That disgusting glob of green had just been dragged to the main gate with zero dignity when it collided head-on with a group of newcomers.
The man leading the group was Wang Gui, the head steward of the Wang family, one of the four great families of Jiangning.
Today, Wang Gui was dressed in a dark-patterned brocade robe, fiddling with two polished, shiny walnuts in his hand. Behind him followed a dozen fierce-looking thugs, escorting several ragged, blood-stained farmers.
"Ouch!"
The "unidentified object" in the green vest let out a pained cry as it was knocked aside, rolling to Wang Gui’s feet.
Wang Gui looked down and saw a disheveled figure draped in a green rag with the words "Good Citizen" scrawled on it. The man reeked of sour ink. Disgusted, Wang Gui took a half-step back and kicked him away.
"Where did this crazy beggar come from? How unlucky!"
Wang Gui cursed under his breath, even taking out a handkerchief to dust off the toe of his shoe. He didn't recognize him at all; the man he had just kicked like trash was actually Zhao Fu, the head steward of the Zhao family, someone he usually called "brother."
No one bothered to enlighten him.
The surrounding commoners were all holding back their laughter, waiting to see how this second unlucky soul would crash into the steel wall.
"Move! Don't block the Master's way!"
With a wave of Wang Gui's hand, his thugs pushed the bound tenants forward, aggressively storming toward the large red sandalwood desk set up in the middle of the street.
Bang!
A yellowed, ancient land deed was slammed violently onto the tabletop, making the teacup jump.
"Where is the County Magistrate?" Wang Gui bellowed, not even deigning to look at the young woman in red sitting behind the desk. "These thugs have forcibly occupied a hundred acres of fertile land belonging to the Wang family in the west of the city. They refuse to pay rent and won't leave! They even dared to injure our rent collectors!"
He pointed at the honest men kneeling on the ground, who were trembling and bleeding from their heads, his face twitching with rage.
"I request the Magistrate to immediately order the expulsion of these criminals and their families from Jiangning! Return the land to its rightful owners! If there’s a delay and this season's harvest is ruined, can your county office afford the compensation?"
The tenants kneeling on the ground looked deathly pale.
One elderly man with white hair was still bleeding from his forehead, a wound inflicted by a thug’s club just moments ago.
His cracked lips moved as if he wanted to argue that "the rent is too heavy" or "we'll starve if we pay," but looking at the menacing thugs around him, he didn't dare utter a word. Instead, he despairingly knocked his head against the bluestone pavement with a heavy thud.
This was the norm.
In Jiangning, the Wang family's word was the law, and their land deeds were the heavens.
However, the expected fawning response did not come.
Behind the desk, Xu Qinghuan held a delicate silver nail file, leisurely grooming her nails. She blew away a speck of dust from her fingertip, her eyes completely ignoring the deed on the table. She didn't even lift her eyelids.
"What's all the shouting for?"
The girl's voice was airy, carrying the laziness of someone who hadn't quite woken up. "This County Magistrate isn't deaf. Judging a case is fine, of course. But the yamen has its rules. It's not a matter of whoever shouts the loudest being in the right."
Wang Gui froze, then sneered. "Rules? In Jiangning, the land deed is the rule!"
"That was before."
Xu Qinghuan finally put down her nail file and looked up. Her gaze swept over the pitiful tenants before settling on Wang Gui. The look in her eyes was that of someone sizing up a fat pig for slaughter.
"Now that this office belongs to the Xu family, we follow the laws of the Great Qian Dynasty."
Xu Qinghuan leaned forward slightly and extended a hand. "Steward Wang, isn't it? Since you're here to file a lawsuit, we have to follow procedure. Where is your formal complaint?"
Wang Gui choked. "What complaint? This deed is..."
"The deed is physical evidence. I am asking for the written complaint," Xu Qinghuan interrupted, tapping the table professionally. "Without a complaint, how am I supposed to know who you are suing or what for? Go, write it down and come back."
The veins on Wang Gui's forehead throbbed. He had spent his life entering the county office as if it were his own backyard. When had he ever had to write a formal complaint?
"Fine! I'll write it!" Wang Gui hissed through gritted teeth. To get rid of these peasants, he would endure it.
"Hold on."
Xu Qinghuan spoke again, pointing at him. "Who are you?"
"I am the head steward of the Wang family, Wang Gui! Who in Jiangning doesn't know me?" He felt a surge of humiliation at being toyed with.
"I don't know you."
Xu Qinghuan’s face was expressionless. "You say you are Wang Gui, but what proof do you have? Whether you are a plaintiff or a defendant, you must verify your identity before entering court. This is to prevent remnants of the previous dynasty or bandits from posing as law-abiding citizens to confuse the court."
"Where is your household registration? Your lineage records? Or your neighborhood guarantee documents?"
With every question Xu Qinghuan asked, the color drained from Wang Gui's face until it turned a sickly shade of iron-blue.
Who carries their birth certificate and household registry when they go out?
"You don't have them?" Xu Qinghuan shook her head, looking at him as if he were an amateur. "If you can't even prove your identity, it makes things very difficult for me. What if you're a fugitive on the run? If I accept your case, wouldn't I be an accomplice?"
"You!" Wang Gui’s chest tightened with fury as he pointed a finger at her nose. "I am from the Wang family! This face is my proof! Go ask anyone on the street..."
"Ask what? The law is about black and white, not facial recognition."
The casual air on Xu Qinghuan’s face vanished, replaced by a chilling sternness. She slammed the gavel down with a loud crack, making the thugs jump.
"One final, crucial question."
The girl held up a single finger and locked her eyes onto Wang Gui.
"Since you claim to represent the Wang family but cannot produce a formal power of attorney from your master, how do you prove you are actually a servant of the Wangs? Furthermore, how do you prove you were born to your parents and are indeed the person listed on your registry?"
"To put it simply—please provide your family genealogy, or your mother's labor records, or even a statement from the midwife to prove that your mother is indeed your mother, and that you are her biological son."
The entire square fell into a dead silence.
The surrounding noise vanished instantly; one could have heard a pin drop.
The onlookers stood there agape, their faces filled with disbelief.
Prove... your mother is your mother?
What kind of ridiculous question was that? Who could possibly prove such a thing? Even if the Emperor himself came, he couldn't produce a birth certificate from decades ago!
Wang Gui was utterly stunned.
He felt the blood rush to his head, his brain buzzing. He was so enraged his soul felt like it was leaping out of his body.
"Absurd! This is absolutely absurd!"
Wang Gui jumped up and down, screaming until his face was purple. "Who can produce such things? Whether I was born to my mother or not has nothing to do with this case! I have the deed! A deed in black and white! That is enough!"
"This land belongs to the Wang family! These thugs are trespassing! Why are you bringing up this nonsense? I think you just don't want to do your job! You’re trying to protect these criminals!"
Facing Wang Gui’s explosion, Xu Qinghuan didn't get angry. Instead, a cold smile played on her lips—a look that clearly said, "I’ve been waiting for you to say that."
"You can't prove it?"
Xu Qinghuan leaned back, her tone suddenly turning sharp, each word striking like cold iron.
“Since you cannot prove your identity, nor can you prove the legal origin of this land deed, then this official has reason to suspect—”
She pointed at the yellowed deed on the table, her voice rising an octave until it echoed down the entire long street.
“That your identity is suspicious! That the origin of this deed is unknown! It is highly likely that this is stolen property, snatched from the hands of some poor victim through robbery or murder!”
“Guards!”
Xu Qinghuan stood up abruptly, her wide sleeves fluttering with an overbearing aura.
“Take this vagabond Wang Gui—who holds a suspicious deed, has an unverified identity, and dares to roar and curse in this court—and throw him out!”
“As for this ‘suspected stolen property,’ the land deed shall be confiscated by the county yamen for the time being! Once this official has verified its authenticity, a final decision will be made!”
As soon as she finished speaking, Li Sheng and seven or eight brawny bailiffs, who had been rubbing their palms in anticipation, rushed out.
These bailiffs had long been fed up with the arrogance of the great families' servants. Today, with the County Lady backing them, they didn't hold back in the slightest.
“I dare you!” Wang Gui tried to resist, but before he could even square his shoulders, Li Sheng kicked him hard in the back of the knee. With a thud, he fell to his knees.
Immediately after, two heavy wooden staves were crossed over his neck, hoisting him up so that his feet left the ground as they dragged him outward.
“Let me go! I am from the Wang family! You are seeking death! Give me back the deed!”
Wang Gui struggled desperately, his voice cracking from the strain.
The deed was confiscated?
That was the lifeblood of a hundred acres of fertile land! If he couldn't prove his identity, he couldn't get the deed back—it was a death loop!
“Wait.”
Just as Wang Gui was about to be tossed out, Xu Qinghuan spoke again.
A sliver of hope rose in Wang Gui’s heart. He was about to turn back and hurl a few more threats when he saw the young woman in red robes walk down from the high bench.
She didn't look at Wang Gui. Instead, she stood before the tenant farmers who had yet to regain their senses.
“Old man, please stand up.”
Xu Qinghuan’s voice was much gentler now.
The old man was trembling all over and didn't dare to rise. He simply kept kowtowing. “Great Judge... we really have no money for the rent... please, don't drive us away...”
“Who said anything about driving you away?”
Xu Qinghuan picked up the “confiscated” deed from the table, waving it casually with a cunning smirk playing on her lips.
“Since this deed has become ‘stolen property,’ this land is considered ‘disputed property’ until the case is cleared. According to the laws of the Great Qian Dynasty, disputed property is to be managed by the government to ensure the land does not go fallow and miss the farming season.”
She turned around and gave a loud command to the secretary. “By order of the County Lady! From this moment on, these hundred acres of land in the west of the city will be temporarily managed by the county yamen!”
“Old Man Zhang and his fellow tenants are hereby appointed as the ‘Official Caretakers of the Yamen Lands.’ You shall continue to farm the land, but as for the rent...”
Xu Qinghuan paused. She glanced at the nearly maddened Wang Gui and said, syllable by syllable, “In the future, you do not need to pay it to that unidentified fraud. You only need to follow the regulations for official lands and pay a thirty percent tax to the county yamen!”
Thirty percent.
The Wang family used to take seventy percent!
These words were like a sudden clap of thunder, making everyone’s scalp tingle.
What kind of tactic was this?
This was blatant robbery!
Not only did she seize the land, but she also turned the tenants to her side and even intercepted the rent! The most lethal part was that all of this was draped in the cloak of “legal compliance,” making it impossible to find a single flaw!
“Pfft—!”
Still struggling, Wang Gui felt a tightness in his chest as his blood surged. The metallic taste of iron rushed up his throat, and he could no longer suppress it.
A mouthful of blood sprayed out in a tragic arc through the air, splattering across the faces of the two bailiffs holding him.
“You... you...”
Wang Gui pointed at Xu Qinghuan, his eyes nearly bursting from their sockets. “You are a... bandit...”
Before he could finish, his eyes rolled back. Consumed by fury, he collapsed and fainted on the spot.
“Drag him away. Don't let him dirty the yamen floor.”
Xu Qinghuan waved her hand dismissively, as if shooing away a fly.
It wasn't until Wang Gui was tossed lifelessly onto the street that the tenants finally realized what had happened.
Thirty percent rent?
They didn't have to leave?
And the government was backing them?
“Great Judge!”
“No, Great Lady of Justice!”
Old Man Zhang could no longer hold back. He wailed loudly, leading his entire family in a series of frantic kowtows toward Xu Qinghuan. It was gratitude from the bottom of their hearts, their foreheads hitting the ground with loud thuds.
“Thank you, Great Judge, for saving our lives! Thank you, Living Bodhisattva!”
The surrounding commoners watched this scene, and their expressions of idle curiosity shifted. In that transformation, there was now a sense of awe and hope.
This County Lady Xu might have dark methods, but her heart was in the right place!
Xu Qinghuan accepted their bows and walked back behind the high desk. She looked at the confiscated deed, her fingertips lightly tapping the tabletop. Listening to the reward notification from the system in her mind, she felt quite pleased.
