Jiangdu County Government.
Today is the day for the retrial of Chen Qing’s case.
Early in the morning, Chen Qing's family members arrived early, mainly Chen Qing's parents and a pair of his younger brothers and sisters.
Chen Qing's parents have three children in total. Chen Qing's eldest is sixteen years old this year, his sister has just turned thirteen, and the youngest brother is only eleven years old this year.
The conditions of Chen Qing's family are worse than those of Shen Yi's family. Although Shen Yi's family is a poor family among the gentry, it can at least be called a gentry, while Chen Qing's family is a farmer on the outskirts of Jiangdu.
Of course, to be able to support a scholar like Chen Qing, the Chen family cannot be poor farmers. In fact, the Chen family has more than ten acres of land and lives in a tile-roofed house. Although Chen Qing’s parents farm it themselves, which is a bit harder, the family is still old. I can have enough to eat even when I am young, and I can save some extra every year.
Chen Qing went to elementary school when he was young. The teacher who taught him said that he was a good student and would be very likely to get a good name in the future. Since then, Chen Qing's father and mother never let Chen Qing go to work again, no matter what. When Chen Qing bought books, paper, pens, and ink, Chen's father and mother would grit their teeth to supply them.
Chen Qing was also very confident and successfully entered a "prestigious school" such as Ganquan Academy. Next year, he was scheduled to take the county examination, then the government examination, and the college examination to obtain the title of student member.
If you have a good reputation, you can meet officials without having to kneel down. In addition, you can be exempted from the head tax for two people in your family. The life of the Chen family will be much easier.
Chen Qing is very talented and easy to learn. At the beginning of the year at the Shangyuan Poetry Competition, he excelled in one of his Shangyuan poems. He is well-known as a talented person in the academy. If nothing goes wrong, he has a good chance of being admitted as a scholar.
However, at this time, Chen Qing died.
He was beaten to death by random punches.
When Chen Qing was sent home, he was already a cold corpse.
One can imagine how heartbroken Father Chen and Mother Chen must be.
In fact, Chen's mother fainted on the spot, and her spirits have not been very normal in the past few days.
However, in the past few days, the Chen family came to the county government many times to inquire about the case. On the one hand, the county government was interrogating Shen Yi, but on the other hand, it did not tell the Chen family, only that the case was under interrogation.
At that time, the Jiangdu County Government's idea was to put the case to death first, and then report the case to the public after everything was settled.
But later, Mr. Lu's entry turned the matter around, and now, things are no longer the same as they were at the beginning.
Now, the government, Ganquan Academy, Fan family and other forces have all reached a unified opinion and want to use Qian Tong to settle the case.
Since Qian Tong was used to close the case, there was no need to be so secretive about the matter, because Qian Tong was indeed one of the murderers at the time. If he was used as a culprit, the Jiangdu County Government was "justice". Not only did it not need to be covered up, but it even It’s worth publicizing.
At this time, Mr. and Mrs. Chen were standing in the corner of the courtroom with their son and daughter. Chen's mother was still wiping away tears. Their daughter's eyes were also red, but she still held her mother's hand and comforted her.
In addition to the Chen family, people from the Shen family also arrived.
On the Shen family side are Shen Yi's father, Shen Zhang, and his third brother, Shen Ling.
Shen Zhang is less than forty years old this year, with a medium build. He is wearing ordinary cloth and well-groomed. He looks like a capable person at first glance. At this time, he is standing on the right side of the court, looking up at the plaque in the lobby. Although he does not speak, His hands were still shaking slightly.
It was obvious that as a father, he was very nervous.
Shen Ling stood behind his fourth uncle, lowered his head slightly and said, "Fourth uncle, you also saw Lao Qi yesterday. It's nothing serious. Don't worry."
Shen Zhang rushed back to Jiangdu yesterday morning. After returning to Jiangdu, he went to the county jail to meet his son. Now he felt confident.
Hearing this sentence, he just said "hmm" and said nothing more.
"The county gentleman has arrived——"
Following the call from the Yamen, the slightly fat magistrate Feng Lu held his belt with both hands and walked towards the main seat of the main hall.
Because his belly is a bit big, this action of holding the belt looks a bit like holding his own belly, which is a bit funny.
But at this time, on this occasion, it was obvious that no one dared to laugh at the county magistrate.
In the lobby, there was no sound except Chen's mother's sobs.
When the county master sat down, everyone in the lobby knelt down and bowed their heads in salute to the county master.
"Meet the County Lord."
"Everyone, get up."
Magistrate Feng raised his hand to indicate that there was no need to kneel down. He sat on a chair and said calmly: "You must already know what is going on in the hall today. In this case, I will not elaborate on it again."
A county sometimes has tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people, so not every case must be handled by the county magistrate. In fact, most cases are not handled by the county magistrate personally, and the number of times the county magistrate personally goes to court is rare. Very few.
Therefore, the county master said this.
Magistrate Feng glanced at the people in the hall and said solemnly: "Bring someone to commit the crime."
Several government officials who were like wolves and tigers quickly escorted Shen Yi, who was wearing prison clothes.
After Shen Yi entered the scene, the eyes of Chen Yi and Chen Yi fell on him. Their eyes wanted to gouge out Shen Yi.
But they were blocked by the government officials and had no way to get close to Shen Yi.
After Shen Yi entered the lobby, he couldn't help but knelt down in the lobby, lowered his head and said: "Shen Yi, a humble citizen, please bow to me."
"Um."
Magistrate Feng pretended to hum, and then said calmly: "Shen Yi, you are a student of Ganquan Academy, and you were a classmate of the deceased Chen Qingnai. Chen Qing was beaten to death that day, were you at the scene?"
Shen Yi looked back at his father and brother, then lowered his head and said, "Go back to me, Xiaomin is here."
County Master Feng continued to ask: "Did you see who hit Chen Qing?"
Shen Yi lowered his head, and after a moment of silence, he said, "Back to the county magistrate, they were in the woods at that time. The people only saw a big man beating Chen Qing, and nothing else..."
At this time, Shen Yi could not directly say Qian Tong's name.
Because telling Qian Tong would exonerate Fan Dongcheng.
This is a transactional process.
Fan Dongcheng and others have not cleared him of his guilt, so it is impossible for him to exonerate Fan Dongcheng in advance. If Fan Dongcheng denies it now, then who should he, a vulnerable group, talk to for explanation?
Hearing Shen Yi's words, the county master looked at Shen Yi, then stroked his beard, and continued: "In the past few days, when I asked about the case, you kept saying that it was not your fault, so the county sent people to investigate the matter thoroughly and asked When interviewing witnesses, new facts of the case were indeed discovered.”
As he spoke, the county master coughed and said in a deep voice: "Bring witnesses."
Following the order from Magistrate Feng, Feng, Luo, Ma and Qian were soon brought to the lobby by the Yamen.
After several people entered the main hall, the other three people knelt down and saluted Feng Lu. Fan Dongcheng was the only one who just bowed his hands to the county magistrate as a salute.
Fan Dongcheng did not have any fame, and he was supposed to kneel before officials. However, he refused to kneel because of his family's power. Magistrate Feng could only turn a blind eye and pretend not to see it.
He coughed and said, "Mr. Fan, you were also present that day. Please tell me, was Chen Qing killed by Shen Yi?"
Fan Dongcheng's face was gloomy.
He first looked up at Magistrate Feng, then turned to look at Shen Yi aside, then gritted his teeth and lowered his head and said: "Back to the county magistrate, Wansheng was indeed present that day, Chen Qing..."
Having said this, Fan Dongcheng's face became a little ugly. He turned his head and gave Shen Yi a fierce look, and then said with great difficulty: "It was not Shen Qi who killed him."
Obviously, Mr. Fan was not satisfied with this result, but due to the pressure from his family, he had to say these words to exonerate Shen Yi.
After hearing Fan Dongcheng's words, Luo Maocai and Ma Jun both looked a little complicated, but they both lowered their heads and said nothing.
Qian Tong's expression suddenly changed, and he looked at Fan Dongcheng who answered in disbelief.
Just as Fan Dongcheng was replying, Shen Yi, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly turned his head and glanced at Fan Dongcheng standing next to him.
The reason why I took this look is because the original Shen Yi only met Fan Dongcheng two or three times. On the day of the accident, he was beaten to pieces after arriving at the scene. In addition, the two souls merged. Now Shen Yi can no longer remember it. Now we know how Fan Dong has grown up.
This Mr. Fan has a slender figure. Because he is several years older than Shen Yi, he is about half a head taller than him.
Shen Yi took a deep look at Mr. Fan's somewhat handsome face, and then firmly remembered this face in his heart.
After looking at Fan Dongcheng, he looked at the faces of the other two people again.
They are Ma Jun and Luo Maocai respectively.
As for Qian Tong... there is no need to see it.
