Chapter 82: Mermaid on the Shore 4: The Truth Revealed

082 Mermaid on the Shore 4

Late at night, a low-key and luxurious carriage galloped along the empty road and finally stopped at the door of the auction house illuminated by fire.

The driver immediately jumped out of the car, and another person got out of the car. They ran forward together, grabbed several officers and soldiers, and questioned them seriously.

A bony finger lifted a corner of the carriage curtain.

The firefighting was still going on and the scene was in chaos.

Many residents of the town heard the noise, came out of their homes, and gathered nearby, talking in low voices and pointing fingers.

People with faces blackened by smoke kept running out of the auction house. The officers and soldiers could no longer distinguish who were from the auction house, who were nobles, and who were troublemakers.

They just had to take them all.

They did the same thing when three people ran out, and then they were scolded.

"What are you doing? Look carefully, who are we?!"

The officers and soldiers took a closer look and found that the three people were two adult men and a boy who looked about thirteen or fourteen years old.

All three were dressed elegantly, and the boy's clothes were obviously more elegant than the two men on his left and right - it was clear that a young nobleman was traveling with his servants.

The officer immediately let go of his hand and bowed his head to apologize.

The boy glared at them coldly and walked forward with an angry look on his face.

Seeing the familiar luxurious carriage parked in front of him, he stepped on it without thinking, saying angrily: "Who are those arsonists? How does the administrator of this town do his job? How could he let such a mob run wild? I must go to him in person tomorrow to ask--"

The boy opened the curtain, turned around, and when he saw the man sitting inside, all the words he hadn't finished speaking were strangled in his throat.

The man lifted a corner of the car curtain and looked outside quietly.

He has an extremely handsome face, tall stature, broad shoulders and long legs, and every part of his body is elegant, as if carefully sculpted by the Creator.

He had a dark, luxurious coat on his shoulders, which was not buttoned up properly but left open casually, and it was obvious that he had just thrown it on before going out. Even so, it could not conceal the man's noble temperament.

The firelight in the distance reflected in his dark grey eyes, and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or angry on this handsome face.

The boy took a few quick breaths, and as if it was a conditioned reflex engrained in his body, he clenched his hands and his expression became alert and gloomy.

"…What are you doing here?" He asked with a tense voice, "Are you here to teach me a lesson again? You didn't say anything when I left, so I thought you didn't care anymore, but you still remember it? Are you so unhappy to see me out having fun? But you're really quick to get news, you're here just when things get bad here, could it be that you have the ability to predict the future and knew something was going to happen here, so you left early?"

The two servants behind the boy changed their expressions slightly.

They knew that their master's old illness was about to recur.

The boy continued speaking, his words becoming more sarcastic.

"Could it be that you, uncle, started this fire, just waiting to see me make a fool of myself? If that's true, isn't that a bit too much? If I accidentally die in it - oh, this should be a good thing for you, uncle, right?!"

"Your Majesty!" An attendant couldn't help but remind him, his face turning pale.

However, the man did not turn around or pay any attention to the boy.

The boy was hurt by the indifferent attitude and he raised his voice: "I'm talking to you, can't you hear me?!"

The sharp tail sound almost cut through the air in the carriage.

The next second, the man opened his lips and said something very calmly -

"What are you doing up here?"

The boy was stunned, not understanding what this meant.

"Your carriage is behind."

The man said without looking back: "Go down."

The boy froze.

——When he came to the auction, in order not to attract attention, he deliberately chose the most low-key and simple carriage, not this one.

He forgot.

His face suddenly turned red and his ears started buzzing.

...He said so much, but this man slapped him in the face with just a few simple sentences.

This is simply humiliating.

"His Majesty!"

The servant behind him called him anxiously in a low voice, reminding him not to explode in this place.

The boy clenched his teeth, and looked at the man with almost deep hatred in his eyes.

He turned to leave, but stopped, turned back and said coldly: "I want all those who caused trouble to be sent to the guillotine! The trial will start tomorrow, and they will die the day after tomorrow!"

"That's your business, your majesty," the man replied emotionlessly.

“……” The boy cursed softly, threw aside the curtain and got off the carriage.

…

The fire was almost out.

However, the entire auction house had been burned to ruins.

The originally magnificent building turned into black charcoal, and the remaining smoke continued to rise into the night sky.

The two guards walked around the building, observing, going in to look, arresting people for questioning, and came back half a day later, looking a little dejected.

"Duke, the water tank that held the mermaid was broken, and the mermaid must have escaped. However, the officers and soldiers did not see a figure that looked like him, so they are not sure whether the mermaid managed to escape..."

They didn't dare to look up and continued.

"The auction house has two side doors. The soldiers only discovered those two doors later. They were not guarding them at first, so the mermaid might have escaped from there..."

"We found a thug at the auction house. He said that the mermaid their boss caught today did have a rare powder-blue tail, but they didn't know the mermaid's name..."

Wei Nanlou listened quietly, still looking outside.

His breathing was so quiet that cold sweat quietly seeped out of the backs of the two guards.

The night was dark, and the torches in the officers and soldiers' hands turned into tiny dots, unable to illuminate the pitch-black ruins of the auction house.

All of this was reflected in Wei Nanlou's eyes.

The thumb of the other hand placed at the side of the body moved slightly, and the fingertips slowly stroked the three warm scales.

After a while, he withdrew his gloomy gaze and lowered the curtain.

*

Lu Jiu followed Wen Ying back to his home.

This is a typical fishing family living by the sea. Their house is small and leaky everywhere.

Wen Ying pushed open the door and said to Lu Jiu, "My parents went to the next town to sell goods these days! We dried a lot of fish and shrimp at home, but we can't sell these things in Mermaid Town because every household has them. We can only sell them in places farther away."

"My brother won't be back until tomorrow morning, so it's just you and me at home tonight. Don't be nervous, just treat it as your own home. Will you sleep on the bed? Or in the water? We do have a big fish tank at home, but it may still be a little small for you. You may not be able to turn over if you go in."

As he spoke, he threw a dry towel to Lu Jiu and asked him to wipe it.

——Lu Jiu’s body was still wet.

Lu Jiu took the towel and wiped his hair. He looked around the room and said, "It's okay. I can even sleep on the floor."

"That's not necessary! Then you sleep in my bed and I'll sleep in my brother's!"

...To be honest, Lu Jiu still couldn't quite believe that the man had become a sailor in this world.

It’s not that the guy should live a life of luxury, but... he really couldn’t imagine what that guy looked like as a sailor.

Wen Ying took him to an inner room.

In this small room, there are two beds placed against the wall, one on the left and one on the right.

Wen Ying pointed to the bed on the left and said, "Here, this is mine. You can sleep on this one tonight."

Then he sat down on the bed on the right.

Lu Jiu looked over there—so, this is Wen Ling’s bed?

...On the wall next to the bed hung a brown coat and a cowboy hat. Both items had been washed white and were full of traces of time.

On another hook hung some fishing gear.

Lu Jiu looked at all this and found it hard to connect these things with that man.

Wen Ying found him a set of clean clothes. After Lu Jiu went to the next room to change, he came back and sat down on Wen Ying's bed.

Wen Ying hugged his brother's pillow and said, "...The administrator of Mermaid Town is a good-for-nothing. As long as the owner of the auction house dies, he probably won't want to get involved in this matter anymore, because it's not profitable for him and it's troublesome! If that's the case, I can let my brother send you away tomorrow evening..."

Lu Jiu asked: "What if the owner of the auction house is not dead?"

Wen Ying was silent for a moment, and said, "Then he will give the administrator a lot of money, enough to motivate the administrator to deal with us. In that case -"

He raised his eyes and looked at Lu Jiu with a smile.

"——You will have to find a chance to escape. But no matter what, you should leave here as soon as possible. This place is no longer suitable for orcs to live in."

Lu Jiu was silent for a moment, then asked, "You said that your relatives and friends were all captured by them, you..."

"He's my younger brother," Wen Ying said, "a younger brother I recognized. He was a little bird, and both his parents had passed away. He flew to Mermaid Town alone five years ago and was almost starving to death. I picked him up and brought him home, and he became part of our family."

"Half a year ago, he went with my parents to the next town to sell goods. On the way, they rested in the forest for a night. The next morning, he said he wanted to pick some fruits to eat. My parents were still asleep at the time, so they let him go by himself. After they woke up, they didn't see him come back, so my parents searched for him all the way out and found a feather of his on the forest road outside the forest."

Wen Ying lowered his head.

"We always thought he wanted to leave, but was too embarrassed to say it, so he chose to leave without saying goodbye... But a month ago, he suddenly came back. He was covered in wounds, and the feathers on his wings were almost all gone. He was dying."

"He said that he was knocked unconscious and taken away that morning. He was sold to a nobleman at an auction house. The nobleman has been keeping him in a birdcage, letting people watch him, making him fight with other orcs, and treating him as a toy..."

Wen Ying clenched his hands, veins bulging on the back of his hands.

"That auction house has been doing this kind of business secretly for a year, but no one has discovered it. No, some people have discovered it and reported it to the administrator, but they were all rejected..."

"We should have known what the administrator's attitude was, but we were too stupid. After collecting evidence, we still went to find him. As a result, several people were detained and have not been released until now..."

Lu Jiu frowned.

As Wen Ying was speaking, his fist suddenly loosened.

He pulled the corner of his lips and said, "You've said too much. These things don't sound pleasant, do they?"

"Nothing." Lu Jiu was silent for a moment, then asked, "Is your brother... still alive?"

"He died. He died the day after he returned home."

"…Does your brother know about what happened tonight?"

"He doesn't know," Wen Ying was silent for a few seconds, and then said, "I hope he won't have the chance to know."

Lu Jiu felt a little heavy.

In the face of power, ordinary people can only seek justice by dying together in this way.

When the sun rises tomorrow, what will be waiting for them?

*

Lu Jiu didn't sleep much that night, and Wen Ying probably didn't either.

This small house welcomed the dawn in suffocating silence.

——And things took a turn for the worst.

Early in the morning, there was a sudden knock on the door of the living room, with a fast and arrogant rhythm.

Wen Ying and Lu Jiu opened their eyes at the same time.

Wen Ying got out of bed, ran quickly to the window, lifted a corner of the curtain, looked outside, and then opened the window with a bang.

He ran back and pulled Lu Jiu up from the bed: "Quick, get out of here, the farther the better."

Lu Jiu was pushed to the window and asked in a low voice, "You're not leaving?"

"I participated in the operation last night after I was mentally prepared," Wen Ying said in a surprisingly calm tone, "I have to take responsibility for what I have done. If I leave, my brother will be in trouble."

Lu Jiu wanted to say something but stopped.

After a second of silence, he turned around and climbed out of the window.

At this moment, he heard the sound of the door in front of him being kicked open.

Lu Jiu climbed out of the window, and Wen Ying immediately closed the window and pulled the curtains.

Lu Jiu quickly crossed a street, stopped behind a house, turned around, and stuck his head out to observe what was going on in the Wen family.

He couldn't see what was inside the house, but he could hear angry shouts coming from afar.

After a while, the noise died down.

Lu Jiu leaned out a little further and saw a group of soldiers escorting Wen Ying away from the main entrance of the small house. A man was running towards them from a distance, asking something in panic, but was blocked by the soldiers.

Lu Jiu's eyelids twitched.

When the officers and soldiers disappeared into the distance, he ran over.

The man stood there at a loss, with a set of fishing gear on his shoulders.

This was a face that was somewhat similar to Wen Ying, but extremely unfamiliar to Lu Jiu.

A premonition arose in Lu Jiu's heart, and his breathing became tight.

He asked aloud: "Are you Wen Ying's brother?"

The man was startled, turned around and met Lu Jiu's gaze blankly.

"I am! You are...?"

"..." Lu Jiu opened his mouth, "Your name is Wen Ling? Ling for command, Yu for feather, Ling Yuling?"

"Yes," the man nodded quickly, "I am!"

“…”

Lu Jiu raised his hand and rubbed his forehead.

He found the wrong person!

*

Even so, this matter is not the most important thing now.

He told Wen Ling the general situation, and Wen Ling was shocked.

"I kept telling him to forget it and stop thinking about it! And he—"

Lu Jiu didn't know what to say, so he just asked, "Where does the administrator live?"

"It's on the west side of town. But Ying shouldn't have been taken to the administrator. I saw a lot of soldiers heading to the court on my way back just now."

So Lu Jiu and Wen Ling decided to rush to the court immediately.

Before leaving, Lu Jiu took Wen Ling's cowboy hat and covered his face with the wide brim.

——His identity has been discovered once, so he has to be more careful.

*

The town's courtroom is very small, and because it is rarely used, the building is generally shabby.

In the courtroom, the town judge sat down behind the cracked wooden table.

He was woken up early in the morning and brought here. The tears from yawning were still hanging in the corners of his eyes, and he didn't have time to wipe them away.

More than a dozen "troublemakers" from last night were forced to kneel on the ground by officers and soldiers, all of them remaining in indifferent silence.

The residents of the town surrounded the place in three circles inside and outside. If some of them didn't know Wen Ling and knew that he must be extremely anxious at the moment and made way for him, Lu Jiu and Wen Ling would not have been able to squeeze in at all.

The scene was very chaotic.

The "prisoners" remained silent. Although they were kneeling, their backs were straight.

Sitting on the side were the owner of the auction house and several of his subordinates. The owner looked as if he wished he could gouge these people out alive, while several of his subordinates desperately fanned him with fans to cool him down.

The residents chirped.

"They are fighting back in kind. Those people deserve to die!"

"Yes, the auction house should be burned down!"

"These people are heroes and should be acquitted!"

After hearing these words, the auction house owner turned around and cursed: "You fools, do you know how much they cost me last night?! Do you know how many people they killed?! They are murderers, and you are still speaking for them?!"

"They kill people because no one seeks justice..."

"that is……"

"You are still trafficking in human beings, criminals!"

"How many people have those nobles secretly killed? They didn't deserve to die!"

“That’s right!”

The auction house owner wanted to continue the argument, but the judge, seeing that things were not going well, knocked on the table and signaled everyone to be quiet.

"The trial begins now. No one outside is allowed to talk, or else everyone will leave," he said sleepily. "Okay, both sides will start their statements. We will resolve the issue as soon as possible..."

This was hardly a trial.

It is just a "going through the motions".

While the "prisoners" were making their statements, the judge yawned frequently, and looked as if he wished he could just lie down and continue sleeping.

After the owner of the auction house stood up and spoke passionately and indignantly, the judge finally opened his eyelids, listened carefully, and nodded frequently.

Lu Jiu stood in the front row of seats, his face gradually darkening.

These people don't even have any cover-up and clearly treat everyone as fools.

They had already decided on the outcome of the trial.

Ten minutes later, without allowing them to make a second round of defense, the judge simply knocked on the table and determined the fate of this group of "prisoners" - all of them would be executed by guillotine tomorrow morning.

Violent protests immediately broke out in the courtroom.

The townspeople were excited, but the judge stood up under the guard and said slowly, "Okay, that's it, send me back home quickly, I haven't had breakfast yet..."

At this moment, the front door of the courtroom was knocked twice and then opened without anyone's consent.

Two tall men in unfamiliar uniforms stood outside the door. They looked like guards, but it was unknown whose guards they were.

They blocked the door.

The judge was stunned and frowned: "Who are you?"

One of the guards came forward, handed him something, and said expressionlessly: "This is a letter from the Duke."

The judge was stunned again.

Confused, he took the letter, opened it, took out the letter from inside, and began to read.

In an instant, his face lost all color.

The guard said, "Now, please leave here. Before you leave, remember to take off your judge's robe and put it in the office that previously belonged to you."

After saying this, the guard turned sideways and respectfully said to an elegant middle-aged man standing outside the door: "Your Honor, please."

The new judge walked in with steady steps.

*

The sudden change caused the indignant townspeople to shut up.

They looked back and forth between the two judges with wide eyes in confusion.

...What's going on? Your Excellency the Duke? Which Duke?

Is this a new judge? Was he sent by the Duke? Why?

Was that old judge who always tried to smooth things over just fired?

However, Lu Jiu's eyes moved slightly.

Duke... Could it be the Duke of Wei Nanlou?

The "prisoners" had all lowered their heads in silence, but now they looked up in confusion - what had happened?

Amid heated discussions, the new judge walked step by step to the back of the court table and sat down.

The auction house owner was happy for only a few minutes before his expression changed.

He looked at the old judge blankly - but the latter had already been taken away with a pale face.

He couldn't stand or sit, and cold sweat immediately flowed down his body.

What's going on?

The Duke? Could it be that...?

He smiled flatteringly at the new judge and said tentatively: "Your Honor, this trial has just ended. Are you going to... start the next one...?"

The new judge is serious.

"It's to start the next one."

The auction house owner was about to breathe a sigh of relief when he heard this, thinking that he had scared himself, when he heard the judge say.

"——An unfair trial must be annulled and restarted."

Suddenly, the discussion in the courtroom grew louder.

"He said he wanted a new trial!"

"That's right, the trial just now was unfair!"

"Your Excellency the Duke is here to uphold justice!"

"Very good!!"

The eyes of the "prisoners" changed, and a light of hesitation and hope appeared in their eyes.

The owner of the auction house swayed his body and sat down on the stool.

restart……?

He felt his scalp tighten.

"This, this is not necessary..." He said with a forced smile.

"Whether it is necessary or not," the new judge shot at him with a glare of lightning, "is not up to you to decide."

…

The trial resumed, giving no one a chance to catch their breath.

And this time, the "prisoners" finally had the opportunity to talk about everything.

With tears in their eyes, they spoke in a heavy voice about how their relatives and friends were killed, and spoke of the crimes of everyone in the auction house with an angry tone as if they wanted to eat their flesh alive.

The auction house owner tried to label this group of people as liars, but the civilians who had been detained by the town administrator and held decisive evidence were also brought over.

The owner of the auction house was struck by lightning.

——Didn’t the administrator secretly get rid of these people? !

That guy, that cowardly wimp—he had obviously taken his money!!

All the evidence is clear and the crimes committed by the auction house are obvious.

The new judge quickly made a ruling.

Everyone in the auction house, whether they survived the fire or did not go to work at the auction house last night, will not be able to escape because they have all participated in human trafficking - they will all be taken to the guillotine in three days.

Although these civilians who committed arson and murder had their reasons and killed people who were not innocent, they still killed people, set fires, and lynched, so they must also be punished - they will have to spend six months to a year in prison.

When the results came out, the owner of the auction house was furious.

Jail? Just jail?! The longest sentence is only one year?!

——What is the difference between such punishment and acquittal? !

However, no matter how hard he struggled, it was useless. He was arrested, and soon he and the rest of his subordinates would meet in prison.

And those nobles who survived the fire and secretly left Mermaid Town last night and rushed home in carriages will also be arrested and brought back to receive the due trial.

From death to life, from hell to heaven, Wen Ying and his companions were all a little dazed.

It was not until cheers and excited cries filled the entire courtroom that they realized - it was actually true.

It turns out that they really survived.

…

Lu Jiu watched the entire trial, his heart was up and down, but finally he calmed down.

He was a little surprised.

Although the legendary duke did not show up at the auction last night, he did not expect that the other party would actually intervene in this matter.

This controversial figure was not quite the same as he had imagined.

Wen Ling and Wen Ying hugged each other, and the two brothers talked while crying.

Lu Jiu retreated to the outer corridor and lowered the brim of his hat.

He waited in the corridor for a while and noticed the two guards who had just escorted the new judge came out. His thoughts turned slightly and he walked over.

He walked very quickly, and when he came to the two men, he whispered, "There is an old man who collects fish bones. His last name is He, and he is a middle-aged man pretending to be him. He sets up a stall on the main road of the town every day. He is also from the auction house, and he must have sent a lot of orcs to the auction house. You will know after you capture him and interrogate him."

The two guards were talking in low voices. When they heard this, they turned around and looked.

The young man was wearing an old cowboy hat, the brim of which covered half of his face. They could only see his small chin and a pair of rosy lips.

"The old man who collects fish bones?" A guard frowned.

"Yes. He is a know-it-all in this town. Ask other people in the town. They should know about it too."

"I see." The guard's brows relaxed, "You are..."

"I'm just a passerby."

Lu Jiu said this calmly, then walked past them and walked out of the courtroom.

The two guards opened their mouths... They had just served justice on behalf of the Duke, so why should they be so wary of them...

A guard sighed, "Forget it. I'll go check on this 'old man'. You stay here and ask the people inside if they saw the mermaid last night."

"Know."

…

Lu Jiu waited outside the courtroom under the scorching sun for another hour before Wen Ling came out, wiping away his tears and looking relaxed.

Seeing him, Wen Ling ran over and said happily: "Aying asked me to take you back to the sea. When do you plan to leave?"

Lu Jiu did not answer this question, but asked: "Do you know other sailors in this town?"

"?" Wen Ling, "I know people who work in this field in the nearby towns. What's the matter?"

"Do you know a sailor of your name? I mean a fisherman, not a captain."

Wen Ling looked puzzled. "No, I've never seen anyone with the same name as mine. We're the only family with the last name Wen around here. What? Are you looking for someone?"

Lu Jiu: “…………”

What's going on.