After Cai Quan told her the reason why she let the frogs go instead of eating the frog meat, Gou An had nothing to say. When I met my classmate Liu Xiongfeng again, I told him, "Don't give me frogs anymore. My whole family doesn't eat frog meat." The basket of frogs you gave me that time was taken to the river and released by my mother.
Liu Xiongfeng asked in confusion, didn't your mother eat frog meat before? Gou An pondered for a while, and changed the sentence that his mother said to him, "I dreamed that your father was transformed from a toad spirit." My mother dreamed that frogs were transformed from dead people, so she didn't dare to eat them. My whole family didn't dare to eat it. However, Xiongfeng, I am very grateful to you. If you have time, if you are willing to listen to me tell stories, I will still tell them to you.
Liu Xiongfeng said, "It's not necessary. I don't have time to listen to your story now. We will take the children's examination soon. We need to review our homework and do a good job in the eight-part essay, so as to be admitted as a scholar and strive for an official career."
Soon, the results of the children's examination were released. Among the dozens of children in the private school class taught by the master, only Gou An passed the examination as a scholar, and the others failed. Of course Gou An was happy, but later he had to take the provincial examination, and he had a chance of passing the examination, but because of his small stature, the examiner refused to enter the examination room, and said aggressively, even if you passed the examination, with your appearance, You are not worthy of joining the Sheji Temple, so it is better for you to abstain.
This was a great blow to Gou An. Thinking that his official career was blocked and his future was hopeless, it was better to die. So frustrated, he walked to the riverside, stretched out one leg and was about to jump into the river. He was discovered by Liu Xiongfeng who was grazing cattle by the riverside.
He shouted loudly, An An, what are you doing? Gou An jumped into the river, and Liu Xiongfeng immediately jumped in after him. He pulled Gou An, who had choked a few times, to the shore. He kept persuading An An, "An An, what's wrong with you?" After all, you are a scholar. The small door of your career has been closed for you, but the door of society has been opened to you. What can you do wrong? You can tell stories, write a few more books and make money. Besides, isn’t Tian Xiang interested in you? As long as you write the script, she will marry you. Just listen to me!
Gou An, who was soaked all over, said nothing and only nodded, giving up the idea of committing suicide.
Gou An took his classmate's advice to heart and immediately became energetic. After he returned home, he kept writing books, but unfortunately, most of them were stories about adultery and theft. Among them, "The Story of Prostitution in a Brothel", which was published in the market, he signed and gave to each of his former classmates a copy. The gift he signed and gave to Tian Xiang was: Tian Xiang's cooking can fill his belly, and Gou An's writing can make him happy.
Tian Xiang was very excited about this and read the storybook written by Gou An without putting it down. She did not break her promise and actually married Gou An as his wife in the spring of that year.
However, in the next few years, two sons were born. Not only were they both dwarfs, but the second son was also mute and could not speak. He could only communicate with others through gestures.
Later, something even worse happened. After watching "The Story of Prostitutes in a Brothel", a man with a face full of scars was aroused by uncontrollable lust. He ran to the street and hugged a man wearing gold and silver arrogantly. The beautiful silver woman kissed her wildly. This caused a big disaster. The beautiful woman named Chen Chunhua was the third concubine of the local Magistrate Ma.
At that moment, when Chen Chunhua saw how ugly and disgusting the man was, she felt as if she had bumped into a smelly fly. She became so angry that she pushed the man away with all her strength, and slapped him with her palm.
Still unable to understand her hatred, she covered her face that had been kissed by the man, and returned to her home in the county government office in shame and annoyance, and recounted the incident of being bullied by the man to Magistrate Ma who had just returned home.
When Magistrate Ma heard this, he was very angry. He immediately took Chen Chunhua out, ordered the yamen servants to prepare a sedan, and dispatched a group of arresters. They left the yamen and came to the street. The man had already disappeared and could not be found. Magistrate Ma asked a painter to draw a portrait of the man Chen Chunhua said had molested her, and printed and posted it in the most conspicuous place in the downtown area. He also wrote a sentence in the blank space of the portrait:
If someone reports the suspect's name and address or personally captures him and delivers him to the county government, he will be rewarded with 300 taels of silver.
Only half a day after this announcement was posted, someone reported that the man was Hao Zheliu, a boy from Xishan Village. He usually likes to read and is a bit nerdy.
On the same day, the arresters took Hao Zheliu into the Yamen, and after calling Chen Chunhua to identify him, they immediately beat him so hard that he howled in fear and pain like a pig.
Magistrate Ma who was present saw that he was beaten to pieces and was worried that he would lose his breath. He put his hand around and signaled the two thugs to stop, and helped Hao Zheliu, whose face was covered with blood, to sit up. His eyes were dull and he was still moaning.
Magistrate Ma stood up and asked, Ugly man, do you know the crime but not the crime? Hao Zheliu lowered his head and whispered, "Confession."
Magistrate Ma asked again, since he knew the crime, why did he violate the king's law and openly and wantonly insult a good family woman on the street? Hao Zheliu said with shame that it was all my fault for reading that bad book. After reading it, he couldn't control his lust, so he went to the street to hug...hug a beautiful woman and kiss...kiss her.
Magistrate Ma asked him again what book he was reading, and he revealed the title: "The Book of Prostitution in a Brothel".
Magistrate Ma immediately went to the market to buy the book and checked the author's signature, Gou An. When he inquired, he learned that Gou An was the son of Gouneng, the owner of the Pitou shop in Xiaohe Town, the county, nicknamed Toad Jing.
Magistrate Ma himself took "The Story of Prostitution in a Brothel" and flipped through a few pages. He found that it was full of pornographic jokes that aroused the desire of men and women. The obscene plot was unsightly. I thought: No wonder the young man Hao Zheliu became so debauched after reading this Y book. Even an old man like me would be aroused to the point of ecstasy if he read too much of the provocative content.
Magistrate Ma felt for a moment that Hao Zheliu, who forcibly kissed his third concubine, was abhorrent, but the person who wrote such a Y-book was even more hateful. It was tantamount to putting psychotropic drugs in the county and would poison more judges. If every judge If every judge commits an embarrassing act that is offensive to morals, our Qiuyuan County will become a filthy place for committing crimes. How can we behave like this?
At the moment, Magistrate Ma made three decisions. First, he sent a police officer to Xiaohe Town to capture and convict Gou An, the author of "The Story of Selling Sex in a Brothel"; second, he sent out the "Story of Selling Sex in a Brothel" that was in the possession of all the bookstores and printing shops in the county. Wait for the Y books to be confiscated and burned together; the third is to ask Hao Zheliu to send all the Y books he has read to the county government for destruction, and write a letter of apology or a letter of guarantee, promising not to read Y books and pornographic paintings in the future, so as to atone for his sins. and then release.
Gou An from Xiaohe Town had already heard the news. When the policemen sent by the county government came to his house, he didn't know where he had fled. The police officers had no choice but to seize several large volumes of the manuscript of Book Y written by Gou An at his house. As evidence, they asked Gou An's father, Gou Neng, to pay him a fine of four hundred taels of silver.
A tall-nosed catcher yelled at Dog Neng, requiring you to be handed over to the county government tomorrow for interrogation. If there is any delay, you will be fined 400 taels of silver for one day of delay, 800 taels of silver for two days of delay, and so on. There is nothing objective about it.
After the head catcher said this, he turned around and evacuated with several other catchers. Gou Neng was so angry that he jumped up and down and shouted at Gou An's wife, "Tian Xiang, Tian Xiang, please find An An quickly and send her to the county government office. Otherwise, what you heard just now, how many times did my dog's house open?" It’s not enough that all the wealth accumulated in ten years of working as a butcher shop has been used as a fine.
In Tian Xiang's impression, her husband climbed up to the attic and hid. Now she shouted towards the attic, "An'an, come down quickly, the arresters are gone."
