“You know what’s good for you!”
Feng Shi waved his hand, and someone immediately brought over a whip.
Lin Mao’s face was covered in tears and snot. He struggled desperately, but there was no way he could overpower the burly men carrying out the punishment.
He was still tied up.
“Wan’ning, save your uncle! I-I’ll pay more! I have silver! You can’t whip me!”
Lin Yuwei had clearly written in her letter that this girl had three hundred taels in her bundle, plus another two hundred taels on her person.
That silver was all his!
“Uncle, this is the punishment you deserve. How could I possibly save you?”
Su Wan’ning looked troubled.
“Ah!”
The first lash landed.
Lin Mao convulsed in pain.
He did not dare curse Feng Shi, so he vented his anger on Su Wan’ning instead.
“You ungrateful wretch! You’d have died long ago without me! And now you’re just standing there watching me get whipped—ah!”
After several lashes, Lin Mao could no longer curse.
But those few words were enough to make everyone around feel sorry for Su Wan’ning.
“Good girl, this isn’t your fault. Don’t cry.”
Su Wan’ning looked as though she were desperately holding back her tears. Her eyes were red, and she stared at Lin Mao without blinking.
“Madam Su, don’t worry. The Li family knows what they’re doing. They won’t actually beat him to death.”
Cui Niu thought Lin Mao was being completely ungrateful.
He was the real ungrateful wretch.
“Mm.”
Su Wan’ning nodded.
She felt something indescribable in her heart.
Lin Mao’s body was already covered in blood, dripping steadily onto the ground.
The person wielding the whip clearly knew what he was doing. He beat Lin Mao until he passed out, then kept going until he woke again, only for him to pass out once more.
His cries of pain never stopped.
A gust of wind swept through.
Pink-and-white crabapple blossoms spiraled through the air and landed on Lin Mao’s bloodied body.
Su Wan’ning found the scene strangely beautiful.
When she had been beaten to death in her previous life, had these people also stood above her, casually enjoying the spectacle?
The hatred in her heart had not eased much.
Instead, it was as though a floodgate had suddenly been torn open, and the hatred surged even more violently, desperate to pour out.
She quietly watched everything to the end.
Just after the twenty lashes were finished, Madam Li and Lin Jiabao finally arrived.
Seeing Lin Mao’s miserable condition, Madam Li glared at Su Wan’ning.
“Didn’t I tell you to make absolutely sure your uncle was saved? What happened?”
“I don’t have that kind of power.”
Su Wan’ning lowered her head and nervously twisted the corner of her clothes.
Lin Mao forced himself to stay conscious and urged Madam Li.
“Hurry and get the money.”
“I…”
With everyone watching her, Madam Li broke out in a cold sweat.
She had found Lin Jiabao, but the two of them had never intended to gather the silver.
Their plan had been to stall for a few days, find Zhao Escort Leader, take Su Wan’ning’s bundle, and then use the money to ransom Lin Mao.
She hurriedly pleaded with Manager Feng.
“Please, could you give us a few more days…”
“One after another, you people are treating me like a fool!”
“You’re scheming to pay less, then making excuses to avoid the mines. I already made myself clear. For every tael you’re short, he’ll receive another lash.”
Feng Shi had no patience left for her pleading.
“Hurry up. Bring out whatever money you have.”
Cui Niu quickly explained what had happened to Madam Li.
He also told her that even though they could not gather the original one hundred and fifty taels, they only needed to come up with seventy taels.
But Madam Li looked as though she had been struck stupid.
“Seventy taels… I-I don’t have that either.”
Lin Mao was stunned.
How could they not have it?
Could Zhao Escort Leader really have dared to keep the silver in that bundle for himself?
“Not even one tael?”
Feng Shi was so angry that he laughed.
He turned to Su Wan’ning.
“You don’t intend to compensate me even a single copper?”
Su Wan’ning looked puzzled.
“Auntie, I sent you all my monthly wages. You should have saved at least seventy or eighty taels by now. Where did that money go?”
She and Lin Yuwei had received the same monthly allowance.
Lin Yuwei’s wages were used to cover the palace expenses and the various favors she had to buy.
Su Wan’ning’s entire allowance had been sent back to the Lin family.
Only after hearing the villagers’ comments today had she realized that everyone thought Lin Yuwei was the one sending money home.
While Su Wan’ning had never benefited from the money Lin Yuwei spent cultivating connections in the palace, she had instead wasted her hard-earned wages and allowed Lin Yuwei to gain a reputation for being filial.
She absolutely had to set the record straight.
Before Madam Li could answer, Su Wan’ning suddenly looked enlightened.
“Oh, did you use my silver to build the new house and buy clothes and jewelry?”
“That’s fine. After all, it was my own money that I used to show my filial devotion to you.”
“But today, every tael you’re short means another lash. Tomorrow, it’ll be two lashes for every tael you’re short!”
“You’d better hurry and find the money.”
“…”
There was really no need to be quite so ruthless.
But Feng Shi did not want to lose face either.
“That’s right! That’s exactly how it is!”
“Men, give him another beating!”
He also ordered someone to bring paper and ink and write up a debt note.
Madam Li and Lin Jiabao no longer dared delay or plead.
They turned out every bit of silver they had on them, but together they could only scrape together seventeen taels.
Feng Shi did not actually want to beat Lin Mao to death.
After reducing him to half-dead condition, he had him locked up.
The remaining amount had to be delivered before nightfall the next day.
The moment the three of them left the estate, Lin Jiabao confronted Su Wan’ning.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
“What do you mean, Cousin?”
Su Wan’ning looked confused.
“You made my father get whipped! Wouldn’t it have been better to let them send him to the mines? We could have slipped them some silver and ransomed him back later!”
Lin Jiabao felt that Su Wan’ning’s trip to the Li family had accomplished absolutely nothing.
Instead, she had caused his father to be beaten.
“The person who did something wrong was your father. The one who ordered the whipping was Manager Feng. What does that have to do with me?”
“Besides, you couldn’t even come up with seventy taels. Where exactly were you planning to find the money to ransom him from the mines?”
“The price of buying someone out of the mines can be ten times higher than the price they sell him for.”
Su Wan’ning stared at him.
Lin Jiabao’s lips trembled twice.
He could not answer a single question.
Madam Li wiped away her tears and finally could not hold back any longer.
“Where is Zhao Escort Leader? Wasn’t he supposed to escort you back to the village?”
“You want to see him that badly, Auntie?”
For a married woman to be so eager to see another man, those words hit where it hurt.
Madam Li hurriedly waved her hands.
“I was just asking! I wanted to know what happened on your journey. Why didn’t the two of you come back together?”
“I’m tired. You’d better hurry home and find the money.”
Su Wan’ning could not be bothered with the two of them anymore and quickened her pace.
She was genuinely starving.
She had originally wanted Madam Li to make her wontons, but given the current situation, that was clearly impossible.
She might as well go to Auntie Wang’s house.
When she reached the entrance of the Lin family home, Little Radish was crouching there with the things she had brought, looking as though she was about to cry.
“Sister, I thought you didn’t want these anymore.”
“Come on. We’ll go eat at your house.”
Su Wan’ning picked up the entire basket of elm seeds and headed straight for Wang Chunxiu’s home.
When Wang Chunxiu heard that Su Wan’ning still had not eaten, she exclaimed that it was simply too cruel.
She did not even need to provide the ingredients. It only required a little effort.
So she immediately began making dough, washing vegetables, and wrapping wontons.
Meanwhile, Madam Li and Lin Jiabao did not care where Su Wan’ning had gone.
As soon as they got home, they hurriedly began gathering silver.
They had to pay the money, bring Lin Mao back, and get him treated as quickly as possible.
With injuries that severe, he might not survive another day.
They also wanted to find out exactly where Zhao Escort Leader had gone.
Lin Mao, locked up inside the estate, was equally confused and furious.
At one moment, he thought Zhao Escort Leader had run off with the silver.
At another, he suspected Madam Li simply did not want him to return and was deliberately holding onto the money.
But no matter how much he thought about it, he could not figure it out.
Eventually, he passed out completely.
Feng Shi, however, had calmed down.
And once he did, cold sweat broke out all over his body.
He did not consider himself an impulsive person.
Yet today, he had somehow felt as though someone had been leading him around by the nose.
After thinking it over again and again, he quietly sent out a message.
He absolutely had to meet his master as soon as possible.