After the marriage between the Xue family and the Ji family fell through, Xue Rui had to recuperate in the guesthouse for a few days due to his injuries. Xu Li had already ordered the servants to pack up. Now that he had recovered, he set off for the capital.
When the two carriages passed by the north of the city, the coachman wanted to take a shortcut. However, when he turned into a street, he was blocked in the middle of the road.
When the carriage stopped, Xu Li lifted the curtain and looked outside. He heard the coachman say, "Chief, there are many people in the middle of the road in front. It seems like the yamen is trying a case."
Xu Li said, "Turn around and take a detour."
Before he finished speaking, someone in the carriage said, "Wait, Hōtoku, go down and take a look. What's going on?"
Xu Li turned his head and looked at his Young Master, who was lying on the leather mattress and eating sour pears with his head pillowed on it. He turned his body to make way for Baode, who was sitting on the other side, to get out of the car.
After a while, Hōtoku came back after asking around. He leaned on the window and said excitedly, "Young Master, someone is beating the drum to complain. You definitely can't think of which family they are suing."
Xue Rui looked at his face and mocked, "Could it be that the Ji family committed a crime?
Hōtoku opened his mouth in surprise, "How did you know, Young Master?"
"What do you think?" Xue Rui raised his hand and the pear pit in his hand flew through the window and past Hōtoku's ear. Xu Li frowned when he saw this.
"Let's go down and take a look." Xue Rui touched the black hair on his forehead and covered the scratch on his forehead. He bent down to get down the carriage.
Xu Li reached out to stop him, "Young Master, we still have to hurry. If we can't reach Yan Province before dark, we will have to sleep in the wilderness."
"Then we'll leave tomorrow." Xue Rui pushed his arm away and jumped off the carriage. He asked Hōtoku to lead the way and left. Xu Li shook his head and sighed. He sat back in the carriage and did not plan to join in the fun.
With Hōtoku leading the way, the master and servant quickly squeezed their way to the front of the crowd. They looked into the hall, but before they could see anything clearly, they heard the dull sound of a wooden board rising and falling. Pa!
"Pa!"
Taking a closer look, on the floor of the public hall, there was a person lying on the floor, getting beaten up again and again. The long board that was thicker than a thigh, one high and one low, made one's heart ache, but the person who was being beaten didn't even let out a cry. If it wasn't for the fact that the person on the floor bounced up an inch with each hit, one would really think that it was a cloth dummy.
Xue Rui raised his eyebrows, crossed his arms, looked at the beggar-like figure on the floor, and listened to the discussion at the side.
After fifteen strokes, Yu Shu's forehead was already covered with a layer of sweat. She gasped, and the veins on her clenched fists were turning green. She felt that her buttocks were about to split open, and if he dared to do it again, she would definitely cry out.
No wonder there were very few people who beat the drum to complain. Before the lawsuit was settled, they would first have to suffer a physical pain.
"Pa!" County Magistrate Ma slammed the gavel and looked at the beggar who beat the drum to complain about his in-laws with a gloomy expression. He shouted in a deep voice, "Present the complaint paper!"
Lying on the floor, Yu Shu gritted her teeth and endured the pain. She turned sideways and took out the complaint paper from her bosom, and handed it over to the yamen runner.
The hall was silent, and County Magistrate Ma carefully read through the complaint paper. It clearly stated when Zhao Hui was engaged to the Dou Family, when she lost her father and fled to Yiyang, how the Dou Family used flowery words to detain her dowry and family property, how Zhao Hui's fiancé died of a sudden illness, how the Dou Family's elder sister sent her a letter and seized her dowry and family property, how she filed a lawsuit against the government, and how the Dou Family colluded with the Ji family to barter her house, and listed that her appearance did not match her horoscope, and how she was accused of marriage fraud, and how the County Magistrate at that time awarded her family property to the Dou Family, and even imprisoned her in prison.
The more County Magistrate Ma read, the darker his expression became. Zhao Hui's marriage fraud case was judged by his predecessor, and he had been an official for ten years. Based on his experience and intuition, he knew that there was another injustice in that case, and it involved the Ji family. With so many commoners watching, there was no one in Yiyang City who didn't know that he was the son-in-law of the Ji family. If he was biased, it would certainly attract criticism.
So, he decided to bring everyone here first, and then act according to the situation in court. "Pa!"
"Guards, go to the Dou Family on the west side of the city, and the Ji family on the east side of the city to arrest them!"
Several bailiffs responded and left.
County Magistrate Ma said to Yu Shu, "Yu Shu, where is your godmother, Zhao Hui?! Why do you need to beat the drum for her? "
County Magistrate Ma called out Yu Shu's name, deliberately pronouncing it in an oblique tone, and discovered that she was his brother-in-law's stepdaughter. First, there were too many people with the same name in Yiyang City, and second, the Ji family had many descendants, so he really couldn't remember all of them.
It had been some time since the incident where Ma Weibo was beaten, and the person in court was a boy who looked like a beggar. Even if he knew who Yu Shu was, he couldn't immediately connect them together.
But there was someone else in front of the yamen, and it was different. Hearing County Magistrate Ma's shout, Xue Rui was stunned, and his expression changed slightly. He narrowed his eyes and stared at the figure lying on the ground in a sorry state not far away. The more he looked, the more familiar he felt. He knew who it was, and his face immediately darkened.
"Reporting to Daren," Yu Shu's voice was not as loud as it was when the court opened. She panted and said, "Not long ago, my godmother was injured by Dou Lu from the Dou family. She is bedridden, so she can't come to court in person. I beat the drum to appeal for justice on her behalf."
To complain on someone else's behalf, the first condition was that they were related. Yu Shu and Zhao Hui were not related by blood, but ancient people compared godparents to blood relatives. She called Zhao Hui godmother, so it was reasonable for her to take the complaint on her behalf.
When Yu Shu mentioned it, County Magistrate Ma remembered the unfinished case from two days ago. It was the Dou family who accused a doctor of assault. The doctor refused to plead guilty and was still in prison. But he only thought about it for a moment. He complained that the Dou family had too many problems, but he didn't connect the two cases together.
"Pa!"
"You said that the Dou family embezzled your godmother's property. Do you have any witnesses?" County Magistrate Ma avoided mentioning the Ji family.
"Yes," Yu Shu said, "When my godmother lost her father and came to Yiyang to seek refuge with the Dou family, an old housekeeper sent her here. The old housekeeper is still alive and runs a bookstore on Changmenpu West Street. His name is Huang Zhou. He can testify for me that what I said is true. My godmother did not cheat the marriage. It was the Dou family and the Ji family who colluded to bully her, an orphan girl."
County Magistrate Ma said, "Come to Changmenpu and bring this Huang Zhou here!"
"Yes, Daren!"
County Magistrate Ma asked Yu Shu a few more questions, and Yu Shu answered them with reason and evidence.
An hour later, someone from the Dou family came first.
"Reporting to Daren! Dou Hong is here! "
Dou Hong was the eldest daughter of the Dou family. She married a live-in son-in-law and was in charge of the household. She was about the same age as Pei Jing. She had a pair of slender eyes and two wrinkles at the corner of her mouth. She had a shrewd look on her face. Yu Shu couldn't get up, so she just lay on the ground. She turned her head to look and met Dou Hong's cold eyes.
"Are you Dou Hong?"
"Yes, Daren."
"Bang!"
"Dou Hong, do you know who Zhao Hui is?"
Dou Hong said, "I do. More than ten years ago, when my father was still alive, he arranged a marriage for my second brother. The other party was from a merchant family in Yan Province. This Zhao Hui is the daughter of that family. Later, she caused my second brother's death. After I found out that her family lied about the marriage, I severed all ties with her."
Hearing this, Yu Shu sneered from the ground and did not interrupt.
County Magistrate Ma said, "Someone is accusing the Dou family of embezzling other people's property in front of Jiudong. They used a fake evaluation report to make a false accusation and bullied an orphan girl. Do you plead guilty?" Dou Hong was shocked. She took two steps forward and said angrily, "Daren, this is pure slander. My Dou family has been wealthy for generations. My father was the Minister Counsellor of Western City. Why would I covet other people's property?"
"Bang!" County Magistrate Ma slammed the gavel. "No noise in the court!"
Dou Hong unwillingly stepped back. She looked around but didn't see Zhao Hui. She only saw a beggar lying on the ground. Her fear disappeared.
After a while, Shopkeeper Huang was brought to the yamen. When Dou Hong heard that County Magistrate Ma had summoned her, her expression changed. When she heard that Huang Zhou accused her of embezzling Zhao Hui's property and falsely accusing Zhao Hui of a false marriage, she lost her cool. "Daren, please investigate this. This Zhao Hui obviously lied about the marriage. That year, I specially hired a fortune teller to read her fortune. With the evaluation report as proof, how can I falsely accuse her!"
"Which fortune teller did you hire as a witness?" Yu Shu suddenly shouted.
"Ji family's fortune teller." Dou Hong blurted out. After saying it, she realized that something was wrong. She lowered her head and glared at Yu Shu.
The yamen's entrance buzzed. Xue Rui's mouth twitched. His expression loosened a little. He couldn't help but laugh.
"Bang!"
With a loud bang, Yu Shu obediently shut her mouth. She tilted her head and looked at Dou Hong. She laughed in her heart. "I was afraid that you wouldn't admit it."
County Magistrate Ma's face darkened. He said to Yu Shu, "You heard it. This Ji family's fortune teller is a famous and promising place in Yiyang City. If you accuse them of colluding with the Dou family to fabricate a false evaluation report, I will not forgive you!"
"I dare not." Yu Shu raised her head and said, "Daren, I have evidence to present."
County Magistrate Ma waved his hand and ordered the yamen runners, "Present it." "Yes, yes."
Yu Shu fumbled in her bosom for a while and took out several cards. She handed them to the yamen runners and handed them to County Magistrate Ma. He lowered his head and saw that it was a residence card and several evaluation cards from the fortune teller's shop. The signature and handprint belonged to Zhao Hui. He frowned and thought that this was bad. Then, he heard Yu Shu say with grief and indignation, "In Daren's hand, one of the residence cards is my godmother's birth date and the other evaluation cards were made by fortune tellers and traders from the six fortune tellers' shops on Wan Xiang Street after they read my godmother's fortune. The handprint on the residence card is taken as proof. There are also evaluation cards from the Liu family and the Kong family's fortune teller shop. Daren, take a look. None of them say that my godmother's fortune doesn't match her fortune nor does it say that my godmother's fortune is a curse to her husband! I know that the Ji family is a famous fortune teller in Yiyang City. But they are still as famous as the Kong and Liu families. Could it be that the Liu family and the Kong family are inferior to the Ji family? Only the Ji family can see that my godmother is a jinx. Are the others blind? "
As soon as he said this, the court was quiet but the outside of the yamen was in chaos.
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