On the wedding day, my wife was abnormal

Cheng Xuan recalled Mrs. Zheng's tearful accusations—the county magistrate's stupidity, corruption, collusion with bandits, and usurpation of private property; Mrs. Youmeng's viciousness and ruthlessness, her ambiguous relationship with the county magistrate; and the evil deeds of that old beast, Zheng Laocai, in his early years...

All of this completely overturned her original, vague, and distant understanding of "government" as a girl who grew up in a wealthy family in the south of the Yangtze River.

In her world, although the officials and yamen runners are trash, they also have bottom lines.

But what I saw and heard today...

This government is simply a vicious beast in human skin that eats people without leaving any bones!

"An official appointed by the imperial court, a county magistrate who should be the father and mother of the country..."

Cheng Xuan's voice trembled, with a hint of subtle fear. "He actually kept bandits? He was on friendly terms with the bandit leader? And just to seize someone else's land... he killed two people just like that?!"

She suddenly turned to look at Lin Zhen, her eyes burning with questions, as if confirming the final rule: "Such a scumbag! A scumbag in official guise! Can he really represent the court?! Can he even be considered an official?!"

Lin Zhen's expression had returned to normal.

There are so many tragedies in the world.

This is just an insignificant example in a decadent society.

"No, I'll kill them all when I get back."

......

At the west end of Xilin Village, there is a low courtyard with earthen walls.

Lin Zhen raised his hand to signal Cheng Xuan, who was riding a horse behind him, to stop.

The adobe house in front of him looked even more dilapidated than Mrs. Zheng's house. The wooden door was half-closed. In the yard, an old man with sparse white hair and bony bones was sitting on a low stool with a hunched back. His rough fingers were flying with extraordinary dexterity, weaving gray-green bamboo strips into a small winnowing basket.

The afterglow of the setting sun fell on his wrinkled face, revealing a numbness worn down by time.

Lin Zhen dismounted, handed the reins to Cheng Xuan, and walked lightly into the half-open wooden door.

Cheng Xuan followed suit, leading the two horses and looking around vigilantly, her ears perked up to catch any unusual movement.

"Excuse me, old man." Lin Zhen stood still in the yard. His voice was not loud, but it was enough to make the old man Wang, who was concentrating on weaving, pause.

Old man Wang slowly raised his head, his dim eyes focusing dully on the face of the strange but well-dressed young man in front of him through the strands of gray hair hanging from his forehead.

He didn't stand up immediately. His cloudy eyes carried the usual aloofness of a villager and a subtle hint of vigilance.

His eyes swept across Cheng Xuan behind Lin Zhen, paused at the seemingly ordinary sword at her waist, and the alertness on his face deepened.

"What?" The old man's voice was hoarse and dry, like an old bellows.

"I'm asking you about someone, about some old stories." Lin Zhen spoke slowly, his tone calm. "Do you remember the Zheng family of Xilin Village, Zheng Yuande, and his wife, Liu?"

"Zheng family?" These two words were like a stone thrown into a stagnant pond, causing a brief ripple on Old Man Wang's numb face, but it soon returned to silence.

He lowered his head and continued knitting, but his movements were a little stiffer than before, and the veins on the back of his hands, which were covered with age spots, bulged.

"What's there to ask? The grass on the grave is already three feet high." He mumbled vaguely, deliberately avoiding Lin Zhen's gaze, staring only at the bamboo strips that were moving rapidly in his hands. "The evil man who killed my father, the whore who stole my wife's ass, the county magistrate had it nailed to the stake long ago, and the memorial archway is still there... Are you blind?"

His tone was flat, without any emotion, as if he was repeating a fact that had nothing to do with him and was self-evident.

But Cheng Xuan keenly noticed that when he said "adulterous slut", a trace of indescribable disgust flashed across his turbid eyes, even... shame?

As if even mentioning the word itself defiled the very earth beneath his feet.

"I heard that Zheng Yuande is an honest farmer?" Lin Zhen tentatively asked for details.

"Honest? Pah!" Old man Wang suddenly spat a mouthful of thick phlegm on the ground, and the bamboo strips in his hands made a "crunching" sound.

"How could an honest man commit such a crime as to kill his father? As the old saying goes, one cannot be a man without parents! The county magistrate's judgment is as clear as a mirror and as iron as a pen, so how could there be any falsehood in the case?"

He raised his head, and for the first time, his cloudy eyes revealed a determination that bordered on stubbornness. "That memorial archway was right! Killing a chicken to scare the monkeys! To prevent the young people in the village from learning bad things!"

After saying that, he no longer looked at Lin Zhen and lowered his head completely. The knitting movements of his hands became smooth again, but they clearly carried a sense of isolation that kept people at a distance.

The meaning is clear: Are you done asking questions? If you’re done, get out.

Cheng Xuan stood behind Lin Zhen, gritting her teeth.

Every word the old man said seemed to be stepping on the corpses of Youmeng's parents.

What stylus?

What is the clear mirror hanging high?

That corrupt official has already committed heinous crimes!

The anger in her chest surged upward, and her hand on the hilt of the sword trembled slightly.

Lin Zhen's expression was calm. He did not ask any more questions. He just nodded slightly to Old Man Wang and said, "Sorry to bother you." He turned and walked out of the courtyard.

"Hmph!" Cheng Xuan snorted heavily at Old Man Wang's back, then led the horse and caught up with Lin Zhen.

Leaving the depressing Wang family, the two walked towards a courtyard further south of the village, near a small river.

This small courtyard was kept exceptionally clean, with a few clusters of wild flowers blooming in the corner and a neatly woven fence, making it stand out from the crowd in the gray and dilapidated village.

The courtyard door was open and an even older woman, with a hunched back almost touching the ground, appeared. She was wearing coarse cloth clothes that had been starched white. She was sitting on the threshold of the house, holding a swaddling baby in her arms, and patting it gently with her skinny fingers.

Her face was buried deep in the shadows, and only her sparse gray hair hanging down beside her ears could be seen.

In front of the dim shrine in the house, a thin stick of earthen incense was lit, and the faint red light illuminated half of her wooden face.

Lin Zhen walked closer and stopped two steps away from the old woman. He raised his voice with a hint of deliberate gentleness: "Old lady?"

The withered hands patting the swaddling clothes paused for a moment, as if they hadn't heard.

"Old man!" Lin Zhen's voice became louder.

Slowly, ever so slowly, the old woman raised her head.

His face was wrinkled like a dried walnut shell, his eyes were empty, as if covered by a thick layer of white film. He glanced back and forth at Lin Zhen and Cheng Xuan's faces blankly, without focus.

She opened her toothless mouth and uttered an indistinct sound with a thick local accent: "Who is it?"

"I want to ask you something. The Zheng family in Xilin Village, more than 20 years ago..."

"Zheng?" The old woman tilted her head, her cloudy eyes moving hard, as if she was struggling to salvage some fragments from the abyss of memory.

"Zheng what?"

She muttered to herself, her brows furrowed, and her hands covered with age spots scratched the swaddling clothes unconsciously a few times.

"Zheng Yuande! Liu!" Lin Zhen was a little impatient and reminded loudly.

"Yuan De? Liu?" The old woman's face showed even more confusion, and she made meaningless "huh...huh..." sounds from her mouth.

She suddenly turned her head to look at the burning incense stick on the shrine. Her gaze seemed to penetrate the smoke and fixed on a certain place in the void. Her eyes were filled with turbid confusion and a hint of fear?

"What a sin... What a sin..."

"Old man, can you tell us something?" Lin Zhen couldn't help but move forward a few steps.