klisemfg Chapter 2211 Confession
Chapter 2211 Confession
Li Sanlang slumped to the ground, his face covered in tears and snot.
"I really had no choice!"
His voice choked with emotion, and his shoulders trembled as if he had suffered a great injustice: "My wife is lazy and loves to eat, and she's also addicted to gambling. She's already squandered all of our savings."
He raised his tear-streaked face, his eyes filled with a pleading, timid look, and cautiously glanced at Yan Ruyu and Huo Changhe:
As a son-in-law who married into the family, how dare I disobey her? I've told her so many times..."
As he spoke, he pounded his thigh, looking utterly regretful: "I had no choice but to go along with her wishes, thinking I could steal whatever I could to fill her gambling hole and make things a little more peaceful..."
Before the words were finished, a figure suddenly darted out from the shadows behind Yan Ruyu and Huo Changhe.
Before Li Sanlang could see who it was, he felt a gust of wind rush towards him, and then his hair was grabbed hard, a sharp pain spreading along his scalp.
He cried out "Ouch!" and before he could struggle, several burning pains shot through his cheek, as if he had been scratched by something sharp.
"You damned dog!" the woman's voice was shrill, filled with boundless rage. "You're quick to shift the blame onto me!"
"You're the one who gambled away a mountain of debt, was chased like a stray dog, beaten and left in an alley, and then you came up with this ridiculous plan to make me fake being sick!"
She cursed as she tore at Li Sanlang with her hands and feet, her fingers clawing at his face and her knees pressing against his waist. "Now look what you've done, pinning all the blame on me! Have you no conscience? I'll fight you to the death!"
Li Sanlang's hair was pulled so hard it was disheveled, and several bloody marks were clearly visible on his face. He was wincing in pain.
He also got angry and shoved the woman: "It was clearly you who was greedy and wanted to steal the medicinal herbs, and now you're blaming me? If you hadn't been gambling every day, would our family be in this state?"
The two wrestled and rolled on the dusty ground, grabbing each other's clothes and cursing.
The lantern light illuminated their disheveled appearance: their hair was a mess, their clothes were torn to shreds, and their faces were covered in dust and blood.
Exhausted, they both collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, their chests heaving, their eyes filled with resentment towards each other.
Huo Changhe stood aside, his expression solemn: "Song Ping, take them to the prison for questioning."
Upon hearing the word "prison," Li Sanlang and the woman's faces turned deathly pale. Their previous anger vanished instantly, leaving only overwhelming fear.
The two struggled to their feet, then knelt down with a thud and kowtowed repeatedly.
"Your Highness, spare us! Your Highness, spare us!" Li Sanlang kowtowed repeatedly, a red mark quickly appearing on his forehead. "We know we were wrong, we will never dare to do it again, please, Your Highness, have mercy and don't lock us up in jail!"
The woman also cried and begged for mercy: "Your Highness, it's all his fault. I was confused and was deceived by him. It has nothing to do with me. Please forgive me this time!"
Huo Changhe remained unmoved, looking at them indifferently, his tone unwavering: "Take them away."
Song Ping stepped forward, expressionless, and pulled out two pieces of rags, stuffing them into the mouths of the two men.
The two sobbed, wanting to say something more, but unable to utter a clear sound, and staggered toward the governor's mansion.
Huo Changhe turned to look at the darkness behind him and said in a deep voice, "Leave the guards behind to carefully check the surroundings and make sure there are no other suspicious people."
Two faint voices responded from the darkness, then silence returned, as if no one had ever been there.
Yan Ruyu watched Li Sanlang and the woman being led away, raised an eyebrow, and said softly, "There must be someone behind these two."
Huo Changhe nodded, his gaze deep: "Once we arrive at the governor's mansion, we'll find out by interrogation."
The two walked side by side toward the governor's mansion, the glow of the lanterns slowly moving beneath their feet, illuminating the path ahead.
In the main hall of the governor's mansion, the candlelight was bright, and the flickering flames illuminated Governor Cao behind the desk.
He was dressed in official robes, his face serious, and his sharp gaze swept over Li Sanlang and the woman who had been brought in.
The two men had long since stopped arguing and were now filled with fear, their heads bowed, not daring to look Governor Cao in the eye.
"You two dare to attempt to sabotage the plague treatment in Youcheng! How dare you!" Governor Cao slammed his gavel, his voice booming so loudly it made the hall reverberate. "Guards, give each of them twenty strokes of the cane, let them taste the bitterness, and see if they dare to lie again!"
The constables on both sides immediately stepped forward, pinned Li Sanlang and the woman to the ground, and struck them with boards.
"Slap! Slap! Slap!" The crisp sound of the board hitting the floor rang out one after another, accompanied by the two people's cries of pain.
After the twenty strokes of the cane were finished, the two lay on the ground, convulsing in pain, their clothes soaked with sweat, their faces contorted in agony, tears and snot mingling together once more.
"Stop hitting us! Stop hitting us! We'll confess! We'll confess everything!" Li Sanlang cried out first, his voice hoarse. "We dare not hide it anymore, we'll tell you everything, sir!"
The woman also cried out, "Please, sir, stop hitting us! We'll tell the truth!"
Governor Cao sneered, "Why suffer this pain if you did this earlier? Speak! Who instructed you to sabotage the treatment?"
Li Sanlang, panting heavily, said haltingly, "We...we are just ordinary people from Youcheng, I..."
I'm a gambler and I owe a lot of gambling debts. Those creditors are chasing me every day, and the other night they even beat me up and left me in an alley.
He paused, then, enduring the pain, continued, "While I was lying in the alley, I encountered a man in black."
He said that if I could somehow slip a packet of powder into a patient's medication, he would give me a sum of money, enough to pay off my gambling debts.
Yan Ruyu, standing to the side, noticed this and asked, "The residence for treating patients only officially started admitting patients today. You knew that a couple of days ago?"
Li Sanlang nodded hurriedly, his face full of urgency: "I didn't lie! I also found it strange at the time, and asked him how he knew there would be a place to treat patients. He said there would be soon."
I didn't believe it at first, but to my surprise, it really happened within two days.
“But we had no way to get close to those medicinal herbs,” the woman added, her voice weak. “The constables were watching very closely. We thought for a long time before we came up with a plan for me to pretend to be a patient and sneak in, but we were discovered before we could even do it.”
Yan Ruyu then looked at Li Sanlang: "Where did you get the sleeping incense you used to knock out the guards on duty?"
“It was also given by that man in black!” Li Sanlang said quickly. “And the tree hole in the abandoned house where I retrieved the silver was also told to me by him. He said that I should go there to collect my reward after the matter was settled.”
Governor Cao frowned and asked in a deep voice, "What did that man in black look like? What was his height and build? Did he have any distinctive features?"