"Yes, we have these people in our hands, but they were deprived of sight and hearing throughout, too, and couldn't provide much valuable information," Di Jiu said gravely. "Still, I think there are things we can glean. We haven't questioned them thoroughly yet. You can go take a look later."
Pei Ye nodded, but first lowered his eyes to the case file in his hands.
[The roadside robbery and murder case involving Liu Dao and three others]
"On the eighteenth day of the ninth month, Xinsi year of Scale-Locking, Zhang Mengyuan and his wife left the capital for home with their daughter. Coveting their money and goods, the ward thugs Liu Dao, Wang Dayou, Miao Fan, and Mao Hongchun waylaid them, robbed them, and killed them all. The bodies of Zhang Mengyuan and his wife were dumped outside the city; that of their daughter, Zhang Mingqin, was dumped in the Dragon Head Canal.
Liu Dao and Wang Dayou confessed without reservation. The facts of the case are beyond doubt. Imprisoned pending execution."
Pei Ye frowned slightly. This case file was unusually brief-one could say it had only a beginning and an end. It gave no account of what had happened to Miao Fan and Mao Hongchun, either. Instinctively finding it odd, Pei Ye closed the file and gripped it, rising to his feet. "All right, Lord Di. I'll go look in on where the victims are being housed first-is there anything you need to tell me?"
Di Jiu shook his head.
"Oh. I noticed you've looked troubled this whole time," Pei Ye said somewhat hesitantly.
"Because there are too many wrongful convictions," Di Jiu said.
"..."
"I've made a cursory examination of two hundred and twenty-eight files. At least twenty-one were wrongly decided, and several times that number had verdicts