jdhmnovel Chapter 172 Proposal
Chapter 172 Proposal
Even the cheapest ticket to Wuliping Scenic Area costs one or two taels of silver, how could they bear to spend that much?
Tickets to Wuliping are divided into three tiers: one tael of silver, two taels of silver, and five taels of silver. The five-tael silver ticket allows you to see all the attractions in the park without having to buy separate tickets for each attraction.
The leader of the children's village protection team sneered, "Lost? I think it's your conscience that's gone missing! Tell me, what are you up to, acting so suspiciously?!"
The shorter man was so frightened that cold sweat broke out on his forehead, and he tried to slip away: "I didn't mean to do anything, I was just curious and wanted to wander around." He said as he walked away.
The village protection team leader shouted sternly, "Stop him and tie him up!"
"Yes!" Dozens of voices replied in unison, and soon someone found ropes and tied the two of them up tightly.
The captain said, "Erxiao, go find Uncle Qin and tell him we've caught two suspicious people!"
Uncle Qin refers to Shangguan Qin.
Erxiao: "Okay, I'll go right now!"
Erxiao, whose nickname is Erxiao, is named Shangguan Yong. He is eight years old.
Shangguan Qin arrived quickly and took the two to the Wuliping interrogation room. After some questioning, the two remained stubborn and refused to reveal anything.
The old clan chief arrived and gave the order: "Torture them, use something severe, like the tiger bench!"
The two men didn't know what the tiger bench was, but upon hearing the name, they were immediately terrified. The shorter man quickly begged for mercy: "Sir, we were wrong, we'll never do it again! Please forgive us this time!"
The old patriarch sneered, "I can spare you, but you must honestly explain why you came and who sent you!"
The short man was spineless and immediately confessed, "It was my cousin who instigated it. My cousin is Meng, the former wife of the Minister of Personnel!"
The tall man added, "We're here today to find Meng's son, Yu Han. Meng instructed us to find a way to take Yu Han away, so that Yu Han's father would compromise and remarry Meng!"
Upon hearing this, the old clan chief was furious: "How much did she give you for helping you do this despicable thing?"
The short man said, "She promised us that if we successfully took Yu Han away, she would give each of us fifty taels of silver. If she later became the wife of the Minister of Personnel, we would each give five hundred taels of silver!"
The old clan chief spat at the two of them: "You'd probably disagree if I called you fools, but have you ever thought about how much the Minister of Personnel actually earns in a year?"
The two men shook their heads. How could they possibly know how much the Minister of Personnel's salary was? Probably at least several thousand a year, right?
The old clan chief said, "Thirty taels a month, a little over three hundred taels a year. The Minister of Personnel is very honest, yet Meng promised you five hundred taels of silver. She's just trying to fool you! Lord Yu is incorruptible. She and Lord Yu were husband and wife, how could she not understand? Lord Yu is so honest and so poor, where would he get five hundred taels of silver for each of you? That Meng is deceiving you!"
The tall man said, "Mrs. Meng said that Princess Yulin is very wealthy. If the Minister of Personnel were to remarry her, she would ask him for 20,000 taels of silver. The Minister of Personnel doesn't have this silver, but Princess Yulin does. Given Princess Yulin's protectiveness and respect for the Minister of Personnel, she will definitely give him this money!"
The old clan chief kicked the tall man: "You're the one who's stupid. Don't think Princess Yulin is stupid too. Princess Yulin hates Meng the most. How could she possibly agree to her uncle remarrying Meng? Even if her uncle is willing to forgive Meng, Princess Yulin would never give her that money. Do you think Princess Yulin's money grows on trees?"
The short man slapped his head hard: "We're doomed! We've lost face and haven't earned any money. Meng Shi only has a little over a hundred taels of silver on her at most. She has to live on her own, how could she possibly give us fifty taels each? We've all been cheated, we've all been fooled by her!"
After saying that, he knelt on the ground again and kowtowed to the old clan chief: "Grandpa, please have mercy on us and forgive us this time. Let us go! We will never dare to mess with Yu Han again, and we will never dare to do bad things again!"
The old clan chief said, "No, since you have done something wrong, you must take responsibility! Guards, take them to the county government and hand them over to Lord Fang! Tell them that these two men attempted to abduct Lord Yu's son and must be severely punished!"
The short man was terrified and kowtowed repeatedly. The tall man also knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, pleading, "Grandpa, we won't do it again! Please forgive us this time!"
The old clan chief waved his hand forcefully: "Take him away and send him to the county government immediately!"
Shangguan Qin beckoned two members of the village guard team, who together escorted the two men onto an oxcart and sped off towards the county government office.
Upon hearing Shangguan Qin's words, Fang Heng immediately slammed his gavel: "You two, confess the truth! Confess and you will be treated leniently; resist and you will be punished severely!"
The tall and short men quickly spilled the beans, explaining the whole story clearly. Fang Heng thought for a moment, then ordered the yamen runners to go to the capital and escort Meng to Zhangshu County. As the main culprit, Meng was given fifty strokes of the cane and imprisoned in the prefectural jail; the short and tall men were given thirty strokes of the cane and also imprisoned in the prefectural jail.
There were no proper prison cells in the county government office, only temporary ones.
The three were imprisoned. Five days later, after their wounds had healed slightly, they were taken away to do hard labor for three months.
In the Western Liang Kingdom, child abduction is a severely punished offense. The three months of hard labor sentencing Meng was a lenient punishment, given for Yu Han's sake. Otherwise, she would have had to do hard labor for at least a year.
Meng was filled with remorse. With a criminal record that landed her in jail, her dream of marrying into a good family in the capital was now just a pipe dream. When her three-month sentence was up, she took the last ten taels of silver she had and rushed back to her hometown, hundreds of miles away, to find a family to marry into.
The Yu and Shangguan families finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Originally, Madam Yu intended to give Madam Meng a hundred taels of silver for travel expenses, but before she could finish speaking, Zisu interrupted her: "Mother, what are you doing? You know, if you do this, it will only make Madam Meng still harbor illusions about Uncle. Maybe she'll even try to kidnap Han'er to threaten Uncle! It's better to let things take their course, neither helping nor stopping her. As long as she doesn't do anything harmful to Han'er and Uncle, just let her be!"
Regardless of where she goes or whether she has money, after her second marriage and the birth of two more children, she immediately divorced her husband upon learning that her uncle had become the Minister of Personnel. A woman like that, ruthless to others yet unwilling to suffer any loss herself, will never starve, no matter where she goes!
Grandma Yu also advised, "The fact that she dared to leave her second husband shows that she still has a plan in mind and won't end up in a desperate situation! You're too soft-hearted. If she came begging for help at this time, it would be understandable to give her some money. However, she didn't even come looking for you, and you were actually thinking of sending someone to chase after her and give her some money. Sigh, you, I don't know what to say about you!"
Madam Yu: "Oh, Mother, I just feel sorry for Han'er. I always feel that, no matter what, she is still Han'er's birth mother. When Han'er grows up, if he knows that his birth mother was once destitute, he will be very sad!"
Zisu: "Forget it, Mother. Didn't Lord Fang say that he gave Meng ten taels of silver when she left? Her hometown is only two or three hundred li away from Yulin County. Ten taels of silver is enough for her travel expenses! As long as she gets back to her family home, there will always be a way. She won't starve to death or end up on the streets!"
Sigh, this mother is still too soft-hearted! Sometimes, she's also too unprincipled! You know, Yu Han was almost kidnapped!
When Yu Zhe returned home and heard about Meng's affair, he remained silent, as if he hadn't heard a thing. He had initially felt a sliver of pity for his ex-wife. However, ever since she sent people to abduct Yu Han, that sliver of pity had gradually vanished.
Sending someone of questionable character to abduct Yu Han is risky. What if something goes wrong and Yu Han is left helpless? If she falls into the hands of human traffickers, I can't believe what awaits her.
******
Madam Yu attended a flower festival and met Madam Li, the wife of a fifth-rank official. Madam Li had a nineteen-year-old daughter who was still unmarried. Madam Yu had met this Miss Li twice before; she was quite pretty, not a great beauty, but still delicate and charming. She also had a good temperament, being dignified and polite.
Madam Yu then went to the Yu residence and spoke to Yu Zhe about the girl: "Second brother, I think this Miss Li is quite nice. Would you like to meet her?"
Yu Zhe: "She's already nineteen, why isn't she married yet?"
Madam Yu: "Originally, she was engaged at fifteen and planned to marry when she turned sixteen. However, just as she was about to turn sixteen, her grandfather passed away, and she had to observe a year of mourning. After her grandfather's mourning period ended, her grandmother passed away, and she had to observe another year of mourning. By this time, the man was already twenty years old, and his mother was unwilling to wait, so she proposed to break off the engagement!"
Grandma Yu: "This man is really something, breaking off the engagement like this? Twenty years old, not that old at all, what's wrong with waiting another year?"
Madam Yu: "That's right. The man already has two concubines and one mistress, yet he still says he can't wait. Actually, he just looks down on the woman's family background. The woman's grandfather passed away, and her family's financial situation has declined significantly. The man originally didn't want to go through with the marriage, and he just used this as an excuse to break off the engagement!"
Miss Li waited another year, turning seventeen, and had already been rejected by her fiancé, making it difficult to find a suitable family. This ordeal meant she was almost nineteen. Actually, she was only eighteen years and five months old, nineteen by the traditional Chinese age reckoning. Alas, this world is unfair to women; once rejected, they can't find a good family! Her parents felt sorry for her and refused to marry her off to anyone less than ideal, so she waited until she was nineteen!
Yu Zhe paused for a moment, then said to Madam Yu, "Eldest sister, find an opportunity for Zisu to get to know that girl. If Zisu also speaks highly of her, then let's get engaged. I trust Zisu's judgment! Besides, she's over eighteen, which is a good age. It wouldn't be good if she were too young!"
Most importantly, this girl's time was delayed because of mourning, so why couldn't she find a good family to marry into? Firstly, it must be because she had been rejected by her fiancé; secondly, because her grandparents had passed away one after another, some families would think she was unlucky. However, Zisu was right, those were all superstitions, and there was no need to care about them.
Madam Yu was taken aback for a moment, then joked, "Oh dear, Mother, look, my second brother trusts Zisu, but he doesn't trust me, his eldest sister!"
Grandma Yu: "Zisu is a good person. She always has a good eye for people, and she's been enlightened by the old sage. Compared to Zisu, your judgment is indeed a bit lacking!"
Otherwise, the Shangguan family wouldn't have managed to seize control of the household so easily after the news of their son-in-law's martyrdom reached them. Not only that, they even tricked the servants out of their indentures. In the end, they even had to rely on a ten-year-old daughter to protect her—such an older sister left him speechless.
Yu Zhe couldn't help but lower his head and secretly smile.
Sigh, my older sister is so cute, she's actually jealous of her daughter.
A few days later, the princess will host a flower viewing party.
It is now March, the height of spring.
At this time of year, flower viewing parties naturally focus on peach and plum blossoms.