"I was completely disappointed and wanted to convert to Buddhism for the rest of my life, accompanied by a green lamp and a Zen scroll. However, I never expected that the Japanese pirates invaded Jingnan some time ago, and the abbot of Hongmiao Temple where I worked led me and other monks to retreat to the valley behind the temple. I never expected that Hongmiao Temple also retreated to the valley. God took pity on me and I actually met... met the sister of the Wang family who had shaved her head and became a nun... The sister of the Wang family actually became a nun in the nearby Hongmiao Temple. It was really hard to find her, but when I looked back, I found her in the dim light. My mind was confused, and I was greedy for the world, so I did such a wrong thing. However, no matter how many mistakes I made, all the mistakes were my own, and had nothing to do with the sister of the Wang family. Please punish me, sir."
The monk knelt on the ground, clasped his hands together, kowtowed heavily, and begged for truth with tears in his eyes.
"No, no, what nonsense are you talking about? All the mistakes are yours alone, magistrate. Please don't listen to his nonsense. All the mistakes are mine. It was me who disobeyed the rules and seduced Brother Liu. All the mistakes are mine. It's all my fault. It has nothing to do with Brother Liu. I hope the magistrate will see clearly and let Brother Liu go, and only punish me."
When the nun heard the monk take all the responsibility on himself, she couldn't help but get anxious and shook her head vigorously. Before she could open her mouth, tears from her red and swollen eyes had already flowed down her cheeks like a river bursting its dam. While crying, she kowtowed and took all the responsibility on herself.
Well!
Rushing to take responsibility?!
Are you guys showing off your affection in court?!
Zhu Ping'an couldn't help but twitch his lips when he saw the monks and nuns in the hall desperately trying to take responsibility.
The onlookers were stunned. They had seen people shirking responsibility, but they had never seen people desperately trying to take responsibility. This pair of immoral and uncivilized mandarin ducks seemed a little different.
Zhu Pingan slammed the gavel and took control of the situation. "I want to ask you, what the plaintiff said just now, that they had a secret meeting in the woods and were caught hugging each other, is it true?!"
The nun lowered her head so low that she couldn't lift it up.
The monk nodded, then shook his head, "My Lord, we were indeed caught in the woods meeting, but we didn't hug each other, we just leaned against each other and talked to each other."
Zhu Pingan asked the plaintiff, "When you caught them on the spot, were they hugging each other or leaning against each other?"
"Let's cuddle together."
"Isn't leaning together the same as hugging each other?! She leans on your arms, so isn't that you hugging her?! What's the difference?"
"We shouted and they separated in a panic. We didn't pay much attention to whether they were hugging or leaning against each other. Anyway, the two of them were together."
The plaintiffs replied that they were not sure whether the two were hugging each other or leaning against each other.
Zhu Pingan did not delve into this question and asked the plaintiff, "When you caught them in the act, did they do anything else that was not right? Did they have sex? In other words, did they have intercourse?"
"No. When we caught them, they were just hugging each other and didn't have sex. As for whether they had sex before we caught them, we don't know."
Village head Zhang Dalong responded in a matter-of-fact manner.
"Are you sure?" Zhu Ping'an asked again.
"Are you sure?" Zhang Dalong and others nodded.
Upon hearing this, Zhu Ping'an nodded slightly. That is to say, when Zhang Dalong and his men caught the monk and the nun on the spot, the two were just meeting secretly in the woods and did not have any relationship, which had not reached the level of adultery.
"Are there any people from Liujia Village here?" Zhu Ping'an asked the crowd watching outside the hall.
"Yes, sir, I am from Liujia Village."
"So are the little ones."
Among the crowd watching outside the hall, two people stood up, a man in his forties and an old lady in her fifties.
"Do you know what happened before they became monks?" Zhu Ping'an pointed at the monk and the nun and asked them.
"I know. They are from our Liujia Village. Everyone in our village knows about their story. They live not far from each other, so they are childhood sweethearts. The villagers make fun of them. However, Liusuo's father is a poor student with nothing at home. Wang Lian's father is a butcher and he looks down on Liusuo's family. At the beginning of the year, we heard that Wang Lian's father had hooked up with Mr. Wang in the town and promised Wang Lian to him as a concubine. When Liusuo heard about it, she went to find Mr. Wang the butcher, but was beaten so hard that she couldn't get out of bed. Wang Lian vowed to never see him off, but she couldn't resist, so she cut her hair, ran away from home and became a nun. As for which nunnery she went to, we don't know. When Liusuo found out, he became a monk out of anger. I didn't expect that the two of them were destined to be together. Even the nunnery and the temple where they became monks are so close to each other."
The onlookers from Liujia Village walked out of the crowd and spoke loudly.
"These two are poor children..." the old lady couldn't help wiping away tears as she spoke.
Next, the old lady tearfully recounted the story of the two, how she had watched them grow up when she was little, how one was good at studying, the other was good at embroidery, and how they were a perfect match made in heaven, how Wang the Butcher was obsessed with money and actually gave his daughter to someone else as a concubine, how he was really blinded by greed, how although Suozi's family was poor, he had great ambitions, and everyone in the village saw it, etc...
"Ahem, okay, Auntie, I got it."
Zhu Ping'an couldn't help but cough and interrupted the old lady. If he let her continue, she would probably never finish until the evening.
Zhu Ping'an already had a general understanding of the facts and background of the case and had made a judgment in his mind.
It turns out that the monk and the nun were from the same village before they became monks. They were childhood sweethearts and had secretly decided to marry each other. However, the girl's father despised the poor and loved the rich, so he betrothed her to Mr. Wang in the town. The girl refused to obey and left home to become a nun at Hongmiao Temple. The man was disheartened and became a monk at Hongmiao Temple. Who knew that the Japanese pirates invaded Jingnan some time ago, and Hongmiao Village was also affected. Hongmiao Temple and Hongmiao Temple went to the valley to avoid the Japanese pirates. The man and woman met again, so they hooked up. When they went to the woods to meet secretly this morning, they were mistaken for wild animals by the people of Hongmiao Village and were caught on the spot.
"Alas, I didn't expect that they would be a pair of star-crossed lovers."
"No matter how miserable the couple is, they can't have a secret meeting in the woods without their parents' permission and the matchmaker's words, not to mention that one of them is a monk and the other is a nun."
“This is difficult.”
The crowd watching outside were discussing this and no one could agree on it.