Palace Fighting Naive Concubines’ Ascent to Power
Chapter 626 Feeding Time

Chapter 626: Chapter 626 Feeding Time

Guo Shun had gone to inquire, and the apprentice at the pharmacy said there was a notorious bandit who had escaped with serious injuries, and the government was offering reward silver to anyone who reported someone purchasing antiseptic medicine for treating wounds without a clear origin.

Besides that, the apprentice also produced two portraits, saying anyone who spotted the people in the portraits could get a hefty reward.

He laughed mockingly, he had actually been reduced to a notorious bandit. How ridiculous.

What goes around comes around, he thought. Those very methods he used to frame that remaining member of a family were now being used against him.

In the dimness, he dozed off and woke up again and again, not knowing how much time had passed, whether it was two days, three days, or perhaps five days—he couldn’t tell. His wounds weren’t properly treated, and some had even begun to fester.

The news from outside was all gleaned by Guo Shun’s inquiries and the conversations heard when the farmer in the pigpen fed the pigs.

He knew of several major incidents happening in the Capital now. One concerned the Guo family, which was entirely raided, and to save their own lives, the members of the Guo family scrambled to betray him, turning him into an unforgivable villain and providing his portrait.

Fortunately, he had sent his mother and wife and children away early, which was the most correct thing he had done.

He also knew that his uncle not only did nothing to save him or the Guo family but had also completely dissociated himself and even added insult to injury.

Don’t think that he couldn’t guess who was behind the disguises. The places where he could have sought refuge were destroyed, and the ambush that Guo Shun encountered—without his uncle’s plotting, his head might as well be twisted off to serve as his uncle’s plaything.

Ha, this was to kill a witness, to erase him and then clear those locales and traces, so that the things he had done in betrayal would forever be buried. What a beautiful plan.

Of course, his beloved uncle was not having an easy time either—that was the second major event in the Capital. His uncle had become the rat that everyone in Capital City wanted to hit, reviled by the populace as a great traitor and demanded by the people of the Capital to be punished. His troubles were not few.

It truly delighted his heart!

Thinking of this, Guo Neng’s expression was filled with the utmost scorn.

It must be time to feed the pigs again, for sounds came from the pigpen above, the noise of several fat pigs getting up and rolling around at the familiar presence, followed by a series of grunting and squealing demands for food.

Someone was approaching from afar.

An auntie’s voice came, thick with a regional accent, "Elder Sister-in-law, your pigs are quite something, look at them, some weighing over two hundred catties. When you sell them during New Year, you can buy Er Ya two yards of red cloth and find a good man for her."

The one addressed as Elder Sister-in-law said with joy, "Tsk, we’re just relying on these few pigs to get by this year. All I do is dabble in trifles. Elder Sister Wu, it’s your man who’s the accomplished one, selling vinegar to the big restaurants now, brewing vinegar at home and making big money. Your nephew has found a good master, and you’re thriving. Who here doesn’t envy you?"

As she spoke, her hands didn’t stop working, steadily pouring pig feed into the trough. In an instant, there came the sounds of several fat pigs rushing to eat, feasting with relish.

Old Lady Wu immediately burst into joyous laughter. After exchanging a few polite words, the two women engaged in an endless chatter.

Old Lady Wu asked, "Where’s Er Ya gone off to, not seeing her around?"

Mentioning this, Elder Sister-in-law seemed annoyed, and said fiercely, "That girl, never at home, claiming she’s off to see the Top Scholar’s calligraphy, apparently, he wrote an essay titled ’Public Opinion’ and posted it outside the Yamen, drawing lots of onlookers."

As she spoke, her irritation seemed to rise; she threw her pig-feeding ladle into the bucket with a bang, exclaiming in frustration, "I just don’t understand what’s so appealing about it. She can’t even read! That’s something for the literate to enjoy. She doesn’t care for the pigs or tidy up the house, just all day holding a portrait of the Top Scholar acting foolish, fantasizing about marrying someone like that. Doesn’t she look in the mirror? With her lazy bones, how could she ever match the Top Scholar? He’s godly handsome, studious and praised by both commoners and scholars. We’re not even worthy to carry his shoes."

"Oh, Elder Sister-in-law, don’t be angry, don’t be angry, which young lady doesn’t love to dream? She’s still young, teach her slowly, don’t rush."

Old Lady Wu consoled her, then seemed to become interested and asked in a mystic and eager tone, "Elder Sister-in-law, the Top Scholar you mentioned, is he the Jieyuan Gong from Shanxi Taiyuan Prefecture?"

Upon hearing this, Guo Neng closed his eyes and laughed at himself derisively.

The Taiyuan Prefecture Jieyuan Lian Mu, who had been suspected of being an escapee, once rose through the ranks, acclaimed by peasants and scholars, and seemed to have an unlimited future. Yet, here he was, a fugitive hiding beneath a pigsty, barely clinging to life.

When he first hid here, the stench made him nauseous, but now he had gradually become accustomed to it.

Humans truly demean themselves. He was never satisfied with his former lavish lifestyle, and now, if he could just bathe once, wash away the sticky filth from his body, he would feel it was a great fortune. Alas, even this was but a vain wish.

He had never paid attention to these commoners before. He never dreamt that he would find the idle talk of farmwives so engrossing.

While Guo Shun was running about daily, trying to carve out a path for survival, he hid each day in this sunless place, inundated by darkness, boredom, tedium, restlessness, fear, and rage that washed over him like waves. At times, in his drowsiness, he even thought he was dead.

Thank goodness for the fat pigs above, for the presence of this farming household, and for hearing human voices.

What he looked forward to most now was the moment the farmwife fed the pigs. Hearing a few sentences of her family chatter, with its down-to-earth quality, made him feel he was still among the living.

If he, Guo Neng, could make a comeback, he was resolved to give some money to this household, so they could live as a cut above the rest. Not for anything else, but because he could still hold on without losing his sanity, thanks to this farming family.

In a haze, as if dreaming yet not dreaming, he faintly heard whispers above:

"...Talented Lian, handsome and kind of heart, he clearly looks like someone who’d show tenderness. It’s a pity, though, he’s slightly lame, but that’s not a big deal. If my family had a daughter, we’d want her to marry him..."

"Elder Sister Wu, how do you know all this? That’s the Top Scholar, you talk as if you know him personally..."

"How could I not? On the way to the Capital, our old ox got stuck in the mud, and it was Talented Lian who helped us pull it out. We then invited him and his Attendant Student to our ox cart for a ride to the Capital, all the way there."

"For real?!"

"Of course, it’s true. My old man and I even promised him, when our first batch of vinegar was ready, to save him a jug. That jug of vinegar is still waiting for him to come and collect..."

Guo Neng drifted off into a deep sleep after an indeterminate amount of time.

Just before falling asleep, he was thinking about the talk of another big event that had just occurred in the Capital. The examination papers from the retest at Shanxue Square in Taiyuan Prefecture had been published. The paper, titled ’Public Opinion’, was said to have shocked the entire literary world. The Capital was in an uproar, and soon, he feared, every scholar across the land would be ablaze with excitement...