Chapter 902: The beloved cousin escaped from control (28)

Liu's hysteria did not allow her to see Du Shichu. Instead, because of her act of forcing her way into the princess's mansion, Du Shichu sent guards to send her to Jingzhao Prefecture.

When Liu heard this order from the servant, she was so frightened that cold sweat broke out all of a sudden, and her heart almost jumped out of her chest. Go to Jingzhao Prefecture? How could this be possible? She was already guilty of being a thief, how could she dare to go there? !

"I won't go to Jingzhao Prefecture! I won't see the princess. Don't send me to Jingzhao Prefecture..." Liu was a typical guilty thief. Because she was afraid of being sent to Jingzhao Prefecture, she lost her rationality and refused to see the official no matter what.

The messenger was puzzled and said, "Madam Zhou, didn't you say before that you wanted to tell our princess about the robbers? It would be the same if you went to Jingzhao Prefecture and told the judge about the case. Why are you so reluctant to go?"

When Liu heard his question, she was choked. Could she say that she was guilty?

So she had nothing to say as the guards took her away mercilessly, along with her servants.

As for how Liu would cover up her lie after being sent to Jingzhao Prefecture, Du Shichu had no idea.

This matter was actually very simple. The plan of Zhou Yizhu and Liu's mother and son was too crude and simple. As soon as the people from Jingzhao Prefecture interrogated the "robbers", the "robbers" hurriedly sold Zhou Yizhu. If Zhou Yizhu had been more cautious before, and did not ask these fake robbers to act himself, but asked other people, then this case might have taken a lot of effort. But Zhou Yizhu was too smart and met the fake robbers directly. He did not even think about concealing his identity. Didn't people find out his identity as soon as they asked?

He probably thought that after he successfully "rescued the beauty", no one would care about the whereabouts of the "robber", so he didn't bother to think about the aftermath.

So Zhou Yizu, who was still recuperating in the Huguo Temple, was escorted back to Beijing for trial that day.

He originally wanted to grit his teeth and refuse to admit it, and perhaps he could deny it, but the judge in charge of the case would not be polite to him, so after only three strokes of the stick, he confessed spinelessly. There was nothing he could do, he was already injured, and he was not someone who could endure hardship and pain. After being beaten several times, his wounds burst and his back was in severe pain. He immediately admitted with tears in his eyes that the so-called robbery incident was actually written and directed by him.

When the truth of the case was presented to the emperor by Jingzhao Prefecture, the emperor was almost furious. He cursed repeatedly, "How unreasonable!" and "How unreasonable!", and then severely punished Zhou Yizhuo who dared to plot against Du Shichu. Of course, this was also meant to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, to warn certain people that there would be a price to pay for plotting against Du Shichu.

In the end, Zhou Yizu was stripped of his honors, forbidden to take the imperial examinations again, and sentenced to five years in prison. When he was released, he was basically a useless person.

As an accomplice, Liu was stripped of her imperial title and sentenced to two years in prison.

As for Zhou Zhen, although he was not aware of what his wife and children had done beforehand, as a family member, he did not discipline his family strictly and did not teach his children well. The emperor felt that he could not even manage his family, so how could he help govern the country? So he demoted his official position by three levels and sent him to a remote and poor area as a county magistrate. This was considered a break for him, after all, he was not dismissed from his post.

However, this result was not very good for Zhou Zhen, who had been obsessed with climbing up the social ladder all his life. After all, he was already in his forties, and being demoted to a remote area at this age, it would be almost impossible for him to return to the capital in his lifetime. His other sons were not outstanding either. It could be said that the entire Zhou family had regressed to the time more than 20 years ago when he had not yet passed the imperial examination. For this reason, he hated Zhou Yizu, the culprit, and felt that it was because of him that the Zhou family could not gain a foothold in the capital, let alone develop.

No matter how resentful, annoyed, and regretful the Zhou family was, the matter had already been settled. Du Shichu had finally gotten rid of the Zhou family who had been staring at her and trying to step on her to climb up, and she was in a very happy mood.

As Du Shichu's other cousin, Liu Weian broke out in a cold sweat after knowing the fate of the Zhou family. If he had not given up before and was thinking about how to gradually get closer to Du Shichu, now he has no idea at all. He just wants to maintain a polite and distant relationship with Du Shichu.

In fact, in the past two years, Liu Weian passed the imperial examination with his own efforts, but his ranking was very low, so even if he was appointed an official, it was only a very inconspicuous minor official. Although the Liu family had some reputation among literati, the Liu family was doing well in their hometown in Lincheng, and no one was an official in the court, so Liu Weian was alone in the capital, and there was no help in his official career. That was why he had thought of getting close to Du Shichu before, but he didn't dare to do it after this time.

It's not that the Liu family didn't write to Du Shichu, wanting her to help Liu Weian, but relationships need to be maintained. In the past ten years, the Liu family never contacted Du Shichu. They only wrote to her when they wanted to use her. How could Du Shichu pay attention to them? So even if the Liu family got angry and wrote to her as an elder to reprimand her, Du Shichu turned a blind eye to it, and later even stopped reading their letters.

"Zhou Zhen expelled Zhou Yizu from the family and disowned him as his son. As for Liu, he directly gave her a letter of divorce and then left the capital with his remaining children and concubines." Wu Xiaoran came to the Princess' Mansion to tell Du Shichu about the follow-up situation of the Zhou family.

After listening to this, Du Shichu nodded indifferently. What happened to the Zhou family had nothing to do with her anymore.

"Sister, you won't be sad because of them, right?" Wu Xiaoran carefully observed Du Shichu's expression for a while and asked hesitantly.

After hearing what he said, Du Shichu's eyes widened in surprise. She asked Wu Xiaoran in confusion: "Brother, why do you think I would be sad for the Zhou family? I don't have any contact with them at all, but they have always wanted to establish a relationship with me. How could I be sad for someone who has nothing to do with me? You really think too much."

"...After all, they are somewhat related to your mother?" Wu Xiaoran said.

"I don't care about the Liu family anymore, so why would I care about a distant relative who is who knows how many generations apart?" Du Shichu sneered.

"By the way, you don't think I'm cold-hearted, heartless, and unfilial, right?" Du Shichu suddenly remembered that this is not the society where people are indifferent like in later generations. In this era, family relationships are still very important. She is so unorthodox and rebellious. Will her brother have any opinion about her?

Wu Xiaoran looked at her with his dark phoenix eyes: "You ask me this question?"

(End of this chapter)