Outside Humo Township, there is a village of thirty or forty households. Because it is close to the warehouse, it is named "Kuli". In a poor alley on the left side of a village in Kuli, there is a shabby house with broken urns as windows and straw.
When Xi was at the door, early that morning, an angry voice came from the door.
"That bitch was obviously too mean, so she was expelled by me. She was a thief, and it didn't happen at all. I don't know what bad-tongued person said it. How much hatred must there be, because he wanted to ruin my brother's reputation.
It’s so clean!”
Uncle Chen is thirty-four or five years old. Although he is tall, his waist has been bent early due to years of hard work in the fields. His face is tanned and his forehead is covered with wrinkles.
Today, he went out to work early in the morning and heard the gossip outside slandering his younger brother. He was an impulsive person, and he suddenly trembled with anger. He argued with those people who were talking nonsense, and almost got into a fight. In the end, he was
Chen Ping advised him to go home.
"Everything happened because of my brother. It was my brother's incompetence that dragged down my brother and sister-in-law."
Chen Ping, who is only 18 years old, is different from his elder brother. He is dressed in rough and linen clothes, which cannot hide his tall and straight figure. His face is handsome and his appearance is like a crown jewel. Although he is a bit thin, he is still good because his elder brother gives him all the good things first.
He ate, and he had never been hungry for so many years, so he did not look like a child from a poor family, but more like a scholar.
Although he learned Huang Lao's art, it was not the mainstream in Yangwu County.
"I don't blame you, I don't blame you, it's my fault for marrying a bad wife."
Uncle Chen was so angry that his stomach ached. He sat on the couch covered with wheat straw and panted. His old habit had returned. Years of overloaded work had done a lot of damage to the human body.
Despite this, Uncle Chen still managed to hold himself up, carrying the wooden hammer for weeding, and said to Chen Ping: "My brother is a man who wants to do big things. He can't be distracted by such vulgar words. I will go to the fields to see."
Look, this year’s clothes and food are expected to be harvested in the summer, so we can’t relax at this time.”
Chen Ping watched his brother go out, looked back at his home with nothing, and sighed.
The whole family has three earthen houses, with thatched roofs and a small courtyard surrounded by a broken fence. Walking into the largest main house, you can see that the ground inside is full of pits, an earthen stove that has been cooled for a long time, and the walls are stained by the smoke of firewood.
It's pitch black. Apart from that, there's nothing else. It's really a house with only four walls.
Next to the main house is the place where Chen Ping sleeps. It is even narrower and can only fit a floor bed full of wheat straw. Fortunately, the windows here are opened very large and the lighting is excellent. The sunlight shines in from the broken urn.
Shining on the bamboo scroll that had been turned loose and untied...
This reminded Chen Ping of the past.
Chen Ping's parents have passed away, so Chen Ping has lived with his eldest brother Chen Bo since childhood and was raised by Chen Bo. The relationship between the two is more like father and son than brothers.
Uncle Chen is a kind and filial man. He always thinks that his parents died early, leaving Chen Ping with only one younger brother. The eldest brother is the father, and he should be responsible for everything about the younger brother. He does not want his younger brother to suffer, but unlike other poor families, Chen Ping is the only one left.
Instead of asking Chen Ping to go to the fields to help, he allowed Chen Ping to let his nature take its course.
Chen Ping didn't like to work since he was a child. He loved socializing and reading. Although he was worried that this was not a career that the poor people in Luzuo could afford, Chen Bo would rather suffer a little for himself and support his brother's ideals. He gritted his teeth and relied on
He cultivated 30 acres of thin land to maintain all this, and funded Chen Ping's study tour in neighboring counties. Uncle Chen felt that his younger brother was different from him and was destined to be extraordinary in the future, so how could he be buried in the mud and dirt of the fields.
So on weekdays, while his brother Litian and his sister-in-law were weaving and making rice, Chen Ping only had to stay here and read books.
But now that this series of things have happened, how can he still understand even a single word?
Years later, the conspirator who is full of deceit and deceit is still an eighteen-year-old young man who has not experienced too many twists and turns at this moment.
He has the appearance of a rough jade, but has not yet been sculpted by time.
After counting the time and confirming that his brother had arrived at the edge of the field, Chen Ping came to the yard, picked up the hemp rope for bundling firewood, silently left the house and walked outside.
Usually, his sister-in-law did these tasks, but now that his sister-in-law was driven away by his brother, Chen Ping had to take over the task of collecting firewood for cooking. He couldn't let his brother drag his tired body back and face the cold stove without even bowling.
I can't even eat hot food.
Yes, Chen Ping has a high heart and is unwilling to live in this hard-working life in the countryside day after day. He longs to be like Taigong Wang, whom Huang Lao admired, and one day escape from poverty, meet the Ming Lord, become the leader of a county, or even a country.
!
But no matter how high your heart is, it is still a sincere conscience!
At least, this must be the case for the close relatives who raised him.
…
As Chen Ping walked out of the house, a group of young country girls were washing their clothes by the ditch outside the house. When they saw the handsome Chen Ping approaching, their eyes lit up at first, and then they thought of something, or turned back and ignored him.
Or he deliberately spit on him and said something loudly, causing everyone to burst into laughter.
Chen Ping ignored it and continued walking. His destination was the woods outside the city.
This forest is supposed to be the private hilltop of Xi Zhang, a powerful villager. However, the patriarch of Xizhang, Zhang Fu, took more care of the village party and simply opened the area completely to the villagers, so that the villagers can come here to collect firewood at will. So here, Chen Ping can
I met many people who also came to collect firewood, and some of them were neighbors in the same area.
After seeing Chen Ping, they all smiled meaningfully, and various questions floated from their mouths.
"Chen Ping, after so many years, I rarely see you collecting firewood. Where is your uncle and sister-in-law?"
"Chen Ping, your family is obviously so poor, but your uncle's stomach growls when he works. What do you eat every day to make you so tall?"
"Your sister-in-law said what you ate was bran kernels. Is it true or false?"
"Chen Ping, I heard that your brother-in-law drove away your brother-in-law? Why? Could it be because..."
Every word he said had no good intentions, and every word he said was an attempt to hurt Chen Ping.
In the eyes of many villagers, Chen Ping is a freeloader. He has gained a good body in vain. At the age of eighteen, he has accomplished nothing. He neither works in farming nor does business. He holds a roll of rotten bamboo slips and pretends to be pretentious all day long.
Are you a reader yourself?
It's a pity that apart from that, Chen Ping didn't have more bad things for them to criticize. It's better now that he has committed an even bigger scandal. He is a wife thief!
So everyone was extremely excited. When they saw Chen Ping, they whispered, pointed, and deliberately used words to stimulate him.
They really wanted to see the handsome man who was famous throughout the township reveal his ugly true face!
Then he pointed at him and said contemptuously: "Look, he is indeed a despicable villain."
Chen Ping's family is poor, but Chen Ping has ideals. Because of his elder brother's pampering, Chen Ping does not have to work as hard as his peers, but can do things that they find relaxing and comfortable, such as reading and studying, so in the eyes of the villagers, he
is wrong.
This is how gossips come about. Any changes in his family will be magnified, and people will always speculate on dissidents with the greatest malice.
But Chen Ping's handling method was different from Chen Bo's. He just smiled without any reply, which made those who ridiculed him feel that they had punched the target in vain, which was quite boring.
Lao Tzu said that it is better to keep silent than to talk too much.
Chen Ping understands very well that everyone's psychology has congenital shortcomings, and they like to listen to small talk. Tell them the truth, they often don't believe it, and are willing to use rumors to describe you and portray you as the person they think they are.
The ugly look you deserve.
Therefore, the cost of refuting rumors is ten times a hundred times that of spreading rumors, and he will not waste his efforts.
Under the boos, Chen Ping silently did his own thing. He lifted the firewood behind him and started walking back. He had already collected enough firewood for three days.
In the past, he was not involved in production and rarely did this work. He seemed a bit unfamiliar. Although the firewood he carried was not much, it made Chen Ping feel very heavy. It was as if all the slanderous words combined made him breathless.
.
Although Chen Ping learned from Huang Lao, he knew that he could not become a saint. He was not worried about his current situation, but worried about the future.
People in the world only value clothes but not people. Most people only comment on trivial matters to measure a person's level, good and evil, right and wrong.
Chen Ping was very worried that today's slander of "stealing sister-in-law" would follow him for the rest of his life and become an indelible mark on himself, even though he had never done this at all.
This will greatly affect his reputation in the county. Although the Wei State is about to be destroyed, and Hufu Township has returned to the Qin State, a person's reputation and reputation in the township party still determine whether he is recruited as an official and how everyone behaves.
key.
"If I am burdened by my reputation and are considered by others to be a villain with low morals who deceives my brother and steals my sister-in-law, then it will be difficult for me to get ahead in this Hufu Township and this Yangwu County."
This is what troubles Chen Ping, but as a person who is being slandered, he cannot defend himself against this kind of thing, otherwise the slander will become more and more negative.
What did you say? Say "I didn't sleep with my sister-in-law?" In that case, the rumors would probably be even more intense.
Entering the city gate again, Chen Ping turned his head when he stopped to rest and looked at his shoulders under his linen clothes. There were red spots, and a thin hemp rope was pinched on his face. It hurt. He didn't do much work.
His skin and flesh were already bleeding.
Chen Ping was not worried, but happy.
It's not scary to bleed. It makes Chen Ping feel that he is different from others. He doesn't want to carry firewood for a lifetime and leave two red marks and hard calluses on his shoulders.
The scariest thing is living today and seeing your life remain the same on the day you die.
"It is impossible to rely on others to save me from this matter. I must find a way to get out of this predicament as soon as possible."
Gritting his teeth, Chen Ping stood up again and walked into the inner door again. The women who were washing clothes here were no longer there. When Chen Ping was about to get home, he found that they were all gathered outside his courtyard, and the place was completely surrounded.
"Chen Ping is back!"
Someone with sharp eyes shouted, and the neighbors who gathered around the door immediately turned around and looked at Chen Ping. Most of them were gloating about his misfortune, but only one or two looked worried.
Chen Ping had an ominous premonition in his heart. Could it be his brother...
As soon as the hemp rope in his hand was loosened, the firewood on his back immediately fell to the ground with a crackling sound.
But when Chen Ping squeezed through the crowd and walked to the door of his house, he didn't see his brother. Instead, he saw several Qin soldiers wearing armor and swords, standing in the yard of his house!
The black-faced Qin official wearing a crown, who was obviously an official, had his hands behind his back and was walking around with interest, looking at his vegetable garden, looking at the worn thatched roof, and even wanted to poke his head into the house to take a look.
.
"Qin people?"
Chen Ping's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't panic at all on the surface. He opened the curtain door made of bamboo mats, walked into the courtyard, and bowed respectfully to the Qin officials, as if they were his expected guests.
"I don't know if the official is here, it's really a shame."
The crowned Qin official quickly turned around, looked at Chen Ping, and then muttered a few words in Guan dialect, asking the Qin soldiers on the side to translate.
"You asked, are you Chen Ping?"
"Exactly the villain."
After Chen Ping learned that this person was the man named "Hei Fu", he was even more surprised. Why did the Qin official come to the door for no reason? But he remained calm and carefully observed this person.
But seeing that he was tall and tall, almost the same height as himself, his eyes were fixed on Chen Ping, with an expression as if he could see the jade hidden inside a gray stone...
At this time, the Qin official suddenly burst out laughing, and then said in an extremely stiff local dialect that he had just learned a little bit: "Chen Ping, I am looking for you!"
After saying this, Hei Fu pressed his sword and said loudly to Chen Ping and to the crowd who were watching outside who didn't mind the matter: "I have recently been inspecting the towns and cities, and I heard rumors that Chen Ping, Chen Bo's younger brother, stole his wife! Although Qin said that
The law is the teaching, and the officials are the teachers, but just like Yuan, they also value ethics! This official was shocked when he heard about it. An uncle who steals his sister-in-law is like a brother who invades his own sister. This is a great evil! How can we let it go?
?”
"Therefore, the officials came here specially today to bring Chen Ping, Uncle Chen, Chen's wife, and all the neighbors in Kuli who had heard rumors about this to the Xiang Temple for questioning! The case of the sister-in-law must be brought to light today!"
After saying that, Heifu asked Zhong Ming to repeat what he said in dialect. Regardless of the uproar of the people outside, he smiled at Chen Ping who didn't understand:
"Chen Ping, today you go with me to the Xiang Temple to be interrogated. Before you go in, you were covered with a stigma. It is impossible to tell whether it is true or false. But when you come out, you may be found guilty of stealing your wife and be punished by Qin law.
Order to punish..."
"Or, your injustice will be vindicated by me personally!"
