Chapter 55 The Duke of Dingguo found his sister

The Duke of Dingguo has found his sister following Yu Zhiyi's advice.

Just as Yu Zhiyi said, his sister's family really ran into trouble.

The son of the local magistrate took a fancy to his sister's granddaughter-in-law, and after failing to entice her with bribes, he actually tried to forcibly take her away.

The specific plan was to first ruin the Tian family, and then have the granddaughter-in-law beg the magistrate's son to take her in and spare her family.

When the Duke of Dingguo arrived with his men, the magistrate's son's plan had reached a critical moment: he had framed the Duke of Dingguo's sister's son and daughter-in-law for murder and imprisoned them.

In order to protect and help his son, the magistrate actually planned to disregard human life and intended to have the two men executed in three days.

When the Duke of Dingguo arrived, it was the last day of the three-day deadline.

Fortunately, executions in ancient times were usually carried out at noon, while he arrived in the morning.

After confirming that the old lady of the Tian family was indeed his sister, he quickly sent people to investigate the whole story.

Upon learning that his nephew and nephew's wife were about to be wrongfully executed, he immediately led his men into the county government office, tied up the corrupt magistrate and his son, and threw them into prison for dereliction of duty.

In less than half an hour, the Duke of Dingguo deduced the magistrate's son's next plan from the testimonies of the magistrate's son and his entourage.

His sister, Madam Tian, ​​had two sons and two daughters. The one who was wrongly accused was his eldest son and his wife.

After the eldest son and his wife were beheaded, the magistrate's son would do the same thing, fabricating a charge that would also lead to the beheading of the second son and his wife.

They destroyed the Tian family bit by bit, crushed the mental fortitude of Madam Tian's granddaughter-in-law, and left her with only a lonely old woman, using this to blackmail her into compromising.

As for why only Old Madam Tian was left behind, it was because once the rest of the Tian family died, the granddaughter-in-law would have no weakness, and she might die along with the rest of the Tian family.

Madam Tian was already quite old, and she had injured her body while giving birth to her last child. Since then, her health had been poor. Such an old woman was powerless to stop the wicked magistrate's family, nor was she capable of taking revenge.

The problem is that these people have calculated everything, but they forgot to consider human nature and people's capacity to endure.

If the Tian family is truly reduced to just Old Madam Tian and her granddaughter-in-law, then the granddaughter-in-law will indeed have to compromise for her grandmother's sake, just as those people expect.

But Madam Tian... her health was already poor, and this series of blows will directly destroy her spirit and body.

Moreover, after realizing that she was merely a tool to threaten her granddaughter-in-law, she was even less inclined to live on in vain.

Although none of this had happened yet, the Duke of Dingguo felt a chill run down his spine just by looking at the detailed plan of framing in the testimony.

He had no doubt about Yu Zhiyi's judgment—that since his nephew and his wife had been beheaded and the tragedy of the Tian family had begun, his sister would definitely not survive either.

He was both angry and relieved.

He was furious that these despicable and filthy parasites, who were actually government officials, were willing to commit such a heinous act of murder against his sister's family.

Fortunately, he listened to Yu Zhiyi's advice and rushed over as fast as he could without delay.

He couldn't even imagine what the consequences would have been if he hadn't arrived in time.

A few days later, after dealing with the Tian family's affairs, the Duke of Dingguo returned to Shengjing with great excitement and personally visited Yu Zhiyi with his sister to express his gratitude.

Feeling the extra merit she had gained, Yu Zhiyi did not refuse the gift of gratitude from the Duke of Dingguo.

Seeing that Yu Zhiyi had accepted the gift, the Duke of Dingguo breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "From now on, Madam Du will be an honored guest of my Duke of Dingguo's mansion."

This kind of treatment was something even Prime Minister Du had never received.

Madam Yao smiled and held Yu Zhiyi's hand, saying, "Your Excellency is too kind. Our Zhiyi is cold on the outside but warm on the inside. She has done a great thing without making a sound."

Looking at the extra boxes of gifts in the courtyard, Yu Zhiyi frankly rejected the label that Madam Yao had put on her: "Mother, I did not tell fortunes for the Duke for free. However, there are too many of these things. I only need 10,000 taels of silver. The Duke can take the rest back."

If it weren't for the need to check and balance the Prince of Xiaoyao, she wouldn't have dragged the Duke of Dingguo into it.

She did indeed change the fate of Madam Tian's family, so the money had to be accepted.

But she won't take the extras for nothing.

Seeing her insistence, the Duke of Dingguo did not force her. He had ten thousand taels of silver counted out of the gifts, and then...

The remaining gifts were given to Prime Minister Du and his wife as a token of gratitude for raising such a capable and kind-hearted daughter-in-law.

As for who these gifts would ultimately end up in, that was none of his concern.

Yu Zhiyi: "..."

"Oh, right."

Before leaving, the Duke of Dingguo suddenly remembered something and turned around to say, "The women who were rescued from Majia Village asked me to convey their gratitude to Madam Du."

Yu Zhiyi was taken aback: "The person was rescued by the Duke, what does it have to do with me?"

"Is it really none of your business?" Duke Dingguo asked with a half-smile.

Those wise eyes have seen through too much.

Yu Zhiyi coughed lightly and looked away: "I only moved my lips and even said something wrong. The one who really saved them was you, Duke."

A hint of admiration flashed in the Duke of Dingguo's eyes, and he suddenly said to Prime Minister Du, "Brother Mingda, your good fortune is yet to come!"

He then looked at Yu Zhiyi and said, "I have already reported this matter to His Majesty. His Majesty attaches great importance to it and has handed it over to the Ministry of Justice for investigation. I believe that it will not be long before more abducted women can be rescued."

This is his true way of repaying her.

Upon hearing that the Duke of Dingguo had come to find Yu Zhiyi as soon as he returned to the capital, Du Ziheng put down his book and came over.

Then, I heard the two of them talking.

As soon as Yu Zhiyi turned around, she saw Du Ziheng looking at her with a complicated expression.

At the same time, a question arose: "If Taoyuan Town is the real hiding place of the Duke of Zhenguo's sister, why did you mention Majia Village?"

Yu Zhiyi looked at him calmly: "What you really want to ask is, why did both Miss You and I mention Majia Village?"

Du Ziheng didn't want to mention his sweetheart in front of his nominal wife, but the whole thing was just too strange.

It makes one want to speculate about conspiracy theories.

However, it doesn't really sound like a conspiracy theory.

"I know about Ma Family Village because I calculated from the Duke's facial features and Madam Tian's birth chart that the Duke should have accidentally obtained a clue about Ma Family Village a few years later, but then he came up empty-handed."

"As for how Miss You knew that... you'll have to ask her that question."

Not to mention Du Ziheng's curiosity, she was curious too.

If You Bingyue is simply a person from another world, how could she know the trajectory of this world's development?

Does the other party also understand metaphysics?