TGCFNM -Chapter 325 Which Matters More?

Bai Su stared in disbelief. “Are they really mother and son? Can they be this cruel?”

Cui Xi murmured from the side, “Sister Bai, perhaps you’ve seen too little. When I gossip with the other maids, I’ve heard that the lady of the Su family once sold her own daughter to a sixty-year-old man as a second wife, just so her son could get married.”

Bai Su’s expression turned slightly cold. “Truly unworthy of being human.”

Cui Xi nodded. “Poor Miss Su. After marrying that old man, he died, and she was scolded as a harbinger of misfortune. I hear her life afterward was miserable…”

Ghost Scholar looked at Chu Ling and asked, “Was it you who arranged for Madam Lian to rush over?”

Chu Ling tilted her head slightly, tacitly acknowledging it.

Ghost Scholar smiled lightly. “Right now, the one who truly holds power in the Lian family is Lian Wu. As long as he grows cold-hearted and stops helping, this case can finally move forward.”

Chu Ling blinked, knowing exactly what he meant.

The relationship between mother and son was never close, and with Madam Lian’s favoritism for Lian Ci, Lian Wu must have felt wronged since childhood.

But she had never expected that the woman Lian Wu loved would also be schemed by Madam Lian to marry Lian Ci. There was no way Lian Wu could swallow such a grievance.

That was why she had warned him before Madam Lian arrived: an individual, or an entire Lian family—one must know which matters more.

Lian Wu clenched his fists tightly. Even though he knew someone must be stirring up trouble, the fact remained: his mother’s partiality was real, and Song Lian being forced to marry Lian Ci was also true.

He had trained soldiers so hard to achieve merit and marry Song Lian, yet his unworthy, incompetent younger brother had leapt ahead and claimed it?

He could not accept it!

“Mother, have you considered… if I, holding military power, were to levy taxes on my own, it would be a capital offense. Are you… sacrificing my life for my brother?” Lian Wu asked, clinging to the last shred of hope.

Madam Lian hurriedly said, “Don’t you have the exemption from execution token?”

“And my position as general?” Lian Wu asked sharply.

“Your brother can take over. After all, he’s family. He won’t let you suffer a loss. Eventually, we’ll arrange a marriage for you, and you…”

“Enough!”

Lian Wu’s voice was cold as he glared at Madam Lian and Lian Ci, eyes flashing with frost. “Don’t think you can make me take the blame!”

Madam Lian panicked. “Do you… intend to take your brother’s life?”

Lian Wu said nothing, his expression returning to calm.

At that moment, a young soldier suddenly rushed in and strode toward Lian Wu. “General, there’s a problem at the sandpit. Our spearheads have been replaced with wax.”

Lian Wu was stunned and instinctively glanced at Lian Ci.

Chu Ling looked at the boy, his face covered in dust, and felt a flicker of curiosity. “You don’t look very old. Where are you from? How old are you?”

The young soldier looked puzzled but answered honestly. “Seventeen, from Lianhua Village.”

“Seventeen… and how long have you been a soldier?” Chu Ling asked again.

“Three years.”

Chu Ling looked at Lian Wu: “Such a small child?”

“Soldiers are in short supply. As long as they’re physically intact and willing to endure hardship, the barracks will naturally take them… there’s no other way. The border can’t wait any longer,” Lian Wu sighed.

Chu Ling stared at him seriously. “Do you know? If you had taken the blame just now, you might have walked away unharmed thanks to your immunity token. But the soldiers under your command wouldn’t have been so lucky. Even though they’re just ordinary soldiers acting on orders from their deputy or general, a soldier who collects taxes on his own has only one path: death.”

“And a soldier who collects taxes illegally doesn’t just die alone. His family would be dragged down as outcasts for life—unable to do business, unable to farm, unable to appeal to authorities in any matter, and even in death, no one would care. Their descendants would live miserable lives for generations, simply because they were considered lowly people.”

Chu Ling paused for a moment.

“General Lian, you understand, don’t you?”

Lian Wu opened his mouth, then closed it. He did understand.

He understood just how innocent the former Yuanzhou rebels had been. They didn’t even understand what was happening before they were ordered into slaughter. They had chosen death for the sake of their families, but their families were reduced to lives worse than death as outcasts.

Some people even exploited their desire to perform rituals for the dead, forcing them to pay money, only to treat them as tools for amusement—entertain themselves, then kill them.

Lian Wu looked at the still very young face beside him, his throat tightening.

Chu Ling turned to Madam Lian and asked: “Your son plunders commoners and extorts as much as twenty thousand taels, yet you say it’s just a child’s mischief. And your son brutally murdered nearly thirty-eight people—what is your excuse for that?”

Madam Lian’s face went pale. She instinctively said, “Outcasts are not human.”

“Oh, so Madam Lian has always known what your youngest son has been doing outside,” Chu Ling said, lowering her gaze and smiling—a smile that made her eyes red. “In the capital, no one dares to mention the Yuanzhou rebels. Anyone who does, dies. Yet on the land where the Yuanzhou rebels died, your youngest son dares to toy with their lives, boldly defying the world, claiming that the families of the rebels can come to pay respects…”

“Disobeying the emperor’s decree—such an act could bring the punishment of nine clans.”

Chu Ling said this, then lifted her head and stared at Madam Lian, her eyes blazing red.

Madam Lian, pale as death, grabbed Lian Wu’s sleeve: “Quick, help me! Are you really going to watch your brother die with your own eyes?”

Lian Wu looked at Chu Ling.

Chu Ling met his gaze. “Which is heavier, which is lighter—I trust General Lian can distinguish. But remember one thing: don’t let the people under your command lose heart.”

Lian Wu turned his gaze to Lian Ci, his eyes filled with killing intent.

Lian Ci thrashed violently: “Outcasts can’t appeal to authorities. If they die, they die. You can’t use that to punish me. And as for the money, it was Lian Wu—he ordered me to collect it. If you want it, I’ll return it. Two thousand taels? I can even give back two hundred thousand!”

Chu Ling looked at Lian Wu, her voice catching slightly. “Do you know, I found them a safe home. They were about to move to their new home.”

“In Yuanzhou, we were careful not to go out, thinking that once we reached Ningzhou, we’d be safe. But he… he secretly followed with soldiers, looking for the chance to rush into the Fulai Inn, injure everyone, then burst into the room and cruelly kill a defenseless young girl… General Lian, tell me, how should I pass judgment?”

Lian Wu’s body trembled. He didn’t answer immediately.

Chu Ling then looked at the young soldier. “I ask you: if your general gives an order, do you carry it out?”

The young soldier almost immediately replied: “Of course.”

“What if your general orders you to do something wrong?” Chu Ling asked.

The young soldier shook his head: “No, our general is a good man. He eats and lives with us, even buys medicine for us.”

Chu Ling slowly stood, leaning on the table. “One day, what if you die because of a mistake your general made?”

The young soldier replied firmly: “To defend Da Zhou, even in death, there is honor!”