good season

Xiao Zhen's aura of a person who has been in a superior position for a long time makes people feel oppressive. Moreover, although he is young, even the immaturity on his face is perfectly concealed by the fake face that makes him look much more mature than his actual age.

Although Li Laosi was a scoundrel, he was just a country thug. It would have been fine if Xiao Zhen hadn't spoken, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Li Laosi involuntarily shortened his head and lost his confidence.

"Also, I sold some books. I took them to the town and sold them. Really."

Zhen Wuduo had previously found out from Chen Lizheng that although Shi's father had not passed the imperial examination, he had studied in the county school and was literate, so it was not surprising that there were books in the house.

Xiao Zhen still felt it was a pity, as those books were from Shi's father's collection and were rare souvenirs for Zhao Shiqing.

"Who did you sell those books to?" Xiao Zhen asked.

"Sold. Sold to the bookstore in town." Li Laosi did not dare to hide anything and told the truth.

Except for a few people from wealthy families, books are expensive items for ordinary readers.

The bookstore not only sells new books, but also used books and even manuscripts.

Xiao Zhen asked, "How many books did you sell and how much did you get?"

Li Laosi: "Ten books, no, nine books, yes, nine books, and I got two taels of silver."

Xiao Zhen gave a look, and Jiang Ping suddenly made a move, grabbing Li Laosi's shoulder. Li Laosi screamed like a pig being slaughtered. Several of Li Laosi's sons wanted to rush over to save their father, but Cai An quickly drew out a soft sword and held it across their faces.

It was very inconvenient to carry weapons when going in and out of the city gate. Therefore, when he was in the capital, Xiao Zhen spent a lot of money to find several soft swords. The one that Cai An took out now was one of them.

The sons of the Li family watched their father suffer in agony, but his feet seemed to be rooted and did not move at all.

Li Laosi did not expect that none of his sons, whom he was so proud of, would rush to save him.

Xiao Zhen snorted coldly: "Ask again, how many books, how much did you sell for?"

Li Laosi was sweating profusely from the pain. If he had known that there was such a ruthless person in the Shi family, he would never have dared to covet the Shi family's house even if he was beaten to death.

Yes, he had already regarded the Shi family's house as his own.

"More than fifty, either fifty-five or fifty-six. Ah, it hurts so much. I'm saying, please stop pinching me!"

It turned out that there were not nine books, but more than fifty.

Xiao Zhen sneered: "That's a bit far off, Cai An, be gentle, don't let him bite his tongue off in pain."

Cai An held back his strength for a moment. Li Laosi was like someone grabbing a floating log before drowning. He dared not hide anything and told him everything honestly: "Twenty copies were sold to the bookstore, and the other twenty copies, yes, twenty copies were sold to the doctor named Wen who sees patients at the Four Seasons Hall. In addition, Mr. Wang and two students also bought books."

Xiao Zhen frowned slightly: "Aren't you going to the bookstore to sell books? Why did you sell them to a doctor?"

Li Laosi wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said: "The old man Zhang who runs the bookstore is not a good person. He deliberately lowered the price and only gave five taels of silver for more than fifty books.

I am not stupid, so I refused to sell it to him. When I was bargaining with him, the doctor happened to pass by. Seeing that I was selling books, he came over to take a look, and then said that there were medical books among them. He asked me how much these medical books cost. I casually said ten taels of silver. Unexpectedly, he agreed and asked me to wait while he went to get the silver. Not long after, he came back with ten taels of silver and took away all the medical books.

Old man Zhang was so angry that he scolded him for cutting me off. I asked him for 15 taels for the remaining 30 books, but he refused to give me any. So I sold him 20 books and the remaining 15 books to Mr. Wang, who ran a private school, and his two students.

"Medical books? You said I have medical books at home?"

At some point, Zhao Shiqing and Zhen Wuduo came out of the house, and everything Li Laosi said fell into their ears.

"At first I didn't know it was a medical book. It was only after Doctor Wen told me that I found out. Old man Zhang might have known it too, but that old guy is very bad and refused to tell." said Li Laosi.

Zhao Shiqing became suspicious. Why did her family have medical books?

Zhen Wuduo said that the young couple who took their daughter away that year looked like they were from a wealthy family. That young couple should be the grandparents of the Shi family.

Chen Lizheng also said that although the Shi family also fled here, they were different from those disaster victims. The Shi family had a fortune and built the best house in the village when they arrived in Zhuxitang. At first, they did not live in the house after it was built. Instead, the family moved to the county town, where their grandfather did business and their father went to school.

No matter from which angle you look at it, the Shi family doesn't seem like a family that would have medical books.

Zhao Shiqing said, "Let him come in and point out where these books were taken from."

Cai An took Li Laosi into the house. Although several years had passed, Li Laosi could still vaguely remember it.

He pointed to two rooms, one was a study and the other was a guest room.

However, Li Laosi said one thing.

"I did want to find something valuable at first. Everyone in this area knows that Lao Shi's family is rich. Even though they don't have a few acres of land, they are in business, so how could they not have money? Besides, all the women in his family, young and old, have gold bracelets and hairpins."

I guess since they were going far away to take their child to see a doctor, they couldn't carry those things with them, so they must have hidden them at home. But when I looked for them, I found nothing. It looked like his house had been robbed before, but it didn't seem like it had been stolen because all the drawers in the cabinets were closed. How could a thief close the drawers after stealing things? The room was not messy at all, it was tidy, as if it had been specially cleaned."

Zhao Shiqing was stunned when he heard Li Laosi's last words.

Cleaned specially?
"Do we have guests at our house? You live in the same village, so you should know, right?" Zhao Shiqing asked.

Li Laosi thought for a moment and said, "It should be the grandfather and grandson who were rescued by Shi."

At this time, Chen Lizheng also came in. When he heard Li Laosi talking about the grandparents, Chen Lizheng also remembered: "Yes, that's what happened. At that time, the carriage of the grandparents and grandchildren fell into the river. The driver and his old servant all died. Only the grandparents and grandchildren were rescued. Because of the death, the government was alarmed. The head of the pavilion personally brought people to see it and reported it to the county government. The county government also sent a coroner to the county government. After the autopsy, they were buried.

The grandparents and grandchildren were also seriously injured. Your father was kind-hearted and offered to let them recuperate at home, saying that he had an empty room. They stayed there for half a year. Your father also asked my eldest son to send the Yang family's grandson to a private school. The private school never accepted outsiders, but my eldest son asked his teacher to write a letter of recommendation, and the private school accepted the child.

Zhao Shiqing asked, "So the surname of the grandfather and grandson is Yang?"

Chen Lizheng nodded and said, "His surname is Yang. What's his name? Alas, I'm old now and my memory is bad. Later, when we met, I called him Doctor Yang and forgot his name."

"Doctor Yang?" Zhao Shiqing muttered these three words silently. She had heard these three words on the swing. It turned out that this Doctor Yang was not a doctor invited from outside, but lived in her home.

"Then when did Doctor Yang and his grandson leave the village?" Zhao Shiqing asked.

Chen Lizheng thought for a moment and said, "After your family left the village, Doctor Yang and his grandchildren seemed to have never appeared again. They might have left together."

Zhao Shiqing looked at Li Laosi again: "You keep saying that our family died outside, why are you so sure, do you want to kill us?"

Li Laosi was startled and looked at Cai An in fear. Although Cai An had loosened his hand, he still stood beside Li Laosi, and that big hand like a clamp could press down on Li Laosi's shoulder at any time.

Li Laosi couldn't help but shiver, and when he raised his eyes he met Xiao Zhen's cold gaze again. Li Laosi was horrified, and felt that if he didn't explain, he would be chopped into pieces the next moment.

"Yes, yes, that's what happened. That year, it was probably not long after the Shi family left the village. I went to the town to gamble and heard that Wang Ergun had died. He was strangled to death. Wang Ergun had offended many people, so when he died, his brother didn't report it to the police, but buried him directly.

I found it strange at the time, because although Wang Ergan had offended many people, none of these people could be called his enemies. Either he had collected protection fees from them, or he had extorted a few taels of silver from them. None of them was a mortal enemy who could take his life.

I told Cui Xiaogou about this, and after thinking about it, we felt that Wang Ergan's brother was the most suspicious. Wang Ergan might have been strangled to death by his brother, so we didn't report it to the police and buried him hastily.

The two of us wanted to ask his brother Wang Dagang for some money to spend.

We found Wang Dagan, and the guy was guilty of his crime, so he told us everything after just a few beatings.

He said that Wang Ergan was not killed by him. When he found Wang Ergan's body, he was already dead. In Wang Ergan's hand, he was holding a gold locket worn by a child. Wang Ergan always liked to steal. He must have stolen from someone he shouldn't have stolen from, and the person strangled him to death in anger. His brother was worried that the person would come to wipe out the roots, so he didn't dare to make it public and buried the person directly. If someone hadn't seen it at the time, maybe even we wouldn't have known about it.

We didn’t want to return empty-handed, so we asked Wang Dagan for the gold lock. Wang Dagan had no choice but to hand over the gold lock. I recognized him at first sight. This was the blind boy.”

Li Laosi secretly glanced at Zhao Shiqing and hurriedly changed his words: "It is the gold locket that the little girl from the Shi family wore. During the Chinese New Year, the little girl wore a gold locket when she went out. There were flowers engraved on the locket. My wife kept talking about it for a whole day after she came back.

The Shi family was not poor, so there was no reason for them to sell the gold lock. Besides, if Wang Ergan really stole the gold lock from the Shi family, the Shi family would not strangle him to death. Firstly, they did not have the ability to do so, and secondly, they did not dare to do so.

So after thinking about it, I suspected that the golden lock was also stolen property. It must be that Lao Shi’s family was murdered, and Wang Er was so blind that he stole it and got in front of the murderer, and was strangled to death.

Although I never told anyone about this, I suspected something had happened to Lao Shi's family. Plus, I hadn't heard from them for ten years, so I..."

Zhao Shiqing's heart was gripped tightly. Not only Li Laosi would make such a guess, but she did too.

"Where is the golden lock?" Zhao Shiqing asked.

Li Laosi said hurriedly: "That gold lock is so unlucky, of course I don't dare to take it, so we asked Wang Dangan to pawn it. The gold lock was pawned for five taels of silver, and the three of us each got one tael."

When Xiao Zhen was about to ask Jiang Ping to investigate, Zhen Wuduo said, "I'll send someone."

The old man was still waiting to reunite with his daughter, but when he suddenly heard this, his heart turned cold.

He was not an ordinary rich man, he was a pirate king who once roamed the seas. He knew that this was a dangerous matter as soon as he heard about it.

He asked in a deep voice: "You all said that my daughter and her family went to another place to see a doctor for their child. Did the Shi family say this themselves, or did someone else tell you? If it was someone else who told you, who was that person?"

Li Laosi suddenly realized that the most terrifying person was not the young man, but the fat old man who looked so amiable was actually the most terrifying one.

Li Laosi thought about it carefully, but couldn't remember where he heard it from. He could only say embarrassedly: "It's definitely not their family members who said it, but I can't remember where I heard it from."

Zhen Wuduo looked at Chen Lizheng again. Chen Lizheng usually lived in Qingzhu Village. Li Laosi didn't know about it, and of course he didn't know about it either.

Zhen Wuduo waved his hand, and immediately seven or eight followers came over.

Zhen Wuduo said, "Divide the troops into three groups. Take this Li Laosi with you on one group and find all the books he sold that year, as well as the golden lock. See if you can find it. Go door to door in the village and ask for the person who first said that the Shi family went to see the doctor. Go to Qinglu County. Since my son-in-law is a businessman, even if there is no shop in the county, there must be a shopkeeper who has business dealings with him. Find them all!"

After sending everyone away, Zhen Wuduo immediately put on a smiling face and said to Zhao Shiqing, "My dear granddaughter, do you want to stay here tonight?"

Even if Zhen Wuduo didn't say it, Zhao Shiqing had already decided to live here.

Seeing her nod, Zhen Wuduo was overjoyed: "Grandpa will ask someone to clean it right away."

Zhao Shiqing shook her head: "I want to clean it myself."

Zhen Wuduo was reluctant to let his precious granddaughter do such rough work and wanted to stop her. Xiao Zhen said in a deep voice: "Just let her clean."

Zhen Wuduo sighed and said to Zhao Shiqing: “Grandfather will clean with you.”

There are traces of the lives of Zhao Shiqing's parents and grandma here, and it is also the place where Zhen Wuduo's daughter and son-in-law lived.

He smiled and said to Zhao Shiqing: "Don't listen to that Li Laosi's nonsense, he is just talking nonsense. There is a saying that businessmen value profit over separation. Your father is a businessman. He must have settled down somewhere for business.

Besides, Zhuxitang is not the real ancestral home of the Shi family. He has made a fortune in business and naturally doesn’t care about this old courtyard in the countryside anymore.

Over the years, he and your mother must have been looking for you everywhere. Haha, let's suddenly appear in front of them and scare them, okay?" (End of this chapter)