Chapter 236

Chapter 236: Lawless

Duke Qi did not truly want to earn any blessings. He simply wanted to see Sheng Zhi Wan embarrassed.

Now that he had gotten what he wanted, Duke Qi waved his hand, turned around, and went into the Duke Residence.

The Steward went blank.

The other household guards who were still tossing out coins also froze.

The commoner stared at them like wolves, as if they wanted to swallow them whole.

The Steward shouted, “That’s it, everyone. There really wasn’t a single copper coin left. Go home…”

After shouting, the Steward hurried after Duke Qi and entered the residence.

The guards did not stay outside either.

The Duke Residence gates slammed shut with a bang.

Many commoner had come from far away just to pick up coins, and they refused to accept it.

Those in the back who had not gotten anything felt wronged, and those in the front who had gotten some still wanted more.

With all kinds of riffraff mixed in, plenty of thugs stirred things up.

In a rush, everyone surged toward the Duke Residence gates.

The gates were pounded until they rattled.

Cold sweat covered the Steward’s head as he rushed to ask Duke Qi what to do.

Duke Qi was in high spirits and was about to write a letter to send to Mo Bei.

When he heard the Steward’s report, Duke Qi said impatiently, “My son is fighting for his life in Mo Bei, and they dare to crash into the Duke Residence here. If they aren’t afraid to die, let them break in. When they do, tie them all up and hand them over to the authorities.”

“Yes,” the Steward said.

The Steward went out and shouted through the closed gates, trying to reason with them.

But the commoner clung to their luck. They saw that the guards only stood outside, and they still believed they might get more.

The Steward grew angry and directly ordered the gate opened.

A dozen household guards, fierce as demons, held clubs and blades as they blocked the front.

The commoner in the first row remembered what had just been said and suddenly grew afraid. They did not dare to move forward.

But if the front did not move, the people behind still shoved forward.

In almost an instant, the first layer of people was pushed down by the crowd behind them.

“Ah-ah-ah – my leg!”

“Don’t step on me!”

“Help…!”

“Help-”

The shrill cries were completely swallowed by the press of bodies.

By the time someone noticed what was happening in front and tried to stop, it was already too late.

One layer pushed another. Screams rose again and again.

Duke Qi had only been thinking about how to steal the crowd’s attention and make Sheng Zhi Wan lose face.

Duke Qi never thought about what would happen when the commoner he had lured over failed to get the benefit they expected.

The Steward and the household guards could not stop the surge.

When patrolling soldiers finally discovered the disaster and forced the crowd under control, dozens had already been trampled and injured.

The worst was an old woman.

Her hair was white. Both her legs had been crushed and broken.

She lay limp on the ground with her eyes shut, and no one knew whether she was dead or alive.

“Mother – Mother, what’s wrong? Don’t scare Gou Dan!”

A thin, ragged-haired boy stumbled to the front.

When he saw the old woman on the ground, tears and snot poured down together.

The boy had no real name, only a cheap one.

He had grown up relying on his mother, the two of them clinging to each other.

That morning, he had heard that Princess Qing Ning was receiving betrothal gifts, and he thought there would be wedding pastries.

The mother and son woke up early.

Gou Dan kept thinking about the soft, warm pastries.

He waited and waited, but then his mother said they should go pick up reward money.

If they got reward money, he could eat meat today.

Meat.

Gou Dan thought about the one meal of meat he had eaten long, long ago, trying to remember how good it had tasted.

But before he could even bring the flavor back to mind, his mother had already fallen to the ground.

“Mother!”

Gou Dan threw himself over the old woman’s body.

The Duke Residence was huge, and Duke Qi’s study was in the back.

He could not hear the chaos in front at all.

Because of that, Duke Qi only learned what had happened after he finished writing his letter.

When he saw a crowd of constables at his gates and heard the wailing, the smile on his face fell at once.

“Outrageous!” Duke Qi shouted.

“My son Shu Xian is out there protecting the country, risking his life again and again. I kindly shared the gold and silver His Majesty rewarded me with, and these greedy people still tried to force their way into the Duke Residence. Open robbery, in broad daylight!”

“This is lawless!”

“They brought it on themselves!”

Duke Qi barked out his scolding.

He could not even be bothered to look closer.

He directly ordered the people lying on the ground and crying to be thrown out.

The constables present all knew that Qi Shu Xian had just won a great victory.

The Duke Residence was in the height of imperial favor, and with Duke Qi acting like this, there was little they could do.

Still, it was hard to watch.

One constable forced a smiling face and said, “Duke Lord, these commoner are greedy, but they’re also driven by hardship. These injured people were hurt at your gates. You see…”

Duke Qi did not even glance at him. He only snorted and turned away.

The household guards threw the injured people out.

One constable could not bear it and helped Gou Dan carry the old woman outside.

The old woman barely managed to open her eyes.

Her lips moved, but she could not speak.

Someone urged Gou Dan to hurry and take his mother to a clinic.

Gou Dan wiped his tears and carried his mother on his back.

But not long after, he wandered back out, dazed and hollow.

He had no money.

The physician said the injury was severe. To save her would take a great deal of money.

If she could not be treated, she would die.

Gou Dan was not very bright, but he still understood one thing.

He did not want his mother to die.

He carried her on his back and sobbed until his whole body shook.

In the end, no one knew who gave him the idea, but Gou Dan actually knelt outside the Duke Residence gates.

When Duke Qi heard, he flew into a rage.

Those wretched commoner were truly lawless. Did they think they could use this to extort the Duke Residence?

He ordered the Steward to drive him away.

But Gou Dan was stubborn.

Even when a stick prodded him, he only shifted to another spot and knelt again, still facing the Duke Residence.

The Steward had no choice but to go ask for instructions again.

At the time, Duke Qi was in Concubine Tao’s courtyard.

What Rui’er had said before was wrong. How could Lady Tao’s child be here to collect a debt?

This child had clearly brought good luck to the Duke Residence.

The child was already almost five months along. Concubine Tao had begun to show, and Duke Qi was rubbing her belly, feeling for movement.

When the Steward came again with another report, Duke Qi was so annoyed he could barely stand it.

“If you can’t even handle this, then the Steward of the Duke Residence might as well be someone else,” Duke Qi snapped.

“Get out!”

The Steward left, scolded and humiliated.

At the front, the Steward could not be bothered to play nice with Gou Dan anymore.

He directly ordered men to drag Gou Dan into the residence.

As the gates shut, the Steward personally grabbed a club.

Thud, thud, thud.

The sound of blows mixed with the idiot boy’s crying and screaming.

The old woman, who had been forcing herself to endure, crawled to the gate outside.

Her legs were broken. She could only use one hand to prop up her upper body as she slapped the gate.

A long smear of blood dragged behind her.

Plenty of people wanted to crowd closer and watch, but the household guards glared fiercely, forcing them to back away again.

“Let him go… Let Gou Dan go…”

“I won’t be treated anymore. Just… let my Gou Dan go…”

The old woman’s pleas sounded like blood-soaked sobs.

But her voice was too small, or else the people inside did not care at all.

The club fell again and again.

The old woman turned and begged the household guards watching her, tears and blood mixing as they dripped onto the ground.

The guards looked away.

The old woman had no choice.

Listening to her son’s miserable screams, her eyes filled with hatred and endless grief.

She clenched her teeth.

Then she slammed her head straight into the ground.