"I, Sheng Xi, have the audacity to sue the Dali Temple Minister Qiu Che Qiu, for bullying men and women, and forcibly seizing women... This caused my wife Yan to have a miscarriage, and indirectly caused the death of my mother-in-law..."
"Because he is the Dali Temple Minister, I really have no other choice. Thanks to Prime Minister Wu's mercy, I was able to see the emperor... Please, Your Majesty, make a decision for me and my wife Lian!"
In the Jinluan Palace, a man in plain clothes cried and kowtowed continuously.
Li Shi sat on the dragon chair. The prince, headed by Prime Minister Wu, and other high-ranking court officials sat in the hall in groups of three or two. Except for the empress dowager who was playing with Buddhist beads and closed her eyes and kept silent, they all looked at each other, each with their own thoughts.
Li Shi had a sullen face and tapped his fingers on the armrests. It was unknown what he was thinking.
Not long after, the door of the hall opened.
In full view of the crowd, Qiu Che was escorted in by Liu Buxiu - it was better to say that he was escorted than escorted.
She walked in front, strolling leisurely, with a calm and indifferent expression as always.
After looking at the man kneeling on the ground, she showed a bit of surprise, and then bowed calmly: "Your Majesty, I greet you all... I dared to come here in a hurry, I wonder what happened?"
Amid the expressions of the court officials, Wu Xiang seemed particularly calm: "Lord Qiu, please don't play dumb at this time... Why don't you ask Mr. Sheng to identify this person, is he the Lord Qiu you saw?"
Qiu Che looked coldly at the man kneeling on the ground beside him.
The man who claimed to be named Sheng Xi shuddered at first, then nodded repeatedly: "It's him, it's him! The lunatic who molested my wife in the kitchen the day before was seen by me!"
Li Shi said slowly: "Lord Qiu, this Mr. Sheng accused you of molesting his wife in the kitchen of his yard the night before... Is this true?"
Qiu Che hid the cold light in his eyes, as if he had just realized what happened, and said in surprise: "What do you mean? I was clearly in the princess's mansion yesterday and slept with the princess... The maids and guards in the courtyard can all testify."
The prince interrupted in a sarcastic tone: "The servants in the princess's mansion are naturally on your side, Lord Qiu. As for the fourth sister, she is one with you and your wife, so of course she will speak for you. Lord Qiu's testimony is not counted."
Qiu Che laughed: "Your Highness is right, then why don't you ask this Mr. Sheng first, what evidence do you have to prove that it was me who molested his wife that day?"
"You know, I just returned to Beijing a few days ago, and my injuries haven't fully healed. Why would I want to flirt with a decent woman in the middle of the night, leaving such great wealth and glory?"
Li Shi nodded, and it was obvious that she was satisfied with her words.
The prince saw it, and his sourness came out in waves. He snorted coldly and said, "Who knows what you think."
Wu Xiang said meaningfully, "Lord Qiu means that Mr. Sheng would use this kind of thing to deliberately throw dirty water on you?"
Qiu Che also followed his example, tucked his sleeves in his hands and said calmly, "I want to ask, there is no evidence, how can Mr. Sheng be sure that it was me who flirted with his wife that night?" Sheng Xi
immediately protested, "I saw it with my own eyes! There is absolutely no lie!"
Qiu Che pressed on, and asked, "So that's it... It seems that Mr. Sheng really loves his wife so much that he is so sad that he even hurts his wife. You don't care about your son's reputation, you have to sue the culprit... right?"
Sheng Xi nodded subconsciously, then shook his head violently: "No, no, no, I love my wife, and I hate villains even more! If this person is not removed, I don't know how many good women will suffer... It was clearly Lord Qiu who single-handedly changed those bad habits that made women suffer. Lian even praised Lord Qiu as a good official in front of me... I didn't expect it, I really didn't expect it!"
His words were clear and logical - if Qiu Che hadn't been the one he accused of crimes, he would probably have been moved by him.
Hearing this, the Queen Mother, who had been sitting at the top and had not spoken, could not help but laugh and asked: "... If so, why didn't you immediately stop it when your wife was harmed?"
Sheng Xi paused, a flash of emptiness flashed across his eyes, and then he straightened his chest and said frankly: "I know that Mr. Qiu is skilled in martial arts, so I naturally dare not confront him head-on. This is my fault as a husband... But this cannot erase Mr. Qiu's crime!"
The Queen Mother shook her head, and Qiu Che just laughed when she heard it.
In her previous life, she could no longer remember whether it was the same person kneeling here to accuse her of "crimes", but the words were almost the same.
And because she had no witnesses, she had no way to defend herself, and under the instigation of the ministers, she was imprisoned in a muddle.
Now she has witnesses, although she cannot completely clear the suspicion, it is much more convincing than Mr. Sheng who has no evidence.
She wants to see what they can come up with this time.
Thinking of this, Sheng Xi gritted his teeth and continued, "Besides..." "
I am not without evidence! My wife Lian can testify in court!"
Qiu Che's interesting expression slowly froze after seeing the woman brought up.
The careless smile on her face suddenly fell inch by inch, and finally became expressionless again. It was
even a little creepy.
There was no other reason. It
was because the witness brought by Sheng Xi was the girl who sold herself to bury her father and they had just rescued her from the prince a few months ago.
Qiu Che gave her a bag of silver so that she would not repeat the same mistake.
Her appearance here was something Qiu Che herself did not expect - it was like a blow to the head, making her dizzy.
What happened?
In just a few months, the case was not only brought forward by several years, but the victim also changed from a woman she had never met to the girl she had helped.
Prime Minister Wu had been paying attention to the changes in her expression. Seeing this, the smile on his lips became even bigger. He lowered his eyes and took a sip of tea, just enough to conceal the smug look on his face. The
woman who was brought in was dressed in plain white clothes and had a bleak complexion. When she passed by Qiu Che, she seemed to know that she was guilty. She didn't dare to raise her head and her eyes were dodging.
She knelt on the ground, right beside the man, with her hair disheveled and her lips pale. She looked as miserable as she could be.
Sheng Xi supported one of her shoulders, also with a sad expression, as if he had no choice: "Ayin, you tell... tell His Majesty! Tell these adults who defiled you that night!"
"Ayin" shuddered all over and lowered her head a few degrees, as if she couldn't bear to say it.
Sheng Xi hugged her distressedly, still encouraging: "It's okay, don't be afraid! All the adults and His Majesty will make the decision for you, just tell me! Is it this person... does that lunatic look like this?! I didn't say anything wrong, right?"
Without waiting for A Yin to react, he suddenly raised his voice again, angrily saying: "A Yin... A Yin, say something!"
A Yin opened her mouth, and just as she was about to speak, Qiu Che suddenly interrupted her.
She said gently: "Miss Lian, right?"
"Before you speak, you must think clearly about the consequences. If you slander someone's innocence without reason, you will be punished by God."
Qiu Che said this in a calm voice.
She thought, give the other party another chance.
If she was forced, if she showed even a little hesitation - then Qiu Che would let bygones be bygones.
But her threatening words obviously failed to intimidate the other party, but made Lian Yin tremble even more.
She looked up at Qiu Che timidly, then quickly lowered her head.
She kowtowed to the emperor. She
spoke softly but with great force:
"Yes...it's him - that's him! I won't make a mistake. A few months ago, it was this Lord Qiu and Her Royal Highness the Princess who came to my rescue... I was in love with him, but because Her Royal Highness the Princess was still in front of me, I was rejected by this Lord."
"But I never expected that a few months later, I was already married, but he suddenly broke into my house the night before and forced me to have sex in the kitchen..." At
this moment, Qiu Che pulled the corners of her lips, and she couldn't even sneer.
She only felt great absurdity and sadness.
In fact, this is the most common choice for women in this era - when it is difficult to keep face and survive at the same time, only a few people choose face. Lian Yin
was probably coerced to give false testimony, but the sad thing is that she couldn't resist, nor could she tell who could really let her survive.
Of course she was not wrong.
But Qiu Che was so innocent.
She abandoned her gratitude and innocence, seeking a chance to live that might or might not be obtained.
This was her own choice.
"That's enough." At this point, Wu Xiang interrupted her considerately and said gently. "No need to say more, Madam Sheng, it's enough."
Qiu Che laughed out loud.
"Why do you say it's enough? Why didn't Wu Xiang think of it when he was being aggressive just now?"
This... It felt a bit harsh and looking for trouble.
After listening to this, Prime Minister Wu smiled even more deeply: "Lord Qiu, let's just talk about the facts. You should know how important a woman's innocence is in today's world. Madam Sheng must have had great courage to stand up and accuse you, and she would never slander a stranger. If you don't have other witnesses and evidence... I'm afraid you won't be able to clear the charges."
Qiu Che said lightly: "Not to mention the many loopholes in Miss Lian's words... just one thing, Prime Minister Wu may have forgotten that I have a half-brother who is a notorious playboy."
Prime Minister Wu immediately said: "But Madam Sheng also said that she would never admit her mistake."
Qiu Che asked back: "What if she really admitted her mistake?" Prime Minister
Wu was stuck and cast his gaze on Lian Yin who was kneeling on the ground.
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Lian Yin gritted her teeth and closed her eyes and said, "It is impossible! If I really recognized the wrong person and wronged this Lord Qiu... I am willing to become a slave and be a prostitute! I will be a cheap woman who is loved by everyone!"
After saying this, the Queen Mother sighed in her heart.
On the surface, she was like a fence-sitter, and said thoughtfully, "In this case, Lord Qiu really needs to produce some favorable evidence."
Qiu Che glanced at Lian Yin for the last time.
In the hall, you could hear a pin drop.
Everyone was waiting to see how she would defend herself.
This was actually not an unsolvable deadlock.
But Qiu Che didn't want to endure it anymore.
The person behind the scenes was determined to frame her - if she endured it, she would go to jail, and if she didn't, she would be in jail.
So why not just let this fire burn more vigorously?
Qiu Che closed her eyes.
She stepped forward, clasped her hands, and said calmly, "Your Majesty, I have a petition to report."
Everyone was stunned for a moment, not understanding what she was going to do.
Li Shi, who had not expressed his opinion but had been winking at Qiu Che to reassure her, was also stunned when he heard the words: "Qiu Aiqing... please speak."
For some reason, he had a hard time speaking the last two people, as if he had sensed a sense of ominous storm.
As expected, Qiu Che took out a memorial from his sleeve.
This posture was so familiar that the ministers present all jumped in their temples, feeling that the shadow of the past was instantly covering them again.
But before he could stop her, Qiu Che opened his mouth and said, "I will file a complaint. I will file a complaint against Qiu Zhe, the eldest son of the Qiu family. He is ignorant and unskillful, bullies men and women, forces decent girls to have affairs with him, and has been using my name to cheat people for a long time."
"I will file a complaint. I will file a complaint against Qiu Chudong, the head of the Qiu family, for robbing 13 decent girls and killing nine girls. They are Nan from Xinzhou, Feng from Xinchuan, Yan from Jinzhou... The bodies are buried in the backyard of the Qiu family. Your Majesty can send the Jinyiwei to investigate."
"I will file a complaint for the third time."
Qiu Che paused, holding the memorial, took off the black gauze hat on her head, and slowly knelt down under the shocked and speechless eyes of the ministers. She said steadily and word by word.
"I will file a complaint against Qiu Che, the second son of the Qiu family - he is actually a girl."
She once told Li Qingwu that she couldn't bear to see women suffer, just because she was afraid that her identity would be exposed one day and she would be killed. There was no falsehood in these words.
Because the more she saw and felt, the more she could feel how sad women were.
People said that women should not do this or that, people said that women should not do that or that, people said...
people said a lot, and people still wanted her to nod her head.
It was a pity that she insisted on soaring to the sky.
- Or maybe she was not right.
She had been preparing for this day, starting with asking Li Qingwu to agree to a divorce, and starting with teaching Li Qingwu martial arts.
- She had been waiting for this day to come.
Even though she knew that there might be no way out.
I have a fever again, and my mind is dizzy. Let's just bear with it and repair it tomorrow...