Chapter 230: Cause and Effect Leave No Gaps

Yang Yang Hongbin, Left Director of the Dalisi, was promoted from Associate Judge to Left Director for his role in solving the Grand Water Surveillance Case in Jin Ling.

He had once worked alongside Jia Cong in Jin Ling through shared trials, and their private friendship was deep.

Yang Yang Hongbin was upright and cautious; these past days, he had already heard rumors in the streets about Zhang Shou's corruption.

Yet under the principle that civilians must formally accuse officials, though public outcry surged, the Dalisi could only watch and wait.

Even if the Dalisi were to overturn wrongful verdicts, it required lower offices to submit cases for review before it could exercise its supervisory duty to correct errors.

But in the case of Xiuniang Perfume Shop, the Zhen'an Prefecture had imprisoned the accused, applied torture before completing a formal case dossier, and Jia Cong had rescued the detainee in time—the matter had not yet reached the Three Judicial Offices.

This was why, despite rampant rumors of Zhang Shou's corruption and harm to the people, the Ministry of Justice, the Dalisi, and the Censorate remained inactive.

Because procedural requirements had not been met, the bureaus lacked legal authority to act; the Three Judicial Offices had no legitimate foothold to intervene.

They could not possibly arrest a fifth-rank capital official merely because commoners were gossiping—that would become a laughingstock in official circles.

Just as rumors of Zhang Shou's corruption in Love Shenjing reached their boiling point.

Since that day Jia Cong arrived at Zhen'an Prefecture and, with clever rhetoric and verbal pressure, forced the once-canny Prefect Zhang to release the detainee on the spot.

…

He heard from the yamen runners that Jia Cong was furious over the torture inflicted upon Xiuniang Perfume Shop's staff.

He had summoned his trusted strategist Liu Liu Binfang to discuss countermeasures, but Liu Liu Binfang, usually sharp and resourceful, had become tongue-tied and could offer no coherent advice.

Though Liu Liu Binfang had been promoted by Zhang Shou himself and had once served him loyally, he possessed slightly more moral boundaries, granting him a measure of detached calm.

Yet the next day, Liu Liu Binfang's subordinates reported that the Assistant Judge had suddenly fallen ill and had submitted a leave request, needing time to recover at home.

The Three Judicial Offices were paralyzed; the Censorate's gossipy censors clenched their fists and sharpened their tongues, yet found no pretext to act.

Because filing a formal accusation now, backed by the boiling public outcry, made it impossible—even for those with backstage connections—to spare Zhang Shou even a little.

If not for everyone knowing she was merely a shopkeeper's wife, a victim of brutal officials, a woman with no experience in court politics.

And he recalled how, during the witchcraft incident at Lady Rongguo Mansion, this young man had behaved so unusually.

From the moment he saw Feng's horrific torture, he had never intended to let Zhang Shou escape—he would cut off all escape routes and bring him to ruin!

All he could do now was burn with anguish daily, his head and heart in torment.

Though the Xiuniang Perfume Shop affair had erupted so violently, he could not be certain it was orchestrated by this youth behind the scenes.

These past days, as public outcry blazed like wildfire, everyone in Zhen'an Prefecture—from senior aides like Liu Liu Binfang down to ordinary constables and jailers—felt the oppressive weight of an approaching storm.

Because it was an outrage against all heaven and earth!

And this was precisely what Jia Cong wanted: Zhang Shou had held the post of Zhen'an Prefect for three years, with enough connections in court to sustain him.

As rumors outside grew louder day by day, Zhang Shou, at the center of the storm, was utterly powerless—how could one silence the mouths of the people?

He must harbor doubts about her filing this accusation at such a critical moment.

Behind the Zhen'an Prefecture's main hall.

When the situation reached its peak, Feng's wife struck the Dalisi 's gong of grievance as if timed to the moment.

Afterward, events spiraled beyond control; within days, the affair became known throughout Love Shenjing, as if invisibly propelled by unseen hands.

But seeing how far the situation had deteriorated, he realized Zhang Shou had no chance of survival; though Zhang had once shown him favor, he would not die with him.

He was immensely relieved that, upon hearing of the Xiuniang Perfume Shop case, he had wisely stayed out of it—otherwise, his name, Liu Liu Binfang's, would now be among those cursed in the streets.

For him, the most rational course now was to sever all ties with the affair, keep sufficient distance from Zhang Shou, and feigning illness at home was a decent strategy.

Of course, in the prefecture, there were fools like Chief Constable Liu Liu Erzhen, utterly oblivious, recently as cheerful as if he had struck gold.

He had forgotten that it was he, on Zhang Shou's orders, who had arrested the people from Xiuniang Perfume Shop—and he himself had ordered the torture.

…

Since news spread that the perfume shop's owner, Qing Niangzi Feng, had filed her grievance at the Dalisi, public outcry surged again to new heights.

This time, the common folk no longer confined their anger to the Xiuniang Perfume Shop case—they began circulating rumors of Zhang Shou's past crimes.

Such as groveling before the powerful, aiding tyrants, forcing peasants to sell their land at rock-bottom prices;

Shielding wealthy merchants' sons who beat others to death, accepting ten thousand taels in bribes, letting the killers remain at large;

Powerful families seizing young women, whose families' pleas went unanswered, only to be imprisoned and tortured to death;

Each tale was told with vivid detail—no one knew where they had heard them.

And some of these incidents may not have been Zhang Shou's doing at all, but deliberately misattributed to him with malicious intent.

All of this kept public outrage burning like oil poured onto fire.

…

Within half a day of the Left Director of the Dalisi receiving the grievance over Xiuniang Perfume Shop, the news spread through the Ministry of Justice and the Censorate.

Too late for the morning court session, but it gave the Censorate's gossipy censors ample time to draft their impeachment memorials.

Having listened to days of street gossip and simmering with rage, the censors wrote with sharp, righteous prose, eager to turn their pens into swords and slay the villain Zhang Shou on the spot.

On the next morning's court session, not only did four censors from Yongzhou Circuit each submit memorials accusing Zhen'an Prefect of corruption and harming the people, but censors from other provinces also joined in.

Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao, upon learning the matter, flew into a rage: in the imperial capital, the seat of the Zhou dynasty, how could a prefect entrusted with governing on the Emperor's behalf be so lawless, cruel, and brutal as to incite such public fury?

The Emperor publicly rebuked the Ministry of Personnel for its annual appointments and evaluations, lamenting how decayed its system had become, allowing such a tyrant to hold office and poison the state, betraying the imperial grace!

The Minister of Personnel was publicly censured, and the Director of the Ministry's Office of Official Performance Evaluation—rumored to have longstanding ties to Ningguo Prefecture—was immediately dismissed and investigated.

Emperor Emperor Jia Zhao ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to swiftly arrest Zhang Shou and imprison him, with the Dalisi presiding over the trial, the Censorate and Ministry of Justice overseeing it, and a strict deadline to clarify the case—all implicated parties to be punished without mercy.

Thus, a private greed over a perfume shop and a secret recipe had ignited a storm that shook the imperial court!

…

Zhen'an Prefecture.

Though Zhen'an Prefecture had lately faced fierce criticism over the Xiuniang Perfume Shop affair, Chief Constable Liu Liu Erzhen seemed unconcerned.

After all, this was the Great Lord's burden; he and his men were merely following orders—when the sky fell, the tall man would bear it; it could never reach a lowly constable like him.

Besides, he had made several small fortunes recently, and his spirits were high.

Jia Rong of Ningguo Prefecture had requested the Great Lord to arrest the Xiuniang Perfume Shop's owner to seize her perfume recipe.

Though the method was despicable, Jia Rong was shrewd—he had bribed everyone involved in the case to expedite matters.

Liu Liu Erzhen himself received fifty taels from Jia Rong.

He had long coveted Chunxing, the top courtesan at Yicui Pavilion; this sum allowed him to indulge there for several days.

Yesterday, someone had invited him to drink in roundabout fashion, asking who had asked the Great Lord to handle the Xiuniang Perfume Shop case—though everyone, even ghosts, knew the answer, there was no need to keep it secret.

He merely named Jia Rong—and received a hundred taels as a reward; his fortune had been rolling in lately.

Liu Liu Erzhen was pondering which courtesan's chamber to visit tonight when he glanced absently toward the prefecture gate—and froze in shock, thinking his eyes had been clouded by too much debauchery.

Dust flew at the prefecture gate; men and horses surged in—a horde of ferocious Embroidered Uniform Guard officers.

(End of Chapter)