Chapter 220: Betrayal

Chapter 220: Betraying the Master

"The accused, Chen!" Prefect Zeng sat in the hall, his face solemn as he tried the case. Song Tingzhou sat behind the desk at his lower left, listening and recording something with his brush, acting as a clerk.

Chen Xiu collapsed to her knees on the ground. She was, after all, just an ordinary woman, naturally afraid of the yamen. Now that she had been caught committing a crime, her mind was blank. "I... this humble woman is here."

Prefect Zeng slammed the gavel. "You say that because of a grievance with... Master Meng of Zhen Guan Workshop, you went to Zhen Guan Workshop to poison it. But you are not a worker at Zhen Guan Workshop—how did you sneak in to commit the crime?"

This trial was open to the public, and many curious commoners had gathered outside the yamen. Chen Xiu was panic-stricken inside, and subconsciously looked at her brother among the crowd outside. "This humble woman... bribed... bribed someone, who... during the day brought me into Zhen Guan Workshop, and at night I came out to poison."

"Bribed?" A trace of doubt flickered across Prefect Zeng's aged face. "Who did you bribe?"

Chen Xiu's gaze swept over the expressionless Song Tingzhou and the calmly waiting plaintiff Meng Wan, then she gritted her teeth and said, "It was Lord Song's servant, Qiu Se."

Song Tingzhou's expression did not change at all, while Meng Wan looked somewhat surprised. "Qiu Se brought you into Zhen Guan Workshop?"

During the day, many people came and went at Zhen Guan Workshop. Qiu Se was Meng Wan's personal servant and sometimes delivered things to the workshop, so it was indeed possible for him to have brought someone in.

The wrinkles on Prefect Zeng's face twitched a couple of times, and he glanced at Song Tingzhou without revealing anything.

Song Tingzhou cupped his hands to him. "Your Honor, please just apprehend the person and interrogate them."

Only then did Prefect Zeng order Qiu Se to be brought from the Song residence. The yamen runners acted quickly, and soon Qiu Se was escorted into the court.

He saw Chen Xiu kneeling on the ground at a glance and clearly realized that the truth had been exposed. Despite the cold weather, cold sweat seeped from his temples continuously.

"This servant, Qiu Se, greets Your Honor the Prefect."

Prefect Zeng asked sternly, "Last night, Chen sneaked into Zhen Guan Workshop to poison it. Was it you who secretly brought her into the workshop?"

Qiu Se was startled, his face showing a shock that seemed genuine. He knelt on the ground and hurriedly defended himself, "Your Honor, see clearly. This servant was indeed momentarily confused and took Chen’s silver, but I absolutely did not know about her poisoning!"

He then turned to Meng Wan beside him and kowtowed desperately. "Master, it was this servant's mistake. I shouldn't have been greedy for money, but I truly did not know Chen..."

"Qiu Se." Meng Wan looked coldly at the blood oozing from his forehead. "You are a clever person. I have long known you like to take petty advantages, but I never expected you to betray me by colluding with outsiders."

The crime of betraying one's master was far more unforgivable than conspiring with Chen to poison. In the court, Qiu Se no longer cared about anything else. He knew who truly managed the Song household and understood Meng Wan’s temperament. He was usually generous to his own servants, but if someone angered him, he would not show mercy.

"Master, I beg you to forgive me just this once. I promise I'll never do it again. You can even send me away to empty chamber pots, but Master, I beg you to forgive me!" Qiu Se knelt before Meng Wan, pleading bitterly.

Seeing him pestering Meng Wan, Song Tingzhou said sternly, "Silence in the court!"

Qiu Se's outstretched hand fell. He lowered his head and said in a resentful tone, "Master, I just can't accept it. I don't mind not being as good as Xue Sheng in usefulness, but why is Huang Ye, a young lad, more important to you than me?"

Meng Wan was too lazy to argue with him. "With that attitude of yours, you think you can measure up to Xue Sheng and Huang Ye?" Xue Sheng was never a servant to their family; after arriving in He Mountain, Song Tingzhou had already given him civilian status. Huang Ye, though, had his heart set on Meng Wan and would not leave even if told to.

And Qiu Se? In the early days at He Mountain, he was still honest, but after coming to Xiwu, his mind became more and more restless.

Meng Wan had seen all this. He never demanded everyone to be loyal to him, because that was basically impossible.

Clear water has no fish. The more people there are, the more selfishness there will be. Even the kitchen purchasing clerks in the mansion would embezzle a few coppers—that was inevitable. But someone who colluded with outsiders to set him up simply wasn't worth keeping around.

The case was open and shut. Chen Xiu and Qiu Se both admitted to their crimes. Prefect Zeng had just slammed his gavel, about to close the case and send the criminals to prison.

But Song Tingzhou suddenly suggested, "Your Honor, there are still many doubts in this case. Why not detain the criminals first and try again another day?"

Prefect Zeng immediately swallowed the words he was about to say. He stroked his gray beard and feigned thought. "All right. Guards, take Chen and the convicted servant Qiu Se to the prison. The trial will be rescheduled!"

—

Tan Wo paced back and forth in his own hall. A servant ran in from outside. "Master, the trial is over!"

"What was the outcome?" Tan Wo asked the servant hastily.

The servant replied, "Originally, the Prefect was about to pass sentence, but Assistant Prefect Song said there were still doubts in the case and requested a retrial another day."

Tan Wo snorted coldly. "Really a hopeless case. The Prefect himself, yet he does everything his subordinate says."

Tan Wo's eldest son said worriedly, "Father, nothing will go wrong, right?"

"What trouble could there be? The Zeng family lacks ambition, so our family has to plan for itself. Now, Song Tingzhou is already targeting our Tan family even before sitting in the Prefect's seat. When Prefect Zeng retires, will we have any way out?"

Ever since returning from Zhuang Stockade, Tan Wo had been nursing a fire of anger in his heart. After hearing slander about himself from a theatrical actor, this anger had grown bigger and bigger, already forming a fierce and unstoppable force.

"In any case, Chen has already been caught. Closing the case is only a matter of time. So continue with the plan as previously arranged." Tan Wo's eyes were full of gloom and ferocity. "Make a big scene. I don't believe that if a few dozen or a hundred people die, that Meng fellow can still walk away unscathed? Maybe even Assistant Prefect Song will be implicated. As long as the Song family falls, Prefect Zeng can remain in office for at least another two years!"

And two years was enough to change many things.

Meanwhile, in the women's prison at the yamen, Chen Xiu's children carried baskets of food to visit their mother.

From a distance, the jailers outside could hear her daughter's accusations.

"All these years, you've devoted yourself to your brother. You'd rather let your son and me go hungry than send the family's grain to your brother first."

"But we are your children!"

"When my sister-in-law gave birth, you even took the chickens her own family gave her and brought them to your brother's children."

"I've tolerated both of those things, but now it's your own life! Are you willing to give up even your life for your brother?"

"Your son won't die. Your uncle said..."

"Uncle said, again uncle said! Don't you realize your crime won't just get you killed—it'll drag the family down too!"

"Mother, we beg you. If you still care at all about your children, spare us siblings! Ren Ge'er and the little ones are still young!"

"I... I... wuwuwu..."

The women's prison was filled with weeping. After a long time, the siblings left carrying empty baskets. Tang Jinshuang was waiting outside. She spoke a few words with them, and then the siblings, their faces streaked with tears, each went home.

The next morning, a convoy of seven or eight carts from Shaxian County drove to the gate of Zhen Guan Workshop on the outskirts of the prefectural city. Inside were box after box of oranges.

They were stored in wooden boxes made of planks, padded with dry grass to ensure the ripe fruit wouldn't rot from the jolting journey.

On duty that day in the administrative area was Manager Wang, who was responsible for inspecting this batch of freshly transported goods. He shared a knowing look with the convoy leader, then waved them inside.

Just as all the carts had entered Zhen Guan Workshop and the workers were about to move the goods to the sorting area, yamen runners suddenly poured out from inside the workshop, arresting everyone in the convoy, including the leader, as well as Manager Wang of the workshop.

"Why are you arresting me!"

"I'm the manager of Zhen Guan Workshop! You've got the wrong person! Our master is the Assistant Prefect's husband!"

"Officer, I know nothing! I'm just a laborer."

No matter what these people said, the yamen runners caught every single one of them without exception, and along with the carts of oranges that hadn't been unloaded, transported everything to the yamen.

Qing Xing, Chu Ci, and two city doctors tested the oranges using their respective methods and eventually reached a common conclusion: all oranges in every cart were laced with deadly poison, and not on the skin, but inside the flesh.

Chu Ci, a poison expert, could even tell that among this batch of oranges, over a dozen different poisons had been mixed in, each deadly enough to kill.

Meng Wan thought that Tan Wo, who could treat his clansmen like livestock, must be completely heartless, but he never expected him to be this lawless. If these oranges were made into canned goods and distributed, who knew how many lives they would claim.

If he were more ruthless, he could have just waited for people to get poisoned before reporting the case, and not only Tan Wo himself, but his entire family wouldn’t have escaped. But Meng Wan wasn’t a madman without conscience or boundaries; he couldn’t bring himself to do such a crazy thing.

From the moment he opened Zhen Guan Workshop, Meng Wan had foreseen that poisoning and framing incidents would happen sooner or later. Rather than being caught off guard, it was better to take the initiative.

Sacrificing a batch of oranges and canned goods to crush the Tan family was enough. Anyone with malicious intentions would think twice and would not dare to recklessly harm lives.

When the oranges were found to be poisoned, the team leader and Manager Wang, who had been tight-lipped before, immediately changed their tune. Before any torture was used, Song Tingzhou simply read the relevant laws to them word for word, and they spilled everything.

When facing life and death, family, brothers, and a heart blinded by profit—nothing is more important than survival.

“Your Honor… The oranges I collected are all from Shaping County. But… on the way to Zhen Guan Workshop, I was ordered to stop for three days. Thirty or forty people used silver needles to inject poison into the flesh of the oranges… Your Honor! I didn’t know it was poison at the time!”

Prefect Zeng was already feeling uneasy, but with Song Tingzhou listening in, he had no choice but to press on: “Who ordered you to make that stop? And who were those poisoners?”

The team leader was at a loss for words. “Your Honor, I don’t know who that person was; I was just paid to do the job.” The man had offered a chest of silver ingots—more than he could earn in ten years. Even though he suspected the substance they were injecting wasn’t good, he fooled himself into ignoring it.

“Your Honor, it’s the same for me! Someone sent a chest of silver to my home. My foolish wife was greedy and accepted it. I had no choice but to follow instructions and let this batch of goods into the workshop today!” Manager Wang knelt on the ground, beating his chest and stamping his feet, full of regret.

His situation was different from the team leader’s; he did like silver, but he wouldn’t dare harm Zhen Guan Workshop. Many people envied his position at the workshop, and some even wanted their children to work there.

Manager Wang had thought it was just a fruit merchant trying to sell his goods to the workshop. He never imagined there was poison inside—it had truly ruined him!

After hearing them out, Prefect Zeng secretly breathed a sigh of relief. “So you mean you’ve never seen this man who gave you the silver in the city? And you don’t know where he is?”

The team leader and Manager Wang had no choice but to nod in agreement, helplessly truthful.

“Go to the Song residence and summon my husband here.”

Just as Prefect Zeng was about to order the prisoners taken to the cells, Song Tingzhou interjected with this remark.

Everyone in the hall was puzzled, but the bailiffs simply followed their superior’s orders. Soon, Meng Wan arrived with his brush, ink, and paper.

After bowing to Prefect Zeng, Meng Wan was led by Song Tingzhou to his desk. “Sit here; it’s easier to draw on this desk.”

“I thought the office’s paper and brushes would be ordinary, so I brought my own from home,” Meng Wan said, looking up at Song Tingzhou, who was leaning over him.

Song Tingzhou lightly pressed his shoulder, his posture and gaze full of affection and care. “Take your time drawing.”

“Wang Xi and Wei Si, step forward. Describe the appearance of the man who gave you the silver in detail.”

Wang and Wei didn’t think such a description could lead to finding the man, but since the official ordered it, they had to step forward and describe in detail.

In particular, Wang Xi, as the only male manager at Zhen Guan Workshop, knew that Meng Wan had some regard for him. Now that his master was sitting right above him, how could he not feel guilty?

Meng Wan didn’t even glance at him. He just listened to their descriptions and began to draw. About the time it takes to burn an incense stick, Wang and Wei were already dry-mouthed from talking. Meng Wan finally stopped. He gently blew on the paper, then lifted the top corners and showed the drawing to Wang and Wei. “Most of your descriptions match, so it should be the same person. Take a look—is this him?”

The two looked up. In the drawing was a man in his forties, with drooping triangular eyes, a broad nose with a red tip, thick lips, and a mole on each side of his mouth—a larger one on the left and a smaller one on the right. His chin had a beard of medium length.

The portrait was so lifelike, even more vivid than a bronze mirror. Their eyes widened, and within three seconds, they confirmed it.

“That’s him!”

Not only them, but even Prefect Zeng was utterly amazed at the drawing in Meng Wan’s hands. “Such a vivid portrait! Lord Song, does your husband possess such extraordinary painting skills?”

Song Tingzhou cleared his throat. “It’s just a minor skill of my spouse. I hope Lord Zeng will forgive me. However, the current Emperor and the ministers at court have indeed praised him before.”

Prefect Zeng was speechless. Not only was Assistant Prefect Song so formidable, but even his husband was terrifyingly skilled!