With the Chen Sage Family involved, no one dared take the matter lightly.
The judicial systems of the Ten Kingdoms differed from one another.
In most kingdoms, county magistrates heard cases at the county level, while prefects generally conducted reviews, with the final decision resting with the provincial judicial offices. Major cases also required rulings from the Court of Judicial Review, the Ministry of Justice, or other relevant departments.
In the Jing Kingdom, although the capital prefect was equivalent to a prefect in the capital, he was also the chief official of the city. Ordinary cases were handled by the capital's circuit court. When a serious case arose and the Grand Judicial Court had not explicitly agreed to take it over, convention dictated that the capital prefect conduct the initial hearing, after which the Grand Judicial Court reviewed the case and either rejected or upheld his findings.
Although the accused was not the entire Chen Sage Family, but merely a member of a collateral branch, someone had died. Unless the Grand Judicial Court voluntarily took over, the capital prefect had no choice but to hear the case.
So far, Fang Yun had not completely reformed judicial procedure. Judicial bodies such as the Ministry of Justice, the Grand Judicial Court, and the Censorate were still slowly adapting to the new changes, and many things had to proceed one step at a time.
The capital prefect dared not decide on his own. He sent the relevant documents to the departments concerned and the Grand Secretariat. One copy lay before Fang Yun.
Fang Yun read the document carefully.
Many years earlier, Chen Zigan of the Chen Sage Family had fallen for a lovely young woman from a modest household, and the two had privately pledged themselves to each other. In the Chen Sage