Seeing Zhu Xiuxiu in such an agitated state, the other members of the Ji Family couldn’t help but look at her.
Especially Ji Youyuan, his eyes were full of reproach. He was, of course, reproaching her for being too agitated, an attitude that could easily arouse suspicion.
Zhu Xiuxiu flushed, quickly touching her nose as she frantically tried to think of a way to salvage the situation.
"I must remind you," she said, "you can eat whatever you want, but you can’t just say whatever you want. Our Princess is so gentle and kind, beautiful and virtuous. How could she possibly curse someone?"
"I’m not spouting nonsense; I heard it with my own ears. At that time, County Magistrate Wu and Chief Wang were present too."
Zhu Xiuxiu turned to look at County Magistrate Wu and Chief Wang. Chief Wang nodded his bald head. "That’s right, I heard it."
County Magistrate Wu also acknowledged, "I vaguely recall Her Highness the Princess indeed uttering such words!"
Zhu Xiuxiu massaged her throbbing temples.
"Even so, it was just a momentary outburst from the Princess. You shouldn’t have done such a thing. You had already exhumed the body; why did you need to gouge out the woman’s eyes?"
"I *had* to gouge out her eyes. The Princess was right; she failed to recognize Her Highness. She truly was blind! This village woman deserved to die! Just because her daughter was born at an auspicious hour and was about to be accepted as a disciple by the National Master, she acted all high and mighty, utterly lacking in discernment. She’d be better off without those eyes! I was just helping her out, so I gouged them out!"
"This... you’re utterly depraved!" Zhu Xiuxiu blurted out. "It’s a good thing we found out you did it! Otherwise, the Princess would have carried the blame for this for the rest of her life. You truly deserve to die!"
"Indeed," the County Magistrate said. "I always thought you were a sharp fellow, but I never expected you to be such a vengeful, dark-hearted villain! Men, take him away! Lock him in the dungeons. Sentencing will be announced on a later date!"
This so-called ’sentencing on a later date’ was, in fact, merely a tactic to observe the political winds and sound out the Ji Family’s stance—whether they truly wanted Li San dead.
"Wait!"
Just as the yamen runners were about to drag Li San away, Ji Youzhi hurriedly stopped them. His gaze locked onto Li San as he demanded, "Where are her eyeballs? What did you do with her eyeballs?"
Hearing Ji Youzhi’s question, Li San burst into raucous laughter.
"Where else could they have gone? That woman looked down on everyone, her eyes practically on top of her head! Naturally, I threw them to the dogs to eat."
He said it so matter-of-factly! Everyone gasped, horrified.
Normally, cursing someone as ’blind and heartless,’ or saying things like ’your conscience must have been eaten by a dog’ or ’your eyes pecked out by an eagle,’ are just words spoken in the heat of the moment, merely to vent frustration. But for someone to actually *do* such a thing... they would have to be a true psychopath!
Before the crowd could recover from their shock, they heard Li San laugh boisterously again.
"HAHAHA! Perhaps it’s because that woman was just too wicked! I threw her eyeballs to a dog, but the dog wouldn’t even eat them! So, I stomped on them, crushed them right under my foot. After crushing them, I stuffed the remains into a warm, freshly-bought Meat Bun and fed it to the dog. Only then did the dog finally swallow them!"
A piercing scream of "AAAAH..." ripped through the entire County Yamen Hall.
Everyone turned to see Zhao Chunxiang. She had scrambled up from the stretcher and was groping her way towards Li San, clearly intending to attack him.
The County Yamen Hall erupted into chaos.
Seeing this, the Ji Family members didn’t intervene. They simply rose and departed.
As the young Emperor casually strolled out from the rear of the County Yamen, he immediately spotted the National Master, whose face was grim.
"National Master! What are you doing here?" the Emperor called out. "Enjoying the scenery? Why didn’t you invite Us? We would have accompanied you!"
Hearing this, the National Master’s already dark expression turned utterly black.
"Your Majesty truly dotes on that Princess! Forgive my bluntness, Your Majesty, but she is not your biological daughter. In the future, when you have a princess of your own blood, this current one will become insignificant. By then, countless people will be able to manipulate her. Will Your Majesty still be able to protect her then?"