Rebel: The Inheritance System

Chapter 46 - Roast Duck

As we walk towards the yamen, where the magistrate office is located, we see Judge Cui and Judge Tang waiting at the entrance with a man, wearing the magistrate's official robes and an older, fat man by his side.

The man wearing the official magistrate robes must obviously be the magistrate and the older man should be his steward. They are probably waiting for the rest of us to arrive so they can welcome us together, following court etiquette. Judge Cui and Judge Tang seem to be chatting with the magistrate happily so they should be acquainted.

As we get closer to them, Ding Sha and the rest who are with me slow down, so that I will eventually walk in front. This is because I am a judge and my official position is ranked higher than them so it is not appropriate for them to stand in front of me when we are dealing with official matters. It might even be seen as them not showing respect to me and if someone wants to, they can punish them for walking ahead of me.

Once I arrive in front of the magistrate, they bow and greet me humbly.

The magistrate says "Dong Wu Fei greets Judge Shang!" while his steward bows deeper and say "Dong Jing greets Judge Shang!"

I nod lightly in acknowledgement and make some light hearted chatter "Are you two related?"

"Yes, when I was assigned the post of the magistrate, I was informed that the previous steward had retired so I brought my uncle along with me. Please head this way, dinner is prepared and we will show you to your rooms later." Magistrate Dong says as points us towards the direction of the dining hall to welcome us.

As we are walking towards the dining hall, the system started to beep and tell me about the wishes that I have completed.

[Beep!]

[Congratulations host! You have successfully granted two hundred and seventy three wishes! The system has automatically combined the rewards that were granted to you and you have obtained < Beginner Carpentry>, <Beginner Engineering>, <Beginner Masonry>, <Advanced Masonry>, <Beginner Architecture>, and <One Hundred and One Leadership Tips>. You have also obtained the skills <Slight Inspiration Boost> and <Slight Morale Boost>.

(?? System, open calculator.)

[Toot.]

(Three hundred and sixty two minus two hundred and seventy three equals?)

[Toot. The answer is eighty nine.]

(System what happened to the other eighty nine villagers I saved?!)

[Beep!]

[Their wish was not fulfilled. I had informed you that there was a multitude of different wishes and there is also a possibility that they did not escape successfully, was captured and/or killed by wild beasts.]

(...)

I cannot help but feel sad after hearing what the system said, that some of the villagers who were innocent were killed while they were escaping or captured by the pursuing soldiers and forget to complain about the useless rewards the system granted me and the two skills I gained.

...

In the dining hall, the magistrate had ordered his servants to cook up a sumptuous meal for us. The food tasted great but it was devoid of seasoning as usual. We were provided with a green drink that tasted refreshing and when I asked what it was, the magistrate said it was a speciality of this town, as the drink came from an ugly fruit tree that only grew around here.

Zhuge Pang also took out the rest of his roasted duck and shared it with everyone. It truly was one of the best roast duck I've tasted but it was still missing the dipping sauce which would have made it even better.

When we were almost done with our dinner, magistrate Dong started telling us about a case that we would probably hear about.

"I have judged all the cases according to my conscience since I took up the position of magistrate but recently, there is a peculiar case that the townsfolk are talking about." The magistrate starts off saying that he has a clear conscience before to assure us that there was no corruption or bias involved.

"This case involves a woman who cheated on her husband, and when the husband confronted her about the affair, a fight occurred and the husband was killed. Usually, the woman would be dealt with accordingly to the laws of the household, which is usually by drowning both the adulterer and the woman in a pig cage. However, the woman is born to one of the more affluent merchant family in Yao Feng town and has many relatives working in the government and they rescued her before she could be drowned and asked the yamen to trial the case instead." He continued introducing the case.

"Since one of the parties asked the yamen to trial the case, I could not refuse as per the laws of the Empire and the yamen took over the jurisdiction for the case." the magistrate explained.

In this world, while polygamy is allowed, only the men are allowed to have more than one wife but females are not allowed to have more than one husband as this is a patriarchal society. Of course, there are also people who only have one wife, like my father, but usually, the more successful a man is, the more wives he will have to take as families will try to tie themselves to each other via political marriages.

"I have done my best to judge this case, but there is no evidence and no witness. The only witness is their two year old child who is unable to speak. I have also searched the entire estate but was unable to find the murder weapon. The woman claims that when the victim returned home from work, he confronted her immediately and asked if she had an affair with another man. The wife said that she was muddled and unconsciously told the truth in confusion, instead of lying. The victim then got angry and started to scream and shout at her, but since she was holding their child, he did not become violent. After screaming and shouting at her for about ten minutes, the husband got tired and went to the kitchen to get a drink. She was afraid so she went to the child's room while holding the child and locked the door." He slowly explained the facts of the case.

"Once she locked the door, the victim heard the door being locked and got angry again. He moved to the room and started shouting at her to open the door but she refused. Soon the victim started to punch and kick the door, and when he failed to break the door, he went to get a cleaver from the kitchen and started hacking at the door. As her child was crying loudly and her husband was hacking the door with a cleaver, she could no longer stand it and decided to get hacked to death with her child. She hugged her child and opened the door so the husband could kill them both but the husband could not kill his child. He started to try and grab their child away from her and in their struggle, she managed the snatch the cleaver from him and in the spur of a moment, started hacking him to death." He finished explaining the series of events that took place.