Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 97 Little Fish Eats Shrimp

Jia Chuan only thought that the Prince's Mansion wouldn't have time to prepare, but he didn't expect them to question his professionalism, and he certainly didn't expect that the Yu family would actually refuse to open the door for them after they gave their names.

"Kick it away!" Jia Chuan shouted domineeringly.

Wu Bing's men rushed forward and rammed the door. After a few rams, the gate opened, and a middle-aged man who looked strong and muscular stood in front of the door. He opened his mouth to ask a question, but Gao Yuntian stepped forward and kicked him to the ground. Then the group entered the house.

This house looks impressive from the outside, but once you get inside, you realize... it's just so-so.

In the years the Yu family had lived in Le'an, it was always others who fawned over them, or they who bullied others. The idea of ​​someone barging into their house like this was something they had never even imagined, let alone ever thought of. So, Jia Chuan and the others stood in the front yard for a while, just about to go into the hall to rest as if they were old friends, when the Yu family's steward arrived with several servants.

Jia Chuan was puzzled. Before the steward could speak, he asked, "Your reaction is too slow. If a thief had broken in, they would have already killed everyone who needed to be killed. Right now, they're running out with their gold, silver, and valuables."

The steward flew into a rage, pointing his stick at Jia Chuan and demanding, "Have you lost your mind and dared to act so disrespectfully in the Yu family! Beat him! Beat him to death!"

The outcome was predictable; in the blink of an eye, the steward and his servants collapsed to the ground, groaning in pain. This commotion finally drew the master out.

A middle-aged man in his forties called out from under the main door, "Quickly go to the Prince's mansion and call Qing'er here. Tell her..."

Chen Mo, known for his temper, wouldn't let him finish speaking. He took two steps forward, kicked open the door, and the middle-aged man fell to the ground, yelling, "Do you know who my nephew is?"

"Even if the King of Han wants to see me, I won't see him. Who is your nephew anyway? Does he even deserve to be heard by me?" Jia Chuan stepped over the threshold and into the house with his hands behind his back.

Wu Bing's men closed the courtyard gate, leaving two men to guard it. The rest of the men, without needing anyone from the house to lead the way, followed Wu Bing to find the side gate and the back gate. This required passing through the back courtyard, where screams erupted in alarm.

Gao Yuntian and Chen Mo followed Jia Chuan into the main hall. Jia Chuan sat in the head seat and asked rudely, "Where is your son now? The sooner he arrives, the less you will suffer."

The middle-aged man was also pragmatic; without a moment's hesitation, he said, "We'll have dinner in Liu Mo's room in the backyard."

Jia Chuan hadn't even warmed his seat before he stood up and said, "Lead the way!"

Gao Yuntian picked up the middle-aged man, who staggered forward. Chen Mo, watching from behind, was furious and shoved him, asking, "Isn't your family usually very arrogant?"

Jia Chuan said, "Some dogs will bark wildly when their owner is around, but when they find that their owner is not around, they will tuck their tails between their legs. When their owner comes back, they will open their mouths and bark wildly again."

The screams from the backyard continued to rise and fall. Jia Chuan asked in confusion, "Whose tail did they step on? Old Wu and the others didn't even come inside, so why are they yelling?"

Gao Yuntian snorted and said, "Never seen anything like this before, just scaring yourself."

Although the house is a two-courtyard house, a large courtyard is built on the side, which occupies a considerable area and contains several smaller courtyards.

The middle-aged man led the group to a courtyard in the middle and pointed, saying, "This is Liu Mo's courtyard."

Chen Mo gave him another push, and the middle-aged man almost fell to the ground.

"Knock on the door!"

……

Yu Bai was having dinner with Liu Mo. Liu Mo was trying to please Yu Bai by mentioning the matter of repairing her parents' house. However, there was a commotion outside. Liu Mo wanted to ask her maid to go out and see what was going on, but Yu Bai said, "What are you looking at? I wonder who is trying to trick me into going over there. They are all useless and have the nerve to covet my money!"

Liu Mo shrank his neck.

"Is money so easy to earn? Everyone knows my cousin works in the Prince's mansion, but who knew he was such a heartless man? Every year he tries to bribe my family countless times, saying he needs to grease palms. It's true that the shop's business is booming thanks to him, but who knew he would take all the profits? What in the household doesn't need money? Your food, your daily necessities, your clothes..."

Yu Bai was still rambling when he heard someone knocking on the courtyard gate. Already short-tempered, he assumed it was some woman coming to his door, so he stormed out and opened the gate…

Liu Mo watched in horror as the two men entered the house. She subconsciously peeked through the crack in the door into the yard and saw Yu Bai being trampled underfoot, with Yu Bai's father lying to the side.

Liu Mo hurriedly retreated, watching as the door closed. A young man said in a friendly tone, "I've come from your family home. They're not doing well right now, but don't worry, I've ordered the yamen runners to start repairing your family home tomorrow. I've also bought them some food and a pot..."

Jia Chuan paused for a moment, then sat down in the seat where Yu Bai had been sitting. Looking at Liu Mo, he said, "I talked to your father about the case from back then."

Liu Mo's expression, which had initially shown some gratitude, turned back to fear after hearing Jia Chuan's next sentence.

"You, you are from the state government?" Liu Mo asked in a trembling voice.

Jia Chuan sized up the ordinary-looking woman with a round face and plump hips, nodded, and then suddenly asked with a stern face, "You know your brother was wronged, so why are you protecting the real culprit? Do you have a grudge against your sister-in-law?"

"No, no!" Liu Mo waved his hand and then collapsed to the ground.

"So this is your brother's daily mistreatment of you, and you're taking this opportunity to retaliate?"

Gao Yuntian looked at Jia Chuan with surprise. He thought Jia Chuan had come to understand the case, but had acted somewhat recklessly. When he left the Liu family, he said he wouldn't cause trouble for them. But judging from Jia Chuan's demeanor, he seemed to want to avenge the people of Le'an. He wanted to find an opportunity to persuade him, lest the Yu family really go after the Liu family after they left... Who knew that Jia Chuan would immediately start questioning him, and with such a pointed question.

He turned to look at Liu Mo, who was already sobbing uncontrollably. Apart from waving his hand, he didn't utter a single word of explanation.

“These past two years have been tough on you, haven’t they? But for the sake of your family, you haven’t dared to say a word. Now you can eat your fill every day, but you can’t sleep soundly every night.”

Liu Mo cried even harder, lying face down on the ground. The door was closed, and Yu Bai, who was in the courtyard, heard Liu Mo's cries and suddenly shouted as if he had thought of something, "Don't talk nonsense..." Before he could finish speaking, Chen Mo punched him in the face.

Liu Mo was startled by Yu Bai's shout, and her crying stopped.

Jia Chuan sighed and said, "I don't know how to make you believe that I can deal with this stinky fish, but you can listen to whether he can speak a complete sentence. You think he is a god, but in my eyes, calling him a stinky fish is an exaggeration. I ordered the Yu family's gate to be smashed open. The Yu family's servants are now rolling on the ground covered in injuries. As for the two men in the Yu family, let's open the door and let her see them."

Gao Yuntian opened the door, and Liu Mo covered his face, peeking through his fingers.

Yu Bai was groaning and rolling around, while his father lay beside him, trembling.

“I closed the door because I was afraid he would affect you. I know you are afraid of him to the core. Although… I don’t know why you are so afraid of him. Your father seems to be afraid of him too. I was thinking on the way here that he has a cousin who is a minor leader in the Prince of Han’s mansion. His family can run rampant. If there are many minor leaders in the mansion, and if most of the relatives are like that, Le’an would probably have become a hell long ago. The court will not ignore it, especially in the past year or so.”

Jia Chuan paused for a moment and then said:
“Although I haven’t been in Le’an for long, I have a general understanding of the situation. The servants of the Prince of Han’s mansion are indeed somewhat domineering, and there are occasional incidents of them bullying men and women. But I just don’t understand how a relative of a minor leader in the Prince of Han’s mansion can be so arrogant? Your father said that someone complained about it before, and although he wasn’t punished, he would quiet down for a few days. This means that his cousin in the mansion doesn’t want him to cause trouble outside. Two years ago, he came to your family and asked to take you as a concubine, but your father didn’t agree. His family didn’t do anything, right? Besides, how did he take a liking to you? If you didn’t want to, you would naturally go out less for a while and avoid running into him. Would he really dare to go to your house and force you? I’m not saying he’s so sensible, but is it worth it?”

Liu Mo began to tremble all over.

Jia Chuan's tone remained gentle:

"If a servant of the Prince of Han's mansion dares to do something so heinous, the state government might not dare to intervene, but it will definitely be reported to the chief clerk of the Prince of Han's mansion. We won't discuss how they handle it internally for now, but if even a minor leader's relative dares to act so recklessly, it probably won't be settled with a small sum of money. I don't think Chouyu's family is that wealthy; they're just an empty shell. He wants to continue the family line, and he probably has several women in his harem, right? It's not like he's never seen a woman before. If you absolutely refuse, what can he do? When you entered the Liu family, they didn't even give you a betrothal gift, did they? So I'm very curious, how did you two get together?"

Jia Chuan leaned forward and asked curiously.

Liu Mo buried his face in his hands and lay on the ground without answering for a long time.

Gao Yuntian spoke first, asking Jia Chuan incredulously, "From what you're saying, she... she did it willingly?"

Jia Chuan ignored Gao Yuntian and continued to ask, "You are eleven years younger than your brother, so it's normal for your parents to dote on you. But your family isn't wealthy, especially after your brother and sister-in-law had two children. You must feel that your life is not satisfactory, right?"

Liu Mo started crying again.

Gao Yuntian pointed at Liu Mo on the ground in astonishment and said in disbelief again, "You, it was you, you killed your sister-in-law and made your brother take the blame!"

"Where has your brain been wandering? Call it back!" Jia Chuan said speechlessly.

"It wasn't me, it wasn't me!" Liu Mo cried and waved her hands.

Gao Yuntian was stunned and asked Jia Chuan, "Can't you explain this?"

“His elder brother Liu Changming was clearly wronged, can you understand that?” Jia Chuan asked.

Gao Yuntian thought for a moment and said, "I don't think we can say for sure that he was wronged. Didn't the case file say that after the deceased was strangled, he was also stabbed many times? That's obviously a grudge. But it's hard for a family like theirs to have enemies who want to kill them. They might have some minor grudges. They wouldn't have the guts to do something like that. Although Liu Chang wasn't home that night, that's precisely why he's more suspicious. Why did he go to his friend's house for drinks on that one day?"

Jia Chuan looked at Gao Yuntian and smiled, then asked, "Think about it the other way around, wouldn't the murderer only kill the victim when Liu Chang wasn't home?"

Gao Yuntian frowned: "But..."

“If it was a family member who did it, they could have cleaned up the scene and told everyone that the deceased was seriously ill and died. That would have been much safer than making the whole city know about it. Even you think it's suspicious that Liu Chang wasn't home that night. If Liu Chang killed his wife, why does he think nothing happened? And even if nothing happened, there are ways to clean up the mess properly, but he didn't.”

Gao Yuntian nodded, pointed at Liu Mo, and asked, "How do you feel that this case is related to her? According to what you said, everyone who knows that Liu Chang didn't come home at night should be a suspect. Shouldn't we also ask about the friend's house he went to?"

"I haven't had time to figure out that friend yet. Judging from his statement in the case file, there's nothing wrong with it. But the Liu family, especially her, is a bit hard for me to understand. Her family went through such a hardship that they couldn't even afford a meal when they were released from prison. They were imprisoned for a year. No matter how beautiful Liu Mo was before... she probably wouldn't look good when she came out, right? How come that stinking fish, the Yu family, is so devoted to her and even helped her out?"

"You mean, those two... had a past relationship?" Gao Yuntian's tone automatically rose: "That stinky fish was... a stinky fish with feelings?"

Jia Chuan waved his hand and said, "If we had any sense of loyalty, how could we have let Liu Mo stay in there for a year? You know that if a witness can bail someone out with money, he can be released. Chou Yu is usually so arrogant, and he has a cousin in the Prince's Mansion. Getting the state government to release him is just a matter of a word. However, finding his cousin will definitely require money. If Chou Yu thinks it's worth it, he will naturally pay up."

"I didn't understand," Gao Yuntian said.

“Big fish eat little fish, little fish eat shrimp. This principle can explain why the Liu family is afraid of the Yu family. But there is a limit to fear. Her parents still love their daughter. If they can refuse once, they will refuse a second time. If the Yu family had forced their way in, we wouldn’t be seeing that old Liu today. The Yu family has a bad reputation and they are a bit arrogant, but they are not capable of bullying men and women. So, I’m very curious, how did you two end up together?” Jia Chuan looked at Liu Mo: “He didn’t save you, but he waited for you. After you came out, he didn’t give you a single penny, so you followed him into the Yu family.”

Gao Yuntian realized: "Yes, why would he wait for you? He has to give some money to take a concubine."

Liu Mo stopped crying, but remained silent.

Gao Yuntian grew anxious: "Don't think you can get away with this by not speaking. If we take you back to the prefectural government, you'll inevitably suffer some physical pain!"

Jia Chuan sighed and said, "Your brother didn't make it to me. I don't advocate torture, but sometimes when you encounter someone like you, the truth is right there, but you just won't talk. Torture might be the only way."

Liu Mo started crying again.

“I know this is not what you wanted, but in the end, you had no other choice. It is certainly hard to endure hunger and cold, but isn’t it also painful to be well-fed and clothed right now? You long to give birth to a child as soon as possible, and then gain status through your child, but… you can’t have children.”

Liu Mo suddenly looked up; her eyes were swollen from crying, but she still couldn't hide her terror.

(End of this chapter)