The Devil's Tribulation

When Pan Chengfeng saw the little Lolita like this, his heart softened again. He wanted to say a few words of comfort, but gave up immediately and thought to himself: "This little Lolita is good at taking advantage of others. I can't be soft-hearted!" So Pan Chengfeng planned to go out quietly for a drink, but as soon as he took a step, the little Lolita burst into tears. Pan Chengfeng secretly complained: "You are the movie emperor, right? You cry so easily?" But this time Pan Chengfeng didn't plan to be soft-hearted: "Out of sight, out of mind!" He walked out of the room with a hard heart.

Arriving at the tavern, he shouted, "Bring me my wine!" The barmaid from before came over with the wine, smiled and sat down next to Pan Chengfeng, and said in a delicate voice, "Sir, have you dealt with all the housework?" Pan Chengfeng pretended not to hear, picked up the wine glass, took a sip, and said to himself, "It's a bit sweet. It seems that the purification process is not good enough, but it's acceptable." Pan Chengfeng put down the wine glass and flattered, "Not bad, whatever wine you have, give me some. I won't go home until I'm drunk today! Haha, I haven't asked for your name yet?" Just after he asked, another voice came to Pan Chengfeng's ears: "Call me Shuang'er!" Pan Chengfeng subconsciously said, "Shuang'er, what a good name..." He stood up and looked at Shuang'er beside him. Pan Chengfeng was a little at a loss. The barmaid next to him also smiled awkwardly and left quickly. She didn't want to be affected.

Shuang'er sat down at the barmaid's seat and said, "Since you like drinking flower wine so much, I will drink with you!" Pan Chengfeng said angrily, "What on earth do you want to do?" Shuang'er said, "I am here to accompany the young master to drink?" Pan Chengfeng thought to himself, "Are you here to take me back?!" Pan Chengfeng suddenly felt like he had an extra stepmother to control him. He got up and left the bar. How could he still be in the mood to drink flower wine now? He might as well go back to bed early! Shuang'er got up and followed Pan Chengfeng. The two returned to the guest room together. Pan Chengfeng shouted, "Dude! Bring me a pot of wine!" Pan Chengfeng drank one cup after another. Pan Chengfeng could not get drunk with this kind of wine. He could only drink it for fun. Shuang'er stood beside Pan Chengfeng. She knew that she was annoying. So she took the wine pot from Pan Chengfeng and helped to pour the wine. After drinking a pot of wine, Pan Chengfeng got up and said, "You sleep here, I'll sleep next door. I have something to do tomorrow."

Seeing Pan Chengfeng walk out without looking back, Shuang'er felt bad. Her biggest purpose of pestering Pan Chengfeng today had been achieved, which was to stay with him temporarily. As for asking Pan Chengfeng to take responsibility, it was just a spur-of-the-moment decision. She knew that Pan Chengfeng would not agree easily, and she could not marry someone she just met today so casually. It was just that she saw that Pan Chengfeng was a good person, and planned to make him feel bad. In this way, she could stay with Pan Chengfeng.

Pan Chengfeng rented another guest room next door and lay down on the bed, thinking to himself: "She doesn't even want to tell me her identity, do you think I can't guess it? She is such a beautiful mortal, and you can tell at a glance that she is not from an ordinary family. She must be the daughter of a wealthy businessman or an official. Now she has fallen into beggar status, so something must have happened at home. If it is a normal decline in family fortune, what is there to be afraid of? Therefore, I conclude that she is a fish that escaped the net of the house search. Is there any difference whether she is a wealthy businessman or a criminal official? The most important thing now is to find out whether the little Loli is wanted. I don't want to deal with the government." Thinking of these things, Pan Chengfeng decided to find out tomorrow if there were any major events in Fancheng recently. He should be able to find out about the little Loli's life experience.

The next day, Pan Chengfeng came to the door of the Tianzi Guest Room, listened to the noise inside, and knew that Shuang'er had woken up, so he said: "I have to go out to do something, you stay in the room obediently, don't run around. If you want to eat something, let the waiter bring it to you." After that, he waited for a while, but didn't hear a response. Pan Chengfeng didn't mind, knowing that Shuang'er must have heard it. So he turned and went out. When the waiter saw Pan Chengfeng coming out, he immediately greeted him with a smile: "Did you have a good rest last night?" Pan Chengfeng nodded and threw a silver ingot to the waiter: "The girl in the Tianzi Room is ready for me, I will be back later." The waiter took the silver and said with a smile: "Don't worry, sir, go out to do business, no one dares to come to the inn to make trouble."

After walking out of the inn, Pan Chengfeng saw the coachman from last night and said with a smile, "Brother, have you been waiting for a long time?" When the young man heard what Pan Chengfeng said, he immediately ran over with the carriage and said with a smile, "No, no, I just got here a while ago. Where are you planning to go today, sir?" Pan Chengfeng had already thought about it: "Take me to Donghua Street, and introduce me to the scenic spots and historical sites of Fancheng along the way." The young man responded and took Pan Chengfeng and set off.

The young man was running and talking all the way. He was really good at talking about some places of interest. Pan Chengfeng joked, "You are really talented. It's a waste for you to be a coachman." The young man laughed and said, "Sir, you are joking. I can't read many words. I just heard others talk about it. I will understand it after listening to it many times." Pan Chengfeng thought that he should ask the young man about Shuang'er's affairs, so he asked, "Young man, do you know if there is any big event in Fancheng recently?" The young man was puzzled for a while and replied, "Recently? It's been quite peaceful recently. There is nothing wrong. However, if you ask if there is any big event this year, there is a very big event that made Fancheng restless for a while."

Pan Chengfeng's eyes flashed, and he asked, "Oh? What big thing could cause unrest in Fancheng?" The young man said, "I heard about it too. Since you want to hear it, I'll just tell you something. You can judge for yourself whether it's true or not." Pan Chengfeng thought to himself, "It seems to be a big thing." Pan Chengfeng smiled and said, "Just tell me, little brother. I just want to hear something new." The young man thought for a while and said, "At the beginning of this year, the third prince from the capital came to our Fancheng. I heard that he was looking for the fifteenth prince who had been missing for decades. Many officials and soldiers searched the entire Fancheng, but they couldn't find the fifteenth prince. They searched for more than a month but still couldn't find him. Finally, I heard that the fifteenth prince's traces were found in a county town. Everyone knew about this incident at the time, and the prefect personally led people to search the streets."

Pan Chengfeng was speechless, thinking, "So that's what happened." The young man continued, "After the Third Prince received the news, he went to the county town in person to bring the Fifteenth Prince back to Fancheng, and returned to the capital the next day. However, this matter is not over yet." Pan Chengfeng was stunned, thinking, "Everyone has gone back, but it's not over yet?" Pan Chengfeng asked curiously, "Oh? Is there anything else?" The young man said, "Isn't it? I heard that Prefect Lu didn't do his job well, which made the Third Prince unhappy. Not long after the Third Prince went back, officials from the capital came to Fancheng to check the reserves of the granary. Didn't they hear that there was going to be a war? It's normal to come to check, but who would have thought that they would not know what happened if they didn't check, and once they checked, they would poke the sky open!" Pan Chengfeng sneered, "Since ancient times, there has been no official who is not greedy. It is normal for official warehouses to embezzle. When the price of grain is high, they take the grain from several warehouses out and resell it. When the price of grain drops after the harvest, they buy it back to fill the granary. It's a business with no capital. The Third Prince calculated that he came to check before the grain harvest. It seems that Prefect Lu really irritated him."

When the young man heard this, he thought the guest was right, so he asked curiously, "How did you know? It's like this. When they checked, all the grain in more than a dozen large granaries was gone! The emperor was furious and ordered a thorough investigation. Several imperial envoys came and checked all the bad accounts over the years. They searched the homes of more than a dozen high-ranking officials, but the strange thing was that only Prefect Lu was fine." Pan Chengfeng smiled and said, "It's not strange. If the highest administrative chief of a place was also searched, it would be a real big deal. This Prefect Lu is either as clean as water or extremely evil, and his backers must be very strong." The young man was even more surprised this time: "The guest is right. This Prefect Lu has been in Fancheng for five or six years. He has always imposed a lot of heavy taxes and squeezed the people to death. How could he be an honest official? But I heard that he seems to have a backer, and it's not an ordinary backer, so he was not implicated in that incident."

Pan Chengfeng touched his chin and thought: "It seems that Shuang'er is very likely a family member of those dozen officials whose property was confiscated? But with so many families, it's hard to be sure which family Shuang'er belongs to." After inquiring about which officials they were, Pan Chengfeng continued to ask: "What happened to those officials whose property was confiscated in the end?" The young man said with a look of relief: "What else can it be? They were all taken to Caishikou and beheaded. I heard that more than 2,000 heads were chopped off that day. All men over ten years old were chopped off, and all women were sent to the Jiaofangsi." After saying that, the young man shuddered.

Pan Chengfeng was also slightly startled. Although this method was cruel, it was an indispensable method in this era. Pan Chengfeng sighed. Seeing Pan Chengfeng like this, the young man said, "Sir, you don't have to pity them. Since they are the relatives of corrupt officials, they often abuse their power and oppress the people. They all deserve to die. Moreover, Your Majesty is merciful and has spared the children. It is a great blessing that he has not extinguished the incense of those corrupt officials."

Pan Chengfeng did not continue to be sentimental. This was the way the world was, and he was powerless to change anything. The two chatted until they arrived at Donghua Street. The young man stopped the car and said, "Sir, you're here. From here on, it's Donghua Street." The young man pointed to a road and said, "Donghua Street is very long. Even if I pull you along, it will take two hours to run across it. Are you sure you want to go by yourself? You don't need me to pull you along?" Pan Chengfeng nodded and said, "I'll go by myself. You wait for me here. If it gets dark and I haven't come back yet, you can go back by yourself and wait for me at the inn tomorrow." The young man smiled and said, "Okay, I'll go to the teahouse to have some tea and rest. Just shout when you're here."