Everyone in the room fixed their eyes on Shen Jingui's head. None of them had ever seen Yuanbao's mother. They only knew that Shen Jingui and his wife had been exiled together back then. When he returned, only Shen Jingui was left. He claimed that his wife had died of illness on the way, and they believed it.
Shen Jingui shifted his gaze uneasily and stammered, "Your mother... died of illness..."
Yuanbao's eyes were cold. "Died of illness? I heard with my own ears you say that you sold her."
Shen Jingui was extremely irritated. He grabbed his own hair. "You heard wrong... No, I misspoke. Your mother died of illness. I did think about selling her before, but think about it. In her condition, who would buy her?"
"So you killed her?"
Yuanbao's voice was equally cold. Looking at her like this, she actually resembled Shen Yuning quite a bit.
Shen Jingui was startled and quickly denied, "How could that be? How could I kill someone! She..."
Yuanbao slowly got up and walked towards him. Imitating Shen Yuning's manner, she asked word by word, "So, where is she?"
Shen Jingui flinched and pushed her away. Fortunately, Shen Fugui was beside them and caught Yuanbao. He complained discontentedly, "Yuanbao's foot is injured like this, and you still push her. Aren't you ashamed?"
Shen Yuning also frowned and shouted for Xuanzhi, "You won't let me live in peace? Fine! Xuanzhi, help me hold him down. None of us will have a good time. I'll kill this bastard first and then turn myself in! An eye for an eye. Since you've done such a thing as killing your own wife, you might do the same to us in the future."
Xuanzhi rolled up his sleeves, went to the stove to pick up a kitchen knife, walked over, and gestured it at Shen Jingui's neck. "Sister, you don't need to bother. I was picked up by you. My life belongs to you. You still need to manage the shop. I'll take this scoundrel's life instead."
Over there, Old Man Zhang jumped up. "No, no. You're still young. Let me do it. I'm old and don't have many years to live. Give me the knife. I'll do it!"
For a moment, the room was in chaos. Everyone was scrambling to grab the kitchen knife to kill Shen Jingui, as if he was not a person but a chicken stretching its neck waiting to be slaughtered.
Cold sweat broke out on Shen Jingui's forehead. He quickly waved his hands. "No, no. I really didn't. I didn't kill her... Yuning, I really didn't."
Shen Yuning frowned. "I don't believe you. You've been hiding so many things from us, and you even went gambling. How can we trust you?"
Looking at the glinting kitchen knife in Xuanzhi's hand, Shen Jingui's legs went weak. He almost knelt on the ground and shouted repeatedly, "I didn't lie to you. I won't lie to you... It's true. I really didn't kill her... I met a man who was quite wealthy. He had married five wives but none of them had given birth to a son. I told him... that my wife was fertile. He... he believed me and gave me fifteen taels to buy her as his fifth concubine..."
Hearing this, Xuanzhi glanced at Shen Yuning's ashen face, stepped forward, and swung the knife. At that moment, everyone was in a daze and didn't notice Xuanzhi's action. By the time they reacted, it was too late. Xuanzhi's knife came down.
Shen Jingui let out a shrill scream and slumped to the ground. A stench filled the air, but he didn't feel any pain or smell any blood. It turned out that he was so frightened that he had wet his pants.
Shen Yuning came to her senses and looked over. She saw Xuanzhi pull out the knife from the stool, give Shen Jingui a cold look, then turn around and go to the well to wash the knife.
On the stool, there was still a lock of Shen Jingui's hair.
Xuanzhi had a long knife. When he was free, he would go to an open space in the suburbs and practice with it. Shen Yuning had seen him practice once and thought his martial arts skills were excellent. It was a pity that no one had carefully guided him, and his good skills were being wasted.
Now seeing him wield the kitchen knife so skillfully, she couldn't help but sigh again.
Without even looking at Shen Jingui, Shen Fugui carried Yuanbao inside to check her foot injury. Zhang Rong also helped Old Man Zhang inside to continue applying medicinal wine.
Shen Yuning saw Huzi staggering out of the room. She went up and picked him up. "Huzi, let's go to the embroidery workshop to find your Aunt Cen."
When they returned, Shen Jingui had already left.
Shen Fugui put the food on the table and sighed, "Xuanzhi went to pay off his debt, fifty taels... And they've also agreed that from now on, he'll get two taels a month. No more. He's not allowed to gamble anymore."
Old Man Zhang couldn't stay idle, but his body really hurt. He was lying on the reclining chair, and Zhang Rong had to feed him. Hearing Shen Fugui's words, he turned his gaze to Shen Yuning. "Once a person gets involved in gambling, it's hard for them to turn back. They might be more restrained after our intimidation these days, but after a while, they might... "
Shen Yuning knew this well in her heart. She said helplessly, "When I was young, Grandfather Xue served in the Ministry of Justice. He repeatedly submitted memorials to the emperor, asking for legislation to ban gambling, but all his efforts were in vain. Even a noble family like the Xue family was helpless. We have even less of a way. Gambling is something that can easily make people with weak wills lose themselves. Moreover, there are people who are jealous of our successful business and deliberately lead Shen Jingui astray."
Zhang Rong had lived a carefree life. Hearing this, she was quite impatient. "So, we have no way at all? Just tie Shen Jingui up and don't let him go out."
It was a crime to secretly lock up a living person. Zhang Rong said this just out of frustration.
Shen Yuning didn't have much time to pay attention to Shen Jingui. She told Shen Fugui to keep an eye on him and not let him gamble again, then threw herself back into her own business.
Now, Yun County was well - governed. Even though there were no Shen's Embroidery Workshops in many towns, there were other cloth and embroidery shops. And because Shen's Embroidery Workshop had set an example, cloth and embroidery shops, as well as other industries, also adopted the piece - rate system when hiring workers. They no longer differentiated between men and women when it came to wages. Instead, they paid according to the workers' abilities.
So, Shen Yuning set her sights on other towns. Besides the urban area, Ling City had a total of five counties. In the past, the poorest were Yun County and Maohe County. Now, Yun County had become a county comparable to the urban area, and the poorest was only Maohe County left.
However, after discussing with Chen Wenwei, Shen Yuning thought that Maohe County was not a suitable place for their second business location. The county magistrate of Maohe County was also from the capital, but unlike Chen Wenwei, he didn't want to do practical things for the people. He was a collateral branch of the Tang family in the capital. He had been demoted here because of a crime. He was just waiting to finish his three - year term so that he could return to the capital for a report.
The Tang family of the Duke's Mansion. The Duke of Tang was the chief minister of the current dynasty. He had grown up with the emperor and was deeply favored by the emperor. Moreover, the Duke of Tang's younger sister was the current imperial noble consort.
Since the death of the empress more than a decade ago, the emperor had never established a new empress. It had always been this concubine from the Tang family who managed the six palaces. She had been promoted all the way from a virtuous concubine to the current imperial noble consort.
Chen Wenwei added, "Moreover, the prefect of Ling City is also from the direct branch of the Tang family. To be honest, the biggest obstacle I've faced in Yun County in these years has been Prefect Tang. Fortunately, the Chief Minister Tang is not a person who only promotes his relatives. My father explained the interests to him, so Prefect Tang didn't dare to make things difficult for me. But because of this, we'd better not provoke that Magistrate Tang in Maohe County."
Chen Wenwei's power was only in Yun County. Once out of Yun County, Shen Yuning had concerns when she wanted to do something. So, the best way was to go to the other three counties in Ling City.
However, Shen Yuning didn't agree with Chen Wenwei's statement that the Chief Minister Tang was not a person who only promoted his relatives. If a person who was not like that would allow his family members to control local politics, wasn't that favoring his relatives?
After much analysis, Chen Wenwei decided on the second location for Shen Yuning, Yongxi County, which was next to Yun County. In fact, Yongxi County was the place with the worst geographical conditions in Ling City. With high mountains and long rivers, many villages had scattered households. There were a few households here and there on the mountain, making governance really difficult.
The county magistrate of Yongxi County was a local man named Lu. He had been the county magistrate for more than a decade. Magistrate Lu's achievements were mediocre, and there was no significant breakthrough. But the fact that he could maintain Yongxi County so that it wasn't the worst county in Ling City showed that he had put in effort.
Chen Wenwei said, "I've met Magistrate Lu several times. Although he's a bit tactful, he's also a person who is willing to speak up and do things for the people. If you go to his territory, with me mediating, he will surely cooperate with you."
Shen Yuning smiled slightly. "Thank you, Lord Chen, for thinking so much for me."
Chen Wenwei hesitated. "Sister Yuning, actually, speaking up for the people should be the job of us officials. Yongxi County is different from Yun County, and Magistrate Lu is different from me. He won't do everything according to your wishes. In my opinion, why not suspend the work of spreading the law for the time being?"
Shen Yuning looked up at him and slowly stopped smiling. "Lord Chen thinks that these things should be done by you officials. Then I'd like to ask, among the numerous county magistrates in the Great Zhou, how many have done such things? You said that Magistrate Lu is also a person who is willing to speak up for the people. Then why are you worried that he won't follow me? Are you worried that I'll cause trouble, or are you worried that he doesn't have a backer like you and won't be able to help me?"
Chen Wenwei was speechless. The cold wind of late autumn blew in, but a thin layer of sweat broke out on his forehead.
After a long time, he stood up and sighed helplessly. "Sister Yuning, sometimes I think it's really not good to grow up. When we were young, our families were in charge of so many cases in the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate. At that time, seeing the elders handle one case after another and redress one injustice after another, I thought it was so satisfying, as if there were no grievances among the common people in front of us. But now, now I know that the cases among the people are all complicated, and there are so many secrets hidden in them. Yuning, there are some things that you and I can't touch."
Shen Yuning also stood up, walked to his side, and opened the window closest to them. The cold wind blew in their faces.
"Winter is coming, but after the cold winter, spring will come with blooming flowers. Brother Wenwei, whether you think I'm naive or not yet grown - up. I only know that if everyone chooses to protect themselves and no one is willing to contribute, those unreasonable things will be like tumors on a person's body, growing bigger and bigger until one day they burst. By then, no one can escape fate."