Chapter 1 Bullying goes too far
Chapter 1 Bullying goes too far
May of the 21st year of the Tianqi reign.
Ye Shengpei, then General Anxi and Marquis of Wu'an of the Jin Dynasty, who had been stationed in the northwest for twenty years, was a pillar of the nation, but he ignored the emperor's grace and became arrogant and conceited. Last winter, he colluded with the Western Rong rebels, both internally and externally, colluding with the enemy and betraying the country. This resulted in the ambush of 150,000 Jin troops in the northwest, resulting in the loss of 80,000 men and the destruction of the cities of Wen and Yun, leaving tens of thousands of border residents displaced and homeless.
The crime is so blatant that it cannot be tolerated by Heaven. From today on, the entire family will be executed.
On May 3rd, with the order from the supervising officer, the executioner raised his sword, and 147 lives were lost in an instant, and blood flowed into a river.
The Ye family of Wu'an Marquis Mansion, which had passed down its family tradition by relying on martial arts and had been glorious for more than a hundred years in the Jin Dynasty, disappeared from then on.
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Qingxi Village is fifteen miles outside Lincheng.
After a night of heavy snow, the sky and the earth were all white and the fields were quiet.
"You damned little hoof! You actually dared to hang yourself! You're so bold! Do you think you can threaten me like this?"
A high-pitched and sharp scold, accompanied by a bang on the door, broke the tranquility of the small village.
A slightly plump woman in her early thirties rushed into the yard aggressively.
The old wooden door behind her creaked unwillingly a few times in the cold wind, and finally collapsed to the ground as if it could not bear the weight.
"Evil woman! I'm going to fight you to the death!"
A group of ashes suddenly rushed towards her, waving their fists wildly and cursing in a low voice: "You evil woman, you almost forced my sister to death. I will beat you to death!"
"Ouch, my waist! Let go, you little bastard!"
Sun pulled the boy who was wrapped around her body free with all her strength and shoved him hard. The thin boy, who was about five or six years old, was instantly pushed to the ground.
She rubbed her waist with her hands, still spitting out resentment, "You ungrateful, lowly bastard! Just like your damned sister. You have a life of luxury, but you insist on being so conceited and self-righteous that you end up in trouble."
After saying that, she tilted her head and spat out a mouthful of thick phlegm, her face full of contempt: "Why don't you take a piss and look at yourself? The lady's body is the maid's life! Bah! You deserve this bad end..."
"You're talking nonsense! You bad woman! You're not going to end well!"
The little boy's face flushed with anger, his chest heaving as he lowered his voice to accuse, "Even the blind Uncle Zhou from the west end of the village knows that the eldest son of Mr. Li's family is a fool! Besides being a fool, he also likes to beat people. I heard that he beat several of his maids to death..."
He glared at the fat woman in front of him and said angrily, "You knew his family was a hellhole, yet you still forced my sister to marry him. You're not my parents, so my sister won't marry him! Whoever accepts their dirty money will marry him!"
"Hey, you sharp-tongued little bastard! I think you really need some discipline!"
Sun kicked the little boy who hadn't gotten up yet again, squatted down, grabbed his chin, and said with a sinister smile, "You're right about one thing! If you had parents, I wouldn't be able to control you! Unfortunately, there are no such things as "if you had parents" in this world. You are now the unlucky star that killed your parents..."
"Zhao'er, come back!"
A hoarse, dry female voice came from inside the house, interrupting the quarrel between the two people in the yard.
The little boy's eyes lit up, he struggled to break free from Sun's grip, got up from the ground, patted his dusty patched cotton jacket, and then ran happily into the house.
"Sister, you, you finally woke up!" Zhao'er choked with tears streaming down her face.
On the wooden couch against the wall, a girl with black hair and white clothes, with her head half lowered, leaned diagonally on a light blue pillow. The small pillow made her look even more frail and delicate.
She stretched out her thin arms, struggling to support herself, and after a long while she slowly sat up.
With this movement, her collar slipped down, revealing a shocking purple mark on the girl's slender neck.
Sun's arrogant expression could not help but pause.
She originally thought that this girl was just pretending to be so rude in order to threaten her, but now seeing the horrific scars, she knew that she really had the intention of seeking death.
There was a sudden shock, and many people were awakened by the fright.
Sun was busy all day just for a few pieces of silver. In the final analysis, she was just a greedy, cowardly and mean village woman who only wanted to make money but would never dare to kill anyone.
She had dared to accept money from Mr. Li's family before because she saw through Jin'er, a girl who looked pure, aloof, and cowardly, yet she valued her brother so much. The two of them were penniless and so poor that they could not even afford to eat.
I just need to starve them for a few more meals, and when the little one can't bear it anymore, I will appear at the right time, take out some silver and coax her with sweet words a few times. I think this girl will cry and make a fuss for a few days, and for the sake of my little brother, she will finally give in.
I never thought that he was really not afraid of death and had such a brave character in his bones.
It seems that I can't force it. Otherwise, if someone really dies, then I will lose both the wife and the army.
Thinking of this, Sun's expression changed, and she lowered her posture to coax her, "Jin girl, you really have a bad temper! After all, I am doing this for the good of you and your sister. Why can't you understand why you have to do such a stupid thing?"
She sighed with disappointment, "When your brother left two years ago, he said he would come to pick you up in February of this year. Now it's winter, and another year is almost over, and your brother still hasn't shown up."
Sun took a step forward and whispered in a caring manner, "Jin girl, don't blame me for imagining things. Your brother is probably gone..."
"You are talking nonsense again! My brother will not die even if you die!" The woman was sharp-tongued and said nothing nice, which immediately made Zhao'er's hair stand on end again.
Sun didn't care about Zhao'er's attitude. She waved her hand perfunctorily: "Okay, okay, I naturally hope that your brother can return safely. But..."
She changed the subject and looked at the girl again, reminding her, "Didn't he come to pick you up? We agreed at the beginning that I would only leave this yard for you and your sister to live in and provide you with three meals a day. I didn't say I had to take care of anything else."
"When my brother left, he gave you a lot of money, enough for us to spend for a long time..." Zhao'er argued.
"Before, I was kindhearted and pitied you two, so I provided you with fine rice and flour. But your brother hasn't come yet, and I can't keep supporting you two for nothing, right? Farmers are poor, and I have several mouths to feed at home. How can I have the extra food to feed two more people?"
Sun glanced at Jin'er, who lowered her brows and kept silent, and couldn't help but sigh again. Even though she looked so haggard, she still had such a good appearance. No wonder Mr. Li was willing to pay a lot of money to have her by name.
Isn’t this a living Bodhisattva that brings wealth?
Thinking of the huge sum of money, she swallowed excitedly and continued to deceive, "The money your brother gave me does seem to be a large amount, but since last winter, your sister and brother have been sick one after another. Because of their serious illnesses, I dare not be careless. We have consulted doctors and asked for medicine several times, and the money has been spent like water. It wasn't long before it was all gone! To be honest, the money for the last medicine was paid by me myself!"
What I mean is that I have done my best by using my own money to support you until now.
"Then you can't marry my sister to that kind of cannibalism place." Zhao'er still resisted.
After all, he was young, and after hearing what Sun said, he really believed that the money left by his brother had been spent, and that he and his sister were now relying on the Sun family for support. He was a little less confident when he replied.
"Cough cough cough."
The girl clutched her chest for a moment, then asked in a low voice, "If I remember correctly, when my brother left last year, he gave you, Auntie, twenty taels of silver, not two, right?"
Jin Chu raised his head slightly and stroked his neck with his hand, probably to suppress the pain. His eyebrows were slightly frowned on his pale little face, and his pair of black eyes looked at the other person coldly.
Sun felt her whole body shudder, as if she had been looked at from inside out, and she could no longer maintain the kindness on her face.
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