Chapter 12 Chapter 12 It’s true that I have to ask for help all the time...
In a blink of an eye, the day of the three-court trial arrived. As Shangguan Xu had agreed beforehand, Qinghe went to the prison to give Xu Qing'an chicken soup before the trial, and conveyed what Shangguan Xu asked him to say to him.
Shangguan Xu sat in front of the dressing mirror. After putting on makeup, she looked at herself in the mirror and suddenly became lost in thought.
She dreamed of him again last night—
The young man said softly, "You often smell the fragrance of peony flowers. When the wind blows, you can smell it."
The girl thought, "In that case, even if I'm blindfolded, I'll know it's you when you find me."
"Because...when the wind blows, I can smell the orchid fragrance on your body."
The spring is bright and the girl is very lively.
It’s a pity that I still can’t see his face clearly in the dream, nor can I smell the elegant orchid fragrance on him.
"My Lady."
Qinghe returned to the palace and went all the way to Shangguan Xu to report.
"How is it? How did he react?" Shangguan Xu was called back to his senses by her and asked.
Qing He lowered her eyes. "After I relayed the Majesty's words, Lord Xu nodded and thanked her. He said he would remember the Majesty's instructions and would pay attention to them in the future."
Shangguan Xu continued, "What about the others? What was his expression when you told him how to make chicken soup?"
Qing He recalled: "Although he was smiling, he listened attentively and thanked the Empress for her teaching. He also said that if he had the chance in the future, he would definitely cook it himself to repay the Empress."
Shangguan Xu sneered: "He sounds like he's in good spirits."
Qing He nodded: "He's in good spirits, but his complexion is a little off. I think he must have suffered a lot in prison these past few days."
Shangguan Xu pondered.
This person...
No matter whether he caused this disaster intentionally or accidentally, this state of mind is definitely not something that ordinary people can compare to.
——
The three courts held a joint trial, with officials headed by the Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate sitting at three seats.
Liu Chang's case involved a leaking cruise ship on Lantern Festival night. Liu Chang was a fourth-rank minister and a senior official in the court. It was understandable that Shangguan Xu, the empress dowager behind the curtain, and Su Wang, the regent, came to listen to the case.
The two of them sat behind a screen embroidered with landscapes on the side of the hall.
The three courts held a joint trial, and discipline was strict. As soon as Xu Qing'an was brought in, the chief officer asked, "On the night Liu Chang committed suicide, he wrote in blood that you had visited him in prison. Is this true?"
Xu Qing'an replied: "It's true."
"He said you tortured him. Is that true?"
"true."
"That night, you sought him out for an old matter. Is that true?"
“That’s true.”
"So, you took advantage of his physical and mental exhaustion after being tortured and threatened him with the lives of his clansmen to force him to confess to the false accusations. Is that true?"
The surroundings were quiet. Xu Qing'an slowly raised his eyes. His face was pale from three days of torture, but his expression was extremely calm, even with a sense of unyielding pride. Even in this situation, his posture was still outstanding, like a bamboo or a pine tree.
He said: "That's not true."
The whole hall was in an uproar.
A chief officer from the Third Division slammed the gavel and said, "But his blood letter clearly accuses you of this crime!"
Xu Qing'an asked in return, "Is what he said necessarily true? Or, in other words, is the content of the blood letter necessarily what he said?"
The three people on the high seat looked at each other in surprise when they heard this.
The Minister of Justice, among them, said gently, "Since I'm questioning you based on the words in his blood letter, I've already verified that the letter was indeed written by him. As for your question about the truthfulness of his claims, at least the first three questions based on the contents of his blood letter have been verified by you."
Xu Qing'an said, "The first three questions are true, but they have nothing to do with the last one."
"I'm indeed looking for him because of an old matter, but not one from four years ago. I'm looking for all the corruption he's been involved in since he took office at the Ministry of Works. Those past events rocked the nation, but they've been resolved. The corruption case I'm investigating has nothing to do with what happened back then. It was only last night during questioning due to the suspect's tenure, that he mentioned it. I'm truly at a loss as to why he singled out that one incident in his blood letter."
The Dali Temple official then asked, "But you had already prepared to close the case against him for corruption the day before he committed suicide. Why did you continue to question him afterward?"
Xu Qing'an answered fluently, "Because after this, a witness came to me. They said that the evidence they had was only one-tenth of Liu Chang's crimes. There were many victims in their hometown who had no evidence left. If this case were to end as it did originally, it would be difficult for those victims to get an explanation or compensation. So I wanted to ask Liu Chang again on their behalf."
"If you gentlemen had investigated, you would have known that on the afternoon I went to look for Liu Chang, I was stopped outside my own residence. He was a witness in the Liu Chang case."
The three chiefs looked at each other and nodded, it was indeed true.
The Supreme Court Minister then asked, "Is that all? Is there no other reason? Since you have to try this case, and it's so late at night, why don't you ask Censor Chen, who is also in charge of this case, to go with you? Otherwise, you wouldn't be left without anyone to testify for you."
Having said that, Xu Qing'an lowered his eyes and became quiet, unlike just now when he was so receptive, as if he had encountered some obstacles.
After a moment, he bowed, "This matter was indeed my own fault for not having considered it carefully. However, I didn't call Censor Chen because, after a witness came to the Censorate and gave his real name, Censor Chen and I temporarily split up to ensure the progress of the investigation. He will continue to investigate the possible leaks during the Lantern Festival blessing ceremony that may have caused the boat to leak, while I will take charge of the Ministry of Works' affairs, specifically the case of Liu Chang's corruption."
He paused, then chuckled to himself, "Of course, there's another reason. Previously, all the investigations I've done were at the behest of the court. I investigated whatever the court ordered me to do, and the results are what I'm supposed to get. This way, I don't really benefit much; it's just a task. But if I could unravel the mystery and uncover something unknown, that would be a different story. That would be a great achievement."
"This humble official has just entered the court, and I am indeed anxious about this matter."
The Minister of Justice said, "You speak sincerely."
As the Chief Censor, Su Ran was also among the heads of the Three Departments.
He said, "But sincerity is useless. Everything requires evidence. Liu Chang left a blood letter, threatening death as a warning to you. This is what you need to explain."
Xu Qing'an raised the corners of his lips slightly.
Shangguan Xu was sitting behind the screen and vaguely caught a glimpse of his expression.
It's about to begin.
Xu Qing'an asked, "So, Zhongcheng Su believes that what Liu Chang said is true?"
Without waiting for Su Ran to refute, he sighed and said helplessly, "Alright, but to this day, I haven't read the contents of that blood letter carefully. I have only heard about it from the mouths of the adults."
Xu Qing'an bowed, "I wonder if I could take a look now. Let me see what's written in this blood letter that pinned me to the guilt stake?"
After discussion, the three officials agreed to Xu Qing'an's request and had the blood letter brought before him for a closer look.
This blood letter was only there for three days. Su Ran took it out and let him look at it a few times during the interrogation, but he didn't look at it carefully.
During that period, Xu Qing'an had been tortured and was not in a very good mental state, so he did not raise any objections.
Xu Qingan's lips were pale, but his eyes were as bright as torches as he looked at the blood letter.
"My Lords, there is something wrong with this blood letter!" He suddenly stood up and shouted in the court.
Shangguan Xu, who was standing behind the screen, curled his lips slightly, raised his hand to pick up the teapot on the small table beside him, and poured hot tea into the two cups on the table.
She whispered to Su Wang, "Mr. Su, have some tea."
Xu Qing'an called out, and Su Ran immediately sat up straight: "What's the problem?"
Xu Qing'an said, "If this blood letter was really written by Liu Chang, then it was written with the help of others."
The Minister of Justice asked, "Where does this theory come from?"
Xu Qing'an bowed and asked Su Ran, "May I ask, Su Zhongcheng, how many wounds are there on Liu Chang's body?"
Su Ran said, "Naturally, the corner of my forehead hits the wall, and my index finger bites the wall."
Xu Qing'an smiled faintly: "That's it."
He raised his eyes and said, "My Lords, it's true that I tortured him before, but it was water torture. Although cruel, it leaves no scars. Furthermore, to prevent criminals from committing crimes, even porcelain bowls are not kept in the prison, so he wouldn't have anything to injure himself. The wound on his forehead was fatal. Whether he died instantly or died slowly after a period of unconsciousness, the blood letter would not have been written after that wound."
"In other words, he was able to write these two hundred-plus words in blood thanks to the little bit of blood on his index finger." Xu Qing'an said, holding up his right index finger.
Su Ran was shocked, and the Minister of Justice and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court also noticed something was wrong.
“Tear!”
With a sharp sound of tearing cloth, Xu Qing'an tore off the corner of his robe and bit his index finger in front of everyone.
The wound rubbed against the coarse cloth. Xu Qing'an frowned and endured the pain to write the first few columns of text according to Liu Chang's letter written in blood.
After about an incense stick of time, he could no longer write. During this process, Xu Qing'an was squeezing the wound and grinding the blood that was about to clot to flow out.
He held up the blood-lettered letter he had copied, a few drops of sweat oozing from his forehead. He smiled and said, "My Lords, please look, I too have bitten my finger, but despite my best efforts, I can only write these few lines of words."
He said, "Even if Liu Chang really wrote the letter in blood with the determination to die, the wound he bit would be deeper than mine. He couldn't have written more than 200 words with just the blood on his index finger, right?"
"Even if his physique is really different from that of ordinary people and he lost a lot of blood, it's unlikely that by the end of the two hundred words he wrote, the characters would be almost the same as the original ones, right?"
"My Lords, the pain of biting your finger is truly as painful as a piercing through your heart!"
As he spoke, Xu Qing'an's breathing began to tremble again. His own problems, the situation he had been in for the past few days, and the blood letter he had just written had already consumed some of his limited energy.
He was still laughing. "However, it might be more convenient for me to write this letter in blood. The whip marks on my body will help me bleed."
Shangguan Xu, sitting behind the screen, was speechless after hearing this.
He really wants to be pitied all the time.
Su Ran's eyelashes in the hall couldn't help but tremble. No wonder he asked to change Xu Qing'an into clean clothes when he was escorting him out of prison today. He declined vaguely. It turned out that it was all for now!
At this point, the matter is actually clear. How can a person write such a long letter in blood with only a small wound on the index finger? What's more, the difference between the front and back of Liu Chang's letter in blood is not that big. If one really wants to write like Xu Qing'an, squeezing out blood while writing, even if he can really write that long, the pain is only one aspect. More importantly, it will cause excessive blood loss, and in the end he will be too exhausted to continue writing.
Moreover... the officials of the three divisions had all gone to see Liu Chang's body, and the wound on his index finger was not deep at all.
Before this, Su Ran had been pushing people to identify whether the blood letter was really written by Liu Chang, but he ignored other places.
The Minister of Justice reacted and said to Xu Qing'an, "You are indeed right."
The three courts began to discuss the case.
This case originally arose from Liu Chang's blood letter, but now that his blood letter is different, the accusations therein naturally count. What's even more puzzling is that there are other people involved...
Sure enough, after the three courts announced that the case was doubtful and had no choice but to declare Xu Qing'an not guilty, Xu Qing'an immediately bowed and shouted, "Since the blood letter is different, there may be other hidden reasons for Liu Chang's death. The prison is so strict that it is difficult for outsiders to enter."
"I ask you to investigate the Censorate and find the person behind this accusation and clear my name!"
Shangguan Xu raised his eyebrows.
His gift arrived.
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