Met "Huang Shiren"

  Yang Shouming, who is familiar with China's modern history, knows that after the "Gengzi Coup", Chinese society has been in a state of intense turmoil, with banditry outbreaks everywhere, bringing great suffering to the people. The provinces are plagued by bandits, especially the Northeast region which experienced the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, as well as Shandong province which was affected by the Boxer Rebellion. The Northwest region is also severely affected due to its remote location. In comparison, Jiangxi province in southern China is actually relatively better off.

  At this point, Yang Shuo Ming finally had a hint of relief.

  Wu Guanshi noticed Yang Shuo Ming's unusual expression and, possibly not wanting the atmosphere of their conversation to become too oppressive, began talking with Yang Shuo Ming about the local customs and people in this area.

  Two people walked and talked, before long, they came to a magnificent mansion.

  Wu Guanshi brought Yang Shuo Ming into the mansion, looking at the carved beams and painted rafters, as well as the flying eaves and corner brackets, Yang Shuo Ming almost thought he had entered the Grand View Garden of "Dream of Red Mansions".

  In his time, this mansion was absolutely qualified as a cultural relic protection unit.

  Wu Guanshi took Yang Shuo Ming to a guest room and left. A slender, quiet, and elegantly dressed maid came in with tea for Yang Shuo Ming, then left. After taking a sip of the fragrant tea, Yang Shuo Ming noticed that the maid walked without making a sound, which sparked his curiosity about the identity of the master of this house.

  About ten minutes later, Wu Guanshi came to the guest room again and asked Yang Shuoming to go to the living room to meet the host. Yang Shuoming followed Wu Guanshi through the corridor, and through the carved flower window, he vaguely saw several people's shadows in the living room, including the security captain who had put down his gun.

  Yang Shuo Ming and Wu Guan Shi arrived in the living room, and as soon as Yang Shuo Ming entered, everyone's eyes in the living room involuntarily focused on him.

  An old man in his sixties, wearing a brocade robe and sitting in the main seat, looked at Yang Shuo Ming as he entered, sizing him up with one glance. A hint of a kind smile appeared on his face, which was full of wrinkles. He stood up and walked to Yang Shuo Ming's front, smiling and cupping his hands together in greeting.

  "Mr. Yang's kindness, I, Huang Shiyao, have thanked him for it here," the old man said in a somewhat hoarse voice, "If not for Mr. Yang, my daughter would probably..."

  When he heard his name, Yang Shuo Ming thought of a famous villain in a well-known play from later generations and couldn't help but secretly laugh to himself.

  "Stop talking nonsense! Old Huang!" a shrill female voice came, "Ask him about the whereabouts of my son!"

  Yang Shuo Ming turned his head to look in the direction of the sound, and saw a woman dressed in an embroidered cheongsam, looking like a wealthy lady in her forties, staring at him with wide eyes.

  "Stop your nonsense!" a old man wearing a embroidered satin robe and a calabaza hat scolded her.

  "With a face as pale as yours, can you even kill bandits?" The woman said relentlessly, "The young man who sang love songs at the temple fair was much better than you!"

  "Shameless! You're asking for it!" The old man might have felt embarrassed, scolding her with a sentence, but unexpectedly the woman burst into loud wailing.

  "I must say, I must say! It's all because you're not willing to spend money to redeem people, that's why it's become like this!" The woman cried and scolded as she threw herself at the old man, "The daughter of Old Master Huang has been found, but my son is still in the hands of the bandits! Whether he's alive or dead, no one knows! If anything happens to my son, I won't live either!"

  Yang Shuo Ming was originally very angry at her mocking words, but after hearing her cry and scold, he couldn't help but feel sympathetic.

  After listening to his wife's crying and scolding, the old man's expression also became somewhat sorrowful. He comforted his wife with kind words while looking at the old man called Huang Shiyao with a pleading gaze.

  "Mr. Yang, please don't be surprised, take a seat." Huang Shi-yao's face flashed with a hint of embarrassment, and he stretched out his hand to make a "please" gesture to Yang Shuo-ming, asking him to sit down and talk.

  Yang Shuo Ming sat on a intricately carved wooden armchair, sizing up the people in the living room.

  Huang Shiyao introduced Yang Shuo to everyone present, except for Xu Duizhang, the captain of the security team, all the others were famous local gentry in this town.

  "Mr. Yang's heroic act of rescuing the young girl from the bandits' lair, the young girl has already told me about it, and my whole family is grateful for Mr. Yang's great kindness." Huang Shiyao said gratefully, "I will always remember Mr. Yang's great favor in my heart, and I hope to repay him a little bit in the future."

  Yang Shuo Ming just smiled politely and didn't say anything after hearing his words.

  Although what this "Old Master Huang" said was touching, in reality it shouldn't be that way.

  After learning the news, he probably didn't think of thanking himself. Perhaps in order to maintain his daughter's reputation, he originally planned to pretend not to know. Later, after the news came out and other parents of kidnapped children came to him, he thought of coming to find himself. His daughter understood what her father was planning at the time, so she asked someone to quietly send ten silver dollars over to herself.

  Ten yuan is not a lot of money, and Yang Shuo Ming even suspected that the girl had paid for it herself, possibly all her pocket money.

  "Perhaps due to the shock, the little girl didn't give a detailed account of her narrow escape and didn't mention what happened to her classmates. Can you tell us something about it, Mr. Yang?" Huang Shiyao asked.

  "Yes! What's become of those children now? We parents are almost driven mad!" Another woman, dressed in a more subdued but still fashionable style, said anxiously.

  The woman who had just ridiculed Yang Shuo Ming, the "thick-skinned wife" - Huang Shi Yao called her Long Furen - suddenly changed her expression and spoke to Yang Shuo Ming in a pleading tone, "Yang brother, I was wrong earlier, please forgive me, don't take it to heart. Tell me, how is my son? Ah? Please tell me!" She broke free from her husband's grasp and rushed to Yang Shuo Ming's side, kneeling down with a thud, just as she was about to kowtow, Yang Shuo Ming swiftly reached out and grasped her shoulder, pulling her up from the ground.

  When Yang Shuo Ming made his move, Captain Xu's eyes suddenly lit up.

  "I won't deceive you, madam. At the time, I was being held captive by bandits in another room. When I escaped and saw four bandits grabbing Miss Huang, I killed them to save her and then hastily fled the scene without seeing any other hostages." Yang Shuoming said.

  After hearing Yang Shuo Ming's answer, Long Madam quietly got up and returned to her husband's side, starting to sob.

  "They want to come or go in peace, because the bandits' purpose of hijacking is for money. If they don't get the ransom, they won't easily harm anyone." A villager with the surname Dong said, "Although Mr. Yang killed a few of them to save Miss Huang, there's still room for maneuvering."

  "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Hei Hu, the black donkey, has always been ruthless and merciless, killing six people in one go. He won't let this matter rest easily, and might even kill a few hostages to vent his anger." The captain Xu suddenly said coldly, "If the ones who died were just ordinary thugs, maybe it wouldn't be a big deal, but if the one who died was Hei Hu's own brother, then we can't predict what will happen next."

  "How can we be sure that the dead aren't just ordinary thugs?" Huang Shiyao asked in surprise, immediately questioning Xu's words.

  "Because among the bandits who were beaten to death, some used real foreign guns." Captain Xu replied calmly.

  After hearing Captain Xu's words, the faces of all the gentry changed.

  "With such a disaster happening, it's all because of your security team's incompetence!" Long Furen's husband shouted.

  "Boss Long said that, but it's a bit embarrassing." Captain Xu took a sip of tea and said slowly: "Our security team was originally very small, we have to maintain local stability, and also send special personnel to escort your family members to the city for university. You usually only think about local peace, when it's time to pay out, it's hard to get a single penny, our security team still uses shotguns until now, this time eight brothers of our security team died suddenly, all of them have families with elderly and children, and the compensation has not been settled yet!"

  As soon as Captain Xu spoke, all the local gentry immediately shut their mouths.

  From their conversation, Yang Shuoming had already understood what was going on.

  "Captain Xu said that this time, the security team's brothers had a hard time. I, Huang Shi-yao, apologize for it here," said Huang Shi-yao. "From now on, the security team's affairs are my, Huang's, affairs. Later, I'll have someone send over all of this year's shares."

  "On our side, let's not rush for the time being. You first discuss with everyone how to get the kids out," Captain Xu said, "Now if we want to ransom them, I'm afraid it will cost a bit more silver."

  Just as they were talking, Wu Guan Shi suddenly rushed in from outside and came to Huang Shiyao's side, leaned into his ear and whispered a few words. Huang Shiyao's face immediately turned gloomy.

  "Since Feng's family has this knot in their heart, it will be hard to untie for a lifetime. Now go tell Madame and return the betrothal gifts!"

  After hearing his instructions, Wu Guanshi seemed a bit hesitant and wanted to persuade him again, but Huang Shiyao resolutely waved his hand. Wu Guanshi didn't say anything else and retreated with a bow.

  "I heard Captain Xu say that Mr. Yang is a high-achieving student who studied in Japan, and this time he came to Jiangxi for tourism and inspection." Huang Shiyao's expression returned to calmness, and his gaze turned to Yang Shaoming, "I wonder what Mr. Yang thinks about the current situation?"

  When Huang Shiyao suddenly changed the subject to another aspect, everyone in the living room was stunned.

  Yang Shuo Ming also found it strange that this old man suddenly changed the topic from ransom to current events, but he calmly said: "Once the war starts, so-called 'bandits pass like a comb, soldiers pass like a bamboo sieve', in the end, those who suffer are all ordinary people."

  The power is off, just came, will send it out together tonight, hope everyone can vote and support!