Today is the day for the retrial of Chen Qing’s case.
Early in the morning, Chen Qing's family members arrived early, mainly Chen Qing's parents and a pair of his younger brothers and sisters.
Chen Qing's parents have three children in total. Chen Qing is the eldest, sixteen years old this year, his younger sister has just turned thirteen, and the younger brother is only eleven years old this year.
The conditions of Chen Qing's family are worse than those of Shen Yi's family. Although Shen Yi's family is a poor family among the gentry, it can at least be called a gentry, while Chen Qing's family is a farmer on the outskirts of Jiangdu.
Of course, to be able to support a scholar like Chen Qing, the Chen family cannot be poor farmers. In fact, the Chen family has more than ten acres of land and lives in a tile-roofed house. Although Chen Qing’s parents farm the land themselves, which is a bit harder, the family is still old. I can have enough to eat even when I am young, and I can save some money every year.
Chen Qing went to elementary school when he was a child. The teacher who taught him said that he was a good student and would be very likely to get an honor in the future. Since then, Chen Qing's father and mother have never let Chen Qing go to work again, no matter what. How much money Chen Qing needed to buy books, paper, pens, and ink, Chen's parents and Chen's mother would grit their teeth to supply it.
Chen Qing was also very confident and successfully entered a "prestigious school" such as Ganquan Academy. Next year, he was originally scheduled to take the county examination, then the government examination, and the college examination to obtain the title of student member.
With fame and honor, you can meet officials without kneeling, and you can also be exempted from the head tax for two people in your family. The Chen family's life will be much easier.
Chen Qing is very talented and easy to learn. At the beginning of the year at the Shangyuan Poetry Competition, he excelled in one of his Shangyuan poems. He is well known in the academy as a talented person. If nothing goes wrong, he has a good chance of being admitted as a scholar.
However, at this time, Chen Qing died.
He was beaten to death by random punches.
When Chen Qing was sent home, he was already a cold corpse.
One can imagine how heartbroken Father Chen and Mother Chen must be.
In fact, Chen's mother fainted on the spot, and her spirits have not been very normal in the past few days.
However, in the past few days, the Chen family came to the county government many times to inquire about the case. On the one hand, the county government was interrogating Shen Yi, but on the other hand, it did not tell the Chen family, only that the case was under interrogation.
At that time, the Jiangdu County Government's idea was to put the case to death first, and then report the case to the public after everything was settled.
But later, Mr. Lu's entry turned the matter around, and now, things are no longer the same as they were at the beginning.
Now, various forces including the government, Ganquan Academy, and the Fan family have all reached a unified opinion and want to use Qian Tong to settle the case.
Since Qian Tong was used to close the case, there is no need to be so secretive about the matter, because Qian Tong was indeed one of the murderers at the time. By using him as a culprit, the Jiangdu County Government was "justice". Not only did it not need to be covered up, but it even It’s worth publicizing.
At this time, Mr. and Mrs. Chen were standing in the corner of the courtroom with their son and daughter. Chen's mother was still wiping away tears. Their daughter's eyes were also red, but she still held her mother's hand to comfort her.
In addition to the Chen family, people from the Shen family also arrived.
On the Shen family side are Shen Yi's father, Shen Zhang, and his third brother, Shen Ling.
Shen Zhang is less than forty years old this year, with a medium build. He is wearing ordinary cloth and well-groomed. He looks capable at first glance. At this time, he is standing on the right side of the court, looking up at the plaque in the lobby. Although he does not speak, His hands were still shaking slightly.
It was obvious that as a father, he was very nervous.
Shen Ling stood behind his fourth uncle, lowered his head slightly and said, "Fourth uncle, you also saw Lao Qi yesterday. It's nothing serious. Don't worry."
Shen Zhang rushed back to Jiangdu yesterday morning. After returning to Jiangdu, he went to the county prison to meet his son. Now he felt confident.
Upon hearing this, he just said "hmm" and said nothing more.
"The county gentleman has arrived——"
Following the call from the Yamen official, Feng Lu, the somewhat fat magistrate, held his belt with both hands and walked towards the main seat of the main hall.
Because his belly is a bit big, this action of holding the belt looks a bit like holding his own belly, which is a bit funny.
But at this time, on this occasion, it was obvious that no one dared to laugh at the county magistrate.
In the lobby, there was no sound except Chen's mother's sobs.
When the county master sat down, everyone in the lobby knelt down and kowtowed to the county master.
"Meet the County Lord."
"Everyone, just get up."
Magistrate Feng raised his hand to indicate that he did not need to kneel down. He sat on a chair and said calmly: "You must already know what happened today. In this case, I won't go into details again."
A county sometimes has tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people, so not every case must be handled by the county magistrate. In fact, most cases are not handled by the county magistrate personally, and the number of times the county magistrate personally goes to court is rare. There are very few.
Therefore, the county magistrate said this.
Magistrate Feng glanced at the people in the hall and said in a deep voice: "Bring someone to commit the crime."
Several government officials, who were like wolves and tigers, quickly escorted Shen Yi, who was wearing prison clothes.
After Shen Yi entered the scene, Chen Yi's father and mother's eyes fell on Shen Yi, and their eyes wanted to gouge out Shen Yi.
They all knew that on the day Chen Qing was beaten to death, Shen Yi was taken to jail.
No matter how angry they were, Chen's father and mother could not get close to Shen Yi when they were blocked by the government officials.
After Shen Yi entered the lobby, he couldn't help but knelt down in the lobby, lowered his head and said: "Shen Yi, a humble citizen, I would like to bow down to you."
"Um."
Magistrate Feng pretended to hum, and then said calmly: "Shen Yi, you are a student of Ganquan Academy, and you were a classmate of the deceased Chen Qingnai. That day Chen Qing was beaten to death, were you there at the scene?"
Shen Yi looked back at his father and brother, then lowered his head and said, "Go back to me, Xiaomin is here."
County Master Feng continued to ask: "Did you see who beat Chen Qing?"
Shen Yi lowered his head, and after a moment of silence, he said, "Back to the county minister, they were in the woods at that time. The people only saw a big man beating Chen Qing, and nothing else..."
At this time, Shen Yi could not directly say Qian Tong's name.
Because telling Qian Tong would exonerate Fan Dongcheng.
This is a transaction process.
Fan Dongcheng and others have not exonerated him, so it is impossible for him to exonerate Fan Dongcheng in advance. If Fan Dongcheng denies it now, who should he, a vulnerable group, talk to for explanation?
Hearing Shen Yi's words, the county master looked at Shen Yi, then stroked his beard, and continued: "In the past few days, when I asked about the case, you kept saying that it was not your fault, so the county sent people to investigate the matter thoroughly and asked When interviewing witnesses, new facts of the case were indeed discovered.”
After saying that, the county master coughed and said in a deep voice: "Bring witnesses."
Following the order from Magistrate Feng, Fan, Luo, Ma and Qian were soon brought to the lobby by the Yamen.
After several people entered the main hall, the other three people knelt down and saluted Feng Lu. Fan Dongcheng was the only one who just bowed his hands to the county magistrate as a salute.
Fan Dongcheng did not have any fame, and he should kneel before officials. However, he refused to kneel because of his family's influence. Magistrate Feng could only turn a blind eye and pretend not to see it.
He coughed and said, "Mr. Fan, you were also present that day. Could you please tell me, was Chen Qing killed by Shen Yi?"
Fan Dongcheng's face was gloomy.
He first looked up at Magistrate Feng, then turned to look at Shen Yi who was aside. Then he gritted his teeth and lowered his head and said, "Back to the county magistrate, Wansheng was indeed present that day, Chen Qing..."
Having said this, Fan Dongcheng's face became a little ugly. He turned his head and gave Shen Yi a fierce look, and then said with great difficulty: "It was not Shen Qi who killed him."
Obviously, Mr. Fan was not satisfied with this result, but due to the pressure from his family, he had to say these words to exonerate Shen Yi.
After hearing Fan Dongcheng's words, both Luo Maocai and Ma Jun looked a little complicated, but they both lowered their heads and said nothing.
Qian Tong's expression suddenly changed, and he looked at Fan Dongcheng who answered in disbelief.
Just as Fan Dongcheng was replying, Shen Yi, who was kneeling on the ground, suddenly turned his head and glanced at Fan Dongcheng standing next to him.
The reason why I took this look is because the original Shen Yi only met Fan Dongcheng two or three times. On the day of the accident, he was beaten to pieces after arriving at the scene. In addition, the two souls merged. Now Shen Yi can no longer remember it. Now we know what Fan Dong looks like when he grows up.
This Mr. Fan has a slender figure. Because he is several years older than Shen Yi, he is about half a head taller than him.
Shen Yi took a deep look at Mr. Fan's somewhat handsome face, and then firmly remembered this face in his heart.
After looking at Fan Dongcheng, he looked at the faces of the other two people again.
They are Ma Jun and Luo Maocai respectively.
As for Qiantong... there is no need to see it anymore.