Chapter 83

Lü Dalang continued to play with his roosters and dogs, but the one who was anxious was not him, but Zhu Huan...

However, Zhu Huan was not like him. In terms of foresight, he could not match Wang Ju, and he might even be inferior to Wang Anshi. But in terms of details, he was no weaker than Wang Ju. So he found Lü Dalang and said directly, "I don't want to wait any longer."

"Mr. Zhu, you are wronging me. For your second son, I've been running around these past few days."

"Enough of your nonsense. I'll only say this once: within ten days, I must have news. Otherwise, I still have two sons and a grandson! When that time comes, we'll all be in a mess."

"You're threatening me for doing you a favor."

"Then let's see."

"Alright, alright, I'll try my best to get you news within ten days." Lü Dalang left in a huff.

As he walked out the door, he muttered, "This old bastard."

But he didn't dare to bet, after all, it wasn't a small amount of money. What if Zhu Huan really got serious?

So he found Ding Jia.

"What are you dragging for? What's the benefit of dragging?" Ding Jia said angrily. Zhu Huan was anxious, and so was he.

"Alright, I'll go take care of it. Have you been doing well these past few days?"

"Fine," Ding Jia said, his expression brightening. Seeing that things were starting to take shape, and that he had encountered a few rich fools, he had won about seven or eight hundred strings of cash in the past few days. How could he not be happy?

Lü Dalang started to take action.

The next day, he took a maid and wandered around the streets. They came to a pawnshop, and suddenly the maid whispered, "This is You'er's hairpin."

"What do you mean, You'er's hairpin?"

"You'er is a snake, and when the gold hairpin was made, a small white snake was deliberately engraved on it with silver. I accompanied her when it was made, not long ago. I remember it clearly."

Lü Dalang paid attention. A big man was pawning a gold hairpin, which had a small white snake engraved on it.

"Are you sure it's You'er's hairpin?"

"Yes, and on the night of the incident, she wore it on her head. You even complimented how beautiful it was, don't you remember?"

"There were so many things that night, how could I remember? Damn it, grab him." Lü Dalang shouted.

Several servants immediately grabbed the man.

"What are you doing?" the man asked.

"Take him to the county office."

They took the man to the county office, and Lü Dalang beat the drum to accuse him of grave robbing. There was no other reason; after the coroner examined the body and the scene, Lü Dalang immediately buried You'er in a coffin without touching her clothes or jewelry. Now that the hairpin was in this man's hands, where else could it have come from if not from grave robbing?

Magistrate Cai immediately held a court session.

After a few beatings, the man could not hold out and confessed. His name was Fu, and he was called Fu Xiaozhuang, a local. Due to poverty, he had no choice but to rob a grave.

Magistrate Cai continued to ask where the grave was, when he robbed it, what else he stole, and if he had robbed other graves before.

This was the procedure for questioning.

However, Fu Xiaozhuang could not answer.

So they continued to beat him. When he could no longer bear it, Fu Xiaozhuang suddenly confessed that the hairpin was not from grave robbing, but from theft.

His family was poor, and his eldest and second sons were of age but could not afford to marry. His mother was also sick, and they had no money for treatment. The Lü family had just moved in, and they seemed wealthy. On that night, Fu Xiaozhuang broke into the Lü family's house to steal. He was about to steal when a beautiful maid helped a drunk young man into the room. He had to hide under the bed. The young man was vomiting, and the maid used a basin to catch the vomit.

Then the young man fell asleep on the bed, and the maid wiped his face. She was about to leave when she saw a puddle of vomit outside the basin. She bent down to clean it and saw him.

In a panic, he jumped out from under the bed, covered her mouth, and told her not to speak. But the maid was beautiful, and he had lustful thoughts. He tried to molest her, but she struggled. He choked her, threatening her not to scream. However, he used too much force and strangled her to death.

With the maid dead, he had to run away, but he took the gold hairpin from her head. However, he did not dare to sell it. Later, he heard that the Lü family's case was solved, and someone else was accused of the murder. Only then did he dare to sell the hairpin.

Did we make a mistake in the case? Magistrate Cai and the chief clerk and county captain looked at each other in shock.

This was a matter of life and death, not to be taken lightly. Magistrate Cai ordered the bailiffs to lock Fu Xiaozhuang in the jail, then found the coroner's records and carefully reviewed them. The time matched, and after You'er had been in the room for a while, a Lü family servant opened the door and found her dead, then called for help and arrested Zhu Jun.

There were indeed signs of a struggle. However, upon re-examining the case, they noticed that the back window was open. The coroner's records, while not as detailed as modern ones, had to include how the victim died and the state of the crime scene.

So they immediately summoned the Lü family's servants and asked if the window was open that night.

After asking several servants, one remembered that he had cleaned the room that day, and the window was closed. Of course, with so many chaotic events that night, no one had thought about it.

So they continued to question whether anyone from the Lü family had opened the window that night.

No one said they had.

There was another way to confirm: to open the coffin. Magistrate Cai led the bailiffs to dig up You'er's grave, open the coffin, and found that all her clothes and other jewelry were still there, but her body was somewhat decayed.

Two points were confirmed, and then they questioned again. If you committed the murder, how did you molest her and strangle her?

They used his confession to compare with the coroner's records.

It matched.

Then they brought Zhu Jun up again and beat him, asking how he had molested and strangled her. The results had many discrepancies.

Magistrate Cai sighed, "Mr. Huang, we did indeed make a mistake."

"What should we do?"

Magistrate Cai was furious, "You are a scholar, why did you confess to a murder you didn't commit! Come, fifty strokes of the cane."

After the beating, he was put back in jail.

Zhu Jun was furious. I wanted to confess to this false crime, but wasn't it because you beat me until I had no choice? But at this moment, he was overjoyed, knowing that his life was saved.

The officials of Huayin were in a difficult position. They had no choice but to report to the governor, Zhou Fu.

Zhou Fu immediately came down.

He then reviewed the confessions of both parties and the records of the coroner and clerks.

Since Zhu Jun was still in the Huayin jail, Zhou Fu did not know the details and immediately scolded, "How did you handle this? I have already reported to the court. Now you say the case was wrong, are you trying to ruin my career!"

So he personally questioned the case.

First, he brought Zhu Jun up. Someone had already secretly told him, "If you want to leave safely, don't talk nonsense."

So Zhu Jun did not speak.

Zhou Fu pressed hard, and in anger, Zhu Jun took off his clothes, "Magistrate Zhou, look."

Zhou Fu understood and had Zhu Jun taken away, then scolded again, "Our dynasty's law strictly prohibits torture. Are you trying to kill yourselves!"

The Song dynasty law prohibited officials from using severe torture on criminals. Flogging was limited to fifty strokes with a small cane, which was painful but not fatal. Beating was limited to one hundred strokes with a small bamboo stick, to prevent wrongful convictions. However, in practice, it was different. For example, Wan Shixie used a skin-peeling torture on Yue Fei, pouring hot glue on his skin and tearing it off when it cooled, a truly cruel punishment.

Zhou Fu continued to scold, but since he was speaking in Fujianese, no one understood. Even if they understood, they pretended not to. So he questioned again, and beat Fu Xiaozhuang.

It was a wrongful case.

At this point, Zhou Fu did not dare to act rashly, so he rewrote the case file and released Zhu Jun.

Lü Dalang was waiting outside and immediately took Zhu Jun home.

Zhu Jun did not agree, but a servant from the Zhu family was also there and said, "Second Master, the old master is waiting for you at home..."

Zhu Jun understood and immediately burst into tears.