“What a grand and luxurious villa!”
Jin Feng looked around, feeling a surge of emotion in his heart.
As he gazed at the opulent and extravagant villa, the image of children frozen to death by the roadside could not help but surface in Jin Feng’s mind.
When they passed a small courtyard, a soldier kicked open the door of one of the rooms.
Inside the room, a banquet was in full swing. An enormous table was laden with all kinds of rare delicacies from land and sea.
Four corpulent middle-aged men sat at the table, each surrounded by a group of young and beautiful girls.
Some were feeding morsels of food to the middle-aged men with chopsticks, some held wine cups ready to serve at any moment, and others were massaging shoulders or pounding legs.
It was the depths of winter, yet the room was steaming hot.
That was because there were many braziers burning inside. The moment the door opened, Jin Feng felt a wave of heat rush towards him.
Perhaps because it was so hot, almost everyone in the room was stark naked, and the scene looked utterly decadent.
On the floor, half-eaten fruits and melons lay scattered everywhere.
Several wine pots were also gurgling, spilling wine onto the ground.
When the intruders suddenly burst in, both the middle-aged men and the girls panicked and scrambled to find something to cover themselves.
“Who is so brazen? Do you not know this old man is inside?”
One of the middle-aged men, humiliated and furious, roared at the soldier who had kicked the door. “Which unit are you from? Who is your general?”
Qing Xinyao had originally intended to leave, but when he heard someone inside threatening a soldier, he urged his horse into the small courtyard.
After glancing inside, Qing Xinyao’s face immediately turned extremely ugly.
“Lord Qin, Lord Zhai, I never expected you two to have such high spirits!”
He recognised all four middle-aged men inside.
Two were officials from the prefectural yamen, and their ranks were not low.
They usually appeared dignified and proper, moral and upright. Who would have thought they could be so dissolute in private?
The other two were well-known wealthy merchants in Xichuan City, and one of them was even a grain merchant.
When “Lord Qin” and “Lord Zhai” saw Qing Xinyao, they were also startled.
Then, without caring that they were still naked, they hurriedly knelt and bowed.
But whether because they had eaten and drunk too much or because their posture was wrong, both of them landed belly-first on the ground. Like tumblers, they could not even manage to kowtow properly.
In Jin Feng’s mind, the characters from Spirited Away suddenly appeared, the ones who gorged themselves wildly and ended up turning into fat pigs.
A wave of nausea rose in his heart.
“Where is Meng Tianhai? Grab these embarrassing wretches, take them back and interrogate them thoroughly. If they are connected to this matter, execute them without mercy!”
Qing Xinyao was also furious.
“Yes!” Meng Tianhai ran over from behind and directed the soldiers to haul the two men up.
“General Meng, please allow me to put on some clothes,” Lord Qin pleaded.
“Now you feel shame?” Qing Xinyao shouted angrily. “Take them back just like this. If they freeze to death, throw them by the roadside!”
“Lord Qing, have mercy!”
All four adjusted their postures and kowtowed to Qing Xinyao, begging for mercy.
It was the bitter cold of winter. The distance from Green Water Villa to Xichuan City was considerable. If they were marched back naked like this, even if they did not freeze to death, they would fall gravely ill.
They were all prominent figures in Xichuan City. Even if they survived the cold, after such humiliation, how could they ever show their faces in Xichuan City again?
No, how could they ever show their faces in the world again?
But Qing Xinyao paid no attention to their pleas and simply turned his horse around.
After riding only a few steps, a loud “thud” came from behind.
“Protect Sir!”
Da Liu immediately urged his horse to block in front of Jin Feng.
Qing Xinyao’s guards also tensed up and prepared for battle.
“Sir, Lord Qin has smashed his head against the wall and killed himself!”
Meng Tianhai ran over to report.
Lord Qin came from a scholarly family. Such families placed the greatest importance on family reputation and integrity.
Forcing him to walk naked from Green Water Villa all the way to Xichuan City was no different from parading him through the streets in disgrace. It was more cruel than killing him.
Seeing that Qing Xinyao was determined and that pleading with Meng Tianhai was useless, he had simply rammed his head into a pillar.
“At least he still had some backbone. Notify the Qin family to come and collect the body!”
Qing Xinyao looked at the remaining three. “What about you lot? Will you kill yourselves, or return to the city?”
The three remained kneeling on the ground with their heads lowered, saying nothing.
In truth, they also wanted to die, but they lacked Lord Qin’s courage.
Qing Xinyao gave a cold snort and rode away.
“Lord Qing, please do not search any further!”
The manager of Green Water Villa came running over again, kowtowing and bowing repeatedly to Qing Xinyao. “Chen Lianqi is in Courtyard Number Five of the Heavenly character series. This humble one will lead Your Lordship there!”
“This old man already said there is no need!”
Seeing two of his own subordinates here had already made Qing Xinyao extremely angry. He shouted, “I was too lazy to bother with you at first, but you insisted on jumping out and courting death!
Meng Tianhai, arrest him and take him along!”
When the manager heard this, his face turned deathly pale in an instant.
As the manager of Green Water Villa, he had very keen sources of information.
Right from the beginning, when the nobles started plotting to hoard grain and drive up prices, he had already known about it.
Based on his experience, when so many powerful families joined forces to manipulate the market, it was guaranteed to be an easy way to make a fortune lying down.
So the manager had put up all his savings, begged many people, and bought a share for himself.
When Qing Xinyao spoke those words at the gate earlier, the manager had realised the nobles’ plan had failed.
But he still clung to a sliver of hope, believing he had acted discreetly and held only a small share, so Qing Xinyao would not notice him.
Only now did he understand that Qing Xinyao had known all along.
It was just that his share really was small, and Qing Xinyao was in a hurry to catch the bigger fish, so he had been too lazy to deal with him.
Once the tigers were caught, someone would naturally come to clean up the flies.
In the end, the manager had crashed straight into the muzzle of the gun, and Qing Xinyao had casually swatted him dead.
The search continued. One small courtyard after another was kicked open by the Weisheng Army soldiers.
As more and more courtyards were forced open, Jin Feng’s worldview was constantly being refreshed.
He had originally thought the first courtyard he saw was already decadent enough. Only later did he realise that the absurdity of Great Kang’s wealthy far exceeded his imagination.
Even in films from later eras, he had never seen such scenes.
Trembling rich merchants and officials were continually dragged out of the small courtyards by Weisheng Army soldiers and brought to the main road in the centre.
More than eighty percent of them were stark naked.
Those who were still wearing clothes felt extremely fortunate at that moment.
Fortunately, they had not taken off their clothes earlier.
According to Great Kang law, it was not illegal for officials to visit brothels. In fact, it was considered a refined pastime.
Of course, the precondition was that when they left and returned home, they had clothes on their bodies.
The Heavenly character series courtyards were the best and most secluded in Green Water Villa, located at the very back.
Qing Xinyao was in no hurry. He simply rode slowly along, quietly committing every face he saw here to memory.
By the time Jin Feng and the others reached Courtyard Number Five of the Heavenly character series, Chen Lianqi and the others had already been brought out.
“Mr Jin, apart from Zheng Siyao who is still in Jiangnan, all the grain merchants who falsely accused you are here.”
The reason the granaries of the Jinchuan Chamber of Commerce had been sealed was because grain merchants had lodged false accusations against the chamber, claiming Jin Feng had bought grain but not paid for it.
Only by withdrawing the lawsuit could the granaries be unsealed again.
This was also the reason Jin Feng and Qing Xinyao had come to Green Water Villa.
What Qing Xinyao had not expected was that he would encounter so many old acquaintances here.
