Chapter 58: A Woman Surnamed Hu Stands in the Way and Cries for Injustice, Sun Shaozong Meets Another Strange Case
Sun Shaozong with the “comic strips” and other things in his arms, went out of the Central Judicial Office full of sobs, and respectfully waited for Dai Quan to get on the sedan chair. Only then did he take his mount and turn over his horse.
Just at this moment, a young woman sprang out of the room, jumped in front of the horse, knelt, kowtow on the ground with her head, and hissed, "I’m wrong, I’m wrong! Justice Bao, please redress an injustice for me!"
In the face of such emergencies, Sun Shaozong was calm, but the horse was a little frightened. He hissed up and kicked his hooves disorderly. If it wasn’t that the horse didn't overtake Sun Shaozong's strange strength, he might be about to run wild.
Fearing to hurt the woman who shouted injustice, Sun Shaozong quickly took the frightened horse aside and tied it to the stone lion in front of the door. He then turned back and looked at the woman carefully.
Only for a while, the young woman's forehead was already bleeding, but she seemed unconscious. She was still kowtowing on the stone road. Just by this determination to die, he knew that she had a great grievance to sue!
Sun Shaozong hurriedly stepped forward and lifted her up with both hands, saying with comfort, "Madam, please get up quickly. If you have any grievances, just say them out. Why do you have to abuse yourself like this?"
The young woman couldn't help but feel happy when she heard the speech. She raised her hand to wipe the blood from her eyes, and at the same time, she was about to talk about her grievances.
"Assistant Prefectural Magistrate Sun!"
However, at this time, among the Imperial Guards, someone impatiently urged, "The Emperor and the Supreme Emperor are still waiting to hear your case. How can we delay here for a long time? If His Majesty were to blame, how can you bear the consequences!"
The fck! This guy really has no eyesight for the situation!*
The street where the Central Judicial Office was located on a busy section of the inner city. It could be said that it was crowded with people and vehicles. Now, he sees a woman “blocking the street and shouting grievances,” which had already been surrounded by many passersby, and also saw the woman's face was covered with blood. Everyone had a look of sympathy.
In this case, even if one was really in a hurry to leave, that person should also find another decent reason. How can he say so frankly, “The Emperor is waiting to listen to the story and it can't be delayed?”
Does this pose to discredit the Emperor's face?
Therefore, Sun Shaozong put on a straight face and said solemnly, "That’s not true, sir. His Majesty called me into the Palace to investigate the suffering of the people. How will he blame me because someone blocked the way and shouted injustice for delaying some time?"
With that, he tore a piece of white cloth from the lining of the sleeves of his official clothes, personally bandaged the wound on the little woman's forehead, and said in a righteous way, "What grievances do you have, you can slowly tell me about it!"
Seeing Sun Shaozong's response, there was a burst of applause around, and the little woman was even more moved to cry. If it weren't for Sun Shaozong who stopped her, she would have kneeled and kowtow to this “Justice Bao.”
After calming down, the woman wiped her tears and cried, "My father is a butcher. Because he made some money during the New Year's festival, he wanted to help my husband and me. So, on the 29th day of the first month, he called my husband to go..."
Zhou Liang, the young woman's husband, went to his father-in-law butcher Hu's house on the 29th of the first month, and both the father-in-law and son-in-law were drunk. Originally, Butcher Hu wanted to keep Zhou Liang overnight, but Zhou Liang thought that his wife was alone at home, so he insisted on going home for rest.
Butcher Hu and his wife couldn't resist him, so they gave Zhou Liang several kilograms of pork packed long ago, together with thirteen or twenty-eight silver coins to take back, and asked him to do some small business with the money after the Spring Festival.
Zhou Liang left with a thousand thanks, staggering all the way home, handed the silver money and pork to Hu-Shi, and fell on the bed to sleep.
Hu-Shi first hid the silver money in a safe place and then thought that the weather was getting warmer now, and they were unable to finish the several kilograms of pork in a short period. To prevent it from turning bad, she took the package of meat to the kitchen and planned to chop it into small pieces and pickle it first.
Who knew after she untied the package, it wasn’t some kind of pork, but it's clearly a bloody head!
Hu-Shi screamed on the spot, first alerting her neighbors and then alerting the officials in Daxing County. After being interrogated by the guards, Zhou Liang and Butcher Hu were all brought back to the county government for interrogation.
At first, Zhou Liang and Butcher Hu refused to plead guilty, but two days later, the guards dug up the corpses, which were dismembered into seven or eight sections, near Butcher Hu's house. The facts were all there, and both the father-in-law and son-in-law couldn’t continue to deny it.
So Daxing County charged them with conspiracy to kill. Butcher Hu was sentenced to immediate beheading, and Zhou Liang was sentenced to the delayed death penalty.
But Hu-Shi didn't believe that her husband and father would conspire to kill people, so she appealed everywhere these days. She heard that at the Central Judicial Office now there was a "Divine Judgement Assistant Prefectural Magistrate Sun" who was good at solving all kinds of Yin-Yang strange cases. If she can ask him to ask about the case in person, her husband and father can be saved.
Therefore, the Hu family first inquired about Sun Shaozong's appearance and figure this morning and then guarded outside the Central Judicial Office.
"Penetrating judgement, Your Excellency!"
He then continued hearing the Hu family distinguish, "My father has only me as his daughter, and he treats my husband like a son. Even if he really killed someone, how can he send the head to my house? There is clearly a misunderstanding!"
Hearing this, Sun Shaozong frowned and said in a deep voice, "The file of this case I saw two days ago. It clearly says that Butcher Hu and his son-in-law confessed to the murder..."
"My Lord!"
Hu-Shi immediately knelt again and cried, "My father and my husband were tortured, and they only confess to false charges under torture! I sent someone to prison the day before yesterday, and my father’s condition was not the worst. But my husband was beaten till there were bruises everywhere. At his last gasp, he may die at any time!"
Confess to false charges under torture?
With these words, Sun Shaozong was a little embarrassed. No matter whether it was true or false, as long as he stepped in, he might not run away if he offended the Daxing County Magistrate.
It’s just that…
Looking at Hu-Shi kneeling on the ground and looking at the expectation and trust of the people around, how can Sun Shaozong “refuse?”
Sigh~
In any case, it was inevitable to offend people in order to clear up what has been confounded and set things right.
"Please get up now."
Sun Shaozong pulled Hu-Shi up again, turned around, rushed to the Yamen serviceman on duty in front of the door, and said, "Go and call Zhou Da at my courtyard, and let him take my invitation card and go on an errand to Daxing County. No matter what, he must first save Zhou Liang's life!"
Until the Yamen serviceman took the order…
Sun Shaozong added, "Hu-Shi, you should go back and properly bandage your wound first. When I come back from the Palace, I will thoroughly investigate the case again. If there is really any injustice in it, I will help you settle the grievance! But..."
With that, he looked sharp and said in a deep voice, "But if there is nothing strange about this case, I will charge you with defamation of court officials!"
As soon as Hu-Shi got up, she quickly knelt and vowed again, "My Lord, I am willing to pledge with my head. My husband and father were absolutely wronged!"
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