Chapter 109: Rule of Law

"The Tiger Blade Gang doesn't even have a Level 3 protective suit ourselves; why don't you change your terms, Your Excellency?"

Zhang Mingze said to Li Fei.

There are many Grade 3 exotic beasts, but very few Grade 3 exotic beasts can be used to manufacture protective suits; it is the same principle as the Grade 2 superior steel armor implant Li Fei uses.

More crucially, the technology to produce protective suits is top-secret; only the imperial court possesses this technique, and the protective suits worn by the official martial artists of the Sifa Academy in every region are issued directly from the capital, with every single suit recorded in the registry and under strict supervision.

Therefore, the number of protective suits leaked to the outside is very, very small.

Li Fei stared fixedly at the other party: "Then you can find someone else for me to kill."

Zhang Mingze narrowed his eyes and did not speak.

The atmosphere inside the private room was somewhat heavy.

"Fine, then a Level 3 protective suit it is."

After a moment of silence, Zhang Mingze finally agreed to Li Fei's terms.

Li Fei: "Give me the target's information."

Zhang Mingze handed Li Fei a file: "Three days, that should be enough, right?"

Li Fei did not answer; he took the file and began to read it first.

The file recorded an official named Feng Zhenshan, forty-seven years old this year, who had been an official at the Sifa Academy for fifteen years.

Besides the basic information, it also contained the target's daily routes, the places he liked to frequent for entertainment, how many guards followed him, and other such details.

"As an official of the Sifa Academy, why does he need to bring so many guards for his daily outings?"

After finishing the file, Li Fei asked.

Zhang Mingze: "The Sifa Academy manages the laws, adjudicates cases, and determines sentences. This Feng Zhenshan bends the law for personal gain and has offended many people over the years, so naturally, he has to find a few more guards for himself."

Li Fei looked at the other party: "Does this list of offended people also include the Tiger Blade Gang?"

Zhang Mingze smiled slightly: "If you don't trust what I say, Your Excellency, you can go investigate it yourself."

"I will."

Li Fei took the file and stood up to leave the private room.

Zhang Mingze watched his departing back, lost in thought:

"A righteous person from the pugilistic world?"

On a street paved with stone slabs, figures were sparse, and there wasn't a single peddler setting up a stall.

In the middle section of the street stood a mansion.

Below the steps outside the main gate of the mansion, a stone lion over two people tall stood on each side, looking very imposing.

On both sides of the main gate hung a plaque, with a couplet written on them:

First line: Administering with public service, standing on ice with clean hands.

Second line: Creating welfare for the people, walking in a mirror with upright integrity.

On the plaque directly above the main gate were written three large characters—Sifa Academy!

This was the Sifa Academy, which oversaw the laws of the region; it was an absolute department of real power.

Two guards wearing deep black uniforms stood at the main gate, wearing square-topped hats, swords at their waists, eyes looking straight ahead, appearing majestic and awe-inspiring.

A burst of clamor suddenly came from inside the courtyard gate.

Soon, two guards in the same uniforms pushed a couple dressed in coarse hemp clothing out very roughly.

"Officer, please have mercy, let us plead with the Master again, my son is truly innocent!"

"Officer, I beg you, my son is innocent!"

The couple was forcibly expelled from the gates of the Sifa Academy; both knelt below the steps, kowtowing to the guards to plead for mercy.

"Get out, get out, get out!"

One guard cursed with great impatience.

"What's the use of you two kneeling here?"

"Is it up to you to decide whether your son is innocent or not?"

"The imperial court has the rule of law; the masters above will naturally enforce the law impartially. If you keep shouting here, that is contempt of the rule of law. Do you believe I'll throw you into the dungeon together so your whole family can be reunited?!"

"Get lost quickly!"

Under the guards' threats, the couple had no choice but to stand up helplessly and leave quickly.

The two guards stationed at the gate were already accustomed to such scenes and asked their colleague with a smile:

"What's the situation with this pair?"

"Don't mention it, it's fucking bad luck!"

The guard who had driven them away spat, "I had already tipped them off, told them to send a gift to the Master, and guess what? These two idiots actually brought a hen to give as a gift?!"

"Hahahahahaha!"

The two guards at the gate burst into loud laughter upon hearing this; one of them even laughed until tears came out.

"A hen... hahahaha, you're killing me..."

"What a pair of idiots, and they still want the Master to overturn their son's case? Just wait to die!"

"Alright, alright, stop talking, let's go back in, quite a lot of people have come today."

After some conversation, the guards walked back into the Sifa Academy.

After a while, two more guards carried out an old man with a head full of white hair.

After these two guards carried the old man out of the gate, they actually let go and threw him down from the stone steps, causing him to fall heavily and lie on the ground, unable to crawl up for a long time.

One of the guards pointed at the old man on the ground and cursed:

"Damn old man, this is the Sifa Academy. If you dare to cause trouble here again, I'll cut you down with one blade and no one will even cry injustice for you!"

After cursing, the two turned around and prepared to go back.

"Hey, brother, this old man has been here many times, what's the matter this time, why such a big fire?"

The guard at the gate asked curiously.

"This old man has lost his mind; he actually dared to offend the Master just now!"

"Oh? Then this lesson was light. Which Master did he offend?"

"Chief Judge Feng."

"So it was Master Feng, no wonder. Master Feng is still kind-hearted."

"That's right."

The few chatted casually, and no one spared a second glance at the old man lying on the ground.

After a long while, the old man struggled to crawl up from the ground, with abrasions on his face and hands.

His face was full of misery; he looked up at the plaque that read 'Sifa Academy', then turned and left tremblingly.

The old man walked and rested, walking for a long time before finally reaching home.

His home was a two-courtyard residence.

Passing through the front courtyard and arriving at the main courtyard, the old man sat on a stone stool and suddenly burst into tears.

The sobbing was extremely repressed and very desolate.

"Old man."

A voice suddenly sounded beside the old man.

The old man was startled and hurriedly looked up, but saw a green ghost mask, and his expression changed drastically.

"Don't be afraid, I am not a bad person."

Li Fei gently pressed his hand on the old man and said softly.

After he got Feng Zhenshan's information, he had Liu Saner help him inquire; although the Tiger Blade Gang likely hadn't lied to him, his naturally cautious personality meant he wouldn't easily trust anyone.

Liu Saner quickly found out some news about Feng Zhenshan and informed Li Fei of the cases the target had handled.

Judging from how these cases were handled, Zhang Mingze indeed hadn't lied to him; this Feng Zhenshan was a piece of human scum who bent the law for personal gain and preyed on the people. Killing this person was acting on behalf of Heaven.

But Li Fei still didn't rush to act.

He found out that the target was currently handling several cases, and the old man before him was related to one of them.

So Li Fei personally ran to wait outside the Sifa Academy, waited for this old man first, and then followed him all the way home.

"Who... who are you?"

The old man looked at the mask on Li Fei's face with suspicion and fear.

Li Fei said softly: "I am someone who can help you."

"Help me? How can you help?"

"I know your son and daughter-in-law killed someone, and the person in charge of this case is the Level 3 Chief Judge of the Sifa Academy, Feng Zhenshan, right?"

"What's the use of knowing this? What can you help me with?"

Once the case was mentioned, the old man wasn't as nervous; it was replaced by deep despair.

"Can you tell me in detail about the cause and process of this case?"

Li Fei found a stone stool and sat down, then asked.

The old man looked at Li Fei; although he felt it was very strange for someone to suddenly appear and say they wanted to help him, he was unwilling to miss any chance, so he told Li Fei the whole story of his family's case in detail from beginning to end.

This case was not complicated:

The old man's family had been in the tofu business for generations, and by the time it reached his son's generation, they had saved up some money.

In order to let the children in the family study in the city and receive a good education, the old man's son planned to buy a house in the city.

Eventually, the target took a liking to this current two-courtyard residence, but even after putting up all their savings, it still wasn't enough.

So the old man's son went to borrow a sum of high-interest money, which was usury.

Originally, he thought his business was doing well and he would be able to pay back the money before long. But he never expected that problems would arise in the business, and a long-term major client ran off with the debt.

With that, the old man's family capital chain was completely broken, and the usury could not be repaid for the time being, eventually snowballing more and more.

What followed was a long half-year of debt collection, involving all sorts of coercion and intimidation.

A week ago, the debt collectors came to the door again; not only did they beat the old man's son, but they also molested his daughter-in-law, and in the end, they even tried to force themselves upon her, threatening that she would have to use her body to pay off the debt!

The old man's son could bear it no longer, picked up a kitchen knife to fight back, and wounded the debt collector. In a fit of rage, the other party also drew a knife he was carrying and slashed at the old man's son.

The final result was that the old man's son and his daughter-in-law worked together to hack the debt collector to death.

It was just such a case; according to the laws of the Great Lan Dynasty, the old man's son and daughter-in-law had a chance to be acquitted, and Feng Zhenshan, who was initially in charge of this case, told the old man the same thing.

"Feng Zhenshan hinted to me that as long as I gave some gifts and greased the wheels, my son and daughter-in-law could be released without charge. But not long after I gave him the money, he changed his tune, saying that the victim's family in this case had also given money to others, so the case was now difficult to handle, and in the end, it might be judged as intentional homicide by my son and daughter-in-law, and they would be sentenced to death!"

"I panicked immediately and asked him what to do. His words implied that I needed to continue giving more money. I had no choice but to mortgage the house to someone else, exchanged it for a sum of money, and gave it all to Feng Zhenshan, only praying that my son and daughter-in-law would be fine. After he received the money, he promised me that this case would be no problem."

"But today, when I went to ask him about the situation of the case, he changed his tune again! He said the situation was not right now, that the victim's family had greased the palms of many people, even his superiors, and that the case could only be judged as intentional homicide now. In a fit of indignation, I wanted to reason with him, but I was forcibly thrown out by his men."

The old man wiped away tears as he spoke.

Li Fei listened to this case with cold eyes, and he looked at the old man:

"Is this how the Sifa Academy handles cases on a daily basis? Eating from both sides, racking their brains to squeeze every cent out of both parties, and in the end, favoring whoever gives more money?"

The old man looked desperate: "How could ordinary folks like us understand the ins and outs of this? We only found out when we suddenly encountered a lawsuit..."

He paused for a moment, and said in a sobbing voice as faint as a mosquito's hum:

"Where in this world is there any law?"

PS: A transitional chapter, so this chapter has a higher word count.

(End of chapter)