Fan Changyu felt something was amiss. As she was about to continue home, the woman said with a peculiar expression, “People from the gambling den went to your house again. Your husband…”
In a flash, Fan Changyu grabbed a carrying pole from the wall and rushed into the alley.
The woman, surprised by Fan Changyu’s haste, called out, “Your husband wasn’t hurt! It’s the gambling den people who were crippled by him!”
Unfortunately, Fan Changyu had already run too far to hear clearly.
From a distance, she saw a crowd gathered at her doorway again. Her heart tightened, and she gripped the carrying pole harder, shouting, “Make way!”
Seeing her charging towards them with a carrying pole, the onlookers quickly parted.
Just then, the gambling den’s minor boss, Jin Ye, emerged from Fan Changyu’s dismantled front gate, leaning on a long staff and looking fierce. Before he could react to the sight of the aggressive Fan Changyu, he was sent flying sideways by a blow from the carrying pole, falling to the ground motionless.
Fan Changyu planted her carrying pole on the ground, ready to unleash her anger on those in the courtyard. However, she saw the gambling den thugs looking at her in terror, changing their posture from crawling out to shrinking back in.
But under the eaves of the house sat a cold-faced man holding a cane, his expression gloomy.
The thugs, caught between a rock and a hard place, huddled together trembling in the courtyard. These burly men now resembled pitiful cabbages in a field.
Fan Changyu:?
She looked incredulously at the man sitting under the eaves. Had he done this to all of them?
In his injured state, needing a cane to walk, he could still fight.
The neighbors watching at the door thought Fan Changyu was going to beat them again and quickly advised, “Changyu, stop! Your husband has already beaten them up. Look at them, all with broken legs! Who knows how much the medical expenses will be!”
Hearing about compensation, Fan Changyu quickly grabbed Jin Ye, who was playing dead on the ground, by the collar and lifted him.
Terrified, with two streams of blood from his nose, Jin Ye begged, “Miss Fan, Miss Fan, please be merciful and spare me! I won’t dare do this again!”
He covered his face with both hands, “Please, no more beating…”
Fan Changyu, putting on a fierce face, pointed at her dismantled front gate, “You arrogant thugs, you’ve torn down my gate. How are you going to compensate for that?”
She needed to quickly assess the damages and hopefully prevent them from demanding compensation for their injuries!
As her gaze swept further into the courtyard, she realized that apart from the group of terrified gambling den thugs huddled together, nothing else seemed to be broken!
The man under the eaves sat in the armchair, his face pale but his presence imposing and intimidating. The door behind him was intact, indicating that these gambling den people hadn’t even entered the house.
Fan Changyu’s eyes darted back and forth over the man, noticing a spot of blood on his collar. Finally finding another reason to act tough, she continued fiercely, “My husband is injured, and you bullied him with your numbers, beating him like this. Never mind the external injuries, who knows how severe the internal injuries are? How much will it cost to see a doctor!”
Jin Ye quickly reached into his clothes and pulled out a handful of silver pieces and copper coins, offering them all to Fan Changyu, “I’ll pay! I’ll pay! Please let me go, Miss Fan!”
Fan Changyu: “…”
She had only intended to scare the gambling den people, but the situation seemed to have taken an unexpected turn.
In her moment of distraction, she loosened her grip on Jin Ye’s collar. Terrified out of his wits, he placed the silver and copper coins on the ground and quickly crawled away.
Seeing this, the trembling thugs in the courtyard hesitated for a moment before also taking out some copper coins from their clothes, placing them on the ground, and then limping out of the Fan family gate as quickly as they could.
The onlookers stared at Fan Changyu and her pale, sickly husband-in-name as if they were looking at freaks.
The gambling den thugs not only collected gambling debts but also often roamed the streets collecting various protection fees. This was the first time anyone had taken money from them.
Fan Changyu was also a bit dazed.
After the crowd dispersed, she pointed at the front gate, which seemed to have been kicked off its hinges and was lying inward, and asked, “They broke down the gate, right?”
The man under the eaves nodded, and Fan Changyu finally let out a sigh of relief.
At least she hadn’t wrongly accused anyone!
With mixed feelings, she picked up the silver and copper coins from the ground and walked over to ask, “I see blood seeping through your bandages. Has your wound opened up again?”
Xie Zheng remained silent.
Fan Changyu, remembering how all the gambling den people had limped away, said, “You’re injured. In the future, if you encounter situations like this, try to endure if you can. Wait for me to come back and handle it…”
He still didn’t respond, and Fan Changyu felt a bit awkward, knowing that all these troubles were because of her. She said, “If your wound keeps reopening, you’ll be the one suffering.”
Xie Zheng finally spoke: “They were too noisy.”
The sunlight slanted in, using his nose bridge as a dividing line. The upper half of his face was shadowed under the eaves, while the lower half was illuminated, his paleness giving him an almost translucent, icy beauty. His face was cold and distant, truly a remarkably handsome visage.
But his temper certainly couldn’t be considered good.
Hearing his reason, Fan Changyu was momentarily at a loss for words.
Xie Zheng didn’t seem inclined to say more and returned to his room.
Little Changningg timidly peeked out from the kitchen, calling, “Sister.”
Fan Changyu went over and patted her sister’s head, asking, “Were you scared?”
Changningg nodded and then shook her head, saying, “Big brother… brother-in-law is so amazing!”
Fan Changyu was startled by her form of address for the man, guessing that Madam Zhao must have taught her to call him that. She asked, “Amazing at beating up bad people?”
Little Changningg nodded: “Those people called brother-in-law a pretty boy and insulted him as a cripple, but he crippled all of them!”
Changningg’s eyes sparkled as she recounted this, “Sister, what does ‘pretty boy’ mean? Is it because brother-in-law’s face is very white?”
Fan Changyu remembered what she had said earlier, and her feelings suddenly became complicated. She told her sister, “That’s an insult. Ningning, you’re not allowed to say it, understand?”
Little Changningg obediently nodded.
Fan Changyu gave her the package of maltose candy she had bought and told her to play in the courtyard without wandering off. She then went to find the medicinal herbs they kept at home for injuries. Approaching Xie Zheng’s door, she hesitated briefly before knocking.
“What is it?” came the man’s cold yet magnetic voice from inside.
Fan Changyu said, “I’ve brought you some medicine.”
There was no response from inside for a while.
Fan Changyu pressed her lips together, but finally spoke, “I’m sorry, I should have thought of this. You married into my family, and they were bound to say many hurtful things…”
The door suddenly opened, cutting off Fan Changyu’s words.
He seemed to have been tending to his wound. His outer robe was draped over his shoulders, and only the lower few ties of his inner garment were fastened, leaving the top ones undone, revealing his attractive collarbone and a small section of his well-muscled chest. His strikingly handsome face wore an unpleasant expression: “Do you think breaking one of their legs wasn’t enough?”
Fan Changyu quickly shook her head.
Xie Zheng raised his eyelids slightly: “I’m not so thin-skinned as to take the words of a few scum to heart. As I said, they were too noisy.”
He turned to go back into the room, and Fan Changyu followed, unconsciously asking, “Do you need my help?”
He suddenly turned his head and gave her an ambiguous look, fastening the last tie of his inner garment: “I’ve already taken care of it.”
Fan Changyu: “…”
It was as if she was trying to take advantage of him by offering to apply medicine!
She was still holding the newly bought headband, and now giving it to him would make it seem like she had ulterior motives. When his gaze swept over her, she expressionlessly tied it to her high ponytail, “This is a headband I bought for myself.”
The navy blue didn’t suit women, but when she tied it on, it gave her an unexpectedly valiant air.
Xie Zheng’s expression became somewhat peculiar.
Fan Changyu, feeling she had regained face, wasn’t one to hold grudges for long. After placing the medicine bottle on the table, she began to talk about her visit to the yamen today: “Uncle Wang told me that Fan Da has submitted a petition to the county office. Before the case is settled, I can’t transfer the property deed. It seems the gambling den is still holding a grudge from losing face last time, and after communicating with Fan Da, they tried to use this method to drive you away.”
In the eyes of the gambling den people, he was an outsider, unfamiliar with Linan Town, and injured. He couldn’t have been an easier target.
After all, ordinary people would have been scared out of their wits if confronted like this.
If her husband-in-name ran away, her efforts to take in a husband would have been in vain, and the property would still end up belonging to Fan Da.
The man, who seemed uninterested in what she was saying, suddenly remarked, “In the ‘Establishing Female Households’ Zhu Yu – Chapter of the ‘Great Yin Code,’ a clause should be added allowing orphaned girls to establish their households.”
Fan Changyu knew that widows could establish their households, but she had never heard of orphaned girls doing so.
For those like her whose parents had both passed away, usually, the clan relatives would take away the property and then raise the girls until they were married off.
The quality of this upbringing depended entirely on the conscience of the clan’s relatives. Those without conscience might sell the girl directly to a brothel. More commonly, the orphaned girl would be treated as a servant, ordered around, and when she reached marriageable age, she would be sold off like livestock to whoever could pay.
When her parents had just passed away, Uncle Fan and his wife had come to their door saying they wanted to take her and Changningg away, promising to treat them like their own daughters. Fan Changyu, knowing what kind of people they were, refused no matter what, which led to Uncle Fan’s repeated attempts to seize the property deed.
She didn’t take his words seriously, “Laws are made by those high-ranking officials in the capital. Which of those old officials doesn’t have three wives and four concubines, with children in abundance? Even if their family met with misfortune and only an orphaned daughter remained, she would be taken in by relatives of status, never wanting food or clothing. These officials have no idea what life is like for orphaned girls in common households, so how would they make laws for them?”
Xie Zheng remained silent. Before his downfall, he had indeed never even heard of the plight of orphaned girls in common households.
Seeing his silence, Fan Changyu thought she had rebutted his words too harshly. She scratched her head and awkwardly tried to make amends: “But if there were officials who knew about the situation of orphaned girls in common households and proposed legislation for them, that would be a good thing.”
Xie Zheng, however, was considering the feasibility of orphaned girls establishing their households: “The court has reduced corvée labor and taxes for female-headed households. If orphaned girls could establish themselves as household heads, they should be treated the same as female-headed households. However, if an orphaned girl marries or takes in a husband, adding a male to the household, they could no longer be exempt from corvée labor and taxes. The paperwork would be quite complex.”
Fan Changyu listened, confused: “How do you know so much about the ‘Great Yin Code’?”
Xie Zheng, realizing he had said too much, lowered his eyes and said, “I’ve just seen and heard more from traveling around.”
Fan Changyu didn’t suspect anything and took out the household registration document from her collar pocket: “Oh right, your household registration document has been processed. The county constables are now arresting vagrants and beggars on sight, and outsiders without household registration or travel permits entering the city will also be thrown in jail. It’s not easy to get a household registration now. Uncle Wang had to call in a favor to get this done for you.”
Hearing this, Xie Zheng’s eyes immediately darkened: “The constables are arresting vagrants?”
Fan Changyu nodded: “I saw it with my own eyes on my way back. I heard it’s because the northwest has a new governor, and they’re worried about bandits and outlaws robbing during the New Year, so they issued this order.”
She suddenly looked up at Xie Zheng: “I also heard that the Marquis of Wu’an died on the battlefield in Chongzhou. You fled from Chongzhou, do you know if this is true?”
“I don’t know.”
Fan Changyu sighed: “If the Marquis of Wu’an died, it’s quite a pity.”
A smile that was neither mocking nor genuine appeared on the other’s pale face as he asked, “What’s there to pity?”