Had I hit him too hard?
Le Yu had that thought, but immediately dismissed it.
Wasn't this excellent publicity and education? Whether you were an ordinary citizen or the son of a high-ranking official, as long as you did evil, you would receive severe punishment. When Yin Yinyin chose to play the cannon fodder as Prefect Ding's relative, he had surely taken this into consideration.
Beating people was one thing, but Le Yu beating an ordinary person and beating the son of a high-ranking official had completely different effects.
If he beat an ordinary person, people would only fear the power of the Statistics Department. But if he beat the son of a high-ranking official, the common people could see with their own eyes that these lofty privileged predators could also end up helplessly sprawled on the ground, drinking mud. That would make them think, So those high-ranking nobles aren't all that impressive after all.
Take it one step further, and you got, Are kings and ministers born to rule?
That aligned perfectly with White Night's goal of "dragging rulers down from their altars and pulling noble clans into the mortal world."
Of course, this time Le Yu had only beaten a cannon fodder disguised as the son of a high-ranking official, so the flavor wasn't strong enough. But this cannon fodder had played his part brilliantly, capturing the arrogance and lawlessness of a high-ranking official's son to perfection. It had practically been a performance in his own character. If Le Yu hadn't known the plan beforehand, he might even have believed him.
Even after it was proven that he was a fake, the educational value of the performance would not fade. Le Yu had heard that when The White-Haired Girl had toured in the past, many people had believed