The twenty-fifth day of the lunar month. The snow is beginning to clear, but the weather is still cold.

Early in the morning, Shi An sorted out the items in Zhao's house, and he only carried the twelve volumes of medical codex, the master's suicide note, filial piety clothes and memorial items, and about ten taels of loose silver, and casually stuffed more than a dozen commonly used medicinal materials bought for poisoning Jinzhi County the day before yesterday into the baggage. The doors and windows were closed and locked, and the rest of the objects were placed in place as before the master's death, and handed over to Shen Huicai along with the house key. Entering Shen's house, Shi An saw Mrs. Shen and cried again.

Just after the hour, the welcoming team led by the housekeeper of the Zhang family had arrived at the door of Shen's house and brought the bride to pick up his uncle Shen Huicai.

According to the marriage habits of Jinju, the marriage of men and women must go through six steps: Nacai, asking for names, Najib, Nazheng, inviting dates, and greeting in person. Na Cai is to propose, by the matchmaker to protect the matchmaker; to ask for the name is to ask for the woman's birthday, ask someone to calculate whether the male and female eight characters match; Naji is the man to the woman to ask for marriage; Na Zheng is the engagement after the bride price; the invitation period is to agree on the day of marriage, the last kiss is to marry, the man to send someone or personally to marry the bride.

The custom of Jinju is that the bride sits in a sedan chair carried by two people, and the more wealthy people use a four-person sedan chair, and the more wealthy people use a large sedan chair with eight lifts, and if the distance is far away, a horse-drawn carriage is used. Squire Zhang's family is also a figure with a head and face in Jing County, and the carriage used is naturally different. Generally, people are a horse's carriage, and those with better conditions use two-horse two-wheeled vehicles, and this time the greeting team is a four-wheeled horse. The sedan is not ordinary, different from other single-row seats that can only sit two people, Zhang's sedan is more spacious and more comfortable, it is a face-to-face double-row seat, and the four people are very spacious.

Look at these four horses again, the body is generally neat, all of them are jujube red, the long black mane is combed into a row of neat pigtails, a red hydrangea on each horse's head, and the golden copper luan bell is accompanied by the crisp and pleasant sound of the horse's hooves.

According to the etiquette, Uncle Shen Huicai had to guide the bride to meet her aunt Mrs. Shen. The bride got out of the car with a red hijab, and was led into the main house of the Shen family by an aunt of the Zhang family, and the welcoming team was also invited into the living room for tea. At this time, Shi An and Qiong'er slipped out of the ear room at the gate of the courtyard, quickly got into the bride's carriage, picked up the heavy red curtains on the seats, curled up under the two seats, and then lowered the curtains, and the two were tightly covered, even if they opened the sedan curtain, they could not see.

After a cup of tea, the ceremony was over, the welcoming team was in place, and Shen Huicai also rode a tall horse with great spirits. After the housekeeper of the Zhang family shouted "get up the sedan chair", the gongs and drums were noisy, and the firecrackers rang out, and the welcoming team continued to set off.

I didn't encounter any trouble when I went out of the city, after all, it was the big squire of the neighboring county who married him, and he also did the dots when he entered the city. It's just that when they were about to leave the city, the guards of the city counted the number of people and checked the appearance of the extra few people who came to send off their relatives, and there was no resemblance to the person who wanted them. At the end, the sedan curtain was lifted to see that only a bride with a veil was sitting chatting with a mother-in-law, and there was nothing suspicious, so he opened the city gate and let him go.

Shi An, who was curled up under the seat, was relieved, and the few coping points originally designed in his heart were useless, and he couldn't help but think: "This old golden dog should die, it seems that no one cares about him." ”

Let's talk about the Jin family, the past two days have been a mess. On the evening of the twenty-third day of the lunar month, he first eloped a couple of men and women, and then found that the county magistrate had died inexplicably. The county's servants couldn't even see the cause of Jin Zhixian's death, saying that he died of a violent illness, but the internal organs were ulcerated and bleeding, and the obvious symptoms of poisoning and death were obvious, but it could be said that he was poisoned to death, and there was no appearance of ordinary poison poisoning. Moreover, the Qi-boosting pills that Jinzhi County eats daily, and the half of the tea left before his death, have not been found to be abnormal, and all pharmacies in the county have inquired that they have not sold highly toxic things such as arsenic recently. He had no choice but to inform the Jin family that the cause of death in Jin Zhixian was unknown.

Before the autopsy was clear, the Jin family could not be buried, and the only son-in-law who could be counted on also left Miss Jin, and left on the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month. There were only a few women left in the family who could not cope with it, so they had to order someone to report to the state office and hope to ask for an autopsy from the state government. When the New Year is approaching, the officials in the county are reluctant to go out to work hard, and they are slow to come out. On the third day of the first lunar month, Lao Liu, a coachman sent by his son-in-law Sun Lang, informed the Jin family that it was Jin Gui, a servant of the Jin family, who killed Jin Zhixian, and that Jin Gui was originally Zhao Langzhong's apprentice Shi An, who pretended to be a servant and waited for half a year.

The Jin family hurriedly told the county government, and when the county government sent people to search Zhao's house again on the fourth day of the new year, the house was already empty. And the state government learned of the death of Jin Zhi County, and it was already the fifteenth day of the first month. The state government arranged for the state to conduct a re-examination, and the result was the same, and the murderer still could not be apprehended. When the new magistrate arrived in February, he only cared about visiting officials up and down, and he didn't care about investigating old cases. Seeing that Jin Zhixian's body went through winter and spring, and was dissected by the two servants of the county and state, it was rotten and unbearable, and it was difficult to save even the whole corpse, and in the end, the Jin family had no choice but to cover their noses and bury them.

The poor magistrate of the county ended up like this, and he couldn't help but say, "Zhao Tianli is unpleasant, and the retribution is not happy." At this point, no one in the county government has the heart to investigate a headless case, and the sea arrest announcement issued only says that Jin Gui abducted Yahuan from the county and fled. The state government was even more reluctant to report to the imperial court that its investigation was unclear and the arrest of the culprit was ineffective, so it finally closed the case and reported it to the capital due to the sudden death of Jin Zhixian due to overwork. The imperial court naturally wanted to appease the Jin family for a few words, and even sent a plaque inscribed by the king himself "Do your best" to show care, so the matter was hastily concluded, which is not mentioned later.

On the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month, the welcoming convoy drove out of Yixian City, and walked seven or eight miles to the southbound official road, and Yixian County had long since disappeared. Seeing that there were no other passers-by on the road, Shen Huicai drove his horse to Steward Zhang's horse and stopped Steward Zhang.

"Steward Zhang, there is a private matter that I will cut first, and I will look at Haihan. Shen Huicai said apologetically.

"Oh, what's the matter?" Steward Zhang was a little surprised.

"My wife's nephew eloped with his neighbor's daughter and went out of town under the seat of the car. Shen Huicai told the pre-made excuses. said that his wife's nephew and the daughter of the neighbor's childhood sweetheart had no guesses, only because the parents of the neighbor's daughter were greedy for money, and they wanted to marry this daughter to a rich man who was more than half a hundred years old as a concubine, and the woman did not obey, so she eloped with her wife's nephew, and because she couldn't escape from the city gate, she had to hide in the car to escape Yunyun.

Steward Zhang frowned slightly and said, "This is not suitable, if the master of this family knows, I'm afraid it will ......."

Shen Huicai hurriedly stuffed a silver ingot and five taels in the housekeeper's hand, and told how the rich man was unbearable and how pitiful this woman was, and said: "This is a great good thing and a matter of adding yin virtue to the Zhang family, and it will definitely bless the old lady Zhang with good health and increase yang longevity." ”

I don't know if it was the silver that played a role, or if Shen Huicai's last words moved Steward Zhang, he put away the silver and said: "What Brother Shen said is very true, even if the master knows about this matter, he will definitely praise it, then don't let the two of you hide under the car seat, please come out quickly." ”

"I'll thank Steward Zhang for those two little guys first. Shen Huicai clenched his fists on the horse.

Shi An and Qiong'er were called out of the carriage by Shen Huicai, and the appearance of the two of them greatly frightened the bride and the Zhang family's mother-in-law in the car.

After the two got out of the car, they moved their bodies and were brought to Steward Zhang's house by Shen Huicai.

"It's my wife's nephew Yin Jian and the daughter next door Fu'er, Yin Jian and Fu'er, don't you hurry up and thank Steward Zhang?" Shen Huicai said.

Shi An smiled secretly, and said in his heart that Uncle Shen's pseudonym is really level, Yin Jian is against Jin Gui, and Fu'er is against Qiong'er. But he didn't dare to slack off in his mouth, and said with a deep salute: "Thank you for your great kindness and kindness to Steward Zhang." "Qiong'er is also deeply blessed.

Steward Zhang said: "Excuse me, you are polite, why do you have to worry about raising your hands?"

Shen Huicai didn't dare to let the two of them say more, for fear that there would be too many mistakes, so he hurriedly said: "Yin Jian, it's important for you to do your business, and it doesn't matter if you can't catch up with us, I will personally send Miss Fu'er to your cousin's house in Jingxian County first, and when you arrive in Jingxian County, you can go directly to her house." After I sent my relatives to eat two glasses of wedding wine, I took my people back to Yixian. ”

Steward Zhang didn't want to delay time, and said to Shen Huicai: "Brother Shen, it's not too early, when do you think we will leave?"

Shen Huicai hurriedly said, "Let's go." ”

Then he turned around and said to Shi An: "After that, I don't know when I will see you again, I will take good care of your family, you must also take care of yourself, do everything according to your ability, and do not act recklessly." When this time passes, I will definitely come back to see the two of us. Tears flowed down his face.

Shi Anzhong was quite moved, and hurriedly knelt down and said: "Uncle, I will be careful, you and my aunt should also take care of your body, and bless the second elder to be as blessed as the East China Sea and live longer than Nanshan." ”

The convoy of relatives is drifting away.

In the afternoon of the same day, the welcoming team rushed to Jingxian, and Shen Huicai first sent Qiong'er to Juxian Teahouse to meet her fiancé, and then rushed to Zhang's house to attend the wedding.

The grandfather of the Zhang family didn't know whether it was a happy event or really added yin virtue as Shen Huicai said, the serious illness gradually disappeared, and he lived for another ten years.