A life of two souls traveling through time

Chapter 272 Medicine City Shen Family

It is said that after the village chief Ma sneaked into Yaocheng, he did not rush to Shen's Villa. Instead, he found a cheap inn in the city to stay in. He waited until the city gate opened in the early morning of the next day before he hurried out of the city. After circling around the outskirts of Yaocheng for about half an hour, he finally knocked on the door of Shen's Villa.

"Old Ma? Why did you come back without the master's order?" The servant guarding the manor was surprised to see through the crack in the door that it was the village chief Ma. He then opened the door, looked around vigilantly, and after finding no suspicious people, he let the village chief Ma in and asked in confusion.

"I have hurried back because I have something important to tell Master Shi." Village Chief Ma wiped the sweat from his face and explained to the servant who was guarding the manor.

"But the master and Steward Su did not stay at the manor yesterday..." The servant who was guarding the manor frowned slightly and looked at Village Chief Ma with some difficulty, "The Shen Mansion in the city is full of the old lady's people. I don't dare to go there so early in the morning... How about this, you go back to the courtyard and meet your family first, and I will send someone to the city to find the master later."

"Okay, okay, that's fine." After hearing the servant's words, Village Chief Ma had no objection and nodded in response.

It was past noon when Mr. Shen Shi finished his breakfast with Old Madam Shen in the mansion. As soon as he walked out of the door, he was caught up by the servant of the villa who had been waiting not far away.

When Master Shen Shi heard from the servant that Village Chief Ma had secretly returned, he could not help but panic and anger. If he was discovered at this critical moment, wouldn't he be killed by this idiot? But then he heard that Village Chief Ma had risked his life to secretly return because of an urgent matter, so Master Shen Shi did not speak again and went directly to the villa on the outskirts of the city with the fat slave.

"You rashly came back without permission just to tell me this?" But when Master Shen Shi heard Village Chief Ma mention the so-called important matter at the villa, it turned out to be the government's eagerness to close the case and convict an insignificant person like Ma Ming, his face was immediately filled with anger.

If it weren't for the fact that he had to continue using this idiot to fool the government, Master Shen would really want to throw him into the lake outside to feed the fish.

"Don't worry, Master Shi. I took a lot of detours to get to Yaocheng. I stayed at an inn in the city yesterday and didn't find any suspicious people following me." Village Chief Ma smiled disapprovingly.

"What the hell can you find?" Seeing that Village Chief Ma did not take his recklessness seriously, Master Shen became even more furious. He raised his hand and slammed the table beside him.

"Ma Ming is innocent after all... I... I watched him grow up... Besides, Master Shen, you only asked me to find Ma Ming with the help of the government, and you didn't say you wanted to kill him?" It was the first time that Village Chief Ma saw Master Shen so angry, and he was frightened and panicked. He bent his waist and lowered his head, clutching his sleeves tightly with both hands, and after a long while he stammered and spoke cautiously.

"Hmph, are you pretending to be ignorant even though you know the truth, or do you have a bug or fish head?" Village Chief Ma's words, which seemed to be speaking up for Ma Ming, seemed extremely ridiculous in the eyes of Master Shen. He suppressed the anger in his eyes and sneered.

"Master Shi, what...what do you mean?" Village Chief Ma asked with a panicked look on his face.

"Dozens of people of all ages in Majia Village were slaughtered and burned, and most of them were not even left with any remains. For such a brutal crime, you were so cruel as to put the blame on a child as the real murderer?" Master Shen sat down again calmly and continued to speak coldly to Village Chief Ma with a look of contempt.

"Master Shi, this is obviously you..." Master Shi Shen's words made Village Chief Ma stunned for a long time. Just as he was about to speak with a wronged look on his face, he was interrupted by the other party:

"When you openly directed this disaster to Ma Ming, you should have thought that unless Ma Ming argued for himself and walked out of the government with a clean record, he would be forced to death by public opinion even if he did not muddleheadedly become a scapegoat. However, if Ma Ming's reputation was clean, would you, Village Chief Ma, still have the opportunity to come back to visit your wife and children now?"

A small Ma Ming was naturally insignificant to Master Shen Shi. At first, he really just wanted to know whether Ma Ming was hidden by Jiangnan Mingli because he had the tie-dyeing skills left by his father. But now Ma Ming has been imprisoned by the government for a while, and Jiangnan Mingli's new cloth is still the same in a different way. It can be seen that Jiangnan Mingli took in Ma Ming just to pity the grandfather and grandson and win their hearts, as he said in the court.

Master Shen didn't care about Ma Ming's life or death, but the fact that the famous Li from Jiangnan was implicated by Ma Ming did give him an unexpected surprise. He couldn't help but feel grateful to God for his help to his Shen family.

Shen Shiye's frank words mercilessly exposed the hypocritical and twisted mind of Village Chief Ma. All the villagers in Majia Village were indirectly killed by him. Knowing that he was deeply sinful, he really didn't want to bear another life. But at the same time, Village Chief Ma was also afraid that Ma Ming would ignore his kindness, and he didn't want to go to jail while his wife and children were still alive, so he came back to ask Shiye for help.

However, the cold words of Master Shi made Village Chief Ma's heart chilled to the bone in this hot summer day. It was also at this moment that he realized that Master Shi had helped him save his wife and children because he was a chess piece that could be used to deal with the famous Li in Jiangnan.

"My lord, good news!"

In the Qile City government office, Zhou Bing ran into the study with a happy face and reported to You Zhiji.

"Tell us quickly!" You Zhiji guessed about 70% of the answer when he heard it, so he stood up excitedly and said to Zhou Bing.

"According to the spies we sent to follow Ma Yong, Ma Yong went to Yaocheng three days ago under the pretext of returning to Majia Village to pay homage to his wife and children." Zhou Bing did not dare to delay and replied hurriedly.

"Yaocheng?" You Zhiji's expression tensed. Yaocheng was not under his jurisdiction, and he might not be able to trust the governor of Yaocheng without reservation. The future investigation might be a little tricky.

"I didn't expect that Ma Yong was so cunning. He slipped into the forest halfway to Yaocheng on his way to Majia Village, and took a lot of detours along the way. After arriving in Yaocheng, he stayed in an inn for one night before entering Shenjia Villa on the outskirts of Yaocheng." Zhou Bing laughed to himself and continued to report.

"Hmph, it seems that Village Chief Ma is quite capable, but what does this Shen Family Villa do?" You Zhiji also snorted when he heard it. It was indeed beyond his expectation that a small village chief would be so alert, but what he was concerned about at the moment was still this Shen Family Villa.

"Your Excellency, the Shen family is also a cloth shop. Although the Shen family cloth shop in Yaocheng is not very famous in Jiangnan, it still has some status in the business community of Yaocheng. Moreover, the head of the Shen family cloth shop, Madam Shen, is also a powerful figure in Yaocheng who is decisive and efficient." Zhou Bing replied.

It was also a cloth shop, no wonder she wanted to deal with the famous Li from Jiangnan, but how could a small cloth shop like her collude with Jiuhe and massacre and burn villages? I'm afraid it's not that simple, right?

"Who did Ma Yong meet at Shenjia Villa?" You Zhiji thought for a moment and asked again.

"The villa is heavily guarded. Our people didn't sneak in for fear of alerting the enemy. But one hour after Ma Yong entered the villa, we saw people from the Shen family appear from afar."

"Is it the head of the Shen family, Madam Shen?"

"He is Madam Shen's tenth son. People outside call him Master Shen the Tenth."

"The tenth child? The Shen family is really prosperous."

"Sir, although Madam Shen gave birth to ten children, most of them died young or married far away. Now only two sons are left with her." Zhou Bing's mother was from Yaocheng, so he had heard about the Shen family's affairs since he was a child, and naturally knew more about it than the prefect.

"How old is this old lady Shen?"

"Over seventy."

"She is still running the family business at such an old age? Doesn't she have two sons? Why doesn't she let them take care of it?"

"I heard that Madam Shen has been strong and bossy since she was young. She started managing the whole family on the third day after she married into the Shen family. Later, when Master Shen passed away, she took full control of the Shen family cloth shop. How can she let it go after managing it for decades?"

"Are you familiar with this Mr. Shen Shi?" After You Zhiji had a general understanding of the Shen family, he returned to the case he was investigating.

"There is very little news about him in the outside world. We only know that he is the youngest child in the family and is very much favored by Old Madam Shen. And I just found out that the Shen Family Villa outside the city was given by Old Madam Shen to her youngest son, Master Shen Shi, out of joy."

"From today on, send someone to keep an eye on this Master Shen Shi and the Shen Family Villa."

"Yes, my lord."

"Also, public opinion has gone too far in condemning Jiangnan's famous Li. Find a few people to encourage some reasonable people to find a balance."

"Well, sir, why don't you let Jiangnan Mingli handle this matter himself?" Zhou Bing scratched his head, somewhat puzzled.

"After all, it was I who promised Manager Mu that I would not let the famous Li from Jiangnan suffer too much. You can't let me go back on my word today, right?" You Zhiji couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and smiled helplessly.

"Yes, I'll do it right away." Zhou Bing understood and could only respond with a wry smile.