Zheng Qian was held down to death by several underlings.
The crowd shouted louder, and all the onlookers rushed towards this side, crushing the underlings carrying the casket and making it impossible for them to move forward.
“Send the man to the capital.”
Li An angrily voiced.
Several underlings dragged Zheng Qian forward, and people kept running over to watch, blocking the road in front of them.
Gu Yi whispered a few instructions to Xiao Si, who listened and turned away.
A moment later, however, there were murmurs from the crowd of onlookers as they followed onwards.
“Did you know that this man is called Zheng Qian, the fiancé of Miss Xu Ling’er, who came tenth in this temple examination and was even praised by the emperor at the time?”
“I heard that he is a distant relative of the Duke of Qi, and since he entered the capital, the Duke of Qi has always taken good care of him, which is why he has also asked for connections to get him a good position.”
“This man is actually impersonating someone else, so the real Zheng Qian should have been killed.”
“This couldn’t be the Duke of Qi’s handiwork, could it?”
……
The crowd’s chatter grew louder and louder, and the number of onlookers also grew, and by the time they reached the entrance of the capital’s residence, it was surrounded by three layers inside and three layers outside, and even the magistrates at the entrance were crowded out to who knows where.
In the hall, the governor of the capital was staring at Zheng Qian, who was still wearing a half human skin mask, for a long time.
He had been sitting in the position of the governor of the capital for many years, and had handled all the major cases, so he was considered to be a person with great experience. Today, he had been refreshed. This audacious and insane man had dared to impersonate the son of the present science with a human skin mask, and even made it to the top three in the temple examination.
“My Lord ……”
Li An had never been so furious, if not for today’s accident, his daughter would have married this unknown human or ghostly thing with two facial skins.
“Please also investigate the truth behind this and punish this thing severely.”
He was so angry that he stopped saying “man”.
Only then did the governor of the capital come back to his senses, and immediately slapped the wood of the hall heavily, “How dare you, Zheng Qian, why don’t you quickly confess who you really are?”
Zhang Huai knew that he was finished, whether he confessed or not, he was dead, so he simply clenched his teeth and did not speak.
The governor of the capital ordered the execution.
Zhang Huai, who had never suffered since he was a child, could not withstand such torture and confessed in just a quarter of an hour.
When they heard that his impersonation was the idea of the Duke of Qi, the crowd was in an uproar.
The governor of the capital was even more shocked and rushed into the palace.
The emperor was furious and sent the Duke of Qi to the palace. He said that he did not know who Zhang Huai was, and that he would not help him hide his body from the Emperor.
The emperor had Zhang Huai confronted with him and learned that Zhang Huai was Aunt Zhang’s nephew. The Duke of Qi again put the blame on Aunt Zhang, saying that he really didn’t know and that if the Emperor didn’t believe him, he could declare Aunt Zhang to the palace.
Aunt Zhang was summoned to the palace, and without waiting for the emperor’s questioning, she took all the blame on herself, stating that she was alone in the capital and had no one to rely on, and wanted her nephew to keep her company, but that Zhang Huai had done something wrong and was sentenced by the Qingping magistrate to be barred from taking the imperial examinations forever.
When she finished her explanation, Aunt Zhang spat black blood from her mouth and died on the spot.
The emperor was furious and ordered Zhang Huai to be executed as an example to others, while the Duke of Qi was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for his laxity in ruling his family.
When the news reached the Xu residence, Gu Yi and Song Wan Yue were playing chess with the old man.
After hearing this, the old gentleman waved his hand and told Xu Liang to retire, then, without panicking, he dropped a piece and asked, “When are you going back?”
Song Wangyue sat on the side, holding her cheeks, watching the two play chess, and sniffed back, “When big brother comes back and settles down, we will depart.”
The old gentleman seemed to be waiting for her next words, but after waiting for a while without waiting, he dropped a piece again and asked again, pretending as if nothing had happened, “What are your mother’s plans?”
Song Wangyue pretended not to know what the old gentleman was thinking, and said in response to his words, “My mother will go back with us, and my grandmother said she would also go with us.”
The old gentleman inclined his head to look at her.
Song Wan Yue held back her laughter and looked at the chessboard without squinting, saying in a serious manner, “Grandfather, you should be careful, I don’t see that you will lose in five moves.”
“You girl ……”
The old gentleman smiled and nodded her forehead, “It’s fun to tease Grand-Great-Grandfather, isn’t it?”
Song Wan Yue narrowed her eyes with a smile.
The old gentleman’s heart steadied.
He wanted to see the place where Wan’er had lived for more than ten years, while he could still move.
Song Wan Yue got up, “I’m going out to do some shopping.”
“Go early and return early.”
Song Wangyue answered, took Xiao Si to the pharmacy, bought a cart full of herbs for wind and cold and pills for great tonic, and pulled them off to another mansion over in South City.
She called the boy to pound the herbs and started to make the pills until it was dark, then she took the carriage and headed back, just as she reached the street where the Xu residence was, a figure rushed out from a diagonal and blocked the carriage, the carriage driver hurriedly stopped the horse.
“What is it?”
Song Wangyue lifted the carriage curtain.
Xu Ling’er rushed over and Xiao Si jumped off the carriage to block her.
“Song Wangyue, you already knew he was an impostor, didn’t you?”
Xu Ling’er asked hysterically.
She had never been so desperate before, today she had become the laughing stock of the whole city, and in the future, not to mention marrying someone, she feared she would not even be able to stay in the capital.
Song Wangyue didn’t deny it, “Not bad, I knew it a long time ago.”
“Why did you do this to me? How can you let me live in the future?”
Xu Ling’er regretted it, if she knew that the medicine Song Wangyue gave her was to melt Zheng Qian’s human skin mask, she would not have done that, she would have withdrawn from Zheng Qian’s marriage first, at least she could still save her reputation.
“You can’t have both the fish and the bear’s paw, besides I’m helping Miss Ling’er, if you find out his true face after you’ve married him, won’t you be even more unable to live?”
“I don’t care ……”
Xu Ling’er cried and fell to the ground, “You compensate me, you have to compensate me!”
If she had cried out, Song Wangyue still had a way to treat her, but now she was miserably paralyzed on the ground, Song Wangyue suddenly had a headache, and her voice softened twice, “It’s impossible to compensate you for a husband, but since I promised to save your mother, I will definitely not let anything happen to her.”
“I don’t care, you’ll have to compensate me.”
Xu Ling’er cried out in spite of her image, people passing by heard the commotion and gathered around, seeing more and more people gathered around, Song Wangyue sighed, got off the carriage and helped her up, got into the carriage and sent her back.
Xiao Si saw clearly that the person in front of the carriage was Li An, so he called out to him, “Lord Li, Miss Ling’er is on our carriage.”
The driver stopped his horse and Li An jumped off the carriage and ran over, relieved to see Xu Ling’er, who had disappeared while he was administering medicine to Wen, and he was afraid that something had happened to his only daughter.