Jia Cong and Chen Ruijin arrived at Tian's house and persuaded them not to break off the engagement. Old man Tian was silent for a long time and sighed: "I know General Xiao Zhong is a good person. But he doesn't care because of his righteousness. As time goes by, he will eventually care."
Jia Cong also sighed: "It's a life-long matter, why don't you try to back down? In my opinion, if it weren't for this matter, the two of them might not be kind; this little thief did a favor, he
The two of them will definitely support each other until they grow old."
Old Man Tian was startled and couldn't hide the joy in his eyes: "Seriously?"
Jia Cong nodded and said: "Zhong Heng originally had no thoughts on the personal affairs of his children. As you know, some men's whole hearts are focused on the military camp. The daughter-in-law is just what the family wants him to marry. Uncle Zhong will not take care of it."
He thought he was too lazy to marry a wife. I heard from Uncle Zhong that after getting engaged, he was still obsessed with training and had no interest in his new wife. Because of this, he suddenly felt that his wife had been bullied, and he felt pity for her.
Things have changed. I heard that your family wanted to break off the engagement, but he refused to agree even to the death. Old man, this is called no pinching, no pain. Without this incident, Ling would just be married to General Xiao Zhong; after this incident,
, Zhong Heng would take pity on her. I have known Zhong Heng since I was a child, and I know that he had a very difficult life in the past. You don't know, he was only in his twenties at that time, and his face was so weathered, I thought he was in his thirties.
Well, just call him uncle." He said sincerely, "He is a person who has endured hardship and knows how to pity the suffering of life best."
Old Man Tian was in a trance for a moment, feeling sad and happy at the same time. He recited the Buddha's name: "If this is really the case, doesn't it mean that there is still hope for this family?"
Jia Cong said with a smile: "You two are the ones who want to get married. As long as your daughter is willing and Zhong Heng is willing, is there any way we can't get married? Outsiders would like to break up the two of them so that their daughter can be married to Zhong Heng, but Zhong Heng is willing.
Heng doesn't want to marry anyone else. You see, why should you flatter others and go against your own will?"
Old Man Tian nodded vigorously: "Sir, that's what you said." He then said sadly, "It's just my daughter..."
Chen Ruijin said: "I'll go and persuade her."
Jia Cong hurriedly said: "Please!"
Old man Tian quickly called his wife again and said apologetically: "The water hasn't boiled yet."
Jia Cong smiled and said: "We just came from the teahouse and drank a lot of tea. If the Zhong family didn't really want to get married, there would be no need to go to such trouble, right?"
Old man Tian thought that this was a reasonable idea, and he suddenly became more confident and straightened his back. He said happily: "They told me every day that the Zhong family refused to break off the engagement just for the sake of good looks. They wished they could get rid of it as soon as possible.
good!"
Jia Cong frowned and exchanged glances with Chen Ruijin. Mrs. Tian had already come over. She also had gray hair and her eyes were swollen from crying. Chen Ruijin followed her to the back room to see Miss Tian. Jia Cong asked: "Old man, who is following you?
Nonsense?”
Old Man Tian liked him, so he counted the numbers on his fingers and gave them to him one by one: there were yamen servants, land security guards, and gentlemen who wrote letters on the street. "Boss Zhang of Mingyue Restaurant also said that the Zhong family wanted to come to us.
Those who divorced their parents didn’t want us to tell them first, so they pretended to be polite for a few days.”
The corner of Jia Cong's mouth twitched: "This restaurant owner is really free. If he has no entrustment from others, and he went after you, a painter, to tell this lie, I don't believe it. Does he have a daughter at home? Or is it some relative's family?
Do you have a daughter who wants to marry Zhong Heng?"
Old Man Tian was stunned: "Sir, are you saying that Boss Zhang deliberately lied to me?"
Jia Cong spread his hands and said, "Isn't this clear? The Zhong family has never thought of breaking off the engagement! Was Wansheng sent by the Zhong family?"
"Oh!" Mr. Tian slapped his thigh, "I actually believed him!" He thought for a while, "His family only has two sons, but no daughters. He is a foreigner and has no relatives."
Jia Cong said "Oh": "That's probably some important guest of his." Or the government. "I'll go back and inquire... Forget it, there's no need to inquire. I just hope that you two will break up so I can take advantage of it."
Don't pay attention to anyone who comes in." Old Man Tian nodded vigorously.
On the other side, Chen Ruijin came inside and saw Miss Tian sitting in front of the shelf, weeping and embroidering, and secretly agreed. He went forward and said a blessing. Miss Tian quickly stood up and returned the greeting, and the two sat on the Kang.
When Mrs. Tian went out and closed the door, Chen Ruijin took her hand and said, "Now, I won't hide it from the girl. General Xiao Zhong also encountered a female thief who picked flowers when he was young, and he almost let the old woman
The thief succeeded."
Miss Tian was so shocked that her whole body shook.
Chen Ruijin said: "He also struggled to escape with all his strength. He was so frightened that he practiced martial arts to defend himself. After that, he was always depressed and unwilling to marry. When he mentioned women, he thought of the female thief. Your family is Zhong.
The uncle really saw that he was getting older and forced him to agree. Now, he is really willing to get married. Miss Tian, most men in the world may dislike you, but he will not. And he respects you deeply, because
He knows how difficult it is to escape from the flower pickers."
It took a long time for Miss Tian to come back to her senses and asked in a trembling voice: "Really?"
Chen Ruijin smiled bitterly and said: "As the saying goes, family scandals should not be publicized. The Zhong family and I are also close relatives, so why should I talk to you about this kind of thing? Miss Tian asked your father if he knew. Was it Uncle Zhong who initiated this matter in the first place? Zhong Heng himself can
Are you interested? Now that you want to break off the engagement, Uncle Zhong has no idea. It was General Zhong who insisted on not retreating."
Miss Tian's face gradually became brighter, and she tightened the handkerchief in her hand.
Chen Ruijin added: "If you let him marry another woman, wouldn't he be despising you? If he despised you, it would be like despising himself. After he escaped from the female thief in his early years, he was so frightened that he did not dare to go home.
He has been wandering alone in the green forest for more than ten years. He is also a hard-working man, and he hopes that the girl will take more care of him in the future and not let him think that all the women in the world are like female flower pickers with yellow teeth. "
Miss Tian couldn't help but blush, and lowered her head. After a while, she said, "Thank you, sister."
Chen Ruijin nodded and left. As soon as she left the house, Miss Tian quickly ran to the desk, opened the makeup box, took out the rhombus mirror, held her breath and opened her mouth to take a picture for a long time - her teeth were as white as jade! They have grown.
Take one breath. After a while, take another photo; after a while, take another photo.
Outside, the old couple of the Tian family saw Jia Cong and Chen Ruijin off in person, and then returned to the house to see their daughter. Miss Tian quickly asked, "Mom, dad, do you think my teeth are yellow?"
The old couple was stunned, and Mrs. Tian said, "Why have your teeth ever turned yellow? They have been very white since you were a child."
Miss Tian held the mirror in her hand, stroked her chest and laughed. Although the old couple didn't know what she was asking about her teeth, seeing the girl smile, the clouds of the day cleared away, and they chanted Buddha's name in unison.
On the other side, the two men returned to the teahouse and bumped into Liu Shu sitting at the table by the door, drinking tea. Jia Cong rolled his eyes. Liu Shu shook his head and said, "Yuezhi Tea House has a good reputation."
He looked at him and said, "When did you change your clothes like this?"
Jia Cong said: "I changed it in a teahouse. You can't go to someone else's house looking like a dandy young master to talk about marriage."
Liu Shu wrinkled his nose and asked, "What's wrong?"
Jia Cong glanced at him: "You are like a third aunt or a sixth grandmother. As a young master, I don't want to see how other people do business. I only worry about trivial matters in the market." He picked up his feet and walked in. Liu Shu followed him shamelessly.
When they got inside, Shi Li had come back and was talking to Zhong Wei and a few old guys. Seeing Liu Shu come in, he also rolled his eyes. Liu Shu said with a smile on his face: "Everyone, I'm polite!" Seeing that no one paid him any attention, he said
He laughed again, "I, an outsider, came in on my own."
Jia Cong looked at the people in the room and couldn't help but laugh. He patted Liu Shu and said, "I was also an outsider in the early days." Except for the two of us, the others were Liu Dengxi's people. He acquiesced to Liu Shu's observation and asked Shi Li
He asked, "What did you find out?"
Shi Li said: "There are countless theories in the market. They are all rumors and have no clue. Therefore, there are probably not the first two families. The Tian family is the only one who suffered."
Jia Cong snorted: "I guess so! Those two families are just trying to make trouble, and this matter has been planned from the beginning to plot Brother Zhong's marriage."
Shi Li said: "It's just that even if Brother Zhong doesn't marry the Tian family, will he marry the scheming family?"
Jia Cong said: "At first they didn't know what kind of daughter-in-law the Zhong family wanted; now that they know it, they can just follow the pattern and get something similar." After thinking about it, "I can roughly guess who is behind it."
Now." He turned to Zhong Wei and asked, "The leader of the Green Forest Village that Brother Zhong used to follow, let him go."
Zhong Wei was startled: "You suspect it's him?"
Jia Cong said: "It's not suspicion, it's certainty. There are many people who have ideas about Zhong Heng, but only two are willing to make great efforts to poach him. The owner of the water village and the old man." Zhong Wei nodded. He continued, "The old man
Well, to put it nicely, it’s called cunning, to put it worse, it’s not domineering. He did some secret tricks, such as asking the police detective and the gentleman who wrote letters to say some unpleasant things in the ears of the old man of the Tian family, and persuaded the Tian family to break off the engagement. Directly.
Looking for a flower picker to break in through the window is not the old man's way, but the village owner's way."
Zhong Wei frowned and said: "I have already found out about the trick, but I didn't see him doing anything. Heng'er just told Heng'er that he didn't believe it. The leader of the village is also a respectable person, and he did this.
The next step."
Jia Cong said: "How about he be the leader of the Green Forest Bandit no matter how powerful he is? He may not have come up with this plan himself. Maybe someone under him thought of it? His thoughts at the moment are probably on the promising mountain."
The thief's career has improved. Furthermore, because there are many girls in the old man's family, and they are unlikely to be from a small family like Tian, so if his family wants Zhong Heng to be their son-in-law, they can only try to make Zhong Heng fall in love with his family.
Girl. Otherwise, even if your family breaks off the relationship with the Tian family, their family will not be the next one. The owner of the water village can find a suitable girl based on the Tian family's model. Zhong Heng used to be his subordinate, so he recognizes her.
There are many people like him, and it’s easy to just introduce someone who ‘knows the basics’.”
Shi Li asked: "Who went to the street to say that the Zhong family wanted to break off the engagement?"
Jia Cong said: "The person who ruined the Zhong family's face must not have wanted to marry the Zhong family. Uncle Zhong, have you ever offended anyone?"
Zhong Wei thought for a while: "Although the tea house is prosperous, it is not prosperous enough to make colleagues jealous. Could it be Du Dequ?"
"It's possible." Jia Cong thought for a while, "80% of it is him. Ah Hei turned around to scare Boss Zhang from Mingyue Tower to see if it was true."
Shi Li nodded and said with a smile: "Zhong Heng has become a hot cake."
Jia Cong clapped his hands and said: "Okay. Let's sort it out. It's a pity that Brother Fang Nianzhong, the owner of the water village, regrets letting him go. Because he knows that he values friendship, he wants to arrange for a wife to tie him down so that he can coax him back in the future.
He worked hard for himself. Then he ordered people to spread two rumors, saying that flower pickers had arrived in Luzhou, and the girls of the Zhang family in the east of the city and the girls of the Li family in the south were all in trouble. In fact, there are so many people with the surname Zhang and Li in the world, who can
It was all hearsay. Then he actually sent someone to pretend to be a flower picker to destroy the Tian family. When the old man heard about it, he took the opportunity to bribe many people to persuade the Tian family to divorce. Du Dequ heard about it, and took the opportunity to bribe many people to slander Zhong Heng and dislike the Tian family.
Not trustworthy. That's about it."
Chen Ruijin said: "That's about it."
Jia Cong shrugged and said, "Then let's wait."
After waiting for a while and no one said anything, Liu Shu asked enthusiastically: "What are you waiting for?"
Jia Cong smiled and said: "Brother Liu will give you face. Wait until Zhong Heng catches the flower picker himself."
Liu Shu asked again: "How to catch him?"
Jia Cong stretched out: "How do I know! I'm not him." Liu Shu was immediately discouraged. Jia Cong glanced at him and said, "Okay, we should go back to the inn."
Liu Shu looked at the people in the room and whispered: "Why don't you introduce me?"
Jia Cong said: "The boss and the waiters of the teahouse have no business with your family." He stood up. Liu Shu had no choice but to follow him and looked back a few times.
In the evening, Shi Li went to the teahouse again and chased Zhong Heng and talked for half a day.
It turned out that after Zhong Wei told Zhong Heng that the person he brought out from the village was a spy sent by Shui Rong, although Zhong Heng didn't believe it, he was secretly thinking about that person. When Tian's incident came out, that person was extremely indignant.
, day after day, he encouraged Zhong Heng to break off the engagement early and find another good woman. Zhong Heng then gave him a try, pretending that good women are rare. As expected, the man patted his chest and said, "Brother, I know a good marriage. Let me tell you."
!" Only then did Zhong Heng believe what his uncle said. But after all, he and the man had been friends for many years, and he was unwilling to openly interrogate him. He only tried to make excuses to find out who the flower-picking thief was.
Shi Li said: "Look at you, you haven't tricked it yet." Zhong Heng shook his head. Shi Li said with a smile, "There are specialties in the art, but your ability to use tricks is not as good as mine. I will trick you for you."
Zhong Heng thought it was right, so he told him the person's name and location. Shi Li wrote it down and pulled his horse away.
Shi Li had followed Jia Xu and Mu Xu since he was a child, and he had a lot of tricks to interrogate prisoners. How could he use clichés? The man was still carrying it at first, but after three or four tricks, he couldn't handle it anymore. It turned out that Shui Rong was selected from Luzhou.
A woman from a good family kidnapped her confused brother to become a bandit, and planned to let this man pretend to be the woman's distant cousin and give her to Zhong Heng. The man who pretended to be a flower picker was this man. Shi Li shook his head: "
It's a shame you had to kill my brother's woman." The man's face turned red and he refused to speak. Shi Li then took him to the teahouse to show Zhong Heng. When he reached the door, he suddenly stopped and tied him up.
Locked up in his own home, he returned to the inn alone to discuss with Jia Cong and others.
Jia Cong couldn't help but said worriedly: "It's difficult to handle. It's not right not to tell Zhong Heng. The flower picker will be fruitless. Tell him, Zhong Heng is afraid that he won't be able to kill him, and if he doesn't kill him, he will be sorry for his wife."
Shi Li said: "You are so frivolous that you are not willing to kill his wife?"
Jia Cong said: "I haven't met my daughter-in-law yet. The brothers have been working together for many years. It's a dilemma."
Chen Ruijin said: "He is in a dilemma, but we are not in a dilemma. Anyway, this person will die, and we cannot let Shui Rong have leverage on Zhong Heng's family."
Shi Li said: "Since this is the case, let him commit suicide out of fear of crime."
Jia Cong's eyes lit up: "Brother, what a great idea!" Shi Li snorted proudly and left without any trouble.
That night, one of General Xiao Zhong's soldiers committed suicide by hanging from a beam, leaving three crooked words on the table: I'm sorry. This man didn't know how to write, but learned it after coming to Luzhou. What else did Zhong Heng see?
Don’t understand? He let out a long sigh and led the others to a safe burial. When the brothers asked, he just shook his head and said nothing.
Shi Li and others spread the news everywhere, only saying that this man saw something happened to Zhong Heng's fiancée, and set a trap for Zhong Heng to marry his own sister. They didn't want Zhong Heng to fall into the trap! This man felt that he had no face to meet his friends and was ashamed.
He committed suicide. A few days later, the prefect of Luzhou found a death row prisoner in the prison and killed him. He only said that he had caught the flower picker to calm the people. He also said that the thief did not enter Miss Tian's boudoir that day and was inadvertently there.
There was a bump at the door, which alarmed the Tian family. Jia, Cong, and Shili worked together to make up many jokes and spread them out. Some became more realistic and some became more bizarre. The matter was settled, whether the people in the market believed it or not.
.
Seeing that the matter had settled down, Zhong Heng quietly went to Yuantong Temple to fulfill his vows that day. After paying homage to Sanqing, he walked around and finally ducked behind a rockery behind the temple. There was a woman with a crown standing with her hands behind her back. She had been waiting for a long time.
He clasped his fists at the female crown and said: "The fairy girl is hanging down, but I will not dare to take it. I am already engaged, so it is inconvenient to meet the fairy girl again."
"Okay, okay. I've been waiting for three months, and here's what I said." Nu Guan turned her head and said with tears, "I'm willing to be a kid... What on earth are you, such a sweetheart?!"
Zhong Heng shook his head and said: "If that hadn't happened, there would still be something we could do... Fairy Aunt's status is too high. If you were a child, would she still be able to live a peaceful life?" He turned around and walked away in a big stride.
Nu Guan shouted from behind with hatred: "You will regret it in the future!" Zhong Heng paused and finally did not turn around. (.. )