152 We Only Have These Mulberries

Liu Chi raised his hand and swore again. “I swear to the heavens that I am definitely not interested in a man!”

Yang Gongbing’s eyes darkened. “Let the witness testify!”

Liu Chi bit his lip and watched helplessly as a man in his fifties stood up.

He glanced at the gloomy Liu Chi, not daring to say anything.

Yang Gongbing pressured, “Covering up for a criminal is equivalent to committing a crime. Yue San, you have to think carefully!”

Yue San had never seen such a scene before. He immediately knelt down and glanced at Liu Chi. “Sir, I’m an apprentice in the workshop. I went back to the dormitory early. Coincidentally, Liu Niu’s dormitory is next door, so I accidentally heard it.”

This was actually true!

It almost made everyone’s jaws drop.

At this point, he had already lost all his face. Liu Chi went all out and argued, “Sir, what you hear is false. Seeing is believing. Don’t believe his nonsense.”

Liu Niu was afraid that his son would be punished, so he mustered his courage and said, “Sir, my son was framed by them! He definitely wouldn’t dare to do anything immoral!”

Yang Gongbing said sternly, “Seeing is believing. Bring other witnesses!”

At the order, several men were brought forward by the officers.

They were all colleagues who had returned to the dormitory with Liu Niu.

They did not dare to lie to the officials for the sake of unrelated people. Before Yang Gongbing could speak, they took the initiative to say, “Sir, we saw everything clearly when we returned to the dormitory with Liu Niu. Their relationship is not shallow. It was definitely not an accident.”

Yang Gongbing looked at Liu Chi again. “What else do you have to say?”

It was already a fact. What else could Liu Chi say?

Liu Chi had nothing to say. Yang Gongbing immediately announced, “The witnesses and physical evidence are all here! Liu Chi and Shi Dashou committed adultery during the day. Liu Chi is stripped of his Elementary Scholar status. He will be fined ten taels of silver and punished to serve labor for six months! Shi Dashou is fined ten taels of silver and punished to serve labor for six months. He is stripped of his apprenticeship in the workshop and is never allowed to take half a step in. Liu Niu did not teach his son well and allowed his son to commit such an immoral act. He is stripped of his job in the workshop and never allowed to take half a step in.”

Hearing Yang Gongbing’s verdict, Liu Chi felt as if his soul had been sucked out. He stood up and shouted crazily, “Sir, if I liked men, how could I like a disgusting person like Shi Dashou!”

Shi Dashou retorted in a low voice, “Pfft, he still thinks that my skills are not bad.”

Everyone immediately burst into laughter.

Liu Chi did not expect things to turn out this way. He was clearly here to leave a good impression on Yang Gongbing. How did things turn out this way?

He lost his scholar title, was fined and even had to serve labor and leave a criminal record. Even if the imperial examination was restored, he would not be able to participate and everyone in Youjia Village was still mocking him.

Liu Chi exploded with anger and kicked Shi Dashou.

“Ah—”

Shi Dashou was kicked by him and his head hit the ground. It was so painful that he hugged his head and shouted. He got up and complained to Yang Gongbing, “Not only did Scholar Liu seduce me to do that thing, but he also almost crippled my manhood and deliberately hurt me. Lord, you have to seek justice for me. If you don’t believe me, you can ask the doctor to come over. Scholar Liu personally agreed that he will pay for my medical fees.”

Shi Dashou also felt that it was quite unlucky. If not for Liu Chi, he would not have lost the hard-earned job that he had, be punished with a few months of labor and even had to pay a fine of ten taels.

He had no money at all. Without money to pay the fine, a few months of hard labor would turn into years of hard labor.

Shi Dashou had gone to labor before. Those days were simply unbearable. He still felt that it was a miracle that he had returned alive.

Only after Liu Chi compensated him with the medical fees did he have the money to pay the 10 taels of silver. He would ask Gu Zhongxun for some medicine with the remaining money and make do with it to save his life first.

Hearing Shi Dashou’s words, everyone suddenly looked at Liu Chi with surprise.

Liu Chi had completely lost his mind. If not for Bao Zhaoshan and the other government officers holding him back, he would have kicked Shi Dashou’s head.

Yang Gongbing called Gu Zhongxun over to ask him about the truth. After confirming that Shi Dashou was not lying, he ordered Liu Chi to compensate him for his medical fees.

Liu Niu hurriedly knelt on the ground and begged, “Sir, all the silver in our family combined isn’t even this amount. Please let us go!”

Liu Niu had been working hard to earn money all these years, so all his money was used to support Liu Chi’s studies. He had also spent some money on his private education.

They did not even have five taels of silver on hand.

The compensation of more than 20 taels of silver was undoubtedly an astronomical figure.

Liu Niu could not afford it.

If he let him off easily, how could he teach him a lesson?

Yang Gongbing glanced at the dazed Liu Chi and ignored him. He said to Bao Zhaoshan, “Bring them back!”

Liu Niu roared at the sky in despair, “What a sin!” He had painstakingly nurtured a scholar son, but in the end, it was all for nothing.

Liu Chi, Liu Niu and Shi Dashou was brought back to the magistrate office by the government officials. Yang Gongbing returned to the workshop and issued strict rules and regulations for the workshop dormitory to prevent such a mess from happening again.

On the other side, Bai Wutong and Chu Tianbao returned home.

Bai Wutong asked Chu Tianbao to wash the hairy cherries and prepare to boil it for cherry sauce.

The sweet and sour cherry sauce was delicious with yogurt, cake, bread, biscuits, and iced drinks.

Bai Wutong was picking two baskets of hairy cherries. The amount was enough to make a lot of cherry sauce. Other than giving it away, she had her space to store them. They had enough to eat for an entire year.

Chu Tianbao washed the cherries according to Bai Wutong’s high standards. He smiled happily and said, “Wife, it’s all done.”

Bai Wutong carried two small stools over and sat down. She picked up a washed cherry and taught Chu Tianbao to remove the core of the cherry with chopsticks.

Chu Tianbao found it interesting and sat beside Bai Wutong. He imitated her and poked out the core of the cherry.

From time to time, he would even pick the largest cherry and feed it to Bai Wutong.

The bright sunlight fell on them, forming an image like a heartwarming painting.

It took them a while to remove all the cores from the two baskets of hairy cherries.

Bai Wutong had just poured white sugar into the wooden basin when there was a long series of footsteps at the door.

Bai Wutong turned around and saw Zhao Erwa and the others coming in from outside.

They placed the basket in front of Bai Wutong and said sadly, “Madam, we only have these mulberries.”

Bai Wutong first noticed Zhao Erwa’s bruised face.

She knelt down and wiped the dirty stains off his face with a handkerchief. “What’s wrong? Did you lose a fight? Or did a kid from the next village snatch the mulberry?”

When she and Chu Tianbao entered the mountains, they saw the children from the Lintian Village running in the mountains and snatching the cherries from them.

Zhao Erwa immediately said valiantly, “No!”

He had specially asked Brother Lin Yue to teach him martial arts. How could he lose to that group of immature brats? He had completely forgotten that he was only six years old.

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