Chapter 148 The evidence I've been waiting for, here she comes

Chapter 148 The evidence I've been waiting for, here she comes

Chapter 148 The evidence I've been waiting for, here she comes

As the chief judge Zhou Cheng announced the opening of the court session, the "mighty" beating of water and fire sticks in the surroundings stopped, and the sound of drums also quieted down.

Outside the open hall of the court, officials from various government offices who were invited to watch the grand event also flocked in.

A majestic and solemn atmosphere immediately filled the entire venue.

Even Zhao Duan couldn't help but feel his shoulders sank as he sensed the invisible pressure approaching. Following the sensation, he saw that the pressure came from the plaque with the words "A Clear Mirror Hanging High" in the court.

Is this a magical instrument? A talisman?

It seems to have the effect of deterring the criminals' minds... Zhao Duan still has time to think about these.

"boom!"

In the hall, Zhou Cheng, who was wearing a scarlet robe and a black veil on his head, frowned and slammed the gavel:
"Zhao Duan, today is the day for the three judges to hear the case. How dare you disrespect the court? Come, remove the prisoner's seat and make him kneel down!"

Zhao Duan raised his eyebrows.

So anxious? As soon as he came up, he couldn't wait to show off his power...

If not so many people were paying attention, he would have no doubt:
Zhou Cheng would draw the most ruthless red-headed lot from the four lot tubes in the court, which had "enforcement", "law", "strictness" and "clarity" written on them, and give him ten killing blows with the stick first.

"Wait a minute!"

In the jury box, Ma Yan, with a stern face, raised his eyelids and said in a deep voice:

"Zhou Tingwei, the case has not yet been concluded. At least at this moment, Zhao Duan is still my Zhaoya Jisi and the envoy of the White Horse Prison."

Zhou Cheng still remembered the grudge from last time, and said coldly:
"Master Ma, today is the day of the trial. I am the chief judge. It is not my turn to instruct the Imperial Court on how to handle the case."

As soon as the court opened, tension emanated from the two yamen.

When they were refusing to give in, Yuan Li, who was also sitting in the hall beside them, said calmly:

"The trial is urgent. You two may as well take a step back and remove your chairs. As for kneeling, forget it."

The Minister of Justice next to him also echoed:
"Mr. Yuan is right."

Zhou Cheng frowned. During the trial today, he could ignore Ma Yan, but he must not neglect the other two judges.

At that moment, an officer came forward and took the chair away.

Zhao Duan stood up, somewhat reluctantly, and hadn’t even sat down to warm up his chair yet…

Outside the hall.

The people watching the trial looked at each other. The royal guards from Lihua Hall stood at the back, unable to hide their worries - Zhou Cheng's opening was aggressive.

……

The trial continues.

Zhou Cheng said coldly:
"Today, the Sansi Yamen will hold a hearing on the case of military officer Zhao Duan raping and murdering Su Hongyu, a civilian woman. The case will now be read out."

On the left jury seat, He Zheng, the Dali Temple official in blue robe, stood up and read the file:

"A few days ago, a commoner named Su Hongyu's uncle and aunt beat the drum to appeal for justice..."

Su Hongyu? When Zhao Duan heard this name, he vaguely recalled a woman in his mind.

In the past, there had been singing and dancing at the Wang family banquet, but he had a vague impression of it. He only remembered that the girl was young, had graceful dancing, and had worked hard to achieve this.

When he was pushed into the room drunk, the other party tried to tease him, but was tied up and thrown aside by "himself", who was a bootlicker.

After leaving the Wang family, he no longer paid attention to her, and he didn't know that Wang Shan was angry with this woman who was a good dancer just because "he" didn't touch her. Not only was she violently humiliated, but she was also expelled from the Wang house and died soon after.

Today, one year after his death, Zhou Cheng pulled him out again and used him as a tool in order to deal with him.

Human life is worthless...

At this time, He Zheng finished reading, and Zhou Cheng shouted:

"Bring the plaintiff!"

Outside, an official was leading a middle-aged couple into the courtroom. The man was dressed like a businessman, and the woman had a mean look on her face.

At this moment, he entered the hall and knelt on the ground with a frightened "thump". Zhou Cheng said with a pleasant face:
"Please tell me the whole story in detail."

The man responded, as if he had memorized the lines long ago:
"I am Hongyu's uncle. Hongyu's parents passed away when she was young, so we raised her. Later, we sent her to learn singing and dancing, and she became a singing girl... By chance, she was spotted by the wealthy man Wang Shan, who took her in as his concubine..."

Outside the hall, many people frowned slightly when they heard this.

In Dayu, Kabuki were not "prostitutes" but women who really performed for a living.

But even so, it is still a low-class profession. Judging from the way the couple are dressed, they are not poor, but they sent their own niece to be a singing girl... It can be seen that the family affection is extremely weak.

The man continued:
"Last August, Hongyu was suddenly sent back by the Wang family's servants, saying that she had divorced her husband at Wangshan.

There were many scars on his body, and it was obvious that he had been defiled. He looked haggard... My husband and I sought medical treatment, and he was getting better, but he later died inexplicably."

When saying this, Zhao Duan noticed that he felt a little guilty, perhaps because of the intimidating effect of the plaque.

In fact, when Su Hongyu was sent back, she was indeed covered with bruises, but he and his wife were afraid that she would offend Mr. Wang Shan, so they didn't even seek medical treatment for her and were too lazy to even give her food and drink.

Su Hongyu died of illness, pain and hunger.

Zhou Cheng asked two more questions and said:
"Call the doctor and the coroner."

The police brought two more people to the court. One of them claimed to be the doctor who diagnosed Su Hongyu at the beginning, and the other was the coroner who dug up Su Hongyu's body and examined her autopsy in the past two days.

The former pointed out that Su Hongyu's illness was not serious and her death was suspicious, while the latter said that the cause of death was suspected to be suffocation.

The implication of the words was that Su Hongyu was silenced.

"Send it to Qin Qiu," Zhou Cheng said again.

At this time, Qin Qiu, who was short in stature and wore wrinkled silk clothes, but still could not hide the injuries from torture, was brought up.

As soon as he entered the courtroom, his two little eyes were blank and terrified. When he saw Zhao Duan, he cried out and fell to his knees, ready to pounce on him, but was stopped by the official, tears streaming down his face:

"Brother, save me..."

Zhao Duan was somewhat moved. He didn't expect that his lackey would become like this.

"Qin Qu! I want to ask you, did you have a banquet with Zhao Duan at Wang's house that day and saw him go to the bedroom with Wang Shan?" Zhou Cheng said coldly.

Qin Qiu knelt on the ground, trembling, squinting his eyes and looking at the senior officials one by one, trembling with fear:
"Yes...but I didn't see Envoy Zhao..."

Zhou Cheng interrupted sharply: "You just need to answer, right?"

"Yes……"

"I would like to ask you again, did Zhao Duan stay overnight at the Wang residence?"

"Yes...but Envoy Zhao didn't..."

"Take him away!" Zhou Cheng waved his hand.

Qin Qu's eyes widened, and he seemed to have just come to his senses. He wanted to say something, but was secretly punched by the official, and suddenly lost the ability to speak in pain. At this time, with three consecutive rounds of witnesses coming on stage, the crowd outside the hall was slightly agitated.

Obviously, these pieces of evidence overlap with each other and are extremely unfavorable to Zhao Duan.

Many people looked at Zhao Duan, but found that as a prisoner, his face was extremely calm from beginning to end, and no emotional changes could be seen.

"Bring Wang Shan!" Zhou Cheng slammed the gavel again.

This time, Wang Shan, who was fat, had slightly red eyes and looked like he had albinism, walked into the hall.

He was originally imprisoned in the imperial prison, but after the three courts held a joint trial, Prime Minister Zhou had him taken away on the grounds that he was a key witness, and Ma Yan could not stop him.

But now he was not frightened at all like in the imperial prison, but calm and composed. When he glanced at Zhao Duan from the corner of his eye, the corner of his mouth slightly raised:

"Master Zhao, I didn't expect that we would meet here."

Zhao Duan looked at him strangely and thought to himself, I hope you can still laugh after this.

"Wang Shan, what do you have to say about Su Hongyu's death?" Zhou Cheng asked.

Wang Shan immediately pointed the finger, saying that he had hosted a banquet that day and Zhao Duan was attracted by her beauty and hinted at him to send his concubine to serve him.

Wang Shan was afraid and ordered his concubine to accompany him for a night. However, he did not expect that Su Hongyu was covered with bruises and became mentally ill.

"Seeing this, I didn't want to keep her, so I ordered people to send her back to the Su family, but I didn't expect that she died." Wang Shan said.

The loop is closed.

At this moment, everyone's testimonies plus the "evidence" read out by He Zheng before the trial began, corroborated each other, like nails, nailing Zhao Duan to the murderer's pillar.

The commotion in the hall was getting louder. In the crowd at Lihua Hall, Old Man Zheng squinted his eyes and whispered:

"You came prepared. There is no evidence when a person is dead, and the living people are all saying the same thing. Your Excellency is in trouble."

Secretary Qian Kerou bit her lip:

"These people must be framing you, my Lord!"

She has a certain beautifying filter for Zhao Duan without realizing it.

Hou Renmeng and Shen Juan said nothing. Emotionally, they were unwilling to believe it.

But from a rational point of view... Well, considering the behavior of my master, even if Zhao Duan really did such a thing, it doesn't seem surprising...

Even Ma Yan frowned slightly.

I'm not sure whether Zhou Cheng is framing me or Zhao Duan really did this...

He turned his head to look at Sun Lianying and found that she was expressionless as always.

"Bang! Silence!"

Zhou Cheng slammed the gavel, spoke harshly, and looked down at Zhao Duan:

"Prisoner, do you have anything to say about the above charges?"

In an instant, countless eyes converged.

However, what surprised everyone was that in the face of such an unfavorable situation, Zhao Duan just remained silent and did not utter a word.

"Do you have anything to say?" the Minister of Justice also shouted.

Zhao Duan still turned a deaf ear.

Zhou Cheng smiled: "So, you have nothing to say?"

Zhao Duan still kept his mouth shut.

In the court, the commotion reached an unprecedented level and people's expressions changed.

In their view, although the situation was extremely unfavorable, they still had to make a few arguments.

What does silence mean?
Everyone started talking, their faces looking strange, and the same thought came to everyone's mind:

Could it be that the case is true?

It's not a false accusation, but he really did it?
He was now faced with the accusations, speechless and unable to refute?
Or maybe, even if he didn't do it, he already knew it in his heart, and he couldn't provide strong evidence, so... he just accepted his fate?

"Why don't you say anything, sir? Has he been controlled by some means? Why doesn't he speak up to defend himself?" Qian Kerou's face turned red with anxiety.

"Your Excellency may be thinking about the evidence." Shen Juan spoke, but his tone was full of lack of confidence.

"Go ahead and explain yourself. At least you'll have a chance to get your voice to His Majesty in the palace..."

The imperial guards in Lihua Hall became anxious.

If the situation did not allow it, they would have wanted to shout loudly to remind Zhao Duan to refute.

More officials watching shook their heads, thinking that Zhao Duan had given up resistance.

"Alas, you are still too naive after all... Do you really think that the Chief Justice is easy to mess with?"

"Oh, he also knows that His Majesty no longer trusts him, otherwise there would not be this trial."

"But if we fight for it, there is still a chance. But since he has given up, there is no suspense."

The crowd was talking.

Ma Yan looked anxious. He wanted to remind Zhao Duan that there was still a lot of room for debate in the case.

For example, why would someone suddenly come to report the case after such a long time of death?

Or request another autopsy...

Even Yuan Li, one of the chief judges in the court, looked doubtful, not understanding what he was planning.

But Zhao Duan seemed to ignore everyone's gaze, with no expression on his face. He just stared at the plaque in the hall, distracted.

In the court, Zhou Cheng could no longer conceal his joy. Although he also had doubts, he knew that as long as the case was confirmed, no matter what tricks Zhao Duan used, it would be meaningless.

He immediately raised the gavel and pronounced the verdict:
"Since the criminal has not made any defense, it is equivalent to admitting guilt. Now, I hereby pronounce the verdict on the case of Zhao Duan raping and murdering Su Hongyun..."

Suddenly, in the solemn atmosphere, a slightly disembodied girl's voice echoed in the courtroom.

"Wait a minute."

Inside the hall, a cluster of starlight suddenly rushed in from afar, swirling around like a tornado, and condensed into a petite figure:
The priest's robe was black in color with gold lines, and he wore boots of the same color. He had long hair that was slightly curled at the ends, delicate facial features that were slightly pale, and eyes that seemed to be out of focus when he looked at people.

The disciple of the old master, the red-pointed priest, and the golden tablet!

Zhao Duan, who had kept his mouth shut and just stared at the plaque in a trance, finally withdrew his gaze and the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.

He said to the three judges in the court:

"The evidence I've been waiting for is here."

(End of this chapter)