There was a clang, and someone opened the coffin. Those with sharp eyes immediately noticed that there was only a set of clothes inside, and there was no body at all.
"Lao Guajia, what do you mean? You just want to extort dozens of taels of silver from just some shabby clothes. Then you can make money too fast!"
After hearing this, everyone stopped subconsciously and looked into the coffin.
Seeing this, Wang Dahu immediately explained: "Isn't it because it took too long and the body has rotted? If it weren't for you, San'er wouldn't have died without a whole body!"
"Li Zheng, it's pointless for us to continue fighting like this. Why don't we each take a step back and get twenty taels? Let's just forget about it with twenty taels! There are so many children in your village. You can't do it just for these two taels. Just ten taels will ruin the child’s future, right?”
Hearing this, the villagers whose families had almost passed the Tongsheng examination were vaguely shaken.
On average, twenty taels would only cost a family a dime and a half. If their child really gets admitted as a tongsheng, he doesn't know how many more dimes and a half he can win.
But unfortunately, these words happened to be heard by Gu Zheqi who came over.
"We are from the same hometown. Since I have been selected as a scholar, I will naturally not ignore the people in the village."
Everyone turned around and saw Gu Zheqi dressed in white, holding a folding fan in his hand, and the blue belt around his waist had turned into a warm red.
After hearing this, Sister-in-law Gua immediately became unhappy: "Zhe Qi, what do you mean by that? Your uncle is the one who is in trouble now. There is no reason to speak for outsiders!"
"That's right!" Wang Dahu agreed: "You should have entered the academy now. Our official is also a member of the academy now. This means that our relationship is closer after all!"
Hearing this, the few people who were originally happy that they didn't have to pay for anything suddenly became depressed. After all, the person opposite her was also Gu Zheqi's biological aunt. In terms of relationship, she was always better than them.
Sister-in-law Gua and Wang Dahu obviously understood this point, and each looked as if they had understood it correctly. However, Gu Zheqi shook his head, opened the folding fan in his hand, closed it again, and said leisurely: " A gentleman should be fair in his dealings with others, but I would not do that, even though you and I are related."
After hearing this, the people in Gujiacun immediately became emboldened, and everyone clamored for another fight.
Seeing that she couldn't get the money, Sister-in-law Gua immediately cried and screamed at the top of her voice. Wang Dahu wisely left with a few people.
It's just... I don't know if it was Gu Jiu's misunderstanding, but I always felt that the look Wang Dahu looked at him before leaving meant something, as if he was waiting for something.
After Wang Dahu and others left, the village chief left a few people to look at Sister-in-law Gua, and then asked the rest to go back.
"Zhe Qi, you are so good! You actually got admitted as a scholar. You are the first in our village! There is a word for it, you are promising, right?"
"Uncle, you are trying to say that you are young and have a lot of potential."
"Yes, yes, that's what uncle means, you have something to do, you have something to do."
On the way back, a large group of people happily surrounded Gu Zheqi, completely forgetting that Gu Wensheng had tricked them, and that all this seemed to be caused by the Wang family, or that they no longer cared.
"Zhe Qi, how is the academy? See what Wang Dahu means. The royal official has entered the academy. Now can Tong Sheng enter? Wasn't it okay to be a scholar before?"
"The academy is divided into two areas. Tongsheng and Xiucai do not study together."
Gu Zheqi paused, stopped before anyone asked about wages, and saluted everyone: "Before, my father helped everyone find work in the city. His original intention was to help everyone, but I didn't expect that person. Seeing that everyone from the village is easy to bully, my father is currently involved in something, so it’s up to me to apologize to everyone."
"I bought some pastries in the city before coming here, and I will share them with my uncles who were short of wages at the time."
Gu Zheqi's words were so sincere that Gu Jiu almost thought he was dreaming.
How many benefits must be received to make a self-righteous person like him apologize so seriously!
As soon as these words came out, several people who were still complaining in their hearts completely raised their eyebrows.
"What a big deal, why are the villagers talking about this? If it weren't for your father Vincent, we wouldn't even be able to earn those few copper coins!"
"That's right."
"What's wrong with pastries? Zhe Qi, if you really feel sorry for yourself, tell everyone what the exam questions for the scholar are this time? How did you write them? It will make all the children in our village take credit for you." "
"Yeah."
…
Most of the people followed Gu Zheqi back home, while Gu Jiu went back to the village chief's house.
"Isn't he just a scholar? Look at what he can do, even our Cheng'er can pass the exam next year!" Aunt Xia said angrily.
He turned to look at Gu Jiu and said, "Xiao Jiu, is Xiao Jing also a child-successor? It's better to have Xiao Jing go to the academy with your brother Cheng, so that I can take care of you."
Gu Jiu nodded.
After returning home, Gu Jiu was busy making a spinning machine, while the village chief helped while Aunt Xia went to cook.
"The meal is ready, you two, stop being busy and come in to eat."
Gu Jiu put down her things and stood up just in time to see Gu Cheng. After all, this was the first time she had seen this person in full view.
She has delicate features, and her whole body seems to have the fragrance of bamboo. Just standing there makes people feel refreshed and comfortable. Different from Gu Zheqi's deliberately pretended scholarly aura, this man's scholarly aura seemed to come naturally.
"Cheng'er, you didn't eat in the house today?" The village chief looked at Gu Cheng and asked with some doubts.
Gu Cheng nodded. The dark shadow just now always made him a little uneasy: "The exam is over. Let's rest for two days."
"That's fine, you hurry into the house. It's windy outside and you won't be freezing anymore." The village chief said as he pulled the person into the house: "You have been in bad health since you were a child, and now you are getting older." You have to be careful.”
"Dad, it's not that bad." Gu Cheng said unnaturally as he looked at another piece of clothing he was putting on and Gu Jiu who was standing outside looking over.
"What's wrong? It's not like you don't know how bad your health is. In the first ten days of the month, when you stood outside and cracked some melon seeds, you developed a high fever in the evening! Hurry up and put on your clothes, or you'll get back to me Eat in the house, it's warm there."
Aunt Xia looked at the two of them with a smile and explained to Gu Jiu: "Brother Cheng is in poor health. He often had high fevers when he was a child. The fortune teller said he would not live to be fifteen. At that time, Auntie was very worried. But now Well, not only have you passed the age of thirteen, your body is much better than before. So Gu Zheqi is getting better and better day by day, but no matter what, he is still a boy who studied for fifteen or sixteen years before passing the exam. You, Brother Cheng, are different. , he passed the exam after studying for two years!"
"I'm only seventeen this year, so I'm much better than that Gu Zheqi!"
Gu Jiu was startled: "Seventeen? How do I remember..." Did the villagers say it was twenty?
"Oh, what are you talking about? The fortune teller said that he would not live to be fifteen, so he falsely predicted a few years in advance. It was like borrowing his life from God."
Gu Jiu nodded in understanding.
"Mom, stop talking, it's all over."
Gu Cheng lowered his head and said angrily.
"Okay, okay, mom, stop talking. Eat it quickly, it won't be good when it gets cold. Xiaojiu, come and sit down quickly. This mushroom soup is so fragrant. Auntie, I'll give you some more!"
"good!"
Gu Jiu sat down, picked up a mushroom in the soup and tasted it. He was about to praise it when he suddenly saw something strange.
Gu Jiu took the chopsticks and picked out the out-of-place mushroom.
"What's wrong with Xiaojiu? Don't you like drinking?"
Gu Jiu shook his head. The more he looked at it, the more he felt something was wrong. Why did this look so like a death cap?
"Auntie, did you cook all the things you picked?"
"No, I just cooked half of it, and the rest will be eaten at night."
Gu Jiu looked in the direction of Aunt Xia's finger and saw some mushrooms lying quietly in a basket as big as a child's arms.
Gu Jiu stood up and walked over, telling the village chief and others not to drink yet.
"Xiaojiu, what happened?" the village chief asked, chewing a mushroom.
"It may be highly toxic."
village head:! ! ! He spit it out immediately and knocked the chopsticks out of Gu Cheng's hand who had just added the mushrooms.
"Poisonous?" Aunt Xia stood up in shock: "I have been picking mushrooms for so many years, there is no way I can't tell whether they are poisonous or not! Xiaojiu, I drank this soup myself, and I never thought of harming anyone!"
Hearing this, Gu Cheng frowned: "Someone came in once before. I checked and saw that nothing was missing, so I didn't mention it..."
The village chief, who was initially dubious when he heard this, was immediately more certain than Gu Jiu that there was poison in it.
"I find it strange that Peach Blossom Village is causing trouble today. They are doing this out of emotion!"
Gu Jiu rummaged through the remaining mushrooms and quickly found two death caps.
"Auntie, do you think you picked these two?"
After hearing this, Aunt Xia walked over to take a look, shook her head, and said very firmly: "No, I have been picking mushrooms for so many years, and I have never encountered anything like this! And I know very well what the mushrooms in the back mountain look like. There is no such thing!”
Gu Jiu nodded and explained: "This is called a death cap, also known as poisonous amanita. It looks like an ordinary mushroom and has no special color, but the body ring is easy to identify, especially this one with bacteria. Trust."
"Even though it's only about the length of a finger, using more than the size of a fingernail is enough to cause death."
"Fingernails!" Aunt Xia looked at her fingernails in shock when she heard this: "Who could eat mushrooms and make them so small!"
The village chief looked at Gu Cheng seriously and asked, "Have you seen what that person looks like?"
Gu Cheng shook his head guiltily. It would have been better if he had chased him out at that time.
"I only saw a gray figure, but the clothes were so big that they covered him from head to toe."
"Judging from the body shape, is it a boy or a girl? Is there any way to estimate the age?" Gu Jiu asked further.
Gu Cheng thought for a while and said, "Female, her legs and feet are very good, she can run very fast, and she is not tall enough to reach me." As he said this, he made a gesture on his shoulder, which was about 1.6 meters tall.
"Then how do we check this?" Aunt Xia sighed and sat back on the stool.
Gu Jiu recalled carefully and said to the village chief: "When Taohua Village came to cause trouble, there should be very few women in our village who were not there. Leaving aside the older ones and those who were much shorter, there weren't even a few left after thinking about it. .”
Hearing this, the village chief frowned: "Xiao Jiu, do you suspect that someone from our village did this?"
"Well! According to Brother Cheng's description, this person not only knows that Aunt Xia picked the mushrooms, but also knows where the mushrooms are placed! Otherwise, he would not have finished his work and escaped so quickly. And the person who can know this information at the same time is People in our village are more likely.”
Gu Jiu analyzed it bit by bit, and somehow he remembered the look Wang Dahu looked at him before leaving. Could it be that he controlled this matter?
