Xu Captou was also a well-informed person in Guobei County, and he soon sent a yamen officer to report back what Li Xiuyuan wanted to inquire about.
"Zhang Shun, a carpenter in the north of the county, spent money like water like water during this period. Some people saw him spending hundreds of taels of silver to redeem a girl from a brothel and returning home. Others saw him spending nearly a thousand taels of silver to buy a girl.
We have bought a big house and are going to go there in a few days."
The officer said in a low voice.
Li Xiuyuan, who was wandering on the road, immediately moved his eyes and signaled: "I know about this matter. You can go and do your work first. If this matter is found to be true, remember to come to my Li's house to receive the reward."
"Thank you very much, young master." The yamen servant happily bowed his hands and left quickly with his head lowered.
"Carpenter Zhang Shun?"
Li Xiuyuan thought about it in his mind, but he had some impression of this person. Zhang Shun was the only son of an old carpenter in Guobei County. In recent years, he heard that he had inherited the family business and was also a carpenter.
However, Zhang Shun did not learn his father's craftsmanship. When he was working, others made trouble because he was not satisfied with the work. His reputation became bad, and no one asked him to work anymore.
As time went by, the family fortune that was originally relatively good began to decline.
"Go and have a look at Zhang Shun's place."
Li Xiuyuan immediately walked to Zhang Shun's house without hesitation. When passing by the house, he called a few servants to go with him. At the same time, he took the black cat with his spiritual intelligence on, so as not to encounter the white mouse and be attacked by it.
Got away.
A moment of effort.
Li Xiuyuan came to an old house that looked rather bleak and decaying.
"Knock on the door."
"Yes, young master." A servant stepped forward and knocked on the door, but as soon as he knocked, the door opened: "Young master, this door is not locked."
"Go in and have a look, Xiaodie, put down the black cat and let it roam here." Li Xiuyuan said.
Xiaodie responded and put down the black cat in her arms.
As soon as the black cat landed on the ground, it scurried into the house and soon disappeared.
"There is movement in the house, I guess this boy is at home." After walking into the yard, a servant overheard.
Li Xiuyuan strode into the hall, ready to pull out the rat and question it to see if he had instigated the rat to steal the money from his Li family's treasury.
But immediately, he heard movement from the bedroom next to him.
Zhang Shun's voice sounded somewhat obscenely from inside: "My good beauty, it's not worth it that I spent three hundred taels of silver to redeem you from the brothel. Your ability to serve others is so great. Come on, use it before
Let’s do that trick again.”
"Master, don't worry, we have a long way to go, so don't break your body." The woman's half-pushing voice sounded.
Soon the sound of creaking and swaying wooden couches was heard in the house.
"Young Master, look at this..." the servant said with some embarrassment.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Shun was so lucky that he was still fooling around with women during the day.
"Catch him out." Li Xiuyuan said with a normal expression, and Xiaodie next to him blushed slightly, with a bit of shame.
"Yes." The two servants responded and immediately rushed into the house.
"Who are you?" Zhang Shun's horrified voice sounded, accompanied by a woman's scream.
After a burst of resistance, a disheveled man was quickly taken out by two servants, while the woman ignored him.
"Zhang Shun, you have grown so capable that you even dare to steal the silver from my Li family." Li Xiuyuan stared at him coldly and said.
"Big, eldest young master."
Zhang Shun's face immediately turned pale when he saw Li Xiuyuan, and he broke into a cold sweat.
Originally I just wanted to deceive him, but seeing him like this, the lost ten thousand taels of silver must have something to do with him.
"Where did you hide the 10,000 taels of silver from my Li family? If you tell me honestly, I can let you go. If you hide anything, you can go to my Li family's mine to mine and pay off your debts. 10,000 taels of silver."
, enough for you to mine for a lifetime." Li Xiuyuan looked down at him and said.
Zhang Shun hurriedly defended himself at this moment: "Young Master, I didn't take the Li family's money. I really didn't take it. Young Master, you must have wronged me."
"Really? But someone in the county told me that you spent a few hundred taels of silver in a brothel to redeem a girl from a brothel some time ago. Someone also saw you spending a thousand taels of silver to buy a big house. This cost a few hundred taels.
Two taels of silver, where did you, Zhang Shun, come from? I can count all the families in Guobei County who can give out one thousand or hundreds of taels of silver in one breath with my eyes closed, but among these families, there is no Zhang Shun family like yours."
Li Xiuyuan said coldly.
"Tell me, where did you get your money?"
Zhang Shun's lips moved slightly and his whole body trembled. He was so frightened that he didn't know what to say for a moment.
"Take him out and let him calm down."
Li Xiuyuan knew that such a small person would easily become confused when encountering big events, so he didn't ask any more questions and waved his hand to signal the servants.
The servant immediately took Zhang Shun out, poured cold water on him, and slapped him several times to wake him up.
"Young Master, Young Master, I know what is going on." Just when Zhang Shun was calming down, a woman in disheveled clothes hurriedly ran out of the room.
But she is a woman in her thirties, with a dusty look, and her appearance is quite pleasing to the eye.
"Are you the brothel girl that Zhang Shun spent three hundred taels of silver to redeem you?" Li Xiuyuan asked.
"The beautiful flowers of the slave family have met the eldest young master." The woman hurriedly bowed again.
"Since you know what Zhang Shun did, let's talk about it."
Yanhua asked cautiously: "Can the slave family escape if you tell me?"
"It has nothing to do with you, my Li family will not cause trouble for you."
"Thank you very much, young master."
Yanhua was immediately overjoyed and said hurriedly: "Zhang Shun told the slave family one night that he had raised a magic mouse and would send him one hundred taels of silver every day. The slave family didn't believe it at first, but then they saw it one night.
, a white mouse sneaked into the house and spit out two heavy pieces of silver from his mouth. After Zhang Shun got this magic mouse, he stopped doing work every day and waited for the magic mouse to arrive.
That’s enough silver.”
"Later, the slave family had some doubts about whether the divine rat had gone to that wealthy family to steal silver. The slave family persuaded Zhang Shun to accept it as soon as it was good and not to ask for the silver from the divine rat. But Zhang Shun said that he would take another five thousand taels.
I won’t take any more money, and I can live the rest of my life peacefully. The slave’s heart moved when he heard it, and he didn’t try to stop it for a while.”
After Li Xiuyuan listened, he matched up with the previous clues.
Sure enough, the money stolen by the white mouse was used by others.
"I've said it, I've said it, I've said everything." At this time, Zhang Shun outside the door quickly begged for mercy after being taught a lesson.
"Bring Zhang Shun in." Li Xiuyuan said.
The servant quickly brought Zhang Shun in who was all wet.
Zhang Shun knelt down and begged for mercy: "Please, eldest master, please spare the younger one. I really don't know that the silver belongs to the eldest master's family. If I know about it, I won't dare to take it even if I have the courage."
The money from the eldest young master’s family.”
"I didn't ask you about the money, I asked you what happened to the white rat." Li Xiuyuan said.
Ten thousand taels of silver are just common things, but the white rat has a spirit of Taoism, and he cares more about it than the silver.
Zhang Shun said: "I don't know what happened to the white mouse. It's just that last month when my family was too poor to open the pot, I was lying on the bed hungry. The white mouse suddenly jumped to my head and vomited.
After one ingot of silver, he disappeared. After that, the white rat would appear every day and spit out a ingot of silver to the little one."
"The white rat only spits out one ingot of silver to you every day?" Li Xiuyuan asked.
"No, no, that day when I went to the brothel and saw Yanhua, I had the idea of redeeming her and returning home. After I saw the white mouse at night, I begged it to spit out a few coins for me. As a result,
The next day, the white rat actually vomited out three ingots of silver..." Zhang Shun's voice became quieter and quieter as he spoke.
Li Xiuyuan asked again: "This white rat has a spirit of Taoism. It is impossible to give you money for no reason. What did you do to attract this white rat? Tell me honestly."
"Young one, I really don't know." Zhang Shun said tremblingly; "Young one, I have told the eldest young master everything I know, and I ask the eldest young master for mercy."
As he spoke, he begged for mercy again, but after kowtowing a few times, he suddenly remembered something and said hurriedly: "By the way, I remembered it. I remembered something. More than ten years ago, I followed
When my father was working as a carpenter in a house, something happened. The house collapsed and a whole nest of rats was crushed to death. Only one rat cub survived. When I was young, I thought it was interesting and I raised the rat cub for a while. Later, the rat cub was killed.