Chapter 211 Magistrate Shen Reveals His True Feelings

The area in front of the county government office was bustling with activity.

These days, apart from some major private cases, ordinary cases are tried in public, and many people gather at the entrance of the courtroom.

Cheng Wanwan and Zhao Sanniu knelt in the middle of the hall, with Yu's two cousins ​​and Manager Yu kneeling beside them.

"Smack!"

Magistrate Shen slammed the gavel on the table, startling the three members of the Yu family.

If they had known that this old woman had connections with Magistrate Shen, they would never have dared to oppose her. But now it seems too late to regret it.

Before Magistrate Shen could even begin his hearing, Manager Yu immediately said, "Your Honor, it was just a fight between two students in the school. It's nothing serious. I'll return the two taels of tuition and add another two taels for medical expenses. Please, Your Honor, be lenient with the punishment!"

Magistrate Shen looked at Cheng Wanwan: "Zhao Chengshi, Manager Yu has refunded you four taels of silver. Are you willing to withdraw your lawsuit?"

This was not because Magistrate Shen was being perfunctory in handling the case. Rather, for the yamen, cases involving human lives were the only ones worth hearing. These trivial matters could happen hundreds of times a day and should not actually be brought to court. It was only because Clerk Yuan wanted to curry favor with the future magistrate's wife that he violated regulations by holding court. More than a dozen yamen runners stood in two rows, as if they were hearing a case of utmost importance.

"Your Excellency, I refuse!" Cheng Wanwan's voice was clear and bright. "The Yu family's martial arts swindled not only my family, but also the Yu family's yamen runners. The victims dared not speak out, and there must be victims among the onlookers outside the hall!"

As soon as she finished speaking, a woman squeezed in and knelt down in front of the hall with a thud.

"Last year, this woman sent her son to Yu's Martial Arts School to learn martial arts. After only one day, her son ran back crying, saying that Yu's Martial Arts School wouldn't feed him or let him sleep. They made him clean up his excrement and urine, and did all sorts of humiliating work... This woman paid money to learn martial arts, not to let her son be bullied. She immediately demanded a refund from the Yu family, but they kicked her out. When she went to the county government to report the incident, it was this same Yu yamen runner who scolded her and sent her away!"

Yu, the constable, was furious: "You're talking nonsense..."

He had barely finished speaking when a man squeezed into the lobby.

"She wasn't lying, it's the truth!" The man knelt on the ground and spoke with absolute certainty, "In the Yu family's martial arts school, only the children of the Yu family can truly be taught martial arts. Children sent by outsiders are either bullied and expelled, or kept to serve the Yu family's children. It's simply impossible for them to learn martial arts..."

Once there is one, there will be two; once there are two, there will be three.

A dozen or so people rushed in and knelt on the ground to denounce the evil deeds of the Yu family's martial arts troupe.

Even the townspeople couldn't earn more than two taels of silver a month. The average monthly income of ordinary families was only about seven or eight hundred coins. It would take them a very long time to save up enough to send their sons to martial arts schools. But instead of helping their sons improve, the money they sent there caused them to suffer and be humiliated in the martial arts schools...

The children who had just entered the village were given only one meal a day, which was just black porridge with boiled vegetables. They had nowhere to sleep at night and had to sleep on the ground in the courtyard without even a mat. It was bad enough that they had to struggle to eat and stay, but the Yu family's senior brothers would take the newcomers to the streets to collect rent... which was equivalent to protection money from the underworld in later generations. The children who followed the Yu family brothers became more and more degenerate...

A dozen or so people stood up to accuse the Yu family, while the Yu family members knelt on the ground, trembling with fear.

In the end, the county magistrate ruled that the Yu family martial arts school should refund all tuition fees within three days, and that Manager Yu and the direct descendants of the Yu family should each be given twenty strokes of the cane, while the career of that constable Yu was naturally over.

The Yu family members left the county government office clutching their backsides, almost bursting into tears.

Manager Yu roared, "After this incident, how can our Yu family martial arts guild continue to operate? I will definitely settle this score with that bitch!"

"Father, let's just forget about it..." Yu Yacha said with a bitter smile. "I just asked some of my colleagues, and that Zhao Chengshi is the future wife of the county magistrate. She's already so arrogant when she's just a peasant woman. Once she becomes the county magistrate's wife, our Yu family will be fish on a chopping board. We'll be no match for her!"

Manager Yu said coldly, "She hasn't married the magistrate yet, so let's wait and see if she has the luck to become the magistrate's wife!"

Senior Brother Yu nodded: "Once the magistrate marries another woman, we'll get our revenge!"

After the Yu family members had gone far away, the onlookers gradually dispersed.

Magistrate Shen waved his hand, and all the yamen runners in the hall bowed their heads and withdrew.

He glanced at Zhao Sanniu, who was protecting Cheng Wanwan, and pondered, "Master, take Sanniu down to see a doctor."

Zhao San Niu didn't want to leave, but Cheng Wanwan gave him a look, and only then did the boy follow Master Yuan out.

"Thank you, Your Excellency." Cheng Wanwan curtsied in gratitude. "Your Excellency's impartial and fair judgment in handling the case, and your advocacy for the people, are a blessing to the people of Ping'an County."

“Mrs. Zhao, there’s no need to be so polite.” Magistrate Shen pressed his fist to his lips. “Please sit here for a while, I’ll be right there.”

After he finished speaking, he turned and walked out of the lobby, disappearing without a trace.

Cheng Wanwan didn't know what Magistrate Shen wanted to do, so she could only stand there and wait. Feeling a little bored, she looked up and examined the furnishings in the main hall.

Above the official's position hangs a plaque that reads "High Hall, Bright Mirror," and on either side is a couplet: "Those with limited talent can make up for their shortcomings with diligence; those with meager official salaries can be frugal and honest."

She tilted her head slightly, pondering the deeper meaning of the couplet.

Magistrate Shen walked in carrying something in his hand. As soon as he stepped over the threshold, he saw this scene.

The woman, dressed in dark blue, looked up at the plaque above the hall. Her facial features seemed to be bathed in a layer of light, making one feel slightly dizzy.

Magistrate Shen's fingers tightened involuntarily.

He wasn't nervous at first, but seeing this woman made him inexplicably nervous.

"cough."

He made a sound, and Cheng Wanwan immediately turned around and curtsied slightly.

Magistrate Shen walked over and handed her the item in his hand: "I obtained this by chance yesterday and I think it suits you very well. Try it on."

Cheng Wanwan looked closely and saw that it was a hairpin with a butterfly on it, its wings outstretched as if about to take flight. It was so lifelike that you could never buy such a thing for less than ten taels of silver.

She took a step back: "Your Excellency, I cannot accept a reward without merit."

Magistrate Shen looked at her and said slowly, "Giving you this hairpin is not as a reward for your service, but because I want to give it to you."

Cheng Wanwan's heart pounded.

She looked up in disbelief and met Magistrate Shen's serious eyes.

Good heavens, no way, the county magistrate is actually seriously pursuing her?

In this dynasty, a woman of thirty-three is very old, and she even has four sons. Has the magistrate gone mad to actually do this?

Is it because that brat Shen Zheng is brainwashing his father every day, making the county magistrate mistakenly believe that he has to marry a village woman?

Cheng Wanwan took another step back, lowered her head and said, "I cannot accept the magistrate's kindness. I will take my leave now."

She turned to leave.

But Magistrate Shen grabbed his sleeve.