Chapter 591 Uncle De's Plan
"Ms. Zhao should not be injured!" said the housekeeper uncertainly.

"Should?" Lin Hao frowned and looked at the housekeeper.

Seeing this, the butler quickly explained:
"It's like this. Madam Zhao went out at noon today, but she came back to me not long after she left, asked for ten guards, and then left again!"

"Just now a guard came back to report that Madam Zhao had a conflict with someone and that she was taken to Kaifeng Prefecture!"

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Kaifeng Mansion.

At this time, the Kaifeng Prefecture prosecutor was sitting in the hall, looking at the two groups of people below the hall and feeling overwhelmed.

In the early Song Dynasty, the chief officials of Kaifeng Prefecture included the governor, the mayor, the acting governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, the judge, and the prosecutor.

However, the post of Kaifeng Prefecture Mu was not a permanent one, and was usually held by a prince or a crown prince. The previous and first Kaifeng Prefecture Mu was Emperor Zhenzong of Song, Zhao Heng himself.

But at this time, Zhao Heng had not yet appointed a crown prince, so the position of Kaifeng prefect was temporarily vacant, and all matters, big or small, were handled by the acting prefect of Kaifeng.

However, the new acting governor of Kaifeng Prefecture has not yet arrived, so the affairs of Kaifeng Prefecture should have been handled by the judge. But the judge suddenly took leave for some reason.

He also handed over all the affairs of Kaifeng Prefecture to Li Jun, the left-hand prosecutor, to handle, and to try a case at the same time.

He thought it was just a small case, but he didn't expect it to be so small. However, seeing the power behind the two parties in this case, Li Jun suddenly had a headache.

There were two groups of people in the hall, one was the daughter and servants of Observer Gao Hu, and the other was from Marquis Jing'an's Mansion.

He was just a small sixth-rank prosecutor and he couldn't afford to offend either of these two groups of people. Moreover, the parties involved on both sides were all women.

At this time, Li Jun had already cursed the judge in his heart several times. He finally understood why the judge suddenly asked for leave.

Isn't this just throwing trouble at him?

Just bully him because he's the new guy!
However, no matter how unhappy Li Jun felt, he still had to go through the necessary procedures. He cleared his throat and said:

"Who is in the hall?"

"My humble daughter Zhao Pan'er greets you, my Lord!"

"Gao Hui!"

Zhao Pan'er's attitude was still polite, but Gao Hui, who was angry at the moment, just said her name coldly.

"Why are you gathering to cause trouble?" Li Jun continued to ask.

"They beat my wet nurse for no reason, so I brought people to get revenge!" Gao Hui said angrily.

Just now Gao Hui received a report from Uncle De, saying that her wet nurse was beaten by a group of people of unknown origin at the doorstep of Ouyang Xu's house.

How could you bear to hear that your wet nurse was bullied?

You should know that Gao Hui's mother died early, and she was raised by her wet nurse Jiang. Although they were master and servant in name, Gao Hui and her wet nurse Jiang had a relationship like that of mother and daughter.

How could she let her wet nurse be bullied?

So Gao Hui immediately brought a group of servants to get back the revenge, and then he was taken to the Kaifeng government office by the yamen runners.

"How can you confuse right and wrong?" Zhao Pan'er became unhappy when she heard Gao Hui's words:

"We went to Ouyang Xu to collect the debt. It is only natural to pay back the debt, but we did not hit anyone!"

"It was you who brought a group of people to attack us without any reason, and we were forced to fight back!" Zhao Pan'er said confidently.

"You're lying. It was obviously your people who beat my wet nurse first..."

"You're talking nonsense, we've never fought..."

"Sister, you are so beautiful, why are you telling lies?"

"Oh~, little sister, God is watching you. You are still so young and you are not a good person, but you are just talking nonsense!"

"You dare to scold me?"

"So what if I scold you?"

Gao Hui and Zhao Pan'er started arguing in the classroom, and the more they argued, the angrier they became. They both thought the other was lying, and the argument escalated from the incident itself to personal attacks.

There is a tendency for the discussion to evolve from theory into mutual fighting.

"Pah!" Li Jun, seeing that things were not going well, quickly picked up the gavel and slammed it hard on the table, then said loudly:
"Shut up, everyone!"

Li Jun was in a dilemma at this moment. If these were ordinary people, no matter who was right or wrong, based on the attitude of the two men just now, he would have charged them with the crime of roaring in court and dragged them out and gave them twenty lashes each.

But both of them have backgrounds, and their backgrounds are not simple.

He really didn't dare to resort to torture, so he could only patiently ask:

"You both said that the other party started the fight first. So I want to ask you, do you have any witnesses?"

"I have a witness!" As soon as Li Jun finished speaking, Gao Hui immediately said:

"Uncle De saw these people beat my wet nurse with his own eyes!"

After saying that, Gao Hui looked at Zhao Paner provocatively and said, "I have a witness. Let's see how you can argue."

Upon hearing this, Li Jun immediately asked the yamen runners to find the man named Uncle De.

"Uncle De?" Zhao Pan'er ignored Gao Hui's provocation and frowned and asked:

"The witness you are talking about is Uncle De, Ouyang Xu's servant?"

"That's right!" Gao Hui said proudly. When she saw Zhao Pan'er frowning, she thought she was scared because she heard that she had a witness.

However, Zhao Paner's eyes flickered, and she immediately guessed that all this must be Uncle De's doing.

To be honest, Zhao Paner felt that something was wrong from the beginning, because Gao Hui's expression was too real and didn't look like she was lying at all.

But Zhao Pan'er knew in her heart that she was not lying and she really had never hit anyone.

Zhao Pan'er was afraid that Lin Hao's plan to use the Night Banquet Painting to deceive the current emperor would be exposed, so she was eager to get the real Night Banquet Painting back from Ouyang Xu.

Therefore, after Lin Hao fell asleep, she immediately got up to find Ouyang Xu to retrieve the real painting, but she didn't know where Ouyang Xu lived, so she could only go to Gao Guancha's house.

However, not long after she went out, she found someone following her, so Zhao Pan'er became cautious, walked around the market twice, and then returned to the Jing'an Marquis Mansion.

Zhao Pan'er then found the housekeeper, and the housekeeper asked Lin Zhi to protect her.

However, Zhao Pan'er did not let Lin Zhi follow her openly, but asked him to follow her quietly, and then she went to places with fewer people.

So when passing through an empty alley, the person who was following them appeared, and then he was caught by Lin Zhi, who then discovered that the person was actually Uncle De.

Then he asked Lin Zhi to pull Uncle De to a corner. After a friendly "exchange", Uncle De, with a bruised face and nose, told Ouyang Xu's address.

Zhao Pan'er didn't think much about it at the time. After learning Ouyang Xu's address, she prepared to go to his house to block him.

Lin Zhi was afraid that if something happened he would not be able to take care of Zhao Pan'er, so he took Zhao Pan'er back to the Marquis' Mansion and came to Ouyang Xu's house with a group of guards.

Then, Gao Hui came with people...!
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Originally, Zhao Pan'er didn't think much about it, but now thinking about it, the timing of Gao Hui's appearance was too coincidental, and Gao Hui seemed so confident.

Therefore, all this must be Uncle De’s secret doing.

Since there was a conflict between him and Gao Hui, couldn't Ouyang Xu just stay out of it?
With Zhao Paner's intelligence, she quickly figured out the key.

"Wait!" At this time, Zhao Pan'er thought of something again, looked at Gao Hui next to her with a strange expression and asked:

"Your name is Gao Hui. Are you the daughter of Gao Guancha?"

"That's right!" Gao Hui said proudly with her neck held high.

However, Zhao Pan'er asked with a strange expression:

"Is it Gao Hui who is engaged to Ouyang Xu?"

When Zhao Pan'er mentioned Ouyang Xu, Gao Hui's face turned slightly red with shyness, but she still replied:

"Yes, it's me!" Gao Hui then frowned and asked, "Why are you asking these questions?"

After hearing Gao Hui's answer, Zhao Pan'er became more certain of her guess.

The conflict between me and Gao Hui must have been caused by Uncle De or Ouyang Xu who instructed Uncle De to do it.

Just from the fact that Uncle De was following me, I could tell that Ouyang Xu already knew that I was living in the Marquis' Mansion.

Ouyang Xu must be afraid that he would use the relationship with the Marquis' Mansion to put pressure on him, so he came up with this idea and used the power of the Gao family to deal with him.

What Zhao Pan'er couldn't understand was that Ouyang Xu would rather use such a mean method and even take advantage of his fiancée. Why couldn't he just honestly return the Night Banquet Picture to her?
Could it be that the Night Banquet Picture is no longer in Ouyang Xu's hands?
No matter what, Zhao Pan'er has finally seen through Ouyang Xu's true face. He is a hypocrite and a scumbag who will do anything to achieve his goals.

I was really blind at the beginning. Fortunately, I saw his true face in time, otherwise it would be miserable. But Gao Hui in front of me is a bit pitiful. I guess she was deceived by Ouyang Xu, the hypocrite, just like me.

Gao Hui looked at Zhao Paner with a frown on her face, and thought that after knowing her identity, she would take the initiative to admit her mistake.

Moreover, Gao Hui was not the kind of person who would not let go even if she was right. As long as the other party sincerely apologized to the wet nurse and admitted his mistake, she would just ask the other party to pay for some medicine.

She didn't intend to do anything to the other party, she just wanted justice, but~.

What does the look in Zhao Paner's eyes mean when she looks at me?
Why do I feel that the other person's eyes are full of sympathy when he looks at me, and that sympathy is mixed with a bit of pity and regret?

Gao Hui found it a little funny. Her father was a third-rank official in the court, her aunt was the virtuous concubine of the current dynasty, and her fiancé was a promising scholar who won the third place in the imperial examination.

Does this girl need your sympathy and pity?

"Here comes the witness!" At this moment, Uncle De was brought to the court by two yamen runners.

"I am honored to meet you, Master!" Uncle De knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Li Jun in the hall.

Then he buried his head deeply in the ground and dared not look up. He was trembling all over and looked timid and cautious.

But Uncle De was not pretending, he was really scared because he found that he seemed to have messed up again.

The development of things was completely different from what he expected.

After Uncle De was taught a lesson by Lin Zhi, he was determined to solve the problem for Ouyang Xu.

So he thought quickly and took advantage of the time when Zhao Pan'er returned to the Marquis' Mansion to hire two local thugs. Then he used the excuse that Ouyang Xu had a letter to give to Gao Hui to trick Jiang out.

Then two thugs put a sack over Jiang's head and beat her violently.

Uncle De knew that Gao Hui had deep feelings for her wet nurse Jiang, so he immediately informed Gao Hui that Jiang had been beaten.

Sure enough, Gao Hui brought people over immediately after hearing the words, and just in time saw Zhao Paner and her people blocking the door of Ouyang Xu's house.

So with preconceived notions, they naturally thought that it was Zhao Paner who beat the man, and so the two groups of people started fighting.

When things developed to this point, everything was just as Uncle De had expected.

But what happened next was beyond Uncle De's expectations. Uncle De originally wanted to take advantage of the chaos to sneak attack Zhao Paner with a dagger.

If I can't solve the problem of the Night Banquet Picture, can't I solve the root cause of Zhao Paner's problem?
As long as Zhao Pan'er died, all the troubles Ouyang Xu faced, such as the engagement, the Heart-Shaped Pendant, the Night Banquet Picture, etc., would no longer exist.

Moreover, by then, the Marquis' Mansion, which has no idea what relationship it has with Zhao Pan'er, will cause trouble for the Gao family, and it will have nothing to do with his Ouyang family.

However, to Uncle De's surprise, before he found an opportunity to attack Zhao Pan'er, he happened to meet the yamen runners from Kaifeng Prefecture nearby.

If this kind of thing is brought to court, as long as both parties compare their statements, anyone in the court who is not a mediocre official who is just sitting there doing nothing will be able to sense what is fishy.

When the time comes, just send someone to investigate and the truth will be revealed immediately.

"Make way!" Ouyang Xu walked leisurely to the gate of the government office.

Ouyang Xu waved his fan and looked at the people in the government office, with a faint smile on his lips.

It is not difficult to find that Ouyang Xu is in a particularly good mood today.

Can I be in a bad mood?
Zhao Pan'er's biggest worry was finally resolved.

Uncle De did a good job today. Ouyang Xu had guessed long ago that it was Uncle De's plan, but Uncle De was still not careful enough and some mistakes occurred.

For example, when he saw Zhao Paner's people fighting with Gao Hui's people, he didn't even know to report to the police.

What if something unexpected happens? Fortunately, I can check and fix the gaps behind the scenes and ask someone to find the nearby yamen runners.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t matter if Zhao Pan’er got injured, but if Gao Hui got injured, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Although he was very envious of Zhao Pan'er's beauty, his own future was more important after all.

Until this point, Ouyang Xu still didn't know that Uncle De had taken it upon himself to conceal the fact that Zhao Pan'er had moved into the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion.

He thought Zhao Pan'er was just an outsider, and a businessman at that, and had once been a member of a lowly family.

At that time, the judge will definitely favor the Gao family. At the very least, he will send Zhao Pan'er back to her hometown, and he may even directly convict Zhao Pan'er.

However, Ouyang Xu soon discovered that something was wrong. It was normal for the magistrate to be so polite to Gao Hui, but why was he so generous to Zhao Pan'er as well?

The judge in front of him didn't seem to have any intention of favoring Gao Hui at all, and seemed to be really determined to handle the matter impartially.

You have to know that Gao Hui is the only daughter of Gao Guancha, and Zhao Pan'er is just a musician. However, considering that Zhao Pan'er used to be from an official family, could it be that she has a past relationship with this magistrate?

If that were the case, Zhao Paner would definitely tell him the reason why she brought people to block his house, and then he would be in trouble.

Ouyang Xu gradually began to get anxious. He stopped waving his fan, the smile on his lips disappeared, and even his expression began to turn ugly.

Just now.

The conversation between several people around him unknowingly reached Ouyang Xu's ears.

"Hey, there's something good to watch now!"

"That's right. The Gao family had a conflict with the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion. This is a rare big news in the capital!"

"I have to tell our Chi Yanei about this. He loves to watch this kind of scene of the rich and powerful fighting each other."

With that, one of the men dressed as servants left the scene.

Marquis Jing'an's Mansion?

What is Jing'an Marquis Mansion?
Why is there something about the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion here?
After listening to the conversation between the two, Ouyang Xu had an ominous premonition in his heart, and hurriedly asked the fat boy beside him:
"Brother, what is the conflict between the Gao family and the Marquis of Jing'an's Mansion?"

The little fat man glanced at Ouyang Xu and saw that he looked like a wealthy young man, so he said:

"The two people in the hall, one is the daughter of Observer Gao, and the other is said to be the new love of Marquis Jing'an. If these two get together, it will be lively again!"

"Boom!"

The fat boy's words were like a thunderclap that exploded in Ouyang Xu's mind, making his head buzz.

How long has it been? Zhao Pan'er already has another man, and he's a marquis?
No wonder Zhao Pan'er ignored him when he met her the day before yesterday. It turned out that she had climbed up the social ladder.

But wasn’t it a bit too fast for Zhao Paner to change her mind?
It’s not even three days yet!

Even though it has been less than a month since he sent Uncle De back to Qiantang to break off the engagement, how could Ouyang Xu accept this reality?

So he asked the fat boy next to him:
"My dear brother, you are not mistaken, are you? I know the daughter of Observer Gao, but why did I hear that the other lady came from another place a few days ago?"

"How could I be wrong?" The little fat man swore, "I saw this Miss Zhao enter the Marquis of Jing'an's mansion with my own eyes!"

"Even though she entered the Marquis Jing'an's mansion, it doesn't mean that she is the Marquis Jing'an's new love!" Ouyang Xu deliberately argued.

He could betray Zhao Pan'er, but he couldn't accept that Zhao Pan'er found a new love, and Zhao Pan'er's new love was the dignified Marquis Jing'an, which made Ouyang Xu feel like he was being cheated on.

The little fat boy's eyes widened. A few days ago, he accompanied Chi Yanei to play Cuju by the bridge, and Zhao Pan'er kicked Chi Yanei.

They chased Zhao Pan'er all the way to the gate of Marquis Jing'an's Mansion, and were severely beaten by the manor's chief steward and his men.

If this beautiful young lady was not Marquis Jing'an's new love, would the butler beat them because of Zhao Pan'er?

Of course, He Si would not say such embarrassing words to others, but said:

"I also saw this Miss Zhao holding hands with Marquis Jing'an, and they were very intimate as they entered and exited Marquis Jing'an's mansion together. How could it be wrong?"

"Ah this~!"

Ouyang Xu was speechless, then clenched his fists, and at the same time felt like a vast green grassland above his head.

Bitch, no wonder you were so eager to cut off ties with me, turns out you have a new love.

And Marquis Jing'an, when I become prime minister one day, just wait and see how I deal with you. I will definitely strip you of your title and turn you into a commoner.

Then wait and see how I will deal with you~!

at the same time.

"Bang~" Li Jun in the hall slammed the gavel hard and shouted loudly:
"I'm asking you a question, you'd better answer truthfully, otherwise don't blame me for punishing you severely!"

Li Jun asked Uncle De about what happened, but Uncle De had something to hide, so he was hesitant and unclear in his answers every time. The process he described was even biased and contradictory.

Even though Li Jun was just a new official, he could tell that the old man was lying.

(End of this chapter)