Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 397: Resentment on the edge of the abyss

Jinling, Qingyin Pavilion, night falls.

There is a door at the end of the lobby on the first floor, which is usually guarded by a strong woman.

Because behind that door is where Madam Qu Le from Qingyin Pavilion stays.

In Zou Miner's boudoir, the fragrance of incense was emitting, the windows were half-open, the evening breeze was blowing, and the gauze curtains were filled with wind.

In the hazy gauze curtain, Zou Miner was wearing a light, soft and transparent dress, outlining her youthful and charming body with graceful curves.

A soft silk pillow with vanilla core, black hair piled up like clouds, a pretty face with a rosy complexion, eyebrows slightly furrowed, tossing and turning, as if half asleep.

That day, she and Jia Cong returned to the city from the eastern suburbs. When she returned to Qingyin Pavilion alone, she stopped by the former Zou Mansion to take a look.

She grew up there, and there she had her most beautiful and innocent time. Today, the Zou Mansion is overgrown with weeds and cobwebs, and the gate is sealed with a government seal. Her memories are fragmented and the past will never return.

In fact, the Zou Mansion is only a cup of tea away from Qingyin Pavilion, less than half a mile away.

But such a short distance gave her a completely different experience.

In the Zou family, she is a precious eldest daughter, loved by her parents, living a carefree and youthful life.

But now she is just a lowly musician in the Jiaofangsi. Even if she becomes Qing Niang's disciple, even if she joins the Zhongchesi, her lowly status in the Jiaofangsi cannot be changed and will accompany her for the rest of her life.

After she returned to her residence, she closed the door and burst into tears. She had not cried so wildly for a long time since she entered the Shenjing Music Bureau.

She slept uneasily for the next two days. Tonight, she tossed and turned for a long time before she fell into a deep sleep.

In the mist, he vaguely saw that the unparalleled young man in Ziyun Pavilion gave him a tiger-patterned jade leather belt.

Those eyes, as deep as autumn tan, faintly touched her heartstrings the moment they looked at each other...

She returned to the old house, which was decorated with lights and colorful decorations, and the house was full of guests. Her parents welcomed the guests with smiles on their faces, and there were a dazzling array of precious birthday gifts.

That incomparable and dazzling young man, with many murderous musketeers, rushed into the old house. All the comfort and beauty collapsed in an instant...

She lived a miserable life in the Shenjing Jiaofang Bureau, trying her best to avoid the covetousness of the powerful and the threats and harassment of the officials.

She heard the singing girls in the Jiaofang Bureau whispering with surprise and admiration on their faces, talking about the young master of Rongguo Mansion, the young hero who solved the big case of the Water Inspectorate in Jinling.

The emperor rewarded his biological mother Du Jinniang for her merits and posthumously conferred the title of Fifth Rank Concubine on her. However, this Du Gaoming was just a lowly courtesan during her lifetime...

He reached the pinnacle of glory in the world when he was still a teenager, while she fell into the filthy and bottomless quagmire when she was young and graceful.

The humiliation and anger that penetrated her bones never dissipated from her heart...

She suddenly thought of the time when, on the night boat in Suzhou, he was worried about the chilly night breeze and covered her with a robe. She could sense the tenderness on his face out of the corner of her eyes, and at that moment she felt a little soft-hearted.

In her heart, she envied Lingguan very much. Although she was born into poverty and made a humble living in the opera troupe, there was no painful entanglement between them, so they hit it off right away.

She sang to him to cheer him up, and he cared for her, but she did not have such a simple blessing...

In the carriage in the east of the city, he stared at himself blankly. He must have thought that he was good-looking, but that was all. They were destined not to be together.

He also asked himself if he knew that there used to be a prominent family named Du in Jinling City.

The aristocratic family with the surname Du, the surname Du...

While Zou Min'er was in a daze, a name suddenly flashed in her mind, so abrupt and strange!
Du Jinniang! His biological mother!

Because of the sensational story of posthumously conferring a title on one's biological mother, the name Du Jinniang has long been familiar to many people.

Zou Miner suddenly woke up from her dream, sat up abruptly, sweat all over her head, her bright eyes were watery and bright, flashing with a strange light.

……

In the east of Jinling City, Xinghua Lane, Yao’s Wine Shop.

After the sudden rain in the morning, the bluestone pavement of Xinghua Lane was washed clean and clear.

The Xinghuachun wine brewed by Yao's Wine Shop is quite famous in the whole Jinling city. Spring and summer are the seasons for brewing and storing wine.

So Yao's wine shop has been doing good business these days, with many merchants and businesses coming to buy wine.

But today there was a sold out sign at the door of the wine shop, so the shop suddenly became deserted.

The two guys who were watching over the shop were dozing off behind the front counter out of boredom.

In the afternoon, there were few passers-by in the entire Xinghua Lane, and it was quite quiet.

At this time, the window facing the street in the room on the second floor of Yao's Wine Shop was wide open, and two women could be seen sitting in the room.

The person was young and slender, with a beautiful appearance and very charming. It was Zou Miner.

The other person was a young woman in her twenties, with a graceful figure, beautiful eyes and eyebrows, and her every frown and smile was charming and captivating.

Zou Min'er said, "Qiniang, I asked you to find out about the Jinling Du family. Did you get any results?"

That night, Zou Miner woke up from a nightmare, and she seemed to have grasped the key to a confusing matter.

That day, Jia Cong asked her about the Jinling Du family. It seemed like he was just asking casually, but Zou Min'er clearly remembered the persistent and inquiring look on his face at that time.

Although Jia Cong said that he had only heard people mention the Du family and was just a little curious.

But, what a coincidence, Jia Cong's biological mother's surname was Du.

But his biological mother was a humble prostitute, and the Du family mentioned by Jia Cong was a prominent family in Jinling fifteen years ago.

There seems to be no connection between the two things, perhaps it's all just her fantasy.

But during the time Zou Min'er had been with Jia Cong, she knew that he was a meticulous person, who always spoke and acted with a purpose, and would not talk nonsense for no reason.

So she kept this matter in mind.

However, according to Jia Cong, the Jinling Du family was most famous fifteen years ago, and then disappeared in Jinling.

Fifteen years ago, Zou Miner was just a toddler, so it was impossible for her to have heard of the origins of the Du family.

So she asked Xu Qinnan to investigate through her connections in Jinling.

……

Xu Qiniang said: "The girl said that the Du family was confiscated and exterminated by the imperial court because of a crime, so I asked a few local people in Jinling, and among them there were some older people who knew about the Du family.

However, they knew little about the accident that year. It seemed that the situation was very strange when the Du family had an accident, and the specific cause was not known to everyone.

It seemed as if within a very short period of time, he suddenly committed a crime and was questioned by the authorities, and then the whole thing strangely disappeared.

Later, I looked for Zhongchesi's connections in the Ministry of Justice. It turned out that all the people working in the Ministry of Justice in the secondary capital had only joined the ministry in the last ten years, and none of them had heard of the Du family.

It was just like fifteen years ago, when the Du family was wiped out out of thin air.

Later, our people found a clerk in Liuhe who had retired from the Ministry of Justice fifteen years ago. It was from this old man that they learned some secrets of the Jinling Du family.

According to the old man, the Du family had lived in Jinling for generations before the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and their origins were even older than those of the Four Great Families of Jinling that rose to prominence at the beginning of the country's founding.

Fifteen years ago, the Du family was secretly reported to have colluded with the Hidden Sect and plotted an uprising in the southeastern states.

Fifteen years ago, it was the last year of the Emperor's reign. The current emperor was still an unknown King of Qi, and compared with the outstanding King of Wu, he seemed mediocre. The Emperor often asked King of Wu to participate in military and national affairs, but had mediocre expectations for King of Qi.

That year, the Yellow River flood occurred once in a century, and the seven states along the river suffered severe disasters, and the people were living in dire straits.

The retired emperor sent the Prince of Qi to Nanjing to take charge of the matter and communicate with the wealthy merchants in the south of the Yangtze River to raise money and food for disaster relief.

At this time, someone suddenly reported to the King of Qi that Du Hengchang, the head of the Du family, was colluding with the Hidden Sect with the intention of instigating an uprising in the states south of the Yangtze River.

The King of Qi immediately sent troops to control the Du family, and found evidence of the Du family's collusion with the Hidden Sect. When the news reached Shenjing, the Emperor Retired was furious.

He actually used an urgent imperial edict that traveled 800 miles to sentence the Du family to death after a secret trial by officials from the Ministry of Justice.

From the head of the Du family, Du Hengchang, to his brothers, nephews, and 21 other male members of the main line, all were killed. Du Hengchang's wife and mother were executed with white silk.

The rest of the Du family’s women and servants were sent to the Jiaofangsi or sold into slavery. Even the Du family’s concubines and branches were implicated, and few people were spared. ”

Zou Min'er felt horrified when she heard this. The entire Du family was wiped out because someone reported them. It was truly cruel.

Ever since she joined the Imperial Chariot Division, she had been influenced by everything she had seen and heard, and knew that the imperial court had always regarded the affairs of the Hidden Sect as a scourge and beast, and would rather kill the wrong person than let him go.

At that time, those were just rumors and she had no real concrete experience. Only now did she truly experience the danger and bloodiness involved.

Her father had committed a serious crime and committed suicide to escape responsibility. In order to serve as a warning to others, the current emperor punished the Zou family without mercy.

But even so, his house was only confiscated and sealed, his slaves were sold, and he and his mother were demoted to the Jiaofangsi. At least he saved his life.

However, the Du family was secretly reported to have colluded with the Hidden Sect to rebel. Not only were all the men in the family killed, but two generations of housewives had to commit suicide with white silk, and all the female family members were sold off. That was a real punishment that wiped out the entire family.

Zou Min'er's eyes flickered with a strange light, and she asked, "Weren't the women of the Du family sold off or demoted to the Jiaofang Bureau? Do you know their whereabouts now?"

Xu Qinnan looked at her strangely. Zou Miner's unusual attention to this matter made her feel a little surprised.

"The person I sent also asked the clerk this question. He said that the women of the Du family were sold and demoted to the Jiaofang Bureau, and it was recorded in the files of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Punishment.

But then something strange happened...

Shortly after Du Hengchang was killed, it was said that the palace suddenly sent people to Nanjing to investigate the case.

At this time, a fire broke out in the case file library of the Ministry of Justice, burning a large number of case files, including all relevant information on the Du Hengchang case.

The records of the Ministry of Rites regarding the sale of Du's female relatives and their demotion to the Jiaofangsi also disappeared for no apparent reason.

No one can tell clearly where the women of the Du family were exiled.

However, they were originally ladies of rich and powerful families, born into a life of luxury. Whether they were sold as slaves or sent to the 16th floor of the Music Bureau to entertain guests, it would be a life worse than death for them.

Now fifteen years have passed, and none of them have survived such a long time. They are probably already exhausted and no longer alive."

When Zou Min'er heard this, she felt pity in her heart. She was the daughter of a convicted official who was demoted to the Music Bureau. She knew best how it felt.

If Du Qingniang had not rescued him in times of crisis, he would have died long ago.

The women of the Du family were charged with the unforgivable crime of treason, and their situations were bound to be worse than hers at the beginning, and they would be abused without any scruples.

Qi Niang was right. None of them could survive such a long period of fifteen years.

Xu Qiniang added: "However, there is someone from the Du family who survived. Although he was not a direct descendant of the Du family, he is an undoubted descendant of the Du family.

I think Miss Zou would never guess who this person is."

After Xu Qinnan said this, she dipped her finger in tea and wrote a name on the table.

When Zou Miner saw the name clearly, she felt the hairs on her body stand up slightly and her heart suddenly felt chilly.

She never expected that this person was actually the descendant of the Du family, and she didn't know how Xu Qinnan found out.

Xu Qinnan reached out and wiped the writing on the table.

She glanced at Zou Miner's expression and continued, "Not long after this incident, drastic changes occurred in Shenjing.

The Supreme Emperor suddenly abdicated, to everyone's surprise. The King of Qi, who had always been unknown, took advantage of a miraculous opportunity to ascend the throne and rule the world, becoming the current emperor.

In the following years, several officials from the Ministry of Justice who had participated in the secret trial of Du Hengchang were demoted or transferred for various reasons, and it is said that they all died in unclear circumstances in the end.

The clerk in the Ministry of Justice whom I found in Liuhe was just a minor clerk in the Ministry of Justice. He only followed the interrogator to do some odd jobs and was not very clear about the inside story of the Du Hengchang case.

After Du Hengchang was executed, he retired due to old age and illness and returned to his hometown in Liuhe to retire. Perhaps it was for this reason that he was able to live safely until now. "

……

Xu Qiniang's words made Zou Min'er feel cold in her heart, and she couldn't help asking, "Qiniang, what drastic changes happened in Shenjing back then?"

Xu Qinnan looked a little hesitant and did not answer Zou Miner's question.

Her pretty face looked serious as she said, "Miss Zou, as soon as I had someone find out about this matter, I regretted it. I really shouldn't have gotten involved in this matter.

The Du family was destroyed because of their collusion with the Hidden Sect to rebel. This is an unforgivable crime and outsiders are really reluctant to get in touch with it, as it might bring disaster upon themselves.

After the incident, the capital sent people to Nanjing for further investigation, but all the documents of the Du family were either lost in a fire or disappeared for no apparent reason.

Even the officials involved did not have a good end.

You and I are both in the China Railway Company, and we both know very well what effect such means will have. Someone wants to cover up all the behind-the-scenes affairs of the Du family.

Who is it that could have such great ability to hide the truth from the world?

During that period of time, the retired emperor abdicated and the current emperor ascended the throne. There were too many major events that happened before and after.

Xu Qinniang smiled bitterly: "I advise you not to pay attention to this matter anymore. What I said today, once it comes out of my mouth and enters your ears, it will be forgotten.

We will not mention it again in the future to avoid any trouble."

Zou Miner frowned and thought for a moment. Although Xu Qinnan didn't explain it clearly in her words just now, she had already tasted the essence of it.

The Du family's affairs involve too many dark and unclear risks. The wisest approach is to remain respectful and stay away from them, and not touch them easily.

I felt somewhat annoyed. The boy just asked a casual question and it actually caused such a scary trouble. He really was a natural troublemaker.

She then asked Xu Qiniang, "How could that clerk in Liuhe easily tell the people you sent about such a secret matter?"

Xu Qiniang said: "That's because his grandson got into trouble with the law. A powerful man in Nanjing wanted to take over his grandson's land and property. Since he couldn't do so, he falsely accused him of colluding with bandits in Yingtian Prefecture.

Jia Yucun, the prefect of Yingtian, put his grandson in prison. I promised to help him rescue his grandson, and then the old man told all the secrets of the past to the people I sent. "

Zou Miner asked, "You really have a way to save people from the hands of Yingtian Prefecture. If you fail, the clerk will find out about this matter from us and tell others, which will definitely cause trouble!"

Xu Qiniang smiled and said, "Miss Zou, don't worry. The secret agents of the Central Vehicle Department have been operating in Jinling for many years, and they usually pay more attention to key positions such as the prefect of Yingtian.

Jia Yucun is a cold-hearted and greedy person by nature. There are many things that can easily be used against him, but nothing has happened that is out of control yet. Moreover, he is a disciple of the Jia family of Rongguo.

He will not be attacked for the time being until the necessary time comes. As long as a secret letter is sent, he will release the person in disgrace.

As for that clerk in Liuhe, he is already over sixty, almost seventy, and has always been seriously ill. It seems that he will not live long, so he will not disclose our affairs... "

(End of this chapter)