Manager Feng, after all, is just a county rchant. If he doesn’t have backing, he wouldn’t dare to strike hard against the Gu Family.
"Is your relative an official? A re lowly rchant, what kind of relative could be an official?" Gu Jin’an laughed, then his face turned cold, and he ordered Qiu Lang, "The Feng guy impersonating an official’s relative is a grave cri. Keep beating him. If we beat him to death, it would be a rit for our Gu Family!"
"Yes." Qiu Lang understood Gu Jin’an’s intention, which was to beat Manager Feng harshly but only make him feel extre pain without causing any real harm.
But Manager Feng didn’t understand this. When the pain on his body grew worse, he thought he would die and shouted at the top of his voice to survive: "The Assistant Judge Jia of Tong’an Prefecture is my relative, a close blood relative. If you kill , he won’t let you off!"
Manager Feng nearly tore his throat, and after shouting this, he collapsed from exhaustion.
Gu Jin’an frowned and looked at the other people present.
Chai Sanfu’s mother, his elder brother, a person dressed as a steward, and four people in governnt official uniforms were all here, but their hands and feet were bound, and their mouths were blocked, so they couldn’t speak.
"You, tell , what kind of relative is Manager Feng to Assistant Judge Jia?" Gu Jin’an pointed at Chai Sanfu’s brother and said, "Tell , and I can let you go."
Manager Feng has a concubine who is a Chai Family woman, and the daughter is close to her grandmother. Originally, Chai Sanfu’s mother should be asked, but old lady Chai looks tricky, and asking her would give her a chance to entangle, so Gu Jin’an asked Chai Dafu.
Chai Dafu’s eyes lit up after listening, and he made muffled sounds toward Gu Jin’an.
Qiu Lang stepped forward, removed the cloth gag from his mouth, and Chai Dafu imdiately said, "You will really let go? You didn’t lie to ?!"
With a swish, Qiu Lang drew a dagger and pressed it against Chai Dafu’s neck: "The Young Master is a scholar, he keeps his word and disdains to deceive you, stop with the nonsense, tell us everything you know."
"Don’t, don’t slash my neck, I’ll talk, I’ll say everything!" Chai Dafu was trembling as he spoke: "My family said that in August this year, Manager Feng was suddenly very happy one day, and held a large family banquet, even letting the concubine sit at the table. She was curious, wondering what great event Manager Feng encountered? It took her more than half a month to secretly find out that Manager Feng had a grandson born in Tong’an Prefecture."
Grandson?
Gu Jin’an frowned, suddenly recalling a piece of gossip he heard at Young Master Dou’s place.
It was said that the Assistant Judge Jia of Tong’an Prefecture had got a Jiangnan beauty, doted on her a lot, and in August, that beauty gave birth to a son. Assistant Judge Jia wanted to record that illegitimate son under his legitimate wife’s na, but his legitimate wife didn’t agree and made a big fuss.
It seems the beauty who gave birth to the son is Manager Feng’s daughter.
Ha, Manager Feng is sothing, having a family in Jiangnan, sowing seeds everywhere, using his beautiful daughter to climb into high-class circles.
And Young Master Dou is in a big business, needing to know a lot about the official’s information, so as long as it’s an official of a certain rank, Young Master Dou always has soone keep an eye on it, thus knowing about this news.
"Mmph!" Old lady Chai, seeing her son easily reveal everything he knew, was very anxious, making muffled sounds at Gu Jin’an, her eyes glaring, looking as if she wanted to eat Gu Jin’an.
Gu Jin’an laughed and had Qiu Lang remove the cloth gag from old lady Chai’s mouth to hear what she wanted to say.
"You mud-legged Gu bastard, my Sanfu died in your house, compensate ten thousand taels of silver, without ten thousand taels, this old lady will go to the Capital to file an Imperial Petition, wipe out your entire family!" Old lady Chai was fierce, and as soon as she could speak, she ignored the Feng Family, imdiately demanding ten thousand taels.
Gu Jin’an laughed coldly and said, "It was your Chai Sanfu who sought death! But since you care so much about Chai Sanfu, I might as well be kind and let you reunite with your son."
Old lady Chai, who prays three tis before a al to God, was terrified at these words, her face turning white, her teeth clattering nervously: "You, what do you an... San, Sanfu isn’t dead?"
Gu Jin’an smiled warmly: "King Yama saw your Chai Sanfu being filial, so he let him co up to take you for a reunion."
"Take, take !" Old lady Chai was about to go crazy, shouting: "No, no, I don’t need to, let Sanfu be reborn first, I’ll leave a few years later, then be his granddaughter."
"That’s not for you to decide." Gu Jin’an called Ah Duo from outside, and Ah Duo brought Chai Sanfu in.
Although Chai Sanfu narrowly escaped death, he was still greatly weakened by the poison, looking worn out, face pale with a greenish tint, eyes swollen, eye sockets dark, almost like a ghost. Upon seeing old lady Chai, he was tearful: "Mother, my dear mother, I thought I’d never see you again in this life!"
"Ghost!" Old lady Chai scread, her eyes rolling back, and fainted.
Watching this, Gu Jin’an said disdainfully: "So easily scared, Chai Sanfu didn’t die, their poison was already cured."
Having said that, he looked at Manager Feng and said: "Manager Feng, wake up, stop pretending, your sche failed, Chai Sanfu and the others aren’t dead, even if you have the Chai family and the waiters’ families report to the authorities and raise a ruckus, my family will be fine."
Manager Feng wanted to kill Chai Sanfu and the others, intending to make a scene at the workshop and house. If soone died there, even if the Gu Family wasn’t ultimately responsible, they would still suffer.
Manager Feng was shocked. He used the most potent poison, which should have been lethal upon consumption. How could Chai Sanfu survive? Could it be he discovered the poison was swapped and defected to the Gu Family?
Manager Feng couldn’t pretend any longer, opened his eyes, and made one last effort: "Good Brother An, this is a misunderstanding. I didn’t have Chai Sanfu poison the others... I brought him because his sister is my concubine, that wretch wanted Chai Sanfu to gain so insight, so she begged to bring him to the wedding feast, I’m innocent... mmph!"
Before he could finish, Gu Jin’an stuffed his mouth with a cloth gag.
Gu Jin’an looked down at Manager Feng and said, "All in this room are witnesses, the poison is physical evidence, the evidence is irrefutable, there’s no need for you to waste words."
Then he turned to the ones dressed as governnt officials and said: "Do you know impersonating governnt people is a capital offense? If you don’t want to die, point out Manager Feng as the mastermind, and I’ll plead with Lord Magistrate to spare you."
Those people were shocked, not expecting Gu Jin’an to see through their impersonation, they were frightened and regretful, seeing Gu Jin’an wasn’t even afraid of Manager Feng, or Assistant Judge Jia, and seed intent on escalating to the Prefecture, they were completely scared, quickly nodding and willing to identify Manager Feng.
But the person dressed as a steward wasn’t as easy to deal with, intending to attack when Gu Jin’an removed the cloth to take their statents.
However, Luo Wu approached him calmly saying: "Clerk Wang, it doesn’t matter if you lost your post in Hukang County, but don’t throw your life away."
Clerk Wang was shocked, surprised that his identity was discovered!
Luo Wu hadn’t spent years as a squad leader for nothing and had connections with officials in several nearby counties, so he recognized Clerk Wang.
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