Conclusive Evidence

"Stop right there! Put that woman down!"

The men and women were carrying a bamboo cage through the streets with their chests puffed out and their heads held high when this earth-shaking roar caught them off guard. Some obediently halted, some kept moving forward by inertia, while others recoiled in panic. The whole procession immediately dissolved into chaos.

Some stepped on feet, some bumped into backsides, some groped breasts; they cursed one another all at once, chattering like water at a rolling boil—leaving Sun Shaozong, the instigator of it all, stranded off to one side.

Naturally, among so many people were some sharp-eyed sorts. Seeing Sun Shaozong's fine horse and carriage, with an old woman and sturdy servants at his side, they knew at once that he was no ordinary man.

One elderly man in his fifties hurriedly shouted, "Stop squabbling! Quiet down, all of you!"

The old man apparently held considerable standing in the neighborhood. Once he stepped forward, the men and women behind him gradually fell silent.

After completely suppressing the commotion behind him, the old man sidled eagerly up to the carriage, hunched one shoulder, and cupped his hands obsequiously. "Sir, may I ask why you stopped us? Is there something you wish to instruct us about?"

From the sound of it, he seemed to have studied for a few years.

Only then did Sun Shaozong leap down from the carriage. His iron-tower frame made the crowd shrink back another step.

With eagle-vulture eyes, he stared down at the old man and sneered, "In broad daylight, beneath the clear skies, you dare set up a private court and treat human lives like grass! Do you truly think there is no Imperial Law?!"

Though the old man had seen a thing or two, how could he withstand Sun Shaozong's overwhelmingly oppressive gaze?

Even his spine seemed to go soft. He bent like a shrimp, hemming and hawing for a long while without managing a single complete sentence.

Yet someone in the rear protested indignantly, "How is this treating lives like grass? We caught her red-handed, with both the criminal and the evidence! This poisonous woman betrayed her wifely virtue and murdered her husband—shouldn't she be Drowned in a Pig Cage?!"

Those words immediately bolstered the morale on the other side. Several more people, hiding amid the crowd, began to shout in strange, grating voices:

"That's right, we caught her red-handed!"

"A life for a life—especially when this poisonous woman murdered her own husband!"

"Who the hell are you to meddle in our private affairs?!"

In feudal society, clan punishments and state law ran side by side on separate tracks. Especially in cases that arose within a household, commoners often dealt with matters themselves without submitting them to the authorities. So long as no one raised a fuss afterward, local officials would often turn a blind eye.

That was precisely why they dared to clamor so self-righteously.

After being shouted down from all sides, Sun Shaozong was about to explain himself when his coachman suddenly sprang out from the side, waving his whip and cursing loudly, "My master is the Judicial Assistant Magistrate of Shuntian Prefecture! You donkey-fucking, dog-riding trash dare use private punishment before him—are you trying to rebel?!"

With that single outburst, the dozens of people opposite him fell utterly silent. On the long street, only the muffled whimpers of the woman inside the bamboo cage could be heard.

After a long while, the leading old man finally asked in a trembling voice, "M-Might Your Excellency be that 'Divine Detective Sun Judicial Assistant Magistrate'?!"

Tsk~

In modern times, he had solved countless major cases without anyone ever calling him a divine detective. Who would have thought that here in the Dream of the Red Chamber World, after solving merely one naked-corpse case, he had already earned himself the nickname "Divine Detective Sun Judicial Assistant Magistrate."

Come to think of it...

That nickname did sound rather good!

Suppressing the secret delight in his heart, Sun Shaozong nodded calmly. "That is correct. It is I."

Thud~

Before his words had even faded, the dozens of people before him all dropped a head shorter!

The leading old man sprawled flat upon the ground, terrified beyond measure. "This humble one did not know that Upright Official was before us. We spoke rashly in the heat of the moment. Please forgive us, my lord!"

The people behind him also pleaded for mercy over one another:

"Spare us, my lord!"

"My lord, we were only seeking justice for Brother Zhang, so we... We absolutely never intended to offend Your Excellency, the Judicial Assistant Magistrate!"

In modern society, even a national leader probably could not have frightened so many people into dropping to their knees and begging for mercy with nothing more than a title!

For the common people, that was undoubtedly a profound tragedy.

But for an official...

This feeling of being feared and revered was rather nice indeed!

Though he had received years of Party education, Sun Shaozong could not help feeling a measure of accomplishment—compared with those predecessors who, after transmigrating, proclaimed equality everywhere and strictly forbade others from kneeling before them, his own ideological awareness was clearly far too low.

For the moment, however, Sun Shaozong had no intention of "correcting" himself. On the contrary, he rather savored it.

He did not even think to tell the men and women to rise first. Instead, he pointed at the woman in the bamboo cage and asked from on high, "You just said that she murdered her husband, and that you caught her red-handed with both the criminal and the evidence. Did anyone personally see her kill her husband?"

"Th-this..."

After hesitating briefly, the old man lying on the ground turned his head to look at a certain disheveled man behind him.

The man had been cowering at first, but under the pressure of that stare, he had no choice but to crawl a few steps forward. Stammering, he said, "R-Reporting to Your Excellency, though I did not personally see my brother killed by her, it was practically the same as seeing it myself!"

As he spoke, he gestured wildly and recounted what had happened.

This man was named Zhang Dalong. The deceased, Zhang Erhu, was his full younger brother, born of the same mother.

The two brothers lived in the same alley, separated only by a low wall.

Last year, Zhang Erhu had followed a trading house beyond the frontier and remained away from home for more than half a year. Taking advantage of his absence, his wife Li Shi had carried on illicitly with another man, stirring up all manner of gossip and scandal.

Naturally, after Zhang Erhu returned home, he refused to let the matter rest. Thus, over the past few months, husband and wife had often come to blows inside their home.

That evening, Zhang Dalong had been idle, chatting idly with his own wife atop their heated brick bed, when fierce quarrelling broke out next door. Since Zhang Erhu and his wife had fought countless times before—and the more anyone tried to mediate, the more fiercely they fought—the couple could not be bothered to intervene.

Before long, the neighboring house fell quiet, and Zhang Dalong and his wife paid it even less mind.

Just then, a shriek of utter misery suddenly rang out next door, followed by the sound of a door being smashed open and someone sprinting away at full speed!

Zhang Dalong and his wife were startled. They hastily threw on some clothes and rushed outside, only to see Zhang Erhu's wife, Li Shi, racing through the alley with blood all over her hands.

Zhang Dalong stopped Li Shi and demanded to know what had happened. Li Shi said that Zhang Erhu had been murdered and that she was on her way to pursue the real killer!

Zhang Dalong hurried next door and indeed found his younger brother lying in the courtyard, a pointed kitchen knife plunged into his chest!

At this point, Zhang Dalong no longer stammered. He raised his head indignantly and said, "There was clearly no one else but this vile woman in the alley. Where could there have been any real killer?! Besides, I heard with my own ears how she and Erhu were arguing and fighting, and that kitchen knife was something she used every day. It was plainly this vile woman, nursing resentment, who murdered my brother in cold blood and then tried to pin the blame on someone else!"

The elderly man leading the group also chimed in from the side. "My lord, Li Shi keeps insisting someone else killed him, yet she cannot even say whether the murderer was male or female, old or young. If that isn't shirking and evasion, then what is it?"

It really did sound as though the evidence was ironclad.

Yet recalling Li Shi's resentful, indignant expression and her eyes blazing with fury, Sun Shaozong felt that she did not look like someone who had just killed her own husband.

Thus, after a slight hesitation, he had someone take the woman out of the bamboo cage and bring her over to his side.

"My lord, my lord! I've been wronged!"

The moment the towel was pulled from Li Shi's mouth, she threw back her head and desperately cried out that she had been wronged.

Sun Shaozong's spirits lifted at once. He hurriedly asked, "What grievance do you have? Tell me quickly!"

Who would have thought that the woman replied, "I didn't cuckold him, I really didn't cuckold him! It was all slander from others!"

Speechless...

It seemed this woman was a real shameless rogue. At a time like this, she was still obsessing over some damned affair? Wasn't the most important thing right now proving that she had not murdered her own husband?!

Shamelessly begging for bookmarks, recommendations, and rewards...

I didn't ask for them for two days, and the numbers dropped, didn't they?!