Records of the Cattle and Horses of Chang'an

This happened suddenly. On the way back, Cui Bianxu and Jiang Shangxian were both thinking about something. They deliberately took a detour and walked along Zhuque Street. They found that many people who were watching the excitement had gathered in groups around the drainage ditches on both sides.

This is also normal. Are you here to watch the fun? The things in the bones of the Chinese people, like the sedimentation of history, have been perfectly inherited from generation to generation over thousands of years. If you don’t watch the fun, you are a fool!

Two men rode past on horseback. From their high vantage point, they could vaguely see people from the county government office. They had their faces covered with cotton cloth and were using long hooks to move up and down the drain, poking left and right, looking for something. There was also a large bamboo basket nearby, which was dark inside, and they didn't know if they had found anything.

The crowd, who usually loved to watch the excitement, was extremely quiet at this moment. They all covered their faces with their sleeves and stared intently, holding their breath.

Look, the hardest and most tiring work is at the grassroots level.

After they passed, Jiang Shangxian withdrew his gaze. It took a while for his frown to clear. He hesitantly told Cui Bian, "It seems someone in our neighborhood found a basket of meat yesterday."

There is no such thing as being 100% certain, she said very uncertainly, because she could not rule out the possibility that the Lai family really bought it themselves, but there were too many doubts, it was too coincidental, and she had not seen the meat with her own eyes, so she could not be sure.

If that's true, then those neighbors in Yong'anfang who ate meat at Lai's house...

"What happened? Tell me in detail." Although the case was not in his hands, Cui Bianxu's sixth sense told him that it would be better to prepare for a rainy day.

When people are unlucky, whatever they wish for will come true.

"The neighbors who came to my house for a meal yesterday said that they saw Lai Da's mother at dawn yesterday morning..." Jiang Shangxian recounted what he had heard yesterday. In fact, there were not many details. The neighbors were just chatting, and most of what they said were irrelevant gossip and speculation.

But she emphasized, "My mother said that in previous years, the Lai family's banquets had nothing but radishes and cabbages. They rarely bought meat, and if they did, it was always for their own consumption. Erlang and my cousin didn't eat that meat, so I don't know what kind of...livestock it was."

Amitabha, the Three Pure Ones, and the blessings of our ancestors, we are so lucky that no one in the Jiang family ate that meat, otherwise who knows what kind of chaos would have happened at home!

Cui Bianxu thought for a moment and said, "Let's hurry. When we pass by Lai's house, you can point it out to me."

"kindness."

For the first time, Jiang Shangxian's horse ran while she was driving it.

Of course, she could only jog for now. Galloping on horseback in Chang'an City still required a certain level of skill and background, and she had neither of these.

The Lai family's location in Yong'anfang was not good, at the very back of a small alley. Cui Bianxu only let Jiang Shangxian point out the location at the very outside. After noting the location, he sent her back to the Jiang family. Before leaving, he took out an exquisite rectangular wooden box and a large red purse from the sheepskin bag hanging on his horse's back and handed them to her, turning his head away a little embarrassedly: "This, this is for you. If you like it, you can play with it. If you don't like it..."

"like!"

Jiang Shangxian accepted the gift frankly and naturally, and interrupted his latter possibility with two crisp words, "Please, this is all money. Who doesn't like money?"

Seeing her like this, Cui Bianxu breathed a sigh of relief. He licked his lips and felt a strange sensation above his stomach, between his ribs. "I'm glad you like it. I'm leaving now. If you find anything, remember to ask Erlang to come find me. You can leave this horse for now. I'll ask someone to bring some feed when I return later."

"Well, thank you, young master." Jiang Shangxian could see that he had something to do, and thought it was related to the Lai family. He held his pony and waved as he watched him ride away.

She felt that Cui Bianxu had changed a little. He had started to take the case seriously before it even fell on his shoulders.

The Jiang family didn't go out today. They stayed together in Jiang's mother's room, eating, drinking and resting. They didn't have any relatives in Chang'an who needed to leave. When they heard that she was back, they all dropped their food and ran out: "You're back!"

Jiang's mother glanced at the sky and said, "If you're any later, I'll have to ask Erlang to pick you up. The snow is falling non-stop. Hurry and shake off the snow before going into the house."

Jiang Wangri saw her pony at first sight and ran out in an exaggerated manner, spinning around in front of the horse, shouting, "Sister, this is a horse!"

"Oh, you're not cold, what are you talking about? Isn't this a horse or a mule?" Jiang's mother had a headache. Why is this kid so impulsive? Boys should be more stable!

"Cousin, is this the horse that Cui Shaoqing gave you?" Xia Zhenying also liked this horse, but she didn't dare to get close to it for fear of being kicked by the horse. She stretched her neck to look at it from a distance.

Old Madam Xia walked to the door and took a look. She couldn't help but worry: "What should we do? The snow is so heavy. If the horse is in the yard, I'm afraid it won't be able to survive."

"Put up a curtain next to the kitchen and put it there first."

Jiang's mother knew that Cui Bianxu had given Jiang Shangxian a horse, but he had never brought it back. "Didn't you say you'd just leave it there to raise? How did the money come back?"

"It will be taken back in two days. Something happened in the city."

Jiang Shangxian directed his brother to build the shed, and Xia Zhenying also came over to help. Old Lady Xia knew that this thing was a gift from Cui Bianxu, and she became even more worried: "Make it tight, and don't put too much hay on the ground, otherwise it will freeze."

"What happened?" Jiang's mother came out of the kitchen holding hay and asked curiously.

Jiang Shangxian was feeling cold, so he held the horse back and stopped it from getting any closer. "When we're done, let's talk inside. They say we've had a cold stomach."

Old Madam Xia was still worried about the horse's health, the worry on her face lingering. "I'm afraid it might get sick in the next couple of days. Oh, what will it eat?"

"Shaoqing Cui said he would send someone to deliver it later, so we don't need to worry about it."

How would Jiang Shangxian know what a horse eats? She usually builds a close relationship with the horse by giving it snacks like pastries and sesame and pine nut candies from Lexianlou, but these are definitely not proper meals. It must be a very particular kind of food, otherwise Cui Bianxu wouldn't have specifically asked for feed to be delivered.

After they had built the simple shed and settled the horses, the Jiang family members stomped their feet and retreated back into the house.

Jiang Shangxian took out today's harvest and showed them: "Here, this is today's wages. This is a gift from Cui Shaoqing."

She took out the purse containing her wages and handed it to Jiang's mother, then opened the wooden box herself. In an instant, there was a burst of exclamations in the room.

"This is too expensive!"

"Wow, this isn't gilded, it's pure gold!"

Mother Jiang slapped her son and niece's hands away, carefully holding up the chain herself. She and Old Madam Xia looked at it together for a while before reluctantly putting it back into the wooden box. "You should keep this thing safe for yourself. You'll wear it when you get married. It will be so respectable."

How many women can refuse exquisite and valuable jewelry?

Old Madam Xia also kept rubbing her eyes and squinting to look carefully: "This is really a rare and good thing, look at the materials on it..."

As she said this, she looked at Jiang's mother with some pride - did you see it?