Xi Weilan sat on the table, swinging her little legs as she calmly sucked on a lollipop. She even flashed the county commandant an innocent, guileless smile.
Xi Qingyue said nothing. Instead, she raised both hands, each holding a pistol, and aimed them at the group approaching them.
The deputy county magistrate, who had retreated some distance away, did not stop the county commandant. He wanted to see how the two sisters would respond. As for the other officials in the county office, none of them dared to say a word, especially since they held even lower positions.
A hint of mockery and the arrogance of a petty man drunk on power shone in the county commandant’s eyes. It was as if he were sneering at their ignorance, or saying, “So what if you are a Commandery Princess? Without guards accompanying you, even if you really are one, you’ll have to pretend to be nothing.”
He watched confidently, waiting for his men to seize the sisters.
In the next instant, a bloody hole appeared in his forehead, and he toppled straight to the ground, a smug smile still frozen on his face.
Xi Qingyue fired with both hands at once. Every man who had come to arrest them now had a bloody hole between his brows. In the blink of an eye, a large number of them lay sprawled across the ground.
The other officials were so terrified that they collapsed onto the floor. The deputy county magistrate’s face turned deathly pale. If only he had stopped the county commandant just now, he might at least have left a good impression.
Outside the county office, the common people had gathered in layer upon layer, having come after hearing the news.
Some of them had still been hesitating over whether to seek justice for themselves. They were most afraid of officials protecting one another. But after seeing Xi Qingyue kill the county commandant and the others without the slightest hesitation, no one had any reservations left.
A woman knelt at the very front and cried out loudly, “Commandery Princess, I have been wronged! Please deliver justice for me!”
Xi Qingyue waved her hand, and the bailiffs immediately let the woman inside.
Before the woman could kneel again, Xi Qingyue spoke. “Tell me what happened while standing. As long as your words are true, this Commandery Princess will certainly deliver justice for you.”
She looked the very picture of righteous authority, though her childlike face revealed just how young she was.
The woman gritted her teeth and pointed toward the deputy county magistrate, her eyes filled with hatred. “Commandery Princess, I wish to accuse the deputy county magistrate’s son, Meng Chong! He took my daughter-in-law by force and beat my son. When my son came to report it, the county magistrate had him beaten with fifty strokes of the cane. He died not long after returning home. That very night, they sent my daughter-in-law’s corpse back. Please, Commandery Princess, deliver justice for me!”
The woman’s words caused a commotion among the gathered people. Everyone knew about the matter.
An older woman sighed. “Alas, Madam Sun is truly pitiful. She struggled to make ends meet by running a small tea house. After finally raising her son by herself and seeing him marry, this happened…”
She did not finish, but everyone else understood what she meant.
A thin layer of sweat appeared on Deputy Magistrate Meng Qingbiao’s forehead. He wished he could chop down the bailiff who had summoned him on the spot. If he had been informed earlier, he could at least have prepared—or given his son time to flee and hide.
He pointed at the woman and shouted angrily, “Nonsense! How could my son ever do such a thing? Stop making baseless accusations!”
As soon as he finished speaking, Xi Qingyue said coolly, “Bring Meng Chong here. If he refuses to come, beat him and drag him here.”
The bailiffs in the courtroom now obeyed Xi Qingyue’s every command without question. Someone immediately strode away to bring Meng Chong over.
As for warning Meng Chong so he could escape, no one had the courage to do that. After all, the corpses scattered across the hall were still lying there.
Meng Qingbiao felt increasingly uneasy. He had never expected two children to suddenly appear and disrupt everything. He was about to rise to prominence soon, yet this had happened at precisely the worst possible moment.
His face darkened as his mind raced for a way out. The county commandant’s men had all been killed, and he had no chance of winning by force.
Then, as if he had thought of something, he smiled ingratiatingly at Xi Qingyue. “May I ask whether the Commandery Princess knows Prince Kang?”
At the mention of that name, Xi Qingyue suddenly smiled, her expression exceptionally bright.
She nodded. “Yes, I know him. Why? Are you close to Prince Kang?”
Seeing her attitude suddenly change, Meng Qingbiao was overjoyed. Madam Sun’s heart, however, lurched. Could it be that the officials were going to protect one another again?
When she heard Meng Qingbiao answer Xi Qingyue with a beaming smile, she felt utterly hopeless.
“Commandery Princess, I was fortunate enough to meet Prince Kang some time ago. His Highness thought highly of me and invited me to work in his fief. I’ll be leaving Yongfu City in a few days.”
He had invoked Prince Kang’s name, thinking that a prince—especially one with his own fief—would naturally carry more weight than a Commandery Princess. There were not many princes with fiefs, after all.
Xi Qingyue’s smile grew even wider. She added, “What a coincidence.”
She thought that Prince Kang really had cast his net everywhere. His lackeys could be found in every corner, and not one of them was any good.
She slammed her right hand on the table and shouted sternly, “What an audacious deputy magistrate! You actually think you can use your authority to suppress others. Your son has committed a crime. Even if you invoke Prince Kang, it will be useless. I refuse to believe that, as his father, you knew nothing about the vile things your son did. And Prince Kang—if he is willing to accept someone like you, then there probably isn’t a single good official in Xuanzhou. I truly pity the people of Xuanzhou.”
By the end, she even sighed, as though the people of Xuanzhou were suffering through some great calamity.
Only then did Madam Sun breathe a sigh of relief. The other commoners felt the same.
That was when Meng Chong was brought in under guard. He cursed loudly the entire way.
“You bastards! My father is the deputy county magistrate! How dare you arrest me? Once I tell my father about this, he’ll never forgive you! Just wait until you’re all dead!”
He was still ranting when he was brought inside. The moment he saw Meng Qingbiao, he immediately cried out for help. “Father, these people have rebelled! Hurry and have them arrested!”
Meng Qingbiao frantically signaled for him to stop, but Meng Chong failed to notice. He continued cursing the bailiffs at the top of his lungs.
When Madam Sun saw Meng Chong, she wanted nothing more than to rush forward and tear him to pieces, but she forced herself to hold back.
“Commandery Princess, please deliver justice for me!”
Xi Qingyue cast Meng Chong a glance. He looked like a decent man, but he did nothing decent.
She looked toward the people outside. “Is there anyone who can testify on her behalf?”
Many people had witnessed Madam Sun’s daughter-in-law being taken away and her son being beaten. But not all of them dared to step forward. They feared that something might go wrong and drag them into the mess.
Even so, someone still came forward. It was an elderly woman who lived next door to Madam Sun.
“Commandery Princess, I am willing to testify!”
The old woman stepped forward and recounted everything she had seen that day in full detail. After she finished, several others came forward one after another to offer their testimony.
Meng Chong continued to curse arrogantly. He did not believe these people could do anything to him.
As for the corpses lying on the ground, he kept his chin raised and refused even to look at them.
Meng Qingbiao finally could not bear it any longer and roared at Meng Chong, “Shut up!”
He knew that confronting them head-on would not work, so he intended to take a roundabout approach—get through the day first, then make further plans.
“Father, you’re not even going to help me?” Meng Chong said, deeply dissatisfied. “These lowly commoners dare come here to accuse me without showing you the slightest respect!”
After listening to everyone’s testimony, Xi Qingyue stared at Meng Chong for a long while. Then she suddenly smiled, raised her pistol, and fired directly between his brows.
