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Posted on , Translation by Dida
Chapter 112: Family Circumstances
The mule cart raced along, and they arrived in roughly half an hour.When they arrived, it happened to be noon. Quite a few elderly men and women who had finished lunch were leaning against the walls, basking in the sun and chatting about gossip.
Zhou Qing had come here before to sell the “Feng” character and Spring Festival couplets, so she was fairly familiar with these elderly men and women.
As soon as she arrived, a young married woman greeted her with a cheerful laugh, “Well, well, this young man has come, and the copper coins in my pocket are going to be unable to resist jumping into his pocket again.”
The few people beside her followed along with laughter.
Seeing everyone’s attitude, Zhou Qing guessed that the matter concerning Wang Le was probably something the villagers knew nothing about at all.
Leaving Li Er to watch the cart, Zhou Qing approached in her men’s clothing with a cheerful smile. “Big Sister, keep a good eye on your copper coins. After the New Year when spring comes, I’ll come check on them.”
The young married woman looked past Zhou Qing’s shoulder and glanced toward the mule cart.
“You’re not here to sell things?”
She sounded somewhat disappointed.
“Mm, I’m here to find Wang Le. It’s my first time coming here, and I don’t even know how to get to his house.”
As soon as Zhou Qing mentioned Wang Le, an auntie beside her immediately gave an annoyed snort.
“His family moved away several days ago! They quietly moved away without saying a word, and they still owe me twelve copper coins. I really must have suffered eight lifetimes’ worth of bad luck.”
As she spoke, the auntie rolled her eyes and looked at Zhou Qing.
“Young man, you’re friends with Wang Le, right? How about you pay me back on his family’s behalf? Then, when you see him, you can ask him for the money?”
Zhou Qing......
Do you take me for a fool?
With a sheepish grin, Zhou Qing said, “I also came around the end of the year to collect a debt. His family moved away?”
Several people around them nodded.
“They moved away. It’s been about three or four days.”
“Do you know where they moved to?”
The auntie shook her head. “If I knew, would I still be unable to get my money back!”
“Could they have gone to stay with relatives?”
As she spoke, Zhou Qing handed out a few pieces of the malt candy she had bought along the way.
After taking the candy, everyone became even friendlier toward Zhou Qing.
“Relatives? His family? Where would they have relatives! They’ve lived in the village for so many years, and I’ve never heard of them having any relatives.” One auntie carefully tucked the candy into her clothes pocket before speaking.
Another auntie beside her said, “That’s right, Wang Le’s family has no relatives. His father has no brothers or sisters, and his mother was a refugee who came here as a beggar.”
Zhou Qing scratched the back of her head, looking puzzled.
“If they don’t have any relatives, why did they move away during the New Year? Where would they go to live after moving? Could it be that they got rich? If they got rich, why didn’t they pay me back!”
The young married woman immediately spat with disdain.
“Got rich? His family? Unless Wang Le passes the examination and becomes an official, otherwise, get rich my ass!”
“Exactly. Wang Le’s father is lame, and he’s honest and timid. His mother has also always been in poor health. How could they get rich! They’ve been supporting Wang Le’s studies all these years, and their family is so poor they’ve been reduced to eating bran and vegetables.”
“Fortunately, Huai Shan Academy in Qingyang Village accepts students without charging tuition. Otherwise, how could Wang Le have been able to study?”
As they spoke, everyone’s topic shifted to praising Huai Shan Academy.
Hearing her own academy being praised, Zhou Qing couldn’t bring herself to laugh at all.
“Before Wang Le’s family moved away, wasn’t there anything unusual?”
Abruptly, Zhou Qing interrupted their discussion.
An elderly man suddenly thought of something and said to Zhou Qing, “Now that you mention it, I remember something. Do you all remember? A few days ago, Wang Le’s younger sister went fishing with someone and fell into an ice hole. After she was pulled out, she had such a high fever that she was barely hanging on.”
As soon as the old man mentioned it, an auntie slapped her thigh. “That’s right, that’s right, there was such a thing. At the time, Wang Le’s mother even came to my house to borrow money.”
“You lent her some?”
“How could I? Given the state of their family, it’s not that I’m heartless or unwilling to save someone in danger. The truth is, even if I lent it to them, they wouldn’t be able to pay me back. My family only has a few copper coins to spare too.”
“What happened to his sister afterward?” Zhou Qing asked.
The young married woman said, “I didn’t see them call a doctor.”
The auntie beside her followed up, “That’s right, they didn’t call a doctor. Then, all of a sudden, his family moved away.”
“Didn’t anyone come to Wang Le’s house during that time?”
Several people around them shook their heads, all saying they hadn’t seen anyone.
The young married woman grinned and gave Zhou Qing a playful punch near the shoulder. “Young man, why are you asking so many questions? Don’t tell me you’ve taken a liking to Wang Le’s younger sister!”
The people beside her burst into laughter.
Zhou Qing chuckled. “I’m worried about my money and wanted to find some clues to see if I can locate Wang Le. By the way, his family moved away, so did they sell their house?”
“I never heard of anyone buying it! Who would want that broken-down house of theirs?”
“That doesn’t make sense. His family has no money and no relatives, and they didn’t sell their house. Where would they go to live? Could they have gone into the city to find a doctor for Wang Le’s younger sister?” Zhou Qing rubbed her hands, reddened by the cold, as she asked.
The auntie who had first mentioned Wang Le’s family moving away immediately said, “Impossible! They definitely moved away!
No one had seen his family for several days, and I was worried about my few copper coins, so I specifically went to find the clan chief.
The clan chief sent a young man with nimble legs from the village to jump over the wall into their courtyard and take a look. Everything in the house was gone. If that’s not moving away, then what is it!”
Several people beside her nodded and chimed in agreement.
Seeing that she couldn’t get any more clues, Zhou Qing asked for the address of Wang Le’s house and left.
At the eastern end of the village stood a dilapidated courtyard enclosed by a low mud wall. Faded New Year paintings from last year were still stuck to the wooden gate, and a large rusty lock hung from the door.
She leaned over the low wall and looked into the courtyard.
The doors and windows were tightly shut, and a dried-up jujube tree stood in the courtyard.
“Should we go in and take a look?” Li Er stood beside Zhou Qing and asked in a low voice.
Zhou Qing leaned against the top of the wall, staring at the empty courtyard.
“Where do you think Wang Le’s family could have moved to?”
Li Er was stunned, then said, “They were probably taken in by the person who bribed them.”
“If they took them in, then they must have also taken in Chen Guang from Chenbei Village and Gao He from Gaojia Village.”
This wasn’t taking in just one or two people.
It was three entire families.
That meant more than a dozen people.
Would all these people be arranged to live together?
Or had that person arranged three separate residences?
If it was three residences, then this person certainly had money.
But......
What was the purpose?
Did they have money to burn?
Could Zhou Huaihai really have gone to such great lengths to frame her father?
It didn’t feel like it!
Or was it as her father had said—the Education Commissioner was involved, and his target was Hu Weiyue?
After pondering for a while in front of Wang Le’s house, the two headed straight for their next stop, Chenbei Village.
By the time they arrived at Chenbei Village, it was already dark.
Fortunately, Zhou Qing had come here before to sell calligraphy, so she wasn’t too unfamiliar with the people here either.
After making a few inquiries, she quickly learned that Chen Guang’s family had also moved away.
The timing was also three or four days ago.
Even more surprisingly, Chen Guang had a younger brother who had suddenly fallen from a tree while playing outside and broken his leg.
Chen Guang’s family was poor. They couldn’t just watch their younger brother’s leg remain broken, but they also had no spare money to hire a doctor.
The situation was almost exactly the same as Wang Le’s family.
And Chen Guang’s parents were also honest and down-to-earth people.
How could there be such a coincidence!
The next stop was Gao He’s home.
As Zhou Qing had expected, Gao He’s family situation was exactly the same as Wang Le’s and Chen Guang’s.
All of them came from poor families with honest parents, and something had happened in the household that urgently required money to save someone’s life.
So the breakthrough point in this case was still these three scholars.
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