Peaceful Farm Life

Chapter 568: Chapter 568: What, I prepared wrongly?_1

Xiao Changyi is Prince Yi?!!!

Pan Shuangquan and the others were all dumbfounded and instantly turned pale.

The County Magistrate continued, ”Lady Pan Fan plotted a curse with a doll against Prince Yi’s four newly born children, a crime akin to conspiring against the Prince’s life, bringing calamity upon the entire household.” He paused, ”If anything were to happen to those four children of Prince Yi, according to Xiyun’s legal code, it would no longer be a matter of one household, but of exterminating the Nine Clans.”

At this moment, Pan Shuangquan and the others had completely forgotten that they had allowed Lady Pan Fan to make the curse doll, and even sometimes, when they came across it, they would jab it with a needle or two themselves.

Only to hear Pan Shuangquan’s mother wailing, ”I said she was a disaster magnet! Look, she’s dragged our whole family into this mess!”

Pan Shuangquan and the others were all terrified of death, and they kept kowtowing to the County Magistrate, pleading for his mercy, pleading for Xiao Changyi’s mercy.

But the County Magistrate appeared unfazed.

Lady Pan Fan, knocked out by Meng Zhuqing, when she woke up and found out Xiao Changyi was Prince Yi, was completely stunned, never having imagined she committed the grave crime of conspiring against a Prince.

When she learned that all of Pan Shuangquan’s family were to be beheaded, while she alone was to be executed by lingchi, she did not feel any remorse for affecting her family, but was so afraid and terrified that she wanted to smash her head against a wall.

That was a lingchi execution!

Just thinking about it, her whole body ached terribly, worse than death itself!

The Government Officials, however, were well-prepared, having bound Lady Pan Fan and gagged her in advance to prevent her from committing suicide.

Carrying out the execution and such were left to the County Government; it didn’t need Meng Zhuqing’s attention, so Meng returned to An Jing and Xiao Changyi’s place.

Because An Jing and Xiao Changyi needed someone to take care of them, and with Imperial Physician Jiang also needing to be present all the time, three rooms had been added next to the courtyard. Now, not only was Doctor Jiang living there, but he and his brother Meng Lanqing were also staying there.

To the outside world, it was declared that just like his brother Meng Lanqing, he had been hired to work in their grandfather’s rice shop, and was only transferred here to help because this place needed care.

Feeling that he was tainted with the evil spirit of the cursed effigy, Meng Zhuqing dared not even enter the courtyard and returned to his own room at the side.

But before he could enter, the door of his room opened from the inside, and his brother Meng Lanqing came out with a large basin of mugwort water. Then, he poured it over Meng Zhuqing’s head, drenching him and instantly turning him into a drowned rat.

Meng Zhuqing: ”...”

After Meng Lanqing poured the mugwort water over Meng Zhuqing, he smiled and said, ”It’s for exorcising evil spirits.”

”...Couldn’t you have found another method?”

”It’s possible, like you sould take a bath with mugwort water, but I find that troublesome, and this way is much simpler.” After a pause, with his good-looking eyebrows furrowed in displeasure, Meng Lanqing added, ”Here I am, your brother, caring and kind, preparing mugwort water to ward off evil for you. What, did I prepare it wrong?”

Meng Zhuqing immediately said, ”No. Thank you, brother.”

”No need to be so courteous, just give me two hundred taels of silver,” Meng Lanqing smiled, radiantly beautiful.

”...I just gave you five hundred taels three hours ago.”

”I can never have too much silver.”

Used to being squeezed for money, Meng Zhuqing had grown accustomed and, in the end, resigned to his fate, gave his brother another two hundred taels.

...

The news about Pan Shuangquan and his family being arrested by the government spread quickly to every village within a ten-mile radius; sadly, even though the rumors were rife, nobody knew exactly what crime Pan Shuangquan’s family had committed.

Seven days later, with no sign of Pan Shuangquan and his family being released by the government, everyone assumed they were not likely to return at all.