Chapter 280

Hearing the jailer speak this way.

Wu Tingzan gritted his teeth and said in a low voice,

"What do you know? I am doing this for his own good."

"His case is far too big; it is not something people like us can control!"

"I only brought him into this jail to protect him because he is a fellow townsman."

Hearing this, the jailer was stunned.

"My lord, isn't this just a matter of a tenant committing adultery? At most, a concubine died."

The jailer had seen such matters many times.

Most of them could be resolved with a bit of silver.

Unexpectedly, Wu Tingzan shook his head slightly and said,

"This is not something you can know. Go back quickly and take good care of Shopkeeper Sun for me."

The jailer had nothing more to say.

He could only turn his head and leave the Military Command.

Wu Tingzan looked at the table behind him, piled high with official documents.

Beads of sweat immediately began to seep from his forehead.

There was no other reason.

The various procedures for arresting Shopkeeper Sun this time had arrived far too complete.

A few days ago, the official letter requesting the Beicheng Military Command to go out of the city to arrest him had already arrived.

Seeing that Shopkeeper Sun was involved, Wu Tingzan instinctively wanted to suppress the case.

But today, even a Memorial to the throne from the Donggong had been approved.

Wu Tingzan was not a fool.

At a glance, he saw that this case likely involved too many nobles he could not afford to offend.

Even if he let Shopkeeper Sun off the hook.

The people behind the scenes would surely have other ways to deal with Shopkeeper Sun.

Rather than that,

it was better for him to act directly and bring Shopkeeper Sun back himself.

At least under his own watch.

However,

Wu Tingzan had never imagined the complexity of this matter.

Not long after the jailer left,

he returned to the Military Command.

Only this time, when the jailer returned, his face had already turned deathly pale.

"My lord... something, something has happened."

Wu Tingzan suddenly raised his head and looked at the jailer, asking sternly,

"What happened?!"

"Shopkeeper Sun, Shopkeeper Sun has hanged himself in the jail!"

Hearing this news,

Wu Tingzan nearly fainted dead away.

A prisoner dying in jail was a grave crime.

Especially for a prisoner whose status had not even been determined.

Wu Tingzan immediately ran toward the distant jail.

As soon as he stepped through the Lao Sect door,

he saw Shopkeeper Sun, who had just been carried down.

"This... Old Sun, Old Sun, why did you have to do this!"

"Isn't it just silver? We brothers are all here; are we worried about not earning silver?!"

At the same time,

news that a boat company shopkeeper had been driven to death by the high interest of the Baochao Commissioner's Office immediately spread throughout Jin Ling without legs...

158, Su Qiao: It cannot be exempted; not a single coin can be exempted!

That night,

the family of Shopkeeper Ye immediately received the news.

They came to the Beicheng Military Command to collect the body.

The orphaned mother and child, looking at their fellow townsman Wu Tingzan before them, immediately began to curse loudly,

"Wu Tingzan! My Ye family has no grudge or feud with you!"

"Was it necessary to force people to the edge of a dead end?!"

Having been thoroughly scolded, Wu Tingzan looked at the widow before him in near despair and pleaded,

"Sister-in-law, you must believe me! Where did I show even a shred of making things difficult for my brother?"

"Since he was brought back, I have treated him with the best food and drink; I myself haven't eaten this well!"

"How did that person die?"

"Our family has only this one pillar!"

"How do you expect us, an orphaned mother and child, to continue living on?"

"……"

Outside the Beicheng Military and Horse Office, wailing filled the ground.

And the surrounding common folk watching grew ever more numerous.

After a long while.

The accountant from the Viceroy Yamen slowly walked out from within.

Gazing at the widow before him, he said

"Lady, you truly cannot blame Commander Wu for this."

"Recently the shipping house has had many orders; our Shopkeeper signed contracts with those shipowners, guaranteeing the work would be completed on schedule."

The widow, her face streaked with tears, looked at the accountant and wept,

"Nonsense! How could I not know what the shipping house's situation is like?"

Having said this, the accountant looked helplessly at the two children before him and sighed,

"What you don't know, Lady, is that a few days ago your Master borrowed a large sum of money from the Baochao Tijusi, thinking to take advantage of the good market and make a big splash."

"In the past, if one or two orders went wrong, with our shipping house's strength, there absolutely wouldn't have been a problem."

"But every month such a large sum of interest must be paid."

"Now, having been dragged into this case for no reason, the docks won't be able to work for at least a month or two — the Shopkeeper was driven to death!"

Outside the yamen, silence instantly fell.

Nowadays, quite a few people in Jin Ling have borrowed silver from the Baochao Tijusi.

That monthly interest—

Is no small sum.

Every one of the surrounding common folk felt it in their own bones.

"The Baochao Tijusi is a yamen of our court… how can it push the common folk to such a state?"

"Sigh… sister-in-law, hurry and take the children back. The common folk cannot struggle against the officials."

"……"

Just at this moment.

A figure quietly appeared in the distant crowd.

Watching Qi Tai pushed through the crowd on his own and said to the surrounding common folk,

"What are you all gathering here for?"

"This…? Commander Wu, what is going on here?"

Watching Qi Tai's gaze instantly locked onto the corpse on the ground.