As soon as the witnesses and aggrieved parties from Broken Gold Town came on stage, the audience below stirred and pushed forward.
Everyone craned their necks to look inside; what they wanted to see was probably clear to those in the hall.
The once quiet hall was now in chaos, and even the yamen runners' shouts of "Silence!" couldn't quell the unrest.
Song Liyun and the others were also startled and quickly retreated behind the yamen runners on both sides.
A wise man does not stand under a dangerous wall; who knows if Hong Jingtian's men are among those people?
Jiang Feng sat solemnly behind his desk, dressed in official robes. The wide wings of his official hat added to his imposing presence.
Seeing the chaos inside and outside the courtroom, Jiang Feng slammed his gavel: "Guards, drive all the idlers out of the courtroom a foot away. No crowding or fighting is allowed."
The constables immediately grabbed their fire and water sticks and began chasing people away. A chaotic scene ensued, leaving a clearing in front of the main hall.
Song Liyun and the others then came out to greet Lord Jiang.
When a woman's back appeared, the audience below exclaimed in surprise: "Ah! How come that Rouge Tiger isn't three feet two inches in waist circumference and three feet two inches in height!"
"Who told you that she has a waist of 3.2 feet and a height of 3.2 feet? Wouldn't that make her a meaty mess? Her face is as black as charcoal, and you could fit a fist between her teeth."
"You're all wrong. She's right inside. Isn't she just a beautiful woman? She's using seductive arts. Do you understand seductive arts? It's the tricks of a vixen..."
A commotion drifted into the hall, and Song Liyun was so angry that her chest ached: Damn it, if it weren't for important business at this moment, I would have shown people what a door panel with a height of three feet and a waist of three feet really looked like.
Xue Zhuang and Han Ming also heard it and were immediately furious.
However, they couldn't immediately drive away those busybodies, so they all quietly moved their positions to block Song Liyun's figure.
Jiang Feng's lips twitched.
But he seemed oblivious to these actions, and simply instructed the clerk to conduct a question-and-answer session with the witnesses according to the trial procedure.
Luo Baihu had already given Song Liyun the standard answers to the questions asked during the trial; she only needed to memorize the outline once.
As for Mickey and the others, life in prison was unbearable. They just wanted to be convicted as soon as possible, whether it was death or exile, to escape their misery.
Moreover, the questions he asked were things he had already answered a thousand times, and he answered them almost fluently than Song Liyun and the others.
Jiang Feng spoke up only when asked about the bandits disguised as yamen runners who tried to enter Baolin Residence but were attacked by a ferocious beast.
"What kind of beast is this, and why hasn't it been brought to court today?"
Song Liyun thought for a moment: If Black Gold were to come to this hall, it would probably jump onto the plaque behind the desk if it got excited.
But now that Jiang Feng is asking, she has to find a plausible reason to answer.
"My lord, that is just a black dog that my family keeps. If you need the dog to be brought to court, I will have my family send it over right away."
Song Liyun answered respectfully.
The man who was scratched by the black gold has already died in prison, and Broken Gold Town is dozens of miles away from Qili County. It is obviously unrealistic to wait for a dog to be sent over before the trial.
Upon hearing Song Liyun's answer, the mouths of the people from Suijin Town twitched.
They all knew about Black Gold. Although they both had the word "black" in their names, they were two different creatures. Moreover, Black Gold was sometimes even smarter than humans.
Jiang Feng clearly knew what black gold was; he just wanted to test the woman's reaction. Hearing Song Liyun lie without even blinking, his face tightened even more.
After the questioning, the verdict is pronounced, which is what everyone in the courtroom and the audience most want to know.
Tianxianglou had long been shut down, and Master Hong's assets had been seized.
As the saying goes, money comes like picking up soil with a needle, and money goes like waves rolling in.
Old Master Hong is a prime target in Qili County.
Even with Jiang Feng, the parachuted-in magistrate, keeping an eye on things, everything under his name or related to him was quickly divided up, both openly and secretly.
In addition, all the old stories from the past have been brought up, and his assets are not enough to cover the losses.
Only Tianxianglou remains, but it has been confiscated by the government.
The final verdict was that Mickey had breached the contract without authorization and disrupted the rules of the market by using coercive means. All of his family's property was sold, and his elderly wife was sent to southern Xinjiang for resettlement.
Upon hearing that he was going to the Southern Frontier, Mickey fainted on the spot. Although he had never left Yunzhou in his life, he knew that the Southern Frontier was rife with miasma and wild smoke, and that nine out of ten people would die there.
I'm already crippled, so going on this journey means I'll die on the way.
Shopkeeper Mi really felt wronged; he was just trying to lower the price and make a few more coins.
The other crimes were much more serious: impersonating government officials and trespassing on private property. They were sentenced to be executed in the autumn, but it's June now, so they have three months left to live.
With the group of wailing criminals escorted back to prison, the Tianxianglou case was considered closed.
The following cases should not be made public, so the yamen runners began to disperse the crowd and closed the gates outside the main hall.
Xue Zhuang and Old Master Zhang were not involved in the case, so they also left the county government office.
Two hours have passed since the start of the session, and Song Liyun's legs are trembling. She has to switch legs from left to right every now and then.
In a corner of the hall, Hong Jingtian, bound by a large wooden yoke, still had his head bowed, as silent as if he were dead.
Jiang Feng glanced at the weary bailiffs and Song Liyun's entourage in the courtroom, and finally gave the order to adjourn the court session.
It was impossible to go back and lie down to rest. The county government's kitchen sent over a basket of white flour buns and a bucket of water. Everyone ate something casually in the hall to fill their stomachs and then sat against the wall.
The constables swarmed around the basket of steamed buns, and Han Ming also helped Song Liyun get a steamed bun.
Song Liyun looked at the dark fingerprints on the white steamed bun, which looked like they had been pinched by someone, and immediately lost her appetite.
She has dried meat in her space, but it's not convenient to take it out and eat it right now.
Just then, a handsome young servant boy of only thirteen or fourteen years old came out from the back hall. He ran up to Song Liyun in a flash, cupped his hands and said, "Miss Song, my master wants to ask you questions in the back."
Song Liyun frowned slightly.
Han Ming leaned closer, staring warily at the servant: "What business does Lord Jiang have with Miss Song alone?"
Everyone knows that the government and the military garrisons have a bad relationship.
Song Liyun is a military household member, which means she's a member of the garrison. If she gets summoned by the government and something happens...
Seeing the burly man's wary expression, the servant curled his lip and said, "Just go when we tell you to. This is the county government office. Who's going to eat you up here?"
Behind the courtroom is a flower hall, furnished with a resting place, convenient for breaks during the proceedings, and also for anyone who wants to listen in.
Song Liyun followed the servant here, and her eyes widened immediately.
A simple meal was set out in the flower hall, consisting of several plates of pastries, three or four cold dishes, and three bowls of congee.
None of this is surprising.
What surprised Song Liyun the most was the two people sitting at the same table.
Jiang Feng had already removed his official robes. Now, with a jade hairpin in his hair and wearing a moon-white long robe, he no longer possessed the imposing aura he had in the courtroom. Although he still looked stern and unsmiling, he exuded a refined elegance.
Sitting opposite him was Zhao Ashi.
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