The scene fell so silent that one could hear a pin drop.
Granny Qi and Mama Mao stood there in stunned silence, unable to say a word.
What did she mean? She had actually broken all three men’s legs?
A trace of disbelief flashed through Meng Guanqi’s eyes. “Y-you broke their legs? How could you? How could you use extrajudicial punishment?”
Li Xiaoxiao replied, “Where I’m from, kidnappers are beaten to death when they’re caught. I only broke their legs. That’s already very lenient of me.” She looked completely justified, as though she found Meng Guanqi’s question rather strange.
She tossed the silver in her hand before patting the ox cart. “This is what they paid me as compensation. They wanted to kidnap me too, but they couldn’t beat me, so they willingly paid me compensation.”
She had come up with this excuse long ago, and after saying it aloud, she felt extremely satisfied. She even nodded to herself.
Mm, although she wasn’t educated, she did have some quick wits. Not bad, not bad.
The entire scene fell deathly silent. Even Meng Guanqi was left speechless.
A Sheng’s mouth fell open, and he quietly gave her a thumbs-up behind her back.
Meng Guanqi could no longer bring himself to be angry. He had just remembered that in many poor and backward villages, when kidnappers were caught, the villagers would indeed beat them to death, while the authorities generally turned a blind eye. They used this method to protect their children from being kidnapped and sold.
Li Xiaoxiao was a refugee who had fled here to escape the disaster. If she had been influenced by such customs, one could only say that she had been deeply affected by them. It was difficult to blame her for doing anything wrong.
But his father was now the county magistrate of Miyang County. Such matters should be handled according to the law. Li Xiaoxiao was a maidservant of the magistrate’s household, so her actions represented Magistrate Meng’s stance. She could not simply deal with matters however she pleased.
He sighed. “Come with me. If these three really are kidnappers, we can’t just let them go. And the money you received counts as stolen property. By law, it has to be confiscated. I’ll take you to report it to the authorities and get some constables.”
Li Xiaoxiao’s face fell immediately. It had to be confiscated?!
Wasn’t that ridiculous?
But she was a servant now. If her master said it had to be confiscated, she had no right to refuse.
With a long face, Li Xiaoxiao reluctantly followed Meng Guanqi.
The county office was right by the main gate of the front courtyard. Meng Guanqi led Li Xiaoxiao into the main hall. Magistrate Meng had gone to a neighboring county, and several constables were scattered around the hall, some standing and others sitting, none of them with proper posture. One of them, a constable dressed in the uniform of a chief constable, was sprawled carelessly in a chair, peeling peanuts and chatting idly with his subordinates. Peanut shells and skins were scattered all over the floor.
Seeing Meng Guanqi approach, one of the constables nudged the chief constable. “Chief Constable Shi, Young Master Meng is here.”
Constable Shi glanced over lazily without stopping his hands. “Oh? Young Master Meng, what brings you here? The magistrate has gone to the neighboring county and hasn’t returned yet. If you have something to discuss with him, you’ll have to wait until he gets back.”
Meng Guanqi frowned as he looked at the disorderly hall. How did this look like a place where a county government handled cases? It was practically no different from a roadside tavern!
Meng Guanqi had been in Miyang County for half a year and had long known that Magistrate Meng faced many obstacles in carrying out his policies. But this was, after all, his father’s workplace, and he himself was merely a xiucai with no official position whatsoever. He had neither the standing nor the authority to interfere in the county government’s affairs. The few times he had come here, he had always left with his brows tightly furrowed. Yet he had never expected that after half a year, the atmosphere here would have become even more outrageous.
With things like this, how could Father possibly achieve his goal of good governance and harmony?
He pretended not to notice. “Constable Shi, this is a servant from my household. We just encountered three people in the market who were openly kidnapping and selling women in broad daylight. They’ve already been subdued. Please send a few constables with us to apprehend them and bring them to justice.”
Constable Shi slowly tossed the last peanut into his mouth, then gestured for a subordinate to pour him a cup of tea. He leisurely drank it before slowly standing up and picking at his ear.
“What did you say? Kidnapping and selling women in broad daylight? And you’ve already caught them? Young Master Meng, we’re rather busy. It’s almost time for us to go to the city gate to distribute porridge.”
He paused, taking another sip of tea.
“By the way, since you’re here, there’s something I wanted to ask you about. The county government’s granary only has a few bags of coarse rice left, enough to cook for three more days. The magistrate hasn’t returned yet. What are we supposed to do if the rice runs out? We’ve already been distributing porridge for more than half a month, and the number of refugees outside the city keeps growing, yet there’s still no solution. Why don’t Young Master Meng give us some advice? Once the rice is gone three days from now, what are we supposed to do?”
He gave a contemptuous smile. “We’ve been distributing porridge once a day all this time. If we suddenly stop three days from now, what do you think those refugees outside the city will do? Kneel down and thank Magistrate Meng for saving their lives before dispersing on their own, or will they fly into a rage, thinking that we have rice but are hiding it instead of distributing it, and come in to burn, kill, smash, and loot?”
Meng Guanqi was still young, after all, and he had never expected to be challenged like this. He unconsciously retreated a pace.
Constable Shi bared his teeth in a smile, but his eyes were cold.
“We’ve already told Magistrate Meng that he should never have started distributing porridge in the first place. These refugees have passed through so many prefectures and counties. Every county magistrate has been trying every possible way to drive them away, but Magistrate Meng went and opened the county government’s granary, giving them a bowl of porridge every day. If those refugees can cling to life, why would they leave? The number of people will only keep increasing. It’s already too late to drive them away now, and we can’t stop distributing porridge either. Once we stop, no one knows what will happen.”
Meng Guanqi’s face tightened, and he instinctively retreated another pace. A drop of sweat slowly trickled down his forehead.
Constable Shi snorted, then turned around and took another sip of tea. “There’s no grain left in the granary now. If Magistrate Meng doesn’t make it back, please tell Young Master Meng and Madam. Before the magistrate left, he said that if anything unexpected happened, you could go to the rear courtyard and ask Madam to help resolve it.”
Meng Guanqi’s mouth felt dry. “Then what about the human traffickers who were kidnapping and selling people? We’re just going to ignore them?”
Constable Shi’s expression was rather peculiar. “Young Master Meng, even if you say this really happened, suppose we go and arrest them and throw them in jail. Then what? There’s no grain left in the granary. Once we arrest them, we’ll have to feed them too. Who can afford that? In the current situation, if people find out that there’s food in the county jail, I guarantee you that dozens, even hundreds of people will immediately commit some crime just so they can squeeze into the jail. Do you believe me? Compared with their lives, how serious a crime is kidnapping and selling people, really?”
Meng Guanqi was speechless once again.
He felt as though his entire worldview had been violently shaken. No, things shouldn’t be like this.
The principles of loyalty to the sovereign and love of one’s country, the way of being an official, and the laws of Great Wu that he had studied so thoroughly had never presented him with such a dilemma.
But reality had slapped him hard across the face. He had heard every word Constable Shi said clearly, yet he could not refute a single one of them.
When he learned that his father had accepted the refugees and decided to distribute one bowl of porridge a day, he had not thought anything was wrong. There were so many refugees. Surely the court’s disaster relief funds and grain would arrive eventually. They were only temporarily using the grain in the county granary. Once the relief grain arrived, they could replenish it. They couldn’t possibly just watch the people starve to death and resort to exchanging children for food, could they?
But more than a month had already passed, and there was still no news whatsoever of any disaster relief funds or grain. His father had gone from sending a letter to the prefectural city every three days to urge them for money and grain to sending one every day. Now he had personally gone to a neighboring county to borrow grain, and no one knew whether he would even be able to bring any back.
The number of refugees outside the city was growing larger and larger. He had also studied military texts and knew the saying, “Give someone a pint of rice and he will be grateful; give him a quart and he will resent you.” The refugees would not remember the counties that had driven them away with whips. They would only direct their hatred toward Miyang County, which had continued to distribute porridge to them and give them hope, only to suddenly cut it off.
Cold sweat poured down Meng Guanqi’s forehead. He rasped, “The court’s disaster relief silver… there’s still no news?”
Constable Shi exchanged glances with several of his subordinates, and they all burst into laughter. Constable Shi laughed so hard that tears nearly came to his eyes.
“Young Master Meng, Young Master Meng, how could you possibly believe there was such a thing as disaster relief silver? I’ve been working at the county government for more than ten years, and I’ve never even seen what disaster relief silver looks like.”
“Me neither.”
“I’ve been here five years, and I’ve never seen any.”
“I took my father’s place here. Even my father never saw any, so there’s even less chance I’ve seen it.”
After laughing, Constable Shi wiped away his tears and straightened the hat on his head. “All right, it’s almost time. We need to hurry to the city gate. By the way, did you all sharpen your blades like I told you earlier?”
“Sharpened them, sharpened them.”
Constable Shi waved a hand. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go~”
Meng Guanqi was standing directly in front of him. Constable Shi had no intention of going around him and slammed straight into him without the slightest courtesy, nearly knocking him to the ground. Meng Guanqi staggered, and Li Xiaoxiao hurriedly caught him.
Soon, the entire main hall of the county government was empty.
Meng Guanqi’s face was deathly pale, and he could not utter a word. This was the first time he had confronted reality head-on, and the impact had been far too great.
Li Xiaoxiao was clearly much calmer than he was. “Young Master, let’s go.”
Meng Guanqi nodded blankly and, supported by her, walked out of the county government office.
Li Xiaoxiao helped the dazed Meng Guanqi onto the ox cart and flicked the whip. “Let’s go.”
The old ox lifted its hooves and slowly made its way toward the main street.
It was not until the ox cart stopped in front of a rice shop that Meng Guanqi came back to his senses. “Y-you brought me here for what?”
Li Xiaoxiao remained perfectly calm. “To buy rice. Didn’t you hear what Constable Shi said? There are only a few bags of rice left in the county government granary.”
Meng Guanqi’s hand clenched tightly beneath his sleeve.
Li Xiaoxiao blinked. “What he said was right. The porridge distribution at the city gate can’t stop. Not even for half a day. If it stops, something terrible will happen.”
She had finally found a place to settle down, and she didn’t want it to be overrun by refugees after only a few days.
If a riot really broke out at the city gate, the county government would be the first place to bear the brunt.
This place was a symbol of power and wealth. Although she had just taken a look inside, the county government’s broken tables and battered chairs had been patched up over and over, with even the paint peeling off in a mess. They were hardly worth any money.
There was no money, and as for power, judging by the way Constable Shi and the other constables treated Young Master Meng and Magistrate Meng, she felt that Magistrate Meng probably had no real authority over these subordinates either.
He had neither money nor power, yet whenever something happened, he would be the first one to bear the brunt, and afterward he would still have to take responsibility. There was no road ahead and pursuers behind. Being a county magistrate was truly difficult. And now, because of the porridge distribution, more and more refugees were gathering outside the city. To prevent chaos, maintaining the status quo was the best option.
Meng Guanqi’s face was pale. “Even you think something will happen? How do you know?”
Li Xiaoxiao looked at him. “Because I’ve seen it before~” And she had seen it many times.
Meng Guanqi’s lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, he could not utter a single word.
Li Xiaoxiao paid him no further attention and walked straight into the rice shop. A shop assistant immediately came over to greet her. “Miss, are you looking for rice or flour?”
Li Xiaoxiao asked, “How much is the cheapest rice here?”
The shop assistant replied, “The cheapest is coarse rice, five wen per jin.”
Li Xiaoxiao tossed him a money pouch. “There are eighteen liang of silver here. Exchange all of it for coarse rice and deliver it to the county government’s granary.”
The shop assistant bowed. “Certainly. Eighteen liang of silver, a total of three thousand six hundred jin of coarse rice. It will definitely be delivered to the county government’s granary before sunset.”
Meng Guanqi looked at her with complicated emotions as she came out of the shop. “You exchanged all eighteen liang of silver that the kidnappers gave you as compensation for coarse rice?”
Li Xiaoxiao nodded. “Yep. Didn’t you say the money had to be confiscated? Since it’s going to be confiscated anyway, we might as well turn it into rice. More than three thousand jin of rice should last ten days to half a month, right? By then, the magistrate should be back, shouldn’t he?”
Meng Guanqi lowered his head. He was deeply reluctant to admit it, but he could not deny that he had actually done less than Li Xiaoxiao.
And she was merely a maidservant his family had purchased not long ago.
…
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