Chapter 299

Damn it, he has wives, outside mistresses, and concubines—he has everything.

He even has children.

A man in his twenties and he already has children?

Have you no shame!

Xun Baishui felt disdain in his heart.

In truth, this charge—

for the common people, there is no room for leniency.

But the powerful and wealthy, well—

in any dynasty or any country, they always have privileges.

It is merely a matter of whether they have any shame,

and the difference between being discreet or not.

If the person Gu Gu Gu Tingye had cursed was just a minor official with no power or influence, it would be one thing.

The key is that Jia Hui is not.

He is an existence even more powerful and influential than your Gu family!

Therefore,

Xun Baishui pushed away the hand offering him money, his face wearing a forced smile: "This official serves the public and enforces the law; I will never bend the law for personal gain."

What a joke!

If he dared to bend the law in public,

he had every reason to believe that by the next day, Jia Hui would be able to impeach him.

He might even go straight into the palace that very day to make a scene before the Emperor.

Would his official career still be safe?

Thus, he directly rejected the words of Gu Yankai.

He ignored the darkening face

of the incomparably furious Gu Yankai.

He paused, then pointed at the other man: "Unless the Marquis withdraws the accusation."

As for who this Marquis refers to, naturally, it would not be him.

This made Gu Yankai's expression turn gloomy and uncertain.

Immediately, Xun Baishui ignored Gu Yankai.

Because he had not finished speaking.

"What I just mentioned was the 'Theft Code'."

"Now, it is the crime of verbal abuse."

"You are also to be punished with ninety strokes of the heavy staff."

This crime of verbal abuse is not just aimed at cursing officials.

If a concubine curses her husband, she is to be punished with eighty strokes of the staff.

Cursing grandparents or parents is punishable by strangulation; striking them is punishable by beheading!

Furthermore, cursing a master or similar superior is punishable by one year of penal servitude.

Cursing an official is also very serious.

Striking a government envoy, a local prefect, an inspector, a county magistrate, or striking a superior official of the fifth rank or higher is punishable by three years of penal servitude; if injury is caused, exile of two thousand li; if a bone is broken, strangulation.

If striking an official of the sixth rank or lower, the penalty is reduced by three degrees; for verbal abuse, the penalty is reduced by three degrees from the penalty for striking.

The punishment for cursing an official is three degrees less than the penalty for striking an official.

Therefore, first ninety strokes of the staff, then facial tattooing, followed by hard labor.

However, under normal circumstances,

because there is the punishment of hard labor ahead,

as long as the judge is not intentionally making trouble,

then this staff punishment is effectively a "live beating."

It will hurt you enough that you won't be able to get out of bed for at least a month.

And then you are dragged off to serve the hard labor sentence.

But if Xun Baishui leans toward Jia Hui and does not give Gu Yankai face,

then he could also just beat him to death on the spot and be done with it.

Hearing all this, Gu Gu Gu Tingye's face turned even paler.

"Father, save me, save me!! I will definitely turn over a new leaf, from now on I will never dare to do it again, you must save me!"

He abandoned all shame, crying and begging Gu Yankai for help in public.

Forced to this point by Jia Hui.

Jia Hui's eyes, however, narrowed slightly.

Because he did not want this Gu Gu Gu Tingye to suddenly "see the light."

In the original story,

this Gu Gu Gu Tingye truly experienced family tragedy and displacement, suddenly saw the light, went to the capital to join the army, built a reputation, and used his wits to win over Minglan.

He would not give the other party that opportunity.

"Marquis Marquis Marquis Wushuang!"

Gu Yankai really wanted to ignore everything, but he truly could not bear his son's crying and pleading.

So he stepped forward and bowed deeply to his enemy, Jia Hui!

After the bow,

he put on a fawning smile: "Might we step aside to speak?"

Jia Hui gave an amused smile, "Very well, I must give the Marquis of Ningyuan this much face."

He was, after all, interested in hearing what this man could possibly say.

And so,

the two men left the courtroom.

As they passed by,

Jia Hui also crossed paths with Xun Xun Xun Baiyun and the others.

Xun Xun Xun Baiyun blushed and gave a light bow to Jia Hui,

yet she boldly met Jia Hui's gaze from start to finish.

"Greetings, Marquis Marquis Marquis Wushuang. The Prefect of Jingzhao is my elder brother."

【317】 Empress Liu and Empress Xun, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, heh heh! The Tang and Han dynasties were filthy, and the Great Great Great Qian is no better!

Looking at this future Empress, who was still young and therefore quite beautiful,

Jia Hui raised an eyebrow.

He recalled his impressions and memories regarding this woman.

Empress Xun, a woman who could not be accurately defined.

Yes, impossible to define accurately!

If one says she was not a qualified Empress, Jia Hui remembers that she managed the inner palace strictly, with no messy business occurring, and the Emperor at the time never had to worry about inner palace affairs.

But if one says she was a qualified Empress, she displayed pettiness at every turn.

She lacked breadth of mind and tolerance; she didn't even have much cunning. She feared the Changlin Prince's Mansion and resented it, expressing it clearly as if she were afraid others wouldn't know.

If one says she was a good mother, nothing this woman did was truly beneficial to her son. In order to borrow the "blessing of the White God" for her son, she did not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of thousands of commoners, brewing a horrific plague, and in the end, she was used by others, nearly bringing disaster upon her son.

But one cannot say she was not a good mother, because this woman was willing to do anything for her son, even willingly going to her death when the rebel army broke in, just to protect him.

Furthermore, was she a bad person?

One couldn't find any truly malicious intent!

If one says she was a good person,

yet this woman could commit the vicious act of letting a plague spread, making people hate and resent her.