The First Volume of Qinghe County

  "Ximen's younger brother, wait until Guan Ge catches him and then call out Pan Jinlian to make a statement." Zhu Zhi County frowned and said: "You can't hide her at home either. In a few days, Wu Da will be back, and it won't look good on the surface."

  What! Wu Song is coming back now?

  Ximen Qing immediately got a definite answer from Master Wu: "It will be in three to five days."

  Three to five days, is it just three to five days left for brother?

  Ximen Qing's mind was racing, and for now the most important thing was to wait until Guan Gong was caught and confessed. With a clear head and a clear conscience, even if Wu Song returned, he would only kill Guan Gong and not suspect himself. However, what Zhu Zhi Xian said was right, Pan Jinlian could no longer continue living in his own home.

  "The county magistrate's words are quite right." Ximen Qing replied, "I will arrange for someone to sweep the Wu family's house clean and have Pan Jinlian move in."

  When Wang Po finished eating slowly, Niu Da Tou, who was filled with anger, and two bailiffs arrived at Guo's house outside the city. It was already noon by then. The guy was sitting on a stone mill in the courtyard, with his legs crossed and head lowered, staring blankly at the wild grass in the yard.

  It seems that this guy has not yet woken up from the shock of last night, and there are still some bloodstains on his clothes, which must have been accidentally stained last night.

  "Are you Yuan Ge?" Niu Dou's gaze fell upon the slender youth before him, further verifying his memories: "You've done a good deed, but committed an offense!"

  "That's right, it's indeed Yuan Ge." Old Woman Wang chimed in with confirmation.

  "Come on, take him away in handcuffs."

  At Niu Da Tou's command, the two bailiffs shook open the iron chains and directly put them around Yu Ge's neck: "Get up, still sitting there in a daze?"

  The heavy iron chain fell around his neck, and Gu Ge only came out of his daze, suddenly letting out a sharp cry, his body retreating backward: "Who are you? Get away get away!"

  A cow with a fiery temper suddenly appeared, slapped Gou Ye on the ear, and dragged him away from the stone mill, throwing him to the ground: "Take him away!"

  The commotion in the yard had already startled Yu Ge's mother, who rushed out and hugged Yu Ge tightly: "What are you doing? My Yu Ge is a good kid..."

  "Honest kid?" Niu Da's face turned cold as he sneered: "Can an honest kid sneak into someone else's home in the middle of the night? Can they go and commit murder?"

  "Ah?" Only knowing that her child had been sitting in the yard for an entire morning, Yu Ge's mother was stunned: "It can't be...it can't be Yu Ge who did it..."

  "Do you see that old woman standing over there? She's the witness!" The cow head pointed impatiently at the old woman: "You'd better believe in the government, if you keep making a fuss, I'll take this old hag away with you too!"

  "Son, did you really do it?" Yu Ge's mother asked reluctantly: "You'd better speak up..."

  Facing his mother's questioning, Yu Ge struggled weakly for a moment, like an outsider, without saying a word, as if everything in front of him had nothing to do with him, and walked out of the courtyard wearing iron chains.

  "That's it?" The cow patted its head and clothes: "Let's go! Still have to go back and settle the difference, what a busy day!"

  After a group of people left, only Yu Ge's mother was left in the yard, sitting silently on the ground, crying wordlessly.

  Yu Ge faced the accusation without any rebuttal, especially when he saw Pan Jinlian come in, Yu Ge's head hung low, not daring to look straight.

  Yu Ge was extremely regretful for listening to Wu Dalang's advice and taking his place in the bridal chamber. This matter, Yu Ge deeply buried in his heart, not daring to speak out.

  I have already wronged Pan Jinlian, why must I bring up this matter again? Facing the indictment handed over by Master Shu, Yu Ge shook his head, indicating that he couldn't read a single character.

  According to the rules, the teacher read out the confession loudly, then brought over the ink pad and placed it together with the confession in front of Yu Ge.

  "After drinking, lustful thoughts arose, and in a dispute with Wu Da, he was pushed down the stairs to death."

  Yu Ge looked at the inkstone and suddenly kowtowed to Zhu Zhi County: "Your Honor, I am willing to accept punishment, but my family has an elderly mother with no one to support her. I have a lingering regret."

  "If only I had known today, why bother with the past?" Zhu Zhi Xian sighed: "A life for a life, it's the way of heaven and earth. How can you avoid death when you deliberately killed someone to frame Pan Jinlian?"

  "You can rest assured in prison and wait for your sentence. As for your mother's side, the county will take care of it."

  Yu Ge heard this and knocked his head again, then pressed his handprint on the confession.

  After pushing Wu Song down, Zhu Daizhi coldly watched Pan Jinlian standing aside, indeed a beauty beyond compare. In his heart, he secretly sighed, "A beautiful woman is a calamity," hoping she wouldn't harm Ximen Qing.

  "Sir, since the matter is settled, I will arrange for Pan Jinlian to return home." Ximen Qing also sighed at the twists of fate: "With Wang Po accompanying her, it should be fine."

  "Now that the culprit has confessed, Wang Po can certainly go home." Zhu Zhi Xian nodded: "Wu Dalang's body can be taken back by Pan Jinlian for disposal."

  The light in the big prison is quite weak, except for a small window high up that casts sunlight, it's only two hours a day.

  But after getting used to the darkness, everything is no longer a problem.

  The prisoners who are locked up, usually start out being very agitated, but after a while, they will become silent, because here, no one has the leisure to listen to your grievances, your roars, except for the prison guard's whip, will not get any response.

  In this darkness, human nature will change, distort and deform without being aware of it.

  Here, it won't make bad people good, but can change good people.

  Bai Song's injuries had almost healed, and he was well aware that from Zhu Zhi County to Ximen Qing, they were reluctant to let him die.

  These days, Bai Song has been very quiet. Every day, the only activity is to watch the light for two hours and then eat a full meal before lying down to sleep.

  "Congratulations, Mr. Bai." A sentence drifted in from who-knows-where, and Bai Song quietly opened his eyes to see a pair of gleaming eyes staring back at him with a hint of ferocity in the darkness.

  It was that nameless prison chief, over fifty years old, always carrying an iron ruler in his hand, who liked to drink and beat people while drinking.

  Perhaps Iron Ruler is his name.

  "The official document has arrived." Tiechi's voice was surprisingly calm, not at all like a congratulatory tone: "You can still eat white rice here until autumn."

  Although he had expected this outcome a long time ago, Bai Song's forehead was still sweating: "What about my two brothers?"

  "They were just sent away, back to the front line as horsemen." Tiechi said with a somewhat schadenfreude tone: "Horsemen? Hard work during the day, even harder at night, I don't know if their butts can survive the first month."

  Bai Song's fists clenched, all of this was bestowed by Ximen Qing. When he first came in, Bai Song still dreamed that one day he would return to the arena, atone for his crimes and then trample Ximen Qing underfoot. But now, with a beheading after autumn as the outcome, what was there left to strive for?

  I don't know how Bai Guang is doing now either?

  It seems that Tie Chi has seen through Bai Song's thoughts, and suddenly remembered something, patted his own forehead: "Almost forgot to tell you, your big brother Bai Guang, during the time you were naked on the street, was already trampled to death by the crowd."

  "What!" Bai Song sprang up from the moldy broken mat on the ground, took a step forward like an arrow, and stood in front of the cage, looking at Tie Chi's eyes and asked: "Don't try to scare me?"

  The iron ruler didn't care about Bai Song's aggressive tone, instead took a step forward, raised the iron ruler in his hand and calmly poked it at Bai Song's chest: "Back off! I don't need to make up nonsense to deceive you!"

  With his chest pressed against the iron ruler, Bai Song asked: "You must tell me the truth! Who... who killed my brother!"

  "Bai Song, I've come to tell you the truth." Suddenly a torch appeared in the darkness, and Niu Tou didn't know where he came from, waving his hand to let Tie Chi respectfully retreat.

  "You dare to come see me with a surname of Niu!" Bai Song saw Niu Dou's head and suddenly rushed to the prison door, stretching out both hands to grab him.

  "I didn't think you still had this kind of attitude, can't even tell who's here to help you." Niu Dou Tou was not afraid at all, holding the torch and moving it forward a bit, illuminating Bai Song's ferocious face: "You've actually gotten fatter."

  "What's your problem, Cow!" Bai Song yelled crazily: "If you've got the guts, take another step forward and let me strangle you to death!"

  "Can't you see that I'm here to help you?" In the face of Bai Song's straightforwardness, Niu Da's eyes flashed with cunning: "You two brothers, Bai Guang's corpse has been gnawed clean by dogs in the chaotic burial mound, right? And as for you, you only have a few months left to live."

  "Can't you figure out who caused all of this?"

  "West! Gate! Celebrate!" These three words came out one by one from Bai Song's teeth, and the blue veins on his forehead had already bulged: "You cow surname, you're not a good person either!"

  "I'm certainly no good person, but now our enemies are united." Niu Dou Tou suddenly smiled: "You don't know being locked up in here, something big has happened outside..."

  "What does this have to do with Ximen Qing!" After hearing the news of Wu Dalang's death, Bai Song felt that Niu Da was intentionally teasing himself: "As you said, Wu Dalang is just a pancake seller, how can he take advantage of the situation to overthrow Ximen Qing?"

  "The pancake seller, Wu Dalang, may not be good-looking, but he has a wife who is extremely beautiful." Niu Da Tou chuckled: "This woman has some connection with Ximen Qing, and Wu Dalang's brother is the county's other head, the tiger-fighting hero Wu Song, you must have heard of him?"

  "Wu Song!" Indeed, it was the name of a person. Bai Su's body tensed up: "Wu Song who killed a tiger with his bare fists! Why doesn't he go take revenge on Ximen Qing?"

  "Wu Song went to Tokyo on business and will be back soon." Niu Da Tou replied, "You won't live past autumn anyway, so let Ximen Qing die before you!"

  "Good!" Bai Song's hands clenched again, and after getting the outcome of being executed after autumn, this kind of pleasure that made his enemy die in front of him made Bai Song determined: "Niu Dou, what do you want me to do?"