Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 205 Sister Zijuan, are you pregnant?
"You don't know?"

Ji Qing spoke confidently, raised three fingers to the sky and swore, "Now that things have come to this, I dare not deceive you. If I conceal the truth, I will surely fall into the animal realm and never be reincarnated."

In Jiqing's mind, the matter had been investigated to this point and there was really nothing to hide.

As for where those people eventually went, that would be a matter for Yue Ling to wait until he caught Huang Wenhua and questioned him. He had done his best to tell him everything he knew.

Yue Ling calmed down and sighed, "You did say some useful information. To reward you, I want to tell you something."

Ji Qing was puzzled and looked up at Yue Ling, "What did you say, Lord?"

Yue Ling's expression returned to indifference. "In fact, the Huang family has not fallen yet, and I don't have any solid evidence of your collusion. However, since you have confessed in person, thank you anyway."

Ji Qing was startled, and his hunched body straightened up at this moment.

"The Huang family didn't fall? Didn't they say that all the merchants in the city had their properties confiscated?"

Yue Ling nodded slightly, "It's true that many merchants have gone bankrupt, but the Huang family is still there, and perhaps your money is still there now."

Ji Qing suddenly woke up. Yue Ling came here just to trick him.

After finishing the conversation...

With a "clang", Yue Ling drew out the jailer's machete, swung it with great force, and chopped Jiqing's head off on the spot, with blood splattering all over the ground.

Until his death, Jiqing had his eyes wide open in horror.

The machete is slightly blunt, but the key to achieving such an effect lies in the great force used by Yue Ling, which directly shattered human bones.

Throwing the machete on the ground, Yue Ling said calmly, "Deal with the bodies, and take the heads to the cemetery where the victims were buried, to comfort the souls of the innocent people in heaven."

"Also, this knife is too blunt, and the tip is a bit rusty. Go to the treasury and get a new one."

The jailer came back to his senses from his shock at this moment, his knees softened, and he knelt down, "I will obey the order of the Marquis."

This was the second time Jia Yun had seen Yue Ling kill someone up close. Even so, his legs were still trembling. He closed his eyes and couldn't help thinking, "I'm going to have another nightmare today. How could the master be so cruel? He killed him in prison without executing him. It was too straightforward."

It is true that Yue Ling is doing things in an advantageous manner, and he is indeed unscrupulous in Cangzhou City.

He believed he was guilty, so there was no overturning of the verdict.

After walking out of the cell, Pu Zheng, who had been able to see what was happening in the cell, couldn't help but shrink his body. A hot and wet feeling flowed out from his lower abdomen, accompanied by a fishy smell.

Yue Ling's cold glance at him made him even more distressed.

"My Lord, I..."

What's even more tragic is that Park Jung wanted to provide no useful information, and what he knew was even less than what Jiqing had just said.

He had no one to rely on in the court, otherwise who would come to Cangzhou, which had been plagued by disasters year after year.

Yue Ling said calmly: "You won't die yet. When Cangzhou is truly prosperous and brand new, I will lead you out to parade you through the streets, and then execute you in public. This will also allow the people of Cangzhou to say goodbye to their past sufferings."

After saying that, Yue Ling strode out of the cell, leaving the jailer and Pu Zheng staring at each other.

Holding back the churning in his stomach, the jailer called in two helpers to clean the cell covered in blood and deal with the bodies.

Glancing at Pu Zheng, the jailer said, "Good deeds are rewarded with good, evil deeds are punished with evil. The arrival of the Grand Commander in Cangzhou is your retribution. The prefect should not think about those extra things. I will give you the last meal that the judge did not use."

"Look, you have to eat two meals even before execution. Aren't you really greedy?"

Park Jung looked at the "Jiqing" whose head was separated from his body and vomited continuously...

……

"How could the master think of defrauding him? Now it's good, saving a lot of effort to investigate, he has almost made up the charges himself."

Walking in the corridor, Jia Yun humbly asked Yue Ling for advice.

Yue Ling was open with his own people and said, "It all started with our arrangements in Cangzhou. These merchants did not avoid the trap, and the Huang family did not avoid it either."

"But most of the merchants were ruined because of this. The Huang family suffered this loss, but is still operating now. Why is that?"

Jia Yun replied: "Because the Huang family has more savings?"

Yue Ling nodded slightly, then shook his head, "But their family has not been in Cangzhou City for long. Without income from unclear sources, how could they quickly accumulate more wealth than the local merchants?"

"Ji Qing is only interested in making money, and the best way to make money is to make money from it, that is, to lend money at high interest rates. If you just pile it up in your hands, it will be useless."

"One hundred thousand or two hundred thousand would not achieve his goal. Putting the money in the Huang family's silver shop, circulating it, and sharing some of the profits is the best way at the moment. The cooperation between the two sides will also be more stable."

"The Huang family's cash reserves should be much more than we thought. But this is just right. If it were less, how could I arouse my interest?"

Nowadays, the warehouse is no longer short of small profits. If the Huang family is really a behemoth, it will be more in line with Yue Ling's intentions.

And if he could find the people behind the Huang family, Yue Ling would be even happier.

How could a force that could consume such a large population be an ordinary one? It must be much higher than these merchants and local officials.

Making a small profit with a big one is what Yue Ling would like to see.

Seeing Jia Yun in deep thought, Yue Ling smiled and shook his head.

To be honest, Yue Ling found it difficult to understand Ji Qing's strong enthusiasm as a convert.

Ji Qing went astray, perhaps not because of his mother's long-cherished wish, but because of his inner obsession. He wanted to prove himself to his father who had treated him badly. If it were in a novel about cultivating immortals, this might be some kind of evil cultivator. Or it could be a thick-skinned protagonist who consumes all the resources of the land to help himself achieve enlightenment.

Jia Yun might be able to understand his obsession with the family tree, but Yue Ling might find it difficult to understand.

If I were to write a family tree, I would probably have to start with this page as the title page.

And when writing a family tree, it seems that you have to write about a celebrity to relate to your life experience. What about Yue Ling? Should you write about the winner of the most gold medals in the world, Prince Yue?
Shaking his head to dispel the complicated thoughts in his mind, Yue Ling returned to the back hall of the yamen.

The case is not over yet, and some truths are still unknown.

“Master, if there is Jiqing, shouldn’t we go to the Huang family to arrest him first?”

After serving the tea, Jia Yun asked again.

Yue Ling shook his head and said, "As the mastermind of human trafficking, his crime is not important at the moment. What is important is who he trafficked to and who the seller behind him is."

"And he probably had no choice. If you saw me being so prominent in the city and the city was thriving, and you were the instigator of the chaos in the city, what would you think?"

Jia Yun said truthfully, "I would like to run as far as possible, and stay away from the master."

Yue Ling couldn't help but laugh and said, "Am I that scary? But you are right. Normal people would hide away. Besides, the Huang family is not from Cangzhou. He is a latecomer and has no feelings for this place."

"But he hasn't left yet. He's probably waiting for some news. So it's not the time to close the net yet. Jiqing doesn't have a Shanxi merchant behind him, so he's not the bait. But Huang Wenhua has someone behind him, so he is the bait."

Jia Yun couldn't help but smile, "I see. I'm not as far-sighted as you are."

Yue Ling picked up another document from the desk and said to Jia Yun, "We should add more people to keep watch outside the Huang family gardens. No matter what enters the Huang family, we must find out everything."

"Yes."

……

The inner house of the government office,

Lin Daiyu was holding a book in her room, but she had no intention of reading.

Holding the jade in her hand, she still couldn't let go of Zijuan's words for a long time.

"It's so embarrassing. Sister Zijuan saw it all. She knew it all and even cooperated with me in the play. I..."

Lin Daiyu slumped over the table weakly, her whole body collapsed.

Originally, she wanted to take advantage of the fact that Yue Ling was not in the room at noon to have a good rest and conserve her energy so as not to let Yue Ling discover anything fishy. However, she tossed and turned on the couch and could not fall asleep at all.

As soon as I closed my eyes, I saw the embarrassing situation from last night again.

The going out of one lamp after another was engraved in Lin Daiyu's mind.

She has a very good memory, and now there is one more thing she can't forget.

Now, trying to change her mood by reading was completely ineffective. For the first time, Lin Daiyu felt so helpless.

Suddenly, her stomach churned and she felt a pain like colic, which made Lin Daiyu frown.

Lin Daiyu stroked her belly with a puzzled look on her face. "What's wrong with me? I haven't felt uncomfortable for a long time."

Whenever she had questions, Lin Daiyu would always look for the answers in a book first.

Lin Daiyu has been reading mostly local documents from Cangzhou, which are printed on rough paper and are of much lower quality than those famous books produced by the Imperial College.

I was thinking of looking for a medical book, but a page of paper fell down.

Lin Daiyu bent over to pick it up. It seemed to be a medical book as well. In the middle of the text, there were some words written, "After a man and a woman have sex, if there is a dull pain in the abdomen, it is a sign of pregnancy."

"?"

Lin Daiyu's young heart was greatly shocked.

"Ah? I'm pregnant?"

Lin Daiyu's eyes widened, and her originally intelligent brain seemed to have stopped working at this moment.

"Sister Zijuan has been sleeping with Brother Yue for a long time, but I haven't seen her do it."

After calming down, Lin Daiyu decided to go and ask Zijuan what was going on.

At that time, Zijuan was still cleaning the room.

Seeing Lin Daiyu pushing the door open with a red face, Zijuan was stunned for a moment before she said, "Miss, what's wrong with you? Did Xueyan break the jade?"

Lin Daiyu quickly shook her head, "That's not the case."

Zijuan felt that Lin Daiyu seemed to have something to hide, so she made some tea and helped Lin Daiyu sit at the tea table.

After working hard for a whole morning, Zijuan felt a little tired, so she poured herself a cup.

When the tea was brought to her mouth, she heard Lin Daiyu lower her head and asked in a low voice: "Sister Zijuan, are you pregnant?"

With a puff, the tea sprayed all over the floor...

(End of this chapter)