Miss and farmhand

After leaving the yamen, Huang Xingtong got into his family carriage and immediately ordered the driver to hurry back. Seeing two men go in and one man come out, the driver knew something was wrong and cracked his whip.

Huang Chu and Huang Muyun were waiting for news from home. They had a lot of questions to ask, but when they saw him return alone, their hearts sank. They quickly asked where Shitou was and what had happened. Huang Xingtong then told them what had just happened.

"How did Zhu Xiaoxu get involved in this?" Huang Chu was utterly puzzled, and immediately had a bad feeling. He asked in a trembling voice, "Could it be because of my marriage?"

Huang Xingtong couldn't explain it to her clearly at the moment, and could only comfort her: "It has nothing to do with you, it's his own character that's the problem. He's not the key now, he's just an accomplice that Shen Jingzong brought in to create momentum. It was Shen Jingzong who arranged all of this, he's the one who wants to grab the stone."

Huang Chu immediately thought, "There was nothing unusual yesterday, but today they suddenly arrested people... He was just trying to keep you calm yesterday. Actually, he had already decided to arrest people, but he knew that Father didn't have the key evidence. The evidence was in Shi Tou's hands, so he pretended not to believe you, so that you would walk right into his trap today! Shen Jingzong... already knew about the Zhou family's relationship with the pirates?"

Huang Xingtong sighed, "I'm afraid that's how it is. I was naive this time. I always thought that even if such contact was unavoidable, who doesn't encounter pirates when doing business at sea? It's understandable that there are dealings and exchanges between them. At least we ordinary people have no right to say anything. Doing business is not easy, and we can be understanding. But I thought that the premise of this understanding was that the government controlled the bottom line. The boundary between the gray and the black is that the government will not allow such merchant-pirate exchanges to cross the line. We can turn a blind eye to small things, but yesterday I told him that the Zhou family probably had close ties with the pirates, which could lead to a big disaster, but he still has this attitude..."

Huang Chu couldn't help but think, "...Could it be that the county magistrate accepted money from the Zhou family?"

"That's inevitable. How did this collusion between officials and businessmen come about? The Zhou family is a major taxpayer in this county. Besides taxes, what other financial transactions could there be? They can all be attributed to this."

"Now... the Zhou family must know that we've been badmouthing them behind their backs."

After a long silence in the room, Huang Xingtong finally spoke up: "Let's not worry about anything else for now. Now that Shi Tou is in Shen Jingzong's hands, who knows what crimes he'll be charged with? We have to find a way to get him out of here first."

Huang Chu asked, "Will there be a way? After all, it's the government arresting people... What does Shi Tou really know? He only stayed on the Zhou family's ship and saw some things, including that gift list. That's the most dangerous thing for the Zhou family. Let them search it; what else can they do? They should be able to release Shi Tou soon, right?"

Huang Xingtong suddenly reached behind his ear and pulled a red paper from his collar. It was the gift list.

"I was ultimately given the stone."

Why bother? Once he's in jail, Shen Jingzong will definitely interrogate him anyway. What impact will hiding this evidence have on the situation?

Huang Muyun's expression suddenly turned serious. "...Shi Tou probably thinks he won't be coming back."

"What?"

"Seeing that scene, he knew he couldn't escape today and would definitely be caught. Logically, if he wanted to get away as quickly as possible, especially from the authorities, he only had one choice: to completely cooperate with them, saying whatever they asked and handing over whatever they demanded. In that case, it was this gift list. Not cooperating with the authorities would be suicide. Regardless of whether he was guilty or not, if you're going against the authorities, how can you still be considered a good person? He also knew that the gift list was far more important than his testimony as an unregistered person. Once he handed over the gift list, he would be useless to the authorities. Even if he went around saying that the Zhou family was colluding with pirates, no one would care. Since no one except us would believe what he said, and he couldn't threaten the Zhou family, he would at most get a beating and be released. But at the last moment, he still gave the gift list to the gentleman."

"...He was worried that without crucial evidence, we wouldn't be able to bring down the Zhou family, so he decided to sacrifice himself?"

Huang Muyun shook her head.

"Evidence only has a role in court, as part of the normal investigation and judgment process. But now we all know that the magistrate has accepted bribes from the Zhou family, so there will be no investigation or judgment. Preserving the evidence itself is actually meaningless."

Huang Chu was a little confused. "Then why would the stone do that?"

Huang Muyun bit his lip. He wasn't sure if his thoughts were right or if he was overthinking things. Maybe the stone would really be released in a couple of days?

But he couldn't take that risk; the stone was his brother.

He paced back and forth, then hesitated, saying, "Stone has always been a clever man. During our escape, I considered things more carefully and was more cautious than him in everything I did, while he often acted purely on impulse, on gut feeling; if he thought it was right, he would do it. Most of the time, I got better results than him, but there were exceptions, like when it was a matter of life and death. I was too hesitant, often wanting to be absolutely certain before doing anything, but Stone wasn't like that. He might not know what his judgment was based on; his mind might not have fully grasped it, but his body had already assessed the surrounding situation and made him act accordingly." "Yes. I don't know if it will be the same this time. Perhaps Shi Tou didn't even consider the possibility of the government accepting bribes, but he certainly knew that the magistrate's arrest of him in the back hall was wrong, and couldn't be handled according to the normal procedures of detention, trial, and appeal. That wouldn't be a government arrest, but a kidnapping by a powerful figure. This was a situation he was familiar with. Faced with an unreasonable powerful figure, his first reaction would definitely be that if he was arrested without any backup plan, he would be completely finished, with no chance of return, perhaps even losing his life. This was his instinct for self-preservation, so he kept a backup plan, which was giving the gift list to the teacher."

"But didn't you say the evidence itself is meaningless...?"

"The evidence itself is meaningless. Whether it's a gift list or a handwritten letter from Manager Zhou to the pirates, it makes no difference in the hands of a corrupt official who has accepted a bribe. It won't be recorded, and it's safe to just destroy it. What Stone left behind is the concept of evidence. The government and the Zhou family don't know what Stone has; they only know that we consider it 'key evidence' that can bring the Zhou family to justice, a huge hidden danger. As the gentleman said, the magistrate wasn't unaware that Stone was hiding something. He specifically ordered a search of the gentleman to prevent this, but in the end, nothing was found, but the suspicion had already been planted. The first thing they did after detaining Stone was..." A body search would inevitably follow, and they would find nothing on Stone. Predictably, they would then question Stone about the crucial evidence the gentleman had mentioned yesterday, and its location. Normally, if they had found it, they could have destroyed both the evidence and Stone, and nothing would have happened. But now, Stone certainly wouldn't tell them the truth; he would try to stall for time. This was his bargaining chip for survival. The magistrate would then have to consider what this hidden danger truly was, whether it still existed, and whether killing Stone would solve the problem, or would it anger them and the gentleman, leading them to do something unpredictable in order to avenge Stone.

Huang Muyun spoke extremely fast, almost as if she were talking to herself.

He suddenly stopped. "The magistrate must be very unhappy now. Shi Tou mocked him right in front of him, but he can't kill Shi Tou. What will he do?"

Huang Chu blinked, and before he could even think, he blurted out, "Put on the torture."

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a chill run down his spine.