The Elixir is for You, The Poison is for Me

#258 - I think you want Jiang Huishou to die.

"Actually, I heard about this matter from Lord Wu of the Criminal Division in Lintian Prefecture, but it was just some idle talk after drinking, and its authenticity is hard to determine," said Registrar Xu.

"It doesn't matter. Justice resides in the hearts of the people. Just tell us what you know, sir."

"Uh, alright," Registrar Xu glanced at Jiang Yuanmao, whose face was ashen, and said, "Last month, Guild Master Jiang took a new concubine, and he held a celebratory banquet here. Many people, including myself, came to congratulate him."

"However, most of the guests didn't know that the woman had already been promised to someone before marrying into the Jiang household. He was a young scholar from a family of officials."

"But by his grandfather's generation, the family had declined, and his mother had contracted a serious illness that required constant medication. The family became increasingly impoverished."

"He and the woman met while visiting the Lantern Festival, and they fell in love. After some time, the scholar hired a matchmaker to propose marriage, but the woman's father was a snob who looked down on the poor and was initially unwilling."

"Fortunately, the scholar was very promising and passed the preliminary imperial examination. Seeing that he had a chance to become an official, the woman's father finally relented and reluctantly agreed to the marriage."

"The two families settled the engagement, but unexpectedly, the woman was washing clothes by the river when Guild Master Jiang passed by and saw her. Guild Master Jiang coveted her beauty and had the idea of taking her for himself."

"So he sent someone to the woman's father, saying that he was willing to offer one hundred taels of gold to take her as a concubine."

"The woman's father was quite tempted upon hearing this, but he had to truthfully tell the messenger that his daughter was already engaged."

"The man didn't say anything, but only asked for the name of the man and left. As a result, not long after, someone found the scholar and said they were willing to offer fifty taels of gold for him to break off the engagement. The scholar angrily rebuked the man in person. As a result, the next day, his father, who worked as a bookkeeper in the city, was kicked out of the shop by his boss."

"On the third day, his brother-in-law's herbal tea stall was also smashed. Moreover, as soon as his brother-in-law set up the stall, hooligans would come to harass him, preventing him from doing business."

"The scholar went to the yamen to report the crime, but the yamen runners only patrolled symbolically and then left. The hooligans, who had obviously received prior notice, didn't appear, and after the yamen runners left, they went to harass the scholar's brother-in-law again."

"As a result, the scholar's family was cut off from their source of income, and his seriously ill mother still needed medicine. The family was forced into a desperate situation."

"At this time, the previous man came to find the scholar again, asking him if he was willing to break off the engagement. The scholar remained silent. As a result, that night, his old father knelt before him, begging him to agree to the man's request, otherwise his old mother would have no medicine to drink because she owed the pharmacy too much money."

"The scholar and his old father embraced and wept bitterly. The next morning, he finally agreed to go to the woman's house to break off the engagement and received fifty taels of gold."

"The scholar handed the gold to his sister, instructing her to cook a good meal that night so that his family members, who had been worried sick about him recently, could have a good meal."

"His sister saw that the scholar seemed a little disheartened and comforted him, saying that he would definitely meet a more virtuous and gentle woman in the future. The scholar didn't refute, but just nodded."

"But no one expected that not long after eating, the scholar hanged himself. This matter later reached the Fu Yin, but Guild Master Jiang, being rich and powerful, used money to suppress it…"

Registrar Xu was interrupted by a loud bang before he could finish speaking. It was Feng Jiulang in the distance who slammed his hand on the table and said angrily, "Listen to this, is this something a human would do?!"

As a result, the guests who heard this couldn't help but tremble in their hearts. Forcibly taking someone else's wife as a concubine was definitely not an honest act, but if the scholar hadn't been so distraught that he hanged himself, it wouldn't have been a big deal to them.

The people who came to the restaurant for the banquet tonight were mostly wealthy and powerful, and they had all done a few similar shady things to varying degrees.

After all, both silver and power are good things, and when you get them, you always want to test their power to see how they work. But since Lu Jing had asked, no matter what they thought in their hearts, they had to chime in with a few words at this time.

And when the crowd's voices quieted down a little, Lu Jing didn't break his promise and said to the apprehensive Registrar Xu, "Sir, you may leave."

Registrar Xu was overjoyed upon hearing this. He hurriedly stood up, didn't say much, just cupped his fist at Lu Jing, and hurried downstairs.

Moreover, he walked faster and faster. After leaving the restaurant, he didn't even bother to take a sedan chair and simply ran.

It was fortunate that he was a Hanlin official who usually engaged in literary pursuits, but now he was running as fast as a high school student participating in a physical test.

Registrar Xu's departure was not a big deal, but it gave the remaining people in the restaurant a glimmer of hope.

Although the man surnamed Feng was ferocious, at least he was a man of his word.

So someone else began to stir.

Soon, a second person stood up, also an official, and revealed some dirt on Jiang Yuanmao for seizing people's land. To be honest, this dirt was actually a bit far-fetched. Strictly speaking, it was just that Jiang Yuanmao used the power of the Qianyuan Chamber of Commerce to put pressure on the seller when buying land, but Lu Jing still let him go.

After all, it was just the beginning, so he couldn't dampen everyone's enthusiasm.

And that person's departure did indeed make the remaining guests more active, so the third person, the fourth person… all emerged one after another.

At first, they were all just trivial matters, none of which were as explosive as Registrar Xu's story of seizing a wife and forcing the victim to death.

But gradually, whether it was because they were talking too excitedly, or because they were too immersed in the role, or whether they were really doing it, a Cao merchant from the Qianyuan Chamber of Commerce revealed that Jiang Yuanmao secretly used tricks to cause a grain merchant in the chamber to suffer a loss of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver overnight and had to sell his property to Jiang Yuanmao at a low price.

This time, it was like a stone stirring up a thousand waves!

After all, most of the people present were merchants from the Qianyuan Chamber of Commerce. Whether Jiang Yuanmao, the guild master, seized someone's wife or seized someone's land had little to do with them.

But attacking merchants within the chamber was closely related to each of them.

No one wanted such a thing to happen to them one day, so this time, without Lu Jing having to speak again, everyone went full throttle and began to reveal Jiang Yuanmao's dirt.

The richness of the content and the detail of the details were so impressive that Lu Jing was amazed. He thought, "I just wanted to teach this old man a lesson, but you people now just want Jiang Yuanmao to die."

And the fact was indeed so. Since they had already fallen out with Jiang Yuanmao, considering Jiang Yuanmao's power and the backing behind him, the guests in the restaurant at this time were indeed holding the idea of completely overthrowing Jiang Yuanmao so that he could never recover.