On the road, several prison guards were patrolling back and forth with leather whips, supervising the convicts to earnestly shovel snow.
Li Shuchen walked in the middle of the stone road that had just been cleared. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of their hands covered in chilblains holding iron shovels, with their skinny bones sheathed in thin, dirty prison clothes, mechanically shoveling the thick accumulated snow on the main road.
Then he thought of the increasingly rosy complexions of the three people she raised. No wonder they would be eyed by other convicts.
Withdrawing his thoughts, Li Shuchen quickened his pace as the snow fell heavier and heavier.
When he arrived home, the front hall door was wide open. Looking around, several prison guards were standing behind a middle-aged official in red robes, confronting Lai Steward who was sitting opposite them.
"Lai Steward, Liu Meng has testified that before the incident, you only offended Yan Qinghe. So I suspect you have an inescapable relationship with Lai Steward's death case," said Chen the county magistrate, stroking his beard.
Having said that, Chen the county magistrate habitually wanted to lift the teacup, but he touched air.
...Oh, he didn't serve him tea.
Chen the county magistrate coughed slightly, trying to conceal the awkwardness of the moment, and returned to the matter, "Yan Qinghe has just suffered fifty heavy beatings. It's a miracle he survived. He couldn't possibly have the strength to beat Lai Steward to death."
"But you, as his cousin, as the only disciple of his father the Marquis of Wei Yuan, have superior martial arts. Seeing him suffer such a severe punishment, you were resentful, so you deliberately created this accident and killed Lai Steward. Isn't that right?!"
In this remote place far from the emperor, Chen the county magistrate was almost like a local emperor. The official prestige he had accumulated over the years pressed down with his gradually rising tone.
If it was just some ordinary convict, they would have knelt down and begged for mercy long ago. Unfortunately, the one facing him was the former Crown Prince.
Seeing that Li Shuchen was unmoved, Chen the county magistrate was somewhat annoyed. He thought: There are still so many prison guards watching behind him.
No matter Li Shuchen was once the Crown Prince, isn't he still in his territory now?
Chen the county magistrate slapped the table hard, disregarding the pain in his hand, and shouted, "Answer!"
"What does the county magistrate want me to answer?" Li Shuchen glanced outside, "What you said is just your speculation. Do you have any evidence?"
"Humph! This official has no evidence for the moment, but this official has a brain! What wind could just happen to break such a big tree as thick as this official's waist and just happened to smash Lai Steward's head?"
Having said this, seeing that he still did not voluntarily plead guilty, Chen the county magistrate waved his hand irritably and signaled to the prison guards behind him, "Tie him up and take the suspect Li Shuchen to the county government to await trial!"
As the prison guards grabbed his arms, a trace of unease flashed across Li Shuchen's eyes.
"Chen the county magistrate, you also have a son. Therefore, Li would like to ask you a question, please teach me."
"What?"
"You can beat your son, scold your son, but what about your subordinates? Can they discipline him like that too?"
Just thinking about the scene of his son being chased by others with a broom, Chen the county magistrate became somewhat angry and blurted out, "Of course not! That little bunny, I can discipline him however I want. But if anyone dares to lay a finger on him, it’s like stomping on my face!"
Having said that, facing Li Shuchen's seeming smile, Chen the county magistrate suddenly felt a chill in his heart.
—He was about to imprison Li Shuchen now. How is that not stomping on the emperor's face?
Chen the county magistrate began to speculate based on his own perspective. He could punish his son however he wanted. But if others arrested his son without conclusive evidence, he would definitely not let it go easily.
The deposed prince was here. Perhaps the emperor had sent people to monitor him here.
It seemed that Lai Steward could only be considered the unlucky fool crushed by the tree.
Alas, no one else was to blame for this. He had also heard that Lai Steward was domineering in the logging field. And this time, he was provoked by someone to directly beat and kill the descendant of the Marquis of Wei Yuan. He really deserved his fate.
Having figured this out, Chen the county magistrate waved his hand and said lightly, "Withdraw."
Stepping over the threshold, he looked back to see his silly subordinates about to take Li Shuchen away together with them. Chen the county magistrate glared at them and said, "Let him go. There is insufficient evidence for this case. This official still has to do more research when he returns."
Chen the county magistrate and his men hurried away. The prison guard walking at the back even closed the door for them.
Withdrawing his gaze, Qi Huan, who had been standing by the wall inconspicuously the entire time, hurriedly came over and asked, "Li Shuchen, was Lai Steward really crushed to death by the tree?"
"Yes."
Li Shuchen glanced at her and added, "But I was the one who broke the tree."
Qi Huan was stunned for a moment before she came back to her senses, staring straight at his well-defined hands. "You are so strong. Did your hands hurt?"
"......"
Back in the room, Qi Huan was still pondering: Li Shuchen was versatile and excellent. And as the eldest legitimate son, coupled with System's favoritism for him, helping him a little would lead to super bonus points. So he would surely break out of Mo County's prison in the future and soar for thousands of miles.
"So I have to hug his thigh tightly!"
Qi Huan thought carefully. Apart from three meals a day, what else could she do for Li Shuchen?
Suddenly she remembered the box of books she got yesterday.
Last night she was shocked by Yan Qinghe’s injury and busy getting medicine for him. She had completely forgotten about the books.
"System, system! Take the books out of my space!"
"Alright, host."
The book box appeared out of thin air. Qi Huan jumped down from the bed, kicked on her shoes, dragged them and found Li Shuchen.
"Li Shuchen, I have many good books. Do you want to read together?"
Seeing her beaming smile, Li Shuchen's tone curled up slightly. "Oh?"
Qi Huan took out several imperial biographies and offered them to him like treasures. "Take a look!"
Taking over the books, Li Shuchen stroked the high quality leather covers, opened the front page, but his eyebrows rose slightly.
"What script is this?"
"Oh...I forgot." Qi Huan twisted the corner of her clothes. She forgot the books were all in simplified Chinese characters, which were not exactly the same as the traditional characters used in Li Country.
She pulled out her omnipotent excuse. "This is the script from Heavenly Court. Can you not read it?"
"It looks very similar to the Li Country's script, just simpler strokes."
There wasn't much difficulty in reading. Li Shuchen became more and more engrossed as he read on.
Just then, Qi Huan also received a reminder from the system. "Doing good +1, points +100."
She also remembered Yan Qinghe still lying in bed healing. She picked out several biographies about famous generals and took them to him to pass the time.
"Good Ah Huan. Thank you for the medicine. I feel much better now."
Wrapped in a quilt, Yan Qinghe moved aside a little and motioned for her to sit down to talk. "I'm so bored. I can only lie in bed everyday, either looking at the ceiling or the ground. I'm so bored, I'm almost growing mushrooms."
"Here! These are for you."
Seeing they were books, Yan Qinghe quickly retracted his hands and buried his head under the quilt. "Quickly take them away! This is simply my nightmare!"
In the past, when his father campaigned in battles, his mother didn't want him to follow in his father's footsteps. So she would chase and beat him to force him to read books.
Later whenever he saw books, his eyes would hurt.
"You really won't read them? These are all stories about generals. I heard Xiu Wen say your dream is to become a great general. Are you sure you don't want to learn something from these books?"
Yan Qinghe let go of the quilt corners and peeked out his head. "Really?"
He happily accepted the books he had regarded as catastrophic just now. As he started reading, he became more and more confused.
"Why do the words look familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time?"
