Chapter 213: Trial of Treason (Part 1)
The next morning, Sun Shaozong felt as if his brain was hit by an axe while he was in a daze. He sat on the couch for a long time before he realized that he had spent the night in the study.
"Someone come!"
He shouted loudly, and then he saw the door curtain was lifted, and Xiangling walked in with two maids.
"Oh! Master, be careful not to catch a cold."
Seeing that Sun Shaozong had stepped on the quilt and was sitting on the couch wearing only a loose piece of clothing, Xiangling exclaimed and hurried forward to wrap the quilt around Sun Shaozong.
"How did you get here?"
Sun Shaozong rubbed his brows and scolded in dissatisfaction: "Since you are pregnant, you should rest well. Why are you running here so early in the morning to show off your abilities?"
Xiangling smiled sweetly, holding her belly and said, "Look at what the master said. How can I be so delicate..."
"If I say yes, then yes!"
Sun Shaozong said this without question, but he carefully pulled her to the head of the bed and sat her down, and then said, "There are people waiting for you, so you just watch from the side."
Having said that, he got out of bed wearing his deerskin boots, and with the help of two maids, he put on his clothes neatly, and then put on a dark blue official robe.
After he was almost dressed, he was thinking about going out to breathe some fresh air to cool his brain, but he suddenly remembered something.
So he hurriedly pulled the clothes that smelled of alcohol off the hanger beside the bed, took out a talisman from his sleeve, handed it to Xiangling, and said, "When I came back yesterday, I saw that the lights were still on in Guangyuan Temple, so I asked Zhang Cheng to go in and ask for a talisman for peace."
Sun Shaozong scratched his head awkwardly and said, "Originally, I should have gone to ask for it myself , but I couldn't walk at that time. If you feel that I'm not sincere enough, then we can wait until next time..."
Before she finished her words, Xiangling had already snatched the amulet away, holding it in her hand and said with a smile: "No need to trouble you, Master. I like this one!"
The master was drunk last night, but he still remembered to ask for a talisman on the way. In Xiangling's opinion, this thought was the most sincere.
After washing up, Sun Shaozong took Xiangling back to the backyard and had breakfast with Ruan Rong. He then announced that all the major and minor matters in the family would be temporarily handed over to Shi Liu and Fu Rong, and then he got on the carriage and rushed to the government office.
No conversation along the way.
When they arrived at the Criminal Law Division, they saw Zhao Wuwei and two constables waiting at the door of the main hall for a long time.
Sun Shaozong walked in on his own and asked casually, "How is the investigation on the case of disobedience going?"
"Reply to the master's question."
Zhao Wuwei angrily cursed: "The Hu family couple are really worthless, no wonder old man Hu would sue them for disobedience!"
"Really?"
Sun Shaozong sat behind the desk, rubbing his temples and said, "Tell me in detail what you found out."
In fact, according to his original intention, the safest approach would be to go there in person to investigate.
But the officialdom has its own rules. If one still personally handles everything as before after sitting in the position of a fifth-rank governor, how can one demonstrate the preciousness of his official rank?
Let’s get back to the topic.
The plaintiff's name is Hu Dazhui, who is sixty-three years old this year. He has only one son, Hu Jingsheng, who is one of the defendants in this case.
According to the investigation of Zhao Wuwei and others, when Hu Jingsheng was born, his mother was nearly 40 years old. Although it was a normal delivery, she was severely injured and did not survive the winter.
From then on, Old Man Hu raised his son alone. He worked hard for twenty years and finally hoped that his son would get married and start a family. However, he never expected that Hu Jingsheng was an ungrateful person. Not long after the marriage, he had several big fights with Old Man Hu.
At first, Old Man Hu managed to endure it, shutting himself in and living on his own.
But since the beginning of winter last year, he had been in poor health and had difficulty taking care of himself. As a result, not only was he bullied by the couple in every way, but he also had to eat a lot of leftovers and stale rice.
A few days ago, when his health had just improved a little, he took out his bedding to dry, but his daughter-in-law poured a basin of slop on his head!
Old Man Hu was so angry that he could no longer bear it, so he filed a lawsuit with Shuntian Prefecture.
Touch~
"This is really outrageous!"
Sun Shaozong had just become a father, and was extremely sensitive to such disobedient and unfilial behavior. In addition, he was still hungover, so he couldn't help but raise his fist as big as a vinegar jar and smash the desk into two pieces!
The pens, ink, paper, and inkstone along with various official documents flew everywhere, shocking the two constables so much that they smacked their lips in amazement - you know, the case was made of old wood half an inch thick, and even if you used an axe to chop it, it would be difficult to cut it in half.
Zhao Wuwei had been with him for a long time, so he seemed calmer. He asked his two men to pack up the documents and said soothingly, "Sir, calm down. This wicked and treacherous guy has been accused of disobedience. Just sentence him to death."
"nonsense!"
After Sun Shaozong vented his anger, he regained some clarity and glared at him, "How can you sentence him to death before we have even tried him thoroughly?!"
After a pause, he asked, "What was Hu Jingsheng's relationship with his father like before he got married?"
"this……"
Zhao Wuwei hesitated for a moment, and a constable behind him immediately said, "I heard that the relationship between the father and son was not very good. Hu Jingsheng refused to inherit the family breakfast stand and they quarreled over it for two years. In the end, he sold the breakfast stand."
"Then what does Hu Jingsheng do for a living?"
"Be someone's second in command!"
Zhao Wuwei answered quickly this time: "He used the money from selling his property to buy shares in a grocery store. Now he works as the second shopkeeper there, and his life is pretty comfortable."
"What about his wife?"
"She's very fierce! I heard she's well-known for her stubbornness in that area, and she never loses an argument!"
Sun Shaozong asked a lot of details, and Zhao Wuwei and others were vague about some of them, but in general, based on the couple's usual reputation, it was almost certain that they abused the elderly.
If this happened in modern times, it would just be an ordinary civil dispute, and the punishment would be nothing more than forcing the son to pay a certain amount of alimony.
But this matter was not so simple in the Zhou Dynasty. After all, "filial piety" was the most important thing in those days. Once the crime of disobedience was confirmed, Hu Jingsheng would be sentenced to death by slow slicing at the most serious level, or exiled thousands of miles away at the least.
Since human life is involved and this is the first case as a new official, Sun Shaozong naturally has to handle it with caution.
Therefore, even though he had already made a judgment in his mind, he still pointed out several unclear points one by one, and then sent Zhao Wuwei and others out to let them continue to find out the truth in order to avoid any omissions.
