Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 228: Inducing a Sneak Attack
Zhang Shouan felt depressed when he saw Jia Cong leaving with the owner and the shop assistants of Xiuniang Incense Shop.

Just now he ordered the bailiff to release the person and take him to the back hall.

Zhang Shouan suddenly realized that Jia Cong's sudden involvement in this matter had completely caused the situation to get out of control.

Whether he lets them go or not, the outcome is already out of control for him.

If he doesn't release the person, Jia Cong will definitely report him to the Dali Temple, and then Zhang Shouan will definitely not escape the blame for breaking the law and abusing the people.

Although he had done such shady things in recent years to curry favor with the powerful as the prefect of Zhen'an Prefecture, usually the other parties were just a few ordinary people, so it was not difficult to deal with them.

Just like the people who were arrested and interrogated from Xiuniang's incense shop this time, he had investigated the other party's background in advance and made sure that there was no powerful person behind him. Only then did he take action at the request of Ningguo Mansion.

However, he did not expect that a person like Jia Cong, who was a high-ranking official with a good family background, would appear and catch him off guard.

If he released them, considering Jia Cong had just shown his concern for Xiuniang's perfume shop, the two of them would have been severely punished in less than half a day in prison. How could Jia Cong let it go?

Moreover, once the person is released, the fact that he tortured him in prison to extract the secret recipe of the perfume will become clear.

There was also the cold and murderous look in Jia Cong's eyes when he was leaving.

Those eyes were filled with hatred and resentment. Zhang Shouan's heart shuddered, fearing that they would not let it go.
……

Jia Cong rescued Feng and Liu Ping from Zhen'an Prefecture and immediately looked for a good doctor to treat their injuries.

Since Liu Ping was just a shop assistant, the people in Zhen'an Prefecture did not pay much attention to him. Although they tortured him, his injuries were not serious. In addition, young people recover quickly, so he was not seriously injured.

But Feng was seriously injured because she was the owner of Xiuniang Perfume Shop, and the people from Zhen'an Prefecture happened to fail to capture Qu Hongxiu, so they left the secret recipe of the perfume on her.

After she was imprisoned that day, seeing that she was unwilling to tell the truth, she was first given a severe sentence.

The whip wounds on Feng's body were easy to heal, but her hands were tortured with pliers, and all ten fingers were severely injured, with the bones of four of them broken.

Jia Cong arranged for Feng to recuperate in Qu Hongxiu's courtyard, and brought Yinglian to take care of her mother. When the little girl saw her mother covered with bruises, her eyes were swollen from crying.

Jia Cong felt guilty when he saw Gengsheng, so he rushed to Zhen'an Prefecture as soon as he got the news, but he was still unable to prevent Feng family from suffering disaster.

Ever since Xiuniang Perfume Shop started selling Japanese water jade perfume, business has become booming. He also heard from Qu Hongxiu that someone has been trying to acquire a stake in the shop and has shown signs of coveting it.

It was just that the other party came to our store to negotiate, most likely just to test the waters, and nothing had happened yet. I was not vigilant enough, and I underestimated the recklessness and cruelty of some people.

Zhang Shouan was the prefect of Zhen'an Prefecture, but he killed innocent people, bent the law and acted arbitrarily, and was willing to be a lackey of the powerful.

Jia Zhen was licentious and shameless, and he was well aware of his reputation, but now it had come to harm him.

Jia Cong comforted Yinglian, whose face was full of tears: "I will find the best doctor to treat Aunt Feng's injuries. I will not let Aunt Feng suffer in vain. I will not reduce the debt that should be collected!"

……

Jia Cong also asked Jia Lian to invite Zhang Shiyou, the famous doctor from Guanxi, to treat Feng's finger.

Zhang Shiyou spent half a day reconnecting Feng's four severed fingers and prescribed some maintenance medicine.

But according to him, although Feng's severed finger had its bones set, it would require secret medicine and healing to restore it to its original state.

But he did not understand this method. Only his elder brother Zhang Youmin was well versed in it. However, his elder brother lived in seclusion in daily life and had been traveling recently. It would take a month for him to return to the capital.

Jia Cong had heard Jia Lian say that Zhang Shiyou's medical skills were taught by his brother Zhang Youpeng, and Zhang Youpeng's medical skills were said to be very superb, and there were rumors among the people that his skills were miraculous.

Jia Cong was overjoyed when he heard this, and he made an agreement with Zhang Shiyou that when Zhang Youpeng returned to the capital, he would definitely visit him and ask him to treat Feng's injuries. ...

In the past few days, rumors have been circulating in the market that Zhang Shouan, the prefect of Zhen'an, was a corrupt official, wantonly bent the law, and killed the owner of Xiuniang Incense Shop on Xinchun Street.

It is said that Zhang Shouan arrested the shopkeeper's wife and put her in jail for no reason, and also tortured the woman until she was covered with bruises, just to force her to tell him the secret recipe for making incense.

It is difficult to verify how this rumor first came about, but the source of the news probably came from Xinchun Street in the west of the city.

Because on the day of the accident, Xiuniang's perfume shop was doing a booming business, and the shop was crowded with female customers.

Many people saw with their own eyes that the Zhen'an government officials rushed into the store, arrested the store owner and the shop assistants, drove out the female customers, and sealed up Xiuniang's incense shop.

In addition to the Xiuniang incense shop on Xinchun Street, there is also a very special women's teahouse. It is elegant and exquisite, unconventional, and only accepts female guests. It has become a unique landscape in the city of Shenjing.

In the hot summer, it was said that the women's quarters of the teahouse were stocked with ice cream to relieve the heat. Many wealthy businessmen and wives of officials in the capital city liked to go to the women's quarters to drink tea and cool off after shopping on Xinchun Street.

Among the women's quarters, the female guests who come and go have recently been talking about the big event that happened in Xiuniang Xiangfang on Xinchun Street.

Among them, the prefect of Zhen'an robbed the people of their secret recipe for livelihood with brutal and shameless means.

Xiuniang's incense shop helped the victims of disasters and raised orphans. She gained a good reputation and was praised by people in the market.

The owner of the incense shop, such a kind and gentle woman, was tortured for no reason by the prefect Zhang Shouan because someone coveted her secret recipe for making money. She was left with bruises all over her body and her hands were disabled. It was a horrible sight.

The contents are either dramatic, sensational, or pitiful, almost catching up with the carefully written lyrics of the storytellers.

The listeners were outraged by Zhang Shouan's greed and cruelty, but also shed tears of sympathy for the innocent suffering of the lady in the incense shop.

Many of the wives of these officials, wealthy businessmen, were even regular customers of Xiuniang's perfume shop, and they all knew the elegant and graceful shopkeeper.

After hearing this outrageous story, I felt the same way.

They are all wealthy and free ladies in the inner house, who love to talk about such mundane matters, and each of them has an amazing ability to spread gossip.

So, the maids and servants around them knew about it, and their husbands and relatives also knew about it.

When the men were drinking together, this matter naturally became the best topic of conversation. They casually belittled the dignified Zhen'an prefect and did not hold him accountable for his crimes. It was not only a pleasure to gossip, but also a pleasure to reward good and punish evil.

The news spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred. In just a few days, the matter had spread to every street corner in the capital, and had become a terrifying phenomenon.

But people in the market don’t know that the real owner of both Xiuniang’s perfume shop and the girls’ quarters of the teahouse is Jia Cong.

Many court officials had also heard about this scandal of officials harming the people, but as they were able to become officials in Beijing, they were not foolish people, and everyone would have thought that such a scandal would not come out of nowhere.

Many people are watching, many are pondering, and many are sharpening their knives, intending to gain fame, just waiting for the best time to explode.

Public opinion can melt gold; public opinion is as sharp as a knife!

As for the prefect of Zhen'an, Zhang Shou'an, his reputation as an official became, within a few days, three times more smelly than the internal organs in a toilet.

Just when the prefect of Zhen'an was persecuting the owner of the embroidery shop and the rumors in the market were almost reaching their peak.

Many people saw that the tortured incense shop owner, Mrs. Feng, was carried in a sedan chair to the gate of the Dali Temple in the capital.

The drum for appealing against grievances at the gate of the yamen was struck with a loud rumble, and the sound of the drum echoed in all directions!
It seemed as if an invisible hand had thrown a spark of murderous intent into the public opinion storm that was already surging like boiling oil.

(End of this chapter)