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Chapter 129: The Gourd is Ripe_l
Chapter 129: The Gourd is Ripe_l
Chapter 129: Chapter 129: The Gourd is Ripe_l
Translator: 549690339
Yingbao stepped forward and extended her hand towards the servant: “Give me the needle, I’ll do it myself.”
The servant looked at Liu Lin and, seeing his nod of approval, handed the thick steel needle to the little girl.
Yingbao gritted her teeth and pricked herself with the needle, dropping her blood into the first and third bowls. She then took out Xiaohei, her little black dog, from her pocket, pricked its paw and, ignoring its howls of protest, let a drop of its blood fall into the second bowl.
Amidst the crowd’s astonishment, she dragged her father to the third bowl and pricked him as well, letting his blood drop into the third bowl.
Everyone was utterly dumbfounded.
The middle-aged man surnamed Liu’s face turned pale but he still leaned in to inspect the condition of the blood in the three bowls.
As expected, the blood in all three bowls had mixed together.
Old Chen Haozha laughed heartily, pointing at the first bowl and exclaimed, “This girl indeed belongs to the Chen Family! Mr. Mingfu, the Han Family is innocent! She took her own child away, she is not guilty, please, Mr. Mingfu, release her.”
The people listening outside were taken aback.
Yingbao looked at him as though he were a fool: “Why aren’t you looking at the other two bowls? Are you suggesting that my little black dog is also related to Chen Changping by blood? And the blood my dad dropped has also mixed with mine.”
Chen Haozha was stunned, “What?” He leaned in for a closer look, indeed, the blood in the other two bowls had mixed together too, and his face instantly darkened.
Wu Shi personally came over to investigate and, upon looking, nodded, “Indeed all have mixed together, could it be that all of you are related by blood?”
Liu Lin’s face hardened as he squinted at Yingbao, “Kid, do you know what you’re doing?”
“Of course, isn’t this the blood testing you asked for? What’s wrong? The bowls were brought by the village warden, the water in the bowls was given by you. I simply wanted to test whether this blood test is effective or not.” Yingbao replied nonchalantly.
Let these monstrous people vent their anger at her. As long as her parents and Wu Daozi were not implicated, she could endure anything. She could not let the Chen Family get their way.
“Child, are you aware of the saying, ‘too clever is foolish’?”. Liu Lin said sternly “You’re still young, there’s a long future ahead of you. Don’t overlook some things while focusing on others.”
Yingbao: “Officer Liu, are you trying to intimidate a child?” She was not afraid of Liu Lin’s threats. “I’m already five years old. I’m not afraid of you!”
Liu Lin’s face grew livid with rage, he huffed, stood up, and walked away.
Both Chen Changping and Chen Haozha were bewildered when they saw Mr. Liu leave.
Wu Shi asked, “Chen Haozha, Chen Changping, are you both satisfied with the results of the blood test?”
Chen Haozha shook his head hurriedly, “Mr. Official, I want to redo the blood test. The earlier one was too absurd and isn’t valid.”
The County Magistrate’s gaze turned cold as he watched him, “According to you, you only acknowledge the blood of Yingbao and your son, and not of
others? Even Jiang Sanlang’s blood had mixed with that of Yingbao.”
“Yes, yes, how could others’ blood count?” Chen Haozha was at a loss for words.
The County Magistrate was amused to anger, and with a strike of the gavel, he roared, “The father and son, Chen Haozha and Chen Changping, falsely accused innocent people without any proof. According to the law, they will receive forty spanks in public court. Bring them!” He then threw down his red-tipped token.
A government official received the red-tipped token and immediately lead Chen Haozha and Chen Changping out.
“Mr. Official, Mr. Official, why are you punishing me?” Chen Haozha and Chen Changping cried out in fear.
“Injustice, injustice! That child originally belonged to the Chen family…” Before they could finish speaking, their mouths were gagged.
The punishment took place right in the courtyard of the County Tribunal. Nearly a hundred villagers witnessed the father and son being stripped and their bare bottoms spanked forty times each.
After the punishment, the County Magistrate ordered the head of Xichen Village to take them back home and warned them that if they dare falsely accuse people again, they would be severely punished.
Villagers from East Village jumped with joy and continually praised their savior, the upright official.
Even the citizens of West Village joined in the applause, praising the official for siding with them and being a decent man.
Jiang Sanlang was overjoyed, holding his daughter tightly, nearly moved to tears.
He had been terrified earlier, for he was the only one who knew the truth Yingbao was a child of the Chen Family.
But what of it, they won the case and from then on, no one would dare question Yingbao’s identity.
After Wu Daozi completed the trial, he took his scribes and officials and rushed back to the county, ignoring the Wei family and the Liu family.
However, a few days later, a letter arrived from the prefecture city. Governor Wang personally ordered the release of the Han sisters, as they were both pregnant.
Yingbao didn’t know about all this.
However, one thing pleased her – the Wei brothers had left, and they took with them Old Chen, the Chen couple, Chen Changping and the sisters, Chen Zhao and Chen Tiantian.
Wei Zhan tried once to ask Yingbao to return to the prefecture city with him for a better life, but was chased away by Dani, Erni, and Chuchu with brooms.
With the absence of Old Chen and Chen Changping in West Village, the villagers burnt a large pile of bamboo joints at night, celebrating their departure.
Yingbao finally felt relieved.
The turn of events seemed to have concluded, and she presumed there wouldn’t be any concern for her in the future.
Soon a few months passed, approaching the Mid-Autumn Festival.
The gourds Yingbao planted had grown large, the largest almost the height of a person, all thanks to regular watering with the pond water from her cave residence.
Because the gourds grown by others in the village hadn’t grown this large – the largest ones were only about the size of a face basin.
Even so, the basin-sized gourds were prized by the villagers. They picked them and hung them under the eaves to dry.
Some even took their gourds to sell at the market and made quite a bit of silver. It was said that a foreigner once paid five taels of silver for two gourds.
At this point, the villagers of West Village were even more envious and quietly bought gourd seeds from the East Village residents.
The East Village residents were not stingy this time and sold the gourd seeds at five coins each, making a tidy profit.
“Yingbao, can you give me two of your gourds?” Jiang Quan had been eyeing Yingbao’s large gourds for a long time, and now that they were ripe, he was the first to ask for some.
Yingbao had a total of about thirty gourds, three of them were extraordinarily large and could be used as bathtubs when cut open.
The rest were not small either, at least MUCH larger than what others in the village had grown.
“Sure, just leave the three largest ones, you can take any of the rest.” Yingbao generously waved her hand.
“Hehe, I will.” Jiang Quan rubbed his hands, selected two uniquely shaped gourds among the many, and ran off with them.
He had also grown more than ten gourd plants at home, producing dozens of large gourds, but his largest gourd was smaller than Yingbao’s smallest one. He wanted to compare them to see what was different.
In the end, apart from noticing that the stems of Yingbao’s gourds were thicker, he didn’t find any other difference.
It seemed that Yingbao’s title as a fairy child must be true, as even the gourds she grew were different from anyone else’s.
Jiang Quan started to ponder how he could use his little cousin’s reputation to help his own business.
He had been planning to sell gourds in the market for a while, but recently other villagers also started selling their gourds. Therefore, the gourd business was not promising.
Perhaps he should use the Fairy Child’s name to exclusively sell Fairy Child Gourds. In this way, his gourds would certainly sell well..