Spring comes to the desperate place

Chapter 128 Catch

A faint groan was heard from outside the house. Zhou Ning tightly grasped the stick in his hand, but was alert and did not open the door. Instead, he slowly squatted down, lay on the ground, and looked out through the crack in the door.

The moonlight was very bright tonight, but it was not bright enough for him to see clearly what was happening in the yard. He could only vaguely see a black shadow. The shadow moved a few times and then suddenly disappeared, which scared Zhou Ning.

In this situation, he didn't dare to sleep anymore. He just returned to bed holding the stick, wrapped himself in the quilt and stared at the door. He remained there until dawn, when he heard a noise from the neighbor's house. He then fell on the pillow and fell into a deep sleep, completely unaware that there was a huge quarrel in the homes of his eldest uncle and second uncle who lived not far away.

The reason was that Aunt Zhou hadn't seen her husband early in the morning. She initially thought that he had gone out, but it was not until Aunt Zhou came to the door on Tuesday that the two realized that something was wrong.

Just when the two of them were confused, the police arrived.

"Is this Zhou Ping and Zhou An's home?"

As the head of the family, Grandpa Zhou stepped forward to answer. His eyelids had been twitching since this morning, and his two sons were missing, which made him more and more panicked. When he saw the police coming to his house, he was so scared that his hands and feet went weak.

The women and children of the Zhou family behind him didn't dare to breathe, for fear of being arrested by the officers, even though they didn't understand what was happening.

The official looked at the old, weak, women and children in the room with a grim expression, but he still spoke coldly: "Someone has accused Zhou Ping and Zhou An of colluding with Feng Shichang's family to kill people. Now Zhou Ping and Zhou An have been arrested in jail, and Feng Shichang has also been arrested. The county magistrate ordered us to come back and take you to the government office for routine questioning. Why don't you hurry and follow me."

Grandpa Zhou and Grandma Zhou were both confused when they heard that their two sons were arrested. They didn't believe at all that their sons would work with Feng Shichang to kill others. They just subconsciously thought that the officer might have made a mistake.

"Sir, are you mistaken? Although my son is a bit of a jerk, he would never dare to do something like killing someone!"

"Yes, sir, is there any misunderstanding here? My son would never do such a heinous thing. There must be some misunderstanding here."

The official looked at the old couple who kept speaking for their son and became a little impatient. "I don't know who your son is, but it is an indisputable fact that they had an affair with Feng Shichang. They both confessed to it. If you are allowed to go, just go. Whether it is a misunderstanding or not, the county magistrate will naturally be able to find out clearly."

The other party had already said so, so the Zhou family had no choice but to go on their journey. Such a thing happened in the village during New Year's Day, and the head of the village and the village chief were alarmed. When they hurried over, they only found out that the two sons of the Zhou family were involved in a murder case and had been arrested.

The head of the village was too old to bear such shock, and he almost fell to the ground when he heard the news. The village chief next to him was even more pale and covered his chest. If there hadn't been someone supporting them, they would have collapsed.

When the Zhou family arrived at the county government office, Zhou Ping and Zhou An were lying on the ground like two dead dogs. Their outer clothes had been stripped off, and they were only wearing their inner clothes and had been beaten with ten boards. Last night, they were hung outside in the cold wind all night, and then thrown at the gate of the county government office at dawn. Also thrown at the gate of the county government office was Feng Shichang of the Feng family, the father of Feng Dalang.

The one who arrested the Zhou brothers was naturally Song Chunlin, and the one who arrested Feng Shichang was Gu Fengyue. As early as when the Song family proposed marriage, Song Chunlin had already found out why the Feng family was obsessed with Zhou Ning.

Just as Aunt Wang guessed, the Feng family asked for Zhou Ning's hand in marriage not because they really wanted her to be Feng Dalang's wife, but because they wanted Zhou Ning to be buried with Feng Dalang.

Everyone knows that the Feng family has an only son, but they don’t know that they also have a younger brother who is a twin of the only son from the same mother.

When the twins were born, the son was weak and the son was strong. The Feng family had few descendants, and Feng Shichang had sought medical treatment for many years before he had a pair of twins. He was too proud to let people know that his son was a sickly child, so over the years, the younger son had been living in his brother's place.

As time passed, the two children grew up gradually, and the son's health became worse year by year. Gu Fengyun still had Song Chunlin's spiritual spring water to improve his health, but Feng Jiadalang did not have this opportunity.

Feng Shichang saw that his son would not live long, and thought about how his son had suffered from illness all his life and would be alone when he died, so he decided to find a companion for his son. He asked someone to look at his son's birth date and calculate the most suitable partner for his son's birth date, and then found a wife for his son based on that birth date.

Later, somehow, Zhou Ping found out. He learned that the Feng family was looking for a girl with a certain birth date and horoscope to be their daughter-in-law. When he heard that horoscope, his eyes lit up. Wasn't that Zhou Ning's birth date and horoscope!

So the Zhou Ping brothers went directly to the Feng family. At first, they just wanted to sell Zhou Ning to the Feng family as a daughter-in-law, thinking that it would be good enough to get a betrothal fee from them. However, they didn't expect that the Feng family would offer 100 taels of silver at once, and required Zhou Ning to sever ties with the Zhou family after marrying into the family.

In fact, the Zhou Ping brothers didn't feel anything about severing their relationship, and they had no plans to keep in touch with Zhou Ning after he got married. But since the Feng family specifically proposed this condition, there must be something wrong.

The two brothers were smart enough to think that there must be something wrong with the Feng family, so they asked for a huge price, raising the price to one hundred taels per person.

Feng Shichang originally didn't want to give so much, but at this time Feng Dalang fell ill again. After a period of chaos, Feng Dalang barely managed to hang on to his life, but Zhou Ping and Zhou An discovered the secret of the Feng family.

Zhou Ping looked at Feng Dalang, who was about to die, and immediately understood why Feng Shichang specifically wanted that person with that birth date and horoscope. He also understood why he wanted Zhou Ning to sever ties with the Zhou family after she married in. He was afraid that after Zhou Ning died, the Zhou family would come up to demand an explanation.

However, Zhou Ping assured Feng Shichang that as long as he promised to give them 100 taels each, they would not ask whether Zhou Ning was dead or alive after her marriage.

With this sentence, Feng Shichang realized that the two brothers were not good people either, and then he made a decision that made him regret for the rest of his life.

He specially wrote a contract and asked the Zhou Ping brothers to sign it.

Finally, this contract became the evidence of their collusion in court.

Feng Shichang first gave each of them a "deposit" of ten taels of silver, and promised to give each of them another hundred taels of silver after the deal was done.

The two brothers happily returned home with the silver and shared the joy with their wives. Then all the previous forced marriage happened. It can be said that Zhou Ping and Zhou An also took great pains for the one hundred taels of silver.

Ever since Feng Shichang found out that the Song family had come to propose marriage to Zhou Ning, he angrily went to Zhou Ping and Zhou An to return the money. Zhou Ping and Zhou An were naturally unwilling to give up the benefits they had obtained. In addition, stimulated by the New Year gifts from the Song family, the two brothers simply went all out and planned to tie Zhou Ning up and send him to the Feng family, and then lock him up with Feng's Dalang for a night. Once the matter was settled, Zhou Ning would have no way to escape.

They didn't believe that the Song family would want Zhou Ning, who had been alone with another man for a whole night. If Zhou Ning had a strong personality, he would probably have killed himself without them having to do anything.

One has to say that this man was so cruel that he could abandon even his closest relatives, let alone his nephew who was from a different family from the two brothers.

The kidnapping of Zhou Ning was carried out after they conspired with Feng Shichang. While they kidnapped her, Feng Shichang set up a ceremony hall, and when Zhou Ning arrived, they took her to marry Feng Dalang. They even calculated the time, and after the ceremony, they kept her at Feng's house to celebrate the New Year. It was confirmed that Zhou Ning was the daughter-in-law of the Feng family.

As for how the Song family would explain, they had also prepared a statement, saying that Zhou Ning really liked Feng Dalang, but the Song family insisted on the engagement, so he had no choice but to escape the marriage.

If the Song family insisted on them handing over the person, the two were not afraid. At most they could send Zhou Daya over. Daya was only half a year older than Zhou Ning, and had been raised by Zhou Ping at home. It was not considered as mistreating Song Chunsheng.

However, plans can never keep up with changes. Song Chunlin had already made arrangements with Gu Fengyue and had been waiting for them since early morning. As soon as he captured the Zhou brothers, Gu Fengyue and the yamen runners kicked open the door of the Feng family.

According to the recollections of the yamen runners, the Feng family's main hall was filled with ancestral tablets, various tributes and dried fruits, the doors and windows were covered with wedding characters, and even the lanterns were replaced with red candles and lanterns overnight. It was so festive that at first glance it really looked like a wedding ceremony was about to take place, if one ignored the pair of paper-made boys and girls placed nearby, and the huge coffin at the back.

Doing all this in the late night, any discerning person would know that something was wrong. Feng Shichang even tried to argue that he wanted to find a wife for his son, and a yamen runner subconsciously refuted him.

"Who would get married in the middle of the night? And put a coffin here. Is this a ghost marriage?"

As soon as the words fell, everyone shuddered.

Not to mention, there were so many terrifying elements, such as red candles, spirit tablets, paper figures, and coffins, that many yamen runners felt a chill down their backs.

Feng Shichang was pinned to the ground and tried to struggle because he felt that the other party had no evidence. But when Gu Fengyue pulled out a piece of paper from her arms, he was frozen in place, staring at the paper. Then, perhaps because he was mad because the truth was revealed, he actually laughed out loud.

“Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha, retribution! This is all retribution ahahahahahahahahaha!”

Looking at Feng Shichang's crazy appearance, everyone thought that this man had gone crazy. Gu Fengyue didn't bother to care whether he was really crazy or pretending to be crazy, and ordered people to tie him up and prepare to take him away.

Just at this moment, a young man dressed as a groom walked in. He was wearing a red suit, but he was softer and more delicate than ordinary men. The young man was pale and expressionless. He walked to Feng Shichang and said something calmly.

"My eldest brother is dead."

Feng Shichang's laughter suddenly stopped. His crazy expression quickly subsided and turned into anger. He began to struggle frantically, trying to attack the young man in front of him, cursing:

"It's all because of you, this jinx! You started harming your own siblings in the womb. If it weren't for you, how could my son die! How could it not be you who died! You ungrateful wolf, you raised me up in vain, but you are of no use at all, and you even want to kill my son! What sin did I commit in my previous life to give birth to a beast like you who is worse than pigs and dogs? It's all Nian's fault that he robbed my son of his good fortune. It's all because of this scourge, Nian. It's you, you who killed my son! Die! Die! Die!"

The death of his son was a great blow to Feng Shichang. He kept cursing his own son, blaming him for stealing his brother's blessings. It seemed that as long as he kept cursing, his son would come back to life.

The young man seemed to have gotten used to such insults. He calmly watched his father go crazy. Then, after he calmed down a little, a bright smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Then he smiled and approached Feng Shichang and repeated in his ear: "Your son is dead."

These few words were like thunder to Feng Shichang. After the young man repeated them, Feng Shichang's eyes turned red. His mouth was blocked by a cloth by the yamen runners so he could not make any sound. But judging from his violent struggle, if no one held him down, he would probably rush up and tear the young man to pieces.

The young man ignored Feng Shichang's madness, walked past Feng Shichang, went to the coffin, and gently stroked the fine wood painted red.

Feng Shichang loved his son so much that he even prepared the biggest and best coffin for his son. The young man sneered, took off his bright red wedding dress, and threw it into the coffin.

Gu Fengyue turned his head without looking and just ordered the bailiff to take Feng Shichang back to the county government office.

Because the evidence was conclusive and Feng Dalang was dead, Feng Shichang had no worries and confessed without much struggle.

But Zhou Ping and Zhou An were different. They knew that once they confessed their guilt, their offspring would be the children of criminals. The young ones in their family would probably be pointed at and criticized even when they were in the village, let alone getting married.

The county magistrate was not going to tolerate them. There were witnesses and evidence, and the mastermind had confessed his guilt. Even if the two of them refused to confess, what could they do? He would first give them ten beatings, and once they were convinced, they would naturally confess their guilt.

Grandpa Zhou and the others looked at Zhou Ping and Zhou An, who were lying motionless on the ground, with blood all over their backs. The yamen runners were called to work during the New Year's Day and were full of resentment. The workers had finally got a holiday, but it was messed up by these people. Each of them hit them very hard. Just ten strokes of the board almost took the lives of Zhou Ping and Zhou An.

"What a sin!" Grandma Zhou fell to the ground and closed her eyes, as if she didn't want to look at the two brothers any longer. She knew that her two sons had been mistreating their nephew, but she never imagined that they would be so cruel and want to kill the only flesh and blood left by their brother.