Chapter 332: Chapter 133: Sensation (3)
Mr. Sheng laughed in fury. "So, in your view, these common folk from Guyuan County traveled all this way to the government office just to slander you and let off some steam?"
Mr. Sheng’s gaze was like a sharp sword, as if it could pierce countless holes through a man.
One glance was all it took for Cui Junrong’s mind to go blank. His heart pounded so fast it felt like it would leap out of his throat.
But even at this stage, he stubbornly refused to yield. "That’s right. They’re just jealous of me."
"Jealous of what? Your empty head? Your petty, narrow-minded nature? Or that your writing is so dreadful it’s unreadable!"
Mr. Sheng roared, slamming his gavel. "You criminals! Are you still not going to confess?"
Cui Wei was more composed. Though his forehead was beaded with cold sweat, he gritted his teeth and said nothing. Cui Junrong, however, was younger, and his legs were trembling so hard he looked as if he might die of fright.
Just then, a constable, on orders, brought over the instruments for the ankle press torture. Seeing the wooden presses stained dark red with old blood, the pungent, nauseating stench of it filling the air, Cui Junrong shrieked, "Father, save me! Father, I’m scared!"
As he screamed his head off, Cui Junrong seemed to have completely forgotten how he and his father used to lord their power over Guyuan County.
Mr. Cui had taken a fancy to Guyuan County’s Tofu Beauty. His steward, under the pretext of an order from the county government for tofu, lured the woman to the office, where the Magistrate, feigning drunkenness, forced himself upon her.
Afterward, the Tofu Beauty tried to kill herself by smashing her head against a pillar, but she survived.
But she was locked away in the back courtyard of the county government, where she suffered the County Magistrate’s abuse day after day.
When the Tofu Beauty’s husband came to demand her return, he was surrounded and beaten by the county government’s constables. They even used torture rods on him, beating the man until he was half-dead.
Cui Junrong coveted a certain restaurant. He dropped several hints to the owner, but the man refused to hand it over voluntarily.
Hatred festered in Cui Junrong’s heart. He hired a few local thugs to dump a corpse at the restaurant and stir up trouble. Finally, on the pretext that the restaurant was responsible for a death, he had the owner dragged to the government office and brutally subjected to the ankle press torture.
The restaurant owner, barely clinging to life, resentfully agreed to "gift" the establishment to Cui Junrong. Only then was the matter closed.
The father and son had treated others as less than human and their lives as worthless. Now that it was their turn to face punishment, both were so terrified they lost control of their bladders.
Cui Junrong cried out for his father again and again, while Cui Wei kowtowed until his forehead was bruised, still repeating, "I beg Your Excellency to investigate this thoroughly! I have been wrongly accused!"
’Truly stubborn until the bitter end.’ Mr. Sheng had the constables stand down and called for the next person to be brought forward.
The man brought into the government office this time was middle-aged and looked like a beggar, with tattered clothes and hair as tangled as weeds.
The moment the man appeared, Chen De’an and his companions gasped in shock.
Chen Wanqing asked them curiously, "What is it? Do you know him?"
Zhao Jing nodded. "Not really. We’ve crossed paths a couple of times."
De’an elaborated.
He recounted how they had encountered this very Scholar twice on their journey to the Prefecture.
He finished by saying, "The man was acting erratically, like his mind wasn’t all there."
Chen Wanqing, however, grew thoughtful. ’You said he kept crying out for his ’daughter.’ His daughter must be gone... Could she have died at the hands of Mr. Cui?’
De’an shrugged. "Who knows."
But Zhao Jing stated with certainty, "That must be it."
As a Scholar, he held a rank that exempted him from kneeling before officials. Yet, he gave a long, deep bow, his voice choked with sobs from the moment he spoke. "My daughter’s death was a great injustice! I beg Your Excellency to see the truth and punish her murderer severely!"
As he spoke, the man turned and pushed aside the matted hair covering his face, revealing gaunt, haggard features.
Mr. Cui clearly recognized the man’s face. He stumbled backward, his eyes wide with shock and terror. "You’re... you’re..."
"I am Zhang Xue’e’s father! I have come to demand justice for my daughter!"
"No, it wasn’t me! Your daughter died from a relapse of an old illness! It has nothing to do with me! You can’t just make baseless accusations!"
"A relapse? When I sold my daughter to your household, she was perfectly healthy and had never been ill. How could she die from a relapse after just one short year in your home? You man-eating monster! You killed my daughter and threw her body in a mass grave. My poor, poor daughter... When I found her, she... her body had been half-eaten by wild dogs!"
As he spoke, the Scholar lunged at Cui Wei like a man possessed, tearing furiously at his hair and clothes. It was as if he meant to peel the skin from Cui Wei’s body to see what kind of beast lurked beneath.
