Chapter 32 You can plead guilty
The air in the courtroom seemed stagnant.
County Magistrate Wang Zhihuan's words, "You may plead guilty," were like a boulder dropped into a deep pool. Though his voice was flat, it stirred invisible waves. All eyes, whether contemptuous, malicious, or curious, were focused on Feng Lan.
Old Man Chen lay on the ground, his lips curled up in a smile of smugness. Village head Zhou Zhengde also breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that no matter how cunning this woman was, she would be exposed under the authority of the county magistrate.
However, Feng Lan's reaction once again surprised everyone.
She didn't cry out, didn't argue, and didn't even deny it outright. She simply raised her head slowly, her clear eyes fixed on the county magistrate high up in the hall. Then, she smiled. That smile contained no trace of flattery or fear, but rather a kind of all-seeing sadness and mockery.
"Your Excellency, do you plead guilty?" Feng Lan's voice was low, but it carried clearly throughout the courtroom. "I'd like to ask your Excellency a question first. The person accusing me here is my father-in-law, right?"
Wang Zhihuan raised his eyebrows and said noncommittally: "Yes."
"Then let me ask you again, sir. To sum up, the crimes my father-in-law has accused me of are nothing more than unfilial piety, theft, assault, and the one that involves trying to sell my daughter, right?"
Wang Zhihuan looked at her, his eyes showing a hint of inquiry: "You can say that."
"Okay." Feng Lan nodded, then turned her head suddenly, her eyes like knives, piercing straight at the old man Chen lying on the ground.
"Dad, I'll call you dad for the last time. You say I beat and scolded my parents-in-law. Do you dare to ask the neighbors to come to the court to testify? You say I abused my daughter. Do you dare to ask Doctor Sun to examine the wound on my daughter's back that almost killed her? Who was it that hit her?"
Every time she asked a question, Old Man Chen's body trembled.
Feng Lan didn't give him a chance to breathe. Her voice suddenly rose, like thunder from the sky: "You said I stole money from our family! Fine! Today I will let everyone see what kind of money I stole!"
Before she finished speaking, she suddenly tugged at her skirt. With a loud crash, a pile of things rolled out of her arms and scattered all over the floor.
It was not gold, silver or jewelry, but a package tightly wrapped in oilcloth and a tattered, curled account book.
When the package was opened, there were a few pieces of silver and strings of copper coins inside. Together, they were just the same as what she had taken from the old lady's room, about four or five taels.
And that account book was what really made the Chen family and the village head change their faces.
"Sir!" Feng Lan kowtowed heavily to Wang Zhihuan with a "bang". When she raised her head again, her eyes were red. That was not a feigned sadness, but the blood, tears and grievances that had been accumulated for more than ten years and finally burst out at this moment.
"This is the money I stole! A total of four taels, two cents, and thirty coins! This is the money I used to save my daughter when she was beaten half to death! This money was scraped out by my mother-in-law from the teeth of our eldest wife, penny by penny! As for the forty or fifty taels my father-in-law mentioned... Oh, if you can give him the guts, has he ever seen that much silver?"
“And this account book!”
Feng Lan picked up the tattered booklet and raised her hands above her head.
"This is recorded on my husband, Chen Kangbo. He's been hunting in the mountains and working in the fields since he was sixteen. For ten years, every penny he's given to the family! How many pounds of wild boar did he kill, and how much he sold them for? How many acres of wheat did he harvest, and how much he was paid! Every penny is clearly recorded! Ten years! Ten whole years! My husband and I ate the cheapest grains and wore patched-up clothes. My daughters never had a full meal! The three hundred and twenty-seven taels and six cents of silver we earned all became what my father-in-law called 'pension money,' my sixth uncle's 'medical money,' and the dignity of his entire family!"
"Today, I want to ask the County Magistrate: Is there any law in this world? My husband and I have worked like slaves for ten years, and in return, our daughter was beaten to death by her own grandmother, and I was falsely accused of theft and thrown into jail! Where is justice? Where is the law?"
Feng Lan's voice, from her calm statement at the beginning to her hoarse voice at the end, seemed to be stained with blood, slamming heavily on the bluestone slabs of the courtroom and on everyone's heart.
Chen Kangbo, who had remained silent until then, finally raised his head. This towering man gazed at his wife's frail yet resilient back, at the account book on the ground that recorded his ten years of hard work. Tears welled in his fierce eyes. He said nothing, but kowtowed deeply to his parents.
One head is worth a thousand words.
There was an instant of dead silence inside and outside the court.
The expressions on the faces of the onlookers changed from frivolous watching to shock and sympathy. They looked at Feng Lan, then at the tattered account book on the ground and the pitiful amount of silver. Old Man Chen's tearful accusation earlier suddenly became like a clumsy joke.
Old Man Chen and the Chen brothers were completely dumbfounded. They had never dreamed that Feng Lan, who usually accepted everything, would actually have such a trick up her sleeve! That account book was like a death warrant, tearing all their lies to shreds.
Village chief Zhou Zhengde's face was uglier than a sheet of paper. He knew it was over. Not only was he in trouble today, he was completely ruined. He had gotten involved in more than just a simple family dispute; it was a powder keg of simmering resentment, poised to explode.
County Magistrate Wang Zhihuan's eyes were as cold as ice. He slowly stood up, walked to the front of the hall, and personally picked up the account book. He flipped open the yellowed pages, looking at the lines of crooked yet meticulous charcoal writing and the red fingerprints behind him. He remained silent for a long time.
As a man of letters, he could imagine how this illiterate couple used this most primitive way to record their hard work and unwillingness every tired night.
"Chen Shuncai." Wang Zhihuan's voice showed no emotion.
"Fuck... I'm here..." Old man Chen trembled even more violently.
"I only have one question for you: Is what's written in this account book true?"
"I...I..." Old man Chen was speechless and couldn't say a word.
In this courtroom, the situation suddenly reversed, and the balance of victory and defeat was about to completely tilt—
"Oh no! Oh no! Sir! Something happened!"
A panicked voice suddenly echoed from outside the yamen. Immediately afterwards, a little boy, about eleven or twelve years old, dressed in a coarse cloth shorts, tumbled and crawled into the courtroom. He was a newly employed medicine boy in Doctor Sun's household, and usually helped with errands and odd jobs.
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