novelraw Chapter 231 Searching the Corpse and Dividing the Silver
Chapter 231 Searching the Corpse and Dividing the Silver
Chapter 231 Searching the Corpse and Dividing the Silver
Gu Tianbao took Gu Lianshan to the alley to find those kidnappers. If they hadn't left yet, they would grab them, beat them up, and then take them to the yamen.
If I leave, I'll just have to swallow this insult.
As for Gu Lian, she was worried about Gu Tianbao and wanted to go with him, but the clan chief's wife, Yang, stopped her and told her to go to the city gate with him.
Gu Qing didn't return to the cloth shop, and there was no sign of her in the alley. Without a doubt, she had gone to the city gate.
Gu Lian went with them. If she saw Gu Qing, she could use that as evidence to tie him up!
The villagers of Shanghe Village split into two groups and left with tense faces.
Once they left the cloth shop, the shopkeeper, who had been eavesdropping the whole time, took a deep breath and called out to the customers inside.
"Does anyone know whose daughter that girl named 'Gu Qing' is? I'll have to tell my relatives when I get back."
Whether rich or poor, if this family has a son to be married off, they must keep their eyes wide open and choose the right person! They can't afford to marry a wicked woman!
"That makes sense! Does anyone know the answer?" Many women thought the same as the shopkeeper and asked around.
An elderly woman with gray hair exclaimed, "It looks like Gu Tongsheng's daughter from Shanghe Village!"
"Gu Tongsheng from Shanghe Village?"
"Yes, there is only one student in Shanghe Village who has passed the imperial examination. He is over thirty years old and has failed the exam every year."
I've heard that Gu Tongsheng had two daughters and one son. His eldest daughter was named 'Qing', his second daughter 'Lian', and his only son 'Tianbao'.
"Hey! It all matches up! The brother and sister who risked their lives to save their cousin, I heard the people in Shanghe Village call them 'Lian Yatou' and 'Tianbao'. It seems that the one who cruelly harmed them was indeed 'Gu Qing'."
"This is really rare. They were born to the same parents, so how come the eldest sister is so different from her younger siblings?"
"Everyone, please remember this. When you get back, tell your neighbors and relatives about it, especially those who are planning to find spouses for their sons. These siblings are not very old; Gu Qing is at most two years older than them."
"Now is the perfect time to arrange a marriage. We must be careful to choose the right person; we can't afford to bring home a vicious woman, or her entire family will be killed!"
These words alerted the women, and they all took the old woman's words to heart.
Gu Qing, the daughter of Gu Tongsheng from Shanghe Village.
You must not marry her!
I'd rather stay single my whole life than get married!
……
Gu Lianshan and his group were all strong laborers, and they moved much faster than the clan chief and his men. They arrived at the alley in no time.
Following Gu Lian's instructions, keep walking in, then turn left, left, right, and left again, and you'll reach the place where Gu Tang gets the medicine to spray the crutch.
Before even reaching his destination, Gu Lianshan was already prepared to come back empty-handed.
After all, Gu Lian and Gu Tang had both run away. Those kidnappers weren't stupid; they knew the two sisters would definitely call for help. If they continued to stay here, their fate was predictable.
Unless those kidnappers are dead, those people will crawl away and hide, even if they have to.
Gu Lianshan was mentally prepared, but he forgot that in this world, the course of everything is unpredictable.
When he arrived at the place Gu Lian had mentioned, he looked at the five people lying in the alley and was momentarily dazed. He subconsciously rubbed his eyes, thinking he had seen wrong.
"Why are they all lying on the ground and not moving?"
The villagers who were with Gu Lianshan were even more bewildered. They went over and took a few glances. Some of them noticed something was wrong and quickly squatted down to check their breathing. They soon discovered that all the people on the ground were no longer breathing.
No more breathing... that means death!
"They're all dead! All of them are dead!" Upon hearing this, the crowd panicked and retreated, no longer daring to advance.
Upon hearing that someone had died, Gu Lianshan frowned, but his heart calmed down.
"What are you shouting for? Shut up!" He glared at them irritably and scolded them in a low voice.
Gu Lianshan told them to step back, then walked into the pile of corpses and checked the breaths of each one.
After examining them, he nodded; they were indeed all dead.
"Brother Lian, Lianshan...could it be that your daughter gave you too much medicine...?"
They thought Gu Tang had poisoned the person to death.
Gu Lianshan was displeased: "What nonsense are you spouting! Lian'er said that my daughter only sprayed the powder into the eyes of those kidnappers. It was probably just some powder to irritate their eyes and make them tear up. How could it kill them?"
Too……
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that what he said made sense.
"These people must have been beaten to death. Look at the sides of their heads, there are large bruises. Doctor Gu said that this place is called a certain acupoint, and you can't hit someone there, or they'll die!"
Hearing this, the crowd suppressed their panic and stepped forward again. Following Gu Lianshan's pointing finger, they indeed saw a bluish-purple mark on both sides of each dead person's head.
It really does look like he's been beaten up.
It seems they were overthinking things; these people's deaths really had nothing to do with Lianshan's daughter.
"Where's Tianbao?" Gu Lianshan asked them in a low voice, not daring to speak loudly for fear of disturbing the families inside the courtyards on both sides.
It was the first time Gu Tianbao had ever seen a dead body, and he was so frightened that his hands and feet were shaking. He hid behind the crowd the whole time.
Hearing Gu Lianshan call his name, he stammered, "Second Uncle..."
Upon seeing the people, Gu Lianshan quickly waved to him: "Come, come, take a closer look and see if these people are the kidnappers."
Gu Tianbao froze instantly, and with a stiff upper lip, he slowly and reluctantly moved in that direction.
Gu Lianshan thought he was too slow and wanted to get closer to him. He grabbed the man and pulled him into a pile of corpses, making him stare at them closely.
Gu Tianbao's hair was practically standing on end!
Looking at the corpses all around him, his vision went black; he wanted to faint but dared not.
He hesitated for a moment, then mustered his courage to look at the four people on the ground, staring at one of the men with moles on his face and nodding repeatedly.
"It's a kidnapper! I remember him! He had a big mole on his face, I remember it very clearly!"
"It's good that it's them." Gu Lianshan spat at the corpses. "They got off too easily! If they had fallen into my hands, I would have skinned them alive!"
"I don't know who killed these people. I just counted, there were five!"
"They're all quite strong-looking. People who commit murder either have a lot of people or they know some amazing kung fu!"
"Is he some kind of chivalrous hero or a figure from the martial arts world?"
"Do you think this is a storyteller?"
……
As the panic subsided, everyone began to wonder who had killed these people, sharing their guesses. Gu Lianshan didn't care about that. "Whoever killed them, they are all heroes who rid the people of a scourge!"
This is true!
Everyone nodded. They all had daughters, and although they didn't value their daughters as much as they valued their sons, they still raised them from a young age.
They follow behind her all day long, calling her "father" this and "father" that. They also get her all the good food and clothes. If they were suddenly kidnapped and sold, who wouldn't go crazy?
Gu Lianshan stared at the group of corpses for a while, then, as if he had thought of something, he suddenly squatted down and began to search the bodies!
Everyone was startled by his sudden action: "Brother Lian, Lianshan... what are you doing?!"
"We don't know if these people have any silver on them. Search them all. I don't want any silver we find; we'll split it all among you!"
Everyone: ...Searching for silver from the dead?!
The group of people looked at each other in bewilderment. Although it was a bit unlucky, they were even more afraid of being poor!
"Brother Lianshan, you rest! We'll do it ourselves!"
Once they understood, the group was no longer afraid and quickly stepped forward. Two people and one corpse, they quickly stripped the body naked, even pinching every corner of every piece of clothing, just in case someone had sewn silver notes into the clothes.
These are all things that can't be said for sure!
In short, they left no place unchecked and searched very thoroughly.
After searching all five corpses, they found ten silver coins of various sizes and two silver notes, one worth five taels and the other worth ten taels.
Faced with this sum of silver, everyone was both envious and relieved that the Lian Shan brothers had remembered the search for the corpse; otherwise, they might have missed out on the money.
Gu Lianshan carried a small steelyard with him, and he weighed the silver ingot in front of everyone; it weighed fifteen taels.
Fifteen taels of silver ingots plus fifteen taels of silver notes, totaling thirty taels.
Apart from Gu Lianshan and Gu Tianbao, everyone else was seeing so much silver for the first time.
Their group consisted of twelve people, excluding Gu Lianshan.
The 12 people divided the 30 taels of silver equally, with each person receiving 2.5 taels.
Silver ingots are easy to divide; you can just cut them open with scissors later. It's just that these silver notes are a bit more troublesome.
If you take it directly for spending, that's fine. But if you take it to a money exchange to exchange for cash, you'll have to pay an exchange fee.
Who will pay for this?
Deduct it from these thirty taels of silver?
To avoid any unpleasantness over the distribution of silver, Gu Lianshan put away all the silver notes and silver ingots.
“I’ll go back and find someone to exchange all your money for loose silver. There will be no exchange fee. You’ll still each have two and a half taels. We’ll meet at the city gate tomorrow at noon, and I’ll give you the silver then.”
"Alright, we'll do as Brother Lianshan says!"
Gu Lianshan's approach was perfect, and no one could possibly have any objections.
Moreover, they originally came to help catch the kidnapper, but the kidnapper died, and they each got two and a half taels of silver for nothing!
Don't underestimate these two and a half ounces; they can feed a family of more than ten people a year during this winter, ensuring they have a constant supply of rice and meat, and everyone can eat their fill!
Many of them come from impoverished families and eat only one meal a day in winter. With the possibility of snow disasters this year, they are now in a state of great worry.
Now things are much better. With these two and a half taels of silver, the food problem is solved.
Many men in the crowd had tears in their eyes.
Gu Lianshan saw this scene and sighed inwardly. He didn't say anything, but told them not to spread the word and to tell others that they hadn't found the kidnapper.
As for the clan chief, he will go there personally to discuss this matter.
Gu Lianshan didn't need to specifically remind them; they weren't stupid. If word got out about what happened today, it would definitely attract some envious people, and then it would surely cause a lot of trouble.
So, it's best if we keep this matter to ourselves!
Taking advantage of the fact that no one was around, Gu Lianshan called everyone to go back.
Gu Tianbao was stunned for a moment: "Aren't you going to look for Siya?"
Gu Lianshan waved his hand: "With your cousin's personality, she won't suffer any losses as long as she's not trapped by anyone. Now that she's disappeared without a trace, where are we supposed to find her? Let's go back. She'll definitely come back once she's done with her work."
He agreed with this statement; he had experienced it firsthand.
Gu Tianbao remained silent.
On the way back, Gu Lianshan brought up the rear.
As they walked, Gu Tianbao fell behind, following beside Gu Lianshan, stammering, "Second Uncle... I don't want that silver, I want... I want..."
His voice wasn't loud, and he kept his head down, speaking haltingly and haltingly. To Gu Lianshan, it sounded like a fly buzzing in his ear.
Gu Tianbao hesitated for a while, unable to get the rest of his words out. Gu Lianshan glanced at him, knowing exactly what he wanted to say.
"You want your second uncle to help you find your mother?"
Gu Tianbao suddenly looked up, his face beaming with joy: "Second Uncle really knows me!"
That's so sour!
Gu Lianshan said with a look of disdain, "You're not the kind of person who nitpicks over words, don't you find it sarcastic to say something like that!"
It's sour! Who says it's not sour?
Gu Tianbao felt a pang of grievance. He had no other choice. As long as he could find his mother, what did a few sarcastic remarks matter? Compared to the suffering he had endured these past few days, they were nothing.
“When your cousin comes back, I will send someone to Shanyao Village tomorrow or the day after. If you have any copper coins, find an inn to stay in and don’t go back for the next couple of days. If you set off, you should come with her.”
"Sigh!" Gu Tianbao felt a sense of relief, as the burden on his body suddenly became much lighter.
He stood close to Gu Lianshan and, without any reservations, revealed his secrets: "I found some of the silver my mother hid, about ten taels, which should be enough to hire people..."
Twelve?
Gu Lianshan considered it in his mind for a moment, then nodded: "That's enough."
That's good.
Gu Tianbao pursed his lips and suddenly brought up something: "My mother stole Siya's money... This is something that people hate too much. My mother has to pay back the money!"
My mother had a sum of money deposited in a money exchange. My grandmother secretly deposited it for her before she died; nobody knew except my mother and me. The key to withdraw the money belonged to my mother herself…”
Gu Lianshan looked bewildered: "...When you go to a money exchange to deposit silver, don't you usually take a silver note or a deposit certificate? When did it become 'you are the person'?"
"My grandmother spent money to ask someone to do it, saying that my mother was brainless. If she were given a receipt or a bank note, she could be easily fooled. Only when it was changed to her own name would she not dare to take the money casually."
My mother was afraid of my grandmother, even after she died. She was afraid my grandmother would come looking for her at night. She remembered my grandmother's dying instructions very well, and she would never touch that money unless she was absolutely desperate.
Thinking of Wei's mother, Gu Lianshan sighed, "Your grandmother died too young. If she were alive, your mother would never have dared to do such a thing."
Speaking of this, Gu Ping'an also had a headache. His mother had been spoiled rotten by his grandmother since she was a child.
Ever since his grandmother died, his mother has been like a horse that has broken free of its reins, acting on a whim without any rhyme or reason.
"I was thinking that when my mother came back, I would have her take out the money, return the money to Siya, and then give the rest to my second sister for safekeeping."