Jun Jiuling

A Fright

The inconspicuous cane that had been used by Old Lady Fang at will, and discarded in her room at will, had actually hidden an imperial edict.

Indeed, this cane was very important.

Every time there was a big event and every time she encountered a hurdle she couldn't overcome, Old Lady Fang held on to it.

This cane was indeed for support.

That is to say, Old Lady Fang had been ready to use it several times, but discarded it in the end.

Couldn't use it, dared not use it, or was it not worth using?

There were tears in Madam Fang's eyes.

She bent down and kowtowed.

"My mother and grandma." Chen Qi muttered and looked at Fang Jinxiu, "Good god, no wonder your Fang family is so rich. It turned out there was an order to accumulate wealth."

He slowly knelt down.

Fang Jinxiu didn't hear him at all, and her family's people were also stunned. She was pulled down by Chen Qi.

She had always thought that her family was a low-ranking merchant family, and so even though she had money, she was looked down upon by those scholars.

Unexpectedly, they, a lowly merchant family, had a decree from the real dragon emperor in their possession, and it was such an unconstrained and powerful decree that was no different from a personal visit.

So this was the secret of their Fang family.

The officials had already knelt down and their expressions were stunned.

No wonder the Fang family could mobilize the soldiers and horses of Shanxi and Henan provinces for their use.

No wonder the people of the Fang family could interrogate Magistrate Li in their cells, and even kill Magistrate Li in front of them and Prefect Ma, who had always been known for his iron face.

So this was the secret of the Fang family.

The officials expressions were complicated.

It turned out that Magistrate Li was killed in prison for trying to spill this secret.

The Fang family did not hesitate to kill in order to keep this secret.

The Fang family had kept this secret. The death of the Old Master, the death of Master Fang, and the poisoning of Fang Chengyu could not force this secret to be revealed.

They couldn't have discerned this secret even through indirect means.

It was thought that the killing of the county magistrate in the county government office in Yangcheng would eventually become a puzzling legend. As told by storytellers, the gods were fond of good people and had repaid injustice.

Unexpectedly, the Fang family announced this secret right on the street, just to find a naughty child who hadn't returned home at night.

This was really… one didn't know what to say.

Patriarch Lin didn't know what to say. He stared at the imperial edict held by Old Lady Fang in a daze, and the torch light was particularly dazzling.

"This is all very well." He slowly knelt down and muttered, "They can really tear down the Lin family, level Yangcheng and turn the world upside down."

The crowds standing on the street had knelt down and said long live.

Fang Chengyu's expression recovered. He knelt down slightly and got up, then stepped forward to take the imperial edict from Old Lady Fang's hand and returned to his horse.

"Search." He raised the imperial edict in his hand. His voice sounded indifferent.

Horse hooves sounded in the street. Their footsteps were chaotic and sound was like thunder.

The guards turned their horses' heads with the movement of Fang Chengyu's horse.

Manager Gao also raised his whip. Lei Zhonglian handled his horse with one hand and at the same time, pulled out a wooden stick from the horse's back.

Although he only had one hand and couldn't kill enemies, he could still fight against them.

"Elder sister, follow Aunt Yuan." Fang Yuxiu said, "I will follow mother the whole journey."

Fang Yunxiu had always been obedient to Fang Yuxiu. Concubine Yuan also pulled on Fang Yunxiu, and the two got into a carriage.

Fang Yuxiu and Madam Fang also got into a carriage. The servant girls with them, and the riders beside the carriage were hurrying but weren't chaotic.

Accompanied by torches, noise boomed in all directions.

The ground of Yangcheng quaked.

The officials stood up, looking at the scene with a sense of loss.

"What should we do?" someone asked.

"What should we do? What else can we do? They have an imperial edict. Can we disobey the order? Do you want to resist the order?" Someone else shouted, "The people of the Fang family are crazy. Don't mess with them."

Right, they didn't want to be sent to the scaffold and beheaded only after three tries.

The officials got busy immediately.

"Quick, quick. Call up the staff."

"Search for Lin Cheng."

After a burst of chaos, the street in front of the Lin residence returned to quiet, but the rest of Yangcheng became lively.

Patriarch Lin still knelt on the ground with a blank expression, and one of his followers moved over timidly.

"Sir, what should we do?" He asked in a trembling voice.

"What else can we do? Go find him quickly. If you can't find him, our Lin clan is going to be buried with him." Old Master Lin jumped up from the ground and shouted.

The excitement and chaos moved far away. Without torches, the street fell back into darkness.

Fang Jinxiu stood in the dark and looked at the twinkling lights in the distance, just like stars falling all over the sky. Even if the night enveloped the sky and the earth, these sparks could dispel the gloomy thick ink.

She sat down with a sigh.

"Hey? Aren't you going?" Chen Qi asked.

"I don't have to go." Fang Jinxiu said, "I'm tired. Take a break."

Chen Qi fell to the ground again with a puff.

"Oh, my mother, I'm scared to death." His eyes sparkled in the dark night, "What's going on? Does your family actually have a decree? Didn't your ancestors come from farming? How did you climb up with the emperor?"

"Shut up."

Chen Qi muttered and stopped talking, and the street fell into silence.

At the same time, in a manor outside the city, lights were still on in the dark night, and occasionally a woman's delicate laughter sounded out.

The two servants standing in the corridor dozed off and woke up with a start. Hearing the laughter, they couldn't help rubbing their faces.

"Why don't you sleep yet?" One muttered in a low voice.

The servant next to him was laughing.

"I've been sleeping all afternoon. I have to slow down." He said with a wink.

He was talking and laughing in a low voice, and then came a knock on the gate outside, which was particularly scary in the middle of the night.

The two servants were startled and looked at each other.

"Who is this in the middle of the night?"

"Passing hosts?"

"How can we stay and ignore him?" The first one said.

The knocking stopped, but a moment later, it sounded sharply again. This time, even the people in the room heard it.

"What's going on?" A man's voice asked.

"Third Master, I don't know. Do you want to have a look?" The servant replied hurriedly.

Before the people in the room had answered, the people knocking on the gate outside shouted eagerly.

"Third Master, Third Master, open the door quickly. Hurry up, something happened at home."

Home?

The servants were shocked, and the room fell silent in an instant. After a moment came the sound of coquettish anger, followed by the man's low comfort.

"Make them get out of here." The man then raised his voice and said, "What time is it that they think they are looking."

The servant went out in a hurry.

The door was still banged.

"Don't bang, get out of here." The servant shouted at the door.

The people outside seemed to be scolded into urgency, not only banging with their hands, but also kicking with their feet.

"Come on, come on, something has happened. Elder Lin personally gave an order to find you. Hurry up." The man outside the door shouted anxiously.

Even the patriarch has come out?

The sound also reached the room. The person inside was very angry and opened the door. Dim lights set off his figure from behind.

"It's not a big enough matter to make trouble with the patriarch. It's a big deal to make trouble for the patriarch." Master Lin raised his eyebrows and shouted, "I won't open the gate today; see who dares to come in."

This voice was very deterring. The knock on the door suddenly subsided, and inside and outside fell into silence again.

Master Lin sighed with anger and disdain. Before he could shake his sleeves and head back in, he heard a bang. The closed gate was smashed and flew into the courtyard.

This sudden situation made the two servants scream and hug their heads. At the same time, countless torches lit up outside the door, accompanied by the noise of horseshoes, rising like a tide.

What's wrong?

Official Lin stood at the door of the house and looked at the crowd outside the smashed gate.

The bright torches dazzled him for a moment. After getting used to the light, he saw a team of officers and soldiers with weapons standing outside the door.

"My mother." He blurted out with his staring eyes and shouted, "Isn't it just keeping an outside woman? To go so far as to alert the officers and soldiers?"