"Mr. He, do you admit your guilt?" Magistrate Lin slammed the gavel, and the whole place fell silent. He Gui knelt below, completely stunned.
"Sir, I am innocent. I don't know what crime you are talking about. I have always been law-abiding and would never dare to do anything illegal!" After realizing what was going on, He Gui shouted that he was innocent.
"Take a look at these things first, and then think clearly about whether you are innocent or not." Prefect Lin already understood the whole story, and he immediately ordered people to produce the evidence.
A bunch of keys were placed on a tray and brought to He Gui. He stared at the familiar red rope pattern and suddenly broke out in a cold sweat. He forced a smile and said, "Sir, what does this mean?"
"What do you think the things I found in your closet mean?"
"I have never seen it." He Gui was stubborn and refused to admit it.
Pei Che chuckled, instantly attracting everyone's attention. He said, "When this thing was found, your wife was right next to you. Here are her fingerprints. Do you still want to deny it?"
He Gui was silent for a while, then said, "So what if it's mine? It's just a bunch of keys. Do you want to use this to convict me?"
Pei Che said: "If it is really an ordinary bunch of keys, it will not punish you. But you should know where the key is, right? And what did you do with it? Don't you know? If I list all these things, will it really not punish you?"
Beads of sweat flowed down He Gui's forehead, but his hands were cold and stiff, and he had no strength to wipe the sweat away. He stared at the key chain blankly, feeling very uneasy.
He Gui felt that the government must have investigated everything thoroughly before saying this, but deep in his heart, he still had a glimmer of fantasy that the government was doing this on purpose in order to trick him into telling the truth.
"I don't quite understand what the adults are saying..." He Guiqiang forced a smile, "This is a bunch of keys."
Prefect Lin looked at He Gui's stubborn expression, slammed the gavel again, and said, "Call the witnesses to the court!"
The voice spread far away, and soon, a yamen runner brought the witness over. He Gui knelt facing the hall, not daring to turn his head to look at the witness's face, but he kept guessing the identity of the person. It was not until the person walked up to him and knelt down to greet the elder above that he realized that the person was actually Zhu, the manager of Datong Grain Store.
Facing He Gui who turned his head in shock, Manager Zhu was very angry. Without waiting for Prefect Lin to ask questions, he pointed at He Gui's nose and cursed: "You are so good, Accountant He, you look honest, but you dare to put the blame on me behind my back? If it weren't for the wisdom of Lord Pei who searched your house and found the key, I wouldn't know that you were secretly colluding with the group of bandits under the Yangshupo cliff!"
Manager Zhu cursed with saliva flying everywhere, but He Gui's body softened, and the only thing in his mind was "It's over". Manager Zhu didn't know anything, and thought that those who lived at the bottom of the haunted cliff must be bandits. He Gui knew that those people were not bandits, but their style of doing things was no different from that of bandits.
He had to transport food there almost every two months. In addition to rice and flour, he also transported bran left over from pounding rice. This thing hurts the throat and feels like chewing sawdust when eaten. In previous years, the common people would only eat this thing when there was a disaster. Normally, they would buy some and cook it to feed the livestock at home. The people at the bottom of the cliff did heavy and tiring work, but they ate the same as the livestock. They looked so skinny that even a man as calculating as He Gui could not bear it.
But this was just a momentary emotion. After all, he was just a food deliveryman, working under someone else, how could he have so many thoughts? But in the following years, he gradually discovered that there seemed to be something wrong with the people inside. Some familiar faces suddenly disappeared and were never seen again. People who occasionally saw him in the shop appeared at the bottom of the cliff. When those people saw him, they were also shocked and angry, but no one dared to come forward to ask anything. I think they were scared after being beaten.
He Gui began to feel uneasy. He always felt that he had accidentally learned something that he shouldn't know. These people should have been abducted, but he had never heard of who sent away those who disappeared. So, it was obvious where these people went. This realization made him terrified. He was afraid that he knew too much and would be silenced one day.
So, when the chief steward of the company announced that Zhu would be the steward, he thought about leaving the matter behind and never getting involved again. But the chief steward rejected him with a simple sentence, "It's not appropriate for too many people to know about this matter."
He Gui had no choice but to grit his teeth and persevere. But Manager Zhu was completely different from the previous manager. He liked to take charge of everything in the shop and he had to ask about everything. Once, he was almost discovered.
He Gui felt that he couldn't go on like this. He found out that a former friend was now in charge of the household registration office in Chengtian Prefecture, so he thought about whether he could quietly transfer his household registration there, and then just walk away and never get involved in this mess again. Unfortunately, things didn't go as he wished, and he was caught by the yamen runners before he could ask that friend to help him transfer his household registration.
He Gui was speechless, and it took him a long time to utter the word "unfair". In his heart, he actually thought so. He was just an accountant, and he just did one thing for the master. Could this be considered his fault? As for what the people under him were doing, he vaguely knew something, but he was only responsible for selling things. What did the customers do have to do with him
When Prefect Lin heard him say that he was wronged, he did not get angry but laughed instead, saying, "Prefect Pei, I don't know how the people of Cangzhou survive. How can you be so stubborn?"
Pei Che said: "It should be this person's own fault. I will talk to him a few more words later."
Prefect Lin picked up the cup beside him and took a sip of tea, then said with a smile, "Then I'll take a break." After that, he concentrated on sipping the tea.
At this moment, the witnesses had been taken away, and He Gui was the only one kneeling in the hall. Facing Pei Che who was looking at him meaningfully, He Gui tried to make himself look more confident.
"He Gui, you claim to be wronged because you feel that what you did was justifiable, right? Judging from your expression, you should agree with what I said. Unfortunately, no matter whether what you did was justifiable or not, you can't escape death this time." Pei Che said the most ruthless words in a gentle voice. He Gui's heart tightened after hearing it. He intuitively knew that what Pei Che was going to say next was definitely not what he wanted to hear.
"You seem a little strange. In that case, I will explain it to you clearly." Pei Che slowly told what he had found out, and He Gui's expression changed from the initial uneasiness to despair.
Iron! The stones those people mined were not ordinary stones used to build bridges, roads and walls, but iron ore!
“… All three clans of those who participated will be killed, and all nine clans will be exiled a thousand miles away.”
The words that floated into his ears became the last straw that broke the camel's back. He Gui collapsed to the ground, his face as pale as if he had just crawled out of a coffin. He had never expected that a single thought would harm his entire family.
"However, considering that you are truly ignorant of the matter, it is not impossible to reduce the punishment. As long as you tell me everything you know, I will plead for you."
As soon as Pei Che finished speaking, He Gui took over.
"My lord, I confess. I confess everything!"
"A man who knows the times is a hero. As long as what you said is true, the government will naturally give you a lighter sentence." At least, the disaster will not affect his wife and children.
He Gui took a deep breath, organized his words in his mind, and began to confess.
"The manager of that merchant company is called Xu Youdao, and I have always followed his orders. This grain store has been open for seven or eight years. At that time, I was attracted by the high monthly salary he offered, so I switched to his company from an inn. I worked hard and soon won the favor and trust of Manager Xu, who gave me important tasks such as reconciliation at night."
"One day, when I was checking the accounts, I found that one of the accounts was not correct. I clearly spent so much money on rice and flour, but I lost money after selling them. Based on the loss, I found that at least a thousand kilograms of rice were hidden. At that time, I didn't know what was going on. As soon as I found out, I went to find Manager Xu and told him the truth. Unexpectedly, Manager Xu was not angry, but praised me for my careful accounting. In the days that followed, such things happened more and more, and I gradually got used to it..."
Pei Che and Prefect Lin listened very carefully. The person behind the scenes could act like this here for seven or eight years without letting anyone know. The power in his hands must not be underestimated. At present, He Gui has the most contact with him. If you don't listen carefully, you might miss the evidence.
(End of this chapter)