spoiled brat

Chapter 18. Eliminating Evil (Part 18)

Qingyang County today is quite strange.

The little beggars, who usually shunned the street like rats, suddenly emerged from the dilapidated temple and shed, carrying candied hawthorns that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. They chewed on them while mumbling nursery rhymes indistinctly:

"Seeking survival in the morning, seeking shelter in the evening, the poor are finding it hard to live these days!"

"Why? Why do you say that? The lord has unleashed his dogs to eat people!"

"May I ask what the vicious dog's bark is? Please go to the yamen to see the dog being slaughtered!"

They ran and sang, deliberately heading towards crowded places, leaving everyone completely baffled.

No one knows who started it, but since they were all free anyway, they decided to go to the yamen to cool off and watch the excitement. This led to a crowd of people flocking to the county yamen.

The area in front of the government office was packed with people who had come to watch the show. Those who arrived early brought long benches and chairs, while those who arrived late sat on the steps. The last to arrive had to climb trees and hang from the branches to look inside.

In the courtroom, which had not been used for many years, there were thirty or forty aggrieved parties kneeling, who squeezed out the county officials standing on both sides.

"A major case!" the person hanging in the tree exclaimed excitedly.

The man who had come down from the tree early and sat on the long bench struck a pose, smiling as he said:
"What big case? A bunch of dung collectors and prostitutes, who cares if they're innocent or not?"

Magistrate Xie sat upright, his gavel striking the court with a thunderous thud. He asked coldly:
"One of you says Zhao Si cheated you out of your money, and the other says he forced you to borrow money at exorbitant interest rates. What evidence do you have?"

Below the hall, Zhao Zhao and A Ming exchanged a glance, and Zhao Zhao spoke first:

"Your Honor, Zhao Si is having an affair with one of the girls in our building, using her affections to swindle money..."

Before Zhao Zhao could finish speaking, the shifty-eyed clerk beside Magistrate Xie interrupted:

"So, you and all the women behind you are prostitutes?"

Zhao Zhao answered yes.

The advisor chuckled: "You're only thirteen or fourteen years old. Why should you explain the affairs between those prostitutes and Zhao Si? Where are the victims? Let the victims speak for themselves."

Magistrate Xie slammed his gavel and said in a deep voice, "The aggrieved party, please step forward."

Why go forward? Zhao Zhao shifted to the right, revealing a group of girls led by Yun'er.

Yun'er had recently miscarried and was still weak, but she mustered her strength to speak:

"My lord, I and more than a dozen of my sisters have all been tricked by Zhao Si."

"I'm innocent!" Zhao Si cried, looking wronged and humiliated. "Sir, I don't know these bitches at all, let alone cheat them out of their money!"

"If you don't recognize me, why do you have the markings I carved on your body?" Yun'er sneered, looking at Magistrate Xie:
"If you don't believe me, sir, you can have someone remove his outer garment and see if there's a 'cloud' character in seal script on his lower back!"

Those were words that Yun'er had carved with her hairpin when she was jealous, originally to assert her dominance and prevent him from getting close to other girls. Unexpectedly, they were used in court.

With nearly a hundred eyes watching from inside and outside, Magistrate Xie could not afford to be corrupt, so he had no choice but to order the bailiffs to strip Zhao Si of his clothes, and indeed there was a tattoo on his clothes.

Magistrate Xie sat silently, while his advisor walked up to Yun'er and said with a smile:
"Then how did you fall for Zhao Si's trick?"

Yun'er and the prostitutes recounted the whole story in detail. After listening, the clerk's narrow eyes gleamed with a sharp light:

"So, you invested your money in Zhao Si because you thought it would be profitable, essentially becoming shareholders?"

Yun'er nodded, vaguely sensing something strange, but then she heard the clerk continue with a laugh:
"Did you have a signed contract when you invested?"

His question left the girls in the building completely bewildered. They didn't even have the chance to leave the building, so how could they know that there were contracts other than indentures?
Moreover, Zhao Si did indeed pay a lot of interest at the beginning, and they were blinded by money, so none of them thought about signing a contract or writing a statement.

Seeing that they were speechless, the clerk waved his fan and said to Magistrate Xie on the high seat, "My lord, the matter is clear."

"These prostitutes keep saying they invested money as a 'dry share,' but they can't even produce a written agreement. How can we believe them?"

Zhao Si began to cry out his innocence again, kowtowing twice and sobbing:

"My lord, I have indeed slept with this prostitute named Yun'er a few times, but I have never gone so far as to take money from them."

“This bitch said she was pregnant with my child a few days ago and insisted that I redeem her from her servitude... But there are more men who have slept with her than horses run on the street. How can I let her blackmail me with her pregnancy?”
"That bitch saw I wasn't falling for her tricks, so she resorted to this desperate measure of taking me to court..."

You're distorting the truth!

Yun'er's weak face turned even paler with anger. Zhao Zhao patted her back and whispered, "Don't worry."

The advisor and Zhao Si exchanged a glance and then spoke in unison:

"Sir, there is no right or wrong in this case."

"Even if what they say is true, they invested but can't get their money back right now, what's so strange about that?"

"They themselves just said that investing money in Zhao Si was for profit and speculation. Since it's speculation, there will be gains and losses."

“When Zhao Si made money, he gave them a lot of interest, which is a favor; when Zhao Si lost all his money in business, he is not legally obligated to return the principal, which is a matter of principle.”

Magistrate Xie slammed his gavel and said coldly, "You prostitutes who make money lying down, you think there's such a thing as a sure-fire way to make money because it comes too easily! I will not deal with this case!"

Zhao Zhao stepped forward, nodded respectfully, and asked, "May I ask, sir, if we can provide evidence that part of Zhao Si's capital for his business came from us, and also prove that Zhao Si has other assets to rely on, should the money be returned?"

Magistrate Xie glanced at Zhao Si, who blinked rapidly, indicating that he had not left any evidence against him.

"Of course it should be returned," Magistrate Xie said casually.

The group of prostitutes left the room, and Ah Ming led the shamans forward.

Magistrate Xie banged the gavel again: "You say Zhao Si forced you to borrow money at exorbitant interest rates, what evidence do you have?"

Amin and the other men pulled out written agreements from their pockets and spread them on the ground:

"Your Excellency, although the paper states an interest rate of 5%, it actually adds up to 30% every month. If any of us cannot repay the interest, Zhao Si will bring his men to our door to kidnap our wives, daughters, and sisters and sell them to Puyang County, which is over a hundred miles away, to be prostitutes."

Just as Zhao Si was about to cry out his innocence again, a man in the courtroom said indignantly:

"My sister was kidnapped and sold by him!"

Zhao Si retorted defiantly, "Where's the evidence? Words alone aren't enough!"

Just then, a middle-aged woman dressed in flamboyant attire squeezed through the crowd outside the hall. Holding the hand of a five- or six-year-old girl, she began to cry out her grievances from afar:
"Your Honor, please do me justice!"

Magistrate Xie said in a deep voice, "Who is making a disturbance outside? Drag them away and interrogate them later!"

The bald man stood up and pointed at the little girl outside, saying, "Sir, that's my sister who was sold to the brothel. The one leading her is the madam who has dealt with Zhao Si before."

Upon hearing this, Magistrate Xie's face immediately turned ashen: "Bring him here."

The madam led the girl in. She was unaware of the intricacies of Qingyang County, and naturally didn't know that Zhao Si was one of Magistrate Xie's men. So, upon seeing Zhao Si, she immediately began to curse:

"You heartless bastard! You told me that although this little girl is short, she's already ten years old, and we could raise her for a few more years before selling her. Who knew she just turned six and is still a long way from being old enough to be sold!"

Thinking of this, the madam looked at the little girl with a wronged expression: "It's one thing that she's so young, but she wants to eat four bowls of rice a day, and if I don't give her some, she clings to me and cries... I, a madam who trains prostitutes, have become a bodhisattva who saves starving ghosts!"