Chapter 309: Bai Fu’s Love for His Son
Before Xue Wenhui could speak, Bai Yibo called out madly: "Are you here to save me? I did not buy the exam questions, it was Bai Zepei who instructed me! No, no, it was my father who ordered me to do this!" He shook his head after saying this as if he couldn’t remember how things had unfolded, "No, no, it was the adults who ordered me to do this!"
Facing Bai Yibo’s incoherent words, Xue Wenhui struck the courtroom wooden block hard and sternly said, "The accused in court, if you continue to cause noise, you will be given ten big hits first!"
Bai Yibo started to shiver, looking scared, but he didn’t stop talking. He started crying again, saying amid sobs, "I really didn’t do anything wrong. Do you know how difficult it was for someone my age to pass the Scholar’s examination? I just looked at the test paper, it wasn’t a big deal."
This angered Xue Wenhui to the point that his beard began to shake. He immediately ordered the officers to beat Bai Yibo with ten big hits right there in the court.
Bai Yibo screamed like a pig being slaughtered, but as the beating continued he lost the strength to scream. Bai Ruozhu took a sneak peek, it seemed that Sir Li had given orders in advance. The officer who delivered the punishment used his full strength; even though there were only ten hits, they amounted to the pain of twenty.
Cries of an old man from outside the court were heard, "Yibo, my son, they want to take my son’s life!" The voice was extremely mournful; it was Bai Fu, the old patriarch of the Bai family, who had also come to attend the trial.
Bai Ruozhu quickly turned her head to look. She saw that the old lady was trying hard to hold back the old man. If not for her, he would have stormed the court, he might even take the beating for his eldest son. It really proved the saying: A parent’s heart aches for their child.
But should parental love be so blindly indulgent, regardless of right and wrong? For Bai Yibo, Bai Fu indeed was a loving father. But unwittingly, Bai Fu was also the culprit behind Bai Yibo’s fate today.
"Bai Yibo, you purchased the examination paper before the test, reselling it to four other candidates. Despite committing these actions, you have shown no remorse and even framed your own nephew. The evidence now is solid, do you admit your guilt?" Xue Wenhui slammed the courtroom wooden block and asked.
Bai Yihong, whose senses seemed impaired and who had been beaten to the point of continuously crying out in pain, muttered after a pause, "I didn’t, I didn’t."
"Unrepentant!" Xue Wenhui shouted out, "Bring in the witness, Wang Xi!"
The officer brought in the young man, Wang Xi. He had been taken from the prison to the back room, although he had not been brought to the courtroom, he had heard everything clearly. When he saw the beaten state of Bai Yibo, he was so frightened that his legs turned to jelly. He knelt before Xue Wenhui, kowtowing while narrating in detail how Bai Yibo had blackmailed him into framing Bai Zepei. Before Xue Wenhui could ask, he also voluntarily confessed about the incident related to the Osmanthus Cake.
Xue Wenhui listened, fuming with anger, and said, "Bai Yibo, you cheated before the examination, utterly lacking the integrity of a scholar. Moreover, you plotted against your own nephew out of jealousy. Your actions were exceedingly wicked. Now, with both witness and material evidence, your denial is of no use! Men, drag him out and beat him with forty strokes. Then strip him of his qualifications and send him to a distant land, forever barred from the Imperial Examination!"
Outside, the old patriarch’s plaintive cries and the old lady’s wails echoed. The old patriarch finally managed to break free from the old lady and stormed into the court.
He thudded onto the ground, and began to kowtow forcefully to Xue Wenhui, saying while he kowtowed, "My name is Bai Fu, I am Bai Yibo’s father. I am also a Scholar from Anyuan Town. If my son has committed such a grave error, it’s also my fault as a father. I am willing to share his punishment and receive the forty strokes on his behalf!"
The old lady, who didn’t dare to storm in, cried out from the entrance, "Have you lost your mind? You’re old, do you think you could survive forty strokes?"
Bai Lu, standing aside, also had slightly red eyes. He sighed and said, "Big brother, why are you doing this? If you had known this would happen, why did you favour him back then?"
The people gathered around were mostly from Anyuan Town or relatives of the accused students. They were not aware of the conflicts within the Bai family’s old mansion. At this moment, they only saw a father who was even risking his life for his son. Seeing this, any parent present could not help but shed tears.
Such is the love of parents!
At this point, someone mustered the courage to call out to Xue Wenhui in the court, "Sir, please pity the parents, pray show leniency and spare the old man from this severe punishment!"
"Indeed, please have mercy, sir. Spare the parents’ heartache, show some grace outside the law!"
...
Hearing the clamor outside, Bai Ruozhu’s lips twitched. If she hadn’t experienced those things at the old mansion and seen how the old patriarch blindly favored Bai Yibo regardless of right or wrong, she too would surely have been moved to tears and even knelt to speak on behalf of the patriarch.
Unfortunately, she had seen too much. The phrase "Such is the love of parents" when applied to the old patriarch turned into a naked joke!
Xue Wenhui struck the courtroom wooden block and shouted sternly, "Silence! Even a prince would be punished if he breaks the law, just as an ordinary man would. Bai Yibo has committed more than one crime, how could somebody else take the punishment for him? Besides, in such serious crimes, family members and clan members must also be punished. Bai Fu, there is no need for you to bear the punishment for him."
Hearing this, Bai Ruozhu and Bai Lu were startled. They both kowtowed and held up the memorandum and statement document above their heads, shouting, "We the commoners have been wronged. We beseech you to examine our case!"
Xue Wenhui looked coldly at the woman in the court. He had not been in a hurry to question Bai Ruozhu earlier because he had been informed by the Ministry of Works that she had a secret technique for healing wounds to present to the Imperial Court. If the army doctors of Danliang Country mastered this technique, it would aid in hastening the recovery of the injured soldiers on the battlefield, thus giving Danliang Country’s Army a faster recovery time. The Ministry of Works had therefore secretly ensured her brother would not be implicated in this case and had sent a message to the Capital City promising as such.
Originally, he was just following the rules when handling this case and planned to release Bai Zepei right after questioning. However, as the case progressed, he discovered Bai Yibo’s wicked intentions and numerous persecutions against his top-scoring nephew. The evidence was clear that Bai Zepei indeed stood out in literary talent and had no involvement in the cheating.
He now looked at the papers in the hands of Bai Ruozhu and Bai Lu, becoming curious and deciding to take a close look at them. He collected the memorandum and statement from them and started reading carefully.
Not that he wanted to read carefully, there were so many people waiting in the court so he had planned to skim through it. But upon reading, the content grabbed his attention.
Bai Yibo had failed the Scholar’s examination for many years. He was lazy and hardly did any farm work, yet under Bai Fu’s partiality, he continually targeted his nephew, Bai Zepei.
When Bai Yibo had passed the Scholar’s examination and was yet unaware that Bai Zepei had topped the examination, he had openly mocked Bai Zepei.
Out of jealousy, Bai Yibo had written a curse for the entire family of his nephew on the village wall while drunk, a fact all the villagers of the Back Mountain could attest to.
In order to keep the recommendation for Bai Yibo to attend the Study Palace, Bai Yibo and his father even pressured Bai Zepei’s teacher, forcing Bai Zepei to yield to his cousin whose academic abilities were far weaker than his.
...
Xue Wenhui looked at the many signatures at the end of the papers. They were all fingerprints pressed by the heads of various families from the Back Mountain village. He then looked at Bai Fu again, his gaze colder than before.