Phoenix Reborn: the Prime Minister’s Scheming Daughter - Chapter 341

With an indifferent expression, Shen Ninghua turned her head to the man after he finished talking and hissed, “You should know by now that I hate it when people lie to me. You’d better think about it first before trying to lie to me.”

“I’m telling you the truth! I don’t dare to lie to you at all. The reason why we are so poor is that all the things we robbed were secretly taken away. We are just someone’s dummies. We have no choice but to rob whatever our Master wants to rob.”

“Someone’s dummies? Who is manipulating you?”

“The Zhou Family’s patriarch, Zhou Ziqing!”

His words were like a bolt of lightning that struck the crowd.

“What? Patriarch Zhou? Impossible!”

“These bandits are definitely lying. How could Patriarch Zhou do such a thing?”

“They are slandering him!”

“Kill the bandits! Kill them all!”

Sitting back on the chair, Shen Ninghua smiled slightly as she listened to the clamor. “See, they don’t believe you. If you don’t show us any proof to back your story, I can only follow the will of the people and kill you.”

“No! I have proof! I do! T-There’s a ledger. I’ve seen it once. My boss kept it. Every time we came back from our robbery, he would update the ledger.”

Shen Ninghua looked up. “Ye Yi, have you found any ledger?”

“Yes, there is one. Please have a look, Princess.”

Shen Ninghua glanced at the ledger, but her expression did not change much.

Zhou Ziqing sneered, “Prefectural Princess, I know that you have always suspected I am the one who burned the posthouse, so you have tried to get rid of me to take revenge. But I’m just a commoner. I don’t have the ability and courage to burn the posthouse. I’m innocent.”

When he said this, the people showed a trace of sympathy. No wonder Prefectural Princess insisted that the roving bandits were related to the Zhou Family, but this was unreasonable. They heard that Prefectural Prince Yi was still unconscious, so it was understandable that Prefectural Princess was vengeful, but she couldn’t wrongly accuse innocent people.

Shen Ninghua threw the ledger to Zhou Ziqing. “So, are you saying that you don’t know about this ledger?”

“Why should I know about it? Only the roving bandit leader’s handwriting was on the ledger. There was nothing on it that suggested its connection to me and my family. My signature and seal were not present, so it clearly had nothing to do with me. What should I admit to?”

Shen Ninghua looked at the roving bandit, who was speaking the truth, and shook her head slightly. “Well, it looks like you don’t have any evidence to prove your point. I’m sorry…” With that, she took out the small porcelain bottle from her sleeve…

“No, no, Princess! I have another proof!”

Zhou Ziqing suddenly narrowed his eyes, and a deep haze flashed through his glare.

The corners of Shen Ninghua’s lips curled up slightly. She wasn’t very surprised though. After all, these roving bandits were not like regular troops. There were loopholes no matter how secretive the matter was. Zhou Ziqing thought that his plan was flawless, but in reality, there must be loopholes somewhere.

“What other evidence do you have? Spill it!”

“Yes, yes. I know that our leader had the Zhou Family’s mark engraved on his back. It would show only when you smeared some blood on it. Our leader was injured in one of the robberies, and I saw it by accident!”

Shen Ninghua’s eyes moved. “This evidence is quite convincing. A mark that can only be shown after being stained with blood. This is quite interesting. Ye Yi?”

“Yes, Princess.”

With two guards assisting him, Ye Yi directly tore off the clothes of the roving bandit leader who had turned black and blue, smeared his own palm with the bandit’s blood, and wiped it on the location that the roving bandit had described. Sure enough, he saw the Zhou character on the man’s back.

The citizens were in an uproar. “What… that bandit really has the Zhou Family’s mark on him.”

“I have seen that mark. All the rice shops and medicine shops owned by the Zhou Family have this mark too!”

“The Zhou Family… did these roving bandits really work for the Zhou Family?”

Shen Ninghua looked at Zhou Ziqing. “Zhou Ziqing, what else do you have to say?”

Zhou Ziqing thought quickly and had a countermeasure. “Princess, the Zhou Family’s mark is on the shop signs that my family owned all over the city. Who knows if these people deliberately carved the mark to frame us?”

“It makes sense. But it’s quite interesting about a mark that can only appear when it is stained with blood. Ye Yi, bring Lord Zhou Da here and show him.”

Zhou Ziqing’s expression changed, and he looked at Shen Ninghua with anger. Did she know about it? Was that why she dared to arrest him so brazenly?

The dumbfounded Zhou Da was brought up. Just as he went up to the stage, he accidentally fell and was caught by Ye Yi who was following him closely behind. Perhaps, his clothes were a little loose, so Ye Yi tore off the back of his clothes, and the guard with blood on his hands slapped Zhou Da on the back.

“Oh heavens! That is the Zhou Family’s mark! It’s on Lord Zhou’s back too!”

“What the hell? Does it mean that Lord Zhou is working for the Zhou Family too?”

Shen Ninghua stood up, her face filled with anger. “What do you know? Even Lord Zhou had the Zhou Family’s mark on his body. Are you telling me that he engraved it on his body on purpose?”

Looking at Zhou Ziqing, who was tied up on the ground, Zhou Da felt that his vision was dark. He was screwed.

Shen Ninghua continued, “Zhou City’s prefecture magistrate has the Zhou Family’s mark on him. What about the other officials? Do they also have it?” She swept her gaze over the officials standing at the side of the steps. “In order to prove your innocence, I have to do this. Ye Yi, check the officials!”

“What? No! Let go of me! I’m the imperial court’s official. Princess, how can you expose my body in public? How will I have the dignity to uphold justice in the future?”

“I’m upholding justice right now. If I wronged you, I would apologize to you in person. If you’re not innocent, I’ll execute you immediately. Ye Yi, do it!”

“Yes, Princess!”

“No, let me go, let me go!”

Regardless of the officials’ struggle, the guards tore off the officials’ clothes swiftly and smeared blood on their backs. Not long after, marks of the Zhou Family were revealed.

Thousands of people, who were standing under the stage, stood in absolute silence. What they had seen and heard today had completely subverted their understanding. Wasn’t the Zhou Family benevolent and kind for generations? How could they be connected to the treacherous roving bandits? Wasn’t Lord Zhou their magistrate? How could he be related to the Zhou Family?

Shen Ninghua sneered, and her anger rose. “Great, this is great! There are a total of twelve counties in Zhou City, and there are a total of twelve officials in all the counties. These twelve officials are all working for the Zhou Family! Zhou Ziqing, how dare you! You’re so greedy!”

Zhou Da closed his eyes and felt dizzy. They were doomed. The Zhou Family and all of them were done for.

Absolute silence engulfed the crowd. Everyone was stunned on the spot.

Shen Ninghua’s crisp and clear voice echoed across the place, resonating into everyone’s ears.

“So there are still many things that I don’t understand, but now, everything is loud and clear. Zhou Ziqing, you and your family are not kind and benevolent, but you’re just a bunch of crooks! You have controlled all the situations around Zhou City through the officials. You know which family is rich and powerful. For those who obeyed your orders, you robbed their belongings and kept the family alive. For those who disobeyed you, you ordered the bandits to kill them and possess their things!”

“Naturally, just robbing rich and powerful people is not enough for you to establish a foothold in Zhou City, so you also robbed the ordinary citizens. After robbing the hard-earned money they had worked hard to save, you helped them with only half or even one-third of the stashes you had stolen from them, and they were ever so grateful to you. Didn’t you have any guilty conscience when you listened to their praises and compliments?”

“No, of course not. I forgot. Why would you have a guilty conscience? You don’t even have any conscience! If you had, you wouldn’t have robbed the citizens and commanded the bandits to destroy their families! Don’t you have families and friends? Zhou Ziqing, you’re horrible!”

The buzzing of discussion among the people grew louder and louder, more and more intense, and finally gathered into a sentence: “Execute them! Kill the Zhou Family!”

Zhou Ziqing trembled all over. At this point, the situation dawned upon him. He was doomed. “Princess Yi, I underestimated you.”

“I underestimated you too. I didn’t expect you to be so evil that you have no humanity. The officials of the surrounding 20 counties and counties all listen to your orders. So you were the one who turned away the refugees who came to ask for help, right?”

What? The refugees were taken aback. They were grateful to the Zhou Family all along. After all, the Zhou Family had provided them with food and so many medicinal herbs to save their lives. But what did they hear now? It was Zhou Ziqing who turned them away at that time? A lot of people died because they were refused to enter the city, and among them were their families…

Zhou Ziqing laughed. “Yes, it was my order. There were so many refugees who had rushed into Zhou City. I’ve always maintained a good reputation. We need to spend a lot of money to save these refugees, but if some of them died, my reputation would be tarnished. So, the best way to deal with it was to lock them outside. When a certain amount of them died, we’d let those who survived in. In this way, I can spend the least amount of money to accumulate the most praise.”

“Freak!”

“The Zhou Family is horrible! Kill the Zhou Family!”

“Zhou Ziqing, you should just die!”

Baili Jinchuan pursed his lips slightly, and the lines on his chin became harder and harder. The Zhou Family was done for!

The refugees were overwhelmed by anger. The man, who fed Zhou Ziqing water earlier, directly smashed the bowl on Zhou Ziqing’s head with a bang.

Zhou Ziqing laughed wildly and looked at Shen Ninghua. “They are just a bunch of useless bugs. Do you really care about these lowlifes?! These people often insult you and Prefectural Prince Yi behind your back. Don’t you hate them? Are you not angry?”

“They are all kind-hearted people who were deceived by you. Why should I be angry?”

“Hahaha, You’re not angry. You are not angry…”