After praising Mr. Shi for his great fortune, they started discussing the incident where he was doused with feces.
"I heard he had to drink several buckets of fecal water to survive. Tsk tsk tsk, how can he stomach als after this? Won’t he just vomit at the dining table?"
"Even if he doesn’t vomit, every al he’ll have to recall that fecal water. He won’t have a good life ahead, poor thing."
Although the townsfolk of the prefecture love gossip, they are good-hearted. Being good-hearted, they felt at this mont they should sympathize with Mr. Shi. After all, being doused with fecal water is sothing worthy of pity, isn’t it?
However, so sneered and said, "Shi Laoer is a Madman, and what Madn love most is to do sensational things. Maybe Shi Laoer is at ho feeling proud, having gained more fa, worthy of celebrating with a puffer fish feast."
"Hahaha, Young Master Lin, you still detest Madn so much, showing no rcy when talking about them."
Young Master Lin is a private school teacher, running a school in South City to make ends et. In his early years, he participated in a literary gathering but was mocked by several Madn, resulting in a loss of reputation and failing the Scholar exam that year.
He seed to have co to terms with it later, realizing that if you weren’t from a noble family, even if you passed exams to beco an official, it wouldn’t matter. So he simply stopped taking exams, stayed ho to teach, nurture talents, and serve his elderly mother.
Therefore, Young Master Lin despised Madn, especially disliking Mr. Shi, who had competed in Prefecture Examinations with him and hailed from a noble family.
"Hmph, what’s so great about Madn? I just look down on them, especially Shi Laoer, a scholar who forcibly took a girl in Jiangnan, ruining her life. Now that the old story is brought up, he doesn’t know how to repent. During Lord Magistrate’s banquet for new students, he invited those who failed the exams. What does he intend? To subtly accuse the Magistrate of bias and speak up for those failed students?!"
Young Master Lin grew more agitated as he spoke, attracting many townsfolk eager for drama.
After Young Master Lin finished scolding Mr. Shi, they began asking him about the scandals from Mr. Shi’s youth.
Lo and behold, they uncovered two stories, both related to moral integrity.
It was said that in his youth, Mr. Shi befriended a scholar from a farr family, visited their ho as a guest, and after staying a while, violated his sister.
As a result, he did not marry her, not even willing to accept her as a concubine, instead scolding the girl for being lowly, knowing her muddy origins but still wanting to enter a high-class family, deserving to be used for free!
The girl, being from the countryside, was naive, believing Mr. Shi’s promises to marry her were true, only to be insulted like this, and in the end, couldn’t bear it and jumped into a well to her death. The Shi family settled the matter with compensation.
The second story was similar, befriending a poor scholar and then violating their sister.
Overall, Shi Laoer, like all noble family offspring, looked down on those of humble origins, considering their degradation a pasti.
But those poor scholars weren’t stupid; hearing about what he’d done, they might continue befriending him but wouldn’t bring him ho as a guest anymore.
The townsfolk were shocked to hear: "There’s such a thing? This truly is a sin. Mr. Shi deserved his current downfall!"
In fact, such incidents where wealthy young masters befriended farr lads, stayed in the countryside for a few days, resulting in incidents with farr girls, weren’t unheard of. They’ve all heard such stories.
But in the past, everyone used to scold the farr girls for being loose and lacking self-respect, and this ti, due to the influence of Young Master Lin and a storytelling teacher, they turned to scold Mr. Shi instead.
Gu Jin’an had heard many such stories, knowing well that it’s always the girls who are scolded and thrown into ponds afterwards. So although he knew many Jinling scholars and befriended so Fu Family sons from Tianfu County, he never brought them ho.
Even if they wanted to visit, he would refuse, saying there are grown sisters at ho, making it inappropriate to entertain outside n.
He also knew how much noble families looked down on farr families, so when choosing husbands for Gu Jinxiu and Gu Jinli, he made sure to look deeply into their backgrounds, not harming his sisters to curry favor with noble families.
Mr. Shi’s incident made the prefecture lively in the evening.
Overall, today’s prefecture was exceptionally lively. At dawn, the news about Old Gu Family’s execution stirred people’s excitent; then they watched Lv Bai shouting "I am of common origin, my family are street vendors" at the governnt office gates; co evening, they heard Mr. Shi’s gossip, feeling thoroughly satisfied.
Many people carrying baskets, holding children, and balancing loads didn’t want to go ho to cook, wanting to continue listening to the tale of Mr. Shi being doused with feces.
So enthusiasts even ran to the Shi family gates to watch the show, remarkably seeing a group of beggars knocking on the door, asking the Shi Family people, "We heard you urgently need feces? We have feces, only ten copper coins per load."
They actually started selling feces, infuriating the Shi Family people, who angrily shouted, "Scram, scram, where did you filthy beggars co from? Dare to act out at the Shi Mansion gates! Break your legs and throw you out of town!"
Saying this, they really ordered several Protectors to grab sticks and chase those beggars, intending to teach them a lesson.
The little beggars were swift, running fast, and even kicked over the load of feces they brought while escaping.
With a couple of thuds, two buckets of feces imdiately toppled over, gushing out and drenching the Shi Mansion entrance.
For a mont, the Shi Mansion entrance was filled with a repulsive stench.
The housekeeper was hopping mad, cursing loudly, "A bunch of stinking beggars whose parents are dead, damned dogs, daring to cause trouble at the Shi Mansion gates. What are you standing there for? Go catch them and beat them to death!"
Beggars in Great Chu, being vagrants without household registration, could be beaten to death if caught.
"Yes." The Shi Protectors eagerly chased after them, shouting, "Stop, freeze right there, you’re dead at."
However, the little beggars knew the city streets well, threading through alleys and disappearing in no ti.
The Shi family Protectors chased them for an hour, but could only return in frustration.
The incident of Mr. Shi being poisoned by puffer fish and doused with feces also reached the governnt office. Magistrate Gu was greatly amused, even though the incident was a bit nauseating. Thankfully, the banquet had already finished, or he would’ve thrown up for sure.
Magistrate Gu didn’t shy away, telling them about Mr. Shi’s situation and seizing the opportunity to say, "You’re scholars and should take this as a warning, not to follow in Mr. Shi’s footsteps. The Shi family is a noble family, and they can handle scandals, but how many of you here can compare to the Shi family? Without that ability, you should live honestly."
If they really sought disaster, they should wait until he left office; he didn’t want to be implicated.
The students present listened and, cupping their hands, replied, "Yes, we rember Lord Magistrate’s teachings."
However, people like Xue De, who had long been morally corrupt yet with decent backgrounds, didn’t take the Magistrate’s words to heart.
In their eyes, forcing one or two farr girls wasn’t a big deal, a hundred taels of silver could settle it.
But the incident with Mr. Shi was a significant blow to them. With Mr. Shi down, where could Xue De find a bigger patron to deal with Gu Jin’an?
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