Black Lotus Concubine's Case-solving Notes

An indescribable feeling of sadness spread from the bottom of my heart.

Feng Jia realized almost instantly that her grandparents were most likely dead.

Her pupils dilated slightly, and the fingers hidden in her sleeves dug deeply into her flesh, about to bleed. Her body was swaying and feeling heavy, and she could hardly stand.

After a while, Feng Jia concealed her emotions and changed the subject: "Aunt, is this the incense you made at home?"

Cui followed her line of sight and introduced with a smile, "Yes, this is osmanthus hair oil. It is made from the golden osmanthus dried in October and ground into powder. Apply it on your hair after bathing to moisturize and nourish your skin, making your hair as smooth and black as satin."

Feng Jia picked up a can, opened it and smelled it, and it still tasted the same as it did back then.

"Auntie, how much is this can?"

"If my boss sells this jar to a peddler, it will be ten cents per jar. If he sells it to a perfume shop, it will be eight cents per jar."

Feng Jia nodded. The capital city was different from Langya. Land here was very expensive and the cost was extremely high. If the cost of selling osmanthus hair oil was one or two taels of silver per month and the net profit was five cents, then they would have to sell two hundred cans a month to barely make a living.

Feng Jia asked again: "Did Aunt plant all these osmanthus flowers herself?"

"No," Cui said with a self-deprecating smile, "These are all sweet-scented osmanthus flowers grown in the mountains. The yield is not high, but no one wants them, so we collect the petals before they fall and dry them to make incense."

Feng Jia seemed puzzled and said, "But Auntie, there are only a limited number of osmanthus flowers growing in the wild. Why don't you rent a hill in the suburbs and plant some flowers? Although there won't be much harvest in the past few years, when the trees grow up and the flowering season comes, the harvest will naturally increase."

Cui sighed: "My dear girl, how can it be so easy?"

She sat opposite Feng Jia and pounded her legs out of habit. "It's because we came from Langya and don't have a registered permanent residence in the capital that the rich families in the capital look down on us. At first, I also wanted to rent a mountain. It would be hard at first, but when I went around looking for land, I was either driven out or had my price raised. Three years ago, a rich family rented a mountain to us, but after I planted the trees and waited for three years for the harvest, he took the land away. We suffered a great loss! Now I don't think about these things anymore. I just grind and adjust the incense and deliver it to the spice shop on time according to the contract, so I can save myself the trouble."

"As far as I know, renting a mountain requires a contract, and both parties must sign a red seal. You rent it for a certain number of years, so how can a rich family take back the mountain by force?"

Cui sighed again: "I heard that the rich man's relative is a high-ranking official in the capital. How can the people fight against the officials? To be honest, we also went to the Jingzhao government office to report the case. At first, the big master did say that he would give us justice and correct the bad habits among the rich families in the capital. But when he heard that the other party was that person, he dared not provoke him anymore and refused to go to court!"

"If the Jingzhao government can postpone the trial, the rich families can wait, but how can poor people like us wait?"

At this point, Cui wiped away her tears and said, "We signed contracts with several incense shops in the capital. The delivery date was clearly written on them. We couldn't deliver the goods, so two months later, the incense shop sued us to the government. We lost a lot of money. My son Cui Min passed the imperial examination and studied at Wenchang Academy, but because of the lawsuit, he was expelled from the school by the teacher of Wenchang Academy! The rich family paid the penalty in the end, but it was not enough to fill the hole between us and the incense shop. It can be said that we lost both our money and our people!"

"Let alone making money, we still owe the incense shop a large amount of goods. We can only pay a little bit every day to make up for the deficit. My husband went out to work as a peddler, and my son stopped going to school to pay off the debt. He went to work as a private school lecturer in a wealthy family. I made incense and embroidered some handkerchiefs to sell to supplement the family income, but the income was not enough to cover the expenses. It was so difficult!"

"Is there no justice in the Jingzhao government?" Feng Jia frowned, "But I heard that the governor of Jingzhao, Mr. Zhou, is an upright person..."

Cui said, "My dear girl, you must be talking about Lord Zhou Qingyu, right? You may have been raised in seclusion and never heard of him. Lord Zhou passed away three years ago due to heart disease. The current Lord Zhou, the governor of Jingzhao Prefecture, is the nephew of the former Lord Zhou, but he is a corrupt official. He takes the money from the rich and lives a carefree life. How can he speak for us ordinary people?"

three years ago?

Three years ago again?

Feng Jia remembered that Lord Zhou Qingyu had always been on good terms with his father. Three years ago, his father was falsely accused of corruption and beheaded in public. What a coincidence, Lord Zhou also died of a heart disease three years ago?

"Miss?" Seeing her in a daze, Cui couldn't help but remind her, "Miss, look at that girl standing by the gate. Is she your maid?"

Feng Jia came back to her senses and looked outside the courtyard gate. Sure enough, Qingshu came at the time she had ordered before. She stood up and nodded to Cui: "Aunt, she is indeed our maid. It's getting late, so I'll go back first?"

"Do you want your aunt to give you a ride?" Cui glanced at the sky. The sun was setting and night was about to fall.

She said with some concern: "This place is full of twists and turns, and you two girls are timid. Don't worry, auntie will not send you off after she sends you to the intersection. You can go back secretly, and your family won't know."

Qingshu glanced at his daughter, and Feng Jia bowed: "Then I'll trouble you, aunt. By the way, aunt, your osmanthus hair oil smells really good, can I buy it?"

Cui was already in her thirties and loved her daughter very much. However, after all her hard work, she only had one son, Yu Min. Seeing that this young lady from a noble family was very polite and well-mannered, she liked her very much and waved her hand, saying, "If the girl likes it, just take it. No need to pay for it."

After saying this, he went out with a smile on his face to lead the way.

The rain outside had stopped and the cries of hawkers in the alley began to rise one after another.

When they reached the intersection, Feng Jia left under Cui's gaze. After taking two steps, he turned back and asked, "Aunt, which wealthy family in Beijing with government support are you talking about?"

Cui shook her head and said, "Every time we cooperate, it is his housekeeper who negotiates with us. We have no idea who the master behind the scenes is. I have asked around and all I know is that it is a wealthy family named Tang."

"So which perfume shop in the capital does your osmanthus hair oil sell to?"

Cui didn't know why she suddenly asked this, but she still said, "It's the Linglong Xiangfang next to Kanglefang."

Watching the two people walk away, Cui slowly walked back. Just as she reached the gate of the yard, she suddenly saw her son standing on the mossy threshold, looking at something.

"Mom!" Yu Min saw Cui coming back and hurried forward, looking behind Cui, "Mom, where is that girl just now?"

"You stinky boy! All the sage books you read have been wasted! How dare you covet a noble lady!"

Cui slapped Yu Min on the back without any hesitation.

"Mom! What are you talking about! It's that girl!" Yu Min took the item out of her sleeve, took a breath, and then said anxiously: "She put this on my table!"

It's a gold ingot.

For a family like theirs, this was already a huge sum of money. Holding the gold ingot, Cui felt her heart become heavy. She couldn't help but glance into the alley in the direction where Feng Jia left.

Cui thought for a moment and said, "Perhaps the girl saw that our family was in trouble and she couldn't bear it, so she left the silver. But whose silver was blown by the wind? We can't be greedy for this wealth!"

"My father and I think so too," Yu Min also glanced at the empty alley, with worry in his eyes, "But how can we return the silver to the girl?"

On the other side, at Linglongxiangfang next to Kanglefang, the owner saw that it was getting late and was telling his employees to close the shop when suddenly a hand held the door frame.