Jackie Chan's Son-in-Law

Chapter 32 Fool
Magistrate Hong glanced at Chen Qing, then at Gu Shouzhuo and the other man kneeling on the ground, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Gu Shouzhuo, you must be careful with every word you utter in court today. I ask you, besides the two of you, are there any other people involved in this case?"

Gu Shouzhou lowered his head and after a few breaths, he spoke: "At that time, among Uncle San's nephews, only I was in Deqing. I was confused for a moment about this matter."

"No one else was involved."

"it is good."

Magistrate Hong glanced at Gu Shouye and Gu Shoucheng kneeling to the side, then turned his gaze to Gu Shouzhuo and Gu Shoucheng, and said in a deep voice, "Good."

He slammed the gavel down and said in a deep voice, "The matter has come to this point, and the facts of the case are clear. Although you two did not intend to kill, you have still committed murder. This county sentences you to exile to the border army. Do you accept this?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Yong, Gu Shouzhou, and the other two members of the Gu family present all changed their expressions.

Exile... is the same as being banished.

If it's exile to do manual labor, then spending more money might get them out later, allowing them to change their names and live a peaceful life again.

However, those exiled to the border regions would most likely never return!
Not only would they not be able to return, but if it was "permanent exile," then their descendants would be exiled to the border army for generations, and their families would be military households of the border army until "all male households were wiped out," at which point the punishment would be completely over.

However, the punishment of sending an entire family to the army and punishing them for generations was mostly reserved for emperors. In the hands of a local county magistrate, it would probably be a lifelong penalty.

In other words, it is highly unlikely that Gu Shouzhou and Gu Yong's exile to the border regions involved their families.

Gu Shouye took a deep breath, bowed his head and kowtowed, saying, "Your Excellency!"

"Although my brother has made a grave mistake, his crime does not warrant this!"

He kowtowed repeatedly, crying, "Please, Your Honor, sentence my brother to forced labor instead of his crime!"

Magistrate Hong sneered, "To murder a child and then attempt to frame someone else—if investigated thoroughly, they deserve the death penalty! If it weren't for this kind of case, the Ministry of Justice wouldn't have approved the death sentence. I've already sentenced them both to death!"

"Somebody come!"

Magistrate Hong slammed his hand on the table and said in a deep voice, "Throw these two criminals into prison. With the approval of the provincial authorities, they will be exiled immediately!"

Several constables responded and took Gu Shouzhou and Gu Yong away.

Magistrate Hong stood up and looked at Gu Shouye with piercing eyes.

There are too many suspicious points in this matter. This ambitious young county official, who has achieved early success, must have figured something out.

He paused for a moment, then continued, "It's quite embarrassing for the Gu family to have suffered such a tragedy, and the deceased's family is also pitiful. You two should consider providing some financial assistance."

At this point, Magistrate Hong stepped down from his seat, came to Gu Shouyi, bent down and patted Gu Shouyi on the shoulder: "Remember to be smarter in the future."

"Don't cause any more trouble."

After saying this, he stood up again, nodded slightly to Chen Qing and Miss Gu, and said, "I have other matters to attend to, so I will go and take care of them now."

With that, he put his hands behind his back and strode away.

It wasn't until this moment that Miss Gu came to her senses. After taking a few deep breaths, she walked up to the Gu brothers and bowed to them, saying, "Third Brother, Fourth Brother."

She gritted her teeth: "The truth has finally come out."

"Yes."

Between the two brothers, Gu Shoucheng remained silent, only turning his head to look at Chen Qing, while Gu Shouye forced a smile and quietly said to Miss Gu, "These past few days, Pan'er, you've been running around with us. Today, things are finally over. After you go home, take a good rest."

After saying this, he looked at Chen Qing, and then said to Miss Gu in a low voice, "Originally, this matter was easy to handle. What can't a family overcome? But it's turned out like this."

"Thanks to your fiancé, even your fourth brother and I spent a few days in jail."

He said with a wry smile, "The seventh brother's family is about to collapse."

Upon hearing this, Gu Shoucheng clenched his fists, turned to look at Chen Qing, his face full of anger: "You surnamed Chen, we tried to reason with you in a polite manner, but you brought us to the county government office without any explanation!"

"This matter won't be resolved so easily!"

Gu Shoucheng was furious, his gaze towards Chen Qing filled with hostility: "We'll see!"

Chen Qing was not afraid at all. He stepped forward with his hands behind his back, looked at the two brothers, and sneered: "If you two still want to continue, after you leave this door, you can still go around telling the Gu family that I killed your Gu family's child and continue to smear me."

Young Master Chen said expressionlessly, "Or, find another idiot like Gu Shouyi and have him come to my door and beat me up."

Before Gu Shouye could even speak, Gu Shouyi, who was sitting on the ground beside him with a somewhat dazed look in his eyes, looked up at Chen Qing with anger on his face. Young Master Chen wasn't afraid of him, still holding his hands behind his back: "If you think you're not stupid, when you get home, think carefully about what deep-seated hatred exists between us."

"Even if I devoured the entire Gu family fortune, what does that have to do with you?"

Chen Qing glanced at Gu Shouye and the other man, then sneered at Gu Shouyi, "Does it even belong to you?"

Gu Shouyi stood there, stunned, and remained silent for a long time.

Only now did he remember who had whispered in his ear, intentionally or unintentionally, during the few days Chen Qinggang had been in Deqing, that this son of an official surnamed Chen was going to steal the entire Gu family's business.

That's why he was so indignant, and that very day he went to the street, found someone, and beat up Chen Qing.

One person came to mind.

Gu Shouzhou!
Young Master Chen then looked at the Gu brothers, his expression calm: "Given the current situation, you two probably hate me to death. There's no point in rambling on and making threats here today."

"Let's see what happens next."

After saying this, Chen Qing looked at Miss Gu, who quietly said, "I'll go out after saying a few words to my third and fourth brothers."

Chen Qing nodded and asked, "Then I'll go to Anrentang and take a look. You can go home on your own later."

Young Master Chen had little interest in Anrentang. He only brought it up at this moment to spite the Gu brothers.

In order to show his "closeness" with Gu Pan in front of the two brothers, he deliberately stopped calling her "Miss".

Gu Pan nodded naturally after hearing this: "Okay."

Chen Qing walked away with his hands behind his back, looking quite nonchalant.

Gu Pan stayed behind, looked at her two cousins, paused, and said, "Third brother, fourth brother, Manager Lu said yesterday that my father has received his letter and replied. He should be able to get back in five or six days, or at most ten or fifteen days."

"If you have any opinions or thoughts, you can tell him about them later."

Gu Shouye sighed silently and said "okay".

Gu Shoucheng said angrily, "I heard that the Chen family has expelled all of us surnamed Gu from Anrentang. When Third Uncle comes back, I don't know if Anrentang will still belong to the Gu family!"

Gu Pan frowned and said, "He hasn't taken a single copper coin from Anrentang yet."

Gu Pan looked at her two cousins ​​and said, "You've been here for three days and all you've done is beat up our Gu family. Do you think we're in the right?"

Gu Pan's words only made the Gu brothers, Shouye and Shoucheng, frown. But Gu Shouyi, who hadn't left yet, suddenly slapped himself hard when he heard this!
"Snapped!"

That mouth has a loud voice.

Gu Shouyi stood up, his expression blank, slapped himself hard across the face, and muttered to himself.

"I'm so stupid, so stupid..."

He seemed to be neither crying nor laughing as he walked out of the county government office, clearly having suffered a great emotional shock.

Seeing this, Gu Pan sighed and bowed to her two brothers, saying, "The marriage with the Chen family was arranged by my father. If you two brothers feel that this is not going to work out, you can talk to him about it when he returns."

"My little sister won't have any objections."

After saying this, Gu Pan bowed and led Xiao Yue away from the county government office. After leaving the county government office, Gu Pan touched her chest and felt her heart pounding.

Xiaoyue followed behind her, clutching her chest, and after a long while, she managed to utter, "Miss was really impressive just now!"

Gu Pan let out a long breath, turned around and glared at Xiao Yue: "You're just talking nonsense!"

Xiaoyue giggled and said, "The young master went to the shop. Miss, would you like to go and take a look?"

"At this hour, he wouldn't go to the shop; he's probably just saying it to annoy his third and fourth brothers."

After saying that, Miss Gu turned to look at Xiaoyue and sighed softly: "Since his family might be coming, ask him about his family situation when you talk to him these next few days."

Xiaoyue rolled her eyes, then gave Gu Pan a sweet smile.

"This servant understands."

(End of this chapter)