Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 15 is not a monolithic entity

The scholar Suan was extremely knowledgeable. After explaining the general situation of the Bian family, he went on to give many details, which helped Chen the Assassin gain a lot of knowledge.

Although this knowledge is not in textbooks and is meaningless for the imperial examinations, it is very useful for understanding human relationships and worldly affairs.

Think about it, if you meet someone for the first time and while you are drinking and bragging, the other person knows the origin of your last name and even praises you a few times by mentioning your celebrity family member, wouldn't he be able to quickly narrow the distance between the two of you and gain your favor?

If someone were to repeatedly compare you to a famous person in your family when accusing you, would that make you feel more ashamed?

So Chen Gu studied very seriously. He not only listened carefully but also took notes. He prepared to copy a book and put it aside so that he could take it out and read it when he had nothing to do. Especially when he was going to meet someone, he would take it out and review it in advance.

This thing is really practical, and the number of characters is not too many. A family has at most three to five hundred characters, and there are several hundred surnames, so the total number of characters is less than 100,000. Moreover, it is not too tiring to remember only one surname every day.

The next day was a rare sunny day, and even the temperature rose by ten degrees.

The climate in Chongqing is very strange. It is difficult to see the sun in winter and early spring. Once there is continuous rainy weather, the temperature will become very wet and cold. But once the sun comes out, the temperature will rise sharply.

The temperature in the past few days was below ten degrees, but today at noon the temperature was at least twenty degrees. Chen Gu, who was used to wearing only a single layer of clothing, felt very comfortable.

After completing a day's task of chopping wood, Chen Gu went to the home of Suan Xiucai to continue learning the Hundred Family Surnames.

On the way, Chen Gu went to the grocery store and bought five cents of malt sugar. This thing is more expensive than brown sugar. Five cents is only one or two taels, which can be broken into very small pieces, and it looks like a lot.

Holding the malt sugar wrapped in lotus leaves, Chen Gu walked a few steps out of the door and quickly retreated because hail started to fall from the sky.

At first it was just the size of a grain of rice, but soon it became the size of a soybean, and then the size of a broad bean, making a tinkling sound when it fell on the tiles.

The pedestrians on the road also quickened their pace from walking to running, and people from shops along the street came out to check the situation, all with worried faces, and some even folded their hands, praying to God for mercy.

Unfortunately, God showed no mercy and the hailstones became the size of pigeon eggs. Chen looked up at the roof and could already see some light leaking out.

Fortunately, the hail gradually became smaller and finally stopped, but even so, the damage caused to the county town was still huge.

"Oh my God!" the grocery store owner sighed.

"Hailstorms only hit the rootless grass, while white waves hit the boats going upstream first!" An exclamatory proverb came from the side.

This was a group of young people who had just come here to avoid the hail. Judging from the silk and satin clothes they were wearing, they should be children of wealthy families in the city. The person who was speaking was only fifteen or sixteen years old, the youngest in the group.

Chen Gu happened to know Master Shichun of the Bian family. Of course, only Chen Gu knew the other party. Bian Shichun did not know Chen Gu. Or he might have seen him before, but he certainly could not remember him.

"Haha, Brother Shichun, since you have compassion for others, why don't you give some money to help them!" said a young man in his twenties, with a teasing tone in his voice, pointing at Bian Shichun with the paper fan in his hand while speaking.

Bian Shichun's eyes flashed with disgust. He hesitated for a moment and said, "It is our responsibility to help the people. Fortunately, the disaster is not serious at the moment. Why don't you all contribute some money to buy some food and build a porridge shed to distribute porridge?"

Giving out porridge is the most commonly used means of disaster relief. It can be used not only in times of floods, droughts, or harvest failures, but at any time.

After all, people always need to eat. For example, now that hail has damaged the houses, it is naturally a good thing for the rich families to provide porridge and allow the people to have more food and clothing.

"Brother Shichun, please don't worry. This small hailstorm just broke the tiles. People who can live in tile houses don't need to give out porridge. People who need porridge live in thatched houses, so they won't be affected!" The young man holding a paper fan said disdainfully. This is not wrong in terms of appearance, but it is always good for poor people to have two bowls of porridge. These big families are so fat and bloated, can't they give out a little?

Chen Jue couldn't help but squint his eyes when he looked at the young man holding the paper fan. At this moment, the hail had completely stopped and a group of young people were about to leave.

Chen Gu casually grabbed a pea from the pea rack nearby and threw it under the sole of the young man holding the paper fan.

It's warm today. The young man holding the paper fan not only has a paper fan in his hand, but also wears a pair of wooden clogs on his feet. These clogs are convenient to wear and make a crisp sound when walking, but they are not non-slip.

The young man stepped on a pea, staggered back and forth, and finally fell to the ground with a thud, hitting his head and bleeding.

A group of young people were stunned by this sudden change, and then they came forward to support the young man.

"Brother Bai!"

"Brother Bai Xian!"

"Are you okay?"

Hearing that the young man's surname was Bai, Chen Gu couldn't help but feel even more disgusted with the Bai family.

After the young man surnamed Bai was helped up by everyone, his face was covered in blood. Not only was the skin on his forehead broken, but there was also a big lump.

The young man surnamed Bai shook his dizzy head, looked around at the crowd, then raised his finger and pointed at Bian Shichun, shouting with a ferocious face: "Bian Shichun, what grudge do I have against you? Why did you do this to me?"

Everyone present, including Chen Gu, was stunned.

Bian Shichun was even more furious. "Bai Wencheng, stop slandering me. Everyone saw you walk out of the store first. It was clearly you who fell down. Why are you blaming me?"

Indeed, everyone saw Bai Wencheng walk out of the store first. Although Bian Shichun followed him out of the store, Bai Wencheng's fall had nothing to do with Bian Shichun, because no one saw Bian Shichun do anything.

"It was obviously you who pushed me from behind that caused me to fall!" Bai Wencheng said gritting his teeth.

"Nonsense!"

"Everyone was behind him, and Shichun didn't even reach out!"

This was clearly a false accusation, so naturally some people spoke up for Bian Shichun, but several people remained silent, and the group was clearly divided into two factions.

Chen Gu's eyes couldn't help but flash a gleam of light, but this place was not a place to stay for long. The hustle and bustle of these children of big families was not so pleasant to watch, especially now that there was a dispute. If he was involved, it would be easy to get into trouble.

Not to mention that Bai Wencheng fell down because of Chen Gu's manipulation.

So Chen Gui lowered his head and left the grocery store in the chaos.

(End of this chapter)