Chapter 56: Give You as a Concubine

Li Yaozu's skin twitched violently a few times, then he jumped up, "Impossible, this is absolutely impossible! I have no grievances with Brother Jiang Li in the past and no enmity in the recent days, why would I burn his courtyard? With empty words, you can't frame me like this!"

Jiang Li smiled, "Whether it's framing or not, we'll know after checking."

His gaze fell on Li Yaozu's hand. Li Yaozu's right hand was wrapped in several layers of thick coarse cloth, wrapped like a rice dumpling.

"What's wrong with your hand?"

"Oh, this." Li Yaozu put his hand behind his back, his eyes had a moment of panic, but soon returned to calm, "Nothing, it was scalded by hot oil last night, and I just bandaged it casually."

Jiang Li didn't commit himself and didn't continue to pursue it, but looked at the courtyard.

It was a very ordinary courtyard, except for being a bit old, having more chicken manure on the ground, and a few little girls shivering in the corner, there was nothing unusual.

The smell in the air was also the stench of feces, not the pungent smell of fire oil.

Jiang Li stepped into the house.

The house was no better than the outside, and it was also a mess everywhere. A middle-aged man with a face full of vicissitudes was squatting on the ground in a daze. Seeing Jiang Li come in, he stood up abruptly, stuttering incoherently: "Eldest, Uncle didn't pour your family's fire oil, Uncle even helped your family put out the fire..."

Jiang Li nodded, "I believe you."

Li Daniu was an honest man, born timid and weak. He wouldn't dare to commit arson.

But his family, that was hard to say.

Jiang Li called Wang Bujiu, and the two searched carefully inside and outside the house, but found nothing.

Except for one place that hadn't been searched—the cellar.

Almost every family in Longquan Cun had a cellar for storing grain, and the Li family naturally had one, right next to the vegetable plot in the backyard.

Seeing Jiang Li heading that way, Li Daniu and his son changed their faces. Li Yaozu hurriedly stepped forward to stop Jiang Li, smiling fawningly, "There's no need to search here. There's nothing inside except a few mice stealing food."

Wang Bujiu pulled him away, "Why are you so annoying? We'll see for ourselves if there's anything else, you don't need to babble on the side."

When he said this, Jiang Li had already opened the cellar door.

Two large black rats ran past his feet, and then a pungent smell rushed toward them, choking everyone to the point of covering their noses and retreating several steps.

Jiang Li's eyes were sharp. It was indeed fire oil!

Seeing that the matter had been exposed, Li Yaozu turned and wanted to slip away. Wang Bujiu kicked him down and stepped heavily on his shoulder with his official boots.

"Still want to run? You dog, your guts are quite fat, you even dare to set fire. Tell me, why did you burn the Jiang family's courtyard?"

Li Yaozu's face was pale, making his head look even bigger, "I didn't, it wasn't me..."

It had reached this point, and he was still stubborn.

Clan Head Jiang was so angry that he swung his cane and knocked a big bump on Li Yaozu's big head, "Caught red-handed, and you still say it wasn't you? Where did my Jiang family offend you, making you take such a ruthless hand? If you don't give me a satisfactory explanation today, don't blame me for being ruthless."

Li Daniu hurriedly came over to protect his son, his eyes red, "It's all my fault..."

Before he finished speaking, Zhu Shi suddenly rushed in from the front room, dragging her daughter Li Qiuniang.

She pushed her daughter to the ground with force and scolded angrily, "It's not Yaozu's fault, it's all this dead girl's doing. The dead girl likes Jiang Li, so she thought of burning Du to death to be with Jiang Li. She already admitted this just now!"

Saying this, she spat on Li Qiuniang, "You little bitch, you harmed our whole family for a man, why don't you go die?"

Qiuniang hugged her knees and shrank on the ground, her face covered in tears.

Everyone was dumbfounded.

Qiuniang likes Jiang Li? Impossible, the two of them didn't have anything to do with each other, and they didn't see them talking on weekdays, so how could she like him?

Du Ruo raised her eyebrows and threw a glance at Jiang Li.

Peach blossom luck is quite prosperous, humph.

Jiang Li smiled, his smile a bit cold, "Oh? You say your daughter likes me, then I ask you, what is my birthday? What color clothes do I like to wear? Since she likes me, she should have understood these things, right?"

Qiuniang shook her head helplessly, and Zhu Shi pinched her anxiously, "Dead girl, why don't you say it quickly!"

Qiuniang let out a moan of pain and cried even more violently.

"No need to say." Jiang Li raised his hand to stop Zhu Shi's violence, "Qiuniang has never even left Longquan Village, she couldn't possibly have gotten fire oil."

"She, she picked it up, right, she picked it up on the back mountain!" Zhu Shi tried hard to quibble.

Clan Head Jiang couldn't stand it anymore, his cane knocked heavily on the ground, "Enough, to clear your son's name, you push everything onto your daughter. Is there any mother like you?"

He looked at Li Daniu unhappily, "You are not a good thing either, you have no opinion, indulging your wife's bias, wait and see, if this continues, sooner or later it will lead to a disaster."

Li Daniu hung his head, silent like a quail.

Wang Bujiu was impatient, picked up Li Yaozu, and prepared to leave.

Zhu Shi hugged his leg and refused to let go, crying and wailing, "You killers, doing bandit work under the guise of constables, framing my Yaozu. I'm going to report you to the county magistrate! Let you catch Qiuniang, you refuse, you have to catch our Yaozu. My son is innocent, he wouldn't even bear to step on a mouse since he was a child, how could he set fire..."

Wang Bujiu really wanted to kick her to death.

Really, never seen such a mother, simply worse than a pig or dog!

Lin You Tian pretended to advise, "I said Aunt Niu, why are you doing this? Your son's life is a life, isn't your daughter's life a life? Do you know that once this arson charge is confirmed, Qiuniang might be beheaded."

Beheaded? Li Qiuniang raised her head abruptly.

For her brother, her mother forced her to admit guilt, and she had no choice.

But she still didn't want to die, even if she was sold by her mother like livestock to those terrible men, she still wanted to live...

Just as it was noisy, Zhu Shi's youngest daughter, Chunhua, suddenly ran over, tore off the coarse burlap on Li Yaozu's hand, and said loudly, "It wasn't the sixth sister who set the fire, it was Big Brother who set the fire. Look, Big Brother's hand was even accidentally burned by the fire!"

The scene suddenly became quiet.

Everyone looked at Li Yaozu's hand, and sure enough, the palm was red and swollen, and there were dense blisters.

If it were an ordinary scald, it would be impossible to be so serious.

Li Yaozu panicked and hurriedly hid his hand in his sleeve.

Zhu Shi was so angry that she slapped her, hitting Chunhua's face hard, "You traitor, are you wishing your brother to die?"

Chunhua covered her face and cried: "Mother, I don't want Big Brother to die, but the sixth sister, the sixth sister was with me all night last night, she didn't set the fire, she shouldn't be beheaded..."

The matter here was already very clear.

The person who set the fire was Li Yaozu, not Qiuniang.

Li Yaozu finally knew fear and knelt down with a thud, "Brother Jiang Li, it's my fault, I shouldn't have been obsessed and ran to burn your courtyard. I beg you, let me go this once? I will definitely double the compensation for your loss, I will never break my word!"

Saying this, he pulled Qiuniang over, his eyes crazy, "Look, although my sister is a bit sloppy, she just didn't dress up, but she is actually quite good-looking. How about I give her to you as a concubine? If it really doesn't work, I have three more sisters at home, I'll sell them all by then, and all the money will be paid to you, let me go, okay?"

Du Ruo was about to have her worldview refreshed by this person. She had never seen such a shameless person.

She pulled Jiang Li. Jiang Li looked back at her and smiled soothingly.

Then he signaled to Wang Bujiu.

Wang Bujiu tied him up directly and dragged him away.

Zhu Shi still wanted to repeat her old tricks, but was kicked back by him, sitting on the ground, slapping her thighs and pointing at the sky and scolding.

After crying for a while, seeing no one paying attention to her, she stood up again, picked up a broom aggressively, and beat her daughters to death.

While beating and crying, crying that her life was bitter, she gave birth to eight daughters and none of them were close to her, all of them were white-eyed wolves who ate inside and out.

If she had known it would be like this, she should have drowned them when they were born...

Li Yaozu was soon thrown into jail.

He was a soft-boned man. Before he was tortured, he confessed everything.

He said someone instructed him to do it. The person who instructed him was Wu De, the owner of the Tianxiang Gambling House. Li Yaozu owed Wu De ten taels of silver in gambling debts. Wu De gave him a bucket of fire oil and told him to burn the small dilapidated courtyard of the Jiang family's second branch, and the previous gambling debts would be written off.

Li Yaozu didn't dare at first, but Wu De threatened him, saying that if he didn't do it, he would break his legs!

With no other choice, Li Yaozu had to take the bucket of oil back. That night, when no one was around, he sneaked to the east end of the village and poured the bucket of oil on it.

Because he was too scared, he accidentally burned his hand.

Watching the fire get bigger and bigger, Li Yaozu hurriedly ran home and threw the bucket and the dirty clothes into the cellar...

With the confession, it was easy to catch people.

Wu De was stubborn at first, saying that Li Yaozu was deliberately framing him in order not to pay back the ten taels of silver in gambling debts.

Later, after several confrontations and torture, he finally told the mastermind behind the scenes.

It was the Du family steward, Liu Jinu.

Du Ren Mei was stunned.

How did it turn around and finally turn to him? He didn't ask anyone to burn Jiang Li's courtyard.

Although Jiang Li never gave him a good face, he was his son-in-law after all. How could there be an overnight grudge between father-in-law and son-in-law? He was angry for one night and then it was fine.

After thinking about it, Du Ren Mei understood.

It was Mingzhu's good deed again!

This child, why does she have to go against her own sister? She had already ruined Aman's face, did she have to harm her life too?

Du Ren Mei ran home angrily and went to his daughter's courtyard.

Du Mingzhu was watering flowers. This pot of ink orchids was something she had recently obtained, and she had just buried flower fertilizer, and it was growing well.

"Father, why are you here?"

Du Ren Mei glanced at the flower and then quickly moved his gaze away, saying straight to the point: "Zhu'er, Steward Liu is in trouble, do you know?"

Du Mingzhu paused, "Oh? What trouble is he in?"

"You're still playing dumb with me." Du Ren Mei said with a gloomy face, "Did you ask him to go find trouble with Aman? Fortunately, Aman wasn't in the room at the time, otherwise, she would have been burned to charcoal by now."

Aman, Aman again!

Du Mingzhu closed her eyes and sneered, "Why, Father, are you feeling sorry for her?"

Du Ren Mei felt that this daughter was becoming more and more unreasonable, "Am I feeling sorry for her? I'm worried about you! I didn't say a word about how you treated Aman before, that's because she had no one behind her. Now that she's married to Jiang Li, the person standing behind her is the Thirteenth Prince! Why do you have to provoke her again?"

What if one day the Thirteenth Prince remembered Jiang Li, and he, the father-in-law, could also borrow some light?

But if Aman died, this light wouldn't be borrowed.

Du Mingzhu felt a little more comfortable, and a smile appeared on her face, "Don't worry, Father, the Thirteenth Prince is a busy man, I guess he has long forgotten Jiang Li, he won't pay attention to these small things."

Du Ren Mei wanted to say more, "But..."

At this time, the gatekeeper suddenly ran over in a panic and reported: "It's not good, Master, Constable Jiang from the county government office just sent someone over, saying he wants to catch Steward Liu and take him to the government office!"

Du Ren Mei was shocked. This Jiang Li, his actions were really fast.

He hurriedly got up and walked outside, wanting to see the situation. Du Mingzhu thought for a moment and followed quickly.

She was an official's daughter and shouldn't see men directly, so she took her maid and hid behind the parasol tree, peeking over there secretly.

From afar, she saw Du Ren Mei walking to a group of men in constable uniforms, saying something to one of them with a straight face.

The man was very burly, at least two heads taller than Du Ren Mei, with a full beard, and a body full of muscles, looking very fierce.

"Is that Jiang Li?" Du Mingzhu asked the maid beside her.

The maid nodded, "It's him. Before you asked me to inquire, I specifically went to the embankment to take a look. It's him, no mistake!"

Du Mingzhu suddenly felt a little better.

Sure enough, he was coarse and ugly, and he was really a natural match for that bastard Du Ruo. Du Ruo should be grateful to her.

As for Liu Jinu...

Heh, let him be caught. I bet he wouldn't dare to expose her.

Over there, Du Ren Mei frowned and asked Wang Bujiu: "Why did you come? Where is Jiang Li?"

Wang Bujiu bowed to him. Although his attitude was respectful, his eyes were unruly, "Our Jiang head said, this case he is the victim, so he won't get involved."

Du Ren Mei nodded approvingly. It should be so. Jiang Li was a sensible person.

"Jiang head also said, you, Master Du, are the master of the suspect, so according to the rules, you should also stay out of it. So, you'd better not interfere."

Du Ren Mei: "..."

Waiting for him here? Afraid he would protect Liu Jinu? Was he the kind of person who couldn't distinguish between public and private?

Before he could speak, Wang Bujiu waved his hand and signaled to the brothers beside him, "Take him away!"

Liu Jinu was dragged away, stumbling. He looked back at Du Ren Mei frequently and shouted: "Master, please tell the Miss, the thing she promised me, don't forget it!" ===== CHAPTER 57 =====