Farmhouse Green Plum

Chapter 271 Interrogation

There was Madam Jiang, a chubby young woman, a strong young man with a beard, two teenagers of fifteen or sixteen years old, a little girl of seven or eight years old, and even a little boy who was about three or four years old.

County Magistrate Chen was wearing his official uniform and sitting high up in the room. Above his head was a plaque that read "A Clear Mirror Hanging High." On both sides stood yamen runners holding water and fire sticks, all with serious faces.

The solemn atmosphere and overwhelming pressure made Song Ying and others feel timid, and the legs of some of the timid ones began to tremble uncontrollably.

The constable who brought them here stepped forward and said, "Your Excellency, Song Ying and the others are here."

After saying that, he turned his head and glared, "You're seeing the county lord, why don't you kneel down?"

Song Ying and others knelt down hurriedly.

"Look up!" The majestic voice of County Magistrate Chen came from above, "Mrs. Zhao Jiang, are all the people here?"

Madam Jiang quickly glanced at Song Ying and the others and said, "My parents, there is one woman who hasn't come yet."

Snapped!

County Magistrate Chen slammed the gavel and shouted, "What's going on?"

The two constables who brought them here knelt on the ground, and one of them said, "My Lord, I don't know. They said that everyone is here."

Seeing that the constable was about to throw the blame on him, Yuan Qing said in a clear voice: "My dear parents, please understand. The two officers only asked one question and did not wait for us to answer. They kept urging us and forbade us to speak all the way."

County Magistrate Chen looked at him and asked in surprise, "Isn't this Yuan Qing from Jiahu Academy?"

"Thanks to my parents for caring about me, I am a student."

County Magistrate Chen quickly suppressed his surprise and said calmly, "You are a student of the academy, stand up and answer."

"Thank you, parents." Yuan Qing stood up.

Song Ying and others all looked up at him with envy. This is a scholar. This is what it means that all other things are inferior except reading.

Although the imperial court stipulated that scholars with official titles did not have to kneel when meeting officials, some county magistrates respected scholars out of courtesy and would give preferential treatment to some scholars who had not yet passed the imperial examinations.

"Why didn't that woman come?" asked County Magistrate Chen.

"My parents, that person is the stall owner selling wooden hairpins. She lives far away and since she can't do business today, she left first."

County Magistrate Chen nodded and did not pursue the question. Instead, he interrogated the two teenagers.

After listening to the interrogation, Song Ying finally realized that the two teenagers were the culprits that caused today's congestion.

It turned out that the boy on the left named Deng Hao bought a fried dough cake and was eating it while walking. There were many people here today, and he was bumped by someone while walking. His hand holding the fried dough cake tilted, and by chance, it bumped into another boy named Dong Chuan.

Dong Chuan is the youngest son in the family. He used to wear old clothes from his two older brothers. This year, his parents finally made him some clothes. However, after just a short stroll on the street, his new clothes got dirty. He immediately flew into a rage and cursed, "You have no eyes!"

Deng Hao also had a hot temper and immediately cursed back: "You've eaten shit, your mouth is full of shit!"

"You dare to scold me?"

"What's wrong with scolding you? I dare to hit you!"

With just a few words, the two teenagers rolled up their sleeves and started fighting. When the people around heard the noise, they gathered over.

Some people tried to stop the fight, while others just wanted to watch the fun. The plump woman who was kneeling also squeezed to the front with her son to watch the fun.

As she watched, someone reached out a pair of hands, snatched her son away, and carried him into the crowd.

The woman panicked and shouted, "There are human traffickers!"

Enthusiastic people went looking for the trafficker, wanting to help her. However, because they didn't know who the trafficker was and the woman was short, she was completely lost in the crowd.

The enthusiastic people could not see her and did not know who the human trafficker she was talking about was. Seeing the bearded man with a fierce look on his face and holding a little girl, they thought he was a human trafficker and tried to snatch the little girl from him.

The bearded man didn't dare to let them take his daughter away. He didn't know if any of them was a human trafficker, so he started pushing them.

By the time the plump woman finally saw the bearded man who was being beaten and the girl in her arms, her son had been taken away by the traffickers to who knows where.

The crowd was getting more and more crowded, and in the end she couldn't even move, and could only move with the force of the crowd.

When she said this, the plump woman hugged the little boy next to her tightly and looked at Luo Yanxing with gratitude:

"Thanks to the girl and her friends who told the police about the human traffickers, after the crowd dispersed, I saw my son standing on the street, crying loudly."

Luo Yanxing looked at the boy who was leaning against the plump woman with red and swollen eyes from crying, and felt that they had done a good thing today. He felt less regretful when he saw the police just now.

After hearing this, not only Song Ying and others, but even County Magistrate Chen was speechless. They never expected that the cause of this series of accidents was just a trivial quarrel between two bad-tempered teenagers.

This is really, I don’t know what to say.

He looked at Yuan Qing again, "What about you? What's going on?"

Yuan Qing said: "My dear parents, today I took my sister to the city for a walk. When we got to the street corner, we saw a stall selling wooden hairpins and hair strings..."

At that moment, Yuan Qing told them about what happened today when he met Song Ying and others at Zheng Madam's stall, how Yuan Shan chose a hairband and waited for Zheng Madam to help her comb her hair, how she heard about the accident later and went into Madam Jiang's house to hide, and then went to the windowsill to stop people from moving around, including how Song Ying saw the human traffickers retract their hands from Luo Erzhu's waist.

With the testimonies of Mrs. Jiang, the fat woman and others, as well as the people who came over to watch, the situation at that time was very clear.

After the interrogation, the beginning, process and end of the incident were all clear, without any doubt. It was just an ordinary accident caused by an unexpected event.

But County Magistrate Chen couldn't laugh. He had just been transferred here this year and such a thing happened. How could he explain it to the court?

What should we do with the assessment three years later?

The previous magistrate, Hu, was involved in a major case in southern Yunnan, but nothing so serious happened under his rule. How do other colleagues view him?

Doesn't that mean that he is even worse than the traitor Hu Hengrui!

Speaking of which, he had to thank these kids for what happened today. If they hadn't controlled the situation in time, who knows how many people would have been killed or injured in this accident.

County Magistrate Chen sighed secretly and began to interrogate the human traffickers about what they looked like.

If the human traffickers can be caught, part of the responsibility can be offset.

Unfortunately, the plump woman whispered, "My mind was on my son at the time, and I didn't pay attention to what the trafficker looked like."

County Magistrate Chen: “…”

He had no choice but to put his hope on Song Ying, "Have you seen the human traffickers?"

Song Ying shook her head and said, "My dear parents, I only saw a pair of hands withdraw from Luo Erzhu's waist. There were too many people around, so I can't be sure whose hands they belonged to."

County Magistrate Chen was disappointed.

Unexpectedly, Song Ying added: "However, I have memorized the faces of several possible people around me."