The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Outside the Huyou Township, there is a village with 30 or 40 households. Because it is close to the warehouse, it is called "Ku Shang Li". In a poor alley in the left lane of Ku Shang Li, there is a shabby family with broken jars as windows and straw mats as doors. Early this morning, an angry voice came from the door.

"That shrew was obviously too mean, so I drove her away. What about stealing my sister-in-law? There is nothing at all. I don't know which rotten tongue made up such nonsense. How big a grudge must she have? She wants to ruin my brother's reputation completely!"

Chen Bo is 34 or 35 years old. Although he is tall, he has been working hard in the fields for many years, and his waist has been bent early. His face is tanned and his forehead is covered with wrinkles.

Today, he went out to work early in the morning and heard rumors outside slandering his brother. He was an impulsive person. He was so angry that he trembled. He argued with those gossipers and almost had a fight. Finally, Chen Ping persuaded him to go home.

"Everything started because of me. I am incompetent and dragged my brother and sister-in-law down."

Chen Ping, who was only 18 years old, was different from his brother. Even though he was wearing rough linen clothes, he could not hide his tall figure. He had a handsome face and looked like a jade. Although he was a little thin, because his brother gave him all the good things first and never let him go hungry for so many years, he did not look like a child from a poor family at all, and had a more elegant temperament of a scholar.

Although he studied the art of Huang and Lao, it was not the mainstream in Yangwu County.

"Don't blame you, don't blame you, it's my fault for marrying an unvirtuous wife."

Chen Bo was so angry that his stomach hurt. He sat on the couch covered with wheat straw and gasped. His old illness came back again. Years of overloaded labor were very harmful to the human body.

Despite this, Uncle Chen still held on, carrying the wooden pot for weeding, and said to Chen Ping: "My brother is a man who wants to do great things, and he can't be distracted by such vulgar gossip. I will go to the fields to check. This year's clothes and food depend on the summer harvest, so we can't relax now."

After watching his brother go out, Chen Ping looked back at his empty home and sighed.

The whole house is just three earthen houses with thatched roofs and a small courtyard surrounded by a broken fence. Walking into the largest main house, I saw that the ground inside was full of potholes, a long-cooled earthen stove, and the walls were blackened by the smoke of firewood. Apart from this, there was nothing else, and the house was really bare.

Next to the main house is the place where Chen Ping sleeps. It is even narrower and can only accommodate a straw-covered mat. Fortunately, the windows here are opened wide, and the light is excellent. The sun shines in from the broken jar and shines on the loose bamboo roll on the couch...

This reminds Chen Ping of the past.

Chen Ping's parents have passed away, so Chen Ping has lived with his eldest brother Chen Bo since he was a child and was raised by Chen Bo. The relationship between the two is more like father and son than brothers.

Chen Bo is a kind and filial person. He always thinks that his parents died early, leaving only Chen Ping as a younger brother. The eldest brother is like a father, and everything for his younger brother should be borne by himself. He didn't want his younger brother to suffer, and unlike other poor families, he didn't ask Chen Ping to go to the fields to help early, but indulged Chen Ping, letting his nature take its course.

Chen Ping didn't like working since he was a child. He loved making friends and reading. Although he was worried that this was not a career that the poor people in Luzuo could afford, Chen Bo would rather suffer a little and support his brother's ideals. He gritted his teeth and relied on cultivating 30 acres of thin land to maintain everything and funded Chen Ping to study in the neighboring county. Chen Bo felt that his brother was different from him and was destined to be extraordinary in the future. How could he be buried in the mud and manure?

So on weekdays, when his brother worked in the fields and his sister-in-law wove cloth and cooked, Chen Ping only needed to read books here in the light.

But now that a series of things have happened, how can he read a single word?

Many years later, the cunning conspirator is still an 18-year-old youth who has not experienced too many twists and turns.

He has the figure of a rough jade, but has not yet been carved by the years.

After calculating the time and confirming that his brother had reached the edge of the field, Chen Ping came to the yard, picked up the hemp rope for bundling firewood, and walked out of the house silently.

In the past, these tasks were done by his sister-in-law. Now that his sister-in-law was driven away by his brother, Chen Ping had to do the firewood and cooking. He couldn't let his brother come back tired and face the cold stove without even a bowl of hot rice.

Yes, Chen Ping's ambitions were high, and he was unwilling to live a hard life in the countryside day after day. He longed to be like Taigong Wang, who was praised by Huang Lao, and get rid of poverty one day, meet a wise leader, and be the ruler of a county or even a country!

But no matter how high his ambitions were, he still had a sincere conscience!

At least, he had to do so for his loved ones who raised him.

...

As Chen Ping walked out of the neighborhood, a group of young country girls were washing clothes by the ditch outside the neighborhood gate. When they saw the handsome Chen Ping coming, their eyes lit up at first, and then they remembered something, and either turned around and ignored him, or deliberately spit at him and said something loudly, causing everyone to laugh.

Chen Ping ignored him and continued walking. His destination was the woods outside the town.

This woods should be the private hilltop of Xi Zhang, a local tycoon. However, Zhang Fu, the clan leader of Xi Zhang, took care of his fellow villagers and simply opened it completely so that villagers could come here to collect firewood at will. So here, Chen Ping could meet many people who also came to collect firewood, some of whom were neighbors.

After seeing Chen Ping, they all smiled meaningfully and asked various questions.

"Chen Ping, it's been so many years, it's rare to see you come to collect firewood. Where is your uncle's wife?"

"Chen Ping, your family is so poor, and your uncle's stomach is growling when he works. What do you eat every day to grow so big?"

"Your uncle's wife said that you eat bran kernels. Is it true?"

"Chen Ping, I heard that your uncle drove your uncle's wife away? Why? Is it because..."

Every word was ill-intentioned, and every word was intended to hurt Chen Ping.

In the eyes of many villagers, Chen Ping was just an idler who ate for free. He had a good appearance for nothing. He was 18 years old and had not achieved anything. He neither farmed nor did business. He just held a roll of rotten bamboo slips all day long and pretended to be a scholar. Did he really think he was a scholar?

Unfortunately, apart from this, Chen Ping had no more bad things for them to curse. Now, this guy did a bigger shame, that is, stealing his sister-in-law!

So everyone was very excited. As soon as they saw Chen Ping, they whispered and pointed at him, deliberately using words to stimulate him.

They really wanted to see the handsome man who was famous in the whole town reveal his ugly true face!

Then they pointed at him and said with contempt: "Look, he is really a despicable villain."

Chen Ping's family was poor, Chen Ping had ideals, and because of his brother's pampering, Chen Ping did not have to work hard like his peers, but could do things that they thought were relaxing and comfortable, such as reading and traveling, so in the eyes of the villagers, he was wrong.

That's how gossip came about. Any little change in his family would be magnified, and people would always speculate about dissidents with the greatest malice.

But Chen Ping's way of dealing with it was different from Chen Bo's. He just smiled and didn't reply. This made the people who ridiculed him feel that they had punched in the air, which was quite boring.

Lao Tzu said that it is better to keep to the middle than to talk too much.

Chen Ping knew very well that everyone's psychology has innate shortcomings, and they like to listen to gossip the most. If you tell them the truth, they often don't believe it, but are willing to describe you with gossip, portraying you as the ugly face you should have in their minds.

So, the cost of refuting rumors is ten times or a hundred times that of spreading rumors, and he won't waste that energy.

Amid the boos, Chen Ping silently did his own thing. He lifted the firewood behind him and started walking back. He had collected enough firewood for three days.

In the past, he was not engaged in production and rarely did this work, so he seemed a little unfamiliar with it. Although the firewood on his back was not much, it made Chen Ping feel very heavy, as if those slanderous words, added together, made him breathless.

Although Chen Ping studied Huang Lao, he knew that he could not become a saint. He was not distressed by his current situation, but by his future.

People in the world only value clothes and not people. Most people comment on and measure a person's height, good and evil, right and wrong based on trivial matters.

Chen Ping was very worried that today's slander of "stealing his sister-in-law" would follow him for the rest of his life and become an indelible mark on him, even though he had never done it.

This would greatly affect his reputation in the county. Although the Wei Kingdom was about to collapse, even if Huyou Township returned to the Qin Kingdom, a person's reputation and reputation in the township would still be the key to determining whether he would be recruited as an official and become a superior person.

"If I am burdened by my reputation and people think that I am a villain with low morals and who cheats on my brother and steals his sister-in-law, then it will be difficult for me to make a name for myself in Huoyou Township and Yangwu County."

This is what Chen Ping is worried about, but as a person who is slandered, he cannot defend himself at all, otherwise the more he smears, the more he will be slandered.

What to say? Say "I didn't sleep with my sister-in-law?" If that's the case, the rumors will probably be even more intense.

Entering the gate of the city again, Chen Ping turned his head when he stopped to rest and looked at his shoulders under his linen clothes. There were red spots. The thin hemp rope was tied on it, which was very painful. His skin, which had not done any work, had been rubbed to blood.

Chen Ping was not worried, but happy.

Bleeding is not terrible, which makes Chen Ping feel different from others. He doesn't want to carry firewood for a lifetime and leave two red marks and calluses on his shoulders.

Living today, but seeing the life on the day of death, unchanged, this is the most terrifying.

"It is impossible to rely on others to save me in this matter. I must find a way to get out of the predicament as soon as possible."

Gritting his teeth, Chen Ping stood up again and stepped into the inner door again. The women who had washed clothes here before were gone. When Chen Ping was about to get home, he found that they were all gathered outside his yard, which was surrounded by people.

"Chen Ping is back!"

Someone with sharp eyes shouted, and the neighbors around the door immediately turned around and looked at Chen Ping. Most of them were gloating, and only one or two people looked worried.

Chen Ping had an ominous premonition in his heart. Could it be that his brother...

As soon as the hemp rope in his hand loosened, the firewood on his back immediately fell to the ground, making a crackling sound.

But when Chen Ping squeezed through the crowd and walked to the door of his house, he did not see his brother, but saw several Qin soldiers wearing armor and carrying swords, standing in his yard at this moment!

Among them, the black-faced Qin official who was wearing a crown and was obviously an official, was walking with his hands behind his back, looking at his family's vegetable garden and the shabby thatched roof, and even wanted to look inside the house.

"Qin people?"

Chen Ping's heart skipped a beat, but he didn't panic at all. He opened the curtain door made of bamboo mats, walked into the yard, and bowed respectfully to the Qin official, as if they were guests he expected.

"I didn't know you were here, I'm really neglectful."

The Qin official wearing a crown turned around quickly, looked Chen Ping up and down, and then said a few words in Guanzhong dialect, asking the Qin soldier beside him to translate.

"You ask, are you Chen Ping?"

"It's me."

After Chen Ping learned that this person was the patrol named "Heifu", he was even more surprised. Why did the Qin official come to his door for no reason? But his face remained calm and he carefully observed this person.

But he was a burly man, almost as tall as himself, staring at Chen Ping with his eyes fixed, as if he had seen a rough jade hidden in a gray stone...

At this time, the Qin official suddenly laughed, and then said in a very stiff local dialect that sounded like he had just learned a little: "Chen Ping, I'm looking for you!"

After that, Hei Fu pressed his sword and said loudly to Chen Ping and the crowd outside who were watching: "Recently, I have been investigating in the countryside and heard rumors that Chen Bo's brother Chen Ping stole his sister-in-law! Although Qin uses the law as a teaching and officials as a teacher, it also values ethics like the Central Plains! I was shocked when I heard the inquiry. An uncle stealing his sister-in-law is like a brother raping his own sister. It is a great evil! How can we let it go?"

"Therefore, today I have come here specially to bring Chen Ping, Chen Bo, Chen's wife, and all the neighbors in Kushang Village who spread the rumor to the township temple for questioning! This case of stealing the sister-in-law must be solved today!"

After saying this, Hei Fu asked Zhong Ming to repeat his words in dialect. He ignored the uproar of the people outside and smiled at Chen Ping who didn't understand what was going on:

"Chen Ping, today you will follow me to the township temple for questioning. Before you go in, you will be covered with a stigma, and it is impossible to tell whether it is true or false. But when you come out, you may be convicted of stealing your sister-in-law and punished by Qin law..."

"Or, your unjust accusation will be cleared by this official himself!"