Chapter 92

Chapter 92

The crowd that had gathered to watch suddenly fell silent, then turned to look back, curious to see who was speaking.

The bailiff standing guard at the hall first shouted, "Who dares to disrupt the court?!"

Zhong Yizhu and Pei Mu turned to look. The crowd parted as Zhong He helped Sun Yunniang forward, with Liu Mingfeng following Liu Youzong as they hurried toward the hall.

The shout had come from Liu Youzong. The loud voice he had developed over the years mediating village disputes and collecting grain taxes now proved useful, immediately cutting through Zhong Laotai's bluster.

Zhong Yizhu felt a lump in his throat, but he quickly turned to address the prefect before the Zhong family could speak: "Your Honor, these are the village chief of Liushan Village and his son, along with my mother and a family servant. They can testify that the facts are entirely different from what the other side claims."

Zhong Laotai quickly recovered and shot back, "Who knows if this little wretch bought them off? How can their words be trusted?"

Zhong Laosan added, "That's right! What good are a few country bumpkins? Probably a few taels of silver and they'll say whatever you want them to."

Zhong Yourong added fuel to the fire: "Your Honor, don't believe him! These villagers used to suck up to our family, and now they're speaking up for Zhong Yizhu—they must have been bribed!"

Though Liu Youzong was still blocked outside the hall, their words infuriated him. He bellowed back, "Wang Shi! Zhong Laosan! If not for us country folk taking in your refugee family, you'd have starved to death who knows where long ago! Now that you've become wealthy masters thanks to Zhong Laoer, you've forgotten your roots entirely?!"

"Silence!" The prefect banged his gavel and ordered the bailiffs to let them in.

They entered and knelt to pay their respects. Liu Youzong had barely seen a county magistrate twice in his life, and now suddenly facing a prefect—it would be a lie to say he wasn't afraid. But the Zhong family's beastly behavior had so enraged him that he barely felt afraid.

The prefect looked directly at Liu Youzong: "Since you say Wang Shi is lying, then state the facts as you know them one by one. In this court, if you utter a single falsehood, my rod won't go easy on you."

The plaque reading "Clear Mirror High" hung above the court. As the prefect's words fell, Liu Youzong grew more nervous, while Zhong Laotai beside him couldn't help but flinch.

Liu Youzong wiped his sweaty palms and, recalling what he had heard from Fang You, began with the Zhong family's origins.

"This Zhong family originally fled as refugees to our Songyun County. The county magistrate was kind-hearted and ordered each village to take in a few families so they could settle down and survive. When the Zhong family arrived at our village, there were only four of them: Zhong Laohan, Zhong Laotai, and their two sons—their second and third sons."

"Later, Zhong Laosan stayed home to farm while Zhong Laoer went out to work. Zhong Laotai and Zhong Laohan first found a wife for Zhong Laosan—Wu Shi from Hebian Village, right next to Liushan Village. Within two years, Zhong Laoer returned and built a house for the family, saying he'd made a fortune in business. A few years after that, his business took off, and he moved the entire Zhong family to the prefectural city."

"Your Honor can ask anyone in our village—they'll all say the same. Everyone knows this business was built by Zhong Laoer. Zhong Laosan had nothing to do with it. There's not a person in the village who doesn't envy Zhong Laosan's good fortune—doing nothing and still getting to enjoy city life living off his elder brother's money, and even his wife's family, the Wu clan, has been living well all these years."

Hearing the Zhong family's origins from Liu Youzong, the onlookers started to catch on that something was off. If this family owed their good life to Zhong Laoer, how could they paint the young man as a thief and talk as if they'd built the fortune themselves, fooling everyone?

The Zhong family members tried several times to interject but were shut down by the bailiffs. The prefect let him continue without interrupting.

Then Liu Youzong talked about last year when Zhong Yizhu came back to the village for the funeral: "Liushan Village isn't really the Zhong family's ancestral home. In fact, we found it a bit strange when Zhong Er Ye was buried there, but that was their family matter, so we didn't pry. Young Master Zhong escorted the coffin back to the village, and everyone praised his filial piety. But when the family servants were about to leave, they left Young Master Zhong behind in the village, saying he had caused trouble in the city and needed to think about what he'd done."

From here, the story was completely different from what Zhong Laotai had claimed. Liu Youzong then told how the Zhong siblings had come to pay respects at the grave, but got scared by what they thought were ghosts at night and confessed the truth in a panic. Then he got to this year. After Zhong Yizhu's family opened their fragrance shop, the Wu family sent people to snoop around, and Wang Shun led men to try to drag Zhong Yizhu and his son away, but the villagers stopped them.

"When Zhu Ge'er first arrived in the village, he had to fetch his own water and gather his own firewood. Life was not easy. No city-bred young man would storm off in a huff to live like that. And since the Zhong siblings fled in fright last summer, the Zhong family has never once sent anyone—not for festivals or anything else. Not one person came to see Zhu Ge'er and his mother, and nobody came to pay respects at Zhong Er Ye's grave."

Liu Youzong clasped his hands together firmly: "Your Honor, please see clearly. It's true that the villagers have gotten more work since Zhu Ge'er opened his shop, but every word I've spoken is true. I would never dare deceive Your Honor."

Liu Youzong's account was well-organized and very believable. The crowd outside started changing their minds again, especially upon hearing that Zhong Er Ye's spirit had manifested and the Zhong siblings had been so frightened they confessed to driving Zhong Yizhu away. They got all riled up and started cursing the Zhong family.

Seeing the situation turning against her, Zhong Laotai resorted to her old village tactics—plopping herself down on the ground and wailing: "Lao'er! Lao'er! Look at the fine son you raised, conspiring with outsiders to bully your own mother! Open your eyes, Lao'er!"

Sun Yunniang, still out of breath from running over, was so furious she rasped, "You dare call for the master?! You dare call for the master?! If the master knew how you've tormented our Zhu Ge'er, the first ones he'd take with him would be your precious third son's family of good-for-nothings—so you can know what it feels like to have your heart ripped out!"

Zhong Laotai's eyes nearly bulged out of her head with fury: "You witch! I never should have let Lao'er marry you..."

Zhong Laosan also pointed at her and cursed, "You poisonous woman! Absolutely poisonous!"

At this moment, Pei Mu took what Zhong He handed him and held it up high with both hands: "Your Honor, this is the account book of our fragrance shop. If you compare it with the account book of Zhong's Fragrance Shop, you'll see exactly why they'd go to such vicious lengths against our Zhu Ge'er."

At the mention of account books, Zhong Laotai and Zhong Laosan suddenly looked like chickens with their necks wrung, panic all over their faces—especially given how legitimate Pei Mu's reasoning sounded.

Pei Mu thought about what he'd found out over the past few days. Since the third son's family had taken over, Zhong's Fragrance Shop's business had been going downhill. Pei Mu had visited Zhong's Fragrance Shop himself and, even with the advantage of being in the city, he was sure its profits couldn't match their shop's.

Most importantly, an ordinary merchant family like the Zhongs had somehow managed to send the youngest son of the third son's family, Zhong Youyao, to study at the best academy in the city—Changfeng Academy. If Zhong Youyao were a genius, that'd be one thing, but according to Zhong Yizhu, the kid clearly wasn't that smart. He was a bad seed—couldn't even recite the Three Character Classic properly, yet he was already boasting about becoming a top scholar and making his parents and grandparents officials.

The Zhong family was delusionally trying to suck Zhong Yizhu's blood dry to nurture an "official" of their own. Whether it was giving Zhong Yizhu away before, or now trying to drag him back to the Zhong family to earn money for them, it was all to bribe the person who could get Zhong Youyao into the academy.

The more Pei Mu investigated, the more horrified he became. Had even a single step gone wrong, it would have meant utter ruin for Zhong Yizhu. This only strengthened his resolve to eradicate the Zhong family completely.

Pei Mu spoke slowly and deliberately: "Zhu Ge'er's extraordinary talent was never allowed to flourish. After marrying me, he started from a small stall and built the business step by step to the envy-inducing fragrance shop it is today. Not only do households from the city come to buy, but traveling merchants also purchase goods to sell elsewhere. All of this relies on Zhu Ge'er's incense-making skill—not on some dead formulas."

"Not to mention that the incense our shop sells is entirely different from Zhong's Fragrance Shop's. Even if it were the same, it was Second Master who taught Zhu Ge'er. Zhu Ge'er has wronged no one and done nothing wrong."

The prefect's expression seemed to soften. A bailiff came forward to take the account book from Pei Mu's hands and place it on the judge's desk.

At that moment, Zhong Laotai viciously pinched Wu Shi. Wu Shi gritted her teeth and stepped forward to confess, admitting that she had heard from her natal family about how well Zhong Yizhu's shop was doing and had conceived evil designs, thus committing the crime. Her mother-in-law, soft-hearted, had tried to cover for her.

The crowd outside watched the twists and turns inside the hall with nothing but astonishment on their faces. When Wu Shi finally confessed, some let out sighs of relief—at least in this case, Pei Mu and Zhong Yizhu had won, and they wouldn't have to suffer corporal punishment.

But Zhong Yizhu pressed his lips together and exchanged a look with Pei Mu, both feeling dissatisfied. Pei Mu's peripheral vision caught Wang Shun, who had already been punished and lay motionless. The pawn he had set up with such great effort seemed unable to play its intended role.

Suddenly, the prefect above let out a cold laugh: "You've interrupted every single time I was about to order the account books brought. Do you take me for a fool?"

Pei Mu and Zhong Yizhu whipped their heads around. The Zhong family also looked up in terror as a token was thrown heavily to the floor before the hall.

"Men! Go and bring the Zhong household's account books—from last year to the present. Not a single one missing!"

Zhong Laosan had thought that offering up Wu Shi would protect the family's peace, and that would be that. But now that the prefect had seen through them, his legs were trembling uncontrollably. He didn't even notice Zhong Laotai's frantic signals.

His guilty demeanor was obvious to anyone. Wu Shi's face was deathly pale—she had confessed voluntarily for the sake of her youngest son's future, and now that it was all about to turn to ash, what hope was left if she truly ended up in prison?

The prefect said casually, "Are they done with that one out there? Take this one down and give him a beating too—perhaps we'll get some truth out of him."

Zhong Laosan noticed the bailiffs approaching him and recalled the pitiful state Wang Shun had been in when he entered. His already shaky body lurched forward, and he crawled on his knees, sobbing, "I'll talk! I'll tell everything! Don't beat me, Your Honor! Please don't beat me!"

Zhong Laotai and the others couldn't stop him in time. They could only watch helplessly as he spilled everything their family had done like beans tumbling from a bamboo tube.

How they had seized the shop and driven out the elders immediately after Zhong Laoer's death. How they had schemed against Zhong Yizhu. How they had bribed Magistrate Wan to secure the academy spot. How they had eyed Zhong Yizhu's new shop, planning to seize it. How they had bought off Secretary Dou to smooth things over.

His account was somewhat jumbled, but more than enough for people to grasp the truth. Zhong Laotai and Zhong Yourong both tried to rush forward to stop him, but the bailiffs held them down and covered their mouths.

Zhong Laotai's eyes bulged, her mind filled with one thought: it's over. Magistrate Wan had come to their house before they left for the courthouse, teaching them how to respond, and had even told them to burn the account books and claim it was an accident. But this worthless third son of hers was going to ruin them all!

Zhong Laotai roared in muffled fury, struggling so violently that even the bailiffs holding her down had difficulty. But Zhong Laosan had already said it all.

The crowd outside fell silent. For ordinary matters, they might have pointed and gossiped as entertainment, but a family as beastly as the Zhong family's third branch and elders—committing such atrocities against their own nephew and grandson—sent chills down their spines. And this was a business founded by the boy's own father. What a sin.

Zhong Laosan collapsed to the ground after speaking. Zhong Laotai, released, rushed up and slapped him hard, cursing viciously. Zhong Laohan knelt weakly to the side. Zhong Yourong's face was deathly pale—even if the account books were gone, his father's words were enough to convict them all, weren't they? But what about him? These deeds were all done by his father and grandmother. He just managed the shop. Would he suffer too?

But soon, their last shred of hope was shattered.

Bailiffs walked quickly into the hall carrying familiar-looking ledgers, presenting them on the prefect's desk. The lead officer whispered something into the prefect's ear. The prefect looked at the old woman still cursing Zhong Laosan.

"Old madam, what fine methods you have—even resorting to arson! Did you truly think burning these account books would leave me without recourse? Contempt for the law—an additional charge! Men! Gag this old woman and make her listen well to her fate!"

The Great Yan had just fought years of war, and the treasury was empty. Punishments for corrupt officials were now severe, and bribery carried the same penalty as accepting it.

"...Zhong Laotai and Zhong Laosan, in violation of national law, abusing family authority, disregarding ethics, and harming their own kin—sentenced to exile, one thousand li. Zhong Laohan and Wu Shi, as accomplices, receive the same sentence. Zhong Yourong, who knew of the crimes and did nothing, is sentenced to corporal punishment. The Zhong family, having driven people out of their home first and harmed them after, is ordered to pay two hundred taels in compensation to Young Master Zhong and Madam Zhong the Second. All remaining family property is to be confiscated."

"Men, carry out the sentences immediately!"

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Author's note: I omitted the process of auditing the account books and evidence (actually, I wrote it and then deleted it) to make the pacing more satisfying. But the procedure is the procedure—everything that should be there is there.