Chapter 118: A Mixed Bag

  Fengyang Prefecture Grand Hall.

  The hall was in a mess, like a big pot of porridge.

  The prefectural magistrate slapped the shock wood in his hand vigorously, almost shattering the table: "Silence! Silence! Silence! Whoever dares to make another loud noise will be immediately driven out with a big stick."

  "Yan Liangting, you speak first!"

  Mr. Yan Liangting, the owner of Bao Yue Lou, said: "Yes, sir. The thing is...".

  Yan's boss told him how he saw a noble young lady bring a pretty maid to the Treasure Moon Building to buy jewelry, and how she stopped her carriage outside, got out with a large retinue of attendants, chose several of the most expensive gems, including a priceless jade pendant, tried them on, admired herself, drank tea, used the restroom, and then slipped away unnoticed. He told how he went out and grabbed hold of the waiting attendants, but they all denied knowing the young lady.

  At last, Yan Zhanggui said with tears in his eyes: "Your Honor, I personally heard the young lady order them to wait outside, and they obeyed respectfully. How could I have imagined that a young girl, dressed so luxuriously and not yet out of her teenage years, would be such a big swindler? This Zhao must be her accomplice, no doubt! I beg you, great judge in the blue sky, to do justice for me!"

  The governor turned his head sharply towards Zhao Zikai and said viciously: "Speak!"

  Zhao Zikai cried out in distress: "Your Honor, I'm an innocent commoner!"

  Zhao Zikai recounted the whole story of how he got to know and interact with the young lady from Xu Guogong's mansion, then knelt down and cried out in grievance: "Your Honor, this matter has nothing to do with me! It's clearly a conspiracy between the gangsters at Guanhuai Tower and that female thief, who tricked me into getting involved. I'm innocent from start to finish, I'm being wronged!"

  The governor suddenly turned his head to the shopkeeper Wu Wanli of Guanhuai Building and said with a smile: "Ah, Shopkeeper Wu, please explain this matter."

  The second shopkeeper of Guanhuai Building, Wu Wanli, proudly clasped his hands and said in a deep voice: "Prefect, this matter has nothing to do with my Guanhuai Building. Those two women have come here for the second time to dine, they said they were passing by and wanted to stay here for a few days, every day's lunch was eaten at my house, the order was placed in advance, and three days' worth of meal money was paid in advance. After the guests finished their meal, we naturally couldn't collect money again. As for calling that girl 'Miss', they are our customers, we are doing business, being polite to customers is nothing wrong."

  The governor stroked his beard and nodded repeatedly: "That's right, that's right."

  Someone next to him didn't wait for the question, took a step forward, pointed at Zhao Zikai and shouted in a loud voice: "This person has determined that the swindler is my Xu Guogongfu's young lady. This is a great damage to the reputation of my Xu Guogongfu! My family's young lady is now visiting the Yanwangfu in Beiping, isn't this a bloody lie? I ask the governor to immediately send a letter to the Beiping government, investigate clearly, severely punish those who spread rumors and frame others, and give me Xu Guogongfu a fair treatment!"

  This man is called Liu Qingyuan, and he is the manager of Xu Guogong's villa in Zhongdu. As it happens, something really did happen at the villa today. The reason for this was that the villa was a country house built by Xu Guogong in his early years. Since Xu Guogong died young and was busy with official duties when he was alive, he rarely came here to live idly. His several sons also had official duties, and they were too young to come here to retire.

  And his daughters, the three older ones were all princesses, settled in their husbands' fiefs, not allowed to leave even the fief or the castle without an imperial order, let alone come here. The young lady, Lian'er, was still very small at that time and wouldn't have lived here either. As a result... this mansion had indeed been unrepaired for a long time, and even the gardeners were reduced to just a few. The managers usually didn't stay there either, each having their own business to attend to.

  Miss Meng'er went to Beiping to visit her relatives and stayed in the Returning Garden for two days. Seeing that the garden villa, which was personally built by her late father, had become desolate, the young girl felt uncomfortable and ordered them to prepare for repairs. Because Miss Meng'er's time limit was not very strict, the several managers who heard it did not feel particularly anxious, but rather took care of their own business while starting to look for suitable candidates.

  The news somehow got out and was known to a group of swindlers. There were the most swindlers in Zhongdu Fengyang, because there were many wealthy people here, and it was not as strict as Nanjing City, making it easy to commit fraud, and the soil was suitable for breeding many swindlers. This group of swindlers dressed up nicely and went to the garden to visit, saying that they had heard that the garden was going to be renovated again, and they came to take a look, then estimated the price, asking the manager to take a look, if he felt it was reasonable, they were willing to take on this job.

  Liu Guanshi was naturally willing to listen, and the price of such a proactive person would not be too high. In this way, he could still make a profit from it. Since it was just a look, and not the formal start of decoration, he only appeared in person once, accompanied them to Guiyuan, and then asked them to prepare a price for further discussion. As a result, the scammers became familiar with the people left behind at Guiyuan, bought some wine and meat, and after three cups, they became friends.

  Two days later, they came again, this time bringing many more people with them. They exchanged greetings with the gardener and entered the garden, where they measured and planned, designing for most of the day before leaving again. Two days later, they returned to the garden once more, and the gardener, not thinking much of it, let them in.

  Those gardeners were just the lowest-ranking servants and did not know the details of Liu's agreement with others. They dismantled the house inside, working enthusiastically, and several gardeners also listened and obeyed. As a result, they demolished several exquisite houses, and when they were about to transport the dismantled materials such as wood out of the garden, builder Zhao Zikai and Baoyuelou owner Yan Liangting rushed over with red faces and thick necks.

  They blocked the door and quarreled, heard that they were going to confront the young lady, the gardeners began to be vigilant, the workers who demolished the house were still standing there stupidly, completely unaware that this commotion was also related to themselves, but two of them were among the first batch of people to come out and contact the work, seeing the situation was not good, they took advantage of the chaos and slipped away early.

  The gardener heard that Zhao Zikai and Yan Liangting wanted to see the young lady of their own house, face to face and clear, so they didn't take them seriously and directly drove them out. Moreover, they had an extra thought and quickly sent someone to verify with Liu Guanshi about the demolition of the house. Liu Guanshi was anxious as soon as he heard it, and hurriedly ran back to the garden, only to be furious. He immediately detained those workers who demolished the house and brought them to the public hall. When they arrived here, Zhao Zikai was still slandering Xu Guogong's house, so he jumped out to speak.

  The magistrate had already been driven to distraction by this chain of cases, and hastily accompanied by a smiling face, asked Liu Guan Shi for details of the case. After Liu Guan Shi finished speaking, the detained foreman knocked his head like pounding garlic and shouted grievances: "Your Honor, I'm innocent! I'm a good citizen, an honest person. That day, it was those two people who escaped and brought someone to find us, saying they were the guardians of Xu Guo Gong's return garden, and the Gong Gong wanted to rebuild the return garden, demolishing all the old houses, and all the pillars, doors, windows, tables, and chairs would be disposed of.

  Those woods are either Dalbergia or Yunnan yellow sandalwood, which are very valuable. They asked us if we were willing to take charge of clearing them out and they would sell them to us at a discounted price, of course lower than the market price. This was a good deal for us, so we agreed. Then we gathered a group of brothers and followed them to the garden to check it out, count the number, measure the length, and estimate the value. After everything was calculated clearly, we signed the contract and paid half of the material cost first, planning to pay the remaining half after all the materials were cleared out. Who knew they weren't even the owners of the garden? We were also victims!

  The foreman said, with tears streaming down his face, he took out the contract with fingerprints from his arms and handed it over. The governor didn't even take it, his seven orifices smoked, and he slammed the shock wood loudly: "Nowadays, scammers are too rampant, with various tricks and strange methods. Ordinary people will be deceived, and they dare to cheat on officials and nobles. This official must thoroughly investigate, severely punish, and thoroughly clean up the chaotic situation of cheating in Fengyang!"

  A small inn, Xie Yufei and Nan Feifei, dressed as a refined scholar and a handsome young book boy, were about to leave when the door opened and a man with a gloomy face and an eight-character beard walked in. There were several people outside the door who immediately pulled it shut, so it was impossible to see how many there were.

  Xie Yufei's face changed, and she moved the bundle on her shoulder to her chest, took two steps back, and said in a low voice: "Who are you, sir? You dare to intrude into their residence without fear of entering the government? This is Zhongdu!"

  The middle-aged man with a faint smile and a hint of cunning in his eyes, cupped his hands together and said: "Heaven is round, earth is square, nine chapters of law, five flowers eight doors, profit lies in the center. Are you two ladies from the demonic sect?"

  "Monster Gate?"

  "What nonsense are you talking about? I, Nán Fēi, am a chaste and virtuous girl, how could I be someone who uses my looks to swindle people out of their money?"

  The man with the eight-character beard frowned and said unexpectedly, "Are you also from Fengmen?"

  Xie Yu Fei's eyes moved slightly as she heard this, and she cupped her hands in respect: "I presume you are a senior from the Wind Gate? With your versatile and ingenious skills, I am but a shallow learner who has not yet studied under a renowned master. My skin is as thin as a gourd, and my fire-fighting skills for exorcising evil spirits do not belong to any of the eight gates."

  Xie Yu-fei just said is the true transmission of the eight-character deception. Jing, refers to the need for action with a brush, such as cheating money through fortune-telling, physiognomy, and Feng Shui; Pi, refers to selling fake medicine and performing rituals, this type of swindler; Li, refers to using sleight of hand and magic tricks to deceive ignorant common people; Gua, refers to practicing martial arts and performing acrobatics to cheat and swindle, these four types rarely violate the criminal law.

  The next four are different, Feng is theft, gambling, robbery, kidnapping and other criminal issues; Huo Men is a clever technique such as cheating, switching, and counterfeiting. Chu is extortion, blackmail, and even murder. As for Yao, it refers to women using their charm to swindle money or men deceiving women to get what they want. From her words, it's clear that she's not unfamiliar with this line of work.

  Here is the translation:

  "Speaking of which, Xie Yu Fei smiled lightly and said: 'The methods I use are mostly wind gate techniques, but also involve other schools. They're miscellaneous and not refined, just superficial. If senior must categorize me into a school, then... I suppose I'm a miscellaneous school. Everyone travels the jianghu, showing off their skills, taking what they want, each minding their own business, not interfering with others. I don't know why senior has come to my door today, what's your purpose?'"

  "What's wrong?"

  "Ha! If you can deceive Zhao Zikai to the point of tears with just a few superficial tricks, then you're indeed gifted. But now, you've crossed my river and disturbed my water. How do you plan to settle this account with me?"