Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 256 Where have you gone?
Yang Yuan's eyes suddenly became sharp: "Who is it?"

Emmanuelle Belle breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Yang Yuan's reaction.

He cares a lot about this matter, so my leverage should be useful.

"Has Mr. Yang agreed to protect us?"

"Isn't it just taking care of the safety of a few young ladies?"

Yang Yuan looked at her with amusement: "I know that when a person comes to a foreign land, he will inevitably feel confused and uneasy. Especially since you were abducted here as a slave girl."

"But I can tell you that this is the capital of the most civilized country in the world.

You speak the Great Song Mandarin very well, but you obviously don't know the country as well as you do its language.

We have perfect order and law here!"

Yang Yuan's words were not really bragging.

The Song Dynasty was indeed the most lenient among all dynasties in terms of citizens suing officials.

Citizens can sue officials, and there are three characteristics of citizens suing officials: they can sue in any way, anyone can sue, and anything can be sued.

Therefore, the Jingding Jiankang Chronicle says: "There are no fewer than 200 days of litigation."

Huang Tingjian's Shan Gu Wen Ji says: "When the common people lose their temper, they slander the governor and complain about the officials."

In the early Song Dynasty, there was a scholar named Lei Youlin who sued Prime Minister Zhao Pu for protecting Hu Zan, Li Kedu and others for taking bribes and cheating.

The result was that the main culprit was beheaded, five ministers including Hu Zan and Li Kedu were beaten to death, their property was confiscated, and Zhao Pu was dismissed from his position as prime minister and exiled to a remote place.

If you want to say that this happened at the beginning of the founding of the Song Dynasty, then it is more recent.

During the reign of Emperor Zhezong, he applied to the Empress Dowager's family for permission to build a temple on their ancestral tomb, and Cai Jing, the then Minister of Revenue, approved a piece of land.

However, to reach this land, there were houses blocking the way, so the Xiang family forced them to move.

The family refused and went to Kaifeng Prefecture to file a complaint. As a result, the family was not allowed to demolish their house, and Cai Jing was fined twenty gold coins for improper handling.

Cai Jing was on the rise at that time, and he was working for the Empress Dowager's family, so the result was the same.

There are many similar cases, so the Song Dynasty has always been considered the feudal society with the most flat management, and the class gap is the smallest compared to other dynasties.

However, although Yang Yuan was not bragging, his civilization had only reached a peak in terms of system.

The system being like this doesn't mean that everyone can do it that way.

Only with this system in place, the privileged will inevitably be subject to more constraints and will not be able to blatantly bully others.

Taking into account the post-processing costs, it will indeed greatly reduce the phenomenon of oppressing the people that was more common in other dynasties.

Emmanuelle-Belle was a noble, and a sword-bearing noble at that. Among the Frankish nobles, she was the one who understood the lower classes better.

She wouldn't be so naive as to believe Yang Yuan's bragging.

After hearing Yang Yuan's assurance, she just smiled and said, "I believe what Mr. Yang said, and I also admit that your country is a very civilized and developed country.

But I also believe that there are always places in this world where the sun doesn’t shine, and even in places where the sun can shine, people with power and money can hold up an umbrella for them.”

Got slapped in the face again.

Yang Yuan, who helped Dan Niang win the "Shuiyunjian" restaurant, rubbed his nose guiltily: "Okay, I solemnly promise that I will protect you! Is this okay?"

He now admitted that the golden-haired creature in front of him was definitely not a monkey, but at least a golden-haired lion.

"I believe in your promise!" Emmanuelle Belle couldn't ask for more. If she asked Yang Yuan to sign and seal the agreement, it would obviously be too much and might even anger this big shot.

Moreover, she did think that the person in front of her was trustworthy.

Yang Yuan said: "Well, you can tell me now."

Emmanuelle Belle said: "At that time, someone was shooting arrows on the dock. The purpose of those cold arrows was not to kill people."

"And what for?"

"To create chaos! To make everyone rush to hide, especially to cover the big guys, so that some people will be overlooked."

Yang Yuan said in a deep voice: "You mean, the person who actually killed someone is at the dock?"

"Yes!"

"Who is he?"

Emmanuelle Belle stared at Yang Yuan. Her blue eyes seemed to be able to speak, telling Yang Yuan a feeling of grievance and helplessness.

Yang Yuan looked at her in confusion, not understanding why she had such an expression. I didn't bully you.

Emmanuelle Belle took a deep breath and smiled bitterly, "I forgot! What I just told you was what I hurriedly wrote down last night, but I...didn't have time to finish it."

Yang Yuan was bewildered after hearing this. What did he forget? He hadn't even finished writing it yet, and he forgot it in just one night?
Emmanuelle Belle pointed to her head and told Yang Yuan about the strange disease she contracted after falling into the sea.

Emmanuelle said helplessly: "Of course, this is what Helen and the others told me. In fact, my current memory...

I fell into the water and fainted last night, and you rescued me. Then, I met you again this morning..."

Yang Yuan didn't expect that there would be such a thing. There is actually such a strange disease that would cause one's memory to be cleared every day.

However, Yang Yuan did not doubt what she had just said, so there was no need for her to lie to herself.

Moreover, Yang Yuan had heard of this miraculous ability of photographic memory and analytical judgment that she had suddenly acquired.

Someone gets hurt in the head, and when he wakes up, he suddenly turns from a complete layman into a great painter or a great musician...

This seems to be called "acquired savant syndrome". Who can explain the complexity and wonder of the human brain?

But...it would be great if she could write down the person's appearance. Why write nonsense in the front?

Yang Yuan was reminded of some disgusting TV dramas in which the victims would never clearly and directly say the name of the murderer.

They either say a bunch of nonsense first, or write a bunch of nonsense first, and then die at the critical moment.

The little golden retriever actually saw through Yang Yuan's thoughts and explained to him:
"If I don't write down the cause and effect first, and simply record the person's appearance, it will be meaningless. Because after I wake up, I won't understand why I wrote these things down."

She said helplessly: "Besides, I didn't know the exact time at that time."

Yang Yuan nodded with a wry smile.

Emmanuelle Belle said nervously, "At least, I helped you narrow down the murderer, didn't I?"

Yang Yuan smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm just thinking about the murderer at the dock. I won't go back on my promise to you."

Yang Yuan thought for a moment and said, "You mean, after you were rescued from the sea, you contracted a strange disease.

First, you have a photographic memory, whether it is important to you or not. Second, do you wake up every day and forget everything you saw yesterday?"

"Yes."

Yang Yuan pointed to the rows of houses across the river and said, "Now look and see which house has someone in the window and which has a tree behind it. I'll give you ten counts."

Emmanuelle Belle turned her head and looked. Yang Yuan said, "Ten, nine, eight, seven..."

After Yang Yuan finished counting, Emmanuelle Belle said happily: "I know, there is a tree behind the house..."

Yang Yuan said, "There were a few people, some men and some women, who just passed by on the opposite side of the street."

Emmanuelle Belle was stunned for a moment, then he realized that his real test was here.

If a person is busy looking at and remembering the houses facing the street, where are the people walking in the many windows on the first and second floors...

He also has to observe which house has a tree behind it, so he definitely cannot pay attention to how many pedestrians are on the street under the row of buildings between these ten numbers.

Emmanuelle Belle's eyes were dazed for a moment, and everything she had just seen quickly flashed back in her mind.

Then she replied affirmatively: "Just now, four groups of people passed by the opposite street, a total of fourteen people.

There were nine boys, four girls, and one was a baby, held in a woman's arms, so I couldn't tell if he was a boy or a girl.

However, he was wrapped in a pink swaddling cloth with flowers, so it was most likely a girl. "

Yang Yuan stared at Emmanuelle Belle in surprise. He had just set a trap for her, while he himself was counting the pedestrians on the opposite street.

However, even as he was counting heads, he did not notice the color of the swaddling clothes of the child being held.

The golden retriever in front of me is not an angel, a monkey, or a golden-haired lion.

She... is simply a sophisticated human computer!

Yang Yuan probably understood why her brain's memory was reset every day.

After an impact on her brain, she developed a magical ability.

But this magical ability brought her too much information. If her memory could not be reset every day, Yang Yuan didn’t believe anyone’s brain could withstand it.

"Your Highness Belle! I promise to invest in you!"

Yang Yuan said seriously: "I can introduce someone to you, her name is Li Shishi!

She is trying to make clothes that you barbarians like, and I think your sisters can cooperate well with her."

“Of course, if some of your sisters still want to open a shop selling spices, that’s fine too.

My ocean-going fleet will bring back shiploads of spices, and your sisters can open a shop to sell spices, and the business will be bigger than you can imagine."

In this era, officials were not prohibited from doing business, and even the military was not prohibited from doing business, so Yang Yuan could openly agree to her cooperation.

What's more, not only was it not forbidden for officials to engage in business in this era, but the business that Yang Yuan was doing was all about goods on the open market, and did not involve any government-monopolized goods, so there was no need to be shy about it.

In the Ming Dynasty, officials were prohibited from engaging in business, but those in high positions and power continued to do so. Not only did they do business, but they also used their power to monopolize state-run industries, making huge profits without any risk.

For example, when Zhang Siwei was the Prime Minister, his younger brother Zhang Sijiao was the largest salt merchant at that time.

When Yuan Chonghuan was at the height of his power, his younger brother Yuan Chongyu was the most powerful salt merchant at the time.

Yang Yuan lived in an era when officials could engage in business legally, and he did not use his privileges to monopolize state-owned businesses, so he had nothing to worry about.

"Oh? Dealing in fabrics and clothing?" Emmanuelle Belle's eyes lit up, and she immediately realized the huge profits.

Of course, it is impossible to sell fashion across oceans to ordinary people by relying on quantity in this era.

Even in the Song Dynasty, most ordinary people bought their own cloth and made their own clothes. No one was willing to buy ready-made clothes.

That must have been sold to the nobles and the rich.

Emmanuelle Belle could well imagine how much the ladies and young ladies of the noble and wealthy families would spare no expense if there was a gorgeous dress from the distant Eastern Empire that suited their aesthetic tastes.

"He actually owns his own ocean-going fleet! My God, he must be a high-ranking official at the governor level!"

Emmanuelle Belle was very excited, but...she suddenly realized something was wrong.

In all of Yang Yuan’s explanations just now, he had been talking about “your sisters”, so... where did “you” go?
Emmanuelle Belle is a very beautiful woman and she is well aware of how attractive she is.

Many women who were defeated and captured would be brutally raped or even killed, but the nobler their status and the more beautiful they were, the less likely they would be raped and harmed.

Because they are rare commodities that can be exchanged for greater rewards than just a night of pleasure.

For example, Badran ibn Malik, a noble of the Uglid dynasty, was the mixed-race descendant of his father and a Frankish noblewoman.

His mother was a Frankish woman who was captured and sold because she was a noble, young and beautiful...

Finally, it was bought by an official for a large sum of money and given to Malik's father as a gift in order to curry favor with this powerful man.

Emmanuelle Belle knew that she had been able to protect herself until now only because of her extraordinary beauty, so she was particularly sensitive.

She immediately caught the loophole in Yang Yuan's words.

Emmanuelle Belle's long legs subconsciously curled up and she asked cautiously:

"Mr. Yang, you just mentioned my suffering sister, so...what are you going to do with me?"

(End of this chapter)