bayedsolid Chapter 290 I Was Slaughtered
Chapter 290 I Was Slaughtered
Chapter 290 I Was Slaughtered
Shuntian Street is the only commercial street in Lin'an's inner city. Because there are limited shops, the government has strictly controlled the types of shops. For example, only two two-story restaurants are allowed on the entire Shuntian Street. If you want to open a third one, the only way is to buy one of the already opened ones.
If you really want to do business but don’t have a shop on Shuntian Street, you can only go to the outer city.
The restaurant in front of us is called Baipinxiang. It was the dowry that Mu brought when she married into the First-rank General’s Mansion.
Although the Mu family was not in Kyoto, they had started to prepare a dowry for their daughter since they had an engagement with the First-class General's Mansion. The Baipinxiang was bought by the Mu family in the name of the future mistress of the First-class General's Mansion. In fact, the Mu family had a lot of dowry, but there was only one shop in the capital. Fortunately, the shop was a two-story small building, large enough, and it was a restaurant before, so it was very profitable. So even if there was only one, the Mu family could make enough income from it.
Over the years, the Mu family did not personally participate in the management of the restaurant. The restaurant was always managed by a shopkeeper who came with the Mu family as a dowry. The annual profit was very considerable. It was with the profit of this restaurant that the Mu family saved up a generous betrothal gift and dowry for her son and daughter. Otherwise, if she relied on the crooked Madam Ye, her children would not get much from the public treasury.
But since the death of the general, the old lady could think about the property under her name, and she had been eyeing this restaurant for a long time, and finally got it when Ye Wenyan was about to get married. She hurriedly changed the title deed and took it completely for herself.
Today, Baipinxiang is still called Baipinxiang, but the people working there have all been replaced. Ye Wenyan heard from Mrs. Mu that the former shopkeeper had returned to the Mu family because she had nowhere to stay and couldn't. But the people who were replaced were very interesting. They were not servants of the Ye family, nor were they shopkeepers and clerks hired from outside, but the family members of the old lady Jiang.
Zhuier pointed at the woman who was sitting on the floor and making a scene in the restaurant and said, "That seems to be the old lady's niece-in-law. I heard about it from Ali this morning. Didn't the young lady ask me to find someone to notify the old lady to come over here? I asked Ali to go. Ali was very careful. After talking to the old lady, he walked slowly. The slower he walked, the more he heard. He heard the conversation between Jun Tao and the old lady, saying that the restaurant is now managed by the old lady's nephew and niece-in-law."
The two walked in while talking, and the old lady followed behind. As soon as they came in, they saw the police were also in the restaurant, surrounding the shrew sitting on the ground and shouting: "It's no use throwing a tantrum. Princess Guiyue has reported the case. If you have anything to say, go to the court!"
When the woman heard that she was going to court, she howled even louder: "I won't go to court! Why should I go to court? We are doing business honestly, but we are slandered. You are officials from Northern Qi, but you are not on our side but on the side of outsiders. Why are you so crooked? What benefits did the Guiyue people give you to make you so conscienceless?"
The old lady stopped and took two deep breaths. She was so angry that she almost died just after she walked in. What was wrong with her niece-in-law? How dare she say such things in public? Was she crazy?
Jun Tao also realized that this was not a good idea, so she quickly turned around and told the shop assistant, "Go and close the door quickly. We will not open today. Send someone to guard outside and explain to the customers who come and go."
The guys went to do it immediately, but unfortunately it didn't work because Jiang Wanting and Chi Feifei were standing at the door. When he saw someone coming to close the door, Chi Feifei was the first to get anxious: "Stand there! The officials are here, and it's not your turn to close the door or not. What's going on? You want to lock us all up in the restaurant and let you go crazy, right? I saw that the guy sitting on the ground was about to hit someone, what if we get beaten if the door is closed?" Jiang Wanting also said: "Since it's a case, it should be tried fairly and openly. We must ensure that there is no trick from the beginning. It's hard to say if the door is closed. People who don't know would think that we, Northern Qi, are going to harm Princess Guiyue! Northern Qi can't take the blame, so this door must be open, no matter how many people are watching, it must be open!"
The clerk who closed the door had no choice but to retreat. The old lady wanted to say something, but she saw Jun Tao shaking his head at her.
She endured it, knowing that it would be no good to say anything at this moment, so she might as well see what exactly happened first.
Fortunately, Feng Zhaolian spoke up at this time, and the Princess Guiyue was sitting at a table by the window in the lobby on the first floor, wearing moon-white men's clothing, but her hair was still women's, and she even had earrings hanging from her ears. The men's clothing was a bit too big, and even though she was wearing a waist belt, it still looked shaky.
She slapped the table, attracting everyone's attention: "Why are you howling? It's as if I, the young master, bullied you. It was clearly me who came to your restaurant to eat today and was ripped off by you. I haven't even cried yet, so why are you howling?"
Feng Zhaolian was always merciless in her words, and she never cared about what kind of words a girl should or should not say. She kept calling him "little master" all the time, and it made Old Madam Ye's scalp tingle.
"Now that the officials are here and Old Lady Ye is here, I will tell you what happened today again." Feng Zhaolian patted the table again, and Old Lady Ye's heart trembled with every pat. Then Feng Zhaolian said, "Listen, today I came to Baipinxiang to drink, and I ordered a bowl of eight-treasure ginseng chicken soup, which is said to be the most expensive dish in this restaurant. They even wrote a list of ingredients for me to see."
She took a piece of paper on the table and said, "Look, it clearly says, take one tael of fifty-year-old ginseng and put it into the soup. Fifty-year-old ginseng, let's not talk about whether one tael is enough. Come on, come on, someone who knows about this, come and take a look, is this ginseng fifty years old?"
As Feng Zhaolian spoke, he picked up the chopsticks and picked out a tiny ginseng seedling from the soup.
Ye Wenyan walked forward and took a look, "Oh, less than five years."
"That's right!" Feng Zhaolian slammed the table again, making the old lady's heart jump out. "You want to pretend that this broken thing, which is less than five years old, is fifty years old? Although fifty-year-old ginseng is not worth much, it's only for making soup after all, and it's not good to have it too old, so I think it's okay for you to ask me for five hundred taels of silver for this dish."
"Wait a moment!" Ye Wenyan interrupted her, "How much?"
"Five hundred taels of silver."
As soon as these words came out, Ye Wenyan didn't need to be surprised, the officials were all furious - "Five hundred taels of silver? Even if it's a fifty-year-old ginseng, taking one tael to make soup wouldn't cost this much!"
The woman sitting on the ground shouted, "What's it to you? We're selling it at this price. If you can't afford it, don't eat it!"
"Haha." The official laughed. "I can't afford to eat 50-year-old ginseng, but if it's only five-year-old, I can still afford to take one or two ounces to make soup. So we must go to court to discuss why you told the customer that it was fifty years old when you clearly used five-year-old ginseng. This is fraud and you will be sent to prison."
When the woman heard that she was going to be sent to jail, she was scared. Her husband standing next to her was also scared and quickly said, "It's none of our business. We just run the shop. As for what dishes to sell and how much to order, that's up to the boss. We don't care!"
Madam Ye began to take deep breaths again. She really wanted to kill her nephew with a hammer. However, this ginseng was inferior, but what about the poison mentioned before? Who poisoned Princess Guiyue?
She subconsciously looked towards Feng Zhaolian, and felt that Princess Guiyue had a ruddy complexion and a loud voice, and did not look like she was poisoned! She must be lying!
The old lady secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It was fine as long as it was a lie. As long as it wasn't really poisoning, she didn't want to pursue it.
At this time, Feng Zhaolian, who was sitting at the table, spoke again: "It's not just this dish, there are also problems with other dishes in this restaurant. For example, this fried lamb, come and take a look, is it lamb? It looks and tastes like pork to me, and you can only smell the flavor of lamb. In addition, I have a stomachache now, it hurts so much that sweat is coming out of my head."
As she spoke, she stretched her head forward. An officer was very cooperative. After taking a look, he said, "She is indeed sweating. How can she sweat in such a cold weather? It is obvious that she is in pain."
Feng Zhaolian nodded, "You are absolutely right, so I suspect there is poison in these dishes, and we must conduct a thorough investigation."
This was not the end. Feng Zhaolian pointed at the wine jar and said, "This is a hundred-year-old girl's red wine! It tastes just like a hundred-day-old wine. I'll take it back to the government office for inspection."
The official nodded immediately, and sealed the wine jar very carefully, and held it in his arms. As for the wine and food on the table, a special person brought food boxes and put them in with the dishes.
Now that the food and wine have been served, it's the people in the restaurant's turn.
The leading officer waved his hand and said, "Take all the guys away, leave no one behind!" Someone asked, "What about these two? They are the ones in charge."
The official said, "Of course they will be taken away together! Fraud and murder of Princess Guiyue are both serious crimes! Sent to prison is a light punishment. If you are convicted of poisoning, you must be beheaded!"
"Ah!" The woman sitting on the ground collapsed, crying loudly, kicking her feet non-stop, just like a child who was playing tricks on the street because he couldn't get candy. But even children need to be educated by adults, let alone an adult who knows everything and breaks the law.
No one sympathized with her, but two officers went up and lifted the man up.
Her husband couldn't stand it any longer. He didn't even look at Old Lady Ye. He just closed his eyes and shouted loudly, "Don't kill us. I'll tell you everything!"