Chapter 308: You Made Me Laugh! [Seeking Monthly Tickets]

The crowds of onlookers continued to riot.

Is this for real?

It's for real, of course.

Yu Zi was dragged away by the bailiffs and given ten strokes of the cane. When she was brought back, she was unsteady on her feet and fell to her knees. Her face was ashen, her lips twitched from the pain, her breathing became erratic, and beads of sweat glistened on her nostrils.

She trembled as she pulled out the prepared petition from her bosom, staring intently as the scroll was handed to Shen Jun.

Then it is slowly unfolded—

I read it carefully, word by word.

In just a few breaths, you can read about a woman's life.

This woman is the one who gave birth to her, raised her, and taught her.

She also shared a similar fate with Yu Zi, a "lesson from the past"—if it weren't for her full protection and guidance, Yu Zi's future would have headed in the same direction. She could almost imagine that future that she could see the end of at a glance.

To be belittled, humiliated, beaten, or verbally abused.

Every day, upon waking up, there are endless farm chores and household tasks, and a "husband" who is prone to physical violence—perhaps there is more than one "husband," and perhaps the "husbands" are brothers, fathers, sons, grandfathers, and grandsons—and an endless stream of children who are born and die young.

Poverty, violence, despair, and helplessness will permeate every nook and cranny of this long period, turning into the filthiest colors to fill her unknown life. These festering sores will encroach upon even the smallest space she can breathe.

Only complete numbness and death could free her.

That's a future that's suffocating just to think about.

As the granddaughter whom her grandparents disliked the most, Yu Zi was repeatedly suggested to be sold to a slave trader or married off as a child bride. Continuing to raise her would be a loss, and the longer she was raised, the more she would lose money.

They euphemistically call it: "This is how it's been done for generations."

yes--

It's the same with every generation!

That's how everyone in the neighborhood does it!

Why can't she do that?

Is she a girl from a modest family?

Or is she a lady from a respectable family?

Did she have a father who was granted the titles of nobility and high-ranking officials?

Or does she have a mother of noble birth?

Neither?

If neither of those applies, why can't she do it this way?

Yu Zi is also extremely lucky.

After her fate partially overlapped with that of her mother, Yu Meiren, at a crucial crossroads, it veered off in an unknown direction.

Bang!

Shen Jun slammed the complaint on the table in a fit of rage.

With a stern expression, he pressed Yu Zi, "Commoner Yu Zi, is everything written here true? Is there not a single false word?"

Yu Zi endured the pain and knelt up straight: "Absolutely no lie!"

Having laid the groundwork, Shen Tang ordered the guards to bring up Yu Zi's elderly parents. These two old folks were quite bold; although they had spent the night crammed into the prison and looked rather unwell, they didn't seem particularly fearful or uneasy.

Shen Jun didn't just arrest the two old men.

Everyone in Zhujia Village, young and old, was arrested.

I'm guessing which audacious family got into trouble?

After much thought, this is the most likely possibility.

After asking around, no one could give a clear answer. He was quite uneasy all night, but as a seasoned peddler who had traveled all over the country in his youth, it was impossible for him to be timid or lack mental fortitude in this line of work. He had a strong heart that was no weaker than that of a scholar. He quickly adjusted his mindset and prepared to take it one step at a time.

They were still quite steady when they were brought up.

Shen Tang looked at the two of them with an icy expression.

The elderly couple both have an advantage in terms of appearance.

The man has regular facial features, a full forehead, thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a naturally honest and sincere appearance. He has a simple and unpretentious temperament and does not have a bit of aggression. The woman has gentle eyebrows and eyes without any sharp edges. Her eyes are round and her lips have a natural upward curve. The gray hair at her temples is a finishing touch. The first impression she gives is that of a very gentle and loving "old woman" or "grandmother".

When these two very typical "good people" appeared, their expressions carrying just the right amount of confusion and fear, they drew whispers from the onlookers. No matter how you looked at them, these two families were just ordinary, kind-hearted old people. Had they made a mistake by filing a complaint?

The fact that the granddaughter sued her grandparents had already displeased many ordinary people—upon seeing the elderly couple's appearance, their hearts were already heavily tipped in favor of the Zhu couple.

They didn't know what Yu Zi was going to sue, but whatever the reason, they were her blood relatives and her elders. Even if these two didn't seem like bad people, it wouldn't be the young generation's place to sue their relatives!

The elderly couple respectfully bowed to Shen Tang.

Her timid and pitiful appearance garnered sympathy from a group of elderly commoners, who couldn't help but point and whisper about her. The elderly Zhu couple were also puzzled, secretly glancing at the thin Yu Zi out of the corner of their eyes, and the more they looked, the more familiar her face seemed.

Finally, a flash of inspiration struck me.

"Big Girl? Big Girl, is it really you?"

The old woman, surnamed Zhu, called out in surprise.

Then, in a fit of anger, he said, "You unfilial child, what are you doing here? Do you know how long your grandfather and I have been looking for you?"

Shen Tang chuckled inwardly.

Too lazy to sit up straight, she sat asks with a slanted posture, resting her chin on her hand and smiling, "Does this old lady recognize this person?" under Qi Shan's disapproving gaze.

The old woman surnamed Zhu nodded: "Yes, my grandson."

"Then do you know why you're here today?"

The old woman, surnamed Zhu, shook her head.

At first, she genuinely didn't know, but when she was brought up and overheard the whispers of the commoners below, fragmented words gave her a clue, and she quickly guessed what was going on. A burning rage raged within her; she wished she could skin Yu Zi alive!

That vile bitch!

Shen Tang pointed at Yu Zi: "Your grandson is now accusing you two old folks of harming his mother, Yu Shi. Is that true?"

When the old woman surnamed Zhu heard this, she could not believe it.

Like a sudden change of expression, she instantly switched from disbelief to being wronged. She slapped her thighs, collapsed to the ground, and cried out in anguish, "Injustice! Injustice! This old woman is innocent! What... what makes you say this? Her mother committed a crime and was punished by being made to pound rice, and then she committed suicide. What does this have to do with this old woman? Everyone in the village knows about this!"

The common people below were in an uproar upon hearing this.

Yu Zi sneered.

No wonder he's an old bastard who goes around swindling daughters from good families; his mouth is truly silver-tongued, and I wonder how many people he's deceived and harmed with that tongue! He deserves to die!

Yu Zi's hands, hanging by her sides, were clenched into fists.

Old man Zhu chimed in.

That "good guy" face can even make unsuspecting people waver in their judgment, leading them to trust him while also feeling sorry for him.

He felt like spitting on Yu Zi's face.

Shen Tang watched the elderly couple perform their singing, recitation, and martial arts routine with her chin resting on her hand. Their acting skills were truly the pinnacle of immersive performance; they were veteran actors! She lightly tapped the table with her finger, signaling for quiet—such a serious occasion as a courtroom was not appropriate for such noise!

Gu Chi: "..."

Before you say that, my lord, please sit up straight.

Shen Tang summoned the minor official and asked, "Is this true?"

The clerk replied, "Yes, Lord Shen, this is indeed true."

Upon hearing this, the elderly Mr. and Mrs. Zhu breathed a sigh of relief.

Shen Tang then asked the elderly Zhu couple.

Do you have any other explanation?

The old woman, surnamed Zhu, pitifully wiped away her tears and cried out her innocence: "I know I've treated Da Niu well. Her mother got into trouble, and we were worried that we were too old to take care of her, and also worried that her mother would implicate her, so we arranged a good marriage for her. Who knew she would run away without a word halfway through, and stay away for years... Even if she didn't like the marriage, there was no need for her to run away. I really don't know why she did this, and she even blames us for harming her mother. I'm innocent, Mr. Shen..."

As he spoke, tears of genuine emotion streamed down his face.

Because Yu Zi ran away from her arranged marriage, the groom's family, who hadn't found a wife, chased after them and smashed a lot of their belongings. The old man was so angry that he fell ill for almost half a year before recovering. To quell the trouble Yu Zi had caused, they even had to compensate her and the old man for a considerable amount of their savings for their funerals.

They only have this one grandson.

Could he possibly harm Yu Zi?

The old woman from the Zhu family sobbed and made veiled accusations that not long after Yu Zi ran away from her arranged marriage, rumors began circulating in Zhu Family Village that Yu Zi had run off with another man, and several villagers described the story in great detail.

They guessed that this was why Yu Zi ran away from the wedding.

Even if that's true—

"Girl, it's good that you told me. Why did you have to run away?"

She ran away from the wedding, was unhappy, and now she's suing them.

What's the point?

After thinking it over, I realized they were probably after their money for their funerals.

Her pitiful rant only fueled the rage of the common people below, who wanted nothing more than to rush over and punch Yu Zi—how could there be such a shameless and vicious offspring in this world!

Extremely unfilial and utterly hateful!

Shen Tang listened and mumbled a couple of "uh-huhs" as she spoke.

She listened very, very attentively.

Even the old woman surnamed Zhu thought she had been persuaded.

Only Yu Zi on one side gritted her teeth.

She believed in Shen Jun! She believed that Shen Jun, who dared to confront the seven local bullies, was by no means a foolish or incompetent person, and would never be led by the nose by a few words from an old woman in a mountain village!

Shen Tang did not disappoint Yu Zi's trust.

She suddenly let out a cold laugh and asked the old woman Zhu indifferently, "Old woman, I'll ask you one more time—is it true?"

The old woman, surnamed Zhu, said, "I have been wronged."

Shen Tang slammed her transparent, crystal-clear Wenxin flower seal onto the table with a loud bang, her brows furrowed coldly as she snapped, "Injustice? Say it again to this Wenxin flower seal!"

As a former peddler, the old woman surnamed Zhu had traveled extensively and was knowledgeable enough to understand the meaning of the literary monogram. However, as an ordinary commoner, her knowledge was limited, only scratching the surface. She said, "This old woman has truly been wronged."

Shen Tang sneered: "What a stubborn mule."

Seeing this, the common people below calmed down a bit. They thought the old couple were good people, and that Yu Zi, who had gone to marry them, was disobedient and unfilial, but Shen Jun's attitude clearly indicated that the old couple had a problem.

Could it be that there are some hidden secrets they don't know about?

She asked the two of them with a hint of malice, "Old women, do you two know what crime it is to sell someone else's goods?"

The old woman, surnamed Zhu, turned deathly pale.

Shen Tang pointed at Yu Zi and questioned the old couple: "Is it true that you sold Yu Zi's birth mother from elsewhere to this place?"

The old woman, surnamed Zhu, was inwardly panicked, but she maintained a calm facade. In a frantic, tearful voice, she stubbornly insisted, "No, no, how could I dare to do such a thing? This would be a sin against heaven! Our ancestors would be furious!"

He then swore an oath to the heavens.

Her mother, Lady Yu, was definitely not someone she sold.

They even brought out their ancestral graves to support themselves.

In fact, it was she who "rescued" Yu Shi.

The old woman, surnamed Zhu, had a "I have no choice but to speak" expression. She gritted her teeth and said resolutely, "...This matter is a family disgrace. I originally didn't intend to tell you for the sake of my poor daughter-in-law, and I'll take it to my grave. Da Niu's mother was indeed sold into slavery, but it wasn't our family that bought her. It was the three old scoundrels from Zhuangjia Village. They had tormented her to the point of being unrecognizable. Because she hadn't had children for several years, they were planning to sell her. I took pity on her and asked the old scoundrels in Zhuangjia Village to marry her, so that my son, who has been mentally challenged since childhood, could keep her company..."

The onlookers, ordinary people, were treated to a major piece of gossip.

This...this...this—

A woman serving a father and his two sons?

Although the world is very chaotic and disorderly, Fugu City is still a "city" and its order is relatively better. Such shameful things that cannot be seen in the light of day only stay at the level of gossip. At most, people talk about which family is chaotic in private, but it is all "it is said" or "it is rumored".

For a moment, the way they looked at Yu Zi changed.

The old woman, surnamed Zhu, continued to sob, "Everyone in our village knows about this, but for Da Niu's sake, we haven't told her, worried that she would look down on her mother. I don't know where she heard those nonsense words and is slandering us two old folks like this."

She sat on the ground, heartbroken and so sad she wanted to roll around on the ground, while the old man Zhu beside her also pretended to be embarrassed and lowered his head.

Shen Tang shook her head inwardly.

It's a real shame that those two old guys aren't acting.

She asked Yu Zi, "Is this true?"

Yu Zi knew that if she wanted to seek justice for her mother, all those shameful past events would be brought up again, and the world would gossip and ridicule her—but Yu Zi knew even more clearly that her mother had always stood tall and lived with integrity.

Upright and honorable!

Completely innocent!

The ones who should truly feel ashamed of this shameful past are never Yu Meiren! They are those two old bastards!

Yu Zi said, "Three parts true, seven parts false."

She took a deep breath: "It's true that Mother was sold into slavery, it's true that she was tortured by the three Zhuang family members, but everything else is a lie! They are the ones who sold her into this situation. Mother has never yielded for a single day! Was it her fault that she was sold into slavery? Was it her fault that she was humiliated by the three men? If it weren't for these two old bastards harming people... the people they've sold into slavery in their lives aren't just my mother! How many people have they harmed! They deserve to die!"

Those who shared the same fate as her mother...

They've all been harmed by this!

Yu Zi wished she could strangle them right now.

How dare they spout such nonsense and distort the truth in front of Shen Jun? Are they even human?!

Shen Tang said, "They truly deserve to die!"

She pointed to her own monogram.

Addressing the elderly Zhu couple and the commoners below, he said sternly, "Do you know that there is such a thing as the power of words, which can make people speak without reservation? Under the power of words, any truth can be uttered! If you lie here, at least one person will have their tongue pulled out! If you betray someone, the lightest punishment will be chopping off their feet or hands, the heaviest—all five punishments! I won't torture you, I won't use any of those methods of extracting confessions through torture. As long as you repeat it again in court, under the power of words—"

"Is this the last chance, or is it a miscarriage of justice?"

The imposing aura made the elderly Zhu couple's hearts skip a beat.

Now they were truly panicked.

But a sliver of hope still lingered in my heart—

Perhaps, perhaps Shen Jun is just deceiving them?

Where in this world can you find the ability to make someone uncontrollably speak the truth? If someone had that ability, wouldn't they be a god?

There are no gods, but there's plenty of spiritual power.

Shen Tang gave Gu Chi a wink, knowing that the power of words to make people speak the truth was his specialty!

°Benefit°

I'm so angry, so angry!

I originally wanted to write a lighthearted side story for the Lantern Festival, or quickly move on from this part of the plot, but the more I looked at it, the angrier I got, the more annoyed I became, and the more annoyed I became, the more I wanted to explode...

(End of this chapter)