Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 98 Cause and Effect
Jia Chuan patiently explained:

“The child is your only lifeline. If the Yu family waits a year or two without any news, that scoundrel will just look for someone else. By then, let alone sending food to your family, you won’t even be able to eat your fill. His family’s circumstances aren’t that great, supporting so many people… Besides, his family mainly relies on the Prince’s Mansion. If the Prince’s Mansion falls, his family will probably be worse off than your family…”

"You said, you said I can't have children, what do you mean?" Liu Mo couldn't hear anything else, he only remembered this sentence.

"It's not your problem that you can't have children, it's Chouyu's problem. If he's willing to get treatment, the outcome is hard to say, but if he doesn't get treatment, he definitely won't be able to have children. He won't think it's his problem, he'll only think it's because you women in the backyard are no good. If I'm not mistaken, did someone tell you that you're good at having children?"

Liu Mo's face immediately turned red, and she lowered her head again.

Gao Yuntian was so anxious that he raised his leg to kick Liu Mo. Liu Mo trembled and looked at Gao Yuntian in terror. Gao Yuntian had no choice but to put his foot down and said fiercely, "If you were a man, I would have kicked you to death!"

Jia Chuan thought for a moment, stood up, pushed open the door and went out. He squatted down in front of Yu Bai and asked, "You had no grudge against Liu Mo's sister-in-law, so why did you stab her several times after strangling her?"

Ignoring the pain, Yu Bai shouted, "Don't listen to her nonsense! She strangled him, she stabbed him, she was afraid her family would prevent her from entering the Yu family—it's all her fault! Arrest her immediately! I can testify! I'll have my cousin promote you..."

"Then tell me, did she strangle her sister-in-law in her room or in her sister-in-law's room?"

"Yes, in her room."

"How did she manage to transport the body back to her sister-in-law's room and place it on the bed?"

Yu Bai opened his eyes wide, thought for a moment, and said, "She, she's strong!"

"Should we drag it back or carry it back?"

"Dragging, carrying...dragging it back."

"You saw her strangle her sister-in-law to death, then drag her back to the room, then go to the kitchen to get a knife and stab her more than a dozen times, right?"

"Yes, yes, I saw it with my own eyes! Arrest her immediately!"

"So, you were at the Liu family's house on the night of the incident, is that right?"

Yu Bai stared in disbelief, his mouth agape.

Jia Chuan followed up with, "Did you kill her, or did she?"

"She killed him!"

"Can you testify?"

Yu Bai quickly nodded and said, "I'll be a witness, I'll be a witness!"

Why were you at the Liu family's house on the night of the incident?

Yu Bai's eyes darted around before he said, "I was at her house because she felt her family was poor and wanted to enjoy a better life with me. I also believed what Wang Po said, that she was good at bearing children. I went to her house and said I wanted to take her in, but her father kicked me out. I was magnanimous and didn't hold it against her. Who knew she would come to my door herself and say she would persuade her parents. She's practically offering herself up. If it were you, would you want her?"

Jia Chuan scratched his nose and asked, "Since you came to our doorstep, why did you go to the Liu family's house in the middle of the night?"

“She seduced me. I had drunk some wine that day, and I couldn’t call her over, so I had to sneak off. If she hadn’t seduced me, there would have been so many women in my yard. Why would I have gone to the trouble of sneaking past the patrol in the middle of the night, climbing over the wall, and acting like a thief to find her?”

“I see you don’t have much in your house, except for the women in this courtyard… You’ve thought about taking her back as a concubine before, but the Liu family wasn’t willing. Then something happened, and you waited for her for a year. You don’t seem like a devoted person to me.”

"I was also fooled by Wang Po!" Yu Bai said, heartbroken. "She said she was very good at giving birth..."

“There’s another reason you’re reluctant to tell me: your family is poor, and she’s willing. You can take her home without paying a single penny—cheaper than buying a needle in the street.” Jia Chuan sat down on the ground and asked, “Have you killed anyone before?”

"No, no, how could I kill someone! It was all her, she did it all..."

“I’ve never killed anyone. Let me guess. After you strangled her sister-in-law, the two of you worked together to carry her back to the house and put her on the bed…” Jia Chuan frowned and thought for a moment before continuing, “Either your sister-in-law said something unpleasant to you before she died, and you, being a vengeful person, stabbed her more than a dozen times to vent your anger, or you had a momentary lapse in judgment and thought your sister-in-law was moving and not dead. So, you asked Liu Mo to bring you a knife, intending to give her two more stabs to finish her off, but you didn’t expect that after seeing the blood, you got excited and couldn’t stop.”

"How do you know? No, what she said, she's talking nonsense, rambling on and on, her words can't be trusted..."

"You don't believe her, but you?" Jia Chuan asked, squinting his eyes.

"Trust me! My cousin is in the Prince's mansion, with over a hundred men under his command. From now on, your affairs in Le'an will be my affairs..."

"If your cousin dares to appear before me now, I will take his life immediately!" Jia Chuan said coldly, then stood up and said, "Tie them both up and take them back to the mansion. We'll hold court tomorrow!"

Chen Mo said, "If you already knew what was going on, you should have taken them away long ago. Why waste time here!"

Jia Chuan smiled and said, "You overestimate me. Although I have ideas, I need to verify them. Besides, the longer we stay here, the more uncomfortable the people in the Prince's mansion will feel. I'm also thinking of making them lose some hair."

……

Zhu Heng was indeed somewhat anxious. As the sky gradually darkened, he knew that Jia Chuan and the others had gone to the house of Yu Qing's uncle, a guard in the manor. He even ordered someone to summon Yu Qing and inquire in detail about the situation of this uncle's family.

Yu Qing had no idea what Yu Bai had done, or even that Yu Bai had released a concubine before the new year, which was related to the murder case two years ago. When Zhu Heng asked him why, he couldn't explain. He only said that his cousin was good-for-nothing and had caused a lot of trouble. He also said that he would definitely discipline him strictly in the future.

After hearing this, Zhu Heng remained silent for a moment. He felt that Jia Chuan was deliberately causing trouble for the Prince's Mansion. Since he couldn't find any open trouble, he chose this one to plot against the Prince's Mansion.

If this had happened a few days ago, Zhu Heng would have laughed at Jia Chuan for his ignorance, but now he dared not underestimate his opponent. Jia Chuan must have other plans, so he could not act rashly.

To his surprise, Jia Chuan didn't emerge from the Yu family's house for a long time, and Zhu Heng began to regret his actions. Had he known it would take this long, should he have made arrangements in advance? By now it was completely dark; if they had already laid an ambush...

Zhu Heng felt a bit agitated. He paced back and forth in the room, hesitant to make a decision, until someone came to report that Jia Chuan had left the Yu family and headed to his residence.

Zhu Heng inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief.

……

No sooner had Jia Chuan left than Yu Qing arrived at the Yu family home.

Yu Qing ignored her uncle's cries and only cared about what Jia Chuan said when he came and what he said when he left.

Upon learning that his cousin might be involved in the murder and had been taken away by Jia Chuan, Yu Qing asked his uncle to pass on a message: "The trial will be held tomorrow; the Prince of Han's residence must not miss this opportunity." Ignoring his uncle's pleas, Yu Qing hurried back to the Prince's residence to report.

Despite Yu Qing's indifference in front of his uncle, he was indignant in front of Zhu Heng, speaking as if Jia Chuan's treatment of his relatives meant he didn't respect the Prince's Mansion. Zhu Heng, who was pondering the meaning of Jia Chuan's message, found Yu Qing's nagging annoying and said impatiently, "The Prince knows that Jia Chuan doesn't respect the Prince's Mansion. Why don't you go and talk to Jia Chuan yourself and make him realize that he should respect the Prince's Mansion?"

Yu Qing wanted to stir things up further, but Zhu Heng's face darkened and he said, "Your relatives are so arrogant because of your indulgence. Go back and think about what you will do if the Prince finds out and gets angry."

Yu Qing then stopped talking.

Zhu Heng dared not delay; he needed to inform the prince before making any decisions on how to handle the matter.

……

After Jia Chuan and his group returned safely to the house, Gao Yuntian and Chen Mo excitedly took Yu Bai to interrogate him, while Liu Mo was handed over to Gao Yunduo for interrogation.

Jia Chuan demanded that a confession be obtained tonight, so as to avoid trouble during the court hearing tomorrow.

All three were very capable. Jia Chuan had just finished eating his noodles and was thinking of lying down to rest for a while when Gao Yuntian and Chen Mo arrived with their statements.

"So fast?!"

Before Jia Chuan could finish speaking, Gao Yunduo and Dong Yuanyuan also entered the room with their statements.

Gao Yuntian said, "At first, Chouyu insisted that Liu Mo killed him, but Brother Chen went up and rubbed him a couple of times, and he confessed that he killed him."

Gao Yuntian handed the statement to Jia Chuan, who then looked at Gao Yunduo after receiving it.

Gao Yunduo said:

"Liu Mo said that Yu Bai used his belt to strangle her sister-in-law from behind. She tried to stop him, but she couldn't. At that time, Yu Bai was like a madman. After her sister-in-law stopped breathing, Yu Bai started to panic and asked her to help carry her sister-in-law back to his room. He forbade her to make any noise, saying that if she alerted others, he would kill the entire Liu family. Anyway, with his cousin around, he wouldn't do anything in the end."

Dong Yuanyuan hurriedly interjected, "She said that when the two of them put her sister-in-law on the bed, her sister-in-law kicked her legs, which scared her so much that she sat down on the ground. The man was also so scared that his legs went weak..."

"The statement is written clearly. Are you two afraid he won't recognize all of it?" Gao Yuntian asked, puzzled.

Jia Chuan kept reviewing the testimonies, looking for discrepancies between the two statements.

Liu Mo's sister-in-law must have heard the commotion and went to check on her sister-in-law out of concern. Jia Chuan thought that Yu Bai must have gone to the Liu family for an affair late at night. If Liu Chang had been home, his sister-in-law would probably have been fast asleep long ago.

Yu Bai climbing over the wall into the courtyard would definitely make noise. Given his health, unless there were things placed in the courtyard to step on him beforehand, otherwise... I don't know if my sister-in-law was woken up by the noise at this time, or if she heard her sister-in-law's door open and someone whispering. In any case, my sister-in-law went to see her sister-in-law out of concern, and then never came back.

My sister-in-law definitely didn't knock on the door or ask any questions at the door, otherwise the old couple in the main room would have heard it. Even if they woke up because of the noise, they would have been able to tell that it wasn't made by those small animals.

That means when the sister-in-law arrived at the door, she found that the door was not closed properly. She probably thought that her sister-in-law had eaten something bad at night and forgot to close the door after getting up in the middle of the night. So she gently pushed the door open, went in, and asked something in a low voice.

Neither Yu Bai nor Liu Mo mentioned this process. In Yu Bai's confession, he said that his sister-in-law caught them having an affair and threatened to report them to the authorities. So, while Liu Mo was talking to his sister-in-law, he grabbed her from behind and strangled her...

In Liu Mo's confession, she said that her sister-in-law suddenly entered the room. In the pitch black, she suddenly saw someone walk to the bedside. Liu Mo was so frightened that she forgot to scream. Then her sister-in-law pulled her off the bed and asked her if she had been raped. Afraid that her sister-in-law would wake her parents, she begged her sister-in-law to keep her voice down. However, her sister-in-law was very angry and said some bad things about Yu Bai. She also scolded Liu Mo for being shameless, which made Liu Mo a little angry. Just then, Yu Bai used his belt to strangle his sister-in-law...

Liu Mo said she tried to stop her but couldn't. Jia Chuan felt that Liu Mo probably didn't intend to stop her at first or didn't realize what was happening. By the time she tried to stop her, it was too late.

At this point, Liu Mo and Yu Bai were in cahoots. There was no mention of the process of carrying the body in their statements, only a simple statement that they "carried the person back into the house" and were then frightened by the deceased. Yu Bai asked Liu Mo to go to the kitchen to get a boning knife, intending to stab the not-quite-dead body to death.

What Jia Chuan couldn't understand was, if Liu Mo had intended to stop her, shouldn't he have been happy that his sister-in-law was still alive? Why would he have helped her get the knife? The autopsy results said the deceased was strangled to death, so was the kicking incident just a case of the two of them seeing things, or was it due to the coroner's carelessness in conducting the autopsy and misjudging the cause of death?

"Confessions must be detailed and thorough. Every step must be clearly asked and written down, with cause and effect, so that no one is wrongly accused. These two statements are missing some details. Come on, come with me to ask them again, and you will know how to ask them next time."

Gao Yuntian said unhappily, "Why don't you just do the interrogation from the beginning? Why bother us!"

As Jia Chuan walked, he said, "People need to learn to grow."

……

Jia Chuan asked very detailed questions, and thus discovered that the two had been having an affair for quite some time. As for the matchmaker, Jia Chuan knew Wang Po well.

Why didn't Liu Mo explain to his family that he was willing to enter the Yu family and persuade his parents? Wouldn't it have been better to go to the Yu family sooner?

At first, Liu Mo didn't tell the truth. Only when Gao Yunduo drew her sword did Liu Mo say, "He said that if I get pregnant, he will marry me as his wife and give me a dowry."

Jia Chuan wanted to ask Yu Bai why he had never had a wife, but considering his character and reputation, even the Liu family was unwilling to marry into his family, let alone families with better conditions, so he didn't ask.

"You've had multiple affairs, and none of your family members found out?" Jia Chuan asked.

Liu Mo shook his head and said, "I usually do some needlework to sell for rice and flour. The person who collects needlework is called Granny Wang. If he wants to come, he will tell Granny Wang in advance. Granny Wang will inform me, and I will put a wooden stool by the wall. His attendant will also bring a wooden stool to make it easier for him to climb over the wall. After my father and brother fall asleep, their snoring is deafening, and no one can notice this little noise. Besides, he doesn't come often."

"Will his entourage follow him over the wall?"

"No, he'll wait outside the courtyard and find a place to hide, afraid of running into the night watchman."

When does Yu Bai usually leave?

"We definitely have to leave before dawn."

Jia Chuan was puzzled: "You can just find an excuse to go to his house during the day, wouldn't that be much more convenient? Isn't it tiring for him to go through all this trouble? And it would be troublesome if there was a midnight inspection."

Liu Mo lowered his head and said, "He said...that's how it tastes."

Dong Yuanyuan hurriedly asked, "What does it taste like?"

Gao Yunduo pulled Dong Yuanyuan out of the house, and Gao Yuntian had to write the statement on her behalf.

(End of this chapter)