Text/Murong Zijun
During the Qing Dynasty, there was a young man named Zhang Yi in Wuqiao Town, Hebei Province, who was twenty-six years old. The town of Wuqiao, where he lived, is a well-known cloth market, where most of the residents sell cloth for a living, and he has been running around for many years to do cloth trading, often going home for two or three months to live for a few days.
Zhang Yi only married his wife Li Shi last year, Li Shi was twenty years old, born like a flower, but with a frivolous temperament, she was a woman with watery Yang flowers. Since marrying into the Zhang family, her husband loves her very much, everything is her decision, Zhang Yi's mother Jiang Shi, who has been widowed for more than ten years, she is very unaccustomed to her daughter-in-law's daily grease and powder, dressed in fancy fashion.
As long as Li Shi has free time, she goes out to hang out, her husband is often not at home because she goes out to sell cloth, and she is also lonely and unbearable, so she goes out to talk to the neighbors every day. Sometimes the mother-in-law really couldn't stand it, so she taught her a few words, and Li Shi not only did not listen, but also sneered at each other, making Jiang Shi angry and unable to speak for half a day.
In this Wuqiao town, there is a Wusheng named Xu Shan, who originally lived in the city, and later came to Wuqiao Town with his father to open several cloth shops, and the business was very prosperous. Gradually, his father was old and unable to do so, so he entrusted all the business matters to his full management, and he returned to the city to retire with peace of mind.
This Xu Shan was originally a scoundrel, coupled with the wealth of the family, but also lawless, every day entangled with some small, when his father was there he was still restrained, and now he has become the boss, there is nothing to eat and drink every day, see a slightly posture of the woman will openly flirt on the street, the good family woman sees him hiding. And the little who followed him coveted his money, so they aided and abetted abuse and ran rampant in the townships.
On this day, Xu Shan happened to meet Li Shi, who was wandering around, only to see that she was wearing a green dress, her skin was white, and a melon face, which was a beautiful beauty. Xu Shan was immediately fascinated, and looked at the distant Li Shi in a daze and sighed: There is such a beautiful woman, more beautiful than Xi Shi, so he asked Liu Wu next to him: Whose woman is this?
Liu Wu grew up in this Wuqiao town, and most of the residents of this town he knew, so he said to Xu Shan: This woman Li Shi, only married my neighbor Zhang Yi last year, and her man often does not go out to sell cloth. Li Shi has a flirtatious personality, vanity and is very strong, dressed up every day, if you can give her some benefits, she may be good to you.
Xu Shan and Liu Wu discussed how to seduce Li Shi, Liu Wu thought for a while and said: Our two families are neighbors, she often comes to the house and laughs with my wife, you take the opportunity to come and talk to her, you can do what you want, after the two agreed, they went back separately.
After Liu Wu returned home, he talked to his wife Wang About this matter, and Wang felt that this matter was profitable, so she said to her husband: This matter is very easy to handle, you let Xu Shan pretend to be my cousin, as long as Li Shi comes to our house, let him hurry up and come over. Li Shi is a greedy and cheap person, and if I boast about how rich Xu Shan is, she will be moved. Liu Wu felt that this idea was good, so he hurried to report this plan to Xu Shan.
On this day, the Wang clan invited the Li clan to their home to chat, and the two had just spoken a few words, only to see Xu Shan wearing gorgeous clothes, riding a tall horse, and visiting Liu Wu's house with rich gifts. When Li Shi saw that there were guests at home, he quickly got up to say goodbye, and Wang Shi quickly stopped her and said: This is my cousin, not an outsider, Xu Shan also took the opportunity to say hello to Li Shi, and opened the snacks he brought for Li Shi to taste.
Wang Shi saw the two chatting, he found a reason to go out, Wang Clan before going out, he and Li Shi confessed: My cousin, not an outsider, sister accompanied him to talk, I fried two dishes to go, a moment we will drink a few cups. After she went out, she also buckled the door from the outside, and Li Shi said that he was going to go back, but she sat there and did not move.
Wang Shi went out for a while, Xu Shan boldly flirted with Li Shi, seeing that Li Shi was not angry, he went forward to hug her, Li Shi pretended to struggle a few times before accepting Xu Shan, and asked Xu Shan to buy her jewelry and satin clothes, Xu Shan agreed with a full mouth.
After a long time, Wang Shi opened the door and came in, Xu Shan was getting dressed, and Li Shi was too ashamed to look up. Wang Shi pretended to be very angry and said to Xu Shan: I will go out to fry a few dishes of kung fu, you have bullied my good sister, not on your love for my cousin, you will not be spared, you will be kind to my sister in the future.
Li Shi's face turned pale with fright, she knew that this Wang Shi Mingli was talking about Xu Shan, and secretly talking about himself, so she couldn't help but shed tears. Wang Shi saw that Li Shi was scared and crying by himself, and hurriedly comforted her: Oh, don't cry, as long as you two can get better for a long time in the future, won't you become my sister-in-law?
Li Shi said with a smile: Thank you sister for your kindness, I will not forget you, and also promised Wang Shi that she will always be good with Xu Shan from now on. When she said this, she completely forgot that she was a married woman.
Since then, Xu Shan and Li Shi have mixed together, and Xu Shan often bought some expensive dresses with silk satin and some gold and silver jewelry for Li Shi. When Li Shi suddenly wore gold and silver, her mother-in-law Jiang Shi felt that something was wrong, so she interrogated her daughter-in-law where she got these things from.
Li Shi explained that it was bought for her by her mother-in-law, and as soon as she heard it, she knew that her daughter-in-law was lying, and Li's mother's family was poor, and her brother had only married her daughter-in-law, and who had spare money to buy such a valuable thing for her.
So Jiang Clan quietly followed his daughter-in-law, and it didn't take long to find that her daughter-in-law had someone outside, and it was still a famous rogue Xu Shan, so Jiang Clan couldn't bear to expose her, but just wouldn't let her go out again. Li Shi stayed at home for two days and then lost his temper and threw things around, and also pointed out that Sang scolded Huai, Jiang Shi originally saved face for his daughter-in-law, which would be angry, and exposed the ugly story of his daughter-in-law stealing love outside.
For a while, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law quarreled over the sky, and when they were making a lot of trouble, their son Zhang Yi returned, and when he saw that the two were arguing like crazy, he hurriedly asked the reason. When he knew the reason, Zhang Yi was also very angry, he was tired and tired outside, but his wife put a green hat on him at home, so Zhang Yi threw Li Out of the house with a letter of resignation.
Li Shi was suspended, and she did not dare to return to her mother's house, so she had no choice but to find Xu Shan and cry that she was now homeless and could only come to him. Xu Shan said happily: Isn't this exactly what we both want? From now on, you will no longer have to be angry with your mother-in-law. A few days later, he bought another courtyard for Li's family, and the two lived in it openly.
Who knew that in less than half a year, the business in Xushan's shop had lost one after another, and he had to meet Li's various requirements, and gradually he hated Li' family. I thought, Li Shi is not my wife, why do you provide for her every day, she looks so beautiful should let her be a secret prostitute, this is a cash cow, do not need to use it in vain. So he forced Li To pick up customers in this courtyard, of course, Li Shi was unwilling, but he was immediately beaten by Xu Shan, Li Shi was scared, and there was nowhere to escape, helplessly everything was at the mercy of Xu Shan.
Besides, zhang Yi felt bad in his heart since he threw his wife out, and this time he went out to sell cloth for half a year before returning home. As soon as he returned home, he heard from his neighbors that Li shi was forced by Xu Shan to become a prostitute, so he secretly visited Li s residence. When Li Shi saw her ex-husband come to visit him, he cried to death and came back to life, which was really remorseful. That night, Zhang Yi stayed overnight, and the next day before leaving, he also returned the hugh book to his wife, and Zhang Yi did not tell his mother when he returned.
Who knew that early the next morning, after Xu Shan came to see the Hugh book on the table, he understood that Zhang Yi had spent the night here, so he stripped Off Li's clothes and whipped her, and Li was beaten all over his body and his throat was crying dumb. Xu Shan was also a little weak-hearted at this time, Zhang Yi had already returned the letter of resignation to Li Shi, if Zhang Yi sued Yamen for forcing Liang as a prostitute, I would have to go to court.
Xu Shan then told his subordinate Liu Wu about this matter again, and Liu Wu said: Zhang Yi is a small merchant selling cloth, he may not think of this, he will definitely come to Li Shi. As soon as he came, we would beat him up secretly, and we wouldn't dare to come back in the future.
A few days later, Li Yi came to meet his wife again, and just after entering the courtyard, Xu Shan, Liu Wu, and the guys in the shop who were hiding in the courtyard all jumped out, and then beat Zhang Yi on the ground. Zhang Yi was outnumbered, knocked unconscious, and lay motionless on the ground.
Xu Shan was so frightened that he quickly made people stop and said: My purpose is only to teach him a lesson, and now that he has been killed by you, how can this be good? When Liu Wu and the others saw that they had caused such a catastrophe, they were all frightened and overwhelmed.
After Zhang Yi woke up, he found himself lying by the river, and he did not dare to go home to see his mother, so he had to endure the pain of getting on the boat and came to the door of a shop in a neighboring county, the owner of this shop was called Song Fang, and the two often went out together to sell cloth, and the relationship was also very good. Song Fang saw that Zhang Yi had been beaten and injured all over his body, and quickly asked him the reason.
Zhang Yi did not want his friends to know about his family's ugly affairs, so he said that he was injured because he was drunk, he was injured in a fight with someone, and he also injured others, and he did not want to fight for this matter, so he came out to find him to hide. Song Fang hurriedly invited Lang Zhong to grab medicine for him to heal his wounds, and after his injuries were healed, the two went to the north of the city to sell cloth.
A few days after Zhang Yi left, a male corpse floated in the river in Lianzhen, and the governor quickly reported it to the officials. The county order immediately brought a servant and a tolerance to come and check it. I saw that the deceased was scarred, as if he had been beaten to death and thrown into the river, but the face of the deceased had decayed, so the identity of the deceased was not clear. The county order temporarily buried the deceased in a coffin, and then posted notices to apprehend the murderer and search for the family of the deceased.
When Zhang Yi went out, he did not tell his mother, his mother Jiang Shi has been quiet in his heart these days, and this day the neighbor told her that a murdered man was found in the river and asked her to go over to see if it was Zhang Yi. When Jiang Shi heard this, he went crazy to Yamen and complained that Xu Shan had killed her son, and the county order asked him why, and Jiang Shi accused Xu Shan of the crime of "murdering women".
The county order immediately asked the public servant to open the coffin for Jiang Shi to inspect, in fact, Jiang Shi could not distinguish clearly, but she saw that there was a patch on the right shoulder of the deceased, and she was also eager for revenge. So she said to the county order: My son has been selling cloth outside for many years, and he likes to carry cloth on his right shoulder, so most of his clothes are broken on his right shoulder, and I use old cloth to patch him and sew it with white thread.
The county order and the tolerance checked, and sure enough, the right shoulder was a piece of ding made of white thread, and the county order sent a public messenger to arrest Xu Shan and others for interrogation. There was no use of torture, and Xu Shan and Liu Wu confessed the reasons and experiences of the killing.
Xu Shan's case has undergone several retrials, and no one has overturned the case, only waiting for the autumn to be beheaded. Xu Shan's father, Xu Laoweng, was so sad that he had been looking for someone in the city to exonerate his son, wanting to save his life first.
A friend of Xu Laoweng came over this day and said: Brother Xu, if you look closely at the deceased, I see that the person is not Zhang Yi at all, Zhang Yi is only in his twenties and has a medium build. And this deceased was thin and weak, not like a man with a downward force, and he had a white beard on his face, I could see very clearly, Zhang Yi was only in his twenties, how could he have a white beard?
When Xu Laoweng heard this, he suddenly realized that he had immediately gone to the province to retract his son's grievances, and the provincial government sent the case back to the original county for retrial. The county order did not approve of it because it was judged that the deceased was not Zhang Yi with a whisker, and zhang Yi was also missing, so the case dragged on for a year.
Besides, Zhang Yi earned some silver outside, so he rushed home to visit his mother, and jiang shi was sad and happy when he saw his son return. The son saw his mother crying badly and asked why. Jiang Shi told her son about how she sued, and also asked his son to hide first.
Zhang Yi said to his mother: I can't do this, Xu Shan is no longer a thing, I can't let him die for me, if he dies for this matter in the future, can I still stay in my hometown? So Zhang Yi came to the official palace and recounted in detail his grudge with Xu Shan and the reasons for his departure from home.
The county commander was also shocked to hear this, and hurriedly took him to the provincial capital to meet with Himai, but fortunately Xu Shan and the others had not yet been beheaded. Xu Shan, for his debauchery in seducing the women of the Liang family, sentenced Wusheng to the name of Wusheng and given the punishment of bar shackles, and the others were acquitted. The unnamed deceased is pending investigation.
After Zhang Yi returned home, he took his wife home and begged his mother to forgive her daughter-in-law. Jiang Shi originally did not agree to Li Shi entering the house again, but seeing that his son liked Li Shi so much, the couple hugged their headaches and cried after returning home. And Li Shi has been prostrating to her and admitting mistakes, and her forehead is covered with blood, if she does not agree anymore, is she not an evil mother-in-law, just like this, the family of three is reunited.