Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 411 Self-inflicted evil

Prison Department of Punishment.

Xu Huaiyi was locked in a cell near the door. The cell had a window facing out, but the rest of the window was sealed off, leaving only two small holes the size of bowls. This was a method the prison guards came up with to torture prisoners.

The holes were impenetrable yet drafty, causing prisoners to shiver with cold in the winter.

Moreover, there were many chamber pots piled up on the other side of the hole.

The stench blew in, making it hard to breathe.

Every now and then, jailers would splash water into the cell. Before Xu Huaiyi's clothes had even dried in the wind, another half-bucket of water would be poured on him. This kind of torture would not leave any physical marks from the interrogation, but it would cause him a great deal of pain.

Xu Huaiyi remained motionless, gazing out the window as the sky outside grew darker and darker.

He didn't know how much time had passed.

"Open the door." A familiar voice came.

Xu Huaiyi turned his head and saw Cai Zheng standing outside the cell, with Weng Yi being escorted behind him.

When Cai Zheng saw Xu Huaiyi in such a disheveled state, he felt a pang of sadness, thinking of how Xu Huaiyi had entered officialdom with such high spirits, only to end up like this.

Not only was he thrown into the Ministry of Justice, but he was also almost framed and imprisoned.

The cell door opened, and Cai Zheng walked in, standing next to Xu Huaiyi. He wanted to say something, but was immediately forced to cover his mouth and nose with his sleeve by the stench wafting over.

"Master Xu..."

Cai Zheng didn't know how to comfort Xu Huaiyi. While he was locked up in this prison, he wondered what Xu Huaiyi was thinking. Perhaps he had been worn down and lost all his spirit.

“It’s getting dark,” Xu Huaiyi suddenly said. “After such a long delay, if there are any remaining members of the demonic sect who have escaped, they have probably already fled outside the city.”

Cai Zheng was speechless for a moment. Even at this point, Xu Huaiyi was still pondering the case.

Xu Huaiyi stood up and asked, "Can I go out now?"

Cai Zheng nodded: "The Emperor has ordered you to cooperate with the Court of Judicial Review in investigating the case."

“We still need to go to Yunqi Temple,” Xu Huaiyi said. “There must be a reason for the infighting within the demonic sect. Since we didn’t find any clues at Li Family Village, we should go to Yunqi Temple.”

Cai Zheng said, "The remains of Consort Gao's niece were unearthed at Yunqi Temple, and it's possible that this is the cause of everything."

Xu Huaiyi hadn't expected that Yunqi Temple had already caused such a disturbance. He was eager to find out the details, but Cai Zheng was already coughing from the stench. He pointed outside and said, "Let's go outside first." With that, he turned and walked out.

If he hadn't mentioned this incident, Xu Huaiyi might have forgotten about it and would still be in prison.

As they come out, others will naturally have to be locked up.

The bailiffs pushed Weng Yi into the cell, and the jailer immediately and efficiently locked the cell.

A pungent stench hit him in the face, and the cold wind made Weng Yi shiver uncontrollably.

This was the prison cell he prepared for Xu Huaiyi, but now it's all being used on him.

Weng Yi panicked and called out to Cai Zheng, "Lord Cai, we can discuss where this case was wrong... We can retry it, we can retry it."

If Weng Yi had known the case would be transferred to the Court of Judicial Review, he would never have accepted the assignment.

"I didn't do anything wrong. It's all because my subordinates didn't handle things properly. This case hasn't even been closed yet, and they still..."

Before Weng Yi could finish speaking, he saw the clerk and the jailer who had interrogated Guo Xiong and the others being brought over. The cell door opened, and they were all locked in their cells.

“Keep a close eye on him,” Cai Zheng said calmly. “You all say you are acting under orders, but if anything happens to Lord Weng, no one will be able to verify your claims.”

The clerks and others immediately agreed: "We will certainly take care of Lord Weng."

After Cai Zheng and Xu Huaiyi left, everyone's gaze immediately fell on Weng Yi, their eyes seemingly glowing with a sinister green light, as if they wanted to devour him.

Weng Yi instinctively stepped back.

"Lord Weng, who did a poor job? Weren't those things all given to you?"

Weng Yi's lips trembled as he tried to defend himself: "I...I was just..." but he couldn't get the words out. A cold glint flashed in the eyes of the others.

From now on, they will take turns keeping a close watch on Weng Yi, never letting their guard down for a moment. As long as Weng Yi is around, someone will bear the blame; if Weng Yi is gone, they will be the ones to take the fall.

……

Cai Zheng had someone bring clean robes for Xu Huaiyi to change into.

"You arrested Minister Xia's son, why didn't you send someone to the Dali Temple to inform me? I could have been prepared."

Xu Huaiyi hadn't expected any of this.

Looking at the man's simple-minded appearance, Cai Zheng couldn't help but shake his head: "If you continue like this, you'll surely get yourself into trouble because of this one day."

What was meant as a threat turned into a response from Xu Huaiyi: "That's not bad either."

Cai Zheng was speechless. This man's mind was completely occupied with nothing but the case.

Before he could even straighten his clothes, Xu Huaiyi asked anxiously, "How is Guo Xiong? Have you gone to see him? He must have been tortured. Any confession he gave was obtained through coercion and doesn't count."

Cai Zheng said, "We've brought the man back from the torture chamber. Guo Dalang is quite a man; he refused to change his testimony."

Guo Xiong was interrogated twice in and out of the yamen, a common plight for ordinary people. Xu Huaiyi insisted on staying at the Dali Temple and the Ministry of Justice to handle cases for the same reason; for him, clarifying one case meant reducing one injustice.

Xu Huaiyi asked about Yunqi Temple again, and Cai Zheng told him everything he knew.

"That's how the Empress Dowager was alerted. She had the Emperor invited to the Cining Palace and interrogated the nun in his presence."

At the beginning of the Emperor's reign, the Cining Palace intervened in political affairs, which almost caused a rift between the mother and son. After that, the Empress Dowager cut off all contact with the outside world and almost isolated the Cining Palace.

This time, the Empress Dowager sent people to the Chuigong Hall, which shows that she was furious.

“There are still many things to investigate about Yunqi Temple,” Cai Zheng said. “We’ll take people there as soon as we’re done here.”

At this point, Cai Zheng suddenly remembered: "I almost forgot, there are still two people who need to be dealt with."

Xu Huaiyi and Cai Zheng exchanged glances and immediately understood his meaning. Then he called over the jailer: "Where are Xia Wu and Xie Er?"

……

Behind the Ministry of Justice prison was a small courtyard where officials and clerks usually conducted their official business.

Xia Ziqiao was then taken to the small courtyard to rest.

Lying on the soft couch in the warm room, Xia Ziqiao's pain lessened considerably. Weng Yi instructed people to prepare tea, snacks, and candied fruit, and later even brought some food, carefully serving the two young men.

Compared to prison, being able to rest here is already quite comfortable.

However... it's still not as good as home.

Xia Ziqiao quickly became impatient: "Why hasn't Weng Yi come yet?" They were supposed to leave in two hours at most, but two hours have long passed and there is still no sign of Weng Yi.

Xie Chengrang stood by the window, looking out, his brows gradually furrowing. Unlike Xia Ziqiao, he was in a hurry to leave because he knew that if the case dragged on, problems might arise, not to mention the speculation that would damage their reputation.

It's one thing for Xia Ziqiao to be the legitimate son, but he's an illegitimate son. If anyone finds fault with him, they will definitely suppress him without mercy.

Taking advantage of the absence of disturbance, Xie Chengrang thoroughly investigated the case from beginning to end. In fact, their best way out was for the Ministry of Justice to investigate the case clearly, so that they would know that they had nothing to do with Steward Li and the others.

But the Xia family couldn't possibly arrange things that way. Since the Li family was involved, the Xia family would also suffer as a result. Ordinary matters would be fine, but since it involved the trafficking of women and the sorcery cult, Minister Xia absolutely couldn't let himself be implicated in either of these things.

However, once you lend a hand in this kind of thing, if you do it well, that's fine; if you do it poorly, it can cause even bigger trouble.

In case something goes wrong, he must find a way to extricate himself and avoid being implicated by the Xia family.

“Ziqiao,” Xie Chengrang said, “if we can’t resolve this before dark, I’ll go back to the prison. You need to take good care of your injuries. I can’t stay here forever. If anyone asks about today’s events, I’ll be able to answer them.”

Xia Ziqiao said, "Second Brother, don't worry. Father won't let us stay overnight at the yamen. He will definitely find a way. It would be fine if we were taken to the county yamen or the Dali Temple, but this is the Ministry of Justice."

He knew more than half of the officials in the Ministry of Justice. If Weng Yi was incompetent, he could replace him with someone else. If they hadn't run into Xu Huaiyi, they would have been drinking at Fanlou long ago.