History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 243 Cruel Official Gu Kai
Hun Yu Niang was smug all night, but when she woke up the next day, she didn't see her husband in the room. The three strings of cash and two hundred coins were left beside her pillow, which showed that the matter of manipulating the Wei family that they had discussed the day before was just a way for her husband to appease her.

"You surnamed Zong, all the money I worked so hard to earn was used to buy you official positions and change your status. Now you've grown ambitious and are pretending to be a respectable person. Fine, I'll wait and see if you get promoted but don't get rich. Let's see how long you can be respectable!"

Sometimes, the hatred between husband and wife is more intense than the hatred between enemies.

Will fate spare the main family, or will it resolutely not let them go?
Hun Yu Niang, who was angry, immediately became happy when her eldest son mentioned that the county government was short of jailers. She clapped her hands together and said, "Heaven has mercy on my son! After you finish eating, go find Feng Xiaolang. If this matter is settled, Yin'er, don't worry. Your mother will definitely find out where Miss Wei lives, and then we will go to propose marriage."

The Court of Justice.

When Zong Dian arrived, he sensed that something was wrong. The prison guards used to gather in the guardhouse, laughing and boasting loudly. But today was different. There were fewer people, and everyone was pretending to be busy. No one made a sound.

The judge clerk strode over and immediately reprimanded him: "Why are you still sitting here? Go to the Third Trial Chamber and listen to the renowned official presiding over the case."

The "three-turn torture chamber" refers to the torture chamber that has three turns. Zong Dian quickly got up and walked at the back of his colleagues.

An old jailer asked the judicial clerk, "Who is the famous official you mentioned, sir?"

"Gu Kai".

The old jailer exclaimed in surprise, "Gu Kai, the jailer from the Luoyang County government in the past?"

"Correct."

As the old jailer walked, he told Zong Dian and the others, who were unaware of the situation, "Gu Kai studied under Lord Luo in his early years."

With just that one sentence, everyone gasped.

Marquis Yulu was a notorious cruel official in Qin Prefecture. He was hated by the people of the prefecture for his excessively cruel torture of prisoners. In order to quell the people's resentment, the late emperor had Marquis Yulu executed.

The old jailer kept it brief: "In the eleventh year, the late emperor decreed that from mid-winter to the fourth month of the following year, prisoners should not be subjected to severe torture. This was because rumors of Gu Kai's cruelty were circulating among the people. Since then, there have been fewer and fewer rumors about Gu Kai. The last time I heard of him was several years ago, when it was said that he was in prison in Luoyang County."

The judge reported: "He spent less than a year in Luoyang County prison before being transferred to Pingcheng with the magistrate of Luoyang. He only returned to the capital yesterday afternoon and was immediately invited by Chief Cui to interrogate the prisoner Lin Yin for us. By the way, I must tell you, His Majesty has ordered our Court of Justice to thoroughly investigate the witchcraft case that has been making waves recently. He said he would give us another day, but in reality, the confessions must be sent to the palace this afternoon!"

The old jailer was anxious: "There's no time! The prisoner Lin Yin is thin and weak. We've tried everything we can. If we continue to torture her, we're afraid we'll beat her to death."

"So the jailer Gu arrived at just the right time."

Upon arrival, the door to the torture chamber was closed, and several jailers were already standing outside.

The judge said, "The prisoner will be brought over shortly. The torture chamber door will be ajar. You will all stand outside and listen. No matter how the interrogation takes place inside, you must not make a sound to disturb it."

No sooner had he finished speaking than two burly jailers carried the wounded Lin Yin to the scene. Behind them were Cui Zhen, the Vice Minister of Justice; Chang Jing, a Doctor of Law; Cui Yu, a physician; Gu Kai, a cruel official; and Cui Zuan, a member of the Cui clan of Boling.

A deflated leather pouch, unfinished and swaying, hung from Gu Kai's waist, bobbing as he walked.

Cui Zuan stayed outside, while the rest went into the torture chamber, leaving the door ajar.

After the prisoner was tied up, Gu Kai asked as usual: "The prisoner's surname is Lin, given name is Yin, age is twenty-seven, from Pingcheng County. In the spring of the thirteenth year, she became a nun and served as a teacher to the nun Sengzhi of Anding County."

"In the winter of the twentieth year, Sengzhi brought you to Luoyang and built a residence for Zhenbao Nunnery."

“Last year, Zhenbao Nunnery was investigated, and you were implicated by Sengzhi and imprisoned in Luoyang County Prison along with several other disciples.”

"Before Sengzhi was executed, you, along with your fellow disciples Lin Li, Miaoguang, and the female slave Yang Aofei, were released without charge. Afterwards, you returned to secular life alone and entered the residence of Prince Yuanji of Jiangyang, where you used a poison you had secretly kept for many years as a bargaining chip to get the prince to help you take revenge." "Lin Yin, do you have any objections to my confession?"

To prevent Lin Yin from biting her tongue and injuring herself, her lower face was smeared with a special anesthetic before she came. At this moment, she spoke weakly and slowly: "I don't have any Gu poison, nor have I made any deals with King Jiangyang."

Gu Kai glanced at the long cabinet by the wall: "I dug up Sengzhi's body, it's all in there. Say it to her remains."

"Waaah—waaah—!" Lin Yin's eyes widened in horror as she struggled violently toward the cabinet.

To her dismay, Gu Kai stepped forward, kicked open the wide gap, and then hooked it open again. A black, rotten head emerged from the gap in the cabinet. With the head in the way, the cabinet was separated by a wide gap.

"Ah! Ah! Ah! You are a beast, you are a beast—" Lin Yin cried out.

Gu Kai remained expressionless and spoke without emotion, which made his next words all the more terrifying: "Look, before your master Sengzhi died, he hadn't shaved his head, and some of it had already grown out."

He picked out a small knife from the torture instruments, untied the satchel from his waist, opened the gap where there was no seam, and then squatted down next to Sengzhi's head, shaving the stubble of his short hair into the satchel.

Cui Zhen and Chang Jing, who were observing the interrogation, had to bite their cheeks so hard they almost blew them apart before they managed to hold back their vomiting.

Several people who witnessed this scene outside ran to a corner and vomited uncontrollably. Zongdian was finally able to get close enough to the crack in the door to see inside.

This look...

"啕——"

Perhaps the most painful thing in the world is not being unable to live, but being unable to die.

Lin Yin's face was covered in tears and snot, her voice hoarse and bleeding: "You're a beast, you'll die a horrible death, all of you will die a horrible death!"

Gu Kai snorted, disgusted by the stench, and walked back. "Instead of avenging your master, you returned to secular life and hid in the Jiangyang Prince's mansion to enjoy a life of luxury. Now what kind of loyal disciple are you pretending to be? Sengzhi, did you hear that? In Lin Yin's heart, protecting the Jiangyang Prince is more important than protecting your remains. Sengzhi, look at this—this is the good disciple you've nurtured and carefully cultivated for so many years. Sengzhi, you can shave Lin Yin's head, but you can't shave off her longing for the Jiangyang Prince..."

"You're talking nonsense—" Lin Yin cursed, her voice becoming clearer with intense anger, "I value my master Sengzhi the most, I value my master Sengzhi the most! I have no interest in that damned King Jiangyang!"

"So what's the truth?"

Lin Yin shook her head in fear: "I can't say, I can't say. I have many fellow disciples. If I say it, they will die."

Gu Kai said sarcastically, "You still believe Jiang Yangwang and the others? Last year, the magistrate of Luoyang County was able to release you, so he can forgive your fellow disciples now, of course, provided they are innocent."

He walked back to the wooden cabinet, holding the knife tip above his head as if searching for the right spot to stab him. "I'm not going to waste my breath on you. If you don't tell me the truth and hand over the rest of the poison, I'll bury your master Sengzhi's bones separately in every brothel in the city."

"I'll be in Luoyang for a long time to come. I'll let you live forever, and watch me capture your fellow disciples one by one, then kill and bury them in the same way..."

"I confess! I...I confess." Lin Yin could no longer hold on.

Chang Jing quickly wrote down each confession, pressed the prisoner's fingerprint on it, and then sent it to the palace.

Lin Yin stared blankly as the jailer stuffed Sengzhi's remains back into the wooden box. Her tears had dried up. She looked at Cui Zhen, whose face was the kindest, and said, "Sir, I know I'm going to die, but I'm afraid that even in the afterlife, when I see my master, I still won't be able to tell her who killed the Hu family. Sir, I beg you, I beg you, can you investigate the Hu family's injustice? They were common people too! You are the Court of Justice; aren't you in charge of handling injustices all over the country?"

Cui Zhen was moved and asked Gu Kai, "Have you heard of Hu Guozhen, the Marquis of Wushi, in Pingcheng?"

Zouyan Yuan: A low-level official in the Court of Justice.