The maid's road to success

Li Changan saw that there was no one around, so he quickly poured a cup of tea on his table and handed it to the man.

"Slow down, don't choke, the wound will hurt."

The man thought Li Changan was playing a psychological trick on him, so he quickly drank the water but refused to talk to him.

"I have a piece of sweet-scented osmanthus cake here. Eat it quickly so I can give you some medicine for your wound."

Li Changan didn't know why he risked being discovered to help this man, but when he saw the experience of the man in front of him, he would always think of An Zizhong's scars. If what he guessed was true, then was the young An Zizhong also beaten here like this man, framed, and attacked by a bunch of unfounded charges without being able to defend himself? How much hatred must he have had? How painful? How helpless must he be to crawl back to Kyoto step by step under another person's identity.

"Give up on this idea. I won't say anything."

Li Changan smiled bitterly. He had no intention of getting some information from the man to please the officials in the Ministry of Justice. Today was the first time he saw how a real unjust case was handled.

"What are you afraid of? If it's poison, wouldn't it be better to give you a quick death without suffering? If it's medicine for wounds, you'll win."

The man raised his head and looked at Li Changan. It seemed that he really was not trying to trick him into telling the truth?

When Li Changan heard the voice approaching, he quickly took out a porcelain bottle from his arms, poured out the few medicines he had and stuffed them into the man's mouth, then sat in his seat as if nothing had happened.

"Where have everyone gone?"

When the boss came back, he saw that only Li Changan and the man were in the room. The other yamen runners were not there. He looked very unhappy.

"Sir, the yamen runners are exhausted. They went back to drink some water. They just left and came back immediately. Do you want me to go and call them?"

Although the boss was unhappy about the yamen runners leaving without permission, he had already been interrogating for most of the day and was exhausted, let alone them. He did not want to cause dissatisfaction over some trivial matters, so he waved his hand.

"Don't call for now. The minister said there is an urgent decree from the palace. Let's put this matter aside for now and retry it tomorrow. Have someone take him back to prison."

Li Changan quickly agreed to pack up the supplies and hand them over to his superior for review.

"My Lord, you must be tired. Please go back and rest first. I will wait here for the bailiffs to come and take him away."

The superior read the confession carefully from beginning to end and found no difference from what he had just described. He nodded with satisfaction, thinking that Li Changan was just a newcomer to the Ministry of Justice and the chance of him being planted there by some people was very small, so he did not refuse.

"Today's events..."

Li Changan continued before his boss finished speaking.

"Today I have been sorting out this month's case files and have not been to the prison."

The boss was very satisfied to see that Li Changan was so understanding. He took the confession and walked out of the prison. The prison was underground and very damp. If you stayed there for a while longer, your bones would feel uncomfortable.

Li Changan fed the man some water again, thought for a moment, and then poured out a pill of medicine and hid it in his hairband and tightened it.

"If the bleeding doesn't stop during the night, take another one. I'm afraid you won't be able to get in later. If you can't bear it, just give yourself a quick death."

The medicine for Li Changan's injuries was given to him by An Zizhong in the past. It was very effective, but he had always been reluctant to use it. Unexpectedly, he felt compassion for a stranger today and gave him two pills.

When Li Changan was returning home at night, he found that someone seemed to be following him, but they were just following him from a distance and had no intention of hurting him. He guessed that it might be because he had been alone with the man for a while today, and the people in the Ministry of Justice did not believe him and were monitoring him. So Li Changan did not go to Zhuque Street as planned. He ate something in a restaurant as usual and then returned to his house.

Recently, Qi You has been coaxed by several maids to become very interested in listening to books and rarely comes to see him. Qi You's body is not suitable for sharing a room too often, so Li Changan usually lives in the study. The study is served by men, so Qi You has nothing to worry about.

Li Changan pulled Li Chun into the inner room and told him not to talk and rest. He was afraid that he would talk to him habitually and be heard by the person hiding on the roof. If he hadn't heard a small sound of tiles colliding when he was changing clothes just now, Li Changan would have thought that the man was not following him. It seems that the Ministry of Justice is very cautious about today's incident? I don't know what that person did to make the Ministry of Justice pay so much attention to it.

Li Changan did not expect that this person would dare to follow him directly into the mansion. It also made him realize for the first time that his home was not safe either. A random secret guard could sneak in quietly. He didn't know if someone who wanted to kill him would rush in in the future.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Master, Madam asked the kitchen to leave some medicinal food for you. It has been warmed up twice. Would you like to have some?"

Hearing the familiar voice, Li Changan, who was still worried, suddenly relaxed a lot. This person was left by An Zizhong for him. He was good at boxing and kicking. He must have noticed that there was someone on his roof and found an excuse to come over. After all, Qi You was not so considerate. He never left any medicinal food for him. As long as she was interested in something, she would not know when he would return home.

"come in."

Li Changan calmly let the person in. Li Chun also felt something and his legs were shaking. He reluctantly opened the door for Si'an outside, then sat down against the wall and didn't dare to move.

[There is someone on the roof] Si'an quickly wrote a few words on Li Chang'an's hand.

[I know, the Ministry of Justice is monitoring me, and they won't hurt me for now.] Si'an nodded in relief after analyzing what Li Chang'an wrote. When he was patrolling the yard just now, he found a few light footprints on the soft mud beside the wall. Following the footprints, he found that the person disappeared behind the back wall of the study. He guessed that the person had sneaked into the Li family and hid on the roof of the study. He was either a thief or had other plans. But shouldn't the thief go to the backyard storehouse? How many things can there be in the study? And there are quite a few servants in the front yard?

So the other party was coming for Li Changan.

【Master, go to sleep peacefully. I will be watching over you. 】

After Si'an finished writing this sentence, Li Chang'an nodded and lay down with relief. Si'an's kung fu was not particularly good and he could only fend off a few thugs, but he could mix a powder that could make a person fall to the ground and become unconscious within three breaths. With him around, Li Chang'an was not worried.

Si'an fed Li Chang'an an antidote pill and took out an incense burner that had not been used for a long time.

"I'm tired, so I'll order some soothing medicine to calm my nerves and let's go to sleep today."

Si'an said this deliberately for the people above to hear, and Li Chun seemed even more scared. Si'an could hear the sound of his teeth chattering. He took out two incense sticks from his arms and mixed them with calming incense, lit them, took the antidote himself, and looked at Li Chun who was sleeping like a dead pig. Si'an reluctantly pulled him back to the bamboo couch to sleep, and he lay on his side on the foot couch with his clothes on, holding the dagger in his arms.

The incense he prepared would only work if you smell it close to it, and the doors and windows of the house were tightly closed. As long as the man didn't rush in, he wouldn't be too affected by the drug, and at most he would just feel a little sleepy.

After a peaceful night, Li Chun still hadn't woken up. For safety reasons, Si'an accompanied Li Chang'an to the yamen. With Si'an around, Li Chang'an felt more at ease. When he brought Qi You to Kyoto from Gongzhou, although Madam Qi also sent people to protect them, they still encountered many difficulties on the road. He still remembered that they encountered a black shop and everyone was knocked unconscious. It was Si'an who used drug powder to knock out the people who pounced on him, and only then was most of the people protected and not too many injuries were caused.

It was Si'an who subdued the thugs when he met them, so it was Si'an who had to work harder recently.

Five days passed during which Li Changan sorted the evidence, divided it into volumes, stitched it together, chatted with his colleagues, and reviewed cases. Only then did he feel that the gaze that had been staring at him had disappeared.

"Master, no one is following you today."

As soon as Si'an finished speaking, Li Chang'an's boss sent someone to take him to the dungeon.

"My Lord, are you calling me?"

The boss looked at Li Changan, and saw that he showed no other expression except confusion. He couldn't help but feel that the Shangshu was too cautious. After all, he had been with Li Changan for such a long time, so he should have some understanding of him. The Shangshu must have sent secret guards to follow him, but they didn't find out anything. He had no one to use these days, so he copied the confession himself.

"It's the same case as last time. The Minister has said that we should try the case as soon as possible. Your Excellency can't wait any longer."

Li Changan nodded without asking any more questions. He sat in his seat and did his job of recording the supply records. He also had to figure out what needed to be written on paper and what could not be written.

However, the man's condition was even worse this time. He had been branded. One of his legs was twisted and the leg bone was turned outward, obviously broken by someone. His fingers also drooped limply. These people actually used severe torture. If his superior had not said that this man was the one from that day, Li Changan would not have been able to tell that they were the same person. It was as if the skin on his face had been peeled off, and some parts of the exposed muscle texture were covered with thick scabs, which looked very horrifying. No wonder the person in charge who was recorded before could not come.

Even Li Changan felt a little uncomfortable, his stomach was churning.

This man was really stubborn and refused to tell the truth. The superior felt uncomfortable sitting there and asked Li Changan to watch while he went out to catch his breath. The yamen runners were also sweating profusely.

"The master deliberately went up to smoke a pot of tobacco. You go to drink some water and eat something. If you calculate the time to come back, you won't be blamed."

Thinking of the last time when Li Changan was kind enough to let them rest, but even the captain was scolded afterwards, he was a little hesitant. However, after working for two hours, he was so thirsty and hungry that he couldn't help but jogged out.

The man hadn't eaten or drunk anything for several days, and his lips were very chapped. Li Changan fed him a glass of water as usual. This time, Li Changan didn't give him any medicine. With such injuries, it would be useless even if he took a bottle of medicine.

"Thank you. I heard from that man that you were being watched because you were alone with me."

The man actually took the initiative to talk to Li Changan, but his breath was weak and his voice was hoarse. Li Changan had to stand very close to hear him clearly. He smiled bitterly and nodded.

"I've only been here for a short time, and they don't believe me."

The man started coughing violently, and some blood sprayed on Li Changan's neck. Just as he was about to hide backwards, he heard the man say.

"The account book is under the floor tiles of the land temple outside the city. Don't give it to the lineage of Lord Cheng'en. Thank you."

Li Changan was confused by what he said and was about to ask what he meant when he heard the sound of teeth biting off the root of the tongue. Blood flowed down the chin into the fabric that could no longer be called clothes.

"What happened to Lord Li?"

The bailiffs who had just arrived saw Li Changan rushing over to the man and slapping him in the face.

"I was just sitting there checking the confession when I saw him bite his tongue to commit suicide."

The yamen runners looked heavy-hearted. They had just left for a while when the trouble broke out. No one could know about this, or they would be punished. Several people quickly discussed the result and said that the man bit his tongue and committed suicide while everyone was tidying up the torture instruments.

"Please help keep it secret, Master Li, otherwise we will all have to pack up and go home."

Looking at everyone's anxious eyes, Li Changan nodded. When his superiors came back and found out about this, they were horrified. The yamen runners took the lead in explaining.

"Sir, when we were sorting out the instruments of torture, he took the opportunity to bite his tongue and commit suicide. I am derelict in my duty, please punish me."

Although the boss was angry, what could he do? The person was already dead. He quickly picked up the confession book and pressed his fingerprint on the man's bloody finger at the bottom.

"He said nothing when he died?"

This time the boss looked directly at Li Changan.

"He insulted Lord Cheng'en, the Minister, and you, your Excellency, using extremely foul language. This subordinate..."

Before Li Changan finished speaking, his boss's face turned black, but he also believed what Li Changan said. This man was a tough guy. After being tortured so much, he said nothing but insults, so it was impossible for him to die quietly without saying a word. What Li Changan said made sense. The man must not have wanted to be tortured again, and he must have bitten his tongue and committed suicide after insulting several people for the last time.

"The guard failed to provide adequate care and will be fined three months' salary. Li Changan, pack up and come find me later."

The boss took the confession and hurried to the Shangshu to apologize. He was also responsible for the prisoner's suicide. Li Changan looked at the distraught yamen runners and took out twenty taels of silver from his purse.

"I'm sorry, everyone. I wanted to let you rest for a while. He was already so injured that nothing would happen. I didn't expect him to be so cruel as to commit suicide."

Although the runners felt very uncomfortable, they knew that Li Chang'an was doing this for their own good. The officials in the Ministry of Justice never cared whether the runners could hold on when trying a case. Every trial took a whole day, and they did nothing but listen to some insults. They could only take the opportunity to drink some water and eat some dry food when Li Chang'an was around.

In the end, something happened, but he knew it was not Li Changan's responsibility. He was just a scholar, so what could he do even if the prisoner committed suicide? He firmly refused to accept it.

"You should accept it. I feel bad that you got scolded because of me last time. This time I will be fined three months' salary. It's not easy to support a family. If this happens, I will feel uneasy. When I try cases in the future, any help you can give me will be a help to me."

With that being said, everyone was happy to accept it. If there were any other way to support the family, who would work as a yamen runner in the dungeon? Every day they would come into contact with prisoners. When they got home, their children would not dare to approach them, saying that they had a bad smell on them and were afraid to look at them.

In other words, it is kind-hearted people like Li Changan who think of ways to let everyone rest and don't want anyone to suffer any loss.

Li Changan walked out of the dungeon with a serious face. He gave the money to everyone so that those people would remember his kindness. If they asked him again, he would insist not to expose the fact that he and the man were alone again. But what was the account book the man was talking about? Could it be what Shangshu Da and Cheng En Gong had been trying to find? But why did he tell me? Just because I fed him water and medicine?