Chapter 1582 Extra: Master and Apprentice on the Opposing Side (Part 2)
Yu Zi: "Why don't you give me a certificate?"
Is a holiday the only cure for her illness?
Qi Miao couldn't help but chuckle, realizing that her friend was indeed going crazy from the heavy workload: "Actually, there's another way."
Yu Zi immediately became interested: "Go on, tell me."
"Wei Heng can put a sword to Kang Gong's neck and see if he wants his life or something else," Qi Miao said, offering a terrible idea right off the bat.
Yu Ziyi replied listlessly, "You think I've never done it before?"
Qi Miao nearly choked on her own saliva. This was just an absurd method she had made up on the spot, but she didn't expect her friend to have already used it. Judging from her friend's reaction, it probably didn't work: "When? What was Kang Gong's reaction? Was he furious?"
She hadn't heard of any similar bombshell news from the Ministry of Justice.
These two tacit partners from the Ministry of Justice did not publicly break off their relationship.
Yu Zi said, "When was it? I remember it was around my fortieth birthday? Anyway, it's been quite a few years. I couldn't stand it anymore, so I drew my sword and asked him to grant me leave. And guess what? That shameless guy took the plunge and hung his belt on the roof beam before I could."
He was putting on an act that Yu Zi didn't need to kill him; he could simply hang himself. In short, a vacation was out of the question.
Yu Zi: [...]
She wished she could untie her belt and hang it next to him, so that outsiders could see two corpses side by side with their long tongues sticking out.
Qi Miao couldn't help but click her tongue in amazement: "Lord Kang is quite a remarkable person."
Yu Zi cursed, "He's a bastard."
Such vulgar language was probably something the former Yu Zi would never have dared to utter. Back then, young people had to maintain a certain image, not daring to let outsiders look down on her knowledge and upbringing. But now she was nearing fifty, practically the matriarch of any ordinary family. She could curse whomever she wanted, and anyone who stopped her was considered disrespectful to their elders. Anyone who said she lacked knowledge and manners was, in her words, disrespectful and rebellious.
Kang Shih, who exploited his subordinates, deserves even more criticism!
Qi Miao blinked and silently drank her tea.
Yu Zi suffers from kidney deficiency and extreme liver fire; she is not to be trifled with.
After this brief encounter, Qi Miao thought that the next meeting might be several months later in the Phoenix Court. Who would have thought that on the third day, she would see Yu Zi with a gloomy face coming to her door, asking her to brew some medicine to reduce internal heat: "Forget it, medicine is too slow to take effect. Give our two words of spirit to reduce internal heat."
The power of medical words cannot be used casually.
We still need to treat the symptoms.
Qi Miao carefully took Yu Zi's pulse and found that her condition was more serious than last time. She couldn't help but wonder—with Kang Gong not here, who could make Wei Hengsheng so angry? Or was there something wrong with official business? Qi Miao didn't speak, but her eyes spoke volumes.
Yu Zi asked, "Do you remember that person from before?"
"Who was that person from before?"
"The blind date my great-uncle found for me."
"Oh, Wei Heng is talking about that ambitious young man who said he didn't have time to think about personal matters, so he took the initiative to follow you and spend time with you whenever he could? What did he do to make you so angry?"
Yu Zi said, "This fiend—"
All that remained in his voice was an overwhelming sense of disgust.
The young man, carefully selected by his great-uncle, was all show and no substance. He initially put on a respectable act, but his true colors were revealed when trouble came. This matter stems from an old local case, which Kang Shi had asked Yu Zi to review.
Yu Zi had also studied that file.
He shared similar suspicions with Kang Shi, and therefore paid extra attention to it.
This investigation actually uncovered a problem.
Qi Miao asked, "A question?"
"It was a family annihilation case that happened more than ten years ago. The murderer was the victim's daughter, who poisoned and killed ten people from two families."
The murderer is still in custody awaiting trial, and the death sentence was only handed down last year. It's not that the local government is inefficient, nor that the people in the Ministry of Justice are incompetent. Rather, it's because Kangguo nominally unified the four continents on the eve of the change of era, but it has only recently taken control of every inch of land. Before that, there were still various unrests in various places, and the chaos of large and small never stopped. Some rebels who relied on their own military strength became outlaws, hiding and causing trouble everywhere. In addition, the royal court was short of manpower and had weak control over the local areas.
This is the old case that happened before.
When the officials sent by the royal court to the local area reorganized and sorted out the backlog of old cases, they unexpectedly discovered that there was a prisoner in the cell who had not been executed. What was even more troublesome was that this prisoner had given birth to four children in prison, two of whom died before they were a month old.
Prisons are not mixed-gender.
In other words, it was the male prison guards who could impregnate prisoners.
The official used this as a pretext to add female prison guards to supervise female prisoners, while simultaneously investigating which female prisoners on the list had become pregnant over the years, identifying the fathers of the children, and pursuing charges against the corresponding male prison guards. Several veteran guards confessed readily, but the male guard connected to the family murder case protested his innocence, claiming that he had been seduced and that the two had become husband and wife in prison, not that he had forced him.
Upon further investigation, some more suspicious points were discovered.
Regarding the details of the massacre, the confessions in the government records were vague and somewhat strange. The official in charge suspected that the previous supervisor had coerced the confession into submission, and that there might be more to the story. The investigation was reopened, but the previous death sentence was upheld.
Shen Tang has been constantly reinforcing the concept of the preciousness of life, and will not allow anyone to use their power to take another's life, including Wang Ting. Therefore, the Ministry of Justice is extremely cautious about the death penalty, and it can only be carried out after three reviews by the Ministry of Justice.
If the case is overturned later, the Ministry of Justice will be held directly responsible.
Local officials were also surprised that it was Yu Zi who came for the review.
Yu Zi immediately noticed something was off about the other person's expression. After interrogating the relevant personnel and reviewing some documents, the whole incident finally came to light. Yu Zi downed a glass of cold water: "If word gets back to the master about this female prisoner's identity, he'll probably be furious."
The female prisoner was among the first group of students in the small courtyard.
Her talent for cultivation was only slightly better than having no talent at all, and she still hadn't condensed her literary heart by the fourth grade. That summer, she went swimming with friends and disappeared. In reality, she was taken home by her parents and locked in the cellar, awaiting her marriage. Her parents originally wanted to persuade her that she could still go to school after marriage, and her future in-laws were willing to provide financial assistance, but she refused. That night, she and her fiancé were locked in the cellar until she became pregnant.
His student status was also cancelled.
She couldn't go back to the small courtyard and suffered hemiplegia due to childbirth.
Thus, she poisoned ten people from two families, the only survivor being a breastfed infant. She does not deny the murders. Her relationship with the male prison guard was indeed initiated by her. She manipulated the guard to do things for her, successfully keeping the case on hold and allowing her to survive. Local officials believe there are hidden circumstances, but her fate is sealed.
Her ordeal was not her trump card that saved her from death.
In addition, she was among the first batch of students in the small courtyard...
The identity is too sensitive.
If the royal court or the lord were to find out, countless people would be implicated, and the entire jurisdiction would be shaken. After careful consideration, they left some details vague, concealing the female prisoner's past identity, and classified the case as an ordinary family annihilation case.
They attempted to slip through the cracks during the Ministry of Justice's review process.
And this is precisely what Yu Zi hates the most.
After listening to the story quietly, Qi Miao asked, "So, it must be the local officials who angered Wei Heng. What does it have to do with him?"
Yu Zi: "That's naturally his attitude."
People with incompatible values are disgusting to spend even a second with.
Other female prisoners were abused and became pregnant by male guards, but this scoundrel showed no sympathy or indignation, even saying, "If only they had known this would happen, they wouldn't have done it in the first place." He added that they were criminals who had committed crimes, and whatever they suffered was the retribution for their sins. Yu Zi was extremely displeased at that moment: "Their crimes have already been punished by the government, and they are serving their sentences in prison; the two cancel each other out. Any misfortune they encounter outside of their sentences makes them victims."
If someone's mistake gives others a legitimate reason to harm them, then what's the point of having a government? What's the point of the Kangxi New Law? What's the point of having the Ministry of Justice? His words are utterly absurd!
Realizing that Yu Zi was unhappy, he quickly composed himself.
But Yu Zi was already on her guard.
Using some subtle coercive tactics, she managed to get him to share his opinion on the female criminal who murdered the entire family. Naturally, his answer wasn't what Yu Zi wanted to hear; instead, it infuriated her. Originally, she had planned to wait until she finished her mission and returned to the royal court to tell him that she hadn't taken a liking to him, and that although there was no chance of marriage, they could still remain friends. Now, however, she just wanted to slap the young man's entire family; otherwise, she wouldn't feel satisfied.
Qi Miao said, "Don't be angry, it's not worth it for someone like that."
Yu Zi crushed the teacup: "It's not just about making him angry."
"Any other upsetting things?"
"Part of it was also because I was angry with myself."
"This wasn't your fault."
Yu Zi shook her head: "I'm just thinking about the past and the present. I can't understand why, after such a difficult time, people don't cherish it and there are still fools who harm innocent people. Why didn't these people die in the chaos of war and live to this day to disgust people? Clearly, the Lord has been working hard day and night all these years, and I... have also worked so hard, not even taking a few days of annual leave, so why do these things still happen?"
Is it truly inevitable?
“What’s there to think about? I still adopt quite a few abandoned children all year round. Some were abandoned because of congenital defects, and some because of their gender.” Qi Miao knew she was getting stuck on something, and said gently, “But I firmly believe that the number has decreased. Perhaps in the beginning, in places I couldn’t see, thousands of children lost their lives because of this. But now that life is better, the number has decreased… No matter how much it has decreased, even if it’s only a hundred or a thousand, it means that a hundred or a thousand children have a future with infinite possibilities.”
Qi Miao focused more on the lives that had survived.
Thinking about it this way makes me feel better.
"The human heart is unfathomable. That is why I believe that even after a hundred or a thousand years, similar misfortunes will still be brewing in the darkness. But I also believe that there will be more places illuminated by the sun than there are today. White and black, good and evil, have always been intertwined and coexist. Our purpose is to bring more light and more good, and to make black and evil retreat from the path of light."
Yu Zi: "...Yes."
Qi Miao asked, "What are your plans for a retrial of this case?"
Yu Zi: "Me? I want to protect her."
Qi Miao asked in surprise, "Save her?"
"Law is not separate from human feelings, and reason is not separate from human nature."
The law must also take into account emotions and morality.
Normally, a female prisoner silencing ten people is an extremely heinous crime and would certainly face death. But what if she also nearly lost her life because of these people? Her actions were also a form of self-preservation, including her later "marriage" with a male prison guard in prison.
Yu Zi wanted to try and see if she could save her life.
"Even if she survives, she'll likely never have freedom again. Is that really what she wants?" Under current laws in Kangguo, she could face imprisonment until death. This outcome is unimaginable and far too cruel for Qi Miao, who cherishes freedom and respects life.
“People are different; some want freedom, some want life.” If the female prisoner didn’t want to live, she wouldn’t have gone to such lengths.
Qi Miao sighed, "That's true."
A sense of regret arose in my heart that the other person was born at the wrong time.
Before unification, this wouldn't have been a problem.
What's the big deal about killing ten people?
Who among the people around Qi Miao doesn't have someone's life on their hands?
Yu Zi studied the case files whenever she had a spare moment from her official duties.
The results of the review were also sent back to the Ministry of Justice.
Kangshi did not see it immediately.
He fell ill and took three days of sick leave.
Shen Tang immediately dispatched a physician to examine Kang Shi, who lay on his sickbed groaning, "Physician, I know your medical skills are superb, but sometimes you don't have to be so kind. It's just a minor ailment; let my body heal itself... Please..."
Fang Yan: "..."
I've never met a patient in my life who wants to recover slowly.
However, this time Kangshi really got what he wanted.
Kang Shi was stunned for a moment: "Is the Imperial Physician serious?"
Seriously? You're that easy to talk to?
Fang Yan rolled his eyes so hard they almost popped out of his head. He shoved a mask down on his face and ordered his men to seal off the mansion: "We suspect you've contracted the plague. Stay home and rest."
Kang Shi: "..."
Fang Yan also needs to investigate the source of the epidemic.
The entire Kangshi residence was disinfected, leaving no insect untouched.
Several large medical clinics in Huangting also received patients with high fevers. Tracing their movements during this period, Fang Yan actually found the source of Kang Shi's infection—this guy went to a small casino in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, and it was probably then that he was bitten by mosquitoes carrying the plague germs. Fang Yan became extremely interested in this.
What could possibly break through the defenses of a scholar with a literary mind?
Kangshi became the best guinea pig.
They weren't afraid of being poisoned during drug trials.
Kang Shi: "...I won't die, will I?"
Fang Yan said quietly, "You're supposed to be a scholar, why are you dying? It's the mosquitoes in the whole city who suffer, the lord ordered them eradicated at any cost. And you, a high-ranking official of the royal court, what kind of behavior is this, hanging around gambling dens and even contracting the plague? If you weren't already sick, the Censorate would be cursing you to death..."
Kang Shi: "..."
He had experienced firsthand the sharp tongue of the Censorate.
He pulled the blanket up to cover his face.
A muffled voice came from under the covers: "Okay, as long as I don't die, it's fine. This is a good vacation. I've been under a lot of pressure lately."
He felt his life had turned dark after losing his capable deputy.
Fang Yan: "..."
Kang Shi grabbed Fang Yan's hand and cried, "You know, I'm already over sixty, an old man with one foot in the grave, and my older brother is still urging me to get married. It's outrageous and utterly immoral."
Busy with work, noisy with family.
He was under immense mental pressure, caught between internal and external pressures.
|ω`)
(End of this chapter)
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