usatvline Chapter 479 The Tiger Falls in Pingyang
Chapter 479 The Tiger Falls in Pingyang
Chapter 479 A Tiger Falls into the Plains
Wang Wenzhou and Li Mei were escorted to the prison by Cui Zhe and several other yamen runners.
Wang Wenzhou looked at Li Mei and said, "Baby, baby, you have to escape and save me!"
Li Mei frowned and asked, "How do we escape?"
Wang Wenzhou struggled to break free from the yamen runners and secretly handed the last of his silver notes to Li Mei.
"Slap!" Cui Zhe raised his hand and slapped Wang Wenzhou across the face, shouting, "Behave yourself!"
"Hoo..." Wang Wenzhou took a deep breath. If I don't get angrier, I'll be bullied by dogs when I'm down on my luck. Once I get away, I'll see how I deal with you!
Wang Wenzhou looked at Li Mei and said, "Baby, push all the blame onto me. Say that the fraud has nothing to do with you, that you were also deceived by me, and then give them the silver notes. They'll probably let you go. After you get out, you can figure out how to save me!"
Li Mei nodded; this was the only way now.
“Officer, please release me. I was deceived by him. He claimed to be Wang Wenzhou, but I didn’t know that. That’s why I accompanied him to the government office,” Li Mei said.
Cui Zhe had just received a hundred taels of silver from Li Mei, which was a huge sum of money for him. Therefore, he treated Li Mei very well. He said helplessly, "Young master, I can tell at a glance that you are not a swindler. The key is that the master has already ordered you to be detained. I can only obey orders."
"Officer, please make an exception! I have an urgent matter at home and cannot stay here any longer." After saying this, Li Mei handed the remaining two two-hundred-tael silver notes to Cui Zhe.
Cui Zhe took the silver note and saw it contained another two hundred taels of silver. He was overjoyed. Money makes the world go round, and with three hundred taels of silver on him, even losing his job at the yamen was worth the risk. Moreover, in his opinion, Li Mei must come from a wealthy and powerful official family; otherwise, she wouldn't be able to come up with so much silver.
Thinking of this, Cui Zhe said, "In my opinion, this matter has nothing to do with you, young master. In that case, I will let you leave."
"Brother Cui, this won't do!" one of the constables in charge of escorting them said hurriedly.
"I'll take responsibility for whatever happens!" Cui Zhe said, then stuffed a few taels of silver into the hands of his three colleagues.
The three men saw that Cui Zhe had taken all the responsibility upon himself and was also getting paid, so why not? They had no reason to refuse.
Li Mei turned around and looked at Wang Wenzhou with lingering reluctance.
Wang Wenzhou cursed and said, "Damn it! You bastard, you're so disloyal! Baby, you have to be careful. This matter might not be simple. You know I have too many enemies. It's not impossible that someone wants to harm me."
"Slap!" Cui Zhe slapped Wang Wenzhou across the face again. Fortunately, the constables couldn't understand Mandarin, otherwise, Wang Wenzhou wouldn't have dared to tell Li Mei his worries.
"Husband, don't worry! No matter what, I will get you out!" Li Mei did have a way to rescue Wang Wenzhou; his father was Li Kaiyin, the Duke of Jinlin in South Korea. Even without revealing Wang Wenzhou's identity, she could still rescue him. The key was that his father was in Seoul, too far away for her to reach, and she couldn't contact him immediately. In Jinzhou, Li Mei had no relatives or friends and was unfamiliar with the area, so she could only return to the inn to find Jin Jizhong for help.
……
Two hours later, in Gongzhou prison.
Wang Wenzhou, tears streaming down his face, squatted on the ground in grievance. He was truly a tiger fallen into the plains, bullied by dogs! He had been tortured by the prisoners in the jail for two whole hours.
Including Wang Wenzhou, there were eight people in this cell, led by an old man named Shen He, who could speak Chinese. The others could not. Shen He sat there with a smile, watching Wang Wenzhou being tortured.
"Alright, stop hitting them!" Shen He waved his hand, and the prisoners immediately stopped.
Shen He looked at Wang Wenzhou and said with a smile, "Young master, are you a Ming citizen?"
Wang Wenzhou hurriedly waved his hand, his eyes filled with tears, and said, "Sir, I'm really not a Ming citizen! I really am not!"
Wang Wenzhou was truly terrified! At first, he was still arrogant, claiming to be a Ming citizen. Because Wang Wenzhou knew that in Korea, Ming citizens were treated like royalty. Not to mention a few prisoners, even Korean officials had to treat ordinary Ming citizens like royalty.
But to everyone's surprise, apart from that old bastard Shen He, none of the others understood Chinese. These South Korean prisoners, upon hearing him speak Chinese, flew into a rage and began beating him mercilessly. Wang Wenzhou was now a bloody mess, his face a bruise and purple welt. He even felt that his babies, if they didn't look closely, wouldn't recognize him.
"Haha!" Shen He laughed and scolded, "Stop pretending. I've been to the Ming Dynasty. I can tell from your accent that you're from the Ming Dynasty!"
"Damn it!" Wang Wenzhou cursed, then quickly realized his mistake and changed his words, saying, "Sir, please spare me! Since you know I'm from the Ming Dynasty, why are you treating me like this?"
Shen He said, "If I don't teach you a lesson, how will you listen? Tell me, what did you do to get here?"
Wang Wenzhou dared not admit that he was Wang Wenzhou, and even if he did admit his identity, the old man probably wouldn't believe him.
Wang Wenzhou casually made up a story: "It's a long story. I was originally a merchant from the Ming Dynasty. I encountered a storm and fell into the water. I was rescued and that's how I ended up in Korea. I am indeed a Ming Dynasty person, but for some reason, you Koreans all say that my accent doesn't sound like a Ming Dynasty person."
"Haha!" Shen He laughed loudly, "Look at you, you fool! If you don't speak that language, how will the Korean people think you're from the Ming Dynasty?"
"Huh?" Wang Wenzhou was completely dumbfounded because Shen He's accent suddenly changed to a standard Northeastern accent.
Shen He explained, “Almost all the Ming people who came to Korea were from Liaodong, so we Koreans all think that the Liaodong dialect is the standard Ming language. How could Koreans who have never been to the Ming Dynasty know that the Ming Dynasty was a vast and rich country with countless dialects?”
Wang Wenzhou suddenly understood why no one believed he was from the Ming Dynasty; it turned out that everyone he had been in contact with was a country bumpkin from South Korea who had never been to the Ming Dynasty.
Wang Wenzhou said with a wry smile, "Sir, please help me get out of here. Don't worry, as long as I contact my family, I will definitely repay you handsomely."
"Heh!" Shen He said with a wry smile, "If I had the ability to get you out, why am I still in jail? What did you do to get here?"
Wang Wenzhou thought for a moment and realized that since he had been arrested as a fraudster, given the old fox's status in prison, it would be difficult for him to deceive him.
Thinking of this, Wang Wenzhou replied, "To be honest, I saw the government's missing person notice today, looking for the Ming envoy who fell into the water and went missing, Wang Wenzhou, Lord Wang. I thought, since no one in Korea has seen Wang Wenzhou, I'll impersonate Lord Wang and try to find an opportunity to return to the Ming Dynasty. But as soon as the Prefect heard my accent, he said I was a fraud."
"Haha!" Shen He laughed loudly, "Brother, you're a real talent! I bet even the Prefect has never been to the Ming Dynasty, and he thinks your standard Ming dialect isn't quite right. If you want to go abroad, I have a plan!"