Chapter 47: The Good Guy Takes the Initiative

  Good guys always confess first

  Yao Fan saw that everyone was in tears, so he stopped singing and shook hands with his partners one by one. This Western-style etiquette had been recently introduced by Yao Fan, but many of his partners felt it was too casual and didn't distinguish between superior and inferior, so Yao Fan could only use it occasionally.

  Next, Yao Fan and his partners coordinated their statements, arranged for each class leader to continue following up on the Yaojiazhuang project, and instructed Li Haoniu and Li Jun to lead people to make large wooden sticks. After everything was arranged properly, Yao Fan took the injured Huang Huisheng back to the city.

  After returning home, Yao Fan didn't delay either. He called a few buddies, used a bed board to lift Huang Hui-sheng, and led the group to run to the government office to report the crime.

  Sun Maowen came out from the main hall, his words arrived before he did: "Brother Yao, you're being too formal, why not just come to the inner chamber and chat..."

  As soon as he entered the main hall, Sun Maowen saw that half of Yao Feng's face and his entire neck were covered in blood, and his clothes were stained with blood. He was so frightened that he didn't even sit down, but instead rushed forward to greet him, grasping Yao Feng's hand and anxiously asking:

  "Brother Yao, have you encountered bandits?"

  Yao Feng's face turned gloomy as he said, "Big brother, I've suffered a defeat! Today, I went to the Zhou family's ancestral hall for a meeting. After lunch, after finishing the meal at the Zhou family's invitation, I bid farewell and came out. Who knew that halfway through, we encountered an ambush? A group of masked bandits with knives rushed over and injured more than ten of my companions!

  Big brother, look at me, my ear is broken. This fellow's name is Huang Hui Sheng, his arm was cut by a knife, if it had been half an inch to the side, he would have severed the tendon and that would be equivalent to losing an arm. To say the least, if Huang Hui Sheng hadn't taken this blow for me in front of me, I'm afraid I wouldn't be seeing big brother today!

  Wooooo......

  After complaining of his grievances, Yao Fan covered his face with his sleeve and burst into loud wailing, looking even more pitiful with his blood-stained body.

  As soon as Yao Fengkai started crying, the crowd of servants also began to wail and cry out in the hall. Huang Hui-sheng, who was lying on the bed board, naturally let out a half-dead ghostly cry, shouting "I'm dying of pain! Heaven's justice will be served for us! I'm dying of pain! You heavenly murdering thief...!"

  Huang Hui-sheng burst into tears, and Yao Fan and his companions treated the yamen's main hall as a funeral parlor, wailing even louder in mourning.

  Sun Maowen took a look at Yao Feng, who was covered in blood, and felt a chill run down his spine. He turned to look at Huang Hui-sheng, who was lying on the bed board and screaming like a ghost. Looking at the bloody clothes and bed board again made his legs weak.

  He became excited, stroking his beard and shouting loudly: "Where did those thieves come from? Brother Yao, take a closer look! How dare they be so bold in broad daylight! Don't they know the law?"

  Yao Feng stopped howling immediately and, without waiting for Sun Maowen to continue, gritted his teeth and said: "Although these people all covered their faces with cloth, I have a clear conscience. In Qingdao Port, the only person I've offended is Guo Jixiu; I don't have any connection with anyone else."

  Big brother, think about it, if they weren't afraid of being recognized, why would these people wear masks?

  Big brother! This must be the doing of that Guo Jixiu and his men! It's definitely because I asked Lord Wei to force him to return Su Sanjie last time, he has been harboring a grudge in his heart. This time, he took advantage of my absence from the city to lead his men in an ambush and murder!

  Big brother, look at my ear. This wound was left by a knife slash. What a great guy! At that time, blood was flowing profusely!

  "I was hit on the shoulder with a stick, big brother you see."

  Yao Feng immediately took off his clothes on the spot, revealing a dark purple bruise on his shoulder.

  Sun Maowen immediately calmed down upon hearing that it was Guo Jixiu's doing, and carefully examined Yao Fan's wound. He cursed in a low voice: "Guo Jixiu is really too daring! To resort to such despicable means! If his father weren't still serving as an imperial censor, I would definitely make him pay dearly for what he did to my brother!"

  After finishing speaking, Sun Maowen sighed and advised helplessly: "Fortunately, Brother Yao only had his ears scratched a bit, but he will be fine after resting for a few days."

  After that, he changed the subject and said to Huang Hui-sheng, who was pretending to be half-dead: "What a loyal servant! You were stabbed for your master's sake, such loyalty is indeed hard to come by. If it weren't for this matter being related to local officials' reputation and not suitable for publicity, I would definitely petition the provincial government office to give you a commendation!"

  "Hey, kid with the surname Huang, don't worry, with your family's Old Master Yao around, just focus on resting at home and recovering from your illness."

  Sun Maowen said to Yao Fangan, "Brother Yao, you should heavily reward such a servant. It's hard to find loyal and good people like this in the households of aristocratic families nowadays."

  Does Yao Fanzhen still need to be taught by radish? Green bean small official is useless, don't cheat me.

  Yao Fanben, with the spirit of getting to the bottom of things, began to detail the process of being ambushed: “……I was just leading a group of men out the door when we were surrounded by 60 or 70 masked bandits from the Guo family! Good grief! I took one look at the situation and knew it wasn't good, so I immediately tried to run, but they not only had clubs, they also had knives. Seeing that running was impossible, I led my men in a charge, trying to grab the clubs and fight our way out. After a chaotic battle, each of my men had been beaten by the clubs.

  As the saying goes, a clay figure still has its earthly nature; when a rabbit is anxious, it will even bite people! My partners and I were all furious at that time, rushing in to grab clubs and beating them up wildly. At that moment, I thought to myself, I must target the leaders of those masked men and beat them severely.

  "It's indeed a desperate fight, and we have to reach the point of death before we can be reborn. After a fierce battle, we unexpectedly turned defeat into victory, and the motley crew of the Guo family was defeated and fled in disarray! Now I understand why the Guo family couldn't win against the Lan family - it's because they're all just show-offs, even if they brought some single-edged swords, they're nothing but silver-plated spearheads!"

  Yao Feng finished speaking, Sun Maowen happily said: "I saw that Brother Yao's physique is tall and large, I didn't expect his skills to be so excellent. Since Brother Yao didn't suffer a loss and won the fight, that's great! It's truly heaven's will, this villainous Guo Jixiu can't show off his ferocity!"

  Yao Fang's eyes rolled, and he said in a low voice: "But at that time the situation was really chaotic. If I hadn't been ruthless, I would have been beaten to death. So when I rushed in and snatched the stick, I just went crazy and beat them wildly. Later, I heard my comrades recall that the leader of the masked men had his hands and feet broken by me."

  Sun Maowen listened to Yao Fan's words, which were clear and logical, with every detail in place, without any discrepancy from start to finish. It didn't seem like a recollection, but rather something recited by rote. By the end, there was even more to his words than met the eye, with underlying implications.

  Sun Maowen immediately felt something fishy about this matter and perked up his ears in alarm.

  Yao Feng didn't care how clever Sun Maowen was, he took out two stacks of 5,000 taels of silver bills from his sleeve pocket, a total of 10,000 taels, and handed them to Sun Maowen.

  "Big brother, think about it, since I've already hurt someone, I have to guard against them retaliating, right?"

  Sun Maowen saw the silver ticket and knew that something was fishy, so he skillfully used two fingers to clip the ticket and put it into his sleeve pocket. Without saying a word, he looked at Yao Fang, preparing to listen to what this Sun guy was going to come up with.

  Yao Feng saw Sun Mao Wen receive the silver ticket and leaned in close, whispering something to him.

  Sun Maowen immediately understood three-tenths of it and thought about the nonsense that Yao Fang had just spoken, and suddenly guessed seven or eight tenths in his heart.

  "This little brat is too damn wicked!" Sun Maowen cursed under his breath.

  "I understand, since this incident occurred within my jurisdiction, I should issue a wanted notice to capture the culprits and give you justice, Brother Yao. However, since these bandits are all wearing masks, how can I possibly put up a wanted notice for someone with a cloth covering their face?"

  However, since this lawless thing has caused trouble, how can I not take care of it? I will accept this case and write a document to submit to the prefecture, so that everyone knows that you were attacked by a group of bandits, and the leader was beaten up by you. I will naturally write it in the memorial, so that the prefecture and various government offices know how to distinguish and prevent it.

  Yao Feng saw his goal achieved and smiled: "As it turns out, big brother still has a way, in this case, the leader of the gang will certainly not dare to bite back at me."

  Sun Maowen said: "You're too bad, stop messing with me here. If it weren't for the sake of money, I wouldn't care about this trivial matter."

  Yao Feng made a bow to bid farewell to Sun Mao Wen, and had his men carry the stretcher with Huang Hui Sheng, who was still wailing in pain, out of the yamen and back home.

  Sun Maowen saw off Yao Fan, returned to the back hall, opened the silver ticket and took a look. He found that it was two 5,000-liang Hengli tickets, which was actually 10,000 liangs more. Sun Maowen immediately understood, knowing that Yao Fan had made a big investment, hoping that he would make this case ironclad evidence. He hastily put away the silver ticket and personally ground the ink...

  Yao Feng returned home and instructed San Jie: "San Jie, help me pack my luggage, I'm leaving for Jinan Prefecture tomorrow."

  Just now, Yao Fang had just brought his apprentices home when San Jie had already heard He Shi Cheng say that Yao Fang and his apprentices had a fight. Now seeing Yao Fang return from the government office, he said he wanted to go to Ji'nan Prefecture, thinking he was going to escape, so he hastily said: "Big brother, I'll run with you."

  Yao Weng looked at San Jie with a strange expression, and finally understood the reason for this. He smiled and said: "What's the hurry? I'm going to formally visit Governor Ding Baozhen of Shandong Province. The other day, Luo Guangyun and Wang Chuanyue sent someone to bring back a letter, and my registration in Tai'an has been settled. This time I go out, first go to Tai'an to spend money on registration, then head north to Ji'nan Prefecture to see the number one official of Shandong Province, Ding Baozhen."

  Third sister finally understood what Yao Fang meant: "Can the Governor of Shandong be seen at will? Brother, you must be careful, these high officials are like jackals and wolves, if you're not careful, they'll devour people."

  Yao Feng stretched out his hand to touch San Jie's head, using his thumb to gently tease the neatly trimmed and shiny bangs on her forehead. He smiled and said: "You've seen jackals eating humans, but have you ever seen jackals eating other jackals?"

  Third sister's face turned red as soon as Yao Feng touched her head, and her big black eyes rolled around: "If that wolf is starving, it will even eat its own people."

  Yao Weng smiled and said, "What you say makes sense, but I'm going to feed them until they're full, so naturally I won't be counterattacked."

  After speaking, Yao Fan began to pack his luggage. San Jie hurried up to help him, folding the clothes she had recently sewn for Yao Fan into neat piles and rolling them up, putting them in the package.

  He Wan Nian was invited to Zhou's house for a gathering and had a fight, after which he returned to Qingdao Port. As soon as he arrived, he was found by He Shi Cheng, who was sent by Yao Feng.

  "Please sit down, Brother Wan." Yao Fan saw He Wan Nian arrive and gestured for him to take a seat. Then, one by one, he told him about the things he had done.

  He Wan Nian listened and didn't believe it, hastily raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead, shook his head and said: "It's so hot today, Brother Yao still has the mood to joke around, don't guess my intentions, since I said we'd advance and retreat together, of course I'll support you, but you mustn't play like this."

  Yao Feng sat on the edge of the kang with a sly smile, looking at He Wannian with a grin.

  He Wan Nian was stunned at Yao Fan's expression, his hands tightly gripping the armrests of his chair, and he exclaimed: "Brother Yao! Did you really hit him?"