Lord He solved the case quickly. The note provided by Meng Meng was physical evidence, which Meng Meng himself verified, as were the maids and servants in the county government's back residence.
That day, many servants from the Cheng family witnessed the scene of the Cheng and Gu families tearing each other apart.
Cheng Rui had no way to defend himself.
As for Lord Cheng, in addition to protecting his son, Lord He also presented evidence that Lord Cheng colluded with a group of people who sold smuggled salt and ironware, which is a serious crime in the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Just then, the group was arrested and implicated officials from several places, but Qingzhou Prefecture only had one official, Lord Cheng.
Lord Cheng lost his official hat on the spot and was then detained.
His wife and children, except for Cheng Rui who committed the crime, were all imprisoned.
Madam Cheng cried and protested her innocence, but Cheng Huaijin, holding his sister's hand, quietly entered the prison without crying or making a fuss.
The series of cases that stemmed from Gu Shouxin's cheating scandal in the county examination were not concluded until 7 p.m.
The people were still eager for more. Seeing Lord He's smiling face when he wasn't presiding over the case, one of the bolder ones asked, "Lord He, will you be the magistrate of our Taoyuan County from now on?"
Lord He shook his head: "I have to govern the major prefectures in the southwest, I can't just favor Taoyuan County! The other counties will say I'm biased!"
"Hahahaha..." The people were amused by these words and said, "Sir, could you give some advice to the higher-ups and send us a good official? It doesn't matter if he's fierce, just not like Lord Cheng, who is all talk and no action!"
"Well..." Lord He stroked his round chin, looking at the people who were all staring at him intently, and said with a smile, "I'll tell you in secret, I'm secretly giving you a suggestion, but don't let the people from other counties know!"
"Yes, thank you, sir! Thank you, sir!"
The people were all delighted.
Then Lord He said it was getting late and everyone should go back and rest. He would stay at the county office for a few days to handle the aftermath. If anyone had a grievance, please come early tomorrow.
The people went home happily.
...
"Sister Luo, it's getting late. I'm afraid you're not going back! You'll just stay in the backyard with Gu Er's wife!" After the people left, Lord He looked at Madam Li with a smile.
"Xiaolian, do you want to go back?" Madam Li turned to ask Cai Xiaolian.
"Xiaolian, you and the children stay here with Sister Luo! It's not convenient for her to live here alone. Lu Zheng and I will go to Aunt Xiao's place in a bit." Although Gu Shouxin's plan was perfect, he was still grateful to Madam Li for cooperating so well without knowing the situation. She didn't stand idly by when things got complicated, and such a friend was worth having.
Moreover, he didn't hear a single bad word about the Li family from Lu Zheng. On the contrary, Lu Zheng was happy about Madam Li's relationship with their family. He knew then that the Li family was fine.
For example, when we were with the Cheng family before, Lu Zheng's expression and tone were sometimes a bit abnormal.
"Hey, where are Mom and Aunt Xiao?" Cai Xiaolian noticed that Grandma Gu and Grandma Xiao were missing.
“Uncle took them home! Grandma is going to stay with Grandpa,” Gu Xin said.
"It's late, everyone should rest! If there's anything, we can talk about it tomorrow morning!" Lord He said, his hands behind his back.
"Alright! Then I will come again tomorrow to thank Lord He!" Gu Shouxin cupped his hands in thanks to Lord He.
"What are you thanking me for! I'm just doing my job! It's not because I was ordered to pay special attention to you!" Lord He said arrogantly, raising his big fat head.
The people present: "..."
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