Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 106 Hold on
"This group of people, who had been with me for three years, suddenly one day, they were all dead! When I saw them, their bodies were already... Shunzi and I buried them all, and then I was transferred to the county government... I know who it was, it was Prince Zhao! For the throne, they slaughtered people like livestock, utterly inhuman. I didn't have much of a relationship with those colleagues, but they were living, breathing people, standing in front of me for three years, and then they died like that, murdered. I... I know I can't avenge them, but there should be some punishment, right? This trip to Le'an gave me some confidence. The prince is no longer the untouchable, noble figure he once was. Prince Zhao knows he has no hope of winning the throne and has already surrendered. I was thinking..."

Jia Chuan glanced at Gao Yunduo; her eyelashes were no longer fluttering, so she must have fallen asleep.

Jia Chuan let out a soft sigh, wanting to wake Dong Yuanyuan, but then he thought that waking her up would be useless; before he could even step out of the room, Dong Yuanyuan would fall asleep again.

Jia Chuan sighed. Gao Yunduo's medicine contained sedatives, so she should be able to sleep more soundly. Dong Yuanyuan was lying at the foot of the bed. If Gao Yunduo moved, Dong Yuanyuan should wake up. He gently opened the door and went out, then gently closed the door behind him.

Old Zheng was squatting outside the door. When he saw him come out, he stood up and said, "You'd better think carefully about what you want to do. Don't waste all the credit you earned with your life."

“I know. Let’s go outside and take a look.”

……

The area outside the house was brightly lit with torches everywhere. Jia Chuan knew that Gao Yuntian had arrived with his constables. He stood at the entrance of the house, looked around, and said to Old Zheng, "I haven't slept all night. I don't know how long I can stay awake."

Old Zheng thought for a moment and said, "You're right, there's nothing I can do to help here. I'm going to sleep now."

Old Zheng turned and went into the house.

Jia Chuan snorted, and then saw Gao Yuntian walking towards him with one person. He squinted at Hao Wen, who was wiping his sweat frequently, and couldn't help but speak first: "You should go to the Prince's Mansion first and see what they are asking before coming to me. Do you know what you're asking by standing in front of me so abruptly?"

Hao Wen stopped, as if thinking for a moment, then quickly stepped forward and said in a low voice, "Judge Jia was frightened that night."

"At least he said something sensible. Why did he come along?" Jia Chuan asked Gao Yuntian.

"He just arrived."

"Oh, so you've received news from the Prince of Han's residence. Go ahead and ask. What do you want to know? I just had someone speak to the onlookers in the distance, and there's basically nothing more to add. Why don't you go and ask those people?"

Hao Wen waved his hands repeatedly and said, "Judge Jia misunderstands. I didn't come to ask anything. Uh... I do need to ask some questions. Prefect Lin must be getting impatient waiting at the prefectural office. I need to go back and give him my report."

Jia Chuan pointed at Gao Yuntian and said, "He just came back from the prefectural government office. Do you think he would dare to bring so many yamen runners here without even seeing Prefect Lin? If he had seen him, wouldn't he have told us what happened here?"

Hao Wen wiped the sweat from his face again and said in a low voice, "I didn't know anything, I thought Prefect Lin didn't know either..."

"Here's what we'll do: you help me figure this out first, and then I'll see how well you answer before I tell you what you want to know. But think it through carefully: I'll answer you exactly the same way you answer me. If the Prince's Mansion blames you later, don't blame me."

"Oh dear, what does this have to do with the Prince's Mansion? Don't always assume that the Prince's Mansion wants to kill you. Haven't you offended anyone else?"

“That makes sense! Let me ask you first, since you didn’t go to the prefectural government office, how did you get the news that something happened here?” Jia Chuan asked very seriously.

Hao Wen blinked. Yes, it wasn't even dawn yet. How did he know something had happened here? Shouldn't he have received a message from the prefectural government first? But the county government didn't send him a message, and he didn't go to the county government. How did he end up here?

How should I respond?
Jia Chuan smiled and said, "With people like you around the Prince of Han, how can the Emperor be at ease? It's alright, just pretend I didn't ask."

Hao Wen first breathed a sigh of relief, then argued, "Judge Jia, please don't say that. I'm not going to hold it against you, but anyone else would probably have gotten angry by now."

"Don't worry, I also need to wait for news. Here's what we'll do: you stay by my side. Prefect Lin is unwell, and as his deputy, you naturally have to handle things here. It's understandable that you can't leave for a while. Besides, watching you here will surely help you discover something. With a little embellishment, it will become top-secret intelligence, which would be a great contribution."

After saying that, Jia Chuan ignored Hao Wen and walked towards the area with the dense torches, with Gao Yuntian following beside him.

Hao Wen stood there for a moment, pondering Jia Chuan's words. He thought Jia Chuan was right; staying by his side and observing him would surely bring benefits. As for the other things Jia Chuan said, he wiped the sweat from his face and dared not think about them too deeply.

……

Corpses were scattered everywhere at the scene. Anyone still breathing was taken to the basement of the house. Of the three people in the village, those with minor injuries were sent away, while those killed and injured by Dong Yuanyuan were put in the same room to wait for Chen Mo to return and interrogate them.

Jia Chuan wasn't lying to Hao Wen. He was indeed waiting for news from all sides, for Chen Mo to return, and for the message to Zhang Zheng to be sent out before he could announce his handling of the situation.

Jia Chuan walked around the crime scene for a while, figuring that Old Zheng should be asleep by now. He then ordered someone to wake Old Zheng up. As the "official" coroner, he needed to examine the scene, not to determine how the people died, but to have Old Zheng describe the identities of the deceased. Of course, he could do this job, but there were just too many people, and he had too much else to do.

Just by looking at the large number of people sent, one can tell how much the King of Han values ​​the killing of Jia Chuan.

Jia Chuan squinted and thought, if they had taken it more seriously that time in Dongzhao County, and instead of using people from the manor, they had just sent anyone who was lying here now, he might not even be alive.

Some things only offer one chance; once it's gone, it's gone forever.

Old Zheng arrived, groggy and cursing. Jia Chuan then ordered the yamen runners to find a spacious place to lay all the corpses out so that Old Zheng could easily examine them.

The widest place around is the alley.

Soon, several corpses were lined up side by side in the alley. Old Zheng, Jia Chuan, and Gao Yuntian stood in front of the corpses. After Old Zheng made a series of angry accusations, he squatted down to perform an autopsy as Jia Chuan had requested.

Everything needs to be recorded, including clothing, hairstyle, knife, inner garments, whether the deceased had any old wounds, where the wounds were, and whether they were caused by knives or swords.

Hao Wen watched intently from the side, but despite the freezing weather, sweat poured down his face. Among these people, there were indeed some he had seen before, which showed that the Prince of Han's mansion was determined to succeed in this operation that night. But... how could they have been completely wiped out?

He wanted to ask the people in the manor several times, but Jia Chuan didn't mention it, so how could he ask? He didn't know anyone in the manor, so even if he wanted to look for them, he couldn't. Hao Wen was so anxious that he rubbed his hands and paced back and forth.

After seeing this, Jia Chuan whispered to Gao Yuntian, "Look at this guy, he wears his heart on his sleeve. It's quite remarkable that the King of Han chose such a talented person."

Gao Yuntian snorted and said, "If you have nothing else to do, I'll go check on Duoduo."

Mentioning Gao Yunduo, Jia Chuan's joy at scheming against Old Zheng and Hao Wen vanished instantly. He said, "Duoduo is asleep. Go and ask Dr. Deng again carefully. I'm afraid he's not telling me the truth..."

Gao Yuntian waved his hand impatiently. As he entered the house, he came face to face with Wu Bing, who hurriedly asked, "You left Jia Chuan alone?"

Gao Yuntian said, "Your men and yamen runners are all around us. Who has the ability to..." Before he could finish speaking, the sound of an arrow piercing the air was particularly jarring amidst the noisy crowd, especially to Gao Yuntian and Wu Bing.

Their first reaction was to rush towards Jia Chuan in the alley.

As luck would have it, Jia Chuan suddenly squatted down just a moment ago because he saw Old Zheng discover the scars on the first corpse and wanted to take a closer look. He squatted down the instant the arrow was shot.

At the same time, Jia Chuan felt an arrow fly over his head. He instinctively threw himself on Old Zheng and shielded him with his body.

The people on the roof of the house wanted to fire a follow-up shot, but Gao Yuntian and Wu Bing had already arrived. Wu Bing raised his sword to block, and Gao Yuntian leaped over the wall and rushed straight to the roof.

Most of the yamen runners squatted down, and Wu Bing's men calmly observed their surroundings. Seeing that Jia Chuan was being protected, none of them left their posts without permission.

Old Zheng broke free from Jia Chuan's embrace and said angrily, "Why are you protecting me? I'm this old, do I need you to protect me? What's my life worth? If you take the fall for me, how can I live if you die?!"

Jia Chuan sat on the ground and waved his hand, saying, "Don't think like that. I did it subconsciously. I would have done it no matter who was around me. It's not because it was you."

Old Zheng was still fuming. He wanted to stand up but didn't dare, so he could only sit cross-legged on the ground and continue grumbling: "You should have lifted me up as a shield to block arrows, that's what you should have done."

"Give me back what I'm supposed to do, or I'm not human!"

"You! I'm already this old, what difference does it make if I live a few more or a few less years? You used me as a shield, so I guess I died a worthy death! I can't protect you like they do on ordinary days, so if you don't use me now, when will you?"

"That's utter nonsense! Perform a proper autopsy!"

"There won't be another one..."

"It's almost dawn, there's no time to lose," Jia Chuan said, standing up.

Wu Bing cautiously said, "You should go inside and stay here. As long as you're not here, it will be safe."

Jia Chuan thought about it and agreed. He glanced at Old Zheng, whose hands were trembling, and said to Wu Bing, "Find someone who can write to help Old Zheng write the autopsy report. Right now, he can only read, not write."

After saying that, Jia Chuan walked towards the gate of the house.

It was already dawn, and he wondered why there was someone on the opposite rooftop. Suddenly, he felt someone following him, and when he turned around sharply, Hao Wen behind him jumped in fright.

"Why are you following me?" Jia Chuan was a little irritable at the moment.

"Uh...didn't you just say you wanted me to stay by your side...?"

"Beside me? Where were you when the arrows were being shot? If you were beside me, I would have pulled you over to shield me from the arrows! Get out of here, I'm going home! If you don't leave, an arrow will come 'whoosh' and kill you."

Hao Wen, startled, stepped aside, still discussing, "I also wanted to discuss with Judge Jia how to handle this matter and how to catch the suspect. I think it must be the work of mountain bandits..."

Jia Chuan laughed in anger and said to the men guarding the door, "If he dares to take a single step in, just kill him! He'd be rich enough to die twice over for his crimes."

The men guarding the door were Wu Bing's subordinates. They still held their knives in their hands, and they all shouted in unison, "Yes!"

Hao Wen walked a little further away, supporting himself against the courtyard wall.

He thought he might be able to go inside the house and see what he could find, so that he would have something to say when he reported back to the Prince's Mansion. But what if he wasn't allowed to go in?
Hao Wen's muddled mind couldn't understand why he, a mere prefect, was so subservient to a judge. The cold wind blew on his face, and he remained calm, but he didn't want to think about it. He huddled in a corner, watching the sky slowly brighten, and saw Gao Yuntian suddenly appear in the alley carrying a person, whispering something to the person holding a sword next to the corpse.

Hao Wen really wanted to go over there. He was the highest-ranking official in the area, and he wanted to ask them some questions. They should answer him truthfully. But his legs just wouldn't obey him. Seeing Gao Yuntian carrying someone toward the house, he mustered his courage and shouted, "Hero, please wait!"

At this moment, Hao Wen had forgotten that the tall and imposing man was the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. He only wanted to know whether the three people in the manor were dead or had escaped. Hao Wen couldn't remember anything else.

Gao Yuntian actually stopped and looked at Hao Wen, asking him a question. Hao Wen then fell silent.

How are you still alive?

Gao Yuntian asked the question without expecting an answer, and then went into the house.

Hao Wen, however, was pondering the profound meaning of those words.

……

Jia Chuan was sitting in the front hall, sorting out his thoughts, when Gao Yuntian strode in and said, "There were two people on the roof. They must have escaped during the fight. They were archers. I killed one and left the other alive. We sent him to the underground prison."

Gao Yuntian picked up the teapot on the table and took a few big gulps of tea before saying, "I just discussed it with Brother Wu. We still need to arrange for people to be stationed in the surrounding houses, at least to send a message."

Jia Chuan said, "Fortunately, this time our men were only injured and not killed. This case is not something I, as a judge, can decide. We must hold out until tomorrow, protect the crime scene, and protect these bodies... The provincial inspector will arrive with his men tomorrow. We cannot tell anyone about this yet. This is a good gift I prepared for the Prince of Han. Let's see how we hold out for this day and night."

"Move the body into the house? At a time like this, don't think about such unlucky or ominous nonsense..."

"If the corpses all come in, they'll have a reason to come in too. Do you know which of those yamen runners are Han Wang's men? Who do you want to wander around this house?"

"Too."

"But it's almost dawn, and it seems unlikely that we can hold out for another day and night."

Gao Yuntian understood. He frowned and asked, "Who would come to steal the body? Have the people from the Prince of Han's mansion gone mad? They are the prime suspects right now. How dare they openly try to steal the body?"

(End of this chapter)