Chapter 236: 236. Chapter 236: Scapegoat

236. Chapter 236: Scapegoat

"Lord Shen, don't hide it, I've already seen it..."

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked helplessly at the paper note in Shen Que's hand that was almost about to be crumpled.

Shen Que gave a dry laugh, simply threw the crumpled paper ball onto the table, and then glanced at the tiger crouching at Jiang Xiaoxiao's feet and baring its teeth at him, saying: "I didn't know that you, this little girl, actually raised a tiger from the mountains at home."

"..." Jiang Xiaoxiao glanced at the paper ball on the table, then folded her arms and snorted coldly, imitating his appearance, and said: "I didn't know that Lord Shen, who had already promised to be my family's servant, actually still had contact with the outside world behind our backs."

Shen Que: "... Then your tiger also bit my pigeon, what do you say?"

Jiang Xiaoxiao: "Can this be blamed on my family's tiger? If your pigeon hadn't flown to our balcony, how would it have been wounded?"

Shen Que: "..."

Jiang Wei came upstairs and saw the big and small two people, angrily glaring at each other, neither willing to give in.

She supported her forehead helplessly.

"Mother, he is hiding from us and contacting the outside world." Jiang Xiaoxiao immediately complained.

"Alright, alright..." She knew.

Jiang Wei walked up, first scanned the crumpled paper on the table, and then her gaze fell on the pigeon flapping its wings.

"This pigeon is quite fat..."

Should it be braised or steamed?

Seeing this, Shen Que immediately protected the pigeon and said with a dark face: "... You mother and daughter don't be too excessive."

This was his last remaining carrier pigeon.

Jiang Wei glanced at him, then sat on the chair by herself, not looking at the paper ball, only saying: "Speak, Lord Shen, when do you want to leave? We can't stop a pigeon that wants to fly, but Lord Shen, before you leave, please don't forget to repay the debt of one thousand taels of silver."

Saying that, she pulled out an abacus by herself, clicked it twice, and added: "Oh, by the way, you have lived in my house for more than half a month, let's count it as a month. Food and accommodation fees, as well as the clothes and shoes you wear, are all spent with my money. Counting it up, it's fifty taels of silver... In total, if you want to leave, you need to pay my family one thousand and fifty taels of silver."

Shen Que: "..."

Seemingly helpless, and seemingly having no way, Shen Que sat on the chair, spread his hands, indicating he had nothing to say.

This Jiang family was truly a wolf's den; it was easy to get in, but you had to peel off a layer of skin to get out...

After a long silence, Shen Que finally spoke slowly: "Let's make a deal, how about that?"

"A deal?" Jiang Wei raised her eyebrows.

Shen Que said: "As far as I know, your family just bought the Li family's fields. I think your family's foundation isn't short of my one thousand taels of silver. I will help you completely solve the trouble of the Li family, and the debt between us will be wiped out, how about that?"

"How do you want to solve it?"

Shen Que didn't speak, just cast his gaze toward the account book on the table.

Jiang Wei sat up straight, and her gaze followed toward the account book.

Since stealing the account book from the Huang family, she hadn't looked at the contents inside.

One was that she wasn't interested, and the other was that she felt it wasn't necessary.

The content recorded inside was nothing more than the corruption and bribery of the Huang family's ancestors during their years as officials.

Shen Que was different. He traveled thousands of miles from the capital to this remote Yong'an County just for this account book.

In the few days since the account book was brought back, he had already flipped through it no less than five times, and was already familiar with the contents inside.

"The Huang family earned a lot of family property by selling official positions in previous years, and also grasped the handles of many people." Shen Que said slowly, "Don't you want to know how the Li family's eldest son got his scholar title."

Jiang Xiaoxiao opened her mouth and said: "What's there to be curious about? It's just bought from the Huang family."

Hearing this, Jiang Wei and Shen Que looked at her together.

Jiang Xiaoxiao: "..."

Well, her mouth was a bit fast.

She took a deep breath and said: "Is this hard to guess? You just said the Huang family sold official positions in previous years, and Li Shoude failed the imperial examination for several years in a row. Besides the Huang family's help, I really can't think of any other reason."

Shen Que nodded, seemingly agreeing with her statement, and said: "According to the laws of Dayin, imperial examination fraud is a serious crime, punishable by death."

Therefore, even if the Li family raised enough money, what they redeemed might only be Li Shoude's corpse.

Seriously, it might even affect the Li family's ancestors and descendants, who would be permanently banned from taking the examination and could never enter the official career again.

"I have one more thing I don't understand." Jiang Wei suddenly said, "Li Shoude is just a rural man, why did the Huang family spend so much effort to buy this title for him?"

This was what she was most confused about.

Even if it was to let Li Jinfeng marry over, there was no need to do so.

The Li family valued money, and things that could be done by spending some silver, why bother to spend so much effort to buy a scholar title for Li Shoude?

Shen Que smiled and said word by word: "Because they wanted to find a scapegoat."

His gaze was fixed on the account book.

Paper could never hold fire. The crimes recorded inside, one by one, would eventually be revealed to the world.

Since the crimes committed in the past could not be eliminated, then find a scapegoat.

Hearing what Shen Que said, Jiang Xiaoxiao's heart sank slightly.

She hadn't thought deeply about it, just simply thought it was because Li Shoude reached some kind of deal with the Huang family that he obtained the name of a scholar... She didn't expect that there were so many twists and turns mixed in it.

The water between the noble families in the capital and the political parties in the imperial court was still too deep, far from as simple as written on the surface in the original work.

"Okay, if you can solve the big trouble of the Li family, the debt between us will be wiped out." Jiang Wei curled her lips.

A rare smile appeared on her face.

The Li family had always been a thorn in her heart. Although they couldn't really harm her, they would still appear from time to time to prick her.

This world was not like the apocalypse she lived in in her previous life, where she could just kill people she didn't like.

Even if she was very reluctant, since she had become a person in this world, she should follow the laws of this world.

If she could solve the trouble of the Li family through Shen Que, it would be a good thing.

After reaching an agreement, Shen Que began to write a letter.

After the letter was finished, the heavy responsibility of delivering the letter fell on Jiang Xiaoxiao.

No way, who let her tiger scratch Shen Que's carrier pigeon.

Jiang Xiaoxiao and her mother handed the letter to the two yamen servants at the gate of the county yamen and then left.

They left very quickly, and the Cishi who received the news and chased out didn't even see the shadows of the two.

On the day of the county yamen's trial, almost all the villagers of Yuhe Village went to watch.

Jiang Xiaoxiao and her mother didn't go, and the two sat in their own soap shop.

Many families in town went to the county yamen to watch, and the soap business today seemed exceptionally deserted.

Actually, child abduction wasn't a very big case and couldn't arouse such strong enthusiasm from everyone.

But this time was different.

I heard that this case was personally tried by a big official from the capital—Lord Cishi.

These ordinary people had never seen such a big capital official in their lives, so naturally, they all followed to watch. (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 237 =====