Chapter 19: Punishing the feudal old lady for killing without bloodshed
Song Jin was cleaning up the scene inside, while Wen Ya was dealing with the Bai family outside. They cooperated well for some unknown reason.
Near noon, Yulan from Zizhu Courtyard suddenly came to tell her that the eldest lady asked her to go to the hall and that her face did not look good, so she was told to be careful.
Song Jin knew clearly that now that she had gotten the money and dealt with the Bai family, it was time to deal with family affairs, and maybe even her.
As soon as he entered the hall, Song Jin saw Wen Ya sitting at the top with a gloomy face. He was not panicked at all, but walked to the front, bowed, and waited to be scolded.
He is a tough guy with thick skin and will just ignore the scolding.
Unexpectedly, Wen Ya didn't say anything after she stood still, so Song Jin had to continue waiting. During this time, everyone from the Meilin Courtyard arrived, without leaving out a single one.
She saw Chunyun's small figure huddled in the crowd, and her eyes couldn't help but glance towards Song Jin.
"The police have left, and so have the people in that room. We can now explain some things that need to be explained." Wen Ya asked everyone in a low voice, "Tell me, who set the fire last night?"
Ye Wenfu glanced at Xu Cuiyun beside her, and neither of them spoke. Zhao Yiliu lowered her head and had not raised it since she came in.
"Sister, didn't the officer recognize me once when he was in our courtyard? I don't think he recognized me at all. I think Mancao is lying to distance himself from the matter."
"snort!"
As soon as Ye Wenfu finished speaking, Wen Ya snorted coldly and cursed angrily, "That was to give you face. You should know what kind of crime arson is. If you are caught by the police, do you think you can come back intact? I'll strip you of your clothes and give you a beating. I'll see if you can still be so stubborn."
Ye Wenfu twisted the handkerchief in her hand and turned her head to look at Liu Cuiyun beside her, but Liu Cuiyun didn't even look at her, and she immediately became angry.
Clearly, she also had a share, but she didn't say a word and was left to deal with it all by herself. I immediately regretted saying that.
"Well, if the master won't say anything, then the servant will say it. If no one doesn't speak up today, all of you will be hung up and beaten."
All of a sudden, a large group of people knelt down, and Ye Wenfu and Xu Cuiyun turned pale.
Xu Cuiyun began to argue: "Sister, what are you saying? It was Mancao who was watching over the yard, and now that the West Garden has burned down, she is the one to be questioned. Why are you asking us? Aren't you too biased?"
"Biased?" Wen Ya glared at Xu Cuiyun. "If I hadn't kneeled before the officer today to plead for mercy, saying that it was a woman who set the fire and that it didn't burn the neighbors, and begging the lord to show some mercy, do you think you would still be standing here to argue with me?"
"Once the officers arrest you and bring you to justice and you are beaten with a stick, I wonder how you can go out and see people again."
After cursing, Wen Ya turned to the servants who had gathered around him and said, "Tie up all the servants in the West Garden and take them to the woodshed for questioning. If they don't vomit within a cup of tea, hang them up and beat them."
As soon as she finished speaking, a group of servants came up with ropes. Chunyun looked at Song Jin in horror. Song Jin shook his head at her, and she said nothing.
Song Jin was also depressed. He clearly said that it was Ye Wenfu's people who did it, so why did they drag everyone in the yard out for questioning?
But I understood it when I thought about it carefully.
With Ye Wenfu's personality, she won't suffer much even if she squeezes into an entire courtyard. If she doesn't admit it today, she will punish everyone in the entire courtyard. That means they are dragged down by Ye Wenfu, and who knows how they will hate her then.
But what can Chunyun do?
Song Jin couldn't help but wanted to step forward and talk, but was glared at by Wen Ya. Song Jin was extremely depressed and should have not brought up Ye Wenfu if he had known earlier.
She was also puzzled. She clearly hadn't thought of getting involved with that side, so why did she blurt it out in order to protect herself when Ji Shubai asked her questions?
It turns out that I am just too bad. I am afraid of meeting such upright people. I become spineless and weak when I meet them. It is better not to meet them in the future.
Seeing the servants tying up the servants one by one and taking them away, Ye Wenfu and Xu Cuiyun looked a little anxious, but the first one to plead for mercy was Zhao Yiliu.
"Sister, since I entered the house, I have never gone against your wishes. Now that the West Garden is on fire, whether it is a natural disaster or man-made, it has nothing to do with us."
"I married into the Bai family and I am a member of the Bai family. How can I set fire to my own house? Even if you give me the courage, I would not dare to do it. If you want to ask, just ask. I will answer everything I know. Why bother to kidnap my girl?"
When the maid Dongzhi heard Zhao Yiliu pleading for her, she also immediately began to plead: "Grandma, Grandma, I am innocent. I would never dare to set fire to the house."
Wen Ya naturally knew that it was not her who did it, but she just wanted to take this opportunity to cause trouble.
"Then tell me, who was that person who ran into Merlin Courtyard?"
"That's complete nonsense. Maybe Mancao is trying to distance herself from the matter and drag us into it. Otherwise, how could she be the only one who saw it? Did she think everyone else was blind?"
Ye Wenfu kept pushing Song Jin, who was naturally not panicking. She stood up and said, "I did see someone going from the West Garden to the Plum Forest Courtyard."
"Then do you recognize who it is?"
Ye Wenfu questioned loudly. Song Jin glanced at Ye Wenfu and asked, "What if I say I recognize you?"
Wen Ya heard this and said, "I don't have the guts to set fire to my house. I want to see today what the surname of the master who ordered me to do this is. All three of you wait here."
The meaning of this statement is very clear. The one who is tied up is the servant, but the one to be captured is the master. It just depends on who lets go first.
Song Jin became anxious when he saw the slaves being taken away. He thought they were not really going to fight, right?
She looked at Wen Ya's expression, which clearly showed that she wanted to make Ye Wenfu look bad, but she was also afraid of implicating innocent people. Just when she was in a dilemma, a servant suddenly came to report that someone had spoken.
The person who started the fire was Chunyun, and the person who ordered it was Ye Wenfu.
Song Jin frowned as he listened, while Ye Wenfu started cursing over there.
"You're talking nonsense! Who is so heartless as to dare to throw dirty water on me? I didn't even leave the gate of Meilin Courtyard last night..."
"So you ordered Chunyun, right?"
"Nonsense!" Ye Wenfu was anxious when being questioned: "If you have the guts, call me here for questioning. Who knows if you are making up stories behind my back and framing me? How dare you, a bunch of villains, frame me!"
Song Jin finally understood what this meant by questioning them separately. No matter if anyone pointed the finger at her or not, the blame would be placed on Ye Wenfu.
After all, Song Jin's single identification was not enough. Wen Ya had to convince everyone so that she could severely punish Ye Wenfu.
Regardless of whether this accusation is true or false, once the hole is opened, it cannot be closed again.
Chunyun was afraid of being beaten, so she admitted it immediately. After being beaten, Hongxing and Caiwei, the two personal maids, also admitted that Ye Wenfu forced Chunyun to set the fire.
When the news reached the hall, Ye Wenfu's face turned pale.
"Nonsense! Nonsense! You are talking nonsense!"
Xu Cuiyun breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that she was not involved in this matter.
"Humph! Nonsense? If one person says nonsense, then the other three are also talking nonsense? Aren't they all the maids in your room? How dare they blame you even though you didn't do anything?"
Ye Wenfu froze there, her lips trembling and unable to speak.
"You set fire to my house and burned the medicinal herbs. They were all valuable medicinal herbs. I couldn't afford to pay for it even if I sold you. If the fire hadn't been put out in time, I'm afraid my entire Bai family would have been burned down by you. You are really brave..."
Wen Ya was scolding, but Ye Wenfu no longer had the same spirit she had at the beginning. Her once lively eyes now looked extremely dull, and she couldn't utter a word in rebuttal.
"It's not me... It's not me... Sister... It's not me..."
"Humph! If it's not you, then tell me who it is?"
Ye Wenfu suddenly became alert, with a strange light in her eyes, and said anxiously: "Yes, yes, Third Sister also said she wanted to set the fire, it wasn't just me who ordered it..."
Everyone was stunned. Song Jin didn't expect Xu Cuiyun to get involved. When she saw Chunyun, she immediately guessed it was Ye Wenfu. As for whether Ye Wenfu had joined forces with others, she hadn't had a chance to talk to Chunyun alone, so she didn't know anything.
As a result, Ye Wenfu took the initiative to spit out Xu Cuiyun.
But Xu Cuiyun is not the kind of person who can be linked to others.
"You are asking for your own death, don't drag me down with you," Xu Cuiyun glared at Ye Wenfu fiercely. This person is hopeless, so she could only distance herself from the matter: "Last night, Chunyun was screaming in your room, and I thought she had done something wrong and you beat her like that. Now I understand that you beat her to set fire to her. You have such a vicious heart."
"You were there last night, and it was you who came up with the idea. It was you who said that Chunyun and Mancao were close, so you asked her to go."
Xu Cuiyun wanted to take off her shoes and stuff them into Ye Wenfu's mouth to block her mouth: "Big sister, you have to help me. This Mancao is a maid in her room, and so is Chunyun. She hated Mancao and ordered Chunyun to set fire. Now that she was about to be exposed, she came to blame me. I am innocent, big sister..."
After saying that, she fell to the ground and began to cry loudly. Song Jin looked at her coldly. It seemed that everyone in this courtyard was better at acting than her.
"Humph, I think this matter is very clear. A concubine actually ordered the servants to set fire because she hated me. Normally, my Bai family would not dare to keep you, but now it is still the mourning period."
Having said this, Wen Ya paused, as if thinking about how to deal with Ye Wenfu in a more satisfying way.
"You have too little time to think of such evil thoughts. The three maids in your room will all be dismissed from today. You will have to take care of your own lives in the future. When you are busy, you will naturally not care about harming others."
"All the herbs in the West Garden were burned, which is a huge loss. Although the arson charge has been acquitted, you must compensate for the loss. Dujuan, take your people to the Plum Forest Courtyard later and collect all the head ornaments, jewelry, cloth and fox furs that the master gave to the room in the fourth year. If they can be exchanged for silver, please help collect them and pawn them together. This can be considered as compensation."
"From now on, the number of dishes will be halved, and there will be no more meat. This is a small punishment for a big mistake."
Du Juan whispered yes, but Ye Wenfu had already collapsed on the ground.
Song Jin listened from the side and couldn't help but think that in this feudal society, old ladies really killed people without leaving any blood.
"When the mourning period is over, I will find you a good family to marry off. This will be worthy of the spirit of the master in heaven."
Song Jin swallowed his saliva. Good family? Isn't this just torturing them enough and then throwing them away?
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