Give you a spring

"Fifteen years ago, the lower official had not been transferred to the capital to be the prefect, but to be the county magistrate in a small place called Langqiao."

Langqiao, He Zhou raised his eyebrows, and turned to look at Pingwei—isn't that the place where he confessed his love to Pingwei?

Ping Wei noticed his gaze, but ignored him, and listened intently to Qi Zheng's words.

"There is a river in Langqiao called the Mang River. It is about [-] meters long. The water is fierce and deep. The villagers rarely go there because they are afraid of danger. But one day, the police rushed in and said that someone was going to jump into the river outside. , I immediately thought of the Mang River, after all, jumping into it will definitely kill you, but you will be washed away in the blink of an eye."

"I rushed over there, and there was a woman standing by the river, with disheveled clothes and messy hair, and everyone in the town was watching from a distance."

"I asked if something was wrong, she didn't speak, and I said I could help, but she didn't speak, no matter what I said, she was very silent."

Qi Zheng seemed to have thought of the helpless and anxious scene at that time, his hands on the table trembled, Ping Wei saw it, handed him a cup of tea, and asked softly, "What is the woman's name?"

Hearing his words, Qi Zheng smiled lightly, turned his head to look at Zhou Mu on the ground, and said word by word, "My name is Zhao Wanwan."

Zhou Mu opened his eyes wide.

Stop trembling.

Ping Wei looked at He Zhou, and the latter went to drag Mr. Zhou up on the ground, pushed him onto the chair, and asked, "Mister, did you know him before?"

Zhou Mu didn't speak, Qi Zheng answered for him, "Not only does he know each other, but he is very familiar with it."

"what happened?"

"Zhou Mu also lived in Langqiao before. I don't know why he ran to Linjing City and joined the Ministry of Rites. When I first met him, he was teaching in a private school. It seems that he was only thirty years old. Next year, Zhao Wanwan will be one of his students."

Qi Zheng lowered his eyes, "Girls from Daqi cannot go to school to study, but Zhao Wanwan is a very thoughtful girl, she likes to study, and she wants to learn more knowledge and leave Langqiao to live in a better place. I also support her very much, most women are going to marry and have children in their 20s, but Zhao Wanwan is already in her twenties, her family did not urge her, and instead allowed her to secretly go to a private school to listen to lectures."

"Langqiao is a small place, and some things will spread to everyone in a few days. Zhao Wanwan secretly went to the school to attend lectures, and it caused a lot of trouble after she was discovered, but I supported her very much and insisted on helping her suppress it. After more than a week of arguing, everyone stopped and ignored it. Later, Zhao Wanwan didn't sneak around the wall to attend lectures, but sat inside openly."

"It's just that two weeks after this, something started to spread in the county."

"What is it?" Ping Wei asked.

Qi Zheng didn't answer, he looked at the silent Zhou Mu opposite, with hatred in his eyes.

"Someone said that Zhao Wanwan hooked up with a teacher in a private school."

Ping Wei's pupils dilated slightly—this kind of thing spread in a small backward place, not only the victims felt ashamed, but also were constantly insulted.

"Is this true, or is it false?" He looked at Qi Zheng suspiciously, and asked slowly.

"It can be said to be true, or it can be said to be false." Qi Zheng smiled bleakly, "At that time, people in Langqiao talked about this matter a lot, and they all felt that the daughter of the Zhao family was shameless, and it was a shock to go to a private school. It’s really embarrassing to be hooked up with the teacher there after being out of the world.”

"As soon as this matter got out, it was out of control. Later, it developed into Zhao Wanwan who took the initiative to seduce the teacher, like a vixen. No matter how the Zhao family denied it, everyone insisted that this was the case, and came to the yamen to find me, saying We must drive the Zhao family away from Langqiao."

"A group of fools," He Zhou said.

"Then the teacher is Zhou Mu?" Ping Wei asked with a bad expression.

"Correct."

"What about the facts? Did you investigate? Did Zhao Wanwan tell you anything?"

"No," Qi Zheng sighed, "I was powerless. I went to see the Zhao family several times but were rejected. Zhao Wanwan never went out after the rumors spread. After a week, I heard the police say that someone To jump into the Mang River."

Ping Wei lowered his eyes, "The Zhao family refused to say it, and Zhao Wanwan didn't come out to deny it, so does it mean that she really has something to do with Zhou Mu?" Mu raped, right?"

"..." Qi Zheng nodded slowly.

Feeling the change in Pingwei's mood, He Zhou held his left hand, stopped the knife he was playing with with his right hand, and aimed the knife at Zhou Mu who was sitting silently by the side, "He made you unhappy, I can kill him." Did you kill him?"

"Don't mess around," Ping Wei snatched his knife and signaled Qi Zheng to continue.

Master Qi said, "What impressed me the most about this incident was not that Zhao Wanwan was framed and died wronged under the name of an adulteress, nor was it that this unscrupulous bastard raped her student, but that on the day she jumped into the river... .The reaction of the onlookers."

"At first, Zhao Wanwan didn't want to dance. After all, her family was there at the time, and they kept persuading her. She has only one daughter in her family, and her parents are over 60 years old. She has been subjected to rumors for dozens of days, and she saw her daughter wanting to commit suicide. , The couple almost failed to hold on. Zhao Wanwan probably thought of this, so she stood by the river without moving, and she kept crying."

"There were a lot of onlookers, almost half of the people from Langqiao came out. I think they were watching this as a show. Zhao Wanwan stood by the river for more than an hour and didn't jump. Naturally, she got anxious. "Some were making sarcastic remarks, some were urging her to dance quickly, and some were insulting her as a prostitute for acting here, in short, those rural people all spoke ill of Zhao Wanwan as if they had lost their hearts.

As if it wasn't them who died, they felt at ease.

Ping Wei's hand holding the knife kept tightening, and the tip of the knife pointed straight at the tablecloth, and was inserted into the solid table.However, the Fifth Prince's face was still very calm, and he couldn't see anything unusual. He asked softly, "Did she be forced to jump by those people in the end?"

Qi Zheng: "Not only that, after seeing her daughter jump off, her parents jumped off too."

But in an instant, those three people disappeared in the raging Mang River.

Ping Wei was silent for a while, "How many years has happened in Chongli?"

"21."

"I remember."

After a while, Pingwei asked again, "Is this the case with Zhao Wanwan?"

"..." Qi Zheng replied in silence.

——The people involved in this matter are all dead, Zhou Mu, as a perpetrator, will not admit anything.

Ping Wei understood, he took out the knife on the table and returned it to He Zhou, and said calmly, "Master Qi, is there anything else you want to add about this old matter?"

"No more," this is not what they mainly want to talk about tonight, Qi Zhengdao.

"Okay," Ping Wei looked at the pale Zhou Mu, "Mr. Zhou, now you can talk about your affairs with Master Qi, I mean, those who cheated in the imperial examination."