The Gu family was in a sea of fire.
A dozen people from the surrounding villages came over to put out the fire, but it was so big that countless buckets of water poured down on it, but it couldn’t make any difference.
The fire was raging, reflecting the panicked faces of the people.
Grandma Song’s eyes were red as she hugged Song Wangyue, not daring to let go of her hand.
They were awakened by Daya’s knocking on the door and came out to see the roaring fire and could not believe their eyes at the time.
Song Wangyue closed her eyes and the words that came out were very calm, “Grandma, I’m fine.”
Grandma Song couldn’t help but fall into tears, “Yue’er, grandma knows it’s hard for you inside, just cry out and cry out.”
“Gu Yi wouldn’t want me to cry.”
Grandma Song sniffed and her tears fell even faster.
……
County Hall
For some reason, the third prince was very uneasy in his heart, he walked around the house and looked outside from time to time, “Someone, give me ……”
The words left his mouth before he remembered that all the guards had been sent out by him, so he opened the door and came out, wanting to go to the Duke of Qi, when he looked up and saw the fire in the distance, his heart sank violently, “Grandfather! Come out quickly!”
The Duke of Qi, also unable to sleep, heard his shout and quickly came out of the house, saw the firelight in the distance and narrowed his eyes.
“Grandfather ……”
The third prince was a little alarmed.
The Duke of Qi was calm, “Calm down a little, it’s not too late to have Qingping County send someone to check it out.”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
The third prince trotted off to smash the door of the county governor’s courtyard.
The County Magistrate had just fallen asleep when he suddenly heard this urgent knocking on the door, he almost fell off the bed, he didn’t even have time to put on his outer clothes, he just finally ran out to open the door, before he could see who was outside the door, he heard the Third Prince’s panicked voice, “Quickly send someone to investigate, what is the place on fire?”
The magistrate then saw the fire in the distance and was horrified, hurriedly shouting for someone to check, the magistrate spurred his horse out of the city and came back half an hour to report, “It’s the Gu family.”
The third prince lost his composure and fell to the ground.
……
The fire continued to burn until dawn, when it gradually died out.
The whole Gu family was burnt to ruins.
Only then did Grandma Song let go of Song Wangyue.
When Song Wan Yue lifted her feet and walked inside, Grandma Song subconsciously reached out to pull her, but was stopped by Elder Song.
Last night, in the rush to put out the fire, Master Song’s beard and hair were all burnt and scorched.
Song Wan Yue walked inside along the unburnt passage, and behind her several villagers from the nearby village who were putting out the fire looked at her.
Watching her, she came to a stop at a burnt and most charred area.
“That’s the courtyard where Young Master Gu lives.”
Daya choked out.
Grandma Song fell into tears again.
Song Wangyue leaned down and picked through the rubble for something.
Grandma Song and Master Song went over quickly.
Song Shu and Liu Cui Lan followed them over.
Song Shen also followed.
Daya also followed.
Song Ming’s daughter-in-law pulled Song Ming with her and also followed her.
The village chief also followed.
The villagers of Song’s village also followed.
The rest of the few village people who helped put out the fire also followed.
The crowd found several charred bones in a field of rubble.
Song Wangyue clutched them tightly in her arms as her gaze swept over the faces of the villagers who had put out the fire, “I’ll take note of everyone’s kindness today, and I’ll repay you all in the future.”
The crowd was saddened to hear this.
She was only a nine-year-old girl who had been pestered by the young master of the Gu family to get engaged. Now that the Gu family had been hit by such a disaster, I was afraid that she would have a reputation of being a bad husband, and it would be difficult for her to get married again.
The village head of the Gu family village led the way, “It’s all due, Miss Song needn’t take it to heart.”
When the fire started, he had the village people stop the fire from spreading to their village.
“Yes, it’s all as it should be.”
The crowd echoed.
“I’d like to trouble everyone with one more thing.”
The crowd responded, “Go ahead.”
Song Wangyue pointed to the ruins that could not be seen at a glance, “Please help me find them again, each one found is put together in a single place.”
The crowd scattered to find them.
Song Shu took off his shirt and unfolded it in his hands.
“Thank you, Second Uncle.”
Song Wangyue wrapped the bones on top and held them in her arms once again.
Li Cuilan turned around and wiped her tears.
It took an hour to find the whole ruin, and the group put all the bones they found on the passage.
Song Wangyue gave a deep bow to all of them.
“Second Brother.”
Song Shen choked back a sob in response.
“Give a hundred wen each as a thank-you gift.”
“No need ……”
As soon as her words left her mouth, the village chief of Gu’s village waved his hand, “It’s all done as it should be, we can’t take this money.”
“Yeah, can’t take it.”
The rest of the people echoed.
“All of you take it ……”, the village head of Song spoke, “This is a piece of the Moon girl’s heart, if there is any use for all of you in the future, please come out and help.”
Song Wan Yue gave a bow to the village chief, “Grandpa village chief, please have someone put all these bones on the cattle car, I want to go to the county town to sue.”
“Don’t worry.”
The village chief ordered the village people to put the bones in his and the Song family’s cattle cars, and he and Song drove them separately, with Song Wan Yue following behind, holding “Gu Yi”, and the rest of the Song family also following.
When the village chief of the Gu family saw that he could not bear it, he asked the people in the village who had ox carts to drive them over and let the Song family get on them.
The whole group headed for the county town in great numbers.
The bullock cart was not covered and attracted countless people to look at it along the way, with some curious ones even following behind.
When they arrived at the city gates, the soldiers on guard saw two carts full of burnt bones and immediately thought of the fire last night and did not dare to stop them.
The carts came to a halt at the entrance of the county office.
Without waiting for Song Wangyue and the others to get down, Song Shu walked straight over and banged the drum of injustice.
Dang! Dang! Dang!
One by one, like muffled thunder, struck the hearts of the Third Prince and the Duke of Qi inside the county courthouse.
None of the men sent last night had returned, and the Third Prince and the Duke of Qi were so frightened that they asked the County Magistrate to call all the magistrates over to protect them until it was about to dawn, when they breathed a small sigh of relief and were discussing what to do afterwards.
The county eunuch stood in front of the two men, his body in a cold sweat, and when he heard the drums, his body couldn’t help but shake, “Guo, Your Highness ……”
The Duke of Qi tried his best to remain calm, “Pay no attention to it, besides, immediately send someone to prepare a carriage for us and send us back to the capital.”
Outside the county courthouse, the drums of injustice had been sounding for half a day, but no magistrate came out to open the door.
There was a lot of discussion among the onlookers.
Two carriages quietly made their way out from the back door of the county office and were about to head in the direction of the city gate when the Duke of Qi inside the carriage suddenly clutched his head, “Ah ……”
People heard the movement, froze for a moment, and ran towards the back door.
The Duke of Qi was rolling around inside the carriage in pain.
The third prince shouted in panic for the imperial doctor.
The two imperial doctors hurriedly got down from the carriage they were riding in and had just reached this side to lift the curtain when a mouthful of blood spurted out from the Duke of Qi, followed by his body going limp.
Imperial Doctor Zheng reached out his finger and put it on Duke Qi’s pulse in shock, and after a long time, he shook his body and looked at the Third Prince, “The Duke is dead, dead!”