The Eldest Daughter of a Rural Family-Chapter 653: Only One Death (2)_1

And now, Pei Qin was very glad that she had worn the same pair of sheepskin boots she had worn earlier upon her return. The thick cotton boots Shen Songming had prepared for her she had worn in the carriage and had barely set foot on the ground.

The coroners brought some dust and, after apologizing to Pei Qin, asked her to step into it to make a footprint, or perhaps to kick someone to see what kind of footprint would result.

Pei Qin stepped into the dust and arrogantly pointed her foot at Magistrate Huang, "How about this, let Magistrate Huang have an even clearer look if I kick right here?"

At this moment, Magistrate Huang was looking at the soles of his shoes, and his face had already turned somewhat pale. freewebnøvel.coɱ

Pei Qin sneered and kicked backward against the large pillar in the main hall.

Because she had stepped into a shoe full of dust, the resulting footprint was very clear. It consisted of a large, separate heel and sole, which was distinctly different from the flat shoes they were wearing.

The coroner confirmed, "The bruise on Master Ding’s chest revealed a faint footprint like this. The injury mark must have been supplemented later by someone with feet the size of Lady Mo’s. Moreover, with the internal organs all ruptured, such serious injuries could only have been inflicted by someone who practices Internal Martial Arts."

Ding Dalang panicked and pointed the finger at Pei Qin, "She knows martial arts too! What if she’s lying! What if she wasn’t wearing these kinds of shoes that day! It was because of them that my grandfather was beaten to death!"

Almost everyone in Taiping Town knew that Pei Qin knew martial arts, but her martial arts were merely simple External Martial Arts. Through diligent practice, she just happened to be better than average.

Magistrate Huang had taken everything into account, but he had not anticipated being thwarted by a pair of boots.

Pei Qin stamped her foot to shake off the dust clinging to the sole of her shoe and sat back down. "Magistrate Huang! This Ding Dalang dares to falsely accuse this lady who bears a decree from The Imperial Court, which is surely an addition to his crimes. Such a troublemaker should be charged with the opposite offense and sentenced to death!" She didn’t bother to pursue matters with Magistrate Huang further.

Magistrate Huang’s face turned from yellow to white, "This matter still needs to be carefully investigated. Master Ding was indeed fatally injured by a kick, and Ding Dalang was also acting on evidence in his lawsuit, so it can’t be considered false accusation."

Ding Dalang hurriedly promised, "Great Master! I am wronged! I only knew that my grandfather was beaten to death, and I only knew that Lady Mo had hit my grandfather! I didn’t know the inside story at all!"

"It seems I also need to find some evidence. For instance, was someone drugging Master Ding, or was there a woman with high martial arts skills and feet the same size as mine who took the opportunity to kick Master Ding and flee. Or perhaps, it was a man who had kicked him, and he wore double-layered shoes like stilts, the top layer matching his own foot size, and the bottom layer a wooden shoe base or something of the size of my foot. Let me think some more, maybe, Master Ding was reluctant to make such a sacrifice, unwilling to die, and had done something that was discovered by his neighbors and colleagues." Pei Qin counted off each scenario with a finger.

As she outlined each "for instance," Ding Dalang and Magistrate Huang’s faces grew a shade paler.

"This case is serious and should be reported to the Ministry of Justice so that they can send someone to investigate," Mo Heng stated bluntly.

When Magistrate Huang heard that someone from the Ministry of Justice was coming, his body already began to tremble slightly. His original intention was not this at all! Pei Qin and Mo Heng had committed such serious crimes that even a clan annihilation would have been sufficient, yet he had not expected that they could turn the tables and, even amid calamity, receive a decree. He had sold off the sweet potatoes from the Sweet Potato Base at a low price, claiming it was according to Imperial law. With Mo Heng’s knowledge of the laws of Great Chu, given Pei Qin’s temper, she would certainly bring the issue to the Ministry of Revenue. By then, with the Shen family involved, a simple complaint by the Imperial Censor and he would not only lose his office but might also end up spending New Year’s in prison.

His original intention was to settle privately with Pei Qin; in the case of a death caused by her, it could be judged as an accidental injury. She was a lady of the Third Rank with a decree, and by compensating Ding Dalang with silver, he could gloss over his issue, resolve the matter of Pei Qin causing a death, and still have something on her to use to his advantage.