Chapter 116 Confrontation
Soon, the servant came running over and said, "Prince, there is a bathhouse 500 meters from here."

Chu Anlan urged: "Follow him, don't even think about leaving the bathhouse until you're clean."

The disheveled teenagers walked away with tired and weak steps.

Seeing this, Ye Wanqing ordered, "Yingxiang, find a good restaurant and ask the owner to send some food to Chenxi and the others."

Ying Xiang nodded: "I will go right away."

After everything was arranged, Chu Xiaoyan spoke up: "Your actions in the court today were too reckless. Do you know what I found in the Qu family?"

"What?" Chu Anlan asked.

Chu Xiaoyan lowered his voice: "Qu Jie has raised a private army of more than a thousand people..."

Private soldiers?

Ye Chenting's expression immediately became solemn, and he lowered his voice: "The people I sent out did not find out the news, so they were careless..."

"Normal." Chu Xiaoyan said, "Who would have thought that a county magistrate would raise private soldiers? I also heard it accidentally when I was guarding Qu Jie's family. Ever since the court said that they would need a blood test, someone has secretly spread the news that they want to get the military token and go to the farm outside the city to mobilize private soldiers."

"This guy is really..." Chu Anlan smiled bitterly: "No wonder he has such courage to put a member of the royal family in jail."

"What should we do now?" Chu Xiaoyan asked Ye Chenting.

Ye Chenting thought for a moment: "We don't have to do anything. When the court sends someone, I will send someone to keep an eye on Qu Jie."

Chu Xiaoyan nodded: "Okay."

The four of them returned to the inn together.

Ye Chenxi and Chu Shaozhen were young boys who had been brought up in pampered conditions. This was the first time they had experienced such hardship in their lives.

The teenagers washed from head to toe until their skin was almost peeling off. They came out of the bathhouse, drank the tranquilizer prescribed by the doctor, and fell asleep.

Just as he was sleeping soundly, the people sent by the court arrived and said, "I'm sorry to frighten you young men and women. The emperor has issued an order that the magistrate of Lin'an, Qu Jie, abused his power for personal gain and disregarded the laws of the Western Zhou Dynasty. He must be brought back to the capital for trial."

Ye Chenting handed over something: "Your Excellency, I'm afraid there is one more charge against Qu Jie."

The censor took it with both hands, and was extremely surprised: "Military Token! Excuse me, but what you are doing this time... is really too risky!"

That night, the censor was going to take people to escort Qu Jie and Ling Han to the capital.

All members of the Qu family were detained together.

I thought the matter would come to an end for the time being, but unexpectedly, Ling Zenghuang, who had just returned home, came back wearing the bloody clothes he had worn that morning and said he wanted to see Qu Jie.

Seeing him, Chu Anlan looked strange: "Why is there more blood on your body than this morning?"

Everyone looked over.

Ling Zenghuang stretched out his bloody hand, raised his head, and revealed his bloodshot eyes: "I killed someone."

Everyone was stunned.

The censor immediately said, "Come here! Take him down!"

Ling Zenghuang stood there numbly, allowing the guards brought by the censor to press him to the ground, rubbing his face against the cold floor tiles.

The censor put down his teacup and asked, "Who did you kill?" Ling Zenghuang's eyes moved: "Guan wanted to kill me and fought me to death with a knife, so I killed her. My family has been destroyed, and I am here to confess my crime."

Ling Zenghuang cried and laughed: "Qu Jie and Guan family teamed up to deceive me for more than 20 years. I raised their son for more than 20 years. My own biological son is loyal to me, but how did I treat him? He is dead and he will never come back... I am not a competent father, I am a bastard! I deserve to be reduced to such a broken family today! Sir, let me meet Qu Jie! After meeting him, I will let you decide what happens to me."

The censor subconsciously looked at Ye Chenting.

Ye Chenting sighed: "Let him meet Qu Jie and let them face off in person."

After Qu Jie came to Beijing, he would either spend the rest of his life in prison or be exiled to a cold and bitter border area.

Ling Zenghuang killed someone and will be executed soon.

This will be the last time the two meet.

The censor nodded and said, "Come here, bring Qu Jie up."

But in just half a day, Qu Jie was reduced from a county magistrate to a prisoner. He was wearing a heavy yoke, chains on his hands and feet, prison clothes, and his hair was messy.

After entering the meeting room, he first looked around at everyone: "Are you all here? Huh..."

No one answered.

Then, his eyes fell on Ling Zenghuang: "Brother-in-law, we meet again. I haven't seen you for a few hours. Why are you so embarrassed?"

Ling Zenghuang answered the question irrelevantly: "I killed Guan."

Qu Jie was stunned for a moment, then laughed out loud: "Back then, the fortune teller said that you would bring bad luck to your wife, but I didn't believe it at first. I never thought that everything would come true. You killed my sister, and now, you have killed Guan too. Hahahaha..."

"You can actually still laugh?" Ling Zenghuang couldn't believe it. "You teamed up with Guan's family to deceive me and made me raise your son for nothing for so many years. How can you have the nerve to laugh? Are you worthy of your sister and me?"

"You...are you worthy of my sister?" Qu Jie laughed so hard that he kept coughing. "My sister gave her life for her son, but you treated him like a worthless grass and abandoned him like a worn-out shoe. Before my sister's body was even cold, you immediately got involved with Guan. If you had protected Xuan'er a little, he wouldn't have died so early. Children learn their behavior from their parents. If you are not good to Xuan'er, how can Han'er be good to his brother?

You keep saying that you helped me raise my son. Don't you think that you raised my son very well? Brother-in-law, Han'er is only 20 years old, but he has been drained of his body by alcohol and sex, and his temper is getting worse and worse... Dare you say that these are not caused by you?"

"That's a farce!" Ling Zenghuang sneered, "It's obviously you who instigated the discord. That's why Xuan'er doesn't get close to me! It was also you who told Ling Han that he was your son! As the saying goes, a son resembles his father. The reason why Ling Han couldn't be raised well and grew up to be a murderer, dark, selfish, arrogant, is that he inherited his father's character from you!"

Qu Jie sneered.

He moved his neck, hands and feet, sat cross-legged on the cool floor tiles in front of everyone, and sighed comfortably.

After sighing, he said, "I've been sitting at the trial table for a long time. It's quite comfortable to sit on the ground."

Ling Zenghuang looked at him coldly.

Qu Jie's eyes swept over the faces of Ye Wanqing, Ye Chenting, Chu Anlan and Chu Xiaoyan in turn: "I have lived for most of my life, but I never thought that I would fall into the hands of you guys. I was too confident and believed the rumors. I really thought you were a bunch of stupid dandies who could be manipulated by me at will. I deserved it for making a mistake."

Upon hearing this, the censor shouted, "How dare you!"

Qu Jie smiled indifferently.

Seeing his indifferent look, Chu Anlan laughed: "Your brain is not working well, how dare you judge others by yourself and think that others are the same as you? In order to deal with you, we have prepared several countermeasures. Many of them have not been used yet, and you confessed your guilt first. Tell me, how can you be so useless?"

Qu Jie asked sarcastically, "How dare a notorious playboy say that others have bad brains? Apart from his good family background, what else can the prince be proud of?"

(End of this chapter)