Chapter 274
Madam Su reprimanded again: “Don’t be willful, Jiu’er!”
“I’m your aunt, do children don’t have any respect to their elders now?”
No matter what this damned girl does, she was still an elder and there was no reason for her to call the shots here!
Madam Su took a deep breath, suppressing the anger inside, and added in a meaningfully warning tone: “Jiu’er, Duan Wangye, and Duan Wang Fei are still in the capital!”
The reason why Madam Su deliberately mention Duan Wangye and his wife was to suppress Qin Jiu, thinking that even if Qin Jiu doesn’t care about her maternal family, she has to think of her husband’s family. After all, she hasn’t passed the gate yet, and if her soon-to-be in-law knew how aggressive she was it would make the whole family uncertain about choosing her as their in-law, also wouldn’t she be afraid that the Duan Wang would have prejudiced against her?
However, Qin Jiu, on the other hand, didn’t even bother with Madam Su, and instead looked at the magistrate calmly, and asked in a loud voice: “Lord Hu, are you going to take this case or not? If not, then I will continue to beat the drum!”
Magistrate Hu: “…”
Seeing this scene unfold in front of them, Pei Qi, Gong Liu, and the others became even more excited, pulling their voices they shouted at the top of their voices.
“Sister, let’s go, we’ll accompany you to beat the dengwen drum* instead!”
(*hung outside the court hall for those who have grievances or urgent cases…, so as to establish a lawsuit)
“Go go go! With us around, no one will try to bully you into beating that drum!”
“Let’s do it together to give you a strong voice!”
Looking at this scene, the magistrate’s forehead was visibly seeping with cold sweat, he also almost wanted to kneel down to these young men while thinking that ending this in peace today was impossible.
Originally, a fight between two children of in-laws was mostly nothing serious, to put it bluntly, these noble children would always fight every now and then, but he has never seen anyone complain to a magistrate before.
Ai, why did this kind of thing happen to him?
Of course, the magistrate couldn’t just sit and watch Qin Jiu go and beat the drum again, wiping his cold sweat with his cuff, he hurriedly said, “Yes, of course, I will!”
“Someone is beating the grievance drum to appeal for grievances so of course as the magistrate, this government naturally wants to uphold justice for the people in the capital.”
He sounded dignified as he made himself appear pompous, then knocked the gavel and started questioning Su Xiyang according to the trial procedure: “Su Xiyang, what can you say about third miss Qin accusing you of attempting to murder her brother?”
Naturally, it was impossible for Su Xiyang to plead guilty so he denied it without thinking twice: “Lord Hu, how could I do this insidious means? Qin Zening is not as skilled as others; he fell on his horse on his own and turned his anger to me instead.”
Qin Jiu casually raised her hand and made a gesture, and her little attendant, Qin Zeyu immediately showed Qin Zening’s saddle while giving her a meaningful glance.
One of the officials in the public court took the saddle and presented it to the magistrate for the official case
Qin Jiu: “Lord Hu, this is my eldest brother’s saddle. As what you can see, the strap on the saddle was cut with a sharp weapon.”
“Lord Hu, please look closely at the cut on the strap, the strap was cut very smoothly, yet shows fine jagged marks which are different from the cut marks left by ordinary sharp tools.”
The magistrate looked at the strap carefully on the saddle as he stroked his beard, and nodded, “Indeed.”
Qin Jiu raised her finger and pointed to the knife embedded with seven-colored gems on the side of Su Xiyang’s waist, “Lord Hu, that scimitar that Master Su has on his waist is a scimitar from Persia, which not only has a tough and sharp blade but also has a concealed serrated edge.”
As soon as this sentence was uttered, the atmosphere in the court changed.
The magistrate’s expression froze, while Su Xiyang’s complexion changed drastically as he unconsciously grasped the scimitar at his waist. However, such a large scimitar could not be hidden even if he wanted to.
Lord Hu has been a magistrate for many years and has officiated not only a few nearly thousand cases but thousands of cases, so he immediately saw something from Su Xiyang’s subtle changes of expression, and he knew the meaning of these expressions: I’m afraid the saddle really has something to do with Su Xiyang!
The magistrate said politely, “Master Su, please show me your scimitar, and let me have a look!”
Su Xiyang gripped his scimitar tighter and didn’t move, but one of the officials had already walked up to him, looked at him with a leathery smile, and extended his hand to him, “Master Su.”
Su Xiyang hesitated for a while before he finally handed the scimitar to the official.
The official pulled out the scimitar nimbly and took a closer look, indeed it was exactly what Qin Jiu said. The scimitar he had was a scimitar from Persia, with a serrated blade.
After comparing the scimitar with the cut on the saddle strap, the magistrate confirmed and nodded, “The saddle strap was indeed cut by this scimitar!”
There was another silence in the court. Madam Su’s face darkened that it was about to drop ink, she didn’t know whether she should hate Qin Jiu for being troublesome or blame her nephew for being stupid, leaving such obvious evidence.
“Lord Hu, the evidence of the crime is conclusive.” Qin Jiu continued, “In order to rob the position he wanted in the fifth military battalion, Master Su deliberately cut my eldest brother’s saddle with the intention of plotting to kill my eldest brother. Fortunately, my eldest brother was lucky and only injured his leg.”
“Master Su clearly attempted a murder. Lord Hu, according to Daqi’s Law, how should we deal with those who attempt to kill but failed and cause injury instead?!”
The magistrate’s face sank as if he was drowning in deep water. This case was not easy to judge!
He didn’t say it, but Gong Liu answered it for him: “I remember I remember!”
“According to Daqi Law, those who attempt to kill but cause injury instead should be hanged!”
Qin Zening who was sitting on the sedan chair with his arms around his chest said leisurely, “Gong Liu, you remember Daqi’s Law very well ah!”
“Naturally!” Gong Liu said a sarcastic remark as he smiles, “My family is strict, my father always taught me not to have the intention of harming others, he was afraid that I use my hand easily to harm others so he read the Daqi’s law to me day after day and not even missing to tell me that when you commit murder one must pay with his life!”
Pei Qi then jokingly chimed: “That’s right! It’s only right to ask life for a life and even if it was only attempted, he still has the intention of killing someone. Just because he has no skills and can’t get the position, he tried to secretly attempt murder. He should be sentenced to hang!”
Su Xiyang: “!”
Hearing all of this, Su Xiyang’s mind was in a mess as he went numb from fear, if Qin Zening hadn’t insisted on fighting with him, he wouldn’t have made such a decision! Why should he be hung instead?
His forehead was now covered with cold sweat as he defiantly shouted at the top of his voice, “He’s alive and well, it’s just a fall, I didn’t take his life!”
“Xiyang!” Madam Su couldn’t take it anymore and hurriedly interrupted Su Xiyang. What was he even talking about!
Qin Jiu looked at the magistrate again and said, “Lord Hu, you heard it too, this master Su has confessed. His criminal intention is clear, so Lord Hu can now sentence him.”
The magistrate: “…”
The capital’s magistrate was now having a massive headache, what he really wants to do even earlier was so settle the Su family and the Qin family privately but the matter has come to this point. Su Xiyang even admitted to the court that he indeed intentionally hurt someone, and if refuses to come up with a verdict, it would inevitably spread throughout the whole capital and if that happens, people would think that he was protecting the Su family!
“Tak Tak!”
The magistrate knocked the gavel wood again, and seriously said: “Su Xiyang, although your intention was not to kill, you have the heart to hurt others…”
***
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