Chapter 120

Chapter 120: So Ruthless She Even Scolds Herself

The young masters were furious, and the chattiest one shook all over as he shouted at the uniformed man: “You dog official, are you blind? They lured all these people here, crippled these poor children, and turned them into tools to make money. When it all came out, they even tried to kill to silence witnesses!”

The man in official robes snorted: “Nonsense.”

The young master snapped back: “We saw it with our own eyes!”

The official ignored him, turned to leave, and ordered: “Take them away.”

These young masters were the most notorious troublemakers in the Capital. When they had nothing better to do, they brawled, loitered in brothels, and bet on animal fights. They were used to slugging it out with nobles of their own level.

A small county deputy dared to strut in front of them, and the young masters could not bear it. One waved his arm and yelled: “If one comes at me, I’ll beat one. If two come, I’ll beat a pair. I want to see what breed of dog this official is, helping those heartless criminals!”

Another hollered: “Hit them! If the sky falls, I will hold it up!”

The fathers of these troublemakers held high office, the lowest being fourth rank. By contrast, the man in uniform wore an eighth-rank badge, likely the deputy county magistrate of Gaoliang. The young masters did not take him seriously at all.

Yu Zhi Yi sighed. They had courage and good hearts. But there was one fatal problem: they were all commoners. Their fathers had power, but they themselves had no rank. If they beat a deputy magistrate, then even if they had a reason, once someone pressed charges, they would be in the wrong.

She spoke quietly, yet her voice carried weight as she said: “Stop.”

Both sides, already rolling up their sleeves, froze without thinking.

The girl in the blue skirt clearly let out a breath. She had tried to stop them earlier, but her voice was too small and she was lost among a crowd of angry men.

The young masters were unhappy. One protested: “Why are you stopping us? This guy is obviously rotten. Do you want to help him?”

It was the chatty one again. His name was Si Nan Ting, and his father was Earl Yin Nan. In the Capital he was a person everyone avoided. He knew exactly what kind of person he was and had a clear idea of his own rotten reputation. Now he had finally decided to do something good, only to be stopped again and again. He got angry. If anyone else had stopped him, he might have swallowed it, but it was Yu Zhi Yi. She was the one who brought them here, and the one who told them the truth about the victims’ suffering.

Yu Zhi Yi looked at him coolly and said: “If you assault an Imperial Court official, how many heads do you have to spare? Or do you think your father, Earl Yin Nan, has not wiped up enough of your messes and is not tired enough yet, so you want him to lose his title before you are happy?”

Si Nan Ting frowned and fell silent. The other young masters also went quiet. Their wine-addled brains finally remembered a key point. Yes, they threw their weight around in the Capital and were famous young overlords, but most of the time they picked fights with people of similar age and status. Even if they beat each other up, nothing serious happened, because they were the same sort of wastrels, neither nobility with titles nor officials with rank.

Even when they leaned on some small-time official or a small official’s family, it was done by using influence until the other party knelt to beg for mercy. They had never directly laid hands on an officer. Because of that, they had forgotten that their swagger was not their own, but borrowed from their fathers.

And under the laws of the Great Sheng Empire, a commoner assaulting an official was a serious crime that could even be tied to rebellion. Realizing this, the young masters broke out in a cold sweat.

Someone still grumbled: “So we just let this go?”

They had finally tried to do a good deed, and now it was being cut off. It felt awful. Being a good person was so hard. You had to worry about this and that. Being a wastrel was easier.

The moment Yu Zhi Yi mentioned “Earl Yin Nan,” the man in the official robe changed color. He did not know who Earl Yin Nan was, but he knew “Earl” was a noble title. So the loudmouth he wanted to slap was a count’s son?

He felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave. He knew that if he handled today badly, he was finished. If a count’s son really got involved, he could lose his official hat. He might even lose his life.

Then he heard the clear-voiced young woman speak, and a spark of hope rose in his heart. [They can’t touch me, but I can stall them, then find people to make false evidence.] He looked the young masters over and thought they were not that sharp. [If I forge it well, I can make Wang Hu and the others look like selfless helpers of the disabled. If it works, these young masters will become my stepping stones.]

But first he had to send these “ancestors” away. Otherwise there was no way to forge anything.

He was planning this when he suddenly froze. The clear voice sounded again as Yu Zhi Yi said: “You cannot touch him, but I can.”

The deputy magistrate almost laughed. If even the earl’s son could not touch him, who did this woman think she was? A princess?

His thought had barely formed when the woman said: “I, the official, as a fifth-rank Director of the Ministry of Justice, invite you to assist me in cracking a major trafficking case. If this succeeds, I will personally submit a memorial to ask for merit on your behalf.”

The young masters stared. The girl in blue widened her eyes too.

They answered in a rush: “We will do our best to assist Official Yu!”

With a proper banner to act under, they did not hesitate. They charged all at once.

Si Nan Ting did not pick anyone else; he went straight for the deputy magistrate and kicked him over as he snapped: “I will kick this dog official. You were making eyes at the kidnappers. Do you take me for blind?”

The deputy never imagined things would turn out like this. Even as he hit the ground, his head was blank. He stammered: “No… you cannot touch me! I am an Imperial Court official!”

Si Nan Ting gave a cold laugh and said: “You are an official, but only a tiny eighth-rank sesame official. Official Yu is a fifth-rank Director, and from the Ministry of Justice!”

Still not satisfied, he drew his foot back to kick the man in the chest. Yu Zhi Yi stopped him and said: “Do not beat him to death.”

Si Nan Ting hesitated, then switched from kicking to slapping. Palm after palm fell, and the deputy’s face puffed up like a pig’s head. Worse than the pain was the scathing words from the wastrel in front of him: “Do you know what the Ministry of Justice is in charge of? Cleaning up corrupt officials like you, the scum of the world!”

Yu Zhi Yi’s lips twitched. [He scolds so hard he even drags me into it.] As for “scum of the world,” Si Nan Ting had done plenty of rotten things himself, though at least he had never taken a life.