The Republic of China Conspiracy Records

Chapter 154 Poppies (3)

"Yuan's family also has a library. Since the Qing Dynasty, the two families have had a lot of grievances over the competition for rare ancient books. It's only in the generation of the husband, he and his wife have the same family background, so the two families turned their rivalry into a treasure and made it. This is a marriage. But according to the Lin family's ancestral training, members of the Yuan family cannot go to the Donglin Cottage. Madam can only go there because she married into the Lin family and became the Lin family."

There is actually such a reason for this, the mayor and I looked at each other, and found that there seemed to be another possibility-Yuan Chumo was not allowed to enter the Donglin Cottage, but he appeared inside somehow.And because of this, the horned beasts of Donglin Cottage discovered the invasion of the Yuan family, so they came alive to stop him?

It is naturally difficult to say these words in front of Mrs. Lin, so the steward of the Lin family told us at the door.But since Yuan Chumo couldn't go to the Donglin Thatched Cottage, how did he avoid the eyes and ears of the Lin family?What kind of role did Mrs. Lin play in this?
The biggest possibility of this matter is that Mrs. Lin guided her father to go to Donglin Thatched Cottage in private.But if so, how could she ask the manager to take us there when she knew her father was in the thatched cottage?Besides, even if this was the case, why was it Lin Yubin who first appeared in the thatched cottage?
In any case, this matter probably has nothing to do with Mrs. Lin, and perhaps what happened later was beyond her expectations.While the mayor and I were in doubt, a woman hurriedly walked over in front of the Lin family's mansion. She looked extremely flustered, as if she was going through some great event.

There were a few children behind her, and they were shouting at this moment: "Poppy, when is the spring flower and autumn moon? Poppy, when is the spring flower and autumn moon?"

Listening to the tone of these children, it seems that they are making fun of this woman, but they just keep chanting this sentence of Empress Li for some reason.The woman didn't know what she was worried about, and she didn't realize these sarcasm and teasing, but walked towards Lin's house in a hurry.When she approached, Ji Mingmei and I exclaimed at the same time: "Why are you!"

Seeing us standing in front of Lin's house, the woman was also stunned for a moment, and asked, "Why are you at my house?"

It turned out that this woman was the owner of the book shop we met when we first entered the town.Ji Mingmei and I were very surprised. She said that the Lin family is her family, but I don't know who she is from the Lin family. Seeing that she is not much younger than Mrs. Lin, could it be Lin Yubin's sister?

"Second Madam, you're back." At this moment, the steward of the Lin family greeted her.We immediately understood that the owner of the book shop was actually Lin Yubin's concubine.But after learning about this, we were even more surprised.

Although the concubine's room is not comparable to that of a regular wife, she can still be regarded as the master of the family. The Lin family has a good life, and the assistant is not used. Why is she allowed to run the bookstore by herself?Ji Mingmei and I exchanged glances, and we both had doubts in our hearts, but this is a family matter, so we shouldn't take the liberty to ask.

"I heard that something happened at home, so I hurried back. Sir, is he...is he alright?" The second lady's face turned pale, obviously she was worried about Lin Yubin's safety after learning of the death of the Lin family.

"It's all right, sir. The one who died was the father-in-law of the Yuan family." The steward said hastily.

When the second lady heard that Lin Yubin was fine, she let out a sigh of relief and patted her chest with her hands, as if she had just recovered from a shock.When we first met her, we felt that she looked indifferent, as if she was indifferent to everything. Now seeing her caring so much about Lin Yubin, we realized that she has a cold outside and hot inside.

The steward of the Lin family went to the inner house while talking with the second wife, leaving us and the mayor to leave together outside the door.On the way, I asked the mayor, "Is this second lady Lin Yubin's concubine?"

"Yes." The mayor nodded and said, "But her background is not very good. Lin Yubin brought her home from a brothel when she went out to study. The Lin family is a scholarly family, but Lin Yubin brought a firework girl home. They are not very good-looking, so it is inevitable that they are not considerate enough to treat her."

The mayor told us that Lin Yubin's concubine's surname was Yu.Because she is not valued by the Lin family, it is inevitable that others will take her lightly, so most of them call her Yu Meiren.A beauty is meant to praise a woman for her beauty, but since she is the second wife of the Lin family, why not call her a wife but call her a beauty?
So this name is actually a mockery of her entertaining people with sex, but she is just a woman who sells laughter.Since she came to the Lin family, she has been keeping a low profile. The members of the Lin family sent her to see Gu Shusi, and she went without saying a word.Fortunately, she has done her duty these years, so people gradually stopped laughing at her.

It's just that those children were ignorant, and they still called her Poppy, and they always followed her to make fun of her.We were all silent. "Send a message to a foolish little girl, be careful not to underestimate yourself", this is a poem she read when she was in the bookstore. At first, we all thought it was a bit inexplicable, but now that I think about it, isn't this a reflection of her state of mind?
These two lines of poems are said by the poet for the woman in the poem, and they actually have a meaning of remorse.But looking at the anxious appearance of the second lady just now, it is by no means pretending.Since she cared about Lin Yubin's safety, she must have felt pain in her heart, but if she made another choice, she would still go home with him.With emotion in my heart, I bid farewell to the mayor and went back separately.

When we returned to the room where we were staying, we had nothing to do for a while, so we took out the books we just bought today to read.Ji Mingmei flipped through "Baixiangshan Poetry Collection" and threw it on the table, looking at me with a sad face.I couldn't help smiling when I saw this, I knew she was unstable, but on a whim, how could I sit still and read a collection of poems, so I handed her my copy of "Jianghuai Stranger Record".

"Jianghuai Stranger Records" tells stories about warlocks and chivalrous men, so it is naturally much more interesting than a collection of poems.Ji Mingmei read it with great interest, so I picked up her poetry collection and read it.Unexpectedly, after reading it for a while, Ji Mingmei clamored to tell me the story in the book, so I stopped the book and listened to her narration.

The story she told me was that there was a big snake in Shuzhou. After being killed, the person holding the snake's corpse could become invisible.Ji Mingmei laughed loudly as she said, "This snake is really wronged. When it is alive, it cannot hide itself, but after it dies, it can help others hide. What a strange skill it is!"

"Huh?" She laughed tremblingly, but I heard something wrong, so I took the book from her hand.

"Look, this book is really interesting." Ji Mingmei smiled from ear to ear.

I turned the book to the story she told, and then compared the words on the top, bottom, left, and right. The more I looked at it, the more strange it became, and my face became serious.Seeing this, Ji Mingmei naturally noticed something strange, and couldn't help asking: "What's wrong with you?"

"This is not "Jianghuai Stranger Records"," I held up the book to her, "The story you just told is from "Ji Shen Lu"—this book is "Ji Shen Lu"!"

"But isn't it written "Jianghuai Stranger Records" on the cover?" Ji Mingmei wondered, "Besides, it's not, maybe the people in the book printing house sealed the book wrongly, why do you have such a dignified expression?"

"Do you know the relationship between the author of "Ji Shen Lu" and the author of "Jiang Huai Yi Ren Lu"?" I asked her.Ji Mingmei shook her head blankly.

I took a deep breath, "The author of "Jianghuai Yirenlu" is Wu Shu, and the author of "Ji Shenlu" is Xu Xuan. Both of them are from the early Northern Song Dynasty."

"So what?" Ji Mingmei was still a little puzzled, not knowing why I was so serious about it.

I looked at her and said slowly, "Xu Xuan is Wu Shu's father-in-law."

Ji Mingmei frowned, calmed down and thought about it carefully, after a while she suddenly said in shock: "This...doesn't this coincide with what happened at the Lin family today?"

Today at the Lin family, we all thought it was Lin Yubin who was thrown down by the horned beast, but in fact it was his father-in-law, Yuan Chumo; we all thought the author of the book we bought at the book store was Wu Shu, but in fact it was his father-in-law Yuan Chumo. It was his father-in-law Xu Xuan.

Books and people's affairs are exactly the same, and this book is sold in the second wife's bookstore.The book shop was opened by the Lin family, which means that the books were printed by the Lin family bookstore.So the book published by the Lin family hinted at what happened to the Lin family today.Is this purely a coincidence, or is there something more to it?

Ji Mingmei figured out the connection, and immediately became as serious as I was, "So in this matter, not only Mrs. Lin is inevitably involved, but the second wife is also involved?"

I shook my head and said, "That's not necessarily the case. The book was printed by the Lin family bookstore, and the second wife is only in charge of selling it. It's hard to say whether the matter is related to her."

That being said, since this book may be related to the Lin family's affairs, I thought about telling the mayor, which could be regarded as a clue, and by the way, see if Lin Yubin was found.I shared my thoughts with Ji Mingmei, she also nodded, took the book and went out with me.

When the mayor said goodbye to us, he informed us of the location of the town office and told us to go to him if we needed something, so we went there as soon as we left the house.Halfway through the road, I passed an alley, and suddenly a figure walked past in front of me.With sharp eyes, Ji Mingmei grabbed me immediately and said in a low voice, "The manager of the Lin family!"

I took a closer look, and the person in front of me hurriedly bowed his head and walked over, wasn't he the manager of the Lin family.Ji Mingmei and I looked at each other, and nodded slightly towards her. Ji Mingmei saw me nodding, and immediately followed me on tiptoe.I was taken aback, and hurriedly followed her, but I didn't dare to call her to stop, for fear of alarming Steward Lin in front.

Steward Lin walked through several alleys in a detour, and when he came to a house, he opened the door and walked in.Seeing this, Ji Mingmei was about to follow, I quickly grabbed her and asked her, "What are you going to do?"

"Ah, didn't you ask me to follow?" Ji Mingmei was also surprised.

"When did I let you come with me?" I said angrily.

"Then why are you nodding at me!" Ji Mingmei said angrily.

"You said it was the manager of the Lin family. I nodded to show that you were right." I spread my hands at her, "We are going to the town hall, but what are we doing here with others?"

Ji Mingmei opened her mouth wide to look at me, and after a while she shook off my hand and said, "We're here anyway, let's go over and see what he's doing."

"This is the book printing workshop of the Lin family. He is the manager of the Lin family. Is there anything wrong with coming here?" I pointed to the sign in front of the house.

"At this moment, such a big incident happened to the Lin family, and he came here when he wasn't here to help the Lin family," Ji Mingmei sneered at me, "Don't you think it's strange?"

"It's a bright day, and he didn't hide his figure, so what can he do that is shady?" I said, "The biggest possibility is that he hasn't finished what he came here to do before, and he is in a hurry , That's why he hurried over regardless of the accident at home."

Just as I was talking, I was about to drag Ji Mingmei away, but at this moment, a wooden cat suddenly appeared on the road in front of the printing workshop.It appeared from nowhere, just walking on the road calmly like this, slowly approaching the printing workshop, it was the horned beast that had appeared in Donglin Thatched Cottage before!

Ji Mingmei and I were taken aback at the same time, the horned beast seemed to sense that we were hiding in the corner, and when it came to the door of the printing shop, it stopped and glanced at us.I thought that the book it read in the thatched cottage was "Suiyuan Food List", and I couldn't help but feel a chill on my back.

Ji Mingmei was also stunned, and we just watched it walk to the door of the printing house, then stretched out a paw, pushed the door open like a person, and then walked into the printing house.Ji Mingmei glanced at me and swallowed, "How about it, shall we go and have a look?"

I gritted my teeth and said, "Let's go!"

We came to the door of the printing workshop, which was a small courtyard. Since the door had been pushed open by the horned beast, we walked in directly.As soon as he entered the door, he smelled a strong smell of ink. Printing plates were piled up everywhere in the courtyard, a little scattered, but the horned beast was nowhere to be seen.We looked around in the courtyard for a while, then walked towards the house.

The house is quite spacious, it looks like a big room, it must be the place where books are printed.The door of the house was closed. We went to the window and looked in. It was empty, and there were no book printing workers. Even the manager of the Lin family was nowhere to be seen, and naturally the horned beast was also missing.

After this person and cat entered the printing workshop, they all disappeared.While we were wondering, someone behind us suddenly shouted, "Who is it?"

We were startled, turned around and saw the steward of the Lin family standing behind us, holding a wooden stick in his hand, apparently coming from the corner of the wall, and mistaking us for thieves again.But as soon as we turned around, he said in a daze, "Why are you two?"

"We saw you on the road and thought you had found your husband, so we came here to have a look." Ji Mingmei stepped forward before I could speak, "But I didn't see Mr. Lin, why is there such a thing at home?" Are you still here for something big?"

"Oh," Steward Lin was stunned, "There is a new batch of books in the bookstore, which are to be handed over to foreign booksellers after receiving a deposit. I just left in a hurry and forgot to lock the door. I was worried that someone would break in, so I returned the book. After giving it to Madam, I hurried over to check it out."

"Then... didn't you see something coming in just now?" Ji Mingmei asked tentatively.

(End of this chapter)