Sitting in the imperial court, Magistrate Duan looked at Jiang Yaojie kneeling below and asked him a question with some curiosity.
"Sir! It was them! They bullied my mother!" Jiang Yaojie pointed at the man in front of him, trembling all over. The two men had been splashed with water from the bottom of the pot by Jiang Ling, and now their faces and bodies were covered with blisters, their skin was red, and they were groaning in pain.
"What? You...your mother?" Magistrate Duan was startled upon hearing this.
He quickly turned his gaze to the disheveled woman kneeling below the hall. Jiang Ling's hair was covering her face, so no one could see her face clearly. Magistrate Duan happened to be in the court, and there were many onlookers outside.
He didn't want to get down and check on her specifically, but he was confident that Jiang Yaojie would never mistake his mother for someone else.
"Who is kneeling below the hall?" Magistrate Duan asked.
"This humble woman is Jiang!" Jiang Ling's voice rang out as she slowly raised her head.
Jiang Ling wasn't in much better shape; her eyes were red and swollen, and blood was seeping from the corner of her mouth.
Seeing the blood at the corner of Jiang Ling's mouth, Magistrate Duan panicked. He forced himself to remain calm and asked, "What happened?"
"I am Jiang, a resident of Lujia Village. I have been doing some small business at the dock in Pingxi County these past few days! But these two men came over and forcibly demanded one tael of silver from me as a bribe!"
"When I refused, they tried to beat me and my child. To protect my child, I had no choice but to take a punch from the man."
At this point, Jiang Ling felt a sweet taste in her throat, and a mouthful of blood spurted from her mouth.
"Mother!" Jiang Yaojie panicked when he saw Jiang Ling vomit blood. He scrambled to Jiang Ling's side, hugged her, and glared at the two men kneeling not far away with hatred in his eyes!
Magistrate Duan wasn't in much better shape. He really wanted to run down, grab Jiang Ling, and take her to the inner hall to rest, but because of his official robes, he could only pretend to be calm and continue the trial!
"I'm fine, Yaojie, don't worry!" Jiang Ling forced a smile and gently stroked Jiang Yaojie's head to comfort him.
"You...you're spouting nonsense!" one of the men mumbled, enduring the excruciating pain throughout his body.
"How did I make false accusations? Tell me!" Jiang Ling glared at the man and scolded him.
"My lord! You must do us justice! My name is Wang Er, and this is my brother Zhao San," Wang Er immediately chimed in.
"This...this shrew! My brother and I came here just to eat, but we found a cockroach in her food. My brother and she went to argue and asked her to make us a new one. But she started cursing at my brother. The things she said were really nasty. I dare not repeat the insults!" Wang Er said, and then pretended to kowtow to Magistrate Duan.
Jiang Ling nearly fainted from anger upon witnessing this scene. Not only was she beaten, but she was also falsely accused. At this moment, Jiang Ling truly understood the meaning of "If you want to condemn someone, you can always find a pretext!"
"Sir, this shrew wouldn't have it, she started throwing a tantrum and even tried to hit us. I was worried my brother would get beaten, so I gently pushed her away! But she picked up a pot of boiling soup and poured it all over my brother! Sir, sir, I beg you to do me a favor! My brother and I aren't married yet, how are we going to find wives?" As he spoke, Wang Er stretched out his hands and banged his head heavily on the ground, seemingly ignoring the blisters on his face.
The guy in front of her was speaking with such conviction and logic that if Jiang Ling weren't the victim, she probably would have believed what this guy named Wang Er was saying!
"You..." Jiang Ling clenched her fists in anger. If they weren't still in court, Jiang Ling would definitely have picked up her "tool" and continued to smash these two scoundrels in front of her.
Thinking of the "food containers," Jiang Ling felt a little annoyed. She vaguely remembered that all ten of her serving plates seemed to have been smashed. Thinking of this, Jiang Ling was furious. These two guys were going too far!
“Alright, Wang Er, let me ask you this: can you guarantee that every word you say is true?” Magistrate Duan said.
Jiang Ling stole a glance at Magistrate Duan's expression. His brows were slightly furrowed, and his gaze made it impossible to guess what he was thinking.
When Wang Er heard Magistrate Duan ask him this question, he immediately put on a fearful and trembling expression, a stark contrast to his previous fierce and menacing demeanor.
Jiang Ling was filled with hatred. She didn't hate herself for splashing water on those two guys, but rather for not taking advantage of their screams to beat them up a few more times to vent her anger. Even if she had smashed all the plates and bowls, it would have been worth it!
“Jiang, I have a question for you. Is what Wang Er said true?” Magistrate Duan asked, squinting at Jiang Ling.
"They are the ones who are slandering and lying!" Jiang Ling said calmly, her back straight.
"Alright! Madam Jiang, since you say they are making false accusations, do you have any evidence?" Magistrate Duan asked again.
Upon hearing "evidence" twice, Wang Er and Zhao San lowered their heads and began to smirk. They were all too familiar with this phrase. How could any other small vendors dare to be witnesses for this young woman? Now, the two brothers would stick to the story and say that the problem stemmed from the food, leaving this young woman with no way to clear her name.
The two of them exchanged a smile and a glance.
Their performance, which they thought was flawless, was actually seen through by Magistrate Duan.
Magistrate Duan had heard of these two men long ago, but he had been struggling because no small vendors had come forward to testify, so he had no evidence to arrest them.
Now these two guys have walked right into the trap, and the magistrate's lips curled up slightly as he thought of this.
Looking at Jiang Ling, she raised her voice again and said, "This humble woman, Jiang, do you have any evidence?"
Jiang Ling nodded, turned to look at Wang Er who was chuckling to himself, and said in a serious tone, "Wang Er, you said you came here to eat, right?"
Upon hearing Jiang Ling's voice, Wang Er immediately feigned panic, trembling all over as he stammered, "Of...of course, what else would I come here for if not to eat?"
Jiang Ling smiled and looked at Wang Er in front of her, continuing to ask, "Okay, you said you're here to eat, so how much should I charge you? What's the pricing method?"
“This…I…” Jiang Ling’s words left Wang Er stunned. He never expected that Jiang Ling would ask such a tricky and strange question.
This is also because the two brothers were so focused on talking about money that they didn't pay attention to anything else. But how could they be fooled by this?
Wang Er's eyes darted around, and he immediately kowtowed to Magistrate Duan, saying, "Your Honor, please forgive me for not being able to answer this shrew. I was so frightened by her that I've almost forgotten everything that happened before!"
Seeing Wang Erwu, a burly man, trembling and with snot and tears streaming down his face, Jiang Ling felt utterly disgusted.
She rolled her eyes at Wang Er and continued, "You should remember what you ate!"
"I..." Wang Er glared fiercely at Jiang Ling. If they weren't in the imperial court, he felt he would have punched her face, which looked incredibly irritating.
“Tell me, what did you eat?” Jiang Ling immediately pressed Wang Er for an answer when he didn’t speak.
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