After leaving the magistrate's residence, Jiang Meng drove the carriage to the southeast. He turned around and asked Chen Mengsheng, "Brother, what are we going to do in Pang's Mansion? I haven't seen Mr. Pang in half a year. Everyone in the Pang family is now
Pang De, the general manager of the Pang family, is taking care of it."
Chen Mengsheng wondered: "I heard my brother talk about it a year ago. Doesn't the Pang family have a daughter? Didn't she already have a son-in-law? Why aren't they taking care of the Pang family?"
Jiang Meng laughed in front of the car and said, "Brother, you have a really good memory. At the beginning of last year's spring, Mr. Pang's only daughter, his daughter, built a three-foot-high embroidered building in Yangzhou Mansion to choose a husband. At that time, Yangzhou Mansion was very lively, and the streets were packed with people.
Going to Guangling, Yangzhou Prefecture, to see the beauty of Pang Xiangyun, the daughter of the Pang family, is also a chance of luck."
Shangguan Yanran chuckled and said, "Brother Jiang must be trying his luck too, right?"
"Hahaha, I'm over forty and half of my body is almost buried in the soil. Where are the girls throwing hydrangeas to me? Besides, Mr. Pang is three or two years older than me. If Pang Xiangyun chooses his father, I'm pretty close.
Already."
The three people in the car were all amused by Jiang Meng's words. Xiang Xiaotian smiled and said, "Mr. Pang has become a rich man who dominates the country at such a young age."
Jiang Meng sighed and said: "Time is the same, life is also the same. At my age, I am still a single person peeling poplar trees. I have been soaking in the river for more than thirty years and eating water and rice. When I grow old, I have no food and water.
well……"
The rain outside the carriage began to gradually lighten up, and raindrops fell on the roof of the carriage. The sky began to turn dark. Shangguan Yanran lifted the thick curtains on the carriage and saw the surging Yangtze River outside the carriage.
Next to it is a row of lush willow trees. After the willow branches were soaked by the heavy rain in winter, the green and yellow leaves danced in the wind and scattered into the river. More and more pedestrians were walking on the street, holding bamboo umbrellas framed with oily yellow paper.
Most of them are women walking.
Shangguan Yanran smiled and said: "When I was in Pingyang Mansion, I heard that Yangzhou has been producing beauties since ancient times. It is indeed true to see her today."
Xiang Xiaotian looked out the window and said, "Let me see if the Yangzhou beauty is prettier or you, girl. If the Yangzhou beauty is prettier, I will ask my brother to find a beauty in Yangzhou to be his wife." Chen Mengsheng faced Xiang Xiaotian in the car.
There was only a helpless smile.
Shangguan Yanran said playfully: "Brother Xiang wants to find a wife, but he wants to use senior brother as an excuse to cover up his bad intentions."
Jiang Meng laughed loudly outside the car and said, "Miss Shangguan, what you said about Yangzhou producing beauties since ancient times is not a good thing. If it's time to light the lanterns, the Slender West Lake will be full of painted boats. But all the painted boats are filled with beauties.
If you are lucky, the beauties may be accepted by the nobles. If you are unlucky, they can only be reduced to prostitutes. That's why the literati and coquettish people in the previous dynasties said that Yangzhou has produced beauties since ancient times." Shangguan
Yanran's face turned red with embarrassment when Jiang Meng said this. She didn't know whether it was true or not, so she threw down the cotton curtain out of anger and sat in the car without saying a word.
After a while, Jiang Meng's carriage stopped and said with a smile: "The Pang family in Guangling, Yangzhou Prefecture has arrived. Brothers, let's get off the car." Chen Mengsheng got out of the car and was secretly shocked when he saw the mansion in front of him.
Gu couldn't even see the side. The white marble paved in front of the door was as smooth as a mirror after the rain, allowing one to recognize human figures. On both sides of the thick red lacquered door were a pair of majestic nine-foot-tall Pixiu carved from diamonds. On the door of the mansion was a large gilt calligraphy inscription: '
The word "Pang Mansion" makes people feel rich and powerful in front of the door.
Jiang Meng slapped the door knocker made on the jade stone wall, and a clear and sweet sound came out. With a "squeak", the thick red lacquer door was opened. The person who opened the door was a middle-aged and sturdy man, wearing a cotton satin and Su embroidered dumpling-faced winter coat.
.If you were walking on the road, you could be considered a wealthy family, and you would never expect that you would be a servant serving as a janitor.
"Hey, isn't this Mr. Jiang? Why is Mr. Jiang here free today? Don't you need to patrol the city?" the concierge asked Jiang Meng in a joking tone, his emotions were even more affectionate than those of a servant from the prefect's family.
ah.
Jiang Meng shouted in displeasure: "Gou Cai, today I was ordered by the prefect Zhu to investigate the case. Is Mr. Pang back?"
"Oh, my master has not returned from Luoyang yet? Only Mr. Pang is here in the house. Mr. Jiang, do you think he will come back after a while? Or do you want to see Mr. Pang?"
Jiang Meng turned around and asked Chen Mengsheng, "Brother, what do you think?"
Chen Mengsheng said with a smile: "The issue of demons in Yangzhou Mansion started with the gardener of Pang Mansion. I only need to ask some ordinary questions. It would be better to see Mr. Pang."
The concierge responded: "Then you just wait, I'll go do something." After saying that, he waved his hand and closed the door.
Xiang Xiaotian said angrily: "A watchdog is so arrogant. If it weren't for the sake of you, Brother Jiang, I would have to teach him a lesson."
Shangguan Yanran said with a smile: "Brother Xiang, this is just fighting against the power of others. One day, if a rich and powerful family invites you to visit the door, you are invincible. I think you are more powerful than that door. Who can you meet?"
Just go up and fight first, then talk about it."
"That's, hey, your little girl is going around the corner and calling me a dog. Brother, you don't care. If this continues, your future wife will have to go to bed." Everyone laughed, Shangguan Yanran
He stamped his feet angrily.
After laughing, Jiang Meng said: "It turns out that Mr. Pang was not like this back then. Mr. Pang was a humble man and was always kind to others. During every Chinese New Year and festival in Yangzhou Prefecture, Mr. Pang would open a porridge shop in Guangling. People in Yangzhou would get jealous whenever they mentioned Pang Zhongxin.
Thumbs up, Mr. Pang was widowed in his early years and left an only daughter who he doted on. Half a year ago, Mr. Pang took his daughter and son-in-law back to his hometown in Luoyang to visit relatives, and the Pang family has changed..."
Before Jiang Meng finished speaking, the concierge opened the door and came out and said, "Master Jiang, Mr. Pang has invited me. Please come with me." The concierge turned sideways and spread his palms to greet him.
The door threshold of Pang's house is one foot three inches high, close to a person's knees. When Xiang Xiaotian stepped over the threshold, he deliberately stepped on it. The concierge stared at him when he saw it. After entering Pang's house, Chen Mengsheng felt what it meant to be poor for the first time.
Extremely extravagant, the entrance to Pang Mansion is a tall rockery made of Han Shou stone. All kinds of exotic flowers and plants are planted on the rockery. Under the rockery, there are twelve pools of water carved to collect rainwater. The heavy rain just now made the twelve people happy.
The pool filled with water formed twelve waterfalls of different sizes. Some were like thousands of troops rushing down the Baizhang cliff, and some were like trickles in the shape of water bones. Finally, the water flowed along the rockery and merged into an artificial
Among the large excavated lakes, there are nine curved stone bridges on the lake that lead to the garden.
The garden is even more covered with cowhide, and there are charcoal braziers placed three or five steps above the ground, making the whole garden a showy place. With hundreds of flowers blooming, there is not even a hint of winter cold. What depresses Chen Mengsheng is the strange fragrance in the garden.
It smells tantalizing, but nine out of ten flowers are flowers that they have never seen before. Xiang Xiaotian and Jiang Meng followed the concierge all the way, but turned a blind eye to the flowers and plants. Only Shangguan Yanran walked at the end and slowly enjoyed the beauty of the flowers.
Suddenly Shangguan Yanran stopped in front of a strange-shaped purple flower. She frowned and stared at the concierge. She took out a soft whip and rolled it up like an electric coil, folded one and wrapped it in an embroidered handkerchief. All this was watched by Chen Mengsheng.
Seeing that everyone has a love for beauty, Chen Mengsheng just chuckled and followed Jiang Meng into a big house.
There was a slightly fat man in his forties inside the room. He smiled when he saw the person and said, "I am Pang De, the manager of the Pang Mansion. I don't know why General Jiang brought people to see me today."
Jiang Meng cupped his hands and said, "Jiang came to disturb the General Manager today because he was ordered by Mr. Zhu to inquire about some old cases. Please don't blame the General Manager."
"General Jiang, you're welcome. You and I have known each other for decades. Although we are not the same master now, Pang must have said everything he knows."
Jiang Meng pointed at Chen Mengsheng and said, "This is an expert invited by Master Zhu, the prefect, to subjugate monsters and catch monsters. He has something to ask the chief manager."
Pang De laughed dryly and said: "Sir, you are not very young, but you are already an expert in subduing demons. I am disrespectful and disrespectful. Your surname is so great, sir? Is there anything Pound can do to help you?"
Chen Mengsheng said: "The manager is serious. My name is Chen Mengsheng. I came here to ask about the mysterious and sudden death of the gardener in the house a year ago. I hope Manager Pang can tell me."
Pang De frowned and said: "There are no less than a hundred servants in the Pang Mansion, and there are dozens of gardeners. Pang really doesn't know which one Mr. Chen is asking about?"
Shangguan said with a smile: "You Shuibao died suddenly in the flower house of Pang Mansion. He died without any injuries and the cause of his death is unknown. There are two parents and one sister in the family. His father You Futian is also a gardener in Pang Mansion, and his mother is the cook in Pang Mansion.
"Mother, Chief Pang Pang is not a noble person who forgets things so much that he has forgotten the whole family in Pang Mansion." Chen Mengsheng and others were all surprised by Shangguan Yanran, but they didn't expect that it would take less than a cup of tea.
Shangguan Yanran will never forget the files of the prefect.
Pang De glanced left and right and said, "If the girl hadn't mentioned it, I really couldn't remember it. The You family father and son are indeed gardeners in Pang's mansion, and his mother is also the cook in the mansion. The young man died suddenly and inexplicably a year ago.
In the flower house, the government's investigation failed. My husband thought about the pain of losing his son to the two elders, so he gave them the homestead and a hundred taels of silver and went back to bury his son."
"Then where are the old couple now?"
Pang De smiled softly and said, "I'm afraid it would be more clear if you asked that girl, right?"
Jiang Meng said: "Please ask Manager Pang to take me to the flower room to have a look."
"Haha, General Jiang has only been in the army for a few months, right? What kind of place did he think of Pang Mansion? The county magistrate led troops to investigate the prefecture, do you have any official documents on the case?"
Xiang Xiaotian, who was standing on the side, said angrily: "Is your Pang Mansion a shameful place?"
"How shameless. Although my master is not in the mansion, how can Pang Mansion be a place for anyone to inspect? If it weren't for Mr. Zhu's face, I would have been too lazy to let you enter the mansion."
The atmosphere in the living room was tense for a while. Shangguan said with a smile: "Just now, the little girl passed by the garden. There were so many flowers in the garden. I guess the Imperial Garden is nothing more than that. Mr. Pang is still an elegant person who loves flowers. Flowers can do it."
It's not easy to grow something so beautiful!" Out of the many things he has worn, this is the only one he doesn't wear. When Pang De heard Shangguan Yanran's praise, his face suddenly became much happier.
"Haha, I don't have any hobbies in my life, I just love these flowers and plants. The garden in the front yard is just the tip of the iceberg. The backyard garden my master built for my lady is more than ten times larger than the front yard garden. It's already dark today
It's getting late, so I won't keep you here. Pang An, see you off." The servant standing outside the hall opened the door and sent Chen Mengsheng out of Pang Mansion.