Chapter 131: A Final Chance
Translator: Pika
Snow’s face also twisted when he saw the eyewitness’ face. She quickly explained the current situation to Shi Kun.
Needless to say, Shi Kun was infuriated that the tables had been turned in such a manner. He turned to Mei Chaofeng, spitting him with a piercing glare. How dare you ruin my plans for the sake of your lust?
“Who are you?” Xie Yi quickly asked the eyewitness, keenly noticing the reactions of both Mei Chaofeng and Shi Kun.
The woman who had been brought in by the guards of the Chu clan knelt on the floor and said, “City Lord Xie, I am the wife of Tan Wei, Madam Zhang.”
“Tan Wei?” Naturally, Xie Yi knew who Tan Wei was. He began assessing the various people present in the court, a meaningful gleam in his eyes.
A slight furrow also formed on Sang Hong’s forehead. It looks like their plan is going to fail once again.
“What are you doing here? Go back right now!” Mei Chaofeng finally snapped out of his daze and rushed toward Madam Zhang, attempting to chase her away.
His sudden, aggressive movement left Madam Zhang cowering in fear, a clear sign that she was extremely afraid of Mei Chaofeng.
Chu Chuyan immediately stepped between the two of them and said calmly, “Are you trying to intimidate my eyewitness?”
Mei Chaofeng immediately rebutted her, anxiety coloring his tone. “How can she possibly be an eyewitness? She’s no more than my concubine!”
“No, I’m Tan Wei’s wife! You resorted to despicable means to force me to do your bidding!” Madam Zhang looked at Mei Chaofeng with eyes filled with hatred.
Mei Chaofeng felt as if he had been plunged into icy-cold water. The woman before him suddenly looked foreign to him. She had been so subservient towards him in recent days, never hesitating to fulfill his requests. The dominance he had enjoyed over her made him feel rather cocky, and he even bragged about it before Snow. Yet...
Was it all an act?
Xie Yi secretly shot a glance at Sang Hong and saw that the latter wasn’t responding at all. This gave him a good idea as to what was going on. “Madam Zhang, feel free to describe any injustice you have suffered. We’ll redress all of your grievances in this court.”
With tears in her eyes, Madam Zhang began to explain everything she had been through.
As it turned out, she and Tan Wei were childhood lovers, but the Zhang clan opposed their relationship out of scorn for Tan Wei’s impoverished background. So, Tan Wei joined the Plum Blossom Sect in hopes of making it big, and his willingness to dive headlong into danger and the tenacity he displayed against the sect’s enemies allowed him to swiftly rise through the ranks. It didn’t take him long to make a name for himself, along with a tidy sum of money.
Eventually, at Madam Zhang’s insistence, her parents reluctantly accepted their marriage. The fulfillment of their love after such a long and difficult path made them cherish each other even more, and they lived together in great bliss. But one day, the sect master of the Plum Blossom Sect paid them a visit and became enamored with Madam Zhang’s beauty.
So, he laid out a scheme to take Madam Zhang’s body for himself, which incurred Tan Wei’s rage. Tan Wei tried to stand up for his wife, but there was just too huge a difference in their cultivation ranks. In the end, it was only with Madam Zhang’s help that Tan Wei barely managed to escape with his life.
In order to keep her husband safe, Madam Zhang chose to lower herself in service to her enemy, allowing Mei Chaofeng to demean her in any way he wanted to. She was able to persevere only because Mei Chaofeng had promised her that he would let Tan Wei go.
However, not too long ago, she received news that Tan Wei had been killed by Plum Blossom Twelve, and that drove her into despair. She considered ending her life there and then to accompany her husband in the afterlife, but her anger and indignance stopped her. She couldn’t allow Mei Chaofeng to be let off the hook just like that.
So, she changed her attitude. She began going along with Mei Chaofeng, in order to win his affection. She made Mei Chaofeng think that he had conquered her with his charm, and he lowered his guard against her.
In truth, she had been secretly collecting evidence of Mei Chaofeng’s wrongdoing, and she was only waiting for an opportunity to make her move. Earlier that day, the first miss of the Chu clan had paid her visit, and she immediately knew that her chance had come.
“Rubbish! It was this lowly woman who seduced me, coveting my power and authority. Tan Wei chose to leave on his own accord, out of humiliation. I’ve never tried to force myself on Madam Zhang before!” Mei Chaofeng defended himself anxiously.
There was no way Zu An was going to miss this perfect opportunity. “Hah! A woman, seducing you on her own accord? Did you think that you’re the same as me? You should get yourself a mirror and take a hard look at your own face!”
Mei Chaofeng felt blood rushing into his head. If not for the fact that they were in the middle of a courtroom, he would have rushed forward and given Zu An two tight slaps.
You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 501 Rage points!
Chu Chuyan also fell silent. She felt a little offended by what he had just said.
It was then that Vice Magistrate Pang Chun spoke up, offering the court a reminder. “Madam Zhang, what you’ve just mentioned is unrelated to the current case. We’ll try your case separately afterwards.”
“No, it’s related to the current case!” Madam Zhang raised her head and spoke resoundingly. “Yesterday, I personally heard Mei Chaofeng ordering his subordinates to falsify the evidence. He was also the one who killed Plum Blossom Thirteen. In the entire Plum Blossom Sect, he seems to be the only one who has the ability to imitate some kind of academy sword art.”
Her words understandably raised a huge uproar. Even the kin and friends of Plum Blossom Thirteen turned to look at Mei Chaofeng, their eyes widened in disbelief.
“You slut! How dare you frame me?!”
In his heart, Mei Chaofeng felt deeply regretful. If only he had gotten rid of that woman while he could, he would never have ended up in his current plight. However, if he could do it all over once more, he would probably make the same choices. For some reason, he simply couldn’t grow sick of Madam Zhang no matter how he toyed with her.
Madam Zhang chose to disregard him and continued on with her testimony. “Lord Yang Wei’s death seems to have something to do with him too. I believe his killing was committed by some influential figure.”
Everyone was shocked to hear those words. Yang Wei’s wife tried to dash towards Mei Chaofeng in a frenzy, attempting to claw his skin off with her nails, only to be held back by the courtroom guards.
Excited whispering broke out amongst the crowd as well. Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, they had already chosen to believe Madam Zhang’s testimony. Mei Chaofeng’s act of killing Tan Wei and dominating his wife was so vile that it incensed the crowd.
“That useless trash!” Shi Kun was infuriated. How could he possibly not be? They were just moments away from condemning Zu An to hell, but their scheme had now been unraveled, all for the sake of a mere woman!
Shi Lezhi sent a voice transmission to Shi Kun in order to reassure him. “Young master, please do not worry. You aren’t directly involved in this matter, so there’s no way Madam Zhang knows your identity. Besides, Mei Chaofeng knows his place. He’ll step forward to shoulder the blame if it looks like things are going awry. He would never dare to give you away.”
“Hmph!” Shi Kun snorted coldly, but Shi Lezhi’s reassurances did little to lift his mood.
Xie Yi slammed the wooden brick on the table once more before issuing his order. “Men, arrest Mei Chaofeng and all of the eyewitnesses who accused Zu An of murder earlier. We’ll be interrogating them. I’ll make sure to get to the bottom of this case so that those who have died can rest in peace!”
Mei Chaofeng was a powerhouse who had ruled the underground world for many years, so he was unfazed by the guards in the courtroom. His first thought was to bust out of the courtroom and flee, but he swiftly brushed off that urge. After all, Governor Sang, City Lord Xie, and Brightmoon Duke were present as well. Even Vice Magistrate Pang was more than a match for him. There was no way he could get away, and any attempt to do so would only serve as proof of his guilt.
Instead, if he stayed put, there was still a chance to turn things around. He still had quite a few connections in the city, and young master Shi held great power in his hands as well. It was possible that he could yet be vindicated.
With such thoughts in mind, he gave up struggling and allowed the guards to shackle his limbs.
While he was being taken into custody, Zu An walked up to him with a smile and said, “What a surprise, don’t you think? Just two hours ago, you were trying to shackle me, and yet you are the one being shackled now. The world sure is a mysterious place, isn’t it?”
“You bastard! Don’t act so smug. You might have gotten lucky today, but you won’t stay lucky for life. All it takes is you slipping up once, and that will be the end of you!” spat Mei Chaofeng furiously.
With the help of young master Shi’s influence, he could continuously hatch schemes against Zu An. Even if one failed, all he had to do was to try again. Even if Zu An managed to survive ninety-nine of the schemes, as long as he slipped up the hundredth time, he would still be a goner.
You have successfully trolled Mei Chaofeng for 998 Rage points!
“What a pity it is that you’ll never live to see that day,” said Zu An with a smile.
The crime of killing an official of the imperial court, together with the other murder cases under his name and all the underhanded deeds he had committed over the years—all of these were more than enough to have him executed multiple times over.
“Zu An, I’ll make sure to drag you down with me even if I die!”
Even while Mei Chaofeng was being pulled away, his roars could still be heard from afar.
“Incompetent people sure love to talk big.” Zu An shook his head in disdain.
He was just about to put down Shi Kun and earn a few more Rage points when he noticed that he had vanished from view. It seemed he was in no mood to remain here any further, especially after seeing how his plan had been unraveled.
Following all this, Xie Yi assigned several guards to Madam Zhang in order to protect her until the storm died down. With that, the court was dismissed.
The spectators slowly dispersed, but the excitement from the drama they had just witnessed had yet to ebb. It was inevitable that, within the next few days, everyone in Brightmoon City would come to learn of every single detail regarding this incident.
Before Sang Hong left, he directed a long look at Chu Zhongtian before remarking, “Brightmoon Duke, you really do impress me.”
“You’re impressed by me? What for?” replied Chu Zhongtian.
Sang Hong glanced at Zu An before explaining himself. “I’m impressed by your sharp eyes. While everyone was looking down on him, you chose to defy the odds and take him in as your son-in-law. It seems like your ability to judge people is far sharper than mine.”
It was rare to see Sang Hong so frustrated. Chu Zhongtian delightfully accepted the praise and replied, “Governor Sang, you’re too kind. Hahaha!”
After that brief exchange, the two of them went their separate ways.
On the way back to the Chu clan, Chu Chuyan couldn’t help but ask, “How did you know that Madam Zhang would help you?”
The corners of Zu An’s lips inched upward as he explained, “To be honest, I encountered Tan Wei during my journey out of town. I learned that he had a sum of money stashed away in the wall of his residence. I was still quite poor back then, and since he was already dead, I thought of taking his money for my own. Unexpectedly, I stumbled upon Madam Zhang, who was secretly paying respects to her deceased husband at the residence.
“It was then that I realized that the rumors about Madam Zhang willingly becoming Mei Chaofeng’s lover might have been a lie. By paying respects to her deceased husband, it showed me that she cared a lot for him, and the fact that she had to do it secretly meant that she was trying to conceal it from the Plum Blossom Sect. Piecing together all of these clues, I was able to roughly figure out her intentions, which is why I told you to bring her over to the courtroom earlier.
“I knew that only the prestige and standing you hold as the daughter of a duke would be enough to convince her to make her move.”
Chu Chuyan felt a deep admiration for Madam Zhang. “She’s truly a strong woman. In order to exact vengeance for her husband, she was willing to suffer such humiliation. It’s truly a blessing that her sacrifice hasn’t been in vain.”
“Yes, she is indeed someone worthy of respect.” Zu An nodded in agreement. “If something happens to me, will you be willing to put aside everything and exact vengeance for me too?”
Chu Chuyan rolled her eyes. “Haven’t you heard of the saying, ‘good people die prematurely, but vermin plague the world for centuries’? I doubt that any harm could possibly come to you.”
“Ahahaha, I’m flattered by how highly you think of me.” Zu An laughed.
His reaction made Chu Chuyan scoff under her breath. I’m not complimenting you over here! “Speaking of which, weren’t you just mentioning that you were going to take Tan Wei’s money for your own? Madam Zhang is already so pitiful. Surely you aren’t going to keep her husband’s money after learning her story?”
“Of course not,” replied Zu An. “I gave the money to her on the spot. If not, how could I have been so certain that she would help me out this time around?”
“It looks like you aren’t rotten to the core yet.” Despite her slightly harsh remark, a smile slowly formed on her lips. She was quite satisfied with how Zu An had handled this matter.
It was then that Zu An suddenly realized a new problem. If Mei Chaofeng was done for, wouldn’t the Plum Blossom Sect be the next to crumble? If so, the promissory note for seven-and-a-half million taels of silver guaranteed to him by the Plum Blossom Sect would become a mere empty check!
It’s fortunate that I magnanimously donated it to Brightmoon Academy beforehand. Oh well, I guess it’s Jiang Luofu’s problem now.
...
Night descended upon Brightmoon City. In one of the cells of the Yamen, Mei Chaofeng was just about to start cultivating when he suddenly sensed a disturbance. He opened his eyes.
He could vaguely hear deep groans coming from not too far away. It was the sound of the patrolling guards being knocked out.
Soon, a figure appeared before his cell. The figure whipped out a key that he had just swiped from the prison warden and unlocked the cell.
“Mister Shi!”
Even though the figure was masked, Mei Chaofeng was still able to recognize the other party.
“The young master has sent me here to get you out,” replied Shi Lezhi.
Mei Chaofeng frowned. “Are we escaping just like that? Isn’t that as good as admitting to my crimes?”
“Are you still dreaming of being vindicated? You should have known better and kept that thing between your legs under control!” Shi Lezhi ground out with an angry huff.
“That slut! I’m going to kill her!” Just thinking about the matter was more than enough to stoke Mei Chaofeng’s anger.
“Madam Zhang is under the protection of the City Lord Estate at the moment. You shouldn’t even bother thinking about it,” replied Shi Lezhi. “The young master has tasked me to save you in order to give you one last chance. As long as you’re able to get rid of Zu An, the young master will send you to another city, where you can continue to live freely. Otherwise... you should know better than anyone else what happens to those who prove themselves useless.”