Chapter 334: Chapter 134: Public Indignation (Part 2)
Of course, the couple didn’t believe a word of it, but they still followed the directions to the mass grave.
The sky was dark and heavy that night, with occasional rumbles of muffled thunder. The oppressive atmosphere was suffocating.
When they reached the mass grave, the first thing they saw was a pair of wild dogs gnawing on a corpse.
The corpse was chewed beyond recognition, its skeleton and viscera already exposed.
The couple frantically grabbed sticks and drove the dogs away. Just as they did, a bolt of lightning split the sky, and in its flash, they recognized the body. The dead girl with the half-eaten face was none other than their daughter, Zhang Xue’e.
His wife had been overcome with grief ever since their daughter was sold, and had only been barely holding on for his sake.
Upon seeing her daughter’s body, his wife could bear it no longer and fainted. When she awoke, she didn’t say a word. Amid the torrential, thunderous rain, she ran headfirst into a tree, killing herself.
As for him, with his wife and daughter both gone, he lost his will to live. In a stupor, he went to the county government to cause a disturbance.
He couldn’t remember how brutally he was beaten, only that when he came to, he too was lying in the mass grave.
The people from the county government must have thought he was dead and simply dumped him here to be done with the matter. But they never expected that even Heaven would take pity on his family and let him live.
When Zhang Lanshan awoke again, he didn’t know if he’d gone mad or foolish. Like a walking corpse, he spent five years, day in and day out, watching from the street where the Guyuan County government was located, monitoring that family’s every move.
He hadn’t found proof that Cui Wei murdered his daughter, but he knew with perfect clarity how Cui Wei, Cui Junrong, and their lackeys had intimidated the scholars of Guyuan County to keep them from taking the county examination.
He even had a letter that Cui Junrong had written to his clansmen after placing first in the county examination.
The letter detailed the methods the father and son had used to manipulate the Guyuan County examination.
Cui Junrong had even invited his cousins to Guyuan County, saying that while he couldn’t promise them the top rank, getting them to pass the county examination would be a trivial matter.
Zhang Lanshan recounted this entire history, his every word dripping with the blood of his heart.
Hearing these horrifying past events, the commoners below became so enraged they were on the verge of rioting.
Rigging the civil service examinations was already an act that drew the wrath of gods and men, but these two had also taken lives, treating people as if they were nothing more than weeds or ants.
"A man like that isn’t fit to be called human! How could he possibly be an official!"
"As an official, he brings ruin to his people! The people of Guyuan County have been utterly ruined by Mr. Cui and his family!"
"Beat them to death!"
"You’re worse than animals! Why don’t you go and die!"
"*Sob*... That Scholar and his family... their story is too tragic..."
Countless rotten vegetable leaves and stinking eggs were thrown into the courtroom, mixed with stones and even pastries. In moments, the entire hall was filled with a nauseating stench.
Cui Wei and his son fared the worst. Their heads were bloodied from the barrage, and they looked as pathetic as beaten curs.
Even the bailiffs standing on either side were caught in the crossfire.
But with the Lord Prefect presiding, the bailiffs dared not move rashly, forced to endure the filth that covered them.
Because he was seated behind the bench, Mr. Sheng was spared the crowd’s insults, but with the courtroom in utter pandemonium, the situation reflected poorly on him.
He had no choice but to slam his gavel, the sharp CRACK shocking the hall and the courtyard outside into silence.
Mr. Sheng held the evidence Zhang Lanshan had presented—the very letter Cui Junrong had written to his clansmen.
He asked Zhang Lanshan, "Where did you obtain this letter?"
Suppressing his grief, Zhang Lanshan stared blankly and said, "That day, Cui Junrong’s personal servant took the letter to the post station to mail it."
Cui Junrong is a rotten character, and the company he keeps is no better.
"On his way, the servant encountered a young woman. He began to harass her and ended up in a brawl with her husband, who soon arrived on the scene."
"During their scuffle, the letter fell out from inside the servant’s robes."
"I seized the opportunity when no one was looking to pick up the letter. After reading its contents, I rushed to borrow a brush, ink, paper, and an inkstone from a scholar on the roadside who writes letters for a living. I copied out a new version, then took it to a bookshop to have it sealed for me."
"The letter in my possession now is the original, in Cui Junrong’s own handwriting. The one the servant ultimately mailed was the forgery I hastily wrote to replace it."
"I don’t know if his clansmen noticed something was wrong because of the different handwriting. But Cui Junrong is an ignorant lout who had his servant do his homework more often than he did it himself. It’s possible his relatives simply assumed the servant had written that letter on his behalf."
"In any case, no trouble arose from it, and I was able to preserve this piece of incriminating evidence, which has finally come into use today."
