An Qianwen saw that the trick worked, and An Tai hated An Qianru, so she stepped aside and made up some more lies.
"The remaining banknotes were indeed given to my sister and me for safekeeping, but those banknotes were snatched away by gangsters a long time ago. The reason why they let us go is because we agreed to help them monitor you, dad."
An Qianya also said softly, "We were just trying to save our lives, we didn't really want to do this. They put us in black cloth bags. It was so terrifying that we didn't dare to disobey."
The officials took them for questioning, and they told the same story. They did not change their story even after being tortured, and were finally released.
After all the twists and turns, An Tai only received dozens of cane punishments, was demoted two levels, and lost a concubine with bad character. How could the people behind the scenes endure it?
The weather is getting colder and colder, and a huge snowstorm is quietly brewing over Anfu.
But the people living inside were completely unprepared.
Especially, Sister An Qianya who secretly embezzled twenty-nine thousand seven hundred taels from the villain.
While they were recuperating at home, they were figuring out how to spend the huge sum of money after the situation calmed down.
In a flash, it’s the end of the year.
After receiving his salary, Antai first paid off his debts and felt relaxed.
Recalling that during the most difficult days of his family in the past few months, several colleagues and friends had been selflessly helping him, and he planned to host a banquet at home to entertain them.
But after what happened before, no one dared to come, let alone those who gave gifts.
Only Shangguan Yuan, who was thinking about his daughter, dared to come to the house for a simple meal.
Because this meal was cooked by Qianru.
Shangguan Yuan didn't think twice and followed An Tai after going down to court.
In order to reduce expenses, the huge house only hired two handymen and a cook, and even the coachman was also a handyman.
So including their family of six, there are only nine people.
Of these nine people, two took leave by the end of the year, including the cook.
Therefore, Qianru had no choice but to roll up her sleeves and get on the stove to cook.
I cooked her first meal in her previous life.
Since Mrs. Liu was imprisoned, An Qianya and her three siblings have become much more at ease in front of her. Even though the food she cooked was bland, they did not complain in person.
Zhixuan, even less so, kept praising her.
Shangguan Yuan was disgusted. He ate fish only with fish scales on it, and when he drank soup, he pointed to the unplucked hair on the back of the chicken to show her that the vegetables were either burnt or lacked salt. Everything could be wrong.
"Brother Shangguan, were you also so picky about food during the war?"
Zhixuan simply spoke her mind.
In her opinion, Shangguan Yuan is a disguised version of her mother, stubborn, picky, and rude. The only thing that makes Hou Lang inferior to Qian Lang is that he is not so arrogant.
"I'm here for a banquet, not a fight. Of course I have to be picky about my food."
"My sister and I washed the dishes together, and we also plucked the chicken feathers together. In order to treat you to dinner, our hands were so cold that we got sores." Zhixuan put a pair of red hands in front of Shangguan Yuan bitterly and complained.
: "It's not easy to treat you to a meal!"
Just because of this matter, Shangguan Yuan and Zhixuan broke up.
Qianru felt that he had a small belly, but An Tai looked at him happily, as if he had already acquiesced in this son-in-law.
The next day, their family went to the lantern festival together, and Shangguan Yuan also squeezed over to join them.
An Qianya, the three siblings didn't like it, so they broke up with them after getting An Tai's permission.
In order to bring Shangguan Yuan and her together, An Tai took Zhixuan away.
Shangguan Yuan protected her as she squeezed in and out of the crowd, enjoying herself, but she was not in the mood and dealt with it carelessly.
"Believe it or not, I can guess twenty lantern riddles in one go?"
She suddenly remembered that in her previous life, when she was at Shangguan's house, the powerful old lady Shangguan resented others being more powerful than her. She thought that like mother, like son.
So, she took the initiative to challenge Shangguan Yuan, "If you can guess twenty, I can guess all the lantern riddles here."
"That's such a big statement. I'm famous for being versatile in both civil and military affairs. I can guess even two hundred numbers, not to mention twenty."
OK! That’s what you want.
She laughed secretly and at the same time began to guess attentively.
In her previous life, she was physically weak and unable to do many things. Apart from sleeping, she spent most of her time reading books.
All kinds of lantern riddles and word puzzles are familiar to those who have long been familiar with them.
She guessed every one correctly, from beginning to end. She guessed everything right effortlessly and won the jackpot.
Seeing Shangguan Yuan standing there in a daze, she was so proud that she passed by him without looking away.
Unexpectedly, the guy threw her over and over again, scaring her so much that she screamed.
She screamed at others too, and it was even worse than hers.
The crowd suddenly became commotion, shouting: "It's a murder, it's a death"
She was worried about Zhixuan and An Tai, and kept stepping on her feet and looking at them.
Shangguan Yuan was tall, so he spotted An Tai first and immediately dragged her to that side.
Amidst the noise, An Qianya gradually woke up and found that she was holding a murderous knife in her hand, while her sister An Qianwen and her brother An Zhihui fell in a pool of blood beside her.
The cold weather caused the blood flowing on the ground to solidify quickly, but the blood from the wound was still gushing out.
"ah"
She was terrified and screamed heartbreakingly.
"Qianya, what's going on?"
An Qianya saw her father staring at the bloody knife in her hand, her eyes split open with grief, and she quickly threw it away and fled, but was caught by the officers and soldiers who came.
"It's not me, I didn't, I didn't"
An Zhihui has died, but An Qianwen is still alive.
She slowly opened her eyes and saw her sister An Qianya beside her, fearfully hiding from her father An Tai.
"Don't kill me. I'll give you all the banknotes. I'll give them all to you."
"A bank note? What bank note?"
"It's the bribe money my mother secretly collected. Dad, you know it! In order to monopolize those banknotes, my sister wanted to take advantage of the crowd to kill us and silence us. She was the one who killed Zhihui."
"What? You lied in order to pocket the bribe money!"
An Tai immediately ignored them and reported the matter to Hu Yong, the imperial censor.
Around dawn, heavy snow fell from the sky.
When Qianru and Zhixuan brought breakfast to Antai, they found that his temples had turned as white as the snow outside overnight, and their noses immediately sore.
According to the laws of the Daxuan Dynasty, supervisory officials who accept bribes exceeding three hundred and twenty taels will be hanged. If the official's family members accept bribes, the penalty will be reduced by two levels. However, An Qianya's sister was not only guilty of harboring stolen money, but also caused a death.
At worst, only one person dies, at worst, the whole family is affected.
"The eldest sister and the third sister have always been good friends, and she loves her younger brother very much. I don't think she will kill anyone."
What Zhixuan understands, how could An Tai not understand it?
"Our family is in doom this time! They are deliberately trying to kill us!"
"Dad, I'm sorry, it's all my fault!"
Qianru knelt at An Tai's feet guiltily. She couldn't avenge her family members in her previous life, and it had hurt her current family members. She wanted to die to apologize.
"I don't blame you, it's because dad has made too many enemies in his life. We prosecutors live specifically to offend bad people. The more bad people hate you, the more ferocious they will be in their revenge. When embarking on this road, dad will
I thought of it. But, I’ve hurt you all!”
"I'm not afraid."
"I'm not afraid either."
"Good boy!"
An Tai was moved and hugged their siblings into his arms.
"Promise dad, no matter what happens, you will support each other, live well, and be upright people."
At this time, Shangguan Yuan arrived.
An Tai calmly waited for the bad news, but the result was very different from what he thought.
"I just heard about a strange thing. I heard that King Luo was fighting to the death to protect you."
"What? Did I hear you correctly? You said the chief judge of the Anhou Mansion case, King Luo, protected my father?"
"Indeed, the imperial edict is about to arrive. I am here to report the news to you, so that you can feel at ease. The emperor has always trusted King Luo. He can protect your lord, at least not too badly."
Just as he was talking here, the eunuch who announced the decree arrived.
An Tai did not receive any punishment, and was not even demoted. He was only sent to Gui County for inspection.
Guijun was the fiefdom of King Gui, but King Luo kept him alive but instigated the emperor to send him to Guijun for inspection, which undoubtedly pushed him into the pit of fire again.
Fifteen years ago, he was demoted from the capital because he offended King Gui.
King Luo's move was undoubtedly an attempt to kill someone with a borrowed knife.
An Tai had already understood everything, but he didn't want to scare the children, so he pretended as if nothing had happened and packed his luggage step by step and set off for Guijun the next day.