Chapter 585: This family that feasts on the living dead

Although some things were rescued, the casualties were even more severe.

Moreover, this man-made disaster caused extremely heavy losses for the Tianfeng Trading House!

That night, upon hearing the news, Li Qingluo ostensibly left in a hurry, but in order to catch Zongzheng Wuhen and make him slip up, she truly did not return right away.

She only had Zheng Mama go into the city to stabilize the situation.

Zongzheng Wuhen is now dead, but the anger in Li Qingluo's chest not only hasn't dissipated, it has grown stronger and stronger.

"This bastard!"

"He got off too easy dying!"

As for property, that's fine, but these living human lives, in his eyes are even worse than weeds and ants.

Having just returned from Gazing at Treasure Pavilion to Flower Pavilion Tavern, Li Qingluo flipped through a ledger and angrily slammed her palm on the table.

The table shook and was on the verge of collapsing.

Zheng Mama hurried over to steady it: "Miss, don't be angry."

"He has done so many evil deeds; upon entering the netherworld he will surely go to hell."

"He isn't even fit to fall into the animal realm!"

Li Qingluo recalled having once been to the netherworld, which made her feel a bit better.

The accounts can't be straightened out.

"Where are the people?"

"Have the injured and the families of the deceased been properly appeased?"

"Mama, you must personally tell them that no matter the consequences, our Gazing at Treasure Pavilion will absolutely not shirk responsibility."

"For the money that should be compensated, give more than the regulations require—pay ten times the usual amount."

"For whatever needs treatment, as long as the doctor doesn't give up, we will treat it no matter the cost."

"Even if they recover later, we will keep those who can return; for those who cannot come back to work, we will give them enough silver to secure their later lives."

"Let them not worry about medical fees; just focus on healing their injuries."

"For families who lost someone… Mama, be sure to give them more, and comfort them thoroughly."

Li Qingluo had just said this when a commotion came from downstairs.

Que'er came in from outside: "Miss, it's the family of the deceased Chun'er… they've come to cause trouble again."

Li Qingluo was puzzled: "Trouble?"

"Again?"

"How are they causing trouble?"

"This Chun'er, wasn't she the maid who usually followed the second manager around, serving tea and water?"

Zheng Mama quickly explained: "Yes, Miss, it's this Chun'er."

"Since Chun'er died yesterday, her family has already caused a scene once."

"The whole family, old and young, are at the door in mourning clothes, rolling around and making a fuss!"

"They claim our Gazing at Treasure Pavilion caused the death of their eldest daughter, whom they had raised for sixteen or seventeen years; after finally arranging a good marriage, she could have become the wife of a top scholar, but now she was burned to death, ruining both families."

"At that time you hadn't returned nor given orders, but this old servant had already compensated them with a considerable amount of silver."

"Adding it up, it's not far from the amount you mentioned; for their family it's already a huge fortune."

"This is more than Chun'er's lifetime wages; even if they married her off, they wouldn't receive even a tenth of this as betrothal gifts."

"Now they're clinging to us to cause trouble; although losing a person is even more regrettable, this family doesn't seem to be genuinely grieving for Chun'er."

"In my view, human greed is never satisfied, like a snake trying to swallow an elephant; they are insatiably greedy. They treat their own daughter as a blood bag, and now they want to rely on our Gazing at Treasure Pavilion to get rich."

Que'er agreed with Zheng Mama: "Miss, we can't keep letting them have their way, giving them whatever they demand."

"If the families of the other deceased staff see this and follow suit, will our Gazing at Treasure Pavilion ever have an end?"

Li Qingluo's expression darkened: "What's worse, seeing their family receive more silver will make them envious and jealous, and they will directly do away with the relatives who could still have survived—"

Li Qingluo didn't finish her words.

But Que'er and Deng Mama, upon hearing, also turned pale.

"This… this is too cruel, isn't it?"

Que'er only felt it was unbelievable.

"In this world, do such families really exist?"

Deng Mama, accustomed to such things, said unconcerned: "In this day and age, human life is worth the least."

"If a family finally manages to turn things around and have no worries about food and clothing, then for someone who might become a burden to the household… how many would not choose the greater benefit?"

"What's worse, if a foolish person, in order to make their family better off, chooses suicide?"

Que'er didn't dare speak.

She felt that the evil and folly of human nature had been fully revealed by this incident.

Li Qingluo: "It seems I was wrong."

"Desire is a bottomless pit; I cannot let their appetites grow too large."

"The tenfold compensation is, for them, a touchstone of human nature."

"What is more valuable should be life itself."

Having figured it out, Li Qingluo quickly rose: "Come on, let me go see for myself this family that eats the flesh of the living dead."

Gazing at Treasure Pavilion was burned, so Li Qingluo is now handling this matter at Flower Pavilion Tavern.

Naturally, Chun'er's family is also causing trouble outside Flower Pavilion Tavern.

On the way downstairs, Li Qingluo asked about some more matters concerning Chun'er.

What she was most curious about was how Chun'er could become the wife of a top scholar.

Deng Mama said: "I have already investigated; when Chun'er was a child she mentioned a marriage match, and the intended match is the cousin she grew up with since childhood."

"That cousin has been studying since childhood; at fourteen he actually passed the imperial exam and became a scholar. He can be considered a talent for study."

"But perhaps due to arrogance, the years have passed and he is still only a scholar."

"Now he's nineteen, not even a juren yet. From scholar status, I don't know how many hundred‑thousand li he still lacks."

"It's not that I look down on him; I heard this cousin spends his days drinking and reveling, socializing through literature, and doesn't study earnestly. The marriage between the two families should have been settled long ago, but it seems the man's family has already dismissed Chun'er, so the marriage has been delayed until Chun'er is seventeen and still not done."

"Chun'er's family spends the whole day smugly thinking they've secured a good match, broadcasting it everywhere, causing the man's family at Wangzhen Tower to publicly and privately humiliate Chun'er many times."

"Pitifully, Chun'er started working at twelve, was rejected by her cousin as unsuitable for the front, yet dared to return home to complain to her parents; I hear none of the wages she earned ever reached her hands, all went to his family for food and drink."

"Now she's dead, and they still intend to use her name as a pretext to cause a big commotion in this world."

Li Qingluo grew colder as she listened.

Soon, she saw Chun'er's family at the entrance of Huaxie Restaurant.

It's truly a big family.

Chun'er's grandfather, grandmother, parents, one elder sister, three younger sisters, two younger brothers, all came.

The youngest brother is only four or five years old.

The bewildered child is held by his parents, listening to the adults' frantic cries.

"My dear girl, she came to work for your family, yet was burned to death alive—"

"She is not even seventeen yet; in a few months she'll marry the cousin she has admired since childhood."

"My future son‑in‑law is a scholar, and may even become a top‑ranked jinshi; my Chun'er should have endless blessings, but now everything is gone—"

"I want my daughter, I want my Chun'er—"

"You all accompany my Chun'er, accompany my living daughter!!"

Chun'er's mother sat on the ground, patting her thigh, repeatedly crying and shouting these words to all the onlookers.

Li Qingluo cast a glance toward the two sides of the doorway where Sha Qi and Sha Ba, who had followed her out today, stood.

They immediately descended the steps to Chun'er's family, and with one hand pressed onto Chun'er's grandfather and grandmother.

"Y‑you, what are you going to do?"

"Just because you have money can you bully others?"

"No matter how great you think you are, you're just merchants, and even the dogs of merchant families!"

"Your status is lower than that of us ordinary folk; you still want to kill people in broad daylight in front of the big ones?"

The old man trembled, his face full of terror, shouting incomprehensible words.

Li Qingluo sneered: "I'm only having my guards help the two elderly up."

"How does that become murder?"

"And the elders, they're people, not dogs."

"If you want to act like a beast, no one will stop you, but if you speak recklessly, we merchants, even as low‑born, cannot be ignored."

She waved her hand: "Bring them chairs, let them sit, and we'll reason in front of the whole city's people."

"If these two elders cause any trouble again, Wangzhen Tower will be completely blamed by this whole family."

Li Qingluo's arrival, both martial and courteous, truly startled Chun'er's family into a stunned silence.

But Chun'er's mother quickly recovered.

"Y‑you, are you cursing my in‑laws to death?"

"Fine, everyone look—people from Wangzhen Tower and Huaxie Restaurant have already harmed my daughter, and now they're cursing my in‑laws to die too."

"They truly have a vicious heart—"

Que'er could not help but let out a low hiss: "Enough!"

"Shut up!"

"This is our establishment; you have no right to shout here!"

"Otherwise we won't be polite."

Chun'er's father lifted his chin: "How can you be impolite? Do you intend to kill our whole family?"

"Come, come."

"Since our whole family is here now, you may kill us in front of the entire city's people."

"If you do that, no one will trouble you again!"

Li Qingluo: "Scoundrel."

Chun'er's father and mother looked at each other: "Scoundrel? She actually called us scoundrels?"

"Is there any sense of justice left—We only wanted to seek justice for our tragically dead daughter, and we're threatened with death and called scoundrels—"

"In this world, is it truly that wealth makes one supreme, that wealth lets one treat others' lives like stray dogs?"

"You think you're great because you have money; can you block the mouths of those of us who only want justice for our daughter?"

Li Qingluo: "What if I have no money!"

"Yesterday you could give our family fifty taels of silver as compensation to bury Chun'er, could you?"

She raised her voice; the murderous aura that had not been suppressed now seemed to twist into a cold chill, an invisible force pressing heavily upon Chun'er's family.

The pressure made Chun'er's parents gasp for breath, their hearts involuntarily trembling.

Everyone around heard this and a sudden uproar erupted.

"What?"

"Fifty taels?"

"That much?"

"Such a huge sum of silver—why are they still causing trouble?"

Impossible? Which family of a deceased worker would still give this much compensation?

Is that lass some kind of precious person, worth so much?

Chun'er's family, hearing this, were both nervous and excited, jumping up to explain.

How could that be!

It's just thirty taels, everyone don't listen to their nonsense!

There's absolutely no fifty taels of silver!

As soon as that was said, Li Qingluo couldn't help but laugh.

So thirty taels is such a small sum for you.

Only then did Chun'er's family realize they had been deceived by her.