Joe's Farming

On the day of the court hearing, Qiao Yu, Gu Feng and Wen Ge'er and the other three arrived at the county government office in Taoyuan Town on time.

The young man sitting in the hall had an elegant temperament, was dressed in official attire, and looked very dignified. He was Xie Changyu, the magistrate of Taoyuan County.

Because the complaint was written in the name of Wen Ge'er. In addition to Wen Ge, Qiao Yu was standing in the witness box, waiting to be called. Xu Yuan and Xu Ning also arrived, standing at the gate of the government office with other people to watch.

Wen Ge'er and the three troublemakers were all kneeling in the hall.

Xie Changyu glanced at everyone calmly, and slammed the gavel: "Who is here? Tell me your name."

The four of them reported their names, hometowns and identities one by one.

Xie Changyu took out three pieces of confession paper and said, "Zhang San, Li Si, Wang Wu, these are your confessions. It says in black and white that Zhang San bought a bowl of food from a snack bar at 15:00 three days ago. After returning home, he got food poisoning and foamed at the mouth. Li Si and Wang Wu went to the snack bar to ask for an explanation for their brothers, but were falsely accused by the store owner and the people around them, saying that you three were liars."

Xie Changyu paused, then asked with a smile, "Yes or no."

The three of them kowtowed immediately: "Yes, yes, yes! Please understand, sir."

Qiao Yu frowned. These three people caused trouble, and there were so many witnesses that day. They were all arrested and put in jail for three days. How could they dare to write such a confession? Could it be that he was so unlucky that this county magistrate who looked like a decent person was actually a dog official? !

Xie Changyu smiled even more deeply and asked again: "Are you three sure? For making false confessions and defying the imperial court, you should be sentenced to five years of corvée at least."

Li Si, the tall and thin man, immediately kowtowed and said, "Sir! I am willing to guarantee with my life that everything I said is true and I will never lie!"

Xie Changyu: "Very good! Li Wen, please repeat what happened that day again."

Wen Ge'er was so angry that he gritted his teeth and didn't care about being nervous anymore. He repeated what happened word for word clearly.

As soon as Wen Ge'er finished speaking, Li Si pointed at him and shouted, "He is lying! He is trying to frame the three of us brothers!"

"Silence!" Xie Changyu shouted.

Xie Changyu: "I am asking you a question, please speak again. Zhang San, you were poisoned after eating that food that day?"

Zhang San raised the corner of his mouth and said: "In reply to your question, sir, we will eat the black fungus in their store." This was what they had agreed on in prison.

Xie Changyu nodded and asked, "Li Si, why didn't Zhang San go to the clinic but to the snack bar when he had the poison attack?"

Li Si's forehead was sweating a little. They didn't say they would ask this before. "Yes... We went there because we were afraid that the store would not admit it."

Xie Changyu: “Bullshit!”

Qiao Yu was shocked. He didn't expect these words to come out of the mouth of a county magistrate. But at the same time, he was happy. Did this mean that he had misunderstood him before?

Xie Changyu: "Coroner, come here. Tell everyone what you found."

The old coroner stepped forward and bowed, "Your Excellency, I did not find any poison in Li Si's house. There was nothing abnormal in the food at the snack bar that day. Zhang San also showed no signs of poisoning."

Xie Changyu slammed the gavel. "It's Cao Yufan, the owner of Chuanfu Manlou, and his servant Cao Yuan."

Everyone looked at each other.

The onlookers also began to talk in low voices.

"Who is it? What's going on?"

"Haven't you heard of Fu Man Lou?"

"I know, I know. It's the big restaurant in Qingyuan Town next door. What does it have to do with him?"

"Qingyuan Town? This snack bar is located in Taoyuan Town. What does it have to do with Qingyuan Town?"

"I don't know! Here it comes, here it comes."

"Give me, let me."

The yamen runners brought the man into the yamen. When Master Cao passed by Xu Yuan, his eyes were filled with resentment as if blood was about to drip out. Xu Ning glared at him and stood in front of her husband, ready to attack him if he moved.

Wen Ge'er also secretly looked at this man. It was because of him that his leg was sprained. He looked sick, but his eyes were sinister, and it was obvious that he was not a good person!

When Gu Feng saw the people, he thought of the wedding banquet. Mo Mo also stood in front of Qiao Ge'er. Qiao Yu gently held his hand and indicated that she was fine.

Mr. Cao had asked his servant to deliver the money to the county magistrate early in the morning, and received a clear reply, which almost drained out the last bit of his savings, so he thought that being called here was just a formality and there was no need to worry too much.

But the other three panicked as soon as they saw the two men coming in. Didn’t the bribed yamen runner say: The county magistrate has been bribed? Then why did they invite their employer to the yamen? !

The servant knelt down tremblingly with Master Cao and looked around. The yamen runner he had found pretended not to know him and stood aside. He had a bad premonition and broke out in a cold sweat.

Xie Changyu: "Cao Yufan, Cao Yuan, do you know why I called you here?"

Cao Yufan replied calmly, "Please explain clearly, sir."

Xie Changyu: "Present the evidence."

When the servant saw the evidence brought out by the bailiff, he fainted on the spot.

The whole place was in an uproar.

Fortunately, the coroner was on the scene and immediately pinched the patient's Ren Zhong point. The patient woke up after a while.

Cao Yufan's eyes were bloodshot. The evidence he presented was the silver notes he used to bribe the county magistrate, the silver he used to instigate those three losers, and the note passed to the prison.

Xie Changyu: "You are such a bold and unruly person, Cao Yufan. Not only did you instruct Zhang San, Li Si, Wang Wu and others to cause trouble at the snack bar, but you also tried to bribe me. Do you still have any respect for the law?"

Cao Yufan's face turned visibly pale. Why? Why? Why?

He just bought a concubine and beat her a little too hard. Just because he flirted with a country boy, he was betrayed by his own daughter. Now he is left with only a shell of a restaurant! He couldn't do anything to Xu Yuan, so he had to ruin the reputation of that boy's snack bar! His requirements were already so low, why did it end up like this?

Cao Yufan yelled, "I don't recognize him!! It's him!!"

Cao Yufan stood up and pointed at Xu Yuan who was standing outside the government office: "It's him! He's the one who hurt me! He thought I was a fool and couldn't find out. It was him! He helped that bitch to hurt me! I won't accept it!!"

Xie Changyu frowned and shouted: "Silence!!"

The veins on Cao Yufan's neck were bulging. He had been furious before and finally recovered a little. Now he saw Xu Yuan and Qiao Ge'er standing there. He hated it!

With a bang, he fell down.

The coroner came forward to check: "Sir, you are very angry and need a doctor."

Xie Changyu: "Go and invite them."

The bailiff carried the man away and asked a doctor to treat him. The trial continued in the court.

Finally, the three rioters were sentenced to five years of corvée for fraud and false confessions. Cao Yufan, who instructed fraud and bribed the imperial officials, was sentenced to three years in prison and ordered to compensate the snack bar for two days of business losses. Cao Yuan was imprisoned for one year. Because Cao Yufan was ill, his family was allowed to enter the cell to take care of him.

Qiao Yu and others were quite satisfied with the result, especially since they did not expect that the county magistrate would actually bring out the man with the surname Cao.

Qiao Yu and Xu Yuan smiled knowingly. Cao's family? They would probably take good care of him.