Chapter 39 Within three days, I want to see the head of that living corpse.
Achan stood aside and watched Xue Mingtang breathe his last before bending down and placing the signal arrow beside him.
He was given the hope to live, but he died, so he has no one to blame but himself.
Chen Hui retrieved the two bags she had just thrown out, then jumped back to the second-floor window with A Chan.
Shortly after the window was closed, footsteps could be heard outside; the Ministry of Justice officials had finally arrived.
Achan heard someone shout, "Lord Xue has been attacked by zombies!"
Then a series of people called out "Lord Xue," but their Lord Xue couldn't hear anything.
The group of officials from the Ministry of Justice spent over an hour outside, finally concluding that Xue Mingtang had been killed by a living corpse, and had no choice but to carry the body away.
Achan also leaned against the window and listened for an hour. When the group of people finally left, her legs were sore from standing.
However, since one of the people who killed Ji Chan is dead, she should be able to sleep well tonight.
As night deepened, Achan had already fallen asleep, and Chen Hui downstairs was also lying on the couch covered with thick bedding, letting her consciousness sink into the darkness.
It was a beautiful night for them, but a nightmare for the Xue family.
The Xue family waited for Xue Mingtang until midnight, but he still did not return.
In the middle of the night, someone finally knocked on the door. When they opened it, they found a group of unfamiliar clerks dressed in the robes of the Ministry of Justice.
The leader stepped forward and said to the gatekeeper, "We are colleagues of Lord Xue Mingtang, and we have business with your master."
The gatekeeper dared not delay and hurriedly went to report.
Soon, all the masters of the Xue family woke up.
The Xue family is small; the proper masters of the household are Xue Mingtang's parents, and the head mistress has not yet entered the household. Zhao Wenyue, the concubine, can barely be considered half a mistress.
The three men gathered in the main hall, and the leading official from the Ministry of Justice said in a deep voice, "Please accept my condolences, gentlemen. Lord Xue was attacked by zombies tonight and unfortunately died in the line of duty."
"What did you say? My son, what happened to my son?" Old Mrs. Xue seemed not to have heard what the other person said, but her voice suddenly became sharp.
"Lord Xue died in the line of duty. His body has been sent to the Ministry of Justice and will be returned to the Xue residence after an autopsy."
After the clerk from the Ministry of Justice finished speaking, Old Madam Xue collapsed. Old Master Xue's eyes also glazed over, and he kept muttering, "How could this be? How could my son be dead?"
They simply couldn't understand how someone who was perfectly fine during the day could turn into a corpse at night.
Seeing that among the three Xue family masters present, only Zhao Wenyue seemed relatively calm, the clerk from the Ministry of Justice said to her, "Madam, we still need to return to the yamen to report, so we'll be leaving now."
"Butler, see the gentlemen out," Zhao Wenyue said to the butler outside the door in a daze.
After the housekeeper saw the person off, Zhao Wenyue fumbled for the chair behind her and slowly sat down.
Her beloved Xue Lang, the man she was willing to marry even at the cost of her own mother's life, died so easily?
He hadn't yet fulfilled his promise to her to make her his legal wife, nor had he risen to prominence as she had predicted. He died an ordinary death at the hands of a living corpse.
If she had known this would happen, why did she disobey her mother in the first place?
Zhao Wenyue sat there blankly until Old Madam Xue woke up, crying and rushing towards her, scratching her face and cursing incessantly: "You jinx! You're the one who killed Mingtang! You've ruined your whole family, and now you want to ruin my Xue family too! I'll beat you to death, you jinx!"
After being slapped twice, Zhao Wenyue could no longer hold back and slapped Old Madam Xue twice in return. Neither of them would back down, and they started fighting. Old Master Xue cried and wailed on the side, as if providing accompaniment.
The steward had just seen the people from the Ministry of Justice off when he returned and saw this scene; his vision went black immediately.
He endured several blows before finally managing to persuade the two ladies to separate. Then, Old Madam Xue remembered her eldest daughter and insisted that the steward immediately go to the Marquis of Jinyang's residence to fetch her back.
The butler reminded her helplessly, "Madam, curfew is in effect now."
"So what if there's a curfew? Does that mean my son died in vain?"
The butler looked helpless, but could only continue to persuade him, and finally managed to calm him down.
That night, none of the Xue family members closed their eyes. As soon as dawn broke and the drums signaling the end of the curfew sounded, the steward hurriedly drove the carriage to the Marquis of Jinyang's residence.
At this hour, the Marquis of Jinyang had to get up early for court, and Lady Xue also got up.
Upon hearing from her servants that the steward of the Xue household was requesting an audience, she was somewhat puzzled and had him brought in.
Upon seeing Madam Xue, the steward of the Xue household immediately knelt down and kowtowed, explaining the situation directly: "Madam, last night someone from the Ministry of Justice came and said... said that the young master has died in the line of duty."
Xue Shi, who was holding a cup of hot tea, trembled, and the teacup fell to the ground and shattered. She didn't even react when the tea spilled on her skirt.
"What did you say?"
The steward had to repeat himself: "The young master is gone."
"This is impossible!" Madam Xue suddenly stood up. "My younger brother is exceptionally talented. He's already a second-realm cultivator at such a young age. How could he be so easily harmed?"
"The official from the Ministry of Justice who came to the manor last night said that the young master was attacked while capturing the living corpses, but he did not go into details."
At this moment, the Marquis of Jinyang, who had already changed into his official robes, came out. Seeing that Madam Xue's face was pale and her voice was shrill as she spoke to the steward of the Xue household, as if something serious had happened, he asked, "What's wrong?"
"My lord!" Madam Xue turned and threw herself into the arms of the Marquis of Jinyang, crying heartbrokenly. "The steward said Mingtang... Mingtang is dead. Mingtang was always cautious, how could something suddenly happen to him? Someone must have killed him!"
Upon hearing this news, the Marquis of Jinyang was taken aback. He then gently patted Xue's back to comfort her, saying, "Don't cry. I'll send someone to investigate right away."
The Marquis of Jinyang sent his personal guards to investigate, but he had to attend court that day, so he left in a hurry after comforting Lady Xue.
Xue was left at the mansion to await the investigation results.
Soon, the guards who had been sent out returned, bringing with them details that the officials from the Ministry of Justice had not mentioned the previous night.
“Madam, last night Lord Xue and the Ministry of Justice were chasing the living corpse in Changping Ward. He faced the living corpse alone. The Ministry of Justice did not see the specific process. They only knew that when they arrived, Lord Xue was already dead. The whistling arrow was not far from his hand. It seems that he died before he could use it.”
Madam Xue clenched her fists: "Why is my brother all alone? Is someone in the Ministry of Justice deliberately ostracizing him?"
The guard shook his head and said, "That's not the case. Lord Xue is in charge of this operation, and he insists on acting alone."
“Mingtang has never been such a reckless person. Why did he insist on acting alone?” Madam Xue murmured softly, “Changping Ward… Changping Ward…”
Suddenly, a thought struck her, and she hurriedly asked, "How far is the place where the accident happened in Mingtang from Ji Chan's residence?"
"The place where Lord Xue had the accident was right in front of her house."
Madam Xue's expression twisted instantly. She slammed her hand on the table, the jade bracelet on her wrist hitting the corner of the table with a sharp sound: "I knew it! It must have been Ji Chan who killed Mingtang! How could it be such a coincidence that Mingtang died right outside her door?"
The guard found Xue Shi somewhat unreasonable. He had met Ji Chan before, and how could a girl who couldn't even kill a chicken have the audacity to harm Xue Mingtang, who was at the second level of cultivation, in front of a living corpse?
However, since Madam Xue is now the mistress of the Jinyang Marquis's mansion, he could only say tactfully, "There is no evidence for this matter. If Madam acts rashly, she may offend Lord Bai."
"Does that mean my brother died in vain?" Madam Xue gritted her teeth in hatred.
Fearing she might do something outrageous, the guards could only suggest, "Why don't you wait for the Marquis to return, tell him about this, and then make a decision?"
Madam Xue took a deep breath, and her face finally calmed down: "Very well, you may leave now."
She dismissed her guards, but the anger in her heart did not subside.
In fact, she knew very well that her younger brother must have had a plan to appear alone outside Ji Chan's house, but she didn't know why things went wrong and he suffered a disaster.
Even so, this whole thing is Ji Chan's fault!
If she hadn't repeatedly provoked him, Mingtang wouldn't have targeted her, and he wouldn't have ended up alone and losing his life.
Even if we can't make Ji Chan die with Ming Tang right now, we absolutely cannot let her have an easy time!
With a cold face, Madam Xue summoned two capable stewards, gave them a few instructions, and the two quickly left.
The reactions of the Xue family and the Marquis of Jinyang were not of concern to Achan. When she woke up in the morning, the traces left by the fight between the living corpse and Xue Mingtang last night were completely gone.
The shops on either side opened their doors to the rising sun, and the shop owners greeted Ah Chan with smiles, completely unaware that someone had died outside their shops the night before.
The only thing that left a trace was the door panel of Achan's house.
Last night, Xue Mingtang smashed a dead body against her door. The body has been taken away by the Ministry of Justice, but a bloodstain was left behind.
Achan thought the bloodstains were unlucky, so Chen Hui took the silver to the carpentry workshop to have a carpenter order a new door panel.
After Chen Hui left, A Chan tidied up the incense powder and spices in the shop, thinking that the weather was getting hotter and hotter and there were more mosquitoes. She would need to make more of the incense balls mixed with jade powder.
Just as I was thinking about this, someone walked in from outside the shop.
The man who arrived was a man who looked to be in his thirties. He was wearing a long, light blue robe with wide sleeves and a white shirt over it, and he looked quite like a hermit.
Judging from his attire and overall demeanor, he doesn't seem like the type of person who would appear in Changpingfang.
"What would you like to buy, sir?" Achan asked.
The man walked to the counter and asked, "I've heard that you sell a kind of incense pill here that's very effective at repelling rats. Is that true?"
"It's true." Achan turned around, took out a fragrant pill, and handed it to the other person.
The man held the incense pill in his hand, smelled it, and then leaned closer to examine it closely for a while, seemingly trying to analyze its ingredients.
"One incense pill costs twenty coins, and its effects last for a month."
The man frowned. He could only identify a few common fragrance powder ingredients in the incense pills, which shouldn't have any rat-repelling effect.
However, the person who recommended the incense pills to him spoke with absolute certainty, and his old friend was not one to lie, so perhaps the incense pills really did have something special about them.
Wen Zhong took out twenty coins from his sleeve pocket and handed them over, intending to try it out at home.
He recently adopted a lively and active little raccoon dog. A couple of days ago, the little raccoon dog was frightened by a fat rat in the house. It was so scared that it refused to eat. Helpless, he had to look for ways to get rid of the rat.
Just as Achan was about to take the money, she saw a group of people carrying sticks walking menacingly from across the street, heading straight for her.
Before she could react, the people rushed into the store and started smashing things without saying a word, as if they wanted to destroy the entire store.
The leader of the group saw that Ah Chan was beautiful. Although the person who paid him had told him not to touch the people in the shop, he couldn't listen to that now and reached out to grab her.
Wen Zhong was about to stop them when he heard a woman outside shout angrily, "In broad daylight, do you have no regard for the law?!"
Before the sound had even faded, something flew in and hit the back of the head of the person who was trying to lay a hand on Ah Chan.
The man turned his head, and a shoe fell off his head.
It is not very aggressive, but it is extremely insulting.
The group looked at the woman standing at the door at the same time, and Achan actually found the corresponding person in her memory.
This young woman appears to be Lin Sui, the eldest daughter of General Lin Cheng of Anxi. Ji Chan is not familiar with her; she only has this one person in her memory.
Perhaps seeing that someone had taken the lead, onlookers, as well as shop owners and employees from the surrounding area, gathered at the entrance of Achan's shop and said that they had already reported the incident to the authorities and asked them to stop immediately and put down their weapons.
Those people didn't stop, except for the one who had been hit by the shoe, who pointed at Achan and said, "This woman is vicious, selling poisonous perfume, which caused my sister to get covered in rashes. She deserved to have her shop smashed!"
For a moment, the onlookers were unsure whether what the other party said was true or false, but then they heard Lin Sui sneer: "You say she sells poisonous perfume powder, why don't you report it to the authorities? If what you said is true, wouldn't it be more satisfying to see her get a few lashes?"
Immediately, someone nearby chimed in, "Yeah, why not report it to the authorities instead of bringing so many people to vandalize the shop?"
"This is clearly an attempt to take revenge. They must have a grudge against Boss Ji, right?"
Seeing that the man was speechless, Lin Sui mocked, "You can't even do a good job of framing someone, yet you dare to take money to smash someone's shop. If I were you, I would have killed myself long ago. How can you be so stupid as to have the face to show your face?"
Lin Sui's few words enraged the man, who cursed, "You stinking woman, what do you know?"
He reached out to grab Ah Chan.
Before they even encountered Achan, a door panel flew in from outside and smashed directly into the man, slamming him into the counter.
The commotion made everyone in the store stop.
Chen Hui walked in from outside the store, grabbed someone who was trying to escape, and kicked the person's ankle, breaking it with a single kick. The decisiveness of her action made Wen Zhong's eyebrows twitch.
"Hui Niang!" A Chan hurriedly ran to her side.
Are you hurt?
"No." Chen Hui first confirmed that A Chan was alright, then glanced at Wen Zhong next to her. Seeing that he didn't seem like a bad person, she looked at the other people in the shop.
Chen Hui walked over to the man she had slammed into the counter with the door and pulled him out: "Who sent you here?"
The man was stubborn and still refused to tell the truth, saying only, "No one sent us. We are here to seek justice."
Chen Hui dislocated his arm, and the man, sweating profusely from the pain, screamed, "Murder! Help!"
At this moment, Wen Zhong finally stepped forward and said to Chen Hui, "Madam, why don't you let me give it a try?"
Chen Hui hesitated for a moment, then let go of the person.
Wen Zhong stepped forward, bent down and whispered something in the man's ear. The man immediately trembled like a leaf and blurted out, "It was the steward of the Marquis of Jinyang's mansion who sent us to smash up the shop."
"Why?"
"I heard that Lady Hou's younger brother was bitten to death by a zombie outside the door last night. Lady Hou resents the shop owner and thinks that the shop owner interfered with her brother and caused his death, so she asked us to teach her a lesson."
Wen Zhong's expression softened slightly: "People from the Marquis of Jinyang's residence?"
Thanks to Chen Hui's timely return, although A Chan's shop was vandalized, no one was injured.
Soon, the constables from the Jingzhao Prefecture arrived and took away all the troublemakers. Achan, the aggrieved party, also had to go to the Jingzhao Prefecture, and Wen Zhong volunteered to go with her as a witness.
As she reached the door, Achan only had time to thank Lin Sui: "Thank you for your help, Miss Lin."
Lin Sui glanced at A Chan: "Useless."
Then he turned around and left.
Achan opened her mouth as if to say something but then stopped, wanting to say that her shoes were still in her shop, but Lin Sui did not give her a chance to speak.
The Prefect of the Capital was quite efficient. After clarifying the facts of the case, he sentenced the men to a month in prison and ordered them to pay Ah Chan two hundred taels of silver to repair the shop.
As for their previous claim that the steward of the Marquis of Jinyang's residence had asked them to vandalize the shop, since there was no evidence, the matter was left unresolved.
Those local thugs had only taken one hundred taels of silver from the steward of the Marquis of Jinyang's mansion, but in the blink of an eye, they had to lose another one hundred taels themselves. They were utterly devastated.
However, if they didn't receive the money, their one-month imprisonment would turn into a year, so they could only manage to scrape together two hundred taels of silver.
Achan hadn't expected the government to intervene against the Marquis of Jinyang's family. After receiving the compensation and thanking Wen Zhong for his help, she left.
After she left, the Prefect of the Capital stepped down from the hall and bowed deeply to Wen Zhong: "This humble official greets Lord Wen."
Wen Zhong grunted in acknowledgment, said nothing more to the Prefect of the Capital, and hurriedly left.
Watching the Left Vice Censor-in-Chief hurriedly leave, the Prefect of the Capital wiped his sweat, knowing that someone was going to be in trouble in court tomorrow morning.
The next morning, at the court assembly, Wen Zhong, the usually low-key Left Vice Censor-in-Chief, suddenly stood up.
Not only the emperor sitting on the dragon throne, but also half of the ministers and nobles in the court who were dozing off were jolted awake.
This Lord Wen is quite a maverick in the Censorate. He never blindly follows others. He likes to impeach court officials and nobles with powerful backgrounds, and he is always right. To this day, no one in the Censorate can match his record.
Unfortunately, His Majesty trusts him implicitly, and no one can do anything about him.
Wen Zhonglang said loudly, "Your Majesty, I wish to impeach Yan Liru, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice."
The emperor sat up straight: "Speak."
“A month ago, a zombie caused trouble in the capital. Your Majesty ordered Yan Liru, the Left Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice, to take full charge of the case. However, as far as I know, the zombie has not been captured yet, and yesterday it even killed a junior official of the Ministry of Justice in Changping Ward. Not only did the Ministry of Justice fail to report this matter, but it also tried to conceal it from Your Majesty. Their intentions are despicable.”
"A bunch of useless trash! You can't even catch a single zombie, how can I expect you to protect the country?" the emperor roared. "Where is Yan Liru?"
The Minister of Justice stepped forward with a stiff upper lip: "Your Majesty, Yan Liru has been on leave for half a month and did not attend court today."
"Since he is ill, let the imperial physician take a look. I am quite curious why he fell ill at this time of year."
His Majesty is clearly dissatisfied with the Ministry of Justice. The Minister of Justice dares not defend Yan Liru any further, fearing that the Emperor will vent all his dissatisfaction with the Ministry of Justice on him.
The emperor's sharp gaze swept over the ministers below, and he finally spoke: "Bai Xiuming."
"Your subject is here." Bai Xiuming stepped forward, his posture respectful.
"I want to see the head of that living corpse within three days."
"Your subject obeys."
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