The county magistrate's courtroom was filled with kneeling individuals, yet the magistrate and his bailiffs stood outside. One bailiff curiously peered inside.
"Your Honor," he asked, "what major case is being tried here? Even officials from the capital have come."
The magistrate glared at him. "Mind your own business. Don't inquire about matters that don't concern us. Do you want to go inside and be tried yourself?"
The bailiff shrank back and fell silent.
The magistrate maintained a composed posture, listening intently, when suddenly a sharp crack echoed from the hall - the sound of his own magistrate's gavel being thrown to the ground.
Deng Yi withdrew his hand and leaned back in his chair, observing the four people kneeling before him: besides the carriage driver, there were the newly found Lady Yang - the courtesan Li Niang - a physician, and the Station Chief.
Before each of them lay piles of money and jewelry, some more, some less.
"Speak, all of you," Deng Yi said, his gaze sweeping over the four before settling on Li Niang. "If I'm not mistaken, you should be the first."
Li Niang quickly raised her head. "No, no, Your Honor, this humble woman wasn't the first. That young lady had already arranged for the physician beforehand." She pointed at the man beside her.
The physician, looking flustered, stammered, "Your Honor, I, I, I know nothing about this."
Deng Yi said calmly, "No matter. Speak, and this official will understand."
The physician hurriedly acknowledged and took a deep breath to collect his thoughts. "I'm an itinerant physician. That day I was walking along the road when I saw two maids resting by the roadside—"
Deng Yi interrupted him. "How old were those two girls? What did they look like? Be specific."
The physician thought for a moment. "The younger one was twelve or thirteen, the older no more than fifteen. Both were plainly dressed. The older one was standing while the younger sat. The younger one was quite pretty - small face, big eyes."
Her eyes seemed to speak, and her voice was pleasant too - delicate and weak, inspiring involuntary pity.
That was why he had been bewitched at the time.
Deng Yi raised his hand. "Continue."
"The young lady called me over, saying she needed medical treatment, and gave me a bag of money—I thought I'd encountered a client. But she didn't want me to treat her. Instead, she told me to come to the relay station in a few days to treat a woman, with only one requirement: no matter what I found, I had to say the woman was beyond medical help and near death."
At this point, he stole a glance at the official seated in the hall, but could discern no emotion from his calm expression.
"I... I wouldn't deceive people recklessly. I thought I'd examine her when the time came, and if she could be treated, I would certainly do my utmost."
Deng Yi said nothing, but Qi Duyou standing nearby sneered coldly - this greedy fellow was still making excuses for himself.
The physician hung his head, not daring to look at them.
"For the next few days, I often lingered near the relay station. Being an itinerant physician, this wasn't unusual. Sure enough, one day a station attendant came running out looking for a physician, bumped into me, and brought me inside. That's when I met this—madam."
He turned to look at Li Niang beside him.
After her initial panic, Li Niang was no longer nervous. She hadn't done anything heinous - she had merely taken money to pretend to be someone else's mother. Seeing the physician look her way, she gave him a charming smile before raising her head to look at the official—
"Your Honor~" she said.
The official glanced at her, and Li Niang, accustomed to all sorts of clients from her experience in the pleasure quarters, stiffened and straightened her kneeling posture.
"That day I was taking an afternoon nap in my room when those two girls climbed in through the window. They gave me such a fright! I live on the third floor - I thought they were burglars or bandits."After all, she was a woman from the pleasure quarters, more perceptive than the physician. Without waiting for Deng Yi to ask, she volunteered detailed information.
"When I looked, there were two girls around thirteen or fourteen years old. Though they seemed ordinary at first glance, the younger one was quite beautiful."
Li Niang's eyes sparkled. As someone who relied on her charms to serve men, she had a keen eye for beauty.
"When she grows a few years older, around seventeen or eighteen, she'll absolutely be a peerless beauty. However, her eyes were a bit too fierce—that's not good, as men might not like—"
Deng Yi interrupted her: "Get to the point."
Li Niang looked embarrassed and continued: "That young girl threw three bags of money at me, saying she wanted to hire me for three days to pretend to be her mother."
She pointed to the money bags in front of her. Compared to the physician's, hers were much more numerous, with scattered gold, silver, hairpins, and jade bracelets.
"Sir, I'm just a woman selling myself. Whether it's men or women, whether pretending to be a wife or an old mother, I don't have much choice."
"I just lay there pretending to be sick, then said what she taught me to say—"
At this point, she leaned forward to look at the Station Chief kneeling at the far end.
"Master Xu, those words truly weren't my own intention. They were all taught to me by my daughter, A Fu."
The Station Chief remained expressionless and didn't respond, turning his head away. At this moment, he felt he had lost all dignity he'd accumulated over a lifetime.
While the Station Chief remained silent, the carriage driver grew impatient and anxiously kowtowed: "Sir, sir, I didn't know anything. I never met anyone else. This lady hired the carriage, then said she didn't need it anymore, and told me I didn't need to return the money. So I just—"
Why not take advantage when it's offered?
He pushed forward the handful of money in front of him—the smallest amount among everyone present.
"I don't want it anymore. I'll hand it over. Please spare my life, sir."
Li Niang added from the side: "Sir, he was the one I hired. This has nothing to do with A Fu—that's the name the girl gave herself. A Fu told me to wait until we reached Yang Village to get off the carriage, and only leave after the driver had departed. But I thought it wasn't necessary, so I got off early. As expected, it wasn't well planned, and you officials found us—"
She gave an embarrassed laugh.
"If that young lady finds out, she'll probably deduct from my payment."
Deng Yi also laughed, thought for a moment, and nodded: "She probably would." His gaze turned to the Station Chief. "Xu Cheng, you—"
The Station Chief bowed and kowtowed: "This official is guilty. Blinded by greed and negligent in my duties, I beg for your punishment."
In front of him stood a tall pile of money—
Qi Duyou pointed at him from above and said bitterly: "Old Xu, how many times have I told you? You're good in every way except for your greed for money. I knew this would happen sooner or later!"
Before Deng Yi could speak, hurried footsteps sounded outside, and a young master wrapped in a cloak rushed in.
"Lord Deng," he asked urgently, "have you found my sister?"
Deng Yi smiled at him: "Young Master Chu Ke has arrived."
So this is the young master from the Chu family that Qi Duyou mentioned, who came looking for his sister but comfortably stayed at the commandery office, thought the Station Chief as he lay prostrate on the ground. He slightly raised his head to take a look—to see if he resembled that deceitful A Fu.
The young master was about seventeen or eighteen years old, quite tall, with fair skin. At this moment, his face was full of anxiety, his emotions unrestrained and impulsive.
That A Fu wasn't like this at all. Though she appeared delicate and weak, either weeping to him or kowtowing in gratitude, thinking back now, that girl was actually very composed.
If she hadn't been composed, she couldn't have deceived so many people."Young Master Deng, I heard you've found them?" Young Master Chu Ke asked urgently.
"Young Master A-Ke," Deng Yi said, "first take a look - are these money and items from your family?"
Only then did Chu Ke look around the hall, his gaze falling on the piles of money before each person. He immediately exclaimed: "Yes!" He reached out and grabbed the jade bracelet and vermilion hairpin in front of Li Niang, "These are my mother's, my mother's dowry."
As he said this, his face was full of anger.
"That little wretch, how dare she steal!"
Li Niang looked at the young man before her. Tsk tsk, to actually call his own younger sister a little wretch - it was clear this young master didn't have a good relationship with his sister.
"And these." Young Master Chu then stood by the Station Chief's side, seeing the piled-up money, he shouted angrily, "So much! I don't even know where the family's money is kept, how did she manage to steal this much! So much money, such precious jewelry, and she just gave it away so easily! Has she gone mad?!"
Deng Yi laughed: "Miss Chu Zhao isn't mad - she's a heroine."
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