I was a stepmother in ancient times, and I led my whole family to wealth.

Chapter 192 Dramatic Trial

Dongfang Jin...

Is she that scary?

Why are they all running away?

After A-Ping left, Dongfang Jin ignored Gu Jingye's resentful little look.

Then he turned to the peephole and stared outside.

Almost all the elders of the Gu clan in Lingwu Village came out, with seven or eight of them kneeling on the ground.

They were all kowtowing repeatedly, pleading with Chief Gu for mercy.

We beg the magistrate to give Chief Gu another chance.

From beginning to end, no one cared about the old woman's family.

Granny Gu and Gu Yaohui, who were unconscious, were both woken up by being splashed with cold water, and no one paid any attention to them as they lay there.

Gu Yaozu and Ye Shilan knelt to one side, holding Gu Jinsuo who was curled up in a ball, without even glancing in their direction.

Li Xiuwen and Li Fengshou, along with two yamen runners, carried Shen Qihui from Yonghetang. Two doctors and Master Xu also came with them.

With all the evidence laid out before them, the elders of the Gu clan couldn't say anything.

However, only Gu Yongliang, the clan chief, looked at Shen Qijun with eyes that seemed to be poisoned after learning that Shen Qijun and the injured Shen Qihui were Gu Yumei's sons.

These two little beasts are truly the offspring of that stubborn, lowly woman. No wonder the Shen family doesn't want them and even drove them out of Shenjia Village.

Shen Qijun also looked at him, but his eyes were calm and devoid of any emotion.

But in his heart he thought, "Gu family, I, Shen Qijun, am sworn enemies with you. Just you wait."

Lu Yunqing looked at the elderly people below the hall, exchanged glances with the county magistrates, shook his head helplessly, and hoped that everything they had done today was worthwhile.

In the end, Chief Gu failed in his extortion attempt, but he also lost the demeanor of a clan leader and his moral character was flawed.

However, with the assurances of the clan elders and his apparent remorse, he was fined fifty taels of silver and given twenty strokes of the cane.

Because of his old age, his son Gu Yucheng was punished in his place.

Gu Jinshuo ordered his servants to beat someone, causing them to become disabled. He was fined 100 taels for medical expenses and 150 taels for a fine.

Because Gu Jinshuo is still young, he cannot be punished, but a great disaster has already occurred, and he should be disciplined more strictly in the future.

The parents were punished with the cane; the father received thirty strokes and the mother twenty, and both were sentenced to three months in prison.

Since the couple is in the county jail, the punishment doesn't have to be given all at once; it can be administered in installments.

The servant who assaulted the man was sent directly to the Jeju Ironworks camp and was forbidden from leaving for life.

Gu Yaohui was given a demerit for trespassing in the government office.

Dongfang Jin looked bewildered and asked Axi, who had just walked in, "Is that all?"

Axi laughed and said, "Otherwise what?"

The young master said that His Majesty has not yet sent a letter, so the Gu family must be kept alive.

Dongfang Jin...

She felt that the court proceedings in this fictional world were somewhat farcical.

How come it only got started, and ended halfway through?

Shouldn't this case be tried in a joint hearing by three courts?

Lu Yunqing: It's not that serious yet. This isn't the Dali Temple.

Didn't you see me hit you with the board?

Didn't you hear me fine you?

Did you realize that Gu Yaohui became famous?

After this incident, it seems the Gu clan chief of Lingwu Village is about to retire.

In a daze, Dongfang Jin followed Jun Qirui and the others back home in a swaying oxcart.

Seeing that the person was out of sorts, Jun Qirui called out, "Xiao Jin, we're home!"

This girl has been acting strange ever since she left the county government office. She kept talking to herself about ancient trials and such, saying things they couldn't understand the whole way, as if she had lost her soul.

"Huh? Oh! Where's Xiaohui?"

Jun Qirui sighed: "Xu Zhuanghua and Lin Yu brought him back a long time ago, along with Grandpa Xu."

Dongfang Jin nodded, took a deep breath to clear her head, and asked, "Have Xueju and the others been registered?"

When Jun Qirui heard her say that, he knew she was back to her senses, so he took out a brownish-yellow notebook from his sleeve and handed it to her.

"The magistrate said that the official seal has already been affixed to this book, and you can just fill in the names yourself."

If you want a contract of indenture, I can take this to the government's household registration office to process it.

The magistrate also said that if they weren't buying and selling servants, there was no need for contracts of indenture; they could just use this book, which was specifically for recording household servants.

Dongfang Jin took the book, opened it, and found that unlike their household registration, this book listed the servants' ranks, original surnames, genders, and ages.

"What does this mean?" Dongfang Jin pointed to the servant in the notebook, and asked Jun Qirui.

Jun Qirui looked at the place she was pointing to: "A household slave generally refers to a servant born into the household, meaning that the grandfather, father, and mother are all servants of this household. This is called a household slave or a servant born into the household."

This "good slave" refers to someone who was once a law-abiding citizen but could no longer make a living.

Those who voluntarily sell themselves to their masters are released back home when they reach the age of twenty.

This usually happens when someone has stayed with the master's family for ten years without making any mistakes, and the time has come.

The master would then remove her from the slave register and give her a sum of money to return home; this usually happened to girls.

Another type is the one with a contract of servitude. For example, if you go to a brokerage firm, most of the people there are servants with contracts of servitude.

Some of them were sold off because they had made mistakes in their master's household, some were implicated because their master had made mistakes, and others were government slaves.

These people are mostly servants or offspring of high-ranking officials.

There is another type, those with words printed on their faces; these people can be considered the lowest class.

Such men were usually sent to harsh, cold regions and iron smelting camps; good-looking women were generally sent to military camps.

If sent to the military camp, they would become military prostitutes.

Ruyi is saying this in the space: 【What are you thinking about?】

I'm wondering if every military camp has people like this.

She was careless; military camps in ancient times often had prostitutes, and Gu Chenglin...

Why don't you go and see for yourself?

Dongfang Jin...

Ha ha……

Is she overthinking things?

But why do I feel so uneasy?

Holding the notebook, he didn't say anything and went straight through the gate.

Shen Qihui did not go to Gu Jingye's room, but Dongfang Jin went directly to Shen Qijun's room.

The room is a bit small, but it's warm inside. There's a small stove next to the kang (heated brick bed) in the room, and water is sitting on it now.

It was bubbling and puffing out "white smoke".

"Xiao Jin, how is it?" Jun Wenhui asked anxiously as she watched her enter the room.

Dongfang Jin thought of the dramatic twists and turns of Lu Yunqing's case and didn't know what to say for a moment.

Shen Qijun, carrying the medicine, came over and told them what had happened.

Upon hearing this, Jun Wenhui, like Dongfang Jin, showed a look of astonishment on her face.

In the end, he didn't ask anything, but instead sighed and said, "What do you think is going on with the Gu family?"

Dongfang Jin shrugged: "They're just bored and have nothing better to do. If they don't come out and cause some trouble, how will people know that their family is still alive?"

Shen Qijun said angrily, "I think they're just jealous. Now look what's happened, they probably won't be able to be the patriarch of the Gu clan anymore."

These days he has become familiar with some of the villagers in Lingwu Village and has also learned about Uncle Chenglin's situation in the village before.

He thought he was already suffering enough, but he didn't expect that the other person was suffering even more than him.

Sometimes he wondered what he would do if he were Uncle Chenglin and those people treated him like that.

Yes, he asked himself this question more than once, but the answer he always got was to burn them all to death when they weren't looking.

But now that I think about it, anger doesn't solve anything; it only makes things worse.

While his thinking might bring him momentary pleasure, it will bring him endless troubles in the future.

His mother and younger brother will not have an easy time either; they will live in misery for the rest of their lives, bearing a bad reputation for the rest of their days.

Even generations of people would be unable to hold their heads high, which is not what he wants.

Therefore, be patient. Patience brings peace and tranquility, and taking a step back opens up a vast and boundless world.

I have to thank Master Jun for his teachings.