Liaozhai Great Sage

Chapter 30 Zhang Shun
Xu Butou was also a well-informed person in Guobei County, so he sent a yamen servant to report back what Li Xiuyuan wanted to inquire about.

"Zhang Shun, a carpenter in the north of the county, spent a lot of money during this time. Some people saw him spending a few hundred taels of silver to redeem a girl from a brothel, and others saw him spending nearly a thousand taels of silver to buy I bought a big house and prepared to go there in a few days."

The yamen servant said in a low voice.

Li Xiuyuan, who was wandering on the road, immediately moved his eyes and signaled: "I know about this matter, you can go to work first, if this matter is found out to be true, remember to come to my Li family to receive the reward."

"Thank you, Eldest Young Master." The yamen servant happily cupped his hands, and quickly left with his head down.

"Carpenter Zhang Shun?"

Li Xiuyuan thought about it in his mind, but he had a little impression of this person. Zhang Shun was the only son of an old carpenter in Guobei County. In recent years, he heard that he inherited the family business and was also a carpenter.

However, Zhang Shun didn't learn his father's craft. When he was working, he got into trouble a few times because he didn't satisfy others, and his reputation got bad, so no one asked him to work again.

After a long time, the originally good family property declined.

"Go and see Zhang Shun."

Li Xiuyuan immediately went to Zhang Shun's house without any hesitation. When he passed by the house, he called a few servants to go with him, and at the same time brought the black cat with enlightened intelligence, so as not to encounter the white mouse in time and be caught by it. ran away.

A moment of effort.

Li Xiuyuan came to a rather desolate and decaying old house.

"Knock on the door."

"Yes, young master." A servant stepped forward to knock on the door, but when he knocked, the door opened: "Young master, this door is not locked."

"Go in and have a look, Xiaodie, put the black cat down and let it wander around here." Li Xiuyuan said.

Xiaodie responded, and put down the black cat she was holding in her arms.

As soon as the black cat landed on the ground, it scurry into the house, and soon disappeared.

"There is movement in the house, and Zhang Shun guesses that he is at home." After walking into the yard, a servant heard it.

Li Xiuyuan strode into the hall, ready to drag Zhang Shun out and question him, to see if he ordered the white mouse to steal the silver from his Li family's treasury.

But immediately, he heard movement from the bedroom next to him.

Zhang Shun's voice sounded a bit wretched from inside: "My beauty, it's not in vain that I paid 300 taels of silver to redeem you from the brothel. Your ability to serve people is too good. Come on, use the previous Let's do that trick again."

"Master, don't worry, the future will be long, don't damage your body." The woman's half-pushing voice sounded.

Soon the sound of the wooden couch creaking and swaying came from inside the house.

"Young master, look at this," the servant said with some embarrassment.

Unexpectedly, Zhang Shun is really lucky, and he is still fooling around with women during the day.

"Catch him out." Li Xiuyuan said with a normal face, and Xiaodie who was next to him blushed a little bit ashamed.

"Yes." The two servants responded and rushed into the house immediately.

"Who are you?" Zhang Shun's terrified voice sounded, accompanied by the woman's scream.

After a sound of resistance sounded, a disheveled man was quickly dragged out by two servants, but the woman ignored him.

"Zhang Shun, you are so talented that you even dare to steal the silver from my Li family." Li Xiuyuan stared at him coldly.

"Big, young master."

Zhang Shun immediately turned pale when he saw Li Xiuyuan, and broke into a cold sweat.

Originally, I just wanted to cheat him, but seeing him like this, the lost ten thousand taels of silver must have something to do with him.

"Where did you hide the 1 taels of silver from my Li family? If you tell me the truth, I can let you go. If you hide anything, you can go to my Li family's mine to mine and pay off the debt. 1 taels of silver , is enough for you to mine for a lifetime." Li Xiuyuan said condescendingly, looking at him.

Zhang Shun hastily defended at this moment: "Eldest young master, the younger one didn't take the money from the Li family. The younger one really didn't take it. Eldest young master, you must have wronged me."

"Really? But someone in the county told me that you spent a few hundred taels of silver in a brothel to redeem a girl from a brothel some time ago, and someone saw you bought a mansion for a thousand taels of silver. Two silvers, where did you Zhang Shun come from? There are families in Guobei County who can give away one thousand and several hundred taels of silver at one go, I can count them with my eyes closed, but your Zhang Shun family is not among these families."

Li Xiuyuan said coldly.

"Tell me, where did you get your money?"

Zhang Shun's lips moved slightly, his whole body trembled, he was so frightened that he didn't know what to say for a while.

"Take him out and let him calm down."

Li Xiuyuan knew that such a small person would easily get confused when encountering big things, so he didn't ask any more questions, and waved his hand to signal his servant.

The servant immediately carried Zhang Shun out, poured cold water on him, and slapped him several times to wake him up.

"Eldest Young Master, Eldest Young Master, I know what's going on." Just when Zhang Shun was calming down, a woman in disheveled clothes ran out in a hurry.

But it was a thirty-year-old woman with a dusty atmosphere, and her appearance was more pleasing to the eye.

"Are you the brothel girl Zhang Shun paid 300 taels of silver to redeem you?" Li Xiuyuan asked.

"Yanhua from Nu's family has seen the young master." The woman hastily saluted again.

"Since you know what Zhang Shun did, let's talk about it."

Yanhua asked cautiously: "If you tell me, can I get away with it?"

"It has nothing to do with you, my Li family will not trouble you."

"Thank you, young master."

Yanhua was overjoyed immediately, and hurriedly said: "That Zhang Shun told my slave one night that he raised a god mouse and would send him 100 taels of silver every day. At first, my slave didn't believe it, but then I saw that one night, A white mouse sneaked into the house and spit out two heavy ingots of silver for him. After Zhang Shun got the god mouse, he stopped working every day and just waited for the god mouse to bring the silver taels. gone."

"Later, the slave family had some doubts. Did the god mouse go to that rich man's house to steal the silver taels? The slave family persuaded Zhang Shun to let him accept the money as soon as he was good, and not to ask for the money from the god mouse, but Zhang Shun said that he would take another 5000 taels of silver. I won't take it anymore, and I can live the rest of my life in peace and stability in the future, and my family didn't stop it for a while when they heard their heartbeat."

After Li Xiuyuan listened to it, he matched up with the previous clue.

Sure enough, the silver stolen by the white mouse was used by people.

"I've said it, I've said it, I've said everything." At this time, Zhang Shun outside the door hurriedly begged for mercy after being taught a lesson.

"Bring Zhang Shun in." Li Xiuyuan said.

The servant quickly brought in the wet Zhang Shun.

Zhang Shun knelt down and begged for mercy: "Please forgive the young master, the young one really doesn't know that the silver belongs to the young master's family. If the young one knows, even if the young one has the courage to take it, he will not dare to take it." The money from the young master's house."

"I didn't ask you about the money, I asked what happened to your white mouse." Li Xiuyuan said.

The 1 taels of silver are nothing more than vulgar things, and the white mouse is a spirit with Taoism. In his heart, he cares more about this silver.

Zhang Shun said: "The little one doesn't know what happened to the white mouse, but last month when the little one's family was too poor to open the pot, the little one was lying on the bed hungry, and the white mouse suddenly jumped to the little one's head and vomited. After one ingot of silver, it ran away and disappeared, and then the white mouse would appear every day and spit out one ingot of silver to the little one."

"Does the white mouse only spit out a piece of silver for you every day?" Li Xiuyuan asked.

"No, no, the little one went to the brothel that day and saw Yanhua, so he had the idea of ​​redeeming her to go home. After seeing the white mouse at night, the little one begged it to spit out a few ingots of silver for me. As a result, On the second day, the white mouse really spit out three ingots of silver." Zhang Shun's voice became smaller and smaller as he spoke.

Li Xiuyuan asked again: "This white mouse is a spirit with Taoism. It is impossible to give you money for no reason. What have you done to attract this white mouse? Be honest."

"The young one really doesn't know." Zhang Shun said tremblingly; "The young one has told the young master everything that the young one can know, and ask the young master for mercy."

Then he begged for mercy, but after kowtowing a few times, he suddenly remembered something, and hurriedly said: "By the way, the little one remembered, the little one remembered one thing, the little one followed me ten years ago. When my father went to a family to do carpentry, something happened. The house collapsed and killed a nest of mice. Only one mouse survived. When he grows up, he slips away by himself."

"But the rat is gray, not white."

(End of this chapter)