Chapter 41

TRANSLATED BY MYPEN_22

Mrs. Zhou looked coldly at Old Lady Zhou, the little hope she had in her heart had long since vanished, the matter had come to such a state and they still didn't know they were wrong. When she found out that the second young master was Zhou Yongyan's own son, she really felt resentment and hatred. But when she thought that the woman was dead, she had three children of her own, and she had been married to Zhou Yongyan for more than ten years, there was still some kind of conjugal bond.

So she tried several times to get the Zhou mother and son to tell her about the second young master's birth. If they confessed to her, if they admitted to her that they were wrong, then she would forgive him and the family would continue to live their lives as before.

But the Zhou mother and son pretended to be indifferent, no matter how many times she hinted at them. Then she couldn't stand it any longer and asked them if the second young master was Zhou Yongyan's real son.

From their initial denial, the mother and son only revealed the truth when they could no longer hide it. But they did not show the slightest remorse and instead blamed her for being insensitive and disturbing the family's peace.

When Old Lady Zhou had finished, Madam Zhou smiled instead of being angry "Old Lady Zhou, I would like to ask you, you said that your son did something wrong in his ignorance back then, but now that he is past his prime, he has not shown any remorse either."

Yan Shi's lips curled up in a smile, he admired Mrs Zhou for being such a person. She was calm, didn't drag her feet in dealing with things, had a measured demeanour and spoke with reason. If such a person was a man, she would definitely become his right arm.

"What did you call me?" Old Lady Zhou shouted strangely, pointing at Madam Zhou and shivering with anger, "Listen, listen, all of you, what kind of words is she saying, she doesn't even call me mother now! It's a misfortune for my family to marry you! What a misfortune!" As she spoke, Old Lady Zhou slapped her thighs with both hands.

Mrs. Zhou said, "Since Old Lady Zhou thinks that it is a misfortune for the Zhou family to marry me, then let Zhou Xieyuan and I make a divorce."

"A divorce? You wish." Old Lady Zhou said angrily, "I want my son to repudiate you, you vicious woman!"

"Yes." Madam Zhou had no problem with that, "It's fine to repudiate me, as long as I can leave you."

As she was saying this, she suddenly saw a fast figure coming in front of her. Bad woman!"

The two magistrates went up to subdue second young Master Zhou and dragged him out of the courtroom according to the Magistrate Qian's wishes. The people who were watching the scene were talking, wondering why the young master had suddenly gone berserk. Even Magistrate Qian was startled, and he slapped the wood of the hall, "Zhou Xieyuan, is this how your son treats your wife?"

Zhou Yongyan's face turned red and white, he had lost all his face today. "I have not been like this in the past, but since Madam wanted to make peace, my son and Madam have gradually become distant."

The implication was that it was all Madam Zhou's fault, if you hadn't said you wanted to make peace, he wouldn't have treated you like this, would he?

Yan Shi suddenly said, "Zhou Xieyuan, how does your wife treat the second young master?"

Zhou Yongyan said with a stiff upper lip, "As if he were her own son." This was a matter known to everyone in Tonglin County, and there were so many people standing in front of the county courthouse that he could not deny it.

Yan Shi said, "If that is the case, then the second young master should have begged Madam Zhou not to divorce him when he learned of this, but according to the situation just now, he has hatred for Madam Zhou instead?"

"This ..." Zhou Yongyan was speechless.

The actual fact is that you can't be able to get a lot of people to do this. In the past, the second young master and her were indeed as close as biological, and he always thought he was born to her. But later, when he found out that she was not his real mother, he thought that she was jealous and could not allow his father to have a concubine, which is why his father kept a concubine outside, and why he and his mother were out in the world for many years."

Hua Ling whispered, "He was wrong to think that, she didn't know they existed."

This was exactly how Young Master Zhou had treated her that had completely chilled her heart, more than ten years of nurturing and raising a wolf with a white eye.

Mrs. Zhou kowtowed again towards the hall "My Lord, you have seen how the Zhou family has treated me. The evidence of Zhou Yongyan's keeping of an outlaw is overwhelming, so please be clear about this."

The old lady wept and cried again, pointing at Mrs. Zhou and scolding her, and the magistrate, who had a headache from the noise, rubbed his head and asked the magistrate to pull her out of the hall.

Mrs. Zhou looked at Zhou Yongyan, her eyes flashed with sadness "Now, I would like to hear the truth, why did you keep an outside woman in the first place? You said before that you would only have one woman in your life, me."

Zhou Yongyan sighed and said, "Soon after we got married, you became pregnant. I didn't dare to touch you for fear of hurting the baby, but you know I'm a man, and all men have needs in that area."

Mrs Zhou sneered "I was pregnant and suffered a lot, but it really wasn't hard at all."

"It's not the same." Zhou Yongyan argued in a small voice.

To this day he still does not feel he was wrong, he is incorrigible. Madam Zhou asked, "You can have a concubine, perhaps I will agree then."

"I swore to everyone at the wedding that I would never take a concubine in my life. If I do ..." I don't need to say the next words, everyone knows what they are, "The women in the brothel are too dirty for me, so I have to find a woman with a clean family. I wanted to break off the relationship with her when you gave birth to your child. I blame that woman, she lied to me."

It is always the other person who is at fault, not the other person at all.

Mrs Zhou was suddenly relieved, all those gloomy emotions were swept away, what else was there to say to this person? After thinking it over, Madam Zhou said, "Your Excellency, I have nothing to say, please pronounce the sentence."

The magistrate slapped the wooden hall, "Zhou Yongyan, what else do you have to say?"

Zhou Yongyan's face was ashen, "I have nothing to say."

"Good!" Magistrate Qian sat upright and continued, "Listen to the verdict in the hall!"

According to the law of the Great Abyss Dynasty, a man who kept an illegitimate wife was sentenced to forty strokes of the cane and a woman to eighty strokes of the cane, but if the second young master's mother had died, the coffin would be opened and the body whipped. If he was a scholar or an official, he would be sentenced to an additional degree of punishment, like Zhou Yongyan, who would not be able to retain his status as a scholar, and would be sentenced to one year's imprisonment after having his scholarship revoked.

The second young master was also expelled from the family tree.

Mrs Zhou's dowry had to be returned in full, and her mother's family was also in business and had left her a number of shops, the income from which was also used for her family. So the shop had to be repaid, as well as all the income earned over the years.

As for Mrs Zhou's request to take away her three children, the magistrate did not allow her to do so, as there was no such provision in the laws of the Great Abyss. However, Mrs. Zhou was satisfied with this, and at that moment, the magistrate found some accountants to liquidate the Zhou family's assets.

The matter of the Zhou family was finally coming to an end, and when Magistrate Qian wiped the sweat from his head, he heard Yan Shi say, "Magistrate Qian, the case of the Zhou family is over, but your matter is not.

As he said this, he walked over to Magistrate Qian, who was so frightened that he rolled off his chair and sat on his knees in front of the court. The people were unaware of this sudden change of events when they saw Yan Shi slap the wood of the hall, "This official is the Secretary of the Da Lisi Temple and has come here to investigate the case, so if you have any grievances, come here quickly and this official will decide with you!

At first, the people did not dare to go, but some of them shouted loudly, "Your Excellency, will you really do something for us?"

"Yes." Although Yan Shi was young, he sat there with an indescribable majesty that made people dare to look up and only submit to him.

The man who spoke thought for a moment and pushed the crowd away, "I'll do it!"

This was a man in his forties who took a few steps and knelt down in front of the hall "Your Honour, but I don't have any papers.

"No matter." Yan Shì ordered some people to bring in some tables, and set up pens, ink, paper and inkstones on them, and called all those in the government who could write to help the people write their pleadings, or write them themselves if they could.

Hua Ling's fists were clenched and unclenched, then unclenched and clenched again, and finally he mustered up enough courage to look at Yan Shi and said, "Da, Your Excellency, I can write too."

The young princess's literary skills were incomplete but his writing was quite good, so he couldn't bear to refuse him.

So he agreed.

Hua Ling sat happily behind a table, intending to write the paper for the person who was going to sue.

When the people outside saw that the official was serious, they said that they had a complaint to file, and those who wanted to file a complaint waited in line on the left, and those who had written a complaint waited in line on the right for the court to be raised.

The man was suing the magistrate for forcible robbery of his daughter. His family had only one daughter, who was very pretty and had been seen by the magistrate in the morning when they were shopping in the street and had been robbed into the house.

He went to argue with him and was beaten up. When Yan Shi said this, he had hope again. He didn't want to live if anything happened to his daughter, so he might as well give it a try.

Yan Shì said, "Who else wants to sue the magistrate of Qian?"

"Me!" "Me!" "Me!"

The shouting went on and on, and Yan Shi said, "Those who want to sue the Magistrate Qian come here first." Nine out of ten people wanted to sue the magistrate, and there were so many people kneeling in the lobby than people were kneeling in the street.

Yan Shi asked them to speak one by one, and every time they said something, the magistrate shivered a little.

The county magistrate was like an emperor of the land in Tonglin County, and had done a lot of bad things, so he could not keep his head. Yan Shi told Zhao Chunhai to take the letter he had written and his seal to the Sheriff.

The next day, the Sheriff himself brought someone to escort the magistrate away, and the people applauded. Not long after the Sheriff's departure, the case in Tonglin County was finished and Madam Zhou's dowry had been divided.