Chapter Fifty-Two: A Result Without Results

  Ancient Romance

  Thank you xindy for inserting pink votes for Doudou's poor little flower.

  However, if it's Pink Five Chapters, I'll add another chapter as a thank you to the sisters for their support of Dodo, bowing in gratitude.

  This chapter has a slightly smaller number of words, but it's still nearly 3,100 words of the main text. The plot can't be shown to everyone here.

  Yingyue Xue was not as easily fooled as Li, even though she knew her direct supervisor had been bribed and had no integrity. The outcome was already obvious, but she couldn't just stand by and watch her only friend suffer, unable to help, and let her family be wrongly accused.

  Moreover... she didn't speak out of personal interest, these are just facts.

  "Is my daughter-in-law's life worthless?"

  Liu was stunned by the aura of Yingyue Xue, and it took her a long time to say this sentence with a guilty conscience. However, Yingyue Xue just smiled and didn't speak, turning her gaze formally to Liu's body, maintaining her usual demeanor, quietly looking at her, still not speaking.

  Li saw the situation and couldn't help but feel a little anxious. Although she had many complaints about Liu in her heart, she could even say that she was eager for this matter to end soon. With her youngest son's exam approaching, she no longer had the energy to care about these trivial matters. Whether she won or lost today wasn't that important to her.

  "No matter what, Zhao Li's family has broken the good fortune of Yuan Liu's large family. Although it's a bit unlucky at this critical moment in production, since Zhao Li's family has already compensated for the loss, let's just consider the matter settled."

  Qin Yu spoke, and the crowd below immediately erupted in a mixture of sighs and murmurs. He himself felt somewhat uneasy, as this matter was originally a private grievance between them, but now that it had been brought to the public court, it had become his problem. If he were to judge according to his own wishes, he certainly wouldn't make things difficult for Zhao Li Shi, but...

  "Adult..."

  "Thank you, Miss Ying, for telling Master the truth about that day. It's a fact that I, a commoner, broke the 'many children bring many blessings' porcelain, and there's no use denying it."

  Li's words already represented her stance, and Liu couldn't help but feel triumphant. She raised a victorious smile towards County Magistrate Xue, even making eye contact with him to urge him to make a quick judgment. But she never expected that Li, who had been quiet and composed the whole time, would add another sentence: "However, I don't understand, if the Yuan family thought she was innocent, why did they return the money through Zuo Xing when rumors were spreading in town, trying to hush up the matter?"

  The implication of these words is already self-evident, and Li's face immediately changed from a proud expression to a tense one. At the first moment, she didn't look at Qin Yu on the stage, but instead turned her head to glance at the crowd, whose faces all showed disdainful and suspicious expressions, and in her heart, she couldn't help but feel some regret.

  "I just don't want things to get out of hand."

  "They just need to say it for this moment, if they're not guilty, why bother making such a fuss?"

  "Adult, at first I let the Zhao family compensate me for the money, just to shut up my Yuan family's mouths. I thought that after the wind had passed, I would return the money and property. You can ask her, a few days ago when the money was returned, wasn't the silver inside untouched, even the handkerchief was still theirs?"

  Mr. Li shook his head and didn't respond at all, it seems that Mr. Liu has already jumped over the wall in desperation, and actually brought up this matter to talk about.

  "In that case, let's handle it the way you did before. Zhao Li will compensate Yuan Liu with twenty taels of silver to comfort her for the loss of her daughter-in-law. What do you think?"

  "The ordinary woman had no objection."

  Li's concession shocked everyone, and those who knew her a little better understood that she was the kind of person who would rather turn big things into small ones and small things into nothing. However, people outside didn't understand this and could only think of Li based on what they usually saw, so they couldn't understand her compromise, which led to another round of criticism at the door. They even began to wonder if it was really Li's fault that caused the pregnant woman to die in labor.

  But Madam Liu saw the situation and knew that her chance to turn things around had come, but she didn't want to. She rushed up to Qin Yu and burst into tears: "Sir, you can't just do this! I've lost my wife, it's not something that can be comforted with just 20 taels of silver! A life is not worth just 20 taels, it's a human life!"

  Shen Huan saw this and she, who had been silent all along, deeply felt what it meant to be shameless.

  She could actually understand her mother-in-law's compromise, after all, the old saying "more children, more blessings" was a superstition in modern times but a popular belief in ancient times, so she couldn't stop her mother-in-law from choosing to compensate for peace of mind.

  But this doesn't mean they can be taken advantage of at will. She has seen shameless people before, but she really hasn't seen anyone as shameless as this.

  "So what do you want?"

  "I want her to acknowledge her mistakes in public and kowtow to my deceased wife. I can forget about the silver, but this tone is hard for me to swallow."

  As soon as Mr. Liu spoke, everyone in the public hall gasped, and after exchanging glances, they shifted their gaze to Li's family, but then unanimously turned to Zhao Xiuzhuo and Shen Han in front of them. This method can be considered humiliating, would the Zhao family really agree?

  "Don't be too arrogant"

  Li finally couldn't bear it and spoke out with some emotional words, but Liu didn't stop there. Not only did she make unreasonable demands, but also made some veiled threats, roughly implying that if Li didn't comply, she would make it impossible for her to stay in town.

  The hero doesn't eat the loss in front of him, and the egg will naturally not collide with the stone. For Zhao Xiuzhuo Li's heart is still a little hesitant, but he didn't think that his son behind him had already made a move. Those eyes that couldn't see emotions now had sparks flying around, and he just stood there in the distance, using his slow tone to say: "Mother, this time's imperial examination, I have absolute confidence, don't worry."

  Suddenly, the whispers in the public hall ceased immediately after his words, and Li's face was filled with a proud smile, while Liu's face turned as black as if she had eaten dirt, looking particularly comical.

  With her son's words, Madam Li didn't mind suffering more grievances, but she knew that her son was too proud and wouldn't want to see her humiliated like this. She immediately turned around and faced Qin Yu: "Sir, I refuse to accept this."

  "The great people's wives also don't obey"

  Even if Zhao Xiuxiu's words were hinting, Liu still refused to admit defeat at this time. Whether he can pass the exam or not is not up to him to decide. Even if he passed, would he really use his own power to frame himself? Today, everyone in town has seen this matter, and in the future, if there's anything that happens at home, who wouldn't think it's because of the Zhao family?

  After such a mental struggle, Liu was not only not worried at all, but became even more daring. The voice of shouting grievances was several times louder than Li's, and it sounded somewhat harsh in the public hall.

  Qin Yu rubbed his temples with a slight headache, and an impatient look had already appeared on his face. He never thought that these two women would be so troublesome.

  "Save... save me, sir!"

  Cries for help came from outside the door, Qin Yu's head got even bigger, it's not over yet here, what's going on recently, where did so many things come from?

  "Pass on" or "Transmit"

  "Aunt... Auntie, come with me for a walk"

  Who knew that the man who came in didn't care about so much, directly rushed in and pulled Li Shi, the urgency in his eyes was already very obvious, Li Shi had no impression of this man.

  "You..."

  "My wife is about to give birth, would you mind accompanying me on this trip, auntie?"

  Maybe it's an occupational disease, as soon as Li heard that someone was about to give birth, he couldn't care about being in the public hall and having unfinished lawsuits entangled around him, he took a step forward wanting to leave, but was caught by Liu: "If you don't give me an explanation today, you're not allowed to leave"

  Li realized that she couldn't leave at this moment and could only say to the stranger, "You go find another midwife, I'm...".

  Some of them looked at the husband, then at the county magistrate, and the implication was already very clear. Before he could express his own opinion, Liu suddenly spoke out in a "fearing chaos under heaven" tone: "I'm saying, little brother, you don't know what fear is? Do you know why she's standing here today? It's because when she was helping with childbirth, she ended up killing someone. And yet you still dare to look for her?"

  The man seemed to dislike being interrupted, and looked at Liu with displeasure: "All the midwives in town have come here, where can I go to find someone? Besides, Auntie Li was able to save the child after the pregnant woman died, I believe her."

  As soon as this was said, the onlookers sighed again. Several midwives who were hiding in the crowd to watch the show also looked embarrassed, and the man's words made them lose face. It seemed that except for Li Shi, they would not be able to deliver a baby either. However... On that day, the Yuan family affair, they really couldn't help much, and... As for saving the child but still being troubled to come to the government office, several midwives felt somewhat resentful in their hearts. The words that helped Li Shi just now were mostly from their mouths.

  But now things are different, acknowledging it in one's own heart and saying it out loud to the person seeking help, naturally makes the listener feel somewhat displeased.

  "Your Honor, please judge how I should compensate, a life is at stake here."

  Li didn't want to waste any more time on this matter either, turned around and asked Qin Yu for a result. Liu naturally wouldn't fall behind, Qin Yu nodded heavily twice.

  Zhao Xi's heart was clear, his mother's attitude had hardened because of his attitude, he was very happy, and immediately opened his mouth again to say a blood-boiling sentence: "Since Master Qin cannot make a decision, I will take my mother and leave first. As for Aunt Liu... you can deal with our family as you wish, just don't stab us in the back."

  "What do you mean by saying this?"

  His words made Liu immediately jump up, and the dissatisfaction that had been accumulating in her heart was all poured out. However, Zhao didn't have the patience to continue arguing with her: "If Auntie wants to say that it's just a servant talking nonsense at home, framing me for being disloyal to my sister-in-law, then please trouble Auntie to properly manage the servants at home."

  After finishing speaking, Zhao Xiuzhuo no longer looked at Liu Shi, the calmness in his eyes remained, but the pupils were no longer as calm as before, it could be seen that he was really angry, perhaps his anger had been accumulating since the joke before entering the government office, and now it just burst out, but it still made Qin Yu feel a deep pressure.

  "Lord Qin, this matter has put you in a difficult position. May I take my mother and leave now?"