Chapter 24: The Era of Cannibalism

  The Age of Cannibals

  That night.

  Shi's Family Restaurant.

  The red lantern is hung high.

  Delicious dishes fill the table.

  The governor Sun Maowen, defender Wei Guofu and inspector Liu Ziming all arrived.

  Yao Feng first stood up with a wine cup and said straightforwardly: "The goods that Yao had previously, thanks to the care of all the adults, this kindness, I will never forget, come, let me toast all the adults!"

  He Wan Nian stood up with a bow, smiling respectfully, and took out three silver tickets. According to Yao Feng's previous private instructions, he put one thousand taels in front of each of Sun Mao Wen, Wei Guo Fu, and Liu Zi Ming.

  Yao Feng saw the three people's faces filled with joy, and said: "To say it, previously for the third sister's matter, Wei brother didn't labor in vain. Come! I'll drink first to show respect, my words are not many, but all the gratitude in my heart is in this wine!"

  Wei Guofu was delighted and also drank up all the wine in his cup.

  Sun Maowen put the silver ticket into his sleeve, with a very pleasant expression, and said casually: "Brother Yao, you have greatly humiliated the Guo family this time. How can Guo Jixiu let it go? If that Guo family's big boss, Guo Weizhong, who is the inspector of Jiangxi, makes trouble and finds someone to impeach him, Lord Wei is a military general and is not afraid of him making noise, but Brother Yao should be careful."

  Wei Guofu said with a smile: "What's there to be careful about? It's just a matter of spending some silver to settle the case, I've already made arrangements at the provincial commander's yamen."

  Sun Maowen thought you were just pretending, but Yao Feng, this god of wealth, didn't have the same official status as you, he thought so in his heart, but didn't say it out loud.

  Wei Guofu continued to say indignantly: "When I arrived in Qingdao, I knew that the surname Guo was smuggling private salt. But did this bastard ever think of donating grain and supplies? Moreover, I heard from the chief of the General's Mansion that when the trouble broke out, the dog hid in his house and didn't come out. I think his family must have some unclear relationship with the bandits. The General's Mansion had been looking at him with disfavor for a long time. If it weren't for the fact that his family's old master was still serving as an official in Jiangxi, they would have severely punished him. This time, Brother Yao's matter has come out, and it's just a lesson for this surname Guo!"

  Sun Maowen thought Wei Guofu was simple-minded and said, "If the Guo family is up to no good, then you, Lord Wei, will naturally be unaffected. However, Brother Yao won't have an official position. If the Guo family bribes someone at the Yamen, it could become a big trouble."

  Wei Guofu said: "What crime? Colluding with this official and soldier? Haha, Brother Sun's words are really amusing."

  Sun Maowen shook his head expressionlessly and said, "Since we want to punish him, why do we need to fabricate too many charges or implicate too many people? Later on, just say that Brother Yao is an outsider with no fixed residence and suspicious behavior, and he can be taken away for questioning. As long as he's taken to the yamen, under the three courts, what crime can't be extracted from him?"

  Liu Ziming also said without any backbone: "Mr. Sun is right, as the saying goes, it's better to resolve grievances than to create new ones. I think Brother Yao should give the Guo family some face and send some betrothal gifts to pretend to comply, and ask a respectable middleman to say some good words."

  Wei Guofu listened and hummed heavily, but didn't say a word.

  Yao Fan listened with dissatisfaction, furrowed his brow and said: "Let's talk about this later, anyway I have three brothers in Qingdao who are covering for me. How dare he move against me? Moreover, the Guo family themselves are not clean, smuggling private salt is a taboo of the imperial court. Once it's brought to trial, everyone will be embarrassed. If his father gets involved, he'll definitely break his leg. I don't think he'll fight with me to the death."

  Sun Maowen has always been at odds with the Guo family, thinking that they are arrogant and disobedient because of their connections in the imperial court. He never showed respect to him as a parent official, so he continued to come up with ideas: "Brother Yao said that after all, it's still lacking an official position, otherwise this matter wouldn't be worth worrying about. If you donate an official position, what will happen if the Guo family continues to engage in smuggling and other illicit activities? How dare they confront you in a public court?"

  Yao Fengan's eyebrows furrowed slightly as he said, "I know this too, but the Qing dynasty's donation of officials is too particular. They require a clean household registration and neighbors to vouch for you. My Yao family has lived overseas for a long time, what kind of household registration do I have? Moreover, I don't have any neighbors or a good village head to vouch for me. How can they guarantee my donation of official rank?"

  Liu Ziming smiled and said: "These are all easy to handle, with you, Brother Sun, none of these are a problem."

  Sun Maowen was also quite straightforward, and frankly said: "Indeed, these things I can help you with, but I'm afraid that behind our backs someone will be plotting against us. When the time comes, a memorial will be presented to the emperor, and I'm afraid your money will be thrown into the water. As for myself, I'm not afraid of being implicated, I can just pretend to be stupid and ignorant, and push everything clean."

  Wei Guofu laughed and said: "Old Sun, you're quite straightforward this time. But I've heard that in Fujian, there are many overseas Chinese from Southeast Asia who have donated their titles."

  Sun Maowen said in a low, mysterious tone: "You know what? They had to return to their hometown and acknowledge their ancestors first. Only after the three sacrifices were recorded in the family tree could they be donated."

  Wei Guofu held a braised pig's trotter in his hand and said vaguely, "So that's how it is. In that case, Brother Yao can just go find an ancestor."

  Yao Fan was taken aback by this and immediately felt a huge headache, complaining: "It's so troublesome! Although my ancestral home is in Tai'an, my family left early on, and it's been too long ago, heaven knows how I can recognize my ancestors!"

  Liu Ziming swallowed a mouthful of wine and said disapprovingly, "Brother Yao, don't scare yourself. As the saying goes, 'nothing is difficult in this world, only people with intentions are to be feared.' In my opinion, this matter is easy to handle. Just send someone clever to Tai'an to find your ancestors. The Yao family of Tai'an is a large clan with many branches of scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants. Who would remember things so clearly? When the time comes, just instruct the person handling the matter not to mind the humble circumstances, but to find a willing branch and send some silver to the ancestral temple. Once you're registered, who would dare say anything?"

  Sun Maowen patted his palm and laughed: "Still, Old Liu's mind is the most sensitive. I'm getting more and more muddled as an official, and I actually forgot this convenient method. Brother Yao, just listen to your Big Brother Liu, this method is orthodox, although it costs money, but it's open and aboveboard, can't be faulted."

  Yao Fan listened and remembered it in his heart, and hurriedly raised his cup to thank him.

  Just as the five of them were enjoying their food and drink, Yao Fan suddenly remembered something and casually asked, "Sir Sun, I saw that there are even more beggars by the roadside on my way here. Where did all these people come from?"

  Before Sun Maowen could answer Yao Feng's question, Wei Guofu, who was half drunk, held his chopsticks and cursed: "Damn it, this group of turtles, not good at guarding the city gate, only letting in some rubbish, making people look at it with bad luck."

  Sun Maowen picked up a pair of chopsticks and put some beef in his mouth, smiling and saying: "Brother Yao doesn't know that since the beginning of spring this year, Shandong hasn't had a big rain. But it's not just Shandong, I saw the newspaper, all over the north are suffering from drought, Beijing, Zhili, Shanxi, Gansu, Henan, Shaanxi, now the entire northern part of the Qing Dynasty has hardly had any decent rainfall since the beginning of spring.

  Brother Yao, think about it. Since everyone can see that there will be a drought, the wealthy families are not foolish, they estimate that this year's harvest won't be good, so they naturally demand grain from their tenant farmers in advance. Otherwise, if these poor devils starve to death, who will pay off the debt? Although it is said that debts don't rot with the dead and children pay off their father's debts, but if those poor families all starve to death, won't the creditors suffer a huge loss?

  As for this, it's nothing more than plundering and kidnapping, with boys and girls each having their uses. Some poor households, seeing that they were on the verge of collapse, feared that they wouldn't be able to survive, so they simply sold off all their wives and children, and became beggars themselves, delighted that for the rest of their lives they could idle about at leisure; if they encountered someone with a soft heart, every now and then they might even get enough to eat.

  Everyone found Sun Mao's words interesting and laughed loudly, but Yao Fan's heart grew colder as he listened.

  Sun Maowen said with increasing momentum: "Wei Da Ren, don't blame those gatekeeping soldiers either. These bums are quite diligent in collecting taxes on ordinary days. Besides, some of these beggars really are here to visit relatives and friends. But in this day and age, who can afford to support a poor relative? At most, they'll treat them to a meal before sending them away. After leaving the city, these people will surely starve to death. Can't they just be left behind to become beggars?"

  Liu Ziming nodded and echoed, "What Lord Sun said is absolutely right. Those beggars in our customs office say that there are still some beggars in the city who used to scrape sea slugs from the reefs by the sea. Now they see ships coming and going at the port, so they sneak into the city to beg for food. The gate guards have swallowed a few smoke rings and don't care about these stinky goods."

  Wei Guofu cursed: "Damn it! Tomorrow I'll get some people to drive all the beggars out of the city, so that my brother Yao won't be annoyed!"

  Sun Maowen smiled and said, "Why bother with such trouble, Lord Wei? You'll only earn a bad reputation. Just wait until winter arrives, and the cold will take care of them all. Since this happens every year, why must you do something so inhumane this year?"

  Liu Ziming picked up a chopstick of fish-flavored shredded pork and said with his mouth full of oil: "As the saying goes, 'going with the flow' is exactly like this. The way of heaven cannot be violated. Governor Sun loves the people like his own children, which can be called benevolence. I toast to you, sir."

  Sun Maowen then clinked glasses with Liu Ziming and took a sip. After finishing, he smacked his lips and said, "It's so hot today, this wine is also somewhat sour."

  Yao Feng listened to the three people's cold conversation on one side, feeling as if he was standing in a snowy and icy land, his whole body chilled to the bone.

  "...I flipped through the history book and found that it had no dates, but on every page, in crooked and slanted handwriting, were written the four characters 'ren yi dao de' (benevolence, righteousness, morality). I couldn't sleep, lying awake all night, until I finally made out the words between the lines - the whole book was filled with two characters: 'chi ren' (eat people)..."

  He Wan Nian, who was sitting beside him, saw Yao Fan muttering to himself and asked: "Brother Yao, what are you saying? What about eating people?"

  He Wan Nian said so, and the other three people also stared at Yao Fan.

  Yao suddenly woke up and thought that what he was reciting was actually "A Madman's Diary" by Lu Xun, scaring him into a cold sweat. He quickly covered it up by saying: "I think this severe drought is not a good thing, if the common people don't have food, won't they eat each other?"

  Sun Maowen shook his head and sighed, "If it's really a big drought for a year, there will inevitably be cases of people eating each other in the folk. Tigers do not eat their own kind, my country's subjects have all received education, they understand this principle. Since it's unavoidable, exchanging children to eat is still better than eating one's own family members..."