Chapter 385: Incitement
Chapter 385: Chapter 385: Incitement
Nanny Pang ordered the servants to open the door. Gu Kaichen looked up and saw that it was just an old nanny. Disdaining to even acknowledge her, he continued to sit there and holler, "The Bai family are snobs who only care about wealth! Back when our Gu family was powerful and influential, they couldn’t wait to marry their legitimate daughter into our household. Now that we’ve fallen on hard times, they’re drawing a clear line between us...
"That good-for-nothing younger brother of mine, just for the sake of a comfortable life, has completely abandoned his parents and siblings..."
Nanny Pang watched his performance in silence. Seeing that he had finally run out of words, she asked coldly, "Are you done talking? If not, please continue.
"When you are finished, we can have a proper chat about how your Gu family tormented our young lady!
"Our son-in-law was nearly driven to his death by you all. It isn’t the Bai family’s fault that you ended up in this state.
"Who told your father to embezzle funds? It was His Majesty who decreed the punishment. If you have grievances, you can go to the government office down the street. What gives you the right to throw your weight around here?
"Did you rack up another massive debt at the gambling house? What’s the matter? Have you sold off everything in your house? Sold off your wife and children too? Have you come here to leech off us?"
Upon hearing this, the passersby—who had initially felt some sympathy and were swayed by his words—cast him sideways glances.
So, this drunken lout wasn’t just the son of a corrupt official, but also a degenerate gambler! Whatever little sympathy they had for him vanished without a trace, replaced by looks of pure disdain.
Gu Kaichen, who had only been pretending to be drunk, naturally realized that Nanny Pang had turned the crowd against him. "Don’t spout nonsense, and don’t falsely accuse me! If Bai Suihe wants to shake off our large family, she can just say so directly. Why stoop so low?"
"Falsely accuse you? Is your father not Gu Baijiang, who was recently exiled? Hundreds of thousands of taels in military provisions—they couldn’t have just vanished into thin air, could they?
"Think about those soldiers at the borders. Without those provisions, they had to march onto the battlefield and fight the enemy on empty stomachs. They are the sons of ordinary people! Are their lives not worth as much as your family’s wealth?"
The moment Nanny Pang said this, everyone was enraged.
Most of the people present were commoners. Even those with a bit of wealth had suffered under the government’s extortion.
"Those were taxes paid by the common people! Soldiers from commoner families put their lives on the line to protect our peace! Why should your Gu family’s actions force them to freeze and starve at the borders?"
Seeing the crowd thoroughly riled up, Nanny Pang added more fuel to the fire. Now, no one could hold back anymore.
They thought about how they scrimped and saved every year, only to have a large portion of their harvest taken away. They went through immense hardship to raise their sons, only to send them off to military service, where many families never saw them alive or found their corpses. How could their hearts not ache?
No one knew who threw the first stone at Gu Kaichen, but soon, a barrage of rocks followed.
Sensing the shift in the crowd’s mood, Nanny Pang had already retreated inside. The gatekeeper quickly shut the heavy front doors, and several servants pressed their ears against the wood to listen to the commotion outside.
Hearing the thud of stones pelting the door, the gatekeeper complained before Nanny Pang could even speak. "If they want to stone him, can’t they aim better? They’re hitting the door!"
Nanny Pang chuckled. "It’s fine. Our gates are sturdy. We’ll just have someone put on a fresh coat of paint later."
She had originally planned to give Gu Kaichen a taste of the new drug the young lady had developed, but on second thought, he simply wasn’t worth the effort. Borrowing the crowd’s fury was a far more satisfying revenge.
Outside, Gu Kaichen no longer cared about his wine jug, which had long since been smashed in the corner. He curled up into a ball and shielded his head with his arms. "Stop throwing! She’s spouting nonsense—"
He thought viciously, "Damn Bai Suihe, to think she has such a shrewd servant! Once I return to the capital, I’ll definitely have Father deal with the Bai family! I’ll have all these treacherous slaves sold off to illegal coal mines!"
However, he quickly lost the luxury to entertain such thoughts. The stones were raining down thicker and faster, forcing him to cower helplessly in the corner of the doorway.
Fortunately for him, the estate wasn’t far from the government office. The massive uproar soon attracted the constables. His pathetic life was saved, though he was left battered and bruised, without a single spot on his body unscathed.
Seeing the constables approach, the previously enthusiastic stone-throwers scattered in all directions. Faced with such a large crowd, the constables had no idea who to arrest. They could only cautiously approach the door. "Is he still alive?"
Realizing the painful barrage of stones had stopped and the clamor had died down, Gu Kaichen carefully raised his head. The moment he saw the constables, his tense nerves finally relaxed, and he fainted dead away on the ground.
"He’s still breathing," one constable said after checking his breath. "Who is this guy anyway? What kind of heinous crime did he commit?"
Stoning someone like this was tantamount to wanting them dead. Even death row inmates usually only got pelted with rotten vegetable leaves and stinky eggs.
"Take him to the clinic first," ordered Tian Zhuang, the leader of the constables. He glanced up at the plaque reading "Gu Residence" above the door. Given the enormous commotion outside and the tightly shut doors, the people inside were definitely involved.
However, since he frequently received bribes from Gu Kaiyuan, he wasn’t about to rashly knock on their door.
A few constables stepped forward and unceremoniously hauled the unconscious man away. Reeling from the stench of alcohol wafting off him, they were tempted to just drop him on the street.
They figured this drunken sot must have offended the public somehow, drawing their wrath and triggering a stoning.
Upon arriving at the clinic, they asked the doctor to give him some basic treatment—just enough to wake him up. As for fronting the medical fees, they wouldn’t even dream of it.
"These are the few copper coins we found on him." Thinking it over, Tian Zhuang figured he shouldn’t make things too difficult for the doctor. He had someone search the man, found only a handful of copper coins, and tossed them to the physician. "Just do what you can with this."
The doctor stared at the meager copper coins, feeling a headache coming on. His consultation fee alone was worth more than that.
However, facing a group of constables, he didn’t dare complain. Treating it as his good deed for the day, he took out his silver needles and administered a few punctures. He paid special attention to the Hegu acupoint, inflicting a sharp pain that made the unconscious Gu Kaichen jolt awake with a start. At the very least, the man was now lucid.
Seeing the doctor putting away his needles and the constables standing by, Gu Kaichen heaved a long sigh of relief. He had finally escaped.
"Officers, he’s awake," the doctor said, equally relieved. He didn’t want to get involved with a pauper who only had a few copper coins to his name, let alone one who might have committed some unknown crime.
Having said his piece, the doctor immediately stepped aside, hoping the constables would take the man away as quickly as possible.
"Who are you? Why were you attacked by so many people?" Tian Zhuang asked, though he actually had a vague impression of Gu Kaichen. After all, he had been in charge of processing the exiles back then.
"Officer, I want to report a crime!" Thinking of his recent ordeal and how he had nearly lost his life, Gu Kaichen began to sob aggrievedly. "WAAAH! Gu Kaiyuan had his servants incite the mob to stone me like this! I want to sue him! I demand he compensate me for my losses! I want him to pay for my medical treatment..."
"Are you aware that filing a false accusation is punishable by imprisonment?" Tian Zhuang warned. So it really did have something to do with Gu Kaiyuan. He shot a look at one of his subordinates, who quietly slipped out and bolted toward the Gu residence to deliver the news.