May Day, inquiry

  Zhu Yuanzhang brought back the people from the Zhang family, causing a stir in the entire Ma family compound. After all, what happened at the Zhang's was too big, and whether or not they were related to the matter, everyone wanted to know what had happened when the mob stormed the Ma's house. Now that someone from the Zhang family has returned, how could they not rush over to ask questions?

  Zhu Yuanzhang was summoned to the front hall of the Zhang family's mansion, where he saw two rows of neatly arranged chairs, with almost all the important members of the Ma family seated.

  Sitting in the first place, of course, is the eldest young master of the Ma family, Ma Zhi Xiong. He sits upright with a serious expression on his face, looking unpleasant. On one hand, this was because the Ma family's plan to befriend a county magistrate had fallen through, and on the other hand, it was also because his personal bodyguard Fang Xuan had died in battle at the Zhang residence.

  Ma Qianjiu stood beside Ma Zhiyong with his hands placed on either side of his body, bowing his head respectfully.

  The second young master of the Ma family, Ma Zhibin, sat in the second chair below Ma Zhiyong's seat, with a very strange posture, and it would be more accurate to say that he was sleeping rather than sitting. The expression on his face seemed somewhat sluggish, apparently not showing much interest in what happened at Zhang's house, but since others came to watch the excitement, he also came along for the ride.

  Next to Ma Zhibin sat a woman that Zhu Yuanzhang had never seen before, with a personal maid standing behind her. She had a small round face, beautiful big eyes, and a slightly plump figure, but not fat, just the right body type, with fair and delicate skin, considered a beauty. Zhu Yuanzhang felt like he had seen this woman somewhere before, and after careful thought, suddenly realized that she looked similar to Zhang Douyao, it seemed that she was the Miss Zhang who married the second young master of the Ma family, now should be the second lady of the Ma family.

  Her face had obvious tear stains, apparently she had been crying every day since hearing about the death of her father and brother. When she saw Zhu Yuanzhang enter the hall with a group of servants from the Zhang household, she suddenly jumped up from her seat and ran towards him, her small bound feet unable to support her body as she stumbled and staggered. She completely disregarded her dignity as a young mistress and wailed loudly: "Autumn Leaf... are you still alive?"

  A group of maidservants behind Zhu Yuanzhang also burst into loud wailing, one of them sobbing as she spoke: "Miss... Autumn Leaf barely escaped with her life, but Master and Young Master are... Waaaah..."

  The Second Young Madam suddenly pounced onto the pile of maids behind Zhu Yuanzhang, hugging one of them and crying bitterly. Zhu Yuanzhang curiously turned his head to look, and that maid was the kind-hearted girl who had almost been insulted but later escaped with her life and had given Zhu Yuanzhang a blanket. Her name was Qiuye, and she was one of the maids who had grown up with the Second Young Madam since childhood and were closest to her.

  A group of women suddenly burst into tears, their wailing voices echoing through the hall, making everyone feel annoyed. The eldest young master of the Ma family furrowed his brow but didn't say a word. However, the second young master, that good-for-nothing, opened his mouth and said: "Crying, crying, crying! Women are just trouble... I'm telling you, wife, what's the point of crying like this with those lowly servants? Come back and sit properly."

  The second wife's eyebrows furrowed instantly as her newlywed husband shouted at her, and her two willow-shaped eyebrows stood on end. This face of hers was quite interesting, usually looking pretty, but with a frown, it had a somewhat fierce air to it. It seemed that the Three Obediences and Four Virtues hadn't taken root in her heart yet, she was a woman who dared to contend with her husband.

  At this moment, a gentle and soft voice timely sounded: "Second brother, what are you saying? At this time, say less... Second sister is grieving, don't rush to cry for now, hurry up and ask clearly, what happened that day, how the aftermath was handled later, this is the right reason."

  Originally, Miss San of the Ma family was also seated, on a chair opposite to Second Master. Xiaozhen, her little maid, sat behind her. She was naturally kind and disliked disputes, seeing that Second Brother and Sister-in-law were about to fight, she quickly came out to mediate.

  Miss San's words had some effect, and Er Xiao Niang also didn't return to her seat. She hugged the maid called Qiuye and asked: "What happened that day? Tell me quickly..."

  "Servant girl... Servant girl isn't clear either... Uh... That day, Master Ma's bodyguard came to request an audience with the master, and they were talking in the rear garden. It seemed like they were discussing the marriage between Miss San of the Ma family and our young master. Just then, a loud shout for help came from the county yamen, and later some yamen runners came to report to the master that there were rioters attacking the county yamen, shouting about killing officials and rebelling..."

  The little maid, Xiao Ye, said in a terrified tone: "Later... later the master ordered the guards to move the artificial hill from the flower garden to block the gate. Unexpectedly, before they could even finish blocking it, the rioters rushed in and started killing anyone they saw... Everyone was hiding all over the mansion, and I was originally hiding in the grass by the hanging flower door, but I was caught by three of the rioters. They stripped me of my clothes... Waaah..."

  "What?" The Second Young Mistress was furious: "They insulted you? How detestable!"

  "None... they had just taken off the maid's clothes, and hadn't had time to do that thing... The leader of the rioters happened to pass by, there were two leaders, one tall and one short, one strong and one thin. They chased away those three rioters who wanted to humiliate me, and let me escape myself... I changed places and hid, and didn't know what happened afterwards... I hid until it was almost dark, when the rioters were gone from home, the maid dared to come out." She spoke in a jumbled manner, sometimes referring to herself as "maid" and sometimes as "I", clearly still shaken by the memory of that day.

  "Not disgraced... Fortunately, a blessing in disguise." The second young mistress had always regarded Autumn Leaf as her sister, and upon hearing that she had escaped unscathed, she felt somewhat comforted.

  At this time, the second young master spoke again, saying in a sinister tone: "Your clothes have been stripped off, isn't that humiliating? Ha! This is already considered a loss of dignity..."

  "What are you talking about?" The Second Young Mistress's eyebrows rose again: "Is it considered a loss of virtue just because one has undressed? I have to take off all my clothes and bathe once a day, and also take off all my clothes to sleep. Doesn't that mean I lose my virtue twice a day? Haha, then the green hat on your head would be dripping with oil."

  Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but feel both angry and amused. These two young masters and mistresses were both so muddled! What kind of situation was this? The couple was actually quarreling here, each with their own absurd reasons to shout about.

  It turned out that Miss Jia was originally going to marry into the Ma family on the same day as Third Miss Ma, and they had both chosen March 22nd. However, on March 21st, Zheng Yuanfu's rebellion broke out, and Third Miss Ma never got to marry.

  However, the marriage between Miss Zhang and Second Master Ma went ahead as scheduled, because the news arrived in Baishui a day late. Just when Miss Zhang had just finished the wedding ceremony with Second Master Ma and was about to enter the bridal chamber, the news of the massacre of the entire Zhang family arrived...

  Miss Zhang suddenly burst into tears, and naturally, they couldn't enter the bridal chamber.

  The second young master didn't even make it to the bridal chamber, and when he got angry, he scolded her a few times. Her whole family had died, and the second young master was still cursing at this moment, which was like pouring oil on an open wound and adding fuel to the fire. The couple immediately had a big fight, and their relationship between husband and wife hadn't even started yet, but it completely fell apart.

  The result was that the two of them slept in separate rooms that night, and Second Master caught one of his own maidservants in the new house, indulging in licentious behavior. Without Zhang Butcher, would they not eat pork? They could just eat Li Butcher instead! With this commotion, it was truly adding insult to injury. Which woman could tolerate her husband embracing another woman on their wedding night? Miss Zhang was both heartbroken and furious. Her family had died out, and her newlywed husband was this kind of person - how could she go on living like this?

  Although the bridal chamber had not been entered, and their feelings were already broken, the wedding had already taken place, and the two people's identities had already been established. They couldn't take it back even if they wanted to. So the couple quarreled today and tomorrow, seizing every opportunity to fight fiercely. Until the hour before Zhu Yuanzhang led the Zhang family's servants and maids back, the two were still arguing loudly in the backyard.

  The two of them started arguing again, and the young master Ma Zhi Xiong, who was sitting in the main seat, suddenly became angry: "Can't you two just shut up for a moment? What's going on now? Are you still talking about such trivial matters?"

  He slammed his hand heavily on the table, suppressing everyone's voices. The second young master couldn't bear to be tough in front of his brother, so he shut up. The second young lady also had no reason to offend her uncle, so she quickly closed her mouth.

  Ma Zhi Xiong said in a low voice to the autumn leaves: "Little girl, is that all you know? How did my family's Fang Hu Wei and your family's old master die? Did you see it?"

  "Autumn leaves quickly shook her head: 'I knew these things, but wasn't too clear about anything else.'"

  Ma Zhi Xiong didn't have time to care about a trivial matter of a maid losing her chastity, he turned his head to the other servants and maids and said: "You all come one by one and tell me everything you saw that day."

  The servants and maids took turns to recount the events of that day. These surviving servants and maids had all been hiding from the start, so each one didn't see much. Piecing together what they all saw, they were finally able to give a general account of the slaughter and looting in the front and back yards. However, no one witnessed the battle that took place in front of the woodshed. They only knew that Second Master Zhang had taken refuge in the woodshed with his bodyguard Fang. Later, the sound of clashing weapons came from the direction of the woodshed, followed by Zheng's loud shout: "I've killed Zhang Duo! Let's go back to the yamen..."

  Ma Zhi Xiong asked for half a day, but couldn't get the most important information, so he had to ask Zhu Yuan Zhang again: "Zhu Ba, you also entered the Zhang Mansion that day and carried out Fang's bodyguard's corpse. What did you see?"

  Zhu Yuanzhang said in a low voice: "I only saw Fang Huwei and Master Zhang, the young master fell to the ground, nothing else was seen, at that time the bandits had already retreated."

  Ma Zhi Xiong let out a long sigh: "Something so big happened, yet not one person saw the most crucial part. Never mind, since things have come to this point, what happened that day can be roughly guessed anyway. Let's just focus on what came after."

  He paused for a moment and asked again: "How was the aftermath of Zhang's death handled?"