Chapter 25
Outside the courtroom, the crowd sighed and pointed at Qian Jindai.
"This guy is so wicked. He always takes his money for granted and never respects others. I never expected him to swindle a young girl out of her entire fortune."
"He's so greedy, he's lost all conscience. I've heard he always finds all sorts of excuses to deduct wages from his subordinates. The hardworking ones in Fumanju are doing two jobs each, while the lazy ones are just following him and bullying others."
"That's so unethical!"
They didn't try to lower their voices, and Qian Jindai heard them all.
Qian Jindai knelt on the ground and pointed at them fiercely.
At this moment, seeing that the atmosphere had been set enough, Yu Wan raised her voice and said:
"My lord! I wish to sue Mr. Qian, the owner of Fu Man Ju restaurant, for murdering someone!"
Qian Jindai immediately retorted: "What a joke! Why would I harm the magistrate's daughter for no reason? I think you are the murderer. You want to climb the social ladder. You coveted Young Master Jin's family background and wanted to become a phoenix from a sparrow. You were worried that Miss Zhu would get in your way, so you killed her!"
Jin Yifei's face darkened, and he shouted, "Qian Jindai! I am just friends with Madam Yu, and my cousin is family. If you dare to spout nonsense and insult them again, don't blame me for being impolite!"
Lord Zhu rubbed his temples, then pointed at Yu Wan.
"Madam Yu, please finish what you have to say."
Yu Wan looked serious, her clear eyes filled with an unwavering belief in victory.
"My lord, I want to accuse this man of plotting against me. On that day, I accepted Young Master Jin's invitation to come to your residence to cook. When I was leaving, he wanted to buy my homemade barbecue seasoning recipe. After I refused, he held a grudge and bribed the driver to abandon me in the wilderness, causing me to be attacked by a pack of wolves."
Everyone was astonished; they couldn't believe such a thing had happened.
"My God, this Mr. Qian is so heartless. During the Chinese New Year, he's trying to harm people just for a formula."
"He was blinded by greed; he was utterly wicked."
Qian Jindai's eyelids twitched; he never expected Yu Wan to take this matter to court.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Didn't Young Master Jin find that coachman? I don't even know him, how could I possibly bribe him? I guess he saw you shining in front of the magistrate and went to great lengths to take you home, but you didn't show any appreciation. He was resentful because he didn't get any benefits, so he wanted to take revenge on you. This matter has nothing to do with me."
A woman in the crowd shouted, "My lord, my husband is innocent!"
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw it was Chu Niangzi, the best friend of the cloth shop owner, Wan Niangzi.
Lady Chu had been watching from the doorway for a long time. After her husband was taken away by the constables, she had been seeking help everywhere, but the people she knew were all ordinary citizens, and none of them had the ability to help with this. Hearing that the county court was holding a hearing, she came to see what was going on. Just as she was thinking of finding an opportunity to beat the drum and appeal for justice, she didn't expect that the people in the courtroom would mention her husband.
“My lord! Zhang Pu is my husband. He did accept the fare from Young Master Jin that night and went to the Yu Family Restaurant to pick up Madam Yu and bring her to the county town, but it was not my husband who took her back.”
Lord Zhu's head was buzzing. He hadn't expected the matter to be so complicated. Although the parties involved hadn't changed, it seemed like he was handling several cases simultaneously. In all his years as an official, this was the first time he'd encountered such a thorny situation, yet it seemed he didn't have to do anything at all?
He looked at Yu Wan, his eyes asking her what she wanted to do next.
He thought to himself: This woman is so young, even a year or two younger than my daughter, yet she has such cunning.
This is a big game, and the moves are quite ruthless; they didn't even consider the possibility of a reconciliation.
Yu Wan looked towards the doorway, where five familiar faces appeared—her former cellmates.
"Sir, I have witnesses."
The fellow inmates shouted excitedly, "It's us! It's us! We're Yu Niangzi's witnesses!"
Lord Zhu, please let them in to give their reply.
Qian Jindai recognized them at a glance and said sarcastically:
"Zhu Da, Zheng Erjin, Bao Mancang, Hong Pangzi, Fang Wulou, aren't you guys the ones who come to our Fumanju kitchen to scavenge for trash every day? What, this girl paid you to identify me? Let me tell you, giving false testimony in court is illegal, and you'll definitely get a beating. You'd better think it through!"
The group of people were dressed in tattered clothes and still looked disheveled, but in order to attend such an important and grand occasion, they washed their faces and tied their hair up properly. They were all of average appearance, but they all had kind faces.
Zhu Da, as the representative, stepped forward and respectfully acknowledged Lord Zhu's rudeness.
“Sir, we are the witnesses that Madam Yu found. A few days ago, we saw Qian Jindai lying to Madam Yu in the jail. Later, Madam Yu asked us to help follow him. This Qian is particularly cautious. We followed him all the way to a villa in the suburbs and saw him secretly meeting with someone. We also heard their conversation.”
Lord Zhu seemed to have forgotten that he was the presiding judge, and became just as curious as the onlookers.
What did they say?
Zhu Da replied, "That day, Madam Yu told the man surnamed Qian that the coachman left her a message before he abandoned her on New Year's Eve, telling her not to seek revenge after she became a ghost. Afterwards, the man surnamed Qian went to confront the coachman and asked him why he said such useless things. The coachman claimed that he had not said it, and the two even had a fight."
At this time, Zhang Pu had already been brought to court.
Lord Zhu asked, "Is the coachman you saw this person?"
Zhu Da answered definitively, "It wasn't him."
Zhang Pu felt a huge weight lifted off his shoulders and wept with joy. He immediately wanted to kowtow to him in gratitude.
"Brother Zhu, thank you for clearing my name!"
Lady Chu was already in tears; her husband was finally saved!
The onlookers had already uttered all the words of condemnation they could muster regarding Qian Jindai's actions.
"Who is this person? I always take people to Fumanju to treat them to meals, and it turns out I'm just giving money to such a heartless person."
"I really can't believe he's so despicable and shameless!"
Lord Zhu frowned in thought, then rested his chin on his hand and asked, "Since the coachman is someone else, who is he, and where is he now?"
Yu Wan's gaze swept across the entire room, finally landing on the face of a minor official.
Everyone else had a spectator's expression, but this person's face grew increasingly grim.
And he was the minor official who came to the restaurant that day to get kebabs for Zhu Zhifeng.
The next instant, Zhu Da was pointing at the man's nose.
"That's him!"
Lord Zhu's expression changed drastically, and he looked at the junior official who had followed him for many years in shock.
"Tang Yezhou?"
Tang Yezhou looked flustered and immediately cried out that he was innocent.
"My lord, I have served you for so many years, you know my character best. I would never do such a thing as knowingly breaking the law. These Zhu Da and his gang are idle and prone to fighting. They have deliberately started brawls in the streets several times just to get out of jail. I have personally arrested them before. They must be holding a grudge against me and are deliberately framing me. Please don't believe their lies!"
Zhu Da and the others were furious when they heard this.
“Tang Yezhou, we did get into a fight over a prison sentence and got arrested, but we didn’t frame you. That day we followed Boss Qian to the villa, and we could hear you two arguing so loudly. You said you deliberately put sleeping potion in the car to avoid being discovered, so that Madam Yu wouldn’t find you. When you left, she was sleeping soundly in the car.”
Yu Wan suddenly realized why she had slept so soundly that night and didn't even know when the carriage stopped.
Tang Yezhou glared angrily and rebuked Zhu Da and the others: "I am an official of the imperial court. You will be punished for falsely accusing me!"
Zhu Da retorted, "We didn't frame you! When you were arguing, a third person appeared and tried to mediate between you—this person!"
He pointed to Zhao Gu, the divine physician who had been kneeling to the side for a long time and had been largely ignored.
When the court session began, Zhao Gu was filled with anxiety, but having knelt there for so long without anyone paying attention to him or mentioning him, he thought it was all unrelated to him. Only then did he realize why he was there.
"Your Honor, I am innocent! I do not know this official at all. I am just a friend of Boss Qian. He asked me to do him a favor. If I could successfully help Miss Zhu detoxify, Madam Yu would owe him a favor, and then they could do business together. I really don't know anything. I just wanted to come and help detoxify her."
In his eagerness to save his daughter, Lord Zhu's primary focus was not on the case, but on something else entirely.
"Can you really cure my daughter's poison?"
Zhao Gu hesitated for a moment, then patted his chest and said, "My master used to be good at detoxification. I have been learning medicine from him since I was a child. I'm sure Miss Zhu's poison is no problem."
Lord Zhu, his expression agitated, suddenly stood up, "Then you..."
He noticed Yu Wan's serious expression, realized his behavior was inappropriate, and sat down steadily.
"Zhu Da, you say you saw those three people at the villa, do you have any proof?"
Zhu Da was stumped, "This...this..."
Tang Yezhou looked innocent and said with red eyes, "Sir, we have known each other for many years. Don't you trust my character? Everything they said about their subordinates is a frame-up, a complete fabrication! I have never been to any villa, never met Boss Qian, and don't know this Doctor Zhao."
At this moment, someone in the crowd shouted, "We can testify that the three of them know each other!"
Upon closer inspection, everyone realized that these were several kitchen helpers from Fu Man Ju.
Yu Wan was very surprised. These people were people who had been to the restaurant before, and she didn't expect them to stand up.
Chen Lie shouted, "My lord, we can testify that the three of them know each other. After Madam Yu was arrested and imprisoned, I heard Boss Qian muttering to himself about how he had made a fortune. He was acting suspiciously for the next few days, which I found strange, so I secretly followed him. I saw the three of them drinking and chatting happily at the villa, calling each other brothers in private. I also know that they all have the same Qilin tattoo on their arms."
The three men's expressions changed drastically. They looked at each other, finally finding no way to argue their point.
An eerie silence fell over the scene, and even the people at the entrance held their breath.
Lord Zhu looked at Tang Yezhou with a grief-stricken expression and disbelief. "Now that the truth is out, what do you have to say? Why don't you surrender?"
Unexpectedly, Tang Yezhou suddenly drew a soft sword from his waist, rushed to Yu Wan in a few steps, and took her hostage.
"Don't move! Or I'll kill her!"
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