“Yi’er!”
Xu Yan yanked Gu Yi, who was about to rush over to settle the score with the Third Prince, “Listen to uncle, it’s important to put out the fire now, let’s talk about other things after dawn.”
The Third Prince noticed the commotion and looked over.
When the four eyes met, Gu Yi gave a provocative smile.
Something suddenly flashed in the Third Prince’s mind, and he came over with big steps, “You guys set the fire didn’t you?”
“Third prince ……”
Mr. Xu Er stood in front of Gu Yi and straightened up after giving him a salute, “What do you mean by that?”
“He just treated me ……”
Only when the words left his mouth did the Third Prince realise that he had been impulsive, that provocative smile Gu Yi had just given him might have been to provoke him!
“What?”
The Third Prince knew that Gu Yi and Yue’er were engaged to be married, yet he was repeatedly bullying people like this, did he really think that the Xu family was easy to mess with?
The Duke of Qi also followed him over, and when he saw that the Second Mister Xu was angry, he hurriedly went forward to make amends, “The Third Prince was just in a moment of haste, please forgive me, Second Mister.”
“It was the Gu family’s tavern that was burned, what does the Third Prince have to be anxious about?”
The Duke of Qi was choked.
“The two of you are of noble status, and here are all ordinary people, it would be bad if we bumped into you, you should go back, we will be fine here.”
“Second Sir ……”
“Please go back.”
Seeing that he was really angry, the Duke of Qi could only give the Third Prince a wink, the Third Prince opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but when he met Gu Yi’s angry and hateful gaze, the fire he was holding in his heart rose up again, flung down his sleeves and turned to leave.
……
The fire continued to burn for an hour before it gradually went out. The county governor fell to the ground without regard for his image, looking at the ashes in front of him, and breathlessly ordered his master, “Go and find out how many families have been implicated!”
The master went away at a fast pace.
The county magistrate saw out of the corner of his eye that Mr. Xu Er and Xu Yan were still standing in the same place with Gu Yi, and wanted to go there.
The rest of the nine families are not too serious, just rest a little.”
The County Master nodded and gestured for him to help himself up.
The Master had just bent down when Song Wangyue came over, “Please, Your Excellency, have someone count how many homes were affected, and we’ll compensate.”
The Master said what he had just said.
Hearing that there were no casualties, Song Wangyue breathed a sigh of relief and took out a silver ticket, “This is one hundred taels, Your Excellency take it and distribute it to them first, send someone to me if it is not enough.”
“It doesn’t take so much, ordinary people build a few new houses only words thirty or forty taels of silver, except for the most serious one, the rest hardly need to accompany, besides, the Gu family is also ……”
“Take it ……”
Song Wangyue gave him the silver ticket, “Gu family is big, don’t care about this, if there is any left over, share it with them to make up for the shock they received today.”
“Then I’ll take them to thank Miss Song and thank Young Master Gu.”
The master took it and put it away carefully.
“My lord ……”
Song Wan Yue looked at the county magistrate and said word for word, “I want to report a crime, I don’t know if this is the right time?”
The County Magistrate moved his lips a few times, but no words came out.
“None of the fellows in the tavern escaped, that’s more than a dozen lives!”
The Prefect’s brain buzzed!
“Those people who died yesterday, as well as this fire, must be someone deliberately targeting the Gu family, so please, Your Excellency, investigate this and give us justice.”
“Song, Miss Song ……”
Thinking of the dead Wei boss, the county magistrate’s eyes went black, who was behind the fire, he knew exactly who was behind it! But he couldn’t say anything, he still had a family to live for.
“This official will do his best to investigate.”
“Many thanks, my lord.”
Song Wangyue turned around and the county magistrate’s body went limp, almost falling down again, as the master’s eyes were quick to help him.
“Master ……”, the County Magistrate didn’t even have the strength to stand, half of his body was leaning on the Master, “Do you think, can I still leave Qingping County safely?”
……
Inside the Song family mansion, the old man sent Xu Liang several times, knowing that he was relieved to hear that the fire was out, and had Xu Liang come to call them back, “Tell Gu Yi that the restaurant is gone, I’ll pay for him to build it, tell him not to be sad, come back first, and wait until morning for anything to happen.”
Xu Liang came over and told Gu Yi what the old man had said, Gu Yi’s voice was hoarse, “I know.”
Seeing that he didn’t send a wring, Mr Xu Er sighed with relief and called out for Song Wan Yue to come back with Mr Yao, leaving Xu Yan and Xiao Si to keep watch over there.
When they returned home, Xu and Meng both comforted Gu Yi, especially Meng, who gave him a box straight away, “This contains silver cheques, if you don’t have enough to build a restaurant, grandma still has them here.”
“Grandmother ……”
As he spoke, Gu Yi’s tears fell down, “I’m not heartbroken about the restaurant, I’m heartbroken about the dozen fellows, they, none of them escaped!”
“What did you say?”
All the people in the room were shocked!
The old gentleman was even more incredulous, “How could this happen?”
Meng also looked back, “Yes, how could this happen? Aren’t they all young and strong boys, how could they not have escaped? ”
Gu Yi’s tears fell even more.
“Father, sister-in-law ……”
Mr. Xu Er’s voice was heavy with pain, “Those fellows should have been …… killed before the fire caught.”
The latter words he could not bear to say.
The few people in the room were once again too shocked to speak.
That was a dozen lives!
Only after a long time did the old man ask in exasperation, “What did the magistrate of Qingping County say?”
“The fire has just been extinguished, no one has gone in yet.”
The old gentleman pushed down the anger that was surging in his heart, “In that case, let’s not speculate, you are also tired, go back to rest first, and wait for the dawn.”
The crowd dispersed, and Mr. Xu Er stayed inside the house.
“Father, the Third Prince and the Duke of Qi have gone too far, they have gone so far as to kill people in order to take the secret recipe from Yue’er, they have really done everything! This is still because Yue’er has us behind her, if not, I can’t even imagine if the Song family can still live in this world!”
“I don’t think it’s the Third Prince and the Duke of Qi.”
The old gentleman still retained his sanity, “The Emperor hasn’t made a crown prince by now, the three adult princes are all eyeing on them, they secretly collect a lot of talents, it costs a lot of silver, but with your reputation and mine here, they won’t do something so obvious, I think there is someone else who burned the restaurant.”
“Who could it be then? An enemy of the Gu family?”
The old man spoke in a deep voice, “Tomorrow you and I will accompany Gu Yi to the magistrate’s office and ask Qingping County to declare the families of those who died yesterday to the court and question them properly, we might be able to find out something.”