Yesterday, Ding Zhu had a sudden inspiration. After asking Lord Yang for help, she took a sedan chair out of the house to the street to buy cloth to make a summer shirt. When she arrived on the street, she suddenly heard a crisp local accent, which seemed a little familiar. She was so excited that she quickly lifted a corner of the sedan chair curtain. When she looked up, she saw Erniu and Sanniu.
Ding Zhu never dreamed that she would see Erniu and Sanniu in the north, thousands of miles away from home. At that time, she only saw Tong Bajin leading Erniu and Sanniu, but did not see Jian Ning and Ding Youtian walking in front. She mistakenly thought that Erniu and Sanniu were abducted here by kidnappers.
You deserve it!
Thinking back to the unbearable days when Ding Zhu was sold to the brothel, she didn't hate Wu Fengfu, but instead hated Jian Ning and Ding Youtian to the core. The reason was simple: if Ding Youtian hadn't allowed the spirit beast to injure Tu Yidao and reported him to the town government, how could her grandparents have felt so relieved? And why would the whole family have gone to the town government to watch the incident?
She wouldn't go if her whole family didn't go, and she wouldn't be targeted by Wu Fengfu if she didn't go. This was what Wu Fengfu told her later. She was a good farm girl who could have lived a clean life, but Jian Ning and Ding Youtian ruined it all!
Until this moment, Ding Zhu still didn't know that Jian Ning was Princess An Ning and Ding Youtian was the new top scholar. Yesterday, she lied that she had to go to the bathroom and stopped the sedan chair. She asked the maid who followed her and the servants who carried the sedan chair in the mansion to wait for her at the corner of the street, and then she quietly went to look for Erniu and Sanniu.
She originally planned to buy Erniu and Sanniu from Tong Bajin and throw them into the red-light district as a revenge against Jian Ning and Ding Youtian. Unexpectedly, when she caught up, she found Guoguo Baimei and two little silver foxes. After discovering those spiritual pets, she saw Jian Ning and Ding Youtian again.
Ding Zhu didn't think about how they ended up in the North. She only thought about how she was now with the official, the highest-ranking official in the North. Although she was only a concubine, the official doted on her. She thought about following them to see where they were staying, and then finding a way to have Lord Yang capture them.
It would be better to beat them with a hundred sticks first, until their skin was torn and flesh was exposed, and then chop off their heads, so as to relieve the hatred in her heart!
But Ding Zhu didn't expect that Jian Ning would find out that she was following them. When Jian Ning suddenly turned back yesterday, she was scared to death. She didn't expect that because of her, Jian Ning was on guard, which actually helped Jian Ning invisibly.
After Ding Zhu returned home yesterday, she thought hard for a long time but could not think of a way to harm Jian Ning and the others. This was because she lied to Lord Yang about her life story, saying that she was not accepted by her brother and sister-in-law when she returned to her natal home after becoming a widow. She also said that her brother and sister-in-law were so unscrupulous that they wanted to sell her to a brothel in exchange for money to pay off her brother's huge gambling debts, so she had no choice but to jump into the river to commit suicide.
She had exaggerated herself into a chaste young woman who would rather die than enter a brothel. She had wanted Lord Yang to send people to search for Jian Ning and the others in the city several times yesterday, but she was worried that her lies would be exposed by Jian Ning, so she had been hesitating until now.
Now, they actually killed someone, and she thought the fool was Ding Youtian. Since they killed someone, she would step on them again. She cried sadly, "Master, please help me! I ran into my brother and sister-in-law on the street yesterday. I think they must have fled here to avoid gambling debts. The officer's description just now is very similar to my sister-in-law. That vicious woman has always been cruel. My parents were tortured to death by her!"
She was crying like a pear blossom in the rain. Seeing his new little beauty crying like this, the prefect was heartbroken. "Hurry up and speak. Once we find out that it is indeed your brother and sister-in-law, and they have committed another murder, this prefecture will not let them off easily!"
To be honest, this prefectural governor, Lord Yang, was not a corrupt official, nor was he greedy for money. He just had one hobby: keeping concubines. It didn't cost much money to keep a concubine, and after a while, when he got tired of her, he would send her out of the government office. As for whether she lived or died after being released, he didn't care much.
Lord Yang has been in office in Yanzhou County for less than half a year. He really wants to make some achievements, otherwise he would not have inspected the river during the summer flood prevention season in order to arrange flood prevention matters in advance.
Since he took office, King Rui has extended an olive branch to him several times, but he ignored it all. Otherwise, he would not have gone out even though he knew that King Rui and his men were waiting for him outside with drums beating.
Yang Minzhi, also a scholar, was loyal only to the imperial court and disdained to curry favor with the nobility or be curried in. At this moment, he paced back and forth for a few steps, hands behind his back, thinking to himself, according to Ding Zhu, her brother and sister-in-law were not from Yancheng, so how could they have committed a murder and offended the people in the Rui Palace?
"You haven't seen the person in the prison yourself, and the police officer just described her approximate age and appearance, without any other special features. How can you be sure it's your sister-in-law? Just seeing them once on the street yesterday is not enough to make a conclusion."
"No, sir." Ding Zhu waved her hand. "My sister-in-law knows a little bit of martial arts. She said she was taught by a master when she was young. How many young women in the world are both good at martial arts and beautiful? Actually, she's not that beautiful. It's just that her face is a little more rounded than the average woman's."
She spoke softly in the following sentences, and she felt a sense of guilt. When she realized that she felt guilty because she also thought that Jian was really beautiful, she became angry with herself again.
Gritting her teeth, she looked up at Lord Yang and said, "That vicious woman even dared to beat her parents-in-law. When my parents were alive, she didn't even take them seriously. My brother is useless. He's not very good-looking, but he saw something good in her. He just indulged her all day long. Otherwise, my parents wouldn't have passed away so early. It's a pity that they were pissed off to death by him!"
After saying this, she stamped her feet, covered her face and cried.
"Forget it! In this case, this government is too lazy to bring them to trial." Lord Yang thought it would be better for him to stay away. After all, they were his concubine's brother and sister-in-law. It would be better to do Prince Rui a favor and hand over the case to the judge to decide.
The Tongpan and the Futai shared responsibility for provincial affairs. While the Futai held the greatest authority, the Tongpan also oversaw the Futai and could report any dereliction of duty directly to the court. This position was originally established to divide the responsibilities of the Futai, preventing the Futai from becoming a single authority and exerting absolute control over local affairs.
He used the excuse of feeling unwell to pass on the message that the matter of the murder of the soldiers in Prince Rui's mansion should be referred to the Tongpan for trial and decision.
Prince Rui was already getting impatient waiting in the front hall. When he heard the news, he exchanged a glance with the judge Jiang Xiaohe. They both snorted inwardly, thinking that it was fortunate that Yang was sensible enough not to get in the way.
In a moment, as the court was about to begin, the chief of the guards from Prince Rui's palace stood proudly on the right side of the courtroom as the plaintiff, while Prince Rui sat in the audience seat. Jiang Xiaohe slammed the gavel in his hand and said, "Bring in the defendant!"
Tomato has added a new illustration function, but it’s not what I want, so I’ll just have to take a look at it.
The yamen was crowded with people who had come to watch the excitement, each one craning their necks to peer into the courtroom. They had all heard that a woman was among the murderers. It was truly audacious and capable of a woman to kill the guards of Prince Rui's palace. Everyone was curious about what she looked like.
As Jian Ning and Erlangzi were being brought up, two groups of people arrived outside the yamen, heading in from the left and right. The group on the right consisted of Ding Youtian and Tong Bajin, along with Erniu and Sanniu. The other group consisted of five or six burly men, led by a red-faced man eight feet tall. Someone shouted into the yamen in a hoarse voice, "General Geng is here!"
General Geng?
Ding Youtian paused when he heard this and glanced sideways at the man.
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