Linxia

Chapter 88, Fulfillment

That day, it was Fang Lin's turn to rest. He returned to Xixiang Hutong and met Man Gensheng, who was holding a chicken in his hand.

"Linzi, this pheasant is pretty good, isn't it?" Man Gensheng smiled and said, "This is the pheasant I bought from the mountains. Look at its feathers, wow, so bright, completely different from that farm chicken."

"As expected of someone who won money, he is so proud that his nickname has changed from Brother Fang to Linzi."

Fang Lin pondered inwardly and looked over. This chicken was indeed very different from an ordinary domestic chicken. Its fur was more colorful, and the hair on its tail was long, sticking up high, and colorful.

As they were talking, they passed by Master Ou's house. Here, Master Ou was lying on a rattan chair under a sweet-scented osmanthus tree, while Madam Ou, Fang's mother, Tian Xuan, Su Xiaoqing, Sister Guihua, Chuntao and other women were doing needlework beside him.

A little further over there, Grandma Man was picking vegetables at the door of her house, as if she wanted to prove to Master Ou that she was not a lazy person.

"Hey, why does it look like a domestic chicken to me?" Fang's mother stared at the chicken left and right and suddenly said.

Mrs. Ou, Tian Xuan, Su Xiaoqing, Sister Guihua, Chuntao and others also looked up when they heard the words, with different thoughts in their minds, but they didn't say anything.

"Aunt, a pheasant is a pheasant. How can it be like a domestic chicken? It is much more expensive than a domestic chicken. It costs four cents of silver!" Man Gensheng laughed.

"Yes, there is a live pheasant in front of me, how can I cheat?"

Here, Grandma Man also stood up, sneered at Fang's mother, took the chicken from Man Gensheng, got a knife from the kitchen, and wanted to kill the chicken: "My son is really capable. He brought back a pheasant. Mother will kill a chicken for you tonight."

At this moment, the chicken seemed to sense the danger, and began to cluck and struggle. As it struggled, its feathers fell off one after another.

Mr. Ou, Fang Lin, Fang's mother and a group of women came to see.

The scene was silent for a moment, with an awkward feeling like a crow flying by.

Here, Fang Lin had just sat down next to Master Ou and hadn't started chatting yet, but when he saw this scene, the corners of his eyes couldn't help but twitch.

However, Master Ou had not received any professional training. He paused when he raised the bamboo tube to his mouth, and then coughed and laughed. His gray beard was shaking with laughter, and a group of people followed him to laugh. For a moment, the air was filled with a happy atmosphere.

Even Man Gensheng himself couldn't help laughing.

In this world, it seemed that Grandma Man was the only one who was injured. With a gloomy face, she held the featherless chicken in one hand and picked up the chicken feathers with the other hand. She found that the roots of the chicken feathers were dry, which obviously did not fall from a living chicken. It was obviously temporarily glued on, disguising the domestic chicken as a pheasant in exchange for a good price.

"What a curse! You are cheating an old woman like me!"

She cried and cursed a few times, then pulled Man Gensheng up and said, "Come on, son, let's go out and settle the account with the chicken seller."

"Forget it, it's just a domestic chicken. Just consider it as some compensation and I won't get angry with it." Man Gensheng was in a good mood and naturally didn't want to do anything that would embarrass him.

"My son, this is not about money. If you admit your defeat, others may laugh at you and call you a fool behind your back. You can't just let it go. If you don't leave, I will leave!"

"Okay, whatever you want!" Man Gensheng said that the chicken seller looked unlucky, and he didn't plan to eat at home: "Mom, I'm going out to eat tonight, you don't have to worry about me, I may not be away at night."

"Okay, be careful out there."

"Hey!"

Man Gensheng agreed and turned around and left. He had just come back and hadn't even entered the house when he strolled away again.

"This kid has a bunch of bad friends. He will probably go to the gambling house again tonight and won't come back." Master Ou was worthy of being the one who taught Man Gensheng. He had a good grasp of this kid's character.

"Alas, this kid is going to get into trouble sooner or later if he continues like this." He said this and sighed again.

"I think so too."

Fang Lin nodded in agreement, feeling that Changlefang was different from ordinary gambling houses, it was a bit weird, as if... there was a bit of a setup going on.

"If we take Cheng Shiliang as an example, and let people taste the sweetness before reaping the benefits, then if we count the days, this is about the same." He thought to himself.

As they were talking, Mr. Man came back and passed by. Mr. Ou called him over and chatted with him, still advising him to control Man Gensheng and stop him from gambling.

"This is Master Ou!"

Fang Lin looked at Master Ou and sighed in his heart. Even though he said last time, 'Even if the rain is heavy, it cannot moisten the rootless grass. It's up to you.' He was extremely disappointed, but he still didn't give up.

He didn't think it was useful, but he paid tribute to Master Ou's behavior.

……

The next day, Fang Lin did not go to the theater with his family. After all, he and Dong Xiucai were in a partnership in the feces business. Although Dong Xiucai said, "You set the general direction, and leave the rest to me. You don't have to worry about it," he could not really not care at all. That's not how things are done.

However, when he went there, he found that Mr. Dong was well prepared and there was nothing he could do to help, so he returned at noon.

At this time, Fang's mother and Tian Xuan came back from buying vegetables. Fang Lin said excitedly, "Linzi, you don't know that the market was being rectified this morning and many people selling fake goods were arrested. I heard that the prefect ordered a strict investigation!"

"Yes, my mother and I saw that a man who stuffed sand into a chicken and poured pork water into it was beaten with 80 sticks. He was beaten exactly as he was supposed to be. After he fainted, they poured water on him to wake him up, and then continued beating..." Tian Xuan also said.

"It's what they deserve. Those with evil hearts deserve this." Fang's mother felt relieved.

"Mom, why does the prefect suddenly want to investigate counterfeit goods?" Fang Lin asked, subconsciously thinking of what happened to Grandma Man yesterday. Could it be related to this?

Sure enough, Fang's mother's statement confirmed his guess: "I heard that it is related to what happened to Grandma Man yesterday. Didn't Grandma Man take the fake pheasant to the market yesterday? But when we got there, we couldn't find her. The vendors move around everywhere. If they cheat someone, they will move to another place. We went to the market supervision office. Since we couldn't find her, we couldn't catch the thief and take the spoils, and they didn't care.

Man was quite a capable woman. She found a crowded place and yelled in the street, attracting more and more people to watch... Finally, the matter became a big deal and the government put in a lot of effort to find the merchant. The merchant had to pay compensation, was flogged fifty times, and his things were confiscated.

I heard that this matter reached the ears of the prefect, which led to what happened today."

"Oh, Linzi, you don't know, because of this matter, Grandma Man is so arrogant..." Fang's mother couldn't stand it, but there was a hint of sourness in her tone.

"This Huai'an prefect seems to be someone who can accomplish something," Fang Lin thought, making a note of this.

"By the way, speaking of the Man family, Man Gensheng hasn't come back yet. He may still be in the gambling house..." Fang's mother said again.

Here, when the Fang family started to eat lunch, Man Gensheng's voice came from next door. The kid is back.

"Mom, give me some money."

"what happened?"

"It's bad luck. I lost last night and lost everything I won in the past two days. I think I bought a fake pheasant last night and it's bad luck."

"Don't be angry, son. Last night, I went to the market to make a scene. The vendor who sold fake pheasants was found and made to pay compensation, was sentenced to fifty strokes of the cane, and had his things confiscated..."

"You deserve it. I should change my luck today and I will definitely win it back."

"How can such a good thing exist in the world? Gensheng, stop gambling and find a good job!" This is the voice of Man Laoguan.

Apparently, Mr. Ou's persuasion to Mr. Man yesterday was quite effective - to be honest, Man Gensheng had been to school and knew a few words, and if he settled down and found a job, he might be able to live a good life.

However, after entering the gambling house and seeing how to make quick money, how could Man Gensheng still listen to him?
"That's enough! That's enough!" he said impatiently.

Grandma Man had a bad feeling in her heart, but she still listened to her son out of habit: "Daddy, just listen to him. Take less money. Even if you lose, just think of it as buying a son... Gensheng, give it to him!"

"Okay, Mom, I'm leaving."

On this side, listening to the noise from next door, Fang's father and mother were both shaking their heads and saying that Man Gen was a mess.

"It's hard to persuade a damned ghost with kind words. I'm afraid his bad luck will last only for half a day." Fang Lin thought to himself.

...Fang Lin’s guess came true that night.

Here, the Fang family was having dinner when they suddenly heard a bang from next door, as if the door was kicked open.

"It's the Man family next door. Let's go and take a look!"

Suddenly, the Fang family stopped eating and went out to watch the fun.

Not only the Fang family, but many neighbors came over and soon formed a circle.

Fang Lin followed everyone and looked towards the Man family.

A large group of people grabbed Man Gensheng, and the leader was a man with a scar on his face. He took out a promissory note and said to Man Laoguan and Man Laotai: "You are Man Gensheng's parents, right? Your son owes a total of 100 taels of silver in gambling debts to our gambling house."

In the middle, Man Laogong and Man Laomu were surrounded. When they heard this, their faces turned pale. Chuntao was in the innermost corner, with her head lowered, so that people could not see her expression clearly.

"Gambling debt, what gambling debt?" Grandma Man reacted and habitually threw a tantrum, trying to get away with it.

Fang Lin looked at this scene and shook his head slightly: "It's not that throwing a tantrum is useless, but it depends on who you are dealing with. Facing these people in the casino who eat people without leaving bones, especially when they have a loan agreement and are not in the right, it's really asking for a fight."

Sure enough, facing the tantrum of the grandmothers, the scarred leader swung his arms and slapped them in the face: "You want to throw a tantrum at us? Come again if you don't want your son's life!"

Grandma Man was knocked to the ground, her fat body turned over like a toad with its four legs facing the sky.

She was stunned for a moment, screaming "ah ah", and wanted to do it again, but when she heard her son, she stopped in an instant and dared not to do it.

"It's written in black and white. I'm not afraid to tell you. We're not afraid even if it goes to the government. Today, you either pay a hundred taels of silver, or... Hey, just pretend you don't have this son!"

Scarface sneered.

Their gambling house specifically hired veterans from the government who had studied the laws of the imperial court, so it was absolutely legal and in compliance with regulations. There were witnesses when Man Gensheng borrowed money, so there wouldn't be any problems in this regard - it's true that gangsters are not to be feared, but gangsters with culture are to be feared.

Just look at Master Ou and you will know that Man Gensheng is bringing trouble upon himself. At this time, he just sighed and didn't say anything because he knew it was useless.

"A sin!"

Mr. Man looked at his wife who was knocked down, and then at his son who was caught like a little chicken with his head huddled, and he almost vomited blood in anger.

Thinking of his diligence, he would spend every penny wisely, but his son actually lost a hundred taels in one go. However, since he was in front of outsiders, he couldn't say anything, so he could only say, "Please give us two days, we will think of a solution."

"Okay, then I'll give you face today. You can't run away anyway. I'll come again tomorrow. Let's go!" Scarface waved his hand and left with his men.

The neighbors were still surrounding and pointing and talking about the Man family.

"One hundred taels? Good fellow, Man Gensheng is really brave enough to lend it."

"Master Ou scolded and advised him at the beginning, but Man Gensheng just wouldn't listen. Now something has happened, right?"

"Master Ou is right, we should not touch this gambling thing!"

……

In front of the people in the gambling house, Grandma Man didn't dare to act arrogantly, but now she stood up and pinched her waist and cursed: "You are so good, you are all neighbors, and you are making fun of our Man family! Did you pay? If you really want to watch, I will pay you to stay and watch!"

The neighbors all thought that the old lady was so angry that they ignored her and just walked away shaking their heads.

……

Here, the Fang family just returned home and heard the cursing from the neighboring family, and then listened to a free and lively party.

"A dog will always eat shit!" This is the voice of the old man Man: "I told you not to gamble, but you still gambled! What do you mean by winning money? I have never seen such a good thing. Look at you, you are a playboy all day long and do nothing at home. It's fine, but how did you get me into such a big trouble?"

"Yes, my son, how could you lose so much?" Grandma Man also said.

Even though Man Gensheng was like a little chicken in front of that group of people just now, he was very powerful in front of his parents. He shouted at them: "Why are you arguing? I lost money and I'm already upset!"

"Besides, don't criticize me. It makes me seem like I can't do anything except eating. What about you? Dad still does some work in the fields. Mom, didn't you rest all day before? What else can you do besides eating and drinking?"

This sentence was a critical blow. Mr. Man was fine, but Grandma Man was so shocked that she was speechless. The scene fell silent for a while.

At this time, Chuntao's voice came again: "Dad, Mom, Gensheng is in a bad mood, so please stop talking for now."

She seemed to be on Man Gensheng's side.

"Bitch, do you have the right to speak?" Grandma Man instantly directed all her anger at Chuntao and pounced on her, as if she was going to hit her.

"You dare!" Man Gensheng was furious. Because Chun Tao stood on his side, he finally stood up and stopped her: "If you dare to fight, you will live on your own from now on!"

After saying that, he made some footsteps and seemed to be pulling Chuntao into his room.

Here, the Fang family listened to the lively conversation and continued to eat.

"Man Gensheng is such a loser. What kind of things did he say to our parents?" said Fang's mother.

"Yes!" Fang Lin agreed, but he seemed to be thinking about something: "Chun Tao, it seems that she is really different."

After dinner, wash up.

Tian Xuan suddenly came over and asked in a low voice: "Brother Lin, Man Gensheng and Chuntao, are they..."

She didn't explain it very clearly, but Fang Lin naturally knew what she meant. Was this a trap set by him?

"Ah."

Fang Lin nodded: "Sister Xuan, would you..."

In the end, he couldn't utter the word "disdain".

"Brother Lin, towards Chuntao, not only Sister Guihua, but I also..." The changes in Chuntao in the Man family were actually also influenced by Tian Xuan!
"No wonder, I said she changed too fast...but Sister Xuan, you..." Fang Lin saw Sister Guihua, but did not guess Tian Xuan. He could only say that if Tian Xuan also gave up her bottom line, she would definitely not lose to Sister Guihua.

However, he would rather let Sister Guihua do the dirty work than let Tian Xuan be involved in it.

"Brother Lin, I am your wife!"

Tian Xuan blocked Fang Lin's mouth with her fingertips and looked him in the eyes: "If you are poor, I will suffer with you; if you are rich, I will enjoy with you; if you are a good person, I will be one too; if you do bad things, I will be struck by lightning with you; if anything happens to you, I will die... just because I am your wife."

"Sister Xuan!" Fang Lin hugged her tightly.

"Brother Lin, I am also a bad woman."

"We are a perfect match."

"Brother Lin..."

Shhh!
Fang Lin suddenly raised his middle finger, pointed it at his mouth, and pointed at the sound coming from next door: "Let's listen to the opera."

Inside the house, the oil lamp emitted a dim and soft light, enveloping the two people snuggling together. Outside, the cold wind howled, whistling past the window and blowing towards the house next door.

……

(End of this chapter)