The Succession Struggle in the Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 221 Jia Lian Unluckily Gets into a Lawsuit

At this shout, many people outside collectively changed color.

The one with the worst expression was Geng Chunchen.

He just said that even if there were people inside, they would be dead.

I never expected his words to come true so quickly.

However, this is not something to boast about; on the contrary, it's not a good thing. People will think he already knew those two people were dead.

Sure enough, after hearing the shout, everyone's eyes turned to him.

Fortunately, everyone was focused on the situation inside the dilapidated room and no one said anything.

Judge Cui, abandoning his composed demeanor, hurriedly ran into the dilapidated house.

Jia Lian and the others followed suit, all crowding into the dilapidated little house.

As soon as Jia Lian entered, he saw the yamen runner who had come in to check earlier standing in the corner of the room, with two figures sitting against the wall at his feet.

At first glance, one might think these two people were resting against the wall, but upon closer inspection, one could see that their faces were pale and they were dead.

At this moment, Judge Cui, who had entered earlier, had already walked to the two corpses and was busy checking their condition.

After carefully looking around, he stood up and said to the people behind him:

"He's been dead for a while."

Everyone risked their lives and made such a big effort to capture people, only to have them die in the end. It's such a huge loss.

However, this had no impact on Jia Lian and his group. Their main reason for setting out was to retrieve the jewelry.

Therefore, Jia Lian didn't care about the two dead people, but only asked:

"Did you see anything they were carrying?"

Judge Cui naturally knew the purpose of Jia Lian's question. He turned around, picked up a package between the two corpses, and said:
"These are the things they carry with them."

Jia Lian's eyes lit up when he saw the package, and he quickly said:

"Lord Cui, open it and see what's inside?"

Judge Cui did not listen to Jia Lian's instructions to open the package. Instead, he put his hand down and placed the package behind his back.

Upon seeing this, Jia Lian said, puzzled:

"Lord Cui, what do you mean by this?"

Judge Cui said, "From my initial examination, these two people were murdered. This is not about arresting petty thieves, but a murder case."

The package in my hand is evidence from the murder scene; how could I possibly show it to just anyone?

Jia Lian believed that the two people died here because they had no hope of escaping and committed suicide.

Now it seems that someone else was the one who killed him.

If that's the case, then things become more complicated.

Moreover, Jia Lian was even more worried that the jewelry might be stolen by the murderer.

So he said to Judge Cui, "Lord Cui, I don't care whether it was suicide or murder, I just want to know if the jewelry they stole is still there?"

Judge Cui didn't want to pay attention to Jia Lian's words; he was annoyed himself.

A perfectly good case of catching thieves has turned into a murder case, and it happened right under his nose, which is not a good thing for the entire Shuntian Prefecture.

Moreover, based on his many years of experience in Shuntian Prefecture, these two people died not long ago, and it is very likely that they died around the time Jia Lian and his group arrived.

Therefore, in Judge Cui's eyes, both Jia Lian and Geng Chunchen beside him are now suspects.

With that concern in mind, how could he possibly let them see what was inside the package?

So he said, "I can't decide the answer to the murder. If you want to see what's inside, you'll have to wait until you see the Prefect."

“You…” Jia Lian was speechless with anger. He hadn’t expected that Judge Cui would be such an unreasonable person.

But what they said made perfect sense, and he couldn't refute it, so he could only say:

"Alright, then I will personally go to the Shuntian Prefecture government office tomorrow to request an audience with Lord Zhu."

After saying that, he turned around and prepared to leave with his men.

But before he could take a single step, he heard Judge Cui say:
"Young Master Jia, please wait. A murder has occurred. You will need to go to the Shuntian Prefecture government office."

Although Jia Lian was not highly regarded in the Jia family, he was, after all, a noble young master from a family of merit, and his temper was still somewhat temperate.

Now that Judge Cui has repeatedly humiliated him, he has long been dissatisfied.

He suddenly turned around and stared at Judge Cui, saying:
"Why do you suspect that I ordered the killing of those two petty thieves?"

Judge Cui remained calm in the face of Jia Lian's anger, and said:

"Before the interrogation, no one can be certain who the murderer is. However, of those who arrived here tonight, you two were the first, and in my opinion, they died after you arrived."

Therefore, you are now suspects, and we cannot simply leave. We must go to the Shuntian Prefecture to inquire before we can get any results.”

When Judge Cui said this, he pointed to Geng Chunchen, who was watching from the sidelines, clearly indicating that he would not let either side off the hook.

It's rather audacious that a mere judge of Shuntian Prefecture could stand up to two powerful noble families.

Such people are either incredibly reckless or extremely ruthless; in short, they are not the type to confront others directly.

Having been in this business for so many years, Jia Lian still had some discernment. He said:

"I didn't expect that Shuntian Prefecture had someone like you hidden away. Alright, since you put it that way, I'll go with you."

"It's so late, my family must be waiting for us to return home. Could we send the servants back first?"

Jia Lian's plan was to go to Shuntian Prefecture alone, and have Jia Rong take the servants home, so that the current situation could be reported to his family.

Judge Cui clearly had this trick up his sleeve, he said:
"Everyone here could be a murderer, so please forgive me, Young Master Jia, but no one can leave."

As for what Young Master Jia said about his family's concerns, I will send someone to inform your respective households.

Seeing that his plan had failed, Jia Lian shut his mouth and remained silent.

Geng Chunchen, who was also being talked about, remained silent, seemingly resigned to his fate.

Since neither side was resisting anymore, Judge Cui began to make arrangements for what to do next.

While ordering Jia Lian and the others to be taken to the Shuntian Prefecture government office, he also ordered someone to bring the coroner to examine the crime scene.

Just as Judge Cui had not yet made the arrangements, Jia Lian came out of the dilapidated house and pulled Jia Rong and Xiao Er aside.

"Judging from the current situation, I have no choice but to go to Shuntian Prefecture. However, the more I look at what happened tonight, the more suspicious it seems. There's no need for anyone to die just to steal jewelry."

But now, those two petty thieves have been killed, and it's unclear whether their jewelry is still there.

And it also involves us, Shuntian Prefecture, Daxing County, and another group of unidentified people.

Therefore, I believe it is necessary to report this matter back to the manor as soon as possible so that the manor can find a way to deal with it.

I called you here to ask how we could manage to get one or two of our messengers out."

Jia Rong and Xiao Er were speechless for a moment after hearing this.

Although Jia Rong had done some things for Jia Jing in the past six months, he still hadn't had enough experience and didn't know how to handle such matters, so he didn't know what to say.

Xiao Er did have a solution, but with the master of the mansion present, he couldn't preemptively speak first.

So after waiting a while, seeing that Jia Rong didn't speak, he said:
"Second Master Lian, I do have a solution."

Jia Lian quickly asked, "What's the plan?" Xiao Er said, "I just looked around, and the yamen runners from Shuntian Prefecture and Daxing County combined can barely keep an eye on us."

However, they still have a lot of things to do here and can't be short-handed, so when they leave, there won't be many guards on duty.

"On the way, Master Lian, if you want to make some noise to attract the attention of the yamen runners, I can then find a way to slip away and return to the manor to report."

Jia Lian thought about it and realized that this method was feasible. Moreover, given Xiao Er's condition, it would be easier for him to sneak out than for others.

So he said, "Okay, let's do it that way."

Just as Jia Lian was making arrangements, Geng Chunchen on the other side was also whispering something to his subordinates.

It seems they share the same plan as Jia Lian.

They hadn't been whispering for long when Judge Cui had already made arrangements for what to do next.

Yu, the head constable of Daxing County, and his assistant constables were conscripted by Judge Cui and made guards to escort Jia Lian and others to Shuntian Prefecture.

When Jia Lian led his household servants and followed Constable Yu forward.

He then discovered that, just as Xiao Er had said, the escorts were scattered and not being properly looked after.

Especially now that it's nighttime, the torches can't illuminate much of the area, giving the people in the group a great chance to escape.

People like Xiao Er have an even greater chance of disappearing without a trace.

After leaving the old house, Jia Lian kept trying to make some noise to give Xiao Er a chance to leave.

However, before he could make a move, Geng Chunchen, who was walking in front of him, deliberately dragged his feet and moved closer to Jia Lian.

The two of them got into a fight with their men tonight, and then met up with each other.

However, Jia Lian still doesn't know who the other person is. He just feels that the other person should be from a similar background to himself.

As Geng Chunchen approached Jia Lian, he secretly observed Jia Lian.

He saw Jia Lian looking at him, so he whispered:
"Are you from the Jia family? The East Mansion or the West Mansion?"

Jia Lian looked at this man who wasn't much older than himself and said:
"It's the Jia family, they don't distinguish between east and west. And which family are you from? I've never seen you before."

Since they were all from noble families, Geng Chunchen had no need to hide anything.

He said, "I am from the Changping Marquis's mansion. The old master used to be very strict and rarely came out to the streets, so it's normal that you haven't seen me before."

Upon hearing that it was the Changping Marquis's residence, Jia Lian immediately understood.

In the capital, the Changping Marquis's residence was famously special.

Especially when the old Marquis was alive, he kept a very strict control over the household. Apart from the eldest son and grandson, the rest of the family rarely went out to socialize or meet people.

As a result, even Jia Lian, who also came from a noble family, rarely saw anyone from the Changping Marquis's family.

For a long time, everyone thought that this was because the Marquis of Changping's family had strict family discipline and did a good job of raising their children and grandchildren.

However, after the old Marquis passed away, the Changping Marquis's mansion became somewhat disgraced.

The Crown Princess's brothers would run around in the streets causing trouble every day, as if they wanted to vent their resentment at being controlled for so many years.

Moreover, it's not just these younger generation; even the current Marquis of Changping seems to be somewhat incompetent.

Not only could he not control his family, but he himself was also quite absurd.

Thinking of this, Jia Lian suddenly realized that the Geng brothers seemed to be working for the Crown Prince.

However, his family was on Prince Su's side, and the Crown Prince and Prince Su had a very close relationship.

I had a conflict with the Geng family tonight, and I don't want it to affect the relationship between the Crown Prince and Prince Su.

As he thought about it, Jia Lian became somewhat worried.

He asked Geng Chunchen, "Did you bring people here on behalf of the Crown Prince, or were you sent by the Marquis of Changping?"

Faced with Jia Lian's probing, Geng Chunchen didn't think much of it and replied directly:

"It was the Crown Prince who sent me to bring people here."

Since it was sent by the Crown Prince, we must explain to Prince Su what happened tonight, so as not to put him in a difficult position later.

Thinking of this, Jia Lian gave Xiao Er, who was hiding behind, a wink, signaling him to remember this as well.

After finishing this, Jia Lian inquired about the situation.

"If I may ask, why would the Crown Prince send someone here?"

Geng Chunchen said, "His Highness heard that Prince Su lost something while shopping today. Coincidentally, someone brought us a clue about the thief, so His Highness sent us here to arrest the thief and find Prince Su's belongings."

That's the reason, but upon closer examination, it makes perfect sense.

Everyone knows about the relationship between the Crown Prince and Prince Su.

The fact that the Crown Prince helped Prince Su find his things shows that he cares about his brother, which is perfectly normal.

In this light, the fight that just took place between the two sides was somewhat unfair.

If we had communicated things clearly earlier and avoided this fight, we might have been able to capture those two petty thieves alive.

Just as Jia Lian was feeling frustrated, Geng Chunchen whispered something furtively.

"Since we're both helping Prince Su find his things, we're practically in the same boat. Could you please do me a favor?"

Jia Lian snapped back to his senses and looked at Geng Chunchen, saying:

"Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help you."

If I can help, I will, but if I can't, that's another matter.

Geng Chunchen, without any suspicion, said, "I would like to ask you to cooperate in staging a play and creating some trouble."

Upon hearing this, Jia Lian immediately connected it to his own plans; it seemed that both sides intended to send people out.

Since they shared the same goal, Jia Lian was naturally happy to cooperate.

He said, "How can I cooperate with you?"

Geng Chunchen had already come up with a plan, and he said:

"We'll pretend to start arguing halfway through, just to attract the attention of those yamen runners."

"That's a simple and effective method," Jia Lian nodded and said.

"Start now?"

Geng Chunchen nodded: "Let's begin."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Jia Lian suddenly raised his voice and shouted:
“You killed the person, and you still won’t admit it.”

Upon hearing this, Geng Chunchen was completely stunned.

He only wanted to pretend to argue with Jia Lian for a few words; he didn't intend to let others pin the blame on him.

Now, caught off guard by Jia Lian's sudden question, he didn't know how to respond for a moment.

Seeing that everyone's attention was once again focused on him, he panicked for a moment.

Although he achieved his goal of attracting attention, this was not the result he wanted.

Geng Chunchen's face turned red with anxiety. After struggling for a long time, he finally roared at Jia Lian:

"You're talking nonsense! How dare you slander someone?"

(End of this chapter)