Chapter 53: Imprisonment

Chapter 53: Imprisonment

Chapter 53: Imprisonment
When the prefect speaks, how dare the yamen runners below disobey him?
Immediately, two yamen runners stepped forward and held Liu Shancheng down. Without saying a word, they raised their boards and started beating him.

Liu Shancheng had lived a life of luxury, how could he have endured this? He was beaten so hard that he cried and screamed, and when the beating was over, he lay on the ground and couldn't get up.

"Merchant Liu Shancheng!"

"Little... Little is here..." The beating directly crushed the pride in Liu Shancheng's heart. Hearing the prefect Yu Zhida asking questions, Liu Shancheng endured the severe pain in his buttocks, gasped and replied weakly.

"I want to ask you, is there a maid named Xiaohuan in your house?"

"Reply... reply to your Excellency, I... I don't remember..." Liu Shancheng pretended to be confused.

"Haha, you don't remember? Even your own maid doesn't remember?" Yu Zhida asked with a sneer.

"My Lord, there are more than a hundred people in my house, and many of them are maids. I am busy with business on weekdays and don't care about these things. It is normal that I can't remember them. However, my butler Lin Zhenzong is just outside the hall. Lin Zhenzong is in charge of all the servants in the house. Your Lordship can ask Lin Zhenzong to come to the hall to ask, maybe he knows something." Liu Shancheng is not stupid. He had already figured out how to answer before he came. Moreover, Yu Zhida just gave him a direct warning. This beating almost cost him half his life.

So Liu Shancheng insisted that he didn't know any maids Xiaohuan and Dahuan, and directly pushed the matter to the housekeeper Lin Zhenzong.

After hearing this, Yu Zhida said nothing. With a cold face, he asked the bailiff to bring in Lin Zhenzong from outside.

When Lin Zhenzong walked into the hall, he saw his master lying on the ground with blood oozing from his buttocks. He was shocked. Then he looked at the majestic prefect sitting in the hall. Lin Zhenzong's legs suddenly softened and he knelt down.

"Who is this person in the hall? Come forward yourself!"

"I'm Lin Zhenzong, and I'm the housekeeper of Mr. Liu... Mr. Liu Shancheng." Lin Zhenzong replied with a pale face and body trembling slightly.

"I would like to ask you, did the Liu family have a maid named Xiaohuan before?"

“Your Excellency, yes... yes..." Lin Zhenzong answered according to Liu Shancheng’s previous instructions.

"Where are they? Where are they now?"

"Reply...Reply to the Lord, the maid Xiaohuan died of an acute illness a month ago, and the Liu Mansion has already buried her..."

"Oh, Lord! My child died so tragically! My Xiaohuan didn't have an acute illness at all. She was beaten to death by the people in Liu's house! Please, Lord, help me!" Just as Lin Zhenzong finished his words, a sharp and sad cry rang out. The woman from the kneeling couple looked up and cried, her face full of tears. She looked at Liu Shancheng and Lin Zhenzong with incomparable hatred in her eyes.

The same thing happened to Xiaohuan's father. He reached out to grab his wife, but his eyes were as sharp as a knife and were cast towards Liu Shancheng and Lin Zhenzong. His eyes were filled with tears and his chiseled face was full of grief and indignation.

Subconsciously avoiding their gazes, Lin Zhenzong flatly denied, "My Lord, Xiaohuan did die of an acute illness. Many people in the Liu Mansion know about this. If my Lord doesn't believe me, you can call the servants of the Liu Mansion to question them. I can guarantee that everything he said is true!"

Lin Zhenzong was able to be Liu Shancheng's chief steward and was also called the second master in Liu's house. He was not a useless guy who only knew how to flatter. He was not only the brother of Liu Shancheng's favorite concubine Xiangyu, but also a very smart person. Although he had just seen Liu Shancheng's miserable appearance in the court, and the majesty of the court made him tremble with fear, after a few words, Lin Zhenzong's heart gradually returned to his stomach.

Lin Zhenzong knew exactly how Xiaohuan died, but as long as he insisted that she died of illness, Yu Zhida would not be able to do anything to them. Anyway, the person had been thrown into a mass grave after death, and it was still unclear whether the body could be found.

As for what he said about someone in the Liu Mansion being able to testify, this was not a big deal for the Liu Mansion. Liu Shancheng was the head of the Liu Mansion, and he was also the chief steward of the Liu Mansion, so naturally the people below would not speak carelessly.

"Lin Zhenzong!" Yu Zhida's calm voice continued, "Think carefully, are you sure the maid Xiaohuan died of illness? Wasn't she beaten to death?"

"My Lord, I am sure!" Lin Zhenzong said firmly.

With a bang, Yu Zhida slapped the wooden stick and sneered, "In that case, come here! Call the coroner Yang Er to the court!" With an order, an old coroner in his fifties came to the court, first saluted Yu Zhida, and then reported his identity according to the rules.

Yang Er is the most experienced coroner in Pingyang Prefecture. His family has been doing this for generations. Last time, when the Kang family took advantage of someone's fault and someone died, they asked him to examine the body, which saved the Kang family from disaster.

After Yang Er came to the court, Yu Zhida asked directly about the results of the autopsy. Yang Er immediately replied that he had taken people to the mass grave and dug out the body of the maid Xiaohuan. Because it was cold that day, although the body had been buried for more than a month, it was well preserved, so the autopsy process went very smoothly.

Judging from the autopsy results, Yang Er spoke a lot of professional terms, many of which were simply incomprehensible to ordinary people, but Yu Zhida listened attentively. After all, he was different from ordinary local officials. He came from the Dali Temple and was considered a technical official in this regard. After listening, his face was as gloomy as water.

Finally, Yang Er summarized the results and reported that the maid Xiaohuan could not have died of an acute illness. She was clearly beaten half to death and died of organ failure. This conclusion could not be wrong, and he submitted a formal autopsy report to Yu Zhida!

When these words were spoken, everyone in the room was shocked, and the couple burst into tears.

Liu Shancheng and Lin Zhenzong were stunned. They had no idea how the other party found the place where the maid Xiaohuan had buried her body. You know, even Liu Shancheng and Lin Zhenzong themselves only knew that she was buried in a mass grave outside the city and were not sure about the exact location.

But now the body has been found, and Yang Er's autopsy report proves that Xiaohuan died of lynching and not from an acute illness as they said just now. For a moment, Liu Shancheng's mind was buzzing, knowing that this matter was in big trouble. Once it was proven that Xiaohuan's death was at his instigation, it would not be so easy to get away.

"Your Excellency! I... I didn't know about this. Xiaohuan's death might have been caused by my servants. It has nothing to do with me!" Liu Shancheng hurriedly defended himself. At the same time, he slightly turned his head to look at Lin Zhenzong who was standing behind him, indicating in his eyes that he should take the responsibility first. No matter what, this fire must not burn him.

Lin Zhenzong was also dumbfounded. He had been so confident just now, but in the blink of an eye, he was exposed. With the facts in front of him, it was useless to argue. Now Liu Shancheng kept giving him a look, clearly asking him to take the responsibility.

But Lin Zhenzong was not stupid. This was not an ordinary matter. It was a life! If it was Liu Shancheng, he might be fine with his connections, but he was just a housekeeper. The so-called second master was just a title in Liu's mansion. In fact, he was just a dog of Liu Shancheng.

If this life was put on his head, he might be finished, how could Lin Zhenzong admit it? But he didn't dare to drag this matter onto Liu Shancheng, so he could only bite the bullet and change his words to say that he heard the report from his subordinates, and he was deceived by his subordinates. He didn't know who killed Xiaohuan.

"What a naughty slave! Come here! Beat him for me! Beat him hard!" Even at this time, Lin Zhenzong still refused to admit it, and Yu Zhida immediately became furious.

At the command, the two yamen runners who had just beaten Liu Shancheng stepped forward, held Lin Zhenzong down and started beating him with the boards.

Lin Zhenzong was beaten so hard that he cried for his parents. After the beating, Yu Zhida questioned Lin Zhenzong again, but Lin Zhenzong still denied it flatly, saying that the death of the maid Xiaohuan had nothing to do with him and that he was deceived by the servants and that he was really wronged.

Yu Zhida was a little surprised by Lin Zhenzong's reaction. He originally thought that after a beating, Lin Zhenzong would confess the truth, but he didn't expect Lin Zhenzong to be so stubborn and still refused to admit it.

Yu Zhida frowned slightly and began to think. Based on his experience, this case must be related to Liu Shancheng and Lin Zhenzong.

But now Liu Shancheng pushed the issue aside, insisting that he knew nothing about it. As for Lin Zhenzong, he was also extremely cunning, denying that he had beaten Xiaohuan to death, and the case suddenly came to a standstill.

He subconsciously looked to the side and saw the man who had been sitting in the hall without saying a word nodded to Yu Zhida, and Yu Zhida immediately felt relieved.

Yu Zhida announced that Liu Shancheng and Lin Zhenzong would be temporarily imprisoned and the case would be retried at a later date. Then, despite Liu Shancheng and Lin Zhenzong's cries of injustice, several yamen runners came forward, put shackles on the two, took them away from the court, and locked them up in the government jail.

After the person was taken away, the court was adjourned.

Yu Zhida stood up and went to the back. The man who had been sitting also stood up, walked up to the couple, leaned over and said a few words of comfort, then followed Yu Zhida's direction and went to the back.

A moment later, in the back hall of the government office, Yu Zhida and the man were sitting there. There were two cups of steaming tea on the table, but the two did not touch them and instead chatted in low voices.

(End of this chapter)