in2ebook Chapter 333 A Scheme to Kill and Destroy the Mind
Chapter 333 A Scheme to Kill and Destroy the Mind
They parted ways at the post station outside Jiangzhou City. Mu Qingcheng, Su Qingyan, and others stayed at the post station, while Yun Qing and her group quietly returned to Jiangzhou without attracting anyone's attention.
Jiangzhou City remained incredibly prosperous.
Yun Qing and Fang Xurao immediately got to work upon entering the city. The city's defenses needed to be meticulously planned, leaving no room for error. Since the Jiangzhou Sima was Yun Qing's man, the situation was instantly under their control.
Fang Xurao felt immense pressure. As the governor of Jiangzhou, he had to protect the people of the city and Crown Prince Yunqing, who was the future hope of the Great Qi Kingdom.
Outside Jiangzhou City, Yu Haifeng had already led 20,000 troops to garrison the city.
Yu Haifeng led his men to raid Shang Yihai's home, reaping a considerable harvest. Crucially, they acquired weapons and equipment crafted from high-quality steel transported from the Yongkang mines. With these formidable weapons, the army's morale soared, and every soldier was in high spirits.
The situation in Jiangzhou is temporarily stable!
At the post station, Feng Zhishang performed tendon-suturing surgery on Su Chenxi.
During Su Chenxi's recuperation, Mu Qingcheng and Feng Zhishang stayed to take care of her.
Su Qingyan, along with her second brother Su Chaoyang, retrieved the remains of Su Yi and his wife, re-encoffined them, and prepared to send them to Shouchun.
She then took Su Chaoyang back to Yongkang to pay respects to her grandfather and Su Qingyan's mother. They also retrieved their coffins, intending to send them to Shouchun together.
Su Qingyan took her younger brother back to the Su family in Yongkang and took back the old Su family house and the properties in Yongkang.
Tang Chuning, Su Qingyan's heartless father, tried to return to the Tang family with his cousin and two children after being kicked out of the Su family by Ning Haochen, but the Tang family wouldn't even let him in the door.
With the Crown Prince in Yongkang, the Tang family had no choice but to behave themselves, fearing that someone would bring up old grievances.
It's said that Tang Chuning offended someone close to the Crown Prince. The Tang family immediately severed ties with Tang Chuning, claiming that he was a son-in-law of the Su family and had no relation to them.
And so, Tang Chuning's family was driven out onto the street. Fortunately, his cousin and daughter wore a lot of jewelry, and he also had a jade pendant. This jade pendant was a betrothal gift from the Su family when he married Su Ying. If it weren't for the fact that this jade pendant was a rare and exquisite piece, he would have thrown it away long ago.
This jade pendant alone sold for 1,200 taels of silver. All in all, they received a total of 2,000 taels of silver.
Originally, Tang Chuning only wanted to buy a small courtyard to live in first, and then take back the Su family mansion and Su family property after the Crown Prince's people left Yongkang.
But her son, Tang Xinbao, couldn't bear hardship and was too proud to admit his mistake. He insisted on living in a large house, saying that living in a small courtyard was too shameful. Her cousin also said pitifully, "The courtyard is too small, where will the servants live? The maids and servants can't possibly live with their masters!"
He thought his cousin was right, so he bought a three-courtyard house, and his wife and children reluctantly agreed.
After buying the house, they also bought four maids, four cleaning and cooking women, two servants, and a gatekeeper.
He bought furniture and household items for the new house, as well as rice, flour, and diesel fuel, which cost him a total of 1,800 taels of silver. He only had 200 taels of silver left in his hand.
There's no income at home, yet so many people still need to be fed. Tang Xinbao still eats out and drinks with his cronies every day. His wife has been drinking a bowl of bird's nest porridge every day for over ten years; how can she stop? Their daughter used to have a new outfit every day, never wearing it twice, but now she only has a dozen or so pieces, and they've run out of clothes.
Two hundred taels is not enough. He never cared about household affairs before. His wife and children could spend the money in the house however they wanted. They never worried about money. Anyway, the Su family had more money than they could spend.
Now that the Su family's money is gone, his wife and children are all asking him for money, but where does he have any money?
So he gathered his family together, told them the truth, and told them to be more frugal in the future.
Unexpectedly, my cousin burst into tears, heartbroken that she would never be able to eat bird's nest again. My daughter threw a tantrum on the ground, lamenting that she would never have new clothes again, that her friends would laugh at her, and that she would never be able to show her face in public again.
Tang Xinbao was the only one who didn't cry or make a fuss, which made Tang Chuning very happy. But then, her son pulled a stack of bills out of his pocket and handed them to her.
This is only a portion, not much, only two thousand taels.
Previously, this amount of money was just for one of his meals, and Tang Xinbao thought he was already very frugal. But recently, people have been saying he's stingy because he only has this much money on his bill, which makes him lose face.
Tang Chuning fainted from anger after holding the bill.
Unexpectedly, after living in the new house for only ten days, it was used to pay off debts, including those of the servants, and the debts were not yet paid off.
Tang Chuning and his family were penniless and driven to the streets without even a change of clothes. With no other option, he had to take his family to stay at the mortuary.
They didn't dare stay in the dilapidated temple either, because the beggars there were very formidable, and more importantly, they were too dirty.
After moving into the mortuary, Tang Chuning discovered that his once gentle and considerate cousin had changed her attitude, verbally abusing him relentlessly every day with the most vicious insults.
Tang Chuning could hardly believe his eyes and ears. Was this the cousin he had doted on for over a decade? No, no, no, this wasn't his cousin. She was just too heartbroken, which was why she spoke without thinking.
That day, debt collectors cornered them at the mortuary, threatening to break his son's legs if they didn't pay. But he truly had no money, and without a word, they broke Tang Xinbao's legs.
Before leaving, they stripped them naked to pay off their debt, but thankfully they left them with their undergarments instead of leaving them naked.
Tang Chuning was stunned, barely having time to feel the pain of holding her injured son. Her cousin, like a madwoman, started hitting and scratching his face, calling him a useless coward and telling him to just die…
That night, my cousin tricked her own daughter into going to a brothel and then ran away with the money.
The next day, when he woke up in the mortuary, only Tang Xinbao was by his side. Tang Xinbao was bleeding profusely from her wounds and had been unconscious from the shock; she was barely breathing.
A kind-hearted person came to tell Tang Chuning that his cousin had sold her daughter into a brothel and then ran away with the money.
Tang Chuning didn't believe it. He abandoned his unconscious son and ran to the brothel. Sure enough, he saw his daughter there. But his little daughter said that she came there to enjoy herself. There was good food and nice clothes to wear. She didn't want to be a beggar with him and asked him not to bother her anymore.
Tang Chuning frantically begged his daughter to come with him; it was his only hope. Unexpectedly, his daughter summoned thugs from a brothel who beat him up and threw him out.
When Tang Chuning returned to the mortuary, his son was already dead. He held his son's body, but showed no grief or tears. He just sat there blankly.
He kept repeating "Why? Why? Why did this happen?" to himself.
He couldn't understand whether all of this was just a dream, and whether, when he woke up, he would be lying in the Su family mansion again, as the master of the house, surrounded by servants and flattered by friends…
And so he fell asleep again, dreaming of his children surrounding him, and his gentle and considerate cousin... In the blink of an eye, his children turned into evil ghosts demanding repayment, and his childhood sweetheart, gentle and considerate cousin, also transformed into an ugly person, one moment wanting to eat his flesh, the next wanting to suck his blood...
He suddenly opened his eyes and saw everything clearly. It turned out that the life he had lived before was just a dream!
Hahahaha... That's an absolutely absurd dream. How could he love such a vicious and wicked woman? And have a pair of ungrateful, troublesome children with her?
His wife is Su Ying, the eldest daughter of the Su family, and they have only one daughter, Su Qingyan!
Three days later, Tang Xinbao's body decomposed and began to stink, prompting a report to the county government. The county government had no choice but to send its officers to clean up the body.
After that, Tang Chuning stayed alone in the mortuary. Every day, a yamen runner would come to check on him to see if he was dead. If he was, they would give him a bite to eat.
Everyone thought he must have no desire to live anymore; that such a wretched existence was worse than death. But to everyone's surprise, he not only didn't seek death, but he insisted on living as long as he had a bite to eat.
Because he still had a wish to fulfill!
Until that day he heard that Su Qingyan had returned.