Chapter 6 Spanking "How shameless!"

There must be clues as to where the donkey dealer bought the stimulant and whether he slaughtered the sick donkeys and sold their meat.

But these all take time to find.

And the evidence he provided was enough to prove that there was something wrong with the donkey dealer.

Pei Yixue said to the county magistrate: "We have no evidence to prove that this person did not kill the sick donkey, but sold it to us. I beg the county magistrate to order a thorough investigation of this matter."

After saying this, he glanced at the donkey dealer and asked, "For example, where was the donkey meat sold? Do you have any evidence?"

"We brothers shared and ate them all."

"Didn't you say before that you would sell it? Now you are eating it yourself?" Zhang Xi asked.

"Yes, I sold it. I bought the donkey back, and my brothers gave me some extra money." The donkey dealer said this with a proud and arrogant look on his face. "They can all vouch for me."

Pei Yixue said: "Relatives and friends cannot serve as witnesses."

The donkey dealer disdains to argue: "That's useless. We ate the donkeys. Why can't you make us spit them out again?"

Zhang Xi's eyes were burning with anger. "More than twenty donkeys, they were all eaten in less than three days. Show me how much you eat."

"You asked me to eat it for you to see, so I ate it for you to see. What do you think of me?"

Zhang Xi's fists were clenched so hard that they made a sound. Pei Yixue patted his shoulder and told him to be patient.

Ask the donkey dealer: "After the meat is eaten, what about the bones and donkey skin?"

"Chop it up and feed it to the dogs."

"Nothing left?"

The donkey dealer nodded, which meant that the other party also had no evidence to prove that the donkeys he was selling were not sick.

There is no evidence, so the county magistrate cannot just rule that they are at fault.

Under the current circumstances, they could not count on the county magistrate to investigate the case and could only collect evidence themselves, so they asked the county magistrate to give them a few days.

Upon hearing this, the county magistrate narrowed his eyes and slammed the gavel in his hand.

"So you still can't produce evidence? Is this true?"

This was a fact, and Pei Yixue could not refute it. He could only say that he would be able to produce solid evidence in three days.

The county magistrate snorted coldly and slammed the gavel down again.

"Someone is here! Pei Yixue and Zhang Xi, you have slandered others without reason and disturbed the court. You are to be taken to jail immediately."

"Why are they arresting only us? Doesn't he have no evidence?" Zhang Xi shouted.

"You are bringing someone to court, so naturally you have to provide the evidence." The county magistrate was impatient and waved his hand to have the bailiffs drag the two men away.

Pei Yixue was thrown into a cell and almost couldn't stand.

Not long after, the footsteps of a group of people approached.

The cell was a small space enclosed by round logs as thick as a large bowl.

He peered through the gaps between the logs and saw the county magistrate and two jailers standing in front of his cell.

The county magistrate twisted a string of jadeite in his hand, looked him down, and said, "I'm afraid the prison cell is not to your liking?"

Pei Yixue remained silent.

The man outside the cell continued, "Insulting the imperial officials and disturbing the court is a serious crime. But I am not a stingy person. If you are willing to make amends, I will forgive you.

Do you think so or not? Why do you have to suffer this prison disaster? "

The apology the county magistrate wanted was money.

Each of the three of them must pay two hundred taels of silver as an apology.

Three people, a total of six hundred taels.

The annual salary of a county magistrate is only ninety taels, yet he dares to ask for such a high price.

Pei Yixue naturally refused, and the first negotiation ended in failure.

Not long after the county magistrate left, another person came.

It’s Li.

She originally came to visit the prison under the pretext of discussing and persuading him, but when she saw the prison environment, she began to persuade him sincerely.

The people should not fight against the officials. She didn't want Pei Yixue to suffer this, so she wanted to give the county magistrate money to get them out.

Six hundred taels is not a small amount, but they can afford it.

Pei Yixue disagreed.

When you ask for money, there will be a first time, a second time, and countless times.

So he just let Li and his team search for evidence of the donkey dealer buying stimulant drugs and leave him alone.

Two days passed like this.

At noon on the third day, Pei Yixue was bored and making a little scarecrow with the straw on the bed, when he suddenly heard two footsteps coming towards him.

Glancing at Xie Yushu, he quickly buried the scarecrow in the straw, then pulled out two strands of hair to make himself look as miserable as possible.

When the man came outside the cell carrying the food box.

He immediately coughed weakly a few times and said softly, "Ashu, you're here?"

In order to better exert his power, the county magistrate allowed visits to the prison for consultation, but the jailer was not allowed to open the prison door.

Xie Yushu nodded to him, put the food box on the ground, and handed the dish over the wooden fence.

Pei Yixue glanced at the pair of hands wrapped in white bandages.

He walked over, squatted at the cell door, reached out and picked up Xie Yushu's hand. The white bandage on the palm of his palm was still oozing blood.

"How did you do that?"

When he took a closer look, he discovered that the man's cheeks and lips were pale, obviously a symptom of excessive blood loss.

The injury on the palm alone would not make a person look so sick.

He reached out his hand from the gap between the logs in the cell, held the man up and down, and examined him. "Where else is he injured?"

Being touched all over, Xie Yushu's neck and face turned red with embarrassment, and she quickly retreated beyond the reach of his hands.

After calming down for a while, she gestured to him.

He and Xie Yushu have known each other for about half a year, and now he can understand some sign language.

Because Xie Yushu and his team found some evidence these days about donkey dealers selling sick donkeys, the donkey dealers could no longer sit still.

Yesterday, they learned that the donkey dealer had gone to Tongren Pharmacy to get prescriptions and buy medicine, so they wanted to go and ask about it.

While passing through a deserted alley, he was attacked by several masked men.

Xie Yushu was injured at that time. In addition to his palm, the more serious injury was in his abdomen.

In the critical moment, he sprinkled a packet of animal drug on those people, and they were saved from danger.

Pei Yixue was horrified when he heard this, and couldn't help regretting his original decision. He should not have pursued this momentary pleasure.

It's just a matter of a few hundred taels.

There is no need to rush to teach the donkey dealer and the county magistrate a lesson. You can get the desired result by taking a long-term approach.

But the current situation is that the arrow is on the string and has to be shot.

Donkey traders must be eradicated as soon as possible.

He asked, "Is there any news from Tongren Pharmacy?"

Xie Yushu nodded.

The pharmacy was reluctant to reveal too much at first, after all, it involved the patient's privacy.

But after understanding the whole story and finding out that the matter had been reported to the government, he relented in order to avoid bringing discredit to the pharmacy.

The pharmacy did not intend to help cover up the fact that the donkey was sick. The donkey dealer initially wrote the prescription in the name of his mother, who was critically ill, and wanted to take advantage of her last days to be with her children and Juyitang.

With Tongren Pharmacy as a witness, the donkey dealer will no longer be able to refute the fact that he sold sick donkeys.

Coupled with the crime of hiring a killer to injure someone, it is enough to keep him in jail for at least ten years.

Now they have to deal with the county magistrate. If the county magistrate can still blatantly favor the donkey dealers under such circumstances, they will have to find another way.

What he could think of, Xie Yushu and others had also considered, and they also brought some news.

The county magistrate was a filial son and almost always obeyed his mother's words.

The county magistrate's mother had suffered physical damage due to the difficult conditions in previous years and had not been able to rest properly after giving birth. She had severe headaches all year round and was in great torment.

They wanted to deal with the county magistrate, and the fastest way was to start with the county magistrate's mother.

There are many causes of headaches.

After listening to what Xie Yushu said, Pei Yixue guessed that the county magistrate's mother was probably suffering from a long-term illness and lack of nourishment, which led to the six evils invading the body, obstructing the circulation of qi and blood and blocking the meridians.

He leaned on the prison door, smiled at Xie Yushu on the other side, and asked someone to come over.

Xie Yushu pursed his lips and did not move.

Pei Yixue coughed twice and said seriously: "Ah Shu, I really have something important to tell you. It's a big deal."

After hesitating for a moment, Xie Yushu finally came over.

"Come closer." Pei Yixue whispered against the cell door, "The secret recipe that the Bodhisattva told me cannot be heard by others."

Xie Yushu raised his eyes and looked at him steadily for a while, then leaned closer.

Seeing this, the corners of his mouth were almost stretched to the back of his ears, and he leaned over and whispered three prescriptions in the person's ear.

Two of them were effective in treating migraines, allowing them to get in touch with the county magistrate's mother, and one was a prescription for replenishing blood and promoting muscle growth, helping Xie Yushu to recuperate.

After returning to the inn, Xie Yushu discussed what to do next with everyone.

In the past two days, they have gotten to know the county magistrate and his mother to some extent. The county magistrate's mother would go to the Baiyun Temple outside the city to burn incense every day.

They decided to perform a play on the way to the Taoist temple to attract the attention of the county magistrate's mother.

The next day, a carriage creaked along the road towards the rising sun.

Under a big tree, a Taoist priest was sitting with a whisk in his hand. On a half-meter-long cloth sail beside him were written in large letters: "Save those who are destined to be saved."

When the carriage arrived here, a little Taoist boy who looked about five or six years old stepped forward, stopped the carriage and saluted.

"Blessed be the infinite heavenly master, my teacher observes the celestial phenomena at night and comes to save the donor from the sea of ​​suffering."

The woman in the carriage drew aside the curtain, bowed back to them, and then took out some silver and handed it over.

Obviously they just thought they were blocking the road and asking for money.

At this time, the Taoist boy held up a black sachet in both hands and approached the woman.

The woman was startled for a moment, and then her tired expression visibly became more energetic.

She changed her previous perfunctory attitude and got off the carriage.

The black sachet was the first prescription Pei Yixue gave. It smelled like it had the effect of clearing dryness, refreshing the brain and relieving pain.

With the help of the sachet, Xie Yushu and his friends gained the trust of the county magistrate's mother.

After the second dose of medicine had a good effect.

Xie Yushu, the fake Taoist priest, became a guest of honor at the county magistrate's mansion.

Seeing that the time was ripe, he told the whole story and asked the county magistrate's mother to seek justice.

The county magistrate's mother was usually easy-going and had many friends. When she learned that the county magistrate had been seeking ill-gotten gains while in office, she was furious.

She called the county magistrate and scolded him harshly.

"Have you forgotten how those people bullied my mother and me in the past? How are you any different from them in your behavior now?"

"Before you became an official, you said you served the country and the people. Is this how you serve the people?"

As the magistrate's mother spoke, she picked up the stick in the maid's hand and spanked the magistrate on the buttocks.

Xie Yushu and the others were still in the hall, being spanked in public, with outsiders present.

"Mother, mother~" the county magistrate had no choice but to call out coquettishly, wanting to hide but not daring to.

But the county magistrate's mother swung the stick in her hand even harder.

After being beaten, the county magistrate was ordered to go to the cell in person to take Pei Yixue out.

He was hit on the buttocks more than thirty times and it was burning with pain, but he could only limp to the cell.

When he was almost at Pei Yixue's room, he straightened his expression and pretended nothing had happened.

When the jailer opened the cell door, the county magistrate lowered his head and stepped into the cell, smiling at Pei Yixue, "Mr. Pei."

Pei Yixue sat on the straw, looked up at the man, and did not answer.

The county magistrate could not help but get anxious, and he came close to him and leaned over and said, "Well, I have reviewed the case again in the past few days and found that there are still doubts.

I misjudged you at the beginning, please forgive me."

Pei Yixue still didn't respond, but he was surprised in his heart.

The county magistrate was actually so afraid of his mother.

The case of the sick donkey was re-examined in court.

When the donkey dealer first entered the yamen, he was still arrogant.

"Sir, how can I deal with their entanglement and the delay in my business? I earn a hundred or eighty taels a day!"

Pei Yixue's side produced physical evidence and witness testimony from Tongren Pharmacy, as well as evidence of the donkey dealer's crime of hiring someone to injure someone.

The donkey dealer seemed to have been wronged. "How did I offend you? Is it necessary to find a group of people to frame me?"

The men who had ambushed and killed Xie Yushu had already been frightened by the power of the drug last time, and had been threatened continuously in the past two days, so they tremblingly explained the transaction with the donkey dealer in detail.

The donkey dealer still insisted that it was a false accusation from them.

The county magistrate glanced at his mother and slammed the gavel. "You said they framed you. Where were you four days ago? Is there any witness?"

When the donkey dealer said that he had been staying at home, Pei Yixue and his colleagues brought out several vendors from Changbei Street as witnesses.

The vendors had seen the donkey dealer appear on the street that night.

This time Pei Yixue and his team were well prepared.

No matter how the traffickers argue, they can always produce corresponding witnesses and evidence.

At the end of his words, the county magistrate asked again: "Sun Long, do you have anything else to say?"

The donkey dealer just kept protesting his injustice, saying he was being slandered.

The county magistrate's mother could no longer bear it and slammed the table. "He still tries to argue when there is irrefutable evidence. I have never seen such a shameless person in my life!"

The county magistrate was startled and quickly adjusted his official hat and slammed the gavel in front of the audience.

“How shameless!”

The county magistrate finished cursing and said, "Come here, someone, Sun Long hired someone to hurt someone, and Long Zheng, Long Sheng and others committed murder for money. I hereby sentence Sun Long to 60 strokes of the cane and 10 years of imprisonment, and Long Zheng, Long Sheng and others to 20 strokes of the cane and 4 years of imprisonment. The sentences are to be executed immediately."

The criminals all cried out that they were innocent.

Sun Long was in disbelief until he was dragged away for a distance by the bailiffs and then he came to his senses.

He shouted, "My lord, how can you go back on your word? You have received fifty taels, my lord."