Chapter 231: Chen Minggang's Domestic Troubles

“Master, you have to go see, a fight has broken out!” Zhou Qi urged him repeatedly.

A fight had broken out. He didn’t even have to think to know his darling was suffering at his wife’s hands. The thought of his little beauty’s tender skin under his wife’s heavy fists made Chen Minggang’s heart ache. He raised his hand and slapped Zhou Qi across the face.

Caught completely off guard, Zhou Qi took the full force of the slap and nearly fell over. He clutched his face, not daring to make a sound.

“What do I pay you for? A few men can’t stop one woman?”

Although Zhang-shi was a formidable fighter, Chen Minggang had stationed four or five men around the outer residence. They should have been able to hold her off long enough for Qiuhong to escape.

“It’s not that we didn’t try to stop her, but Fifth Master came too, we didn’t dare…”

“Fifth Master” was Zhang-shi’s brother, who worked in the fast-response squad. Although Zhang Wu wasn’t the squad leader, with a brother who was a clerk in the Justice Office, he was extremely arrogant. Even the squad leader had to give him some leeway, let alone someone like Zhou Qi, who was just an unofficial hanger-on.

“Let’s go!” Chen Minggang panicked and hurried out of the teahouse with his apprentice.

Before they had even left the city, they saw a commotion at the city gate. A large crowd was approaching. Chen Minggang looked closer and groaned inwardly. He saw his wife, Zhang-shi, with the hem of her skirt tucked into her belt, her hair disheveled, and a laundry mallet as thick as a child’s arm in her hand. Behind her were several other women of various shapes and sizes, each armed with a club or a feather duster. They looked as ferocious and imposing as the county magistrate holding court.

In the middle of the crowd, being dragged along by several sturdy women, stumbling, was his own “little sweetheart,” Qiuhong. The little beauty’s face was covered in grime, likely from being thrown to the ground and dragged. Her skin was broken, and the dust mixed with bloodstains made a mess of her face. Her hair was pulled into disarray. She was barefoot—as a former prostitute, Qiuhong had bound feet. A woman with bound feet could hardly walk without her shoes, and she was being hauled along.

Chen Minggang’s heart ached at the sight. He was about to explode, to rush forward and slap his wife several times, but on the edge of the crowd, his brother-in-law, Zhang Wu, stood with a few other yamen runners, clearly acting as his sister’s escort. The idlers of the county, seeing the scene, had all come out to watch and jeer.

Chen Minggang seethed with anger. This kind of incident was a public humiliation! What good would it do their family if this blew up? But Chen Minggang knew his brother-in-law was just as much of a blockhead as his wife. Talking sense to him would be like playing a lute to a cow. Intervening now would only escalate the situation and make him more of a laughingstock.

He swallowed his anger, turned back to a street corner, and ordered Zhou Qi to go to the yamen and find the head of the fast-response squad to disperse the crowd. He himself went directly to the home of his other brother-in-law, Zhang Shi, to demand an explanation.

Unexpectedly, this brother-in-law was just as unhelpful. He had long tolerated his brother-in-law’s philandering. Although he felt his brother and sister had gone too far this time, he also wanted to see his brother-in-law embarrassed. Not only did he refuse to help, but he also made sarcastic remarks: “My brother and sister have indeed gone a bit too far. But brother-in-law, you should also consider whether your own footing is firm in this matter.”

“A man can have three wives and four concubines. What’s wrong with me taking a concubine? What do you mean my footing isn’t firm?” Chen Minggang retorted angrily.

“Let me give you a piece of advice, brother-in-law. You’re over fifty now. You should focus more on your official duties and leave a legacy for your sons and grandsons. You should cultivate my nephews properly so they can take your place in the future, instead of messing around with cheap whores all day! Be careful you don’t catch syphilis!”

This family was truly full of strong-willed characters. Chen Minggang was so angry he could have coughed up blood. Knowing it was useless to argue, he sneered:

“In this Lingao county, it’s always your family that’s right. But with your sister making such a scene, how can I hold my head up in front of the magistrate and the advisor? What will the gentry and commoners of the county think of me? It’s not just slapping our own faces, but doing it for all to see. If I lose face, doesn’t your family lose face? Don’t your nephews lose face?” He pointed at his own nose. “For us yamen runners, the first thing is ‘face’. Now that I’ve been publicly humiliated, how can I do my job in the future?”

This argument had some effect. Zhang Shi considered it. Making such a public scene was indeed improper. He had no choice but to take his own wife and go clean up the mess. Chen Minggang, anticipating another round of arguments at home and a tearful scene at Qiuhong’s, decided to simply sleep at the yamen. But a question lingered in his mind: how did his secret affair with Qiuhong, which he had kept so carefully, get leaked?

Zhou Qi and the few men stationed outside Qiuhong’s house were his trusted underlings, reliable and tight-lipped. Although Zhang Wu was a runner in the fast-response squad, he was a hothead, just like his sister. The squad leader, Fu He, didn’t favor him, only tolerating his misdeeds out of courtesy. He was never assigned to cases and had few friends in the squad, only a few hangers-on who flattered him.

Fu He and his men would never offend him for Zhang Wu’s sake, nor would they help him dig up information on Qiuhong. Even if they knew, they wouldn’t tell him—there was no need.

He summoned Zhou Qi and questioned him in detail about the past few days. Zhou Qi, though called an apprentice, was over thirty and had been with Chen Minggang for more than a decade. Chen Minggang was a lecher, but Zhou Qi was admirably proper and never gave his master’s women a second glance, which earned him great trust.

Zhou Qi reported that they had been monitoring the area in shifts, disguised as street vendors, and had not seen any suspicious people coming or going or asking questions. He then brought in the old couple who lived with Qiuhong for questioning. This couple served as Qiuhong’s servants and also as her guardians.

The couple, already beaten black and blue, came in crying and complaining, but he couldn’t get any useful information out of them. Chen Minggang had to give them some silver, tell them to clean up, take care of Qiuhong, and let her rest. He would visit her the next day.

Although it was a confusing mess, Chen Minggang’s anger had not subsided. He immediately sent men to secretly detain the hangers-on who had been with Zhang Wu, lock them in a country house, and torture them for information: who had passed the news to Zhang Wu?

Though he was a clerk from the Household Office, Chen Minggang knew a thing or two about interrogation. He had the men beaten half to death, and they quickly confessed.

It turned out that Zhang Wu had heard the rumor two days ago while drinking tea at the East Gate Market. The story was told with great detail. Zhang Wu sent someone to investigate, and when they saw Zhou Qi and a few of Chen Minggang’s other confidants in the area, he was convinced. This led to today’s drama with the army of wives.

The news had come from the East Gate Market. This surprised Chen Minggang, but on second thought, it made sense. The businesses in the old county town were deserted now; many people had shifted their spending to the East Gate Market. If there was a place where news traveled fast, that was it.

“What was Zhang Wu doing at the East Gate Market?” Chen Minggang pressed.

“I heard, I heard,” said one of the bruised and swollen men, “that the East Gate Market has many merchants, but they’ve never paid the customary fees. Fifth Master Zhang felt he couldn’t let them break the rules and leave the brothers with no money, so he went to check out the situation…”

Chen Minggang thought to himself, this Zhang Wu is really a man who values money over his life! Are these Australians easy to deal with? He really dares to stick his hand into a pot of boiling oil to fish for money! It seemed he needed to distance himself from him immediately. When the Australians got angry, entire families could be wiped out! The thought of the Gou brothers’ fate sent a chill down his spine, and he began to have serious doubts about his plan to use the Australians.

While this farce was unfolding in the county, the observation post on the watchtower outside the West Gate had a clear view. The sentry was a local, but the transmigrators had already taught him to log all important events he saw each day.

After his shift, the logbook was sent to the intelligence department for analysis. When Zhou Botao received the report, a slight smile touched his lips.

Zhou Botao was a retired soldier. His childhood dream had been to be a great detective, so after leaving the army, he had worked as an auxiliary police officer for a few years. Seeing little future in it, he switched to an investigation company—which was just a fancy name for a private detective agency.

However, the work of a private detective had nothing to do with criminal investigation. His main tasks were to gather information, tail people, and take secret photos. After a few years, he had become quite good at it. Joining the transmigration was a complete accident—he had been hired by Chang Shide’s wife to catch the “philandering radish” in the act. When he discovered that Chang Shide was involved in some “transmigration company,” he decided to join as well.

In the new world, as a retired soldier, he was originally slated to be an officer in the new army. But Zhou Botao had no interest in playing soldier again and volunteered for the security team. After a system reorganization, he became the head of the Political Security Directorate’s action department.

Of course, the information about where Qiuhong lived had been deliberately leaked by his men. His action department now had a dozen plainclothes agents, and spreading information was one of their main jobs. When necessary, they could also carry out kidnappings and arrests.

The order had come directly from Ran Yao. Ran Yao’s intention was clear: since their next target was Chen Minggang, and they had plenty of dirt on him, they might as well release some to disrupt his composure. The Political Security Directorate knew all about Chen Minggang’s domestic affairs. Sure enough, as soon as the news was out, chaos erupted.

“Chen Minggang, that old fox, has a fire in his backyard. I wonder if he’s lost his composure,” Zhou Botao muttered to himself, reporting the situation directly to Ran Yao.

“Should we add more fuel to the fire? Make it burn a little brighter,” he requested.

“Do we have more black material to use?”