?A few riders came to an outside of a yard in a corner of Xiyang City and stopped. They threw their whip off and came to the front of the gate and knocked the door knocker. After a moment, the gate opened slightly. A servant poked his head out and asked what was wrong.

"We came from Xiangzhou to pay back the money to Zhang Langjun, so please pass it on." A middle-aged man said before. He was dressed in kind and looked like a shopkeeper in business, and there were several people around him who were strong in shape and looked like a guard who accompanied him.

The servant looked at him who came to pay back the money and then explained, "This... my husband's wife is dead, and now the only old mistress is there in the family."

"Langjun Zhang passed away? What's going on?" The middle-aged man was shocked when he heard this. Seeing the other person's lonely look, he bowed his hand and said grief and asked to see the old mother of the Zhang family hand over the money.

The servant asked him to wait outside the door to communicate the news and the old mistress had agreed and led him into the house. The middle-aged man saw that the old man introduced himself as a businessman, and after some comfort, he turned to the main topic that he was lucky enough to escape from the thief in Bazhou at the beginning of this year. It was Zhang An and Zhang Langjun who borrowed money and was in trouble and was able to turn around.

As the saying goes, the grace of a drop of water should be repaid with a spring of water. I thought of returning to Xiangzhou and then I gave a gift to thank him. Unexpectedly, there was something delayed at home until now, but I was able to come and thank him. But I was one step too late.

Zhang An's widow's mother's surname is Liu, and she is known as Zhang Liu. She heard the shopkeeper Qi's repeated comforts and shed tears. Zhang Liu's middle-aged husband worked hard to pull his only son Zhang An into a relative, but she didn't think about it. She didn't know how sad she was.

Manager Qi ordered someone to bring a package and hand it over to Zhang Liu. He told him that he had money and some scattered silver and some jewellery. Zhang Liu said he refused to take anything. Manager Qi advised him when he saw this: "Qi's mother told him to repay the kindness of a drop of water. Although Zhang Lang is no longer here, he still asks the old man to fulfill it anyway."

Seeing that the other party accepted it, Shopkeeper Qi sighed: "It's a pity that Zhang Lang died young. At that time, he heard him mention that he wanted to have a grandson for the old man in a recent marriage, but... Alas, I would like to ask the old man to mourn, and the dead to mourn."

Zhang Liu was originally talking to Manager Qi, which was calm, but when he heard the other party mentioning the "Violet", he changed his face and cursed. Manager Qi saw this and asked Zhang An's widow what happened to him. Could it be that he was unfilial?

Zhang Liu said the whole story angrily: his son Zhang An took his newly married wife Zhang Li back to Hengzhou's parents' home in April. He went out and did not expect it. A few days later, the prefecture yamen came to report that Zhang An had encountered a thief and lost his life. His daughter-in-law Zhang Li was gone.

The news broke her like a bolt from the blue and fainted on the ground. Fortunately, the servant called a doctor to treat her in time and woke up. She cried at home for a few days. After a while, she was shocked to see her daughter-in-law coming back. They also hugged their heads and cried bitterly.

The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law went to the state yamen to beat drums and ask for justice, and the thief's nest was not found. Zhang Liu thought that his daughter-in-law had suffered a lot of torture and escaped and got back. After the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law could only rely on each other for life, but there was no other inside story: the state yamen found blood words on a servant's clothes saying that Zhang Li was conspiring to murder Zhang An.

It turned out that it was Zhang Li's thief who first killed her husband and servant and ran back to try to make the Zhang family property. Zhang Liu said that it was a blessing that the loyal servant left clues, otherwise he would have been successful by this vicious daughter-in-law.

"My Zhang family treated her well but she was a woman with a scorpion heart!" Zhang Liu was so angry that she slapped the desk. "When the woman came back, fortunately, Awu reminded her not to keep the money at home, otherwise she would have been away!"

Manager Qi kept listening silently to Zhang Liu's resentment, so he heard her mention the name "A Wu" and then his eyes flashed. He coughed lightly to persuade the other party to calm down and asked if this A Wu was Mr. Liang? At the beginning of the year, he heard Zhang An say that if he was a guest at Xiyang, he could find Mr. Liang.

Zhang Liu said that Awu was her young brother. Because she lost her husband in her early years, she came to the Zhang family to help with things. Her orphans and widows were inevitably bullied. One reason was that she was running around with the housekeeper and the other was that her younger brother was busy helping her to do errands.

Manager Qi nodded when he heard this. Based on his experience and lessons from many years of traveling around the world, he was afraid that there would be internal thieves to inform him. At the beginning of the year, the attack was to collude with the bandits to set up an ambush halfway in advance. Fortunately, a loyal servant died and escaped.

"I wonder if the servant who left the clue has a relative. Qi has always attached great importance to this loyal servant who protects the master and wants to send some money and goods to his family to express his feelings."

However, Zhang Liu said that the servant was an orphan taken in by his husband in his early years without any relatives and reason. This time he died with the man's master this time. Manager Qi sighed and said that when Zhang An talked about the conversation that day, he mentioned that he taught the servants at home to write, but he never thought that he would be so unfair.

"It was a thanks to a left-handed servant of your mansion that day. I wonder where he is now?"

"Left-handed...he is Zhang Liu who left the bloody words."

Manager Qi and Zhang Liu said for a while before saying goodbye. Zhang Liu sighed at the package, and turned aside him, and a person turned out from behind the screen and came to her: "Sister."

"Look, I also said I should be careful of blackmail. Look..." Zhang Liu opened the package, which contained a heavy pentacle of silver and jewelry wrapped in small cloth.

"Sister, I'm not thinking about the family, I must be careful of others." The man smiled. This man was thin, white, and had no need to be short, with long eyes and long voices. It was Zhang Liu's younger brother Liu Qing who was ranked fifth in the family and was known as Liu Wu. After looking at the things in the package, he asked, "Alang is really kind to the shopkeeper Qi?"

Zhang Liu said she was not sure if this was the case, but her son made a lot of friends on weekdays and didn’t come back to say anything, and there was no one who would give something to his door for no reason.

After talking to Zhang Liu for a while, Liu Qing mentioned Zhang Li, who was imprisoned in the state prison. As soon as he said that, Zhang Liu was displeased. Liu Qing smiled and said that now that Yuwen envoy decided the case is like a god, it would be better to go to the state office to beat the drum and ask him to settle the case. It would be better to comfort Zhang An's spirit in the sky.

"Sister, this snake-scorpion woman lives for one more day, so Alang's soul will last for one more day. The evidence of the crime she committed is conclusive as long as she can explain to the envoy Yuwen, she will definitely be able to make a judgment in court."

When it comes to her dead son Zhang Liu's eyes were blurred, she finally pulled her older son and asked a matchmaker to marry her wife, and waited to hold her grandson to continue the Zhang family's incense. She didn't think she would marry a poisonous woman. Now that her son has no longer had the Zhang family, she didn't know how to explain to her dead husband.

While the two were talking, a servant came in to take the tea away. When Liu Qing saw that he had a wink at him, he asked Zhang Liu to leave and follow the man out. When he arrived at a secluded place outside the house, he asked, "How, where have these people gone?"

"They rode out of the North Gate and headed north."
Chapter completed!