Chapter 17 You dare to touch my people?
An abandoned house, a dilapidated courtyard, bathed in bright sunlight.
The blind man's back bent more and more, his head almost touching the muddy ground. Large beads of sweat, mixed with blood and dirt, dripped down his cheeks onto the ground.
Li Jin calmly took the two items from Jin Shu's hands and sat down on the broken stool at the door of the house.
He glanced at the rope and pants in his hand and chuckled softly, "You probably don't know, but when he fell, he hit his head on the stone in this yard and suffered a severe head injury, losing a lot of blood."
"So you didn't know that the belt you used as the murder weapon was stained with a lot of blood, and even your waistband was soaked with blood."
Upon hearing this, the blind man's lips trembled, and his two eyes, unable to see the light, stretched open like fish eyes.
He suddenly sat up straight and shouted, "I! I was forced, I was forced!"
"Forced?" Li Jin closed his fan, his eyes narrowing slightly. "Tell me, how were you forced?"
The blind man was silent for a while, then clenched his fists and gritted his teeth: "He deserves to die! He stole my money. I told him not to steal anymore, and he took me out to beg. I found him a place to stay."
At this point, the blind man trembled all over, took a deep breath, and after a long pause, continued: "I didn't come here with the intention of killing him. When I brought him back, I even gave him two nice clothes that I was reluctant to wear."
“I told him, ‘Don’t steal my money. Let’s go together and ask for more, and split the money 50/50.’” The blind man sneered and clicked his tongue. “He agreed when we were on the street, but he immediately changed his mind in my house.”
He knelt there, his cloudy eyes staring dejectedly at the ground before him, his shackled hands laboriously stroking the gravel and dust.
It's like a ritual, used to show his love for this little courtyard and to reminisce about the days when he used to roam the streets and alleys.
“Although I can’t see, I still have a good heart! I took him in because he had nowhere to go, I brought him back, and I let him live in another room! Because of these things, that cripple called me a fool and a lunatic, but I endured it all!”
"But him! He hit me! He took my clothes, stole my money, and beat me in my room!"
He raised his hand and patted his chest, then pointed to the sky above: "He deserves to die!"
He looked as if he were in the position of a punisher, as if everything he did was justified and harmless.
Li Jin sat there expressionless, looking down at the belt and trousers in his hand. He looked up, his gaze sharp, piercing the man's cheek.
Because he was blind, he was exceptionally sensitive to the atmosphere around him. He couldn't see Li Jin's gaze, but he could feel his powerful pressure, as if a pair of hands were gripping his neck, making it hard for him to breathe.
"Why did he hit you?" Li Jin asked, emphasizing each word as she stared at his face.
The whole case, according to the blind man's account, seemed to be a perfect closed loop, but in reality, the blind man avoided the important points and only told the parts that were in his own favor.
He brought him back, gave him a place to stay, and portrayed himself as a great philanthropist, all of which seemed like a simple story of the farmer and the snake.
Having seen too much of the world's two sides, Li Jin wanted to know the whole picture, the truth of the matter.
Tell me, why did he hit you?
The blind man paused, his lips moving as if he were thinking about something. After a long while, he pursed his lips and said, "He complained that the clothes I gave him were... taken from... the dead people in the mortuary. He complained that the food I gave him was... not very fresh."
"Not very fresh?" Li Jin raised an eyebrow.
"It's not very fresh..." The blind man looked aggrieved. "I only begged for two steamed buns. I definitely couldn't give them to him, so I gave him the food I had left over from before."
Hearing what he said, Li Jin glanced at Jin Shu.
Jin Shu bent down slightly and said in a low voice, "None of them can be called food."
As expected, Li Jin laughed as she looked at his desperate attempt to embellish his image: "If I'm not mistaken, you didn't share half of the money you begged with him, did you?"
At this point, the blind man's face turned pale, but a stubbornness remained on his face. His words were filled with anger as he struggled to his feet: "What do you rich young masters know! I was born blind, and he's a perfectly healthy man. Why should he share half with me? He's just playing the victim! He's playing the victim! He only helped by guiding the way, why should we split the money?"
In this way, all the fragments of the case slowly came together to form a complete picture.
Looking at his flushed face, Li Jin raised an eyebrow: "Are you trying to play the victim?"
He chuckled softly: "Everyone across the street knows you can take care of yourself, climb trees and chop firewood without a problem. Who would want to pity you?"
The blind man was stunned by what he said. The question was beyond his comprehension; it was a sound he had never heard before.
"But you're talking about that 'sound person,' who's mentally challenged and has a leg injury. Even if he could see, he might not be much more comfortable than you." He glanced at the radish pit where the blind man had buried his body. "Your so-called kindness is nothing more than using him."
Li Jin's words completely exposed the blind man's selfish desires, which he had concealed behind his facade of kindness.
"And you still think that you're the one who punished him? How ridiculous." He raised his chin slightly and narrowed his eyes.
He let out a long breath and was about to get up when he heard a commotion of carriages and horses outside the courtyard.
Yang An, who had been nowhere to be seen all day, was sitting in the carriage. He poked his head out and waved to Li Jin from a great distance.
Outside the courtyard, a large group of people, looking travel-worn, stopped at the entrance.
The spectacle and scale were truly astonishing. Everyone in the courtyard, except for the blind man who was still immersed in the pain of being criticized, was amazed by the display.
Several carriages pulled up in a row at the entrance, and a group of people got out, carrying tables and chairs, and hurriedly set them up in the courtyard.
The writing brush, ink, paper, and inkstone were all present, and even the gavel and the sign for silence were held up and placed on both sides.
The small courtyard was instantly filled to the brim.
Has he moved the entire courtroom from the main hall of the Linyang county government office directly to this small courtyard?!
Then Yang An, dressed in official robes, stepped down from the largest carriage at the back and jogged along with his clerk.
The moment he ran into the courtyard, he saw Prince Jing, Li Jin, sitting on a small, tattered stool, looking at him with raised eyebrows. He waved his hands repeatedly and exclaimed in surprise:
"Oh dear! Your Highness is of noble status, how can you sit in those dilapidated places..."
Before he could finish speaking, he noticed the rope and tattered pants in Li Jin's hand, and his face instantly contorted with rage. He raised his hand and pointed at Jin Shu repeatedly: "You lowly coroner! How could you hand these filthy things to the prince! Don't you want your head?!"
His voice was so passionate and indignant that it shook the birds within a fifty-meter radius.
"Lord Yang, what an arrogant official you are!" Li Jin shoved the things in his hand into Zhou Zheng's arms, stood up and looked him down, his face as cold as ice. "What, you want to touch my people?"
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