When they arrived at Zhou Qunshan, Zhen Muyao separated from them and went straight to Fan Wuguo, saying that she would come to play with them after the matter was over. Xiaocao asked her to return the snake, but she ignored him and pretended not to hear him. She had confirmed that the venomous snake would not wake up easily, so there was nothing to say, and she would talk about it after she had enough fun.
"Sister Mu Yao is so naughty." Wen Renying said.
Xiao Cao glanced at her and said, "You don't have to be so tactful."
Wen Renying smiled and said, "Well, we have to give her some face. After all, she is not a child anymore."
—Actually, what you want to say is that she is just a child, and a very naughty one at that.
Wen Renying smiled but said nothing. It was a rare moment of tacit understanding between the sisters.
I went to find Han, who was drinking tea with a woman she didn't know. Then I heard from Han that she just met her husband, who had returned to the imperial city to report on his work, and came back with him to visit.
This rather implicit statement probably means that everything has already been arranged and he will stay in the imperial city and will not be sent out.
They greeted each other. Wen Renying hinted that she had something to do, and the other party quickly left.
In front of Wen Ren Xiang, Wen Ren Ying ruthlessly exposed all the ugly things Wen Ren Xiang had done.
Wen Renxiang was extremely embarrassed and wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into. She lowered her head and remained silent, but she hated Wen Renying in her heart. She felt that she shouldn't have said this. It was already over and the worst that could happen was that she would not have anything to do with Zhang Junliang and the others in the future. But Wen Renying was so vicious and refused to let her go.
Before, she could still vent her anger and argue with Wen Renying, but when facing her elders, she seemed to be overwhelmed with shame and felt very embarrassed.
Han frowned and looked at Wen Renxiang, her eyes seemed to contain ice chips. "If you are not satisfied with the marriage arranged for you, then don't get married. Do you want to return to the old house in Suiyuan County and stay in the family temple? Or do you want to cut your hair and become a nun? Or, if you want to die suddenly, it is not impossible to fulfill your wish."
Wen Renxiang probably didn't expect Han to be so cruel. She was so scared that she trembled. "Aunt, I know I was wrong. Really, I won't dare to do it again next time. I will stay at home and not even go out."
Han's expression did not ease at all. "Come here, send the fifth girl back and give her to the third brother's wife. From now on, let her copy books, Women's Commandments, Women's Rules, Women's Instructions, Family Instructions, and Filial Piety, one by one, over and over again, until she gets married. During this period, no banquets are allowed, and starting from next month, there will be no monthly allowance."
When Wen Renxiang heard this, she was shocked. She had expected that she might be punished. She was a little indifferent to the shock she had experienced before, but she did not expect that her aunt would do this. "Aunt, you can't, you can't do this, you can't do this to me?"
Han sneered, "Why can't I?"
"I am the girl from the third room, your hand..." is too deep and long.
"Go back and tell your stepmother about this and see how she reacts." She never cared about other families' affairs in the past, because it didn't bother her. It didn't mean she couldn't care about it. Wen Renxiang, that bitch, was shameless and caused her precious daughter to put herself in danger. She was merciful by not killing her directly.
Stepmother? The stepmother would only agree without hesitation, and might even punish her more severely! "Aunt, I was wrong, I was really wrong, please forgive me this time, please forgive me this time."
"Take her away. This is a quiet place in Buddhism. Don't let her make any noise."
So, Wen Renxiang had her mouth blocked and was forcibly dragged out by two maids.
Wen Renying was also a little bit unbelievable. Her mother was really furious this time.
After sending Wen Renxiang away, Han pulled Xiaocao and said, "Don't be stupid in the future. Even if it affects the reputation of the entire Wen family, it is not as important as your safety."
"…" As far as Xiaocao knows, in this world, isn't it necessary to preserve the family's reputation even at the cost of death? As for those women who were clearly bullied, the family did not support them, but wanted them to "die with complete innocence". Isn't her mother's idea too "heretical"? "Mom, I'll be fine."
"Kid, have you ever thought about what would happen? What if something goes wrong?"
"…" Is she going to fight with "what if" today? Maybe she shouldn't have started it herself, because it will never end. Listening to Han's lecture, Xiaocao looked at Wen Renying for help.
Wen Renying, however, was standing there, laughing with her shoulders shaking. It could be said that there was no sisterhood at all.
Xiaocao was also thankful at the moment that the size of the snake group had been infinitely weakened. Her mother thought that there were only a few dozen snakes. If she knew that they were everywhere, she would probably keep Xiaocao under her control and not allow her to go out.
Similarly, the punishment for Wenren Xiang was probably relatively light, otherwise Han would have really wanted to kill her.
Xiaocao felt that, judging from her mother's love for her daughter, many things that she used to take for granted were probably absolutely forbidden in her eyes. In order to avoid conflicts between mother and daughter, she privately thought that some things in the future should be concealed if possible. Regarding this, she had to communicate it with other people, especially her seventh sister. After all, they spent a lot of time together.
While Han was still scolding her daughter, Zhen Muyao had already told Fan Wuguo about the matter. It was easy for her to go up the mountain. She just had to report it and she was taken up.
Zhen Muyao was not like Prince Dun, who knew that Kaiping Guard was doing something, so he stopped at a similar position and did not even enter the temple, with no intention of snooping around at all.
The lawless young master was of course quite interested in the fact that snake attracting grass could attract snakes. To be exact, he was interested in snake attracting grass. He had never heard of such an interesting thing before, and he really wanted to get some to play with.
So without saying anything, he took people to check over there. With his excitement, he was not afraid of not being able to find out the truth. Not to mention whether the snake attractant grass was still there, even if there was, he was not afraid of him causing trouble.
The higher the status of a person, the more he knows that there are some things that he cannot touch, and he will never do them.
But on the way, the young master became interested in the poisonous snake in Zhen Muyao's hand and wanted to play with it too.
Zhen Muyao was determined not to give it to her. If it fell into Fan Wuguo's hands, there would be no way she could get it back. If it was hers, it wouldn't matter, but it wasn't hers, and Sister Xuan still had a use for it, so she said she would return it to her.
When Fan Wuguo was about to snatch it, Zhen Muyao found an opportunity and ran away.
Fan Wuguo made a "huh" sound and smacked his lips. It was said that there were still a lot of snakes left on the pleasure boat. He would go look for them, perhaps he could find a couple of poisonous ones. Having made up his mind, he could not help but quicken his pace, fearing that he would be too late and the snakes would have been dealt with.
Wei Tingyu also got the news soon after, "Shi family, snake attracting grass..."
Yesterday, Xiaocao offended someone in Pingjin Marquis' Mansion, especially Madam Xia Si. With Xia Duyu's pressure, others would be fine, but Madam Xia Si would be different. Her end would definitely not be good. Correspondingly, the Shi family would not have an easy time either. Just the fact that Xia Duyu's reproach was "bad at educating their daughter" was enough to make them suffer. Just in case, Wei Tingyu checked the situation of the Shi family as soon as possible. Because of the special nature of his identity, it was not difficult for him to get things that others could not get.
Therefore, he had a general idea of the Shi family's situation, and he had already sent people to investigate for further details. He just didn't expect things to happen so quickly. Even though it was just a coincidence, Wen Renxiang was just unlucky to run into it.
As for the snake-attracting grass, Wei Tingyu actually knew about it. When Xiaocao told him "strange stories" before, he mentioned the special characteristics of this grass, and he also roughly remembered the area where this grass was distributed.
The largest number of them is the Nanzhong Provincial Administration Commission. There are more than 30 prefectures under the Nanzhong Provincial Administration Commission, half of which are located in high mountains and humid and hot areas with many snakes. I heard that there are also some ancient tribes who have seldom contact with the outside world. It seems that some of them regard snakes as totems and worship them very much. In those places, the number of snake-attracting grass is relatively large, and they are specially planted. However, those snake-attracting grasses have never flowed out. Some other places are scarce, but it does not mean that there are none.
In fact, many people in the local area know about snake attracting grass.
And it just so happened that someone from the Shi family was serving as the Tongzhi of a prefecture under the Nanzhong Provincial Administration.
Therefore, it is not really a strange thing to say that the Shi family has snake-attracting grass.
However, sending something like snake-attracting grass to the imperial city would accuse the Shi family of having "ulterior motives".
Wei Tingyu didn't go completely astray because of Xiaocao, but he certainly can't be called a good person, especially because of his weak spot. Xiaocao's temper was more or less the result of her indulgence. You know, at the beginning, he had thought about taking Xiaocao back to the imperial city to live when the time was right. So, as long as he wanted, as long as he slightly restrained Xiaocao's temper, it would definitely be effective after so many years. But he didn't, he retained her innocence and straightforwardness.
Just as Wenren Taibo and Han Shi couldn't bear to restrict her too much, Wei Tingyu was even more reluctant.
Xiaocao easily offends people. Anyone who has seen her quarreling with others will probably have a clear understanding of this. Not being able to restrain her, one can only protect her. For this, Wei Tingyu can do so at all costs.
If the Shi family dares to make trouble and do harm to Xiaocao, Wei Tingyu will dare to crush the Shi family.
There is no evidence that can be fabricated. Moreover, judging from what we saw yesterday, the Shi family is not so clean.
"Send two more people to the Shi family to speed up the process. Also, when the young master goes to check the snake-attracting grass, you can make him make a bigger noise." It would be best to cause chaos in the Shi family.
The subordinate's mouth twitched: Master, you are really ruthless in "taking advantage" of the young master.
Well, the young master was willing to be "used" and wanted to turn the world upside down. When he had the chance to make trouble, how could he be merciful
The highest-ranking official in the Shi family now is a fourth-rank minister of the Ministry of Rites. Compared to when Xia Shi married into the Xia family, the family has declined a lot. Even though there was an old lady Xia in the previous generation and a fourth lady Xia after her, the imperial envoy Xia Du has never helped the Yue family. At most, he would say a word or two in advance about some things.
This time, even if the Shi family asked for help from Old Madam Xia, it would probably be of no avail. After all, she could not protect herself. Although she was not sent back to the Shi family, she was sent back to the Xia family's ancestral land.
When Xia Duyu returned home from the palace, he had already told his wife: "You go back to the old house first, and when I retire in a few years, I will go back to accompany you." This was a nice thing to say, but it could not change the fact that Mrs. Xia was driven back to her hometown.
She was old and cried quite miserably, but she didn't say a word and didn't mention any feelings. She knew it was useless to mention those things in front of this "heartless" husband. If she still wanted to retain some feelings, she'd better do as he said.
It is not difficult to deal with the Shi family who have no one to help them.
The young master went away and never came back. It was said that he took a big bag of snakes with him and was going to prepare a snake feast. The reason why he didn't come back was probably because he was afraid that the monks in Guanyin Temple would nag him to release the snakes to accumulate merit or something. Therefore, he went straight to the direction of the palace, took a short detour, threw the snakes to other people, and went straight to the Kaiping Guard Office, arrested the commander, and took people to the Shi family openly.
Snake grass is still the most attractive.
The girl from the Shi family had already gone home earlier, but what could she do? The more she did, the more guilty she felt, and the more flaws she would have. Moreover, the young master was as sensitive as a dog's nose when it came to things that interested him, and sometimes he could even find out something by accident.
If you can hide it from him, I'm sorry, he will only become more interested. He will dig up every person who may be related, inside and out, and he will not give up even if he makes you feel ashamed and angry to death.
So Wei Tingyu didn't worry about the final result at all.
In the evening, Wei Tingyu released some news that seemed to be true, and mixed in with it were some things that had real evidence but the originals had not been found. Of course, there was no need to explain it in detail, and it was enough to have a general idea that made people doubt it.
Then, the blockade was lifted and people followed the "palanquin" out.
The mountain seemed to have regained its former tranquility and beauty, with the scent of Buddhist incense wafting everywhere.
Zhen Muyao had returned at about the same time. Xiaocao and the others had had a vegetarian meal. At this moment, Xiaocao was standing at the edge of the house enjoying the breeze, looking at the hill over there. There seemed to be an inexplicable strange feeling in her heart. To put it bluntly, she felt unpeaceful.
Xiaocao took out the carving knife again, but the light was not very good now, so she started "blind carving". Of course, the so-called blind carving is actually just blind carving. It is probably to practice the flexibility of fingers and wrists, and find something to do so as not to think too much. However, the effect is not very good.
Resisting the urge to find out what was going on, Xiaocao simply dragged Wenrenying to watch the monks in the temple perform evening prayers.
The rippling Buddhist music can sometimes really help to calm the mind, but the consequence of calming the mind is probably that one becomes drowsy easily.