"A family with a remonstrating son does not ruin its household; a state with a remonstrating official does not perish."
"What is spoken rightly, even Yao and Shun cannot call wrong; what is spoken wrongly, even sages cannot call right!"
"A gentleman speaks out against injustice."
"Are these all illusions?"
Yu Lü glanced sideways. Outside the screen, Chai Kejing had just watched a stubborn man beaten to death with heavy staves. Far from feeling fear or remorse, he looked as flushed as if he had drunk fine wine.
His excitement could be discerned simply from the tone with which Chai Kejing questioned the next clerk.
"And you? Will you be a stubborn man, or honestly confess your crimes?"
The interrogated clerk had long been frightened into trembling all over at the sight of his colleague beaten to death with staves. Yet the survival rules he had always kept in mind still made him hesitate for a moment without immediately confessing.
The mere moment of hesitation caused murder to fill Chai Kejing's face once more. His smile grew even more ferocious as he heard the prefect, who had just ordered a man beaten to death, shout, "Come men, beat this stubborn man to death as well! Afterward you can call them the two heroes of the magistrate's court, and I shall personally make their names famous!"
The bailiffs roared their assent and moved toward the clerk.
Seeing the bailiffs step forward and grab him, the clerk finally broke. Weeping and crying, he yelled, "Prefect, I'll speak, I'll speak!"
"Stop!"
The Ninth Rank official happened to be slowly regaining consciousness from the pain at that exact moment. Hearing the clerk's cries, the breath he had managed to draw back in was almost choked out of him again, and he instinctively let out