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Marriage of the Di Daughter Chapter 111 Part 3: Mute Grandmother
“One person?” Ye Ming Yu patted his chest, “No problem, I can easily grab a person.” Seeing Tong’er and Bai Xue staring at him, he scratched his head, “Last time, didn’t I personally capture Tong Zhi Yang’s outer room and his son? Up till now, Tong Zhi Yang has not discovered that I was the one who made the move.” He spoke with a bit of pride.
“Not to be taken away, there’s a huge possibility that this mute grandmother knows the whereabouts of the government officers at present.” Jiang Li said, “That’s why, must be very careful.”
Ye Ming Yu got up, “Don’t worry, uncle will handle it. When have I ever messed up your work?” He walked a few steps but suddenly turned around to ask, “But this mute grandmother, though she is called a mute grandmother, she’s not really mute right? If she was mute, how are you going to ask? Is she literate?”
“She’s not mute.” Jiang Li spoke from behind him, “she can speak.”
……
Ye Ming Yu left.
After Ye Ming Yu left, Jiang Li asked someone to get paper and ink and started to carefully draw a map for Ye Ming Yu. She knew Tongxiang better than anyone and she knew each and every place in Tongxiang. If there’s a place that she didn’t know, that was the current yamen that had changed beyond recognition. Feng Yu Tang had changed the government office into “his” office, thus it’s impossible for Jiang Li to know how much changes there were inside.
But she knew the rest of the places in Tongxiang like the back of her hand. Ye Ming Yu wanted to operate in Tongxiang, with this map, it’s like a tiger that had grown wings, no one could draw more detail than her.
After finishing the map, she looked at the files again and recorded any loopholes she found in the files. She’d take a look again later to see the probability of making these as evidence.
Unconsciously, time pa.s.sed very quickly. Bai Xue and Tong’er called Jiang Li to have a meal but she ignored it. The sky gradually turned dark, an oil lamp was lit inside the room. Only then did Jiang Li realize that it was already night time. She looked outside and asked while frowning, “Uncle has not returned?”
Bai Xue shook her head.
“He has gone for so long…..” Jiang Li muttered. As she was muttering, Ah Shun, the servant by Ye Ming Yu’s side, came over to report. “Miss cousin, the third master has returned, the mute grandmother is also brought back. Do you want to see her now?”
Jiang Li was overjoyed and said, “Just come.”
When she entered the room, she saw the mute grandmother in the middle of wolfing down her food, as if she had not eaten a good meal in a long time. Ye Ming Yu was sitting at the side, his legs stretched out while nibbling on a pastry. He saw Jiang Li’s arrival and as if taking credit, he said, “Ah Li, how? I’ve brought the person over and not a single person found out.” He continued, “Bah! Feng Yu Tang is truly wretched, calling someone to follow me. If it were not because I let someone disguised himself as me to draw him away, it’s still not known when this annoyance could be gotten rid of. The place where the mute grandmother lived is not monitored. However, just in case, I still waited until it got dark before bringing her over.”
Jiang Li looked at the mute grandmother.
The white haired grandmother swallowed the last mouthful of porridge before looking at Jiang Li.
Due to old age, the mute grandmother’s face had criss-crossed ravines, her eyelids hung low, she was hunchbacked with a pet.i.te stature. Precisely an elderly lady with one foot in the grave. Perhaps due to her work of pouring out the night incense, her body from head to foot emitted an unpleasant smell. Others could not wait to avoid her.
However, Jiang Li did not show repulse, she merely called out in a calm voice, “grandmother.”
The grandmother looked at Jiang Li for a while before abruptly opening her mouth, “Who are you?”
Ye Ming Yu was surprised. Along the way, when he took the elderly lady away, she never said a word from the start. Even the astonishment from being taken away only lasted for a moment. He heard that when people got old, they remained calm in any event. Ye Ming Yu only thought that this elderly lady had a slow reaction. Jiang Li said that the mute grandmother could speak, but Ye Ming Yu thought that it was just a joke. Who knew that the mute grandmother would really open her mouth to speak at this time. Though her voice was hoa.r.s.e, it was still pretty clear. He grumbled, “Really can talk.”
“My name is Jiang Li.” Jiang Li looked at her, smiled and said, “Grandmother, I came looking for you to ask for the whereabouts of deputy county Xue’s former subordinates.”
The grandmother said, “I don’t know.”
Jiang Li smiled, “How could you not know? Feng Yu Tang replaced all of Deputy County Xue’s people, only you alone were not replaced. He probably thought that you would not ruin things. But I know that you know, correct?”
The grandmother said, “I know, but I cannot say. If I say it, I’ll lose my life.”
“Don’t you want to avenge Deputy County Xue?” Jiang Li laughed, “Deputy County Xue is a good person.” There’s another sentence that she did not say out loud, that Xue Huai Yuan had once helped the mute grandmother.
The mute grandmother was originally a widow. Her husband died young, they had no children and she did not remarry. Due to her ugly appearance, in addition to her single status, she was often bullied. When Xue Huai Yuan took office, the mute grandmother was already a humble and ugly old lady that kept being bullied by people.
She often collected other people’s leftover food to eat, yet unwilling to beg on the street and frequently went either hungry or full. Xue Huai Yuan had pity for her as an elderly woman and let her stay in the yamen as someone who poured the night incense. She could have some monthly money every month, so it’s not a problem for her to dress warmly and eat her fill.
If not for Xue Huai Yuan, afraid the mute grandmother already froze to death on a winter’s day much earlier. And the mute grandmother’s muteness was due to her suffering from other people’s bullying all year round, thus she gradually was unwilling to talk and other people thought that she could not speak. But Jiang Li knew that the mute grandmother could speak because there was a time when Xue Zhao gave the wild fruits he picked himself to the grandmother and she overheard the mute grandmother thank Xue Zhao.
Feng Yu Tang replaced all the people in the yamen , but did not replace the mute grandmother probably because he felt that the mute grandmother was just a night incense pourer and was useless. In addition, the grandmother was a mute, even if she could see and hear, she could not speak.
But the moment Jiang Li saw the mute grandmother in the yamen today, in an instant she knew that her chance had arrived.
The grandmother looked at Jiang Li blankly, making her feel like she was looking at a phony. She said vaguely, “Why should I believe you?”
“It’s not believing in me.” Jiang Li said softly, “this is believing in justice and righteousness.”
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