Old Man Chu: "Your Honor, this woman is the one I'm suing for breaking off an engagement!"
Bai Jingquan looked at Cheng Shanshan with little emotion in his eyes and directly questioned, "Cheng family daughter, do you have anything to say?"
"Your Honor, please spare my Shanshan!" Madam Bai said, kneeling down with a thud. "It's all my fault, no matter what!"
Seeing this, Cheng Shanshan quickly pulled her up from the ground: "Are you apologizing and begging for forgiveness because you think I'm guilty and are you helping me confess?"
Bai hurriedly explained, "No, no, no, that's not what I meant, I meant..."
"Alright, I know Mother is worried about me too." Cheng Shanshan took Bai's hand and gently comforted her, "But Mother, you must believe that the magistrate is not a corrupt official. I believe that he will investigate this matter thoroughly and give me justice."
At this moment, Old Man Chu, who was standing next to him, was so angry that he jumped up and down: "How can I give you justice? It was clearly you, you shameless woman, who broke off the engagement. Stop trying to argue. I brought the contract with me today. It is written clearly in black and white that you have sold yourself to the Chu family!" As he spoke, he hurriedly took out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket and handed it to Bai Jingquan next to him.
Bai Jingquan glanced at the contents of the paper before coldly looking at Cheng Shanshan and asking, "What do you have to say about this?"
“It’s written in black and white, that’s true.” Cheng Shanshan didn’t deny it, but looked at Bai Jingquan and asked, “But the magistrate should also be able to see that, according to what’s written, I should marry the son of the Chu family in a ghost marriage. How can I, a living person, marry a dead person?”
Before Bai Jingquan could speak, Old Man Chu retorted, "We gave your family five taels of silver back then. My son may be dead, but I'm still alive and well!"
"So you knew your son and your wife who had been with you for so many years were dead?" Cheng Shanshan said, shaking her head and sighing. "Their bodies are barely cold, and you're already in a hurry to remarry. Aren't you afraid they'll come after you tonight?"
Old Man Chu was not well-liked by people, and his behavior this time drew criticism from the onlookers: "What this girl said makes sense. Although there is a sales contract, she is still marrying your son. According to seniority, you should be her father-in-law."
"Go to hell with your father-in-law!" Old Man Chu glared fiercely at the person who had just spoken, his sore spot touched. Then, looking at Cheng Shanshan, his expression was one of utter hatred, as if he wanted to devour her alive: "You little brat, you clearly promised me before. If you want to break off the engagement now, I might as well beat you to death!"
He was really angry.
So he disregarded everything else and raised his hand high as if to start a fight.
Faced with his sudden outburst, Cheng Shanshan did not dodge, but instead secretly cooperated and received the slap squarely across the face!
"Smack!"
With a crisp sound.
Her face immediately swelled up, and a little bright red blood seeped from the corner of her lips...
The sudden turn of events caused everyone present to gasp in shock, and Bai Shi's voice trembled with fright: "Shan...Shanshan!"
"Mother, I..."
Cheng Shanshan said a total of two words.
Her frail body swayed three times, and she finally staggered into Bai's arms before whispering, "Shanshan has a hard life. She can't reason with anyone now, and she can't express her suffering. It would be better to be... beaten to death than to marry this old man Chu."
His voice was sorrowful, and his expression was pained.
Her appearance completely terrified Bai Shi.
Seeing this, Cheng Shanshan took a deep breath and immediately forced her eyes to redden by holding her breath.
Since Old Man Chu could make a scene, she could also play the victim. Based on her few encounters with Magistrate Bai Jingquan, she believed he wasn't an unreasonable and incompetent official.
However, this time the other party has a written contract in hand, and if she wants to turn the situation around, she needs to portray herself as a victim in order to evoke other people's sympathy.
At this moment, she truly had to thank Cheng Wan'er for her years of "teaching by example." Now she had learned about seven or eight parts of her spirit. Then, she whispered a single word to Bai Shi in a very low voice.
"cry."
Bai was stunned for a moment.
Although it was unexpected, Cheng Shanshan's intention was quickly understood.
Although she wasn't good at anything else, she could still cry, so she immediately hugged Cheng Shanshan and started wailing: "My child, I'm so sorry for you, making you suffer with me all this time, and now you have to suffer such unfair treatment! Now... now I'm going to be the one to bury my child!"
These tearful words immediately drew the ire of those nearby.
This included Bai Jingquan, who rebuked Old Man Chu: "How dare you! You dare to lay a hand on someone in front of me! Wang Chao, Zhao Mo, arrest him immediately!"
"yes!"
The yamen runner beside him responded.
The next instant, the old man Chu was captured, causing him to wail in pain: "Ouch, be gentle! My old arms and legs can't take this!"
Bai Jingquan glared at him coldly: "Weren't you quite strong when you hit someone just now?"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Wang Chao, the tall constable on the left, kicked Old Man Chu in the butt: "That's right, you've treated a frail little girl like this, and you still think you're right!"
Old Man Chu was still unconvinced and wanted to argue: "How am I wrong? I..."
However, before she could finish speaking, Cheng Shanshan pretended to faint. Bai Shi cried out in panic, "Waaah, Shanshan! Shanshan! What should I do? Please help me save Shanshan!"
As soon as these words were spoken, people immediately ran to find water and medicine.
The others, seeing the old man's furious face, pointed at him and cursed, "Look what you've done! Old Mrs. Chu has only been dead for a few days, how can you be so shameless as to want to remarry? You have no shame!"
"It's one thing to marry someone else, but why can't you even spare your own daughter-in-law? You're not human!"
"If I were Aunt Chu, I would really lift the coffin lid and strangle you to death!"
"..."
Old Man Chu wanted to say something more.
Bai Jingquan didn't give him a chance and had his mouth gagged.
This action drew cheers. Cheng Shanshan, who was pretending to be unconscious, wanted to see Old Man Chu's discomfiture, so she secretly opened her eyes a crack. Unexpectedly, her eyes met Bai Jingquan's...
His eyes were as clear as the stars in the night sky.
The half-smile on his lips clearly showed that he had seen through her little trick.
This situation made Cheng Shanshan feel uneasy. Just as she was feeling anxious, Bai Jingquan slowly walked over and bent down to look at her with her eyes closed.
Time is extremely slow.
A suffocating silence filled the air...
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