Xi Qingyue’s sudden gunshot caught everyone off guard. Meng Qingbiao let out a roar. “Chong’er!”
He had watched his own son die right before his eyes, and the fury in his gaze erupted like a volcano.
He glared at Xi Qingyue with bloodshot eyes. No longer bothering to pretend respect, he demanded loudly, “What right do you have to kill my son? Even if he committed a crime, he should have waited for the imperial officials to determine his guilt. What gives you, a Commandery Princess, the authority to do this? Besides, whether you’re truly a Commandery Princess still remains to be verified!”
He had only one son, and now that son was dead. There was no way he could maintain his previous facade of respect.
If the constables had been willing to obey him, he would have ordered them to cut Xi Qingyue down on the spot.
Xi Qingyue replied with complete composure, “All I know is that he was guilty. Waiting for the imperial court to pass judgment would have been too troublesome. This was more convenient.”
With that, she smiled at the registrar and asked, “Did you record all the crimes they just accused Meng Chong of?”
The registrar nodded nervously. “Yes, Commandery Princess. I recorded everything.”
Xi Qingyue’s attitude made Meng Qingbiao’s face turn livid. He was on the verge of exploding, but in the end, he forced himself to endure it. He did not want to lose his life at the hands of two seemingly insane children. He would wait for the right opportunity.
Xi Qingyue merely glanced at him and paid him no attention. She turned to Madam Sun, whose face was streaked with tears and who was alternately laughing and crying, and said slowly, “Since your family members died at Meng Chong’s hands, you’ll receive a portion of the Meng family’s property as compensation. Wait over there for now.”
Those words nearly made Meng Qingbiao faint from rage.
He was still alive, yet she was already talking as though the Meng family’s property had been confiscated. It was simply intolerable!
“Don’t get so arrogant! Yongfu County is not a place where a Commandery Princess can do whatever she wants!”
Xi Qingyue sneered. “Oh? Then who gets to make the decisions? You, the county magistrate? When your son was killing people, I didn’t see you stand up for the people. What I’m doing is merely standing up for justice and eliminating the evildoers who threaten Great Jing on behalf of the imperial court. The court will have to reward me for it.”
She sounded perfectly justified. Xi Weilan, who was eating a lollipop nearby, hurriedly nodded. “Exactly! Big Sister is doing a good deed. His Majesty will definitely reward us with gold in the future.”
Meng Qingbiao’s face turned an ashen green. He clutched his chest and suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. His vision went black, and his entire body toppled backward.
The many constables watched in trembling fear. How had their entire yamen ended up under the control of two children?
The county magistrate was dead. The county commandant was dead. The county magistrate’s son was dead, and the magistrate himself had been angered into unconsciousness. Only the registrar, whose job was to handle documents, remained—and he had been reduced to nothing more than a recording clerk.
The common people, however, were incredibly excited. After what had happened to Madam Sun, they no longer had any misgivings. The good farmland and shops that had been seized from them, as well as their family members who had been wrongfully imprisoned, could all be reclaimed.
One after another, the people rushed forward, begging Xi Qingyue to redress their grievances. The entire yamen, inside and out, became incredibly lively, and news of what was happening spread farther and farther.
Xi Qingyue refused no one. She listened carefully to every person who came forward to make a complaint and instructed the registrar to record the entire chain of events clearly.
Whenever certain influential families in the city were implicated, she showed them no mercy. She immediately ordered the constables to go to their homes and arrest them. Any family that resisted and refused to come was noted down; once she finished dealing with the current matters, she would personally pay them a visit.
For those who had seized farmland or shops, she ordered the property returned at once. She also had the registrar prepare the land deeds and property deeds, then stamp them with the yamen’s official seal. Whenever she encountered a spoiled young master who had committed murder, she shot him dead on the spot without waiting for the autumn execution season.
She handled matters with astonishing efficiency. Aside from the time spent waiting for the constables to arrest people, she resolved each villager’s grievance in less than fifteen minutes on average.
There were simply too many corpses lying openly in the courtroom. Some wealthy households that had previously bribed the county magistrate to obtain benefits no longer dared to argue once they saw that the magistrate was dead. One after another, they confessed with remarkable speed.
Their crimes amounted to little more than greed for money, not offenses worthy of death. If they admitted their wrongdoing, they would merely have to return what they had taken, receive some strokes of the cane, or pay a little extra compensation—at least they would keep their lives. But if they stubbornly denied everything, they might lose their heads. None of them dared to take that gamble.
Two children claiming to be Commandery Princesses, children who killed without hesitation—this was far more terrifying than the former county magistrate. The people found the whole thing utterly horrifying.
In the rear courtyard of the yamen, the county magistrate’s wives, concubines, and children had also learned what had happened in the front courtyard.
At that moment, a group of people who had once been unable to stand the sight of one another had gathered together for once. They sat in a spacious, brightly lit hall, each of them frowning deeply.
The county magistrate’s son, Zuo Teng, sat in a chair with a gloomy expression. He was the eldest son and the one most highly valued by Zuo Sheng.
He spoke in a low voice. “We can’t confront them head-on right now. They have some kind of unknown weapon, and we’re no match for them. Their actions today have offended quite a few people. Once night falls, we can join forces with those people and act together. They haven’t come after us yet, so they probably won’t come to the rear courtyard for the time being. Everyone should stay put and wait.”
He had considered taking people out of the yamen first and hiding somewhere else, but he was afraid that making any sudden move would anger the two lunatics. It would be better to remain in the rear courtyard for now.
Sitting in the seat of honor was a dignified woman. Her eyes were closed, and she continuously rolled a string of Buddhist prayer beads between her fingers.
After hearing Zuo Teng, she gave a slight nod. “Yes. We’ll do as Teng’er says. Everyone go back and rest. Once they’ve had their fill of causing trouble, they’ll naturally leave. There’s no need for us to take any risks.”
None of them had considered the possibility that Xi Qingyue and Xi Weilan might take over the yamen and stay there.
Even if the two children truly did remain at the yamen, they could think of other ways to deal with them—for example, poisoning them. This was something they had always been good at. Deceiving two children who loved to eat would be easy enough. As long as Xi Qingyue did not take the initiative to attack them, they would be safe for the time being.
A breeze swept through the courtyard. Zuo Teng suddenly felt a chill run through his body, leaving him cold and uneasy. The others felt it too.
They all looked outside at the same time, only to see the blazing sun high in the sky, its light spilling into the hall and making the chairs gleam.
Zuo Teng frowned, but since he could not find anything unusual, he paid it no further attention.
The hearings in the front courtyard continued. It was less a matter of holding trials than of villagers scrambling to cry out their grievances while wealthy households tearfully confessed one after another. The proceedings moved at a speed never before seen.
The most exhausted people were the registrar and his assistants. Some villagers also accused them of wrongdoing, but their offenses were limited to minor embezzlement. They immediately admitted their mistakes and offered three times the stolen amount as compensation.
Xi Qingyue still needed people to work for her, so she did not have them beaten. Instead, she ordered them to continue recording the minor cases as a way of redeeming themselves. The villagers accepted their compensation and no longer pursued the matter, leaving everyone satisfied.
Everyone, that is, except the registrar and his assistants, whose wrists had begun to ache from writing.
Xi Weilan sat on the table, swinging her little legs. She had already eaten several lollipops, and after finishing them, she took some biscuits out of her small cloth pouch.
Her mouth never stopped moving.
One of the yamen runners couldn’t help stealing a glance at her. The county magistrate’s body was still sitting in the chair behind her, yet she ate and drank at the table as though nothing had happened. The more they looked at her, the more frightened they became, and their respect for the sisters grew all the deeper.
