can ask your brother."
Li Qinghe was sitting opposite him, listening to him say that after going out, several people divided the money and left, and then it was just dawn when he returned home. He knew that the money could not be kept, so he hurriedly asked his mother-in-law to go to the village to pay off the debt, "I am really Those who want to return the money of the villagers should return it as soon as they have it..."
Li Qinghe listened impatiently to this. Earlier, the Yang family owed so much money and they could still eat and drink. If it was really embarrassing, they should have paid off some debts. He interrupted him and asked, "So, in fact, apart from you After getting the money, I don’t know who the other people are, and I don’t know how much money they divided, and I don’t even know who took away my sister-in-law’s jewelry, right?”
Father Yang nodded.
After going out, she went into the next room, where the mayor sat first, next to him was Zhou Boss with a face full of injuries, below was Mei Shi who was a little uncomfortable, then Zhou's mother, Zhou Chengkang, and Zhou's third child The two of them, even Zhou Laoer, also rushed over.
The mayor held the teacup, pondered for a while, and said, "He said it so carefully, he just wanted to prove that he was the one who robbed things." Looking at Boss Zhou, "Are you sure the injured person's skin is fair and tender?"
After several times of questioning like this, Boss Zhou was not sure, hesitatingly said, "It should be. I lit candles at night, and it looks really white, like a woman."
Li Qinghe thought for a while and said, "He said it so carefully, if it was him, but in fact he has no reason to help others to hide the crime of robbing seventy taels of silver, one person is completely different from four people, but if it is not him, he But to be able to speak so carefully, and to start repaying the debt so quickly, I am sure that person has been to the Yang family, and I can still have time to discuss the details with him carefully. Maybe the person is in the Yang family now!"
The mayor was stunned, stood up and ordered, "Find someone to come with me to Yang's house immediately."
The gate of the Yang family's yard was closed tightly. The mayor asked the woman to open the door. The yard was quiet. After searching all the rooms, no one was found. He stood in the yard with his hands behind his back, looking at the Yang family's courtyard wall in thought, when he suddenly heard a scream from the backyard, a group of people rushed over, and saw a ladder on the wall, and there was a cry of pain coming from outside the wall.
Going around outside, I saw Yang Lanhong lying on the ground in only his underwear, hugging his legs and screaming in pain, there was indeed a streak of blood on the neck of a woman scratched.
The mayor took him back, and the entire Yang family lived in his house.
Yang Lanhong's experience was exactly what Yang's father said, and he didn't know more about it, but the mayor asked him to recall it over and over again, from morning to night, and in the middle of the night, he finally couldn't stand it anymore, "Although I didn't watch it. I can see their looks, but there is one person who looks like Zhao Tianfu."
Zhao Tianfu has been at home for the past two days, and even went to watch the farce of the Yang family that day for a long time, and there is nothing wrong with him.
But since Yang Lanhong said so, Zhao Tianfu was also taken away. Because of this, I even went to invite the two brothers of the Liu family for questioning, but the two of them happened to go to the county town to get fish that night, and there were several people from the fish pond in the county town to testify together, so they were released because they really had no time. went back.
Zhao Tianfu stubbornly refused to admit it, but soon found out that he had repaid a sum of interest owed at the gambling house in the past two days, and the principal and interest were exactly eighteen taels, which happened to be the money he had been allocated.
When they heard the news, Li Qinghe couldn't bear to see the expressions on Boss Zhou's and Mei's faces, their complexions were distorted and they wanted to cry. Capitalized miserably!
The two of them spent all their money, and they still wanted to come back. For the remaining two, Boss Zhou was even more anxious. Fortunately, the mayor got the news soon, and someone ran to the only gold shop in the town. There is a pile of gold to be melted in the shop.
The gold was smashed into a gold cake, and the original color could not be seen at all. It was an old woman who came to melt the gold, claiming that the gold was her ancestral inheritance.
The imprint on the gold was extremely fresh, and it was completely impossible to say that it was ancestral. But I really can't find the imprint of Mei's stuff. Unless you can find the man who smashed the gold.
Luoyue Town said it was not big, but it was not small. The mayor couldn't delay the investigation, and the other wealthy households in the town refused to allow him to continue the investigation. To put it bluntly, they didn't trust his ability. . Or maybe he was afraid that he would take it lightly like last year and put him back.
Zhao Tianfu and Yang Lanhong were stealing fish earlier, but the mayor wants to let them go back.
He even said that the heavy compensation imposed by the mayor is a hidden danger for today. If people have no money to pay off their debts, they will naturally have bad thoughts. If they don't send it this time, they will also go to the county seat to sue the mayor for harboring prisoners. Or accepting bribes to deliberately let the prisoner go.
The last one was a bit embarrassing, so the mayor asked people to send the confession, the Yang family, Zhao Tianfu and several witnesses to the county seat that day. Including that piece of gold that was smashed flat.
They were sent away, and Li Qinghe and the two were safe, and they didn't need to run every day. In fact, it's not good not to run, it seems that brothers are so unkind.
She even noticed that Boss Zhou and the two had a rift against their husband and wife. On the day they came back, Mrs. Mei said: If you had been more ruthless and hadn't coveted the dozens of taels of silver they compensated, we wouldn't be where we are today. woe.
It's unreasonable, isn't it, then the two of them want to sue, and the mayor deliberately hides it from his superiors, so they can't play against the mayor, can they
Not to mention anything else, just planting medicinal materials, I will need others in the future, and besides, what if I need to buy land in the future? Besides, if someone is willing to compensate, she doesn't need to waste her energy just to send him to the Yamen, right? It takes five days to go back and forth from the county seat!
Furthermore, this time the mastermind was neither Zhao Tianfu nor Yang Lanhong. I still can't read the words. Since the mastermind is someone else, then without Zhao Tianfu and Yang Lanhong, someone else would come to the door at night!
At that time Zhou Cheng was so angry that he was going to drag his wife away.
Li Qinghe was not used to her faults, so he said directly, "If it weren't for the twenty taels of silver on her body, people would not be following you." . They are fine, as long as the couple still have a thin child, they can wear the gold shiningly. Although Mrs. Mei didn't go out, many people in the town went to her house to buy tofu. Those with a heart can see it.
Then, the two returned to the village, and regardless of their affairs, they heard that a family of three went to the county seat in a carriage to wait for the results.
After running for five or six days together, they got a good night's sleep after returning home, and gave Xiyu to Zhou's mother, and she went hunting with Zhou Chengkang to the mountains to cut firewood.
This year I went to my own forest.
As soon as he entered the forest, Li Qinghe was overjoyed, "Whoever is like us buys the forest to hunt by himself."
Zhou Chengkang took it very seriously, and said proudly, "My wife dotes on me!"