DLERB -Chapter 27 Give Me Back My Son’s Life! A Public Trial to Tear Off the Mask of Hypocritical Scholars!

The crowd’s boiling excitement instantly cooled.

Suspicion and fear slithered back into everyone’s hearts like venomous snakes.

Clang!

Two members of the Jinyiwei moved at once, their embroidered spring swords sliding halfway out of their scabbards as they prepared to seize the woman.

“Stand down.”

Ying Ziye’s childish voice rang out.

He climbed down from the field ridge and casually dusted off dirt that wasn’t even there.

The Jinyiwei immediately sheathed their weapons and stepped back in perfect unison.

Ying Ziye looked at the hysterical woman.

There was no anger on his face at all.

Instead, he looked curious.

“Let her speak.”

He tilted his little head slightly.

“This Young Master also wants to hear how exactly I became a monster.”

Seeing his reaction only inflamed the woman further.

Thud!

She dropped heavily to her knees, pounding the ground wildly with both fists.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

“My son… my poor son!”

She wailed miserably, her cries heartbreaking.

“He was just starving! He only wanted to get a mouthful of food from the granary—a single mouthful!”

“What did he do wrong?!”

“Why did you kill him?! You bloodthirsty tyrant! Give me back my son!”

Every word of the woman’s accusation was soaked in grief and blood.

The crowd began to stir.

Sympathy and pity appeared on many faces.

That’s right.

Did someone deserve death just for trying to get food?

Wasn’t that far too cruel?

The tiny spark of trust and goodwill they had just developed toward Ying Ziye began to waver once more.

Standing beside the carriage, Li Si’s palms were drenched in sweat, his face pale as paper.

Finished!

The situation they had worked so hard to reverse was about to collapse because of this woman!

Only the old general Wang Jian remained calm, standing motionless at the front of the military officials with his eyes half-closed.

Ying Ziye ignored the restless crowd.

He walked forward on his short little legs until he stood before the woman, then crouched down.

“What was your son’s name?”

The woman’s crying suddenly stopped.

She lifted her head and glared at him viciously.

“You killed him, and you don’t even know his name?!”

Ying Ziye shook his head, still wearing that innocent expression.

“This Young Master has killed too many bad people. I can’t remember them all.”

“You tell me. I’ll help you check whether I killed the wrong person.”

The woman’s lips trembled.

She didn’t trust him—but this was her only hope.

“My son… his name was Zhao San…”

Ying Ziye stood up and turned toward Qinglong.

“Qinglong.”

“Your servant is here.”

“Check.”

Qinglong bowed and pulled out a thick stack of dossiers from his robes.

They contained the names and recorded crimes of everyone executed the previous night.

He flipped rapidly through them.

Silence fell over the field.

Everyone held their breath as they watched.

Soon, Qinglong pulled out one bamboo scroll.

“Reporting to Young Master, I found him.”

He unfolded the scroll and began reading aloud in a cold, emotionless voice.

“Zhao San. Male. Twenty-four years old. A street thug from southern Xianyang. Habitual gambler. Owed three hundred copper coins in debt.”

The woman’s expression changed slightly.

Qinglong continued.

“Last night at midnight, Zhao San and seven accomplices were the first to storm the western government granary while shouting ‘Loot the grain!’ and inciting the crowd.”

“At the third quarter of the Hour of Chou, Zhao San committed arson, burning down three rice shops and one cloth store in eastern Xianyang.”

Shocked cries erupted from the crowd.

“What?! He burned those shops in the east city?!”

“Heavens! That fire nearly spread to my house!”

The woman’s body began trembling violently.

“N-no… that’s not true…”

But Qinglong’s icy voice continued relentlessly.

“At the first quarter of the Hour of Yin, Zhao San led rioters into the home of the wealthy merchant Master Qian in southern Xianyang and looted the residence.”

“During the incident, the sixty-year-old steward of the Qian family, Old Liu, attempted to stop them and was struck on the head with a club by Zhao San, dying instantly.”

“When the Qian family’s youngest daughter attempted to flee and report the crime to the authorities, Zhao San seized her and attempted to violate her. She was later dismembered by his accomplices…”

“NO!!!”

The woman let out a shriek that barely sounded human as she suddenly leapt to her feet.

“Impossible! That’s not my son! You’re lying! You’re framing him!”

Like a crazed beast, the woman lunged toward Qinglong with claws bared.

Two Jinyiwei immediately stepped forward and pinned her down from both sides.

“My son was timid! He wouldn’t even dare kill a chicken! How could he possibly murder people and burn houses?!”

The woman struggled wildly and screamed hysterically.

The crowd’s expressions changed from sympathy… to disgust and fury.

“So he was actually that kind of beast!”

“The Qian family massacre was his doing?!”

“Old Liu was such a good man, and he beat him to death?! He deserved to die! Someone like that should be cut into a thousand pieces!”

Watching the nearly insane woman, Ying Ziye sighed softly.

“See? This Young Master told you—I only kill bad people.”

He waved his little hand.

“You still don’t believe me?”

“Then this Young Master will let you see with your own eyes who sent your son to do those things.”

Ying Ziye turned toward the imperial palace and clapped his hands crisply.

“Men!”

“Bring out that old man who’s best at inciting others!”

The moment his words fell—

Two Jinyiwei escorted forward a bloodied prisoner shackled in handcuffs and leg irons from behind the crowd.

His hair was disheveled, his official robes torn apart, his face filthy with grime and blood.

One of the Jinyiwei kicked the back of his knees.

Thud!

He crashed heavily to his knees before the woman.

The crowd instantly erupted into even greater uproar.

“It’s… it’s Lord Chunyu!”

“Heavens! Chunyu Yue? The most learned scholar in Xianyang?! How did he end up like this?”

“Wasn’t he a great Confucian scholar? What’s he doing connected to murderers?”

Ying Ziye walked up to the man and nudged him with his little boot.

“Old man, wake up. Stop pretending to be dead.”

Chunyu Yue’s body trembled as he slowly raised his head.

His cloudy old eyes were filled with fear and despair.

Ying Ziye pointed at the woman kneeling on the ground, now completely stunned.

“Look.”

“This is the ‘public sentiment’ you said could be used.”

Then he pointed at Chunyu Yue and spoke to the woman.

“And you—take a good look too.”

“This is the ‘important figure’ hiding behind the scenes—the one who paid your son to commit murder and arson, and promised him wealth and high office afterward!”

Chunyu Yue suddenly lifted his head and shouted hoarsely, “You slander me! Insolent child! You are the true tyrant! This old man—”

His words were abruptly cut off by Qinglong’s next action.

Expressionless, Qinglong stepped forward and violently threw down scroll after scroll, letter after letter, and stacks of account books before Chunyu Yue.

“These are secret correspondences between Chunyu Yue and Han Shi, a remnant of the Six States. The letters detail plans for inciting riots and coordinating attacks from inside and outside Xianyang.”

“These are the account books seized from Chunyu Yue’s residence. Every payment used to bribe rioters is clearly recorded. Under Zhao San’s name: three hundred copper coins!”

“These are signed confessions from captured rioters—one hundred and seventy-three in total! Every one of them identifies Chunyu Yue’s disciples as the people who promised them heavy rewards for causing chaos in the streets!”

The evidence was overwhelming.

The woman stared blankly at the black-and-white records… at the familiar line mentioning “three hundred copper coins.”

Her entire world collapsed.

“It’s… true…”

“So it was all… true…”

The hatred in her eyes vanished.

In its place remained only endless emptiness and despair.

Ying Ziye walked to her side and crouched down, looking up at her with his tiny face tilted slightly upward.

In those clear eyes, there was no mockery.

Only sincerity.

“Auntie, this Young Master knows losing your son hurts.”

His childish voice entered her ears clearly.

“But if your son did something wrong, he must bear the consequences.”

“This Young Master didn’t kill him because he was hungry and wanted food.”

“I killed him because, for three hundred copper coins, he burned down other people’s homes and murdered innocent people.”

“In this Young Master’s Xianyang City, if you’re hungry, there are potatoes to eat—you can live.”

“But murder and arson?”

“That is not allowed. For that, you must die.”

The woman’s body trembled violently.

Slowly… inch by inch… she turned her head.

Those hollow eyes locked onto Chunyu Yue, who knelt there pale as death.

All her sorrow.

All her despair.

All her pain—

In that instant, they transformed into overwhelming hatred!

“AAAAAH—!!!”

The woman let out a shriek so piercing it barely sounded human.

She scrambled up from the ground like a mother wolf driven into a corner and lunged madly at Chunyu Yue.

“You old beast!”

SMACK!!!

A loud, crisp slap struck Chunyu Yue viciously across the face.

“Give me back my son’s life!!”