Chapter 118
"Grandma Hua, what are you doing? It's so late. If you have something to say, just ask someone to pass it on. Why bother coming here in person?" An Lu curled her lips and glanced at the young man who was supporting Grandma Hua: The old man is ignorant, and the young man is also ignorant? In such a dark place, why did you support an old man who is almost a hundred years old to the government office? If he accidentally bumped into something on the way, who would be responsible?
An Lu: If people knew that an almost 100-year-old man fell ill because he came to the government office in the middle of the night, the people from the government offices in the neighboring counties would probably come over mountains and hills with clappers to laugh at us.
"Alas, Constable An, I have to speak personally about this. It would be disastrous if others spoke." Grandma Hua, supported by two juniors, stood at the front of the line, followed by several strong men carrying sacks. "Please tell the prefect that I have brought a few prisoners with me. I'd like you to arrest and execute them. I thank you very much."
"Oh, no, no!" An Lu quickly stopped Grandma Hua who was about to bow and say, "Your Excellency is not in the government office right now. My decision alone doesn't count. You have to talk to the legal advisor about this."
"Okay, then may I ask where the master is now?"
An Lu looked around and said in a low voice: "Come with me. It's not convenient for the master to come out now." If she came out, she would be blocked by the child's family and forced to listen to a bunch of meaningless repetitive talk.
An Lu led Grandma Hua and her group to the back hall to find the lawyer who was resting there. People watching outside saw the Hua family carrying sacks and heading to the back hall. They wanted to follow to see what was going on, but were stopped by the yamen runners who were responsible for maintaining order: "Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing! Don't barge in!"
Hearing footsteps outside, the master, who was enjoying his midnight snack in his room, put down his chopsticks and walked out. Seeing Grandma Hua being supported, his brows, which had just relaxed, furrowed again. "Xiao An, what's going on?" I asked you to go ask about the mine, why did you bring an unrelated old man back? Can someone of such age withstand the ordeal?
"Master, Grandma Hua brought a few prisoners to see you. No, they came to see you." An Lu straightened her back: This is not my fault, I'm not afraid!
Lawyer: "... Let's find a stool for the old man to sit down first." What a mess.
Grandma Hua was indeed old, and even with support, she couldn't stand for long. After politely giving way to the master, she sat down and asked her family to throw the sacks they had carried all the way to the ground. After the master sat down, she repeated what she had said to An Lu before: "It's unfortunate for our family. We didn't take good care of our grandson, and he killed someone."
"Oh, so you brought your grandson here and wait for the execution in the future." The lawyer didn't know what expression to make for a moment: delivering him to the door in person, is he afraid that the child's parents will obstruct him?
"More than that." Grandma Hua coughed twice and pounded her chest excitedly: "I brought my grandson here with his parents, cough cough... Do they think I can't see that such a big pit was done by that little fat boy who has never done farm work alone?" There was not even a blister on his hands!
"Have you preserved any evidence in this matter?" The lawyer sat up straight with a serious expression and gave An Lu a look: "Executions must follow procedures. Without evidence, we cannot arbitrarily deprive someone of their life."
"I've already hired someone from the martial arts school to guard the pit, and I'm just waiting for you adults to check it out. I'm old, so I might have missed some details. My lords, I'll leave the rest to you." Grandma Hua took the teacup An Lu handed her, took a sip, and suppressed a cough: "Cough... Some people are confused, thinking this is just a child's ignorance, and everything is an accident, a misunderstanding... But this is a life, how can you fool people? I'm not old and confused. Killing someone means paying with your life."
"Okay, tell me the location, and I'll ask...Xiao An, go outside and call someone in."
"Yes!" An Lu stood at attention: "Those outside..."
The lawyer waved his hand and said, "Let them wait for now! Grandma Hua, do you have anything else to say?"
Grandma Hua thought for a moment, her eyes darkening. "I once asked my grandson if he would be afraid if someone wanted to kill him. He said he was very scared and even cried for help... Isn't that ignorant? He knew enough to ask for help! But the child he killed didn't understand or know how to do it!"
"Ah..." The master didn't know what to say for a moment. He couldn't ask Grandma Hua what she had done to make her grandson cry for help, but he felt that Grandma Hua had done nothing wrong.
"Master, I'll leave these murderous descendants in your care. Don't worry about the rest; I'll take care of it all! No matter what terrible rumors spread in the city, these old bones, ready for the grave, can withstand it!" Grandma Hua stood up and saluted solemnly. "Before the execution, I have something to ask of you."
"Please speak." The lawyer stood up with a serious face. His intuition told him that what was going to happen next was very important.
"I want to know if the child who was killed was silenced because he accidentally caught these bastards doing something shameful." Grandma Hua's eyes showed a trace of sadness: "I heard that the child was forced to give him money many times. Why did he endure it to this point and was deliberately killed?" The trap was even dug by their family in advance. What did they do that made them cover up the mouth of a child who gave them money!
"It's my job! By the way, I never asked before, whose child was it they killed?"
"yes……"
After talking about some things, Grandma Hua finally couldn't stand it anymore and was urged by the master and family to return to the carriage. Looking at her eldest son who was sitting next to her and wanted to say something but hesitated, Grandma Hua poked his calf with her crutch: "Why, do you think what your mother did is too cruel?"
"mother……"
"Don't forget, we all live together! If you leave these murderers in the yard, would you dare to sleep with your eyes closed at night?"
"I……"
"Okay, you're already old enough, you don't need your mother to nag you about moral principles every day, right?" Grandma Hua closed her eyes tiredly: "You must pay for your life with your life, and you must pay your debts with your money, don't be lucky." This is a principle that all my grandchildren understand, but you pretend to be ignorant in front of me. When I get back, I will send all of you to school to double your moral studies!
It was impossible to carry out the death penalty in the middle of the night. The lawyer sent Grandma Hua and her group away, ordered the three sacks to be thrown directly into the prison, and forced himself to go out to deal with the matters outside. The child found in the mine at noon was temporarily out of danger, but for some reason he remained unconscious, with occasional fever and delirium.
The child's uncle called the father over and beat him up, demanding to know why he had lost the child. The father then complained that the child was a burden, with a voracious appetite and a dull mind. He said he had only been out for a short while and hadn't done anything illegal: "Can't I still have my own life? The child's mother is gone, and I can't be dragged down by a fool forever."
"What do you mean by idiot? Daming just reacted a little slower than others. You..."
"Wait, the person is gone." The master who just came out narrowed his eyes: "The people who went to search the mountain only came back to say that the person has not been found, but never said that the person is gone! Where did you get this information?"
The child's father: "I, I'm worried that my wife is in danger! After all, it's been three days..."
"I think she's in grave danger, Lao Hei! Hold her down!" The lawyer sneered at the culprit who had kept him up all night. "Go to the cell and wake up Zuo Zi. Tell him to hit her harder this time."
"Okay!"
The child's father was taken away. He struggled hard and shouted "take human life" along the way, but no one paid any attention to him. Those who still insisted on watching the excitement at this late hour were all acquaintances. Everyone knew what kind of person he was, and no one sympathized with him.
"It's a pity for Daming. His father is unreliable and his mother had an accident. If it weren't for his uncle, no one would have known he died in the mine."
"Yeah, luckily someone discovered it... Oh, by the way, have you heard that Daming was not discovered by yamen runners at first, but by tourists who went to the mine to dig."
"Is this true? Tell me quickly..."
The interrogation took a long time, so the lawyer used this as an excuse to send the onlookers home to sleep. He then returned to the back hall yawning, ready to take a short nap.
The child's uncle, worried about the child, left without looking back. On the way, he encountered a gossipy neighbor who said something about how a harmonious family brings prosperity and that the father shouldn't be held accountable no matter how wrong he was. The uncle, already exhausted from a long day, flew into a rage and beat the neighbor up on the spot.
The neighbor scrambled home, cursing through the door and threatening to report the matter to the police. The child's uncle, disinclined to deal with such a mentally ill person, went home and felt the child's forehead, finding it still had a slight fever. Without waking his wife, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion, he went out to fetch water, changed the child's towel, and yawned as he lay down beside the bed.
As the sky darkened, Bei Qiao, having finished her martial arts training, opened her eyes, crawled out of the mosquito net to exchange for a mosquito coil, and opened the window a crack to let in some air. She had specifically asked the shopkeeper for this mosquito net; the mosquitoes in Mingquan City were quite poisonous, and she was worried that the next time she logged in, she would find herself bitten even more severely than today.
"So many species have become extinct in the world, why haven't mosquitoes become extinct?" Bei Qiao slapped a mosquito to death that tried to get in through the window. The sound insulation of the inn was as bad as ever, and the noise of the guests next door could be heard clearly.
Facing the pungent smell of mosquito coils, Bei Qiao practiced the basic skills one last time, closed the window and climbed back onto the bed, carefully tucked in the mosquito net, lay down in the middle of the bed, adjusted his posture several times to ensure that he would not touch the mosquito net when turning over, and then logged off.
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