As soon as Chou Chou said this, he heard a voice from among the people arguing over there: "Jiang Xiaoliu, what did you say? You are the only one who dares to argue with me. Believe it or not, I will go to your house and tell your parents." If you want to get involved in the affairs of a wealthy family's backyard, your parents will definitely break your legs!
Have you forgotten how your uncle died back then? If you offend someone you shouldn't offend, you may die without even knowing..."
Qingyan's steps immediately stopped, hehe, there is an inside story, she can listen to this.
"Chou Chou, do you think we can learn some unknown things about the families in the city from their mouths? Maybe we can also learn the truth about Xue Minghua's kidnapping."
Chou Chou said disapprovingly: "That happened more than ten years ago. How old are the people here? The oldest is only in his twenties. They were still little kids at that time. What can they know?"
Qingyan raised her eyebrows, "That's not necessarily true. What if there are elders in the family who know about it? It doesn't matter if they have heard about it."
The man named Jiang Xiaoliu was a thin, dark boy of sixteen or seventeen years old. After hearing what he just said, he stepped forward and pushed the person who spoke.
The boy who spoke was about the same age as him, not as tall as him, but fatter than him. He was the fattest among the gang.
To say he is fat means that compared to this group of people, these people are both tall and thin, probably within 100 pounds. The short and fat boy should weigh 120 or 30 pounds. He looks taller than the others. There should be more meat.
The young man named Jiang Xiaoliu was one of the people in the later group, and he was one of the five people who came after Qingyan.
When she saw him taking action, Qingyan thought the two groups were about to start fighting, but in the end, they were pulled apart by people from both sides.
The group of people named Xiaoliu said a few words to him, and he glared at the short fat man and left first.
Qingyan was a little confused. Are you leaving now? It's like primary school students quarreling. Is this because they are afraid of suing their parents?
But it's better if he leaves. I'm afraid it won't be easy for others to gossip about his family's affairs here.
Qingyan stepped back and said to a group of people: "Please stop for a moment. I need your help with something."
The two waves of people originally wanted to continue arguing, but they stopped immediately after hearing Qingyan's words.
The two waves of people glared at each other, surrounded her, and then stopped two or three steps away.
"Do you need any help, girl? Just tell us. With the number of people we can definitely help the girl."
A tall man in his twenties, the most well-dressed man said, this man should be the leader of a dozen people.
The short fat man also patted his chest and said, "Girl, don't listen to him. They are from Nancheng. Most of the people there are poor. Our family is from Dongcheng. If you come to us with anything, we can help you better."
Qingyan took off the plain purse from her waist and shook it deliberately. The copper plates and broken silver inside made a clanging sound.
When those little gangsters heard that there was really money in their wallets, they gathered around as soon as their eyes lit up.
Qingyan raised a hand, "Hey, don't come together, just send two representatives over."
On such a hot day, these people smelled like sweat. Her nose was already very good, so it would make her faint if they came around.
A group of people stopped, and then the two who had spoken before came over.
The one who was dressed more decently held up his hands and said, "Girl, I am the eldest brother of these people. My surname is Wang Hui. If you have any questions, please feel free to tell me."
The other short fat man glanced at him, and also raised his hand towards Qingyan and said: "Girl, I am the eldest among them, my surname is Liu Minggui. Girls can just tell us what we want to do. Except for murder and arson, everything else is easy to discuss." ."
"Tsk~ It sounds like you can do anything else. If you can't even beat me, what else can you do?"
As soon as Liu Gui finished speaking, Wang Hui sneered at him.
"You——" Liu Gui's face instantly turned red with anger.
Qingyan interrupted them and said directly: "I'm not asking you to do anything, but I just want to ask you about something. Do you know anything about some wealthy families in the city?"
The two of them, including the dozen or so people listening behind them, all looked at her.
Wang Hui's expression became solemn, and he said with some hesitation: "Why do you ask this? You can't be a spy sent by a foreign tribe, are you?"
A few people behind also looked at Qingyan warily, and even moved their positions, as if they would rush up to subdue her as soon as they were sure she was a spy.
Qingyan raised her eyebrows. It seemed that these people were still trying to protect their city subconsciously.
"Are you stupid? What secrets can I find out if a spy comes to you? I just have a sister who is getting married, and I want to find out how the reputations of several well-matched families here are."
Qingyan said nonsense seriously.
Obviously these words seemed very reasonable to these people, so they all dropped their guard and started talking in all directions.
"We have heard a lot of rumors, but we can't guarantee whether they are true or false."
Qingyan said nonchalantly: "You tell me and I'll listen. As for whether it's true or false, I have my own way of verifying it. By the way, what happened to Jiang Xiaoliu's uncle just now? Tell me first!"
Wang Hui blinked and looked back at his brothers. Seeing that they had no objection, he said: "Ordinarily, Jiang Xiaoliu is my brother. I can't talk about his family's affairs behind his back. However, his uncle's affairs are nothing." Almost everyone here knows the secret, so there's no harm in talking to the girl.
Nowadays, most of us will not get involved with the secrets of wealthy families. It is because eleven years ago someone gave Uncle Jiang a sum of money and asked him to secretly help sell a maid to a trafficker. We don’t know. That maid was the favorite of some master and young master in the back house, and she actually found out about him. Within a few days, the news of Uncle Jiang's death came out.
The Jiang family said to the outside world that he died of a sudden illness, but among us there are elders who hung out with Uncle Jiang Ming, so we still know something about it.
Before Uncle Jiang did that, he said that he had taken on a big business, but he had to wait for the opportunity.
Later, after getting the money, he treated his brother to a good meal, but he died within two days. It's strange that there is no connection between them.
Later, the elders in the family would remind us children who like to hang out outside, try not to get involved with other people's back houses, and no matter how much money is given, we should not do things like killing people's lives and buying and selling people. Otherwise, how will we die? Do not know at all. "
After hearing this, Qingyan thought to herself that this uncle from the Jiang family could be said to have single-handedly set a bottom line for the gangsters in Xingtang Mansion.
etc! Eleven years ago! It can't be such a coincidence, right?
"Isn't that maid from the Xue family?"
Wang Hui was shocked. This man must know something. He shook his head and did not dare to say anything casually.
Looking at his expression, Qingyan knew that there was a real connection.
I don't know that the maid who was sold was probably Xue Minghua. It seems that it was really her family who did it, but I don't know if Xue Minghua and her parents knew about it.
Jiang Xiaoliu's uncle must have been murdered.
Qingyan no longer dwelled on this and asked the two of them, "Then tell me about other things. Whether it's hearsay or your own guesses about the wealthy families, tell me."
Liu Gui said with a smile: "This girl can ask me, I know more than the bamboo pole emblem."
Without waiting for Wang Hui to refute, he continued: "The biggest families in my city are the Liang family, the Xue family, and the Sun family.
I heard that they are all branches of big families and come from famous families in Hedong. Those families are also full of talented people, especially the Xue and Liang families.
This Mr. Liang is the largest official in our Xingtang Mansion. His younger brother is also an official in Bianzhou. I heard that he is not a junior official.
However, the Liang family has a weakness that everyone knows, that is, Mr. Liang has no sons. His wife and several concubines all gave birth to daughters, a total of more than a dozen daughters!
Moreover, it is said that several daughters who have grown up and gone out look like Mr. Liang, and their appearance is simply hard to describe.
The eldest daughter is already 19 years old and has not settled on a family yet because she looks too much like Mr. Liang. She is looked down upon by a wealthy family. After all, she is the face of a wealthy family. She is too ugly and loses face. thing.
But the family background is low, and Miss Liang doesn’t like it, and feels that she is not worthy, so she delayed it until now..."
"The Sun family is the richest man in Xingtang Mansion, but it is not a purely merchant family. The second master of the family is a school captain, and their legitimate daughter is married to the second son of the Xue family.
It's just that the eldest son of the Sun family is a bit of a womanizer. I heard that there are dozens of concubines in the backyard and many children, more than thirty, which means the family has money, otherwise they wouldn't be able to support them. "
Qingyan listened to what he said with great interest. Although it was possible that they were just market rumors, which were definitely different from the real version, these rumors may not be without facts. There must be a small part of the truth in them.
After Liu Gui finished talking about the Liang family and the Sun family, he started talking about the Xue family, still about Xue Minghua.
"Speaking of the Xue family, it is the most serious of the three families. I heard that the Xue family is very strict about rules and there are not many concubines in the backyard.
However, there is a legitimate daughter who is very mysterious and has not appeared in this city since she was fifteen years old. Although the Xue family said to the outside world that their daughter-in-law went to her maternal home in Bianzhou, privately many people were spreading rumors that even if she went to her maternal home, it would be impossible not to come back during the holidays.
And it’s been more than ten years, so it’s impossible for Miss Xue not to get married. Even if she gets married in Bianzhou, there should be news of it coming back. At least she will bring her husband back to see her family during the Chinese New Year. .
But not once. Many people said that the Miss Xue family had either eloped with someone, so she lied to the outside world that she was recuperating at home. People from this wealthy family are most concerned about their reputation. The Miss Xue family either had some bad disease or was raped. Who has ruined his reputation..."
When Qingyan heard what he said, she did not speculate about Jiang Xiaoliu's uncle. It seemed that the Xue family's confidentiality work was quite strict.
Afterwards, I heard these people gossiping about other officials, some of which were very outrageous. Qingyan was not very interested and directly poured a bag of copper plates and broken silver in her purse to them. As for how they divided it. , she didn’t care.
In fact, there wasn't much broken silver, the total amount was less than two taels, and with the addition of dozens of copper plates, the purse was not big, but it was already bulging.
But for these little gangsters, this is already a huge sum of money. After all, unless they are helping to do something more difficult, usually a few dozen copper plates are enough.
When Qingyan left, those people were like the God of Wealth, waving their hands for a long time, and kept saying to come back to them if anything happened.
Qingyan couldn't even see that flattering expression.
To be honest, these people are due to the times. These people have not been taken advantage of. Otherwise, if they really set up an organization to collect intelligence and let them go, they might actually be able to do something famous.
Chou Chou said: "There is a dark cloud floating over from the south. It is estimated that there will be a shower soon. How about we go back to East Street. There is no place to shelter from the rain in Nanshi. Otherwise, we should hurry back to Xue Mansion." If you run faster, you should be able to avoid it."
They had finished shopping on East Street and there was nothing to see. There was no need to run back. Qingyan thought she might as well go back to Xue Mansion.
She had been running all morning and noon, and she was a little tired. She could take a nap to rest when she got back.
While quickening his pace, he said to Chou Chou: "If we leave early tomorrow morning, we will ride out of the city. What if it rains heavily? If you are in a place with people, you can't take out your umbrella or raincoat openly and use it, even if you put it on The plastic sheeting is a bit conspicuous.”
Chou Chou: "You don't want to get a car again, do you? There's no one here to help you. There are people from Yangjiaping in Handcheng who can help you and get it done for you in a short time. You can't do that here. Let the Xue family's servants help you build the carport?
If you say so, Mrs. Xue will probably give you a carriage directly. I think there are two or three carriages at their stables. They should be specially prepared by the Xue family for their family. "
Qingyan thought about it and decided to forget it. Tomorrow was only one day anyway. If it didn't work, she would speed up and run to a place where no one was around. Then she would find an open space. If it really rained, she would take out the off-road vehicle in the space and wait for the time. arrive.
Qingyan quickly walked around the inner city wall to the south, then passed through an alley next to the cross street and onto West Street.
As soon as I arrived at West Street, I heard Chou Chou say: "Those four people have already gathered together and left from the South City Gate on horseback. They just missed you."
Qingyan patted her chest, not bad.
Then he said to Chou Chou: "Continue to monitor those four people, listen to whether they are chatting with each other, and see if you can learn anything from their chats."
Chou Chou: "It doesn't matter what you say, I have been staring at them, but these four people are quite cautious. They basically only speak a few words, as concisely as possible.
For example, when two of them found the other two, they only said one thing, and they rode around in a donkey cart from the east gate. Then they said nothing more and rode straight to the south gate to chase them.
If someone hears these words, they won't know what they mean. "
(End of chapter)
