Afterward, Tang Yuan looked toward the second group of female guests. This group was a circle of close friends, consisting of three young ladies accompanied by three maids. They had been standing diagonally in front of Tang Yuan, which meant they were right next to the group that included Cao Lihua.
From the video, it was evident that this group was direct eyewitnesses to the incident, but when the Government Officials came to inquire, they lied.
Tang Yuan wasn’t in a rush. She simply stood in her place, watching the six of them with a smile, "Please stand in the positions you were in at that time." Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by N0velFire.ɴet
From Tang Yuan’s recent reasoning, it wasn’t hard to see that they were already nervous. They even took quick glances in Cao Xuehua’s direction, indicating their unease and worry over potential slips. Unfortunately for them, that fool Cao Xuehua gave them a ’I’ve got your back if anything goes wrong’ misguiding look, making them almost certain that even if they perjured themselves, nothing would happen.
As one of the involved parties, Tang Yuan technically had no right to demand anything of these witnesses. Yet the key was the persuasive power of her drawings, which was why when she requested interrogation rights from Lord Cao, under Rong Heng’s seemingly amused gaze, he surprisingly agreed as if bewitched.
Then Tang Yuan’er separated the six of them, positioning them in different spots, and handed them paper and pencils. She asked them to draw how she tripped Cao Xuehua and how she smashed her jade bracelet. Of course, Tang Yuan had also produced her own drawings of the scene.
They were asked to draw rather than describe the incident to provide a more direct visual. Of course, when some maids claimed they couldn’t draw, it was fine if they could write instead. But when they said they couldn’t write either, it was also fine, they should just speak. Their examination would take place in the back hall, with only Government Office personnel and people from Prince Heng Mansion present, making the possibility of colluding accounts almost nil.
After collecting the testimonies of these people, she brought in another set of Government Officials and guards to also interrogate and draw the testimonies of Cao Xuehua’s three servants.
The most critical group was these nine individuals. For the others, Tang Yuan’er employed the same method she used for the first group, first confirming their positions at the time, what they were doing, and even their conversations down to the last detail, with two of them providing false testimony in favor of Cao Xuehua. Tang Yuan’er didn’t rush to expose them but let them document their statements or illustrate them.
The final outcome was, of course, quite ludicrous and varied, with no two accounts matching in sequence. This meant that none of them saw how Cao Xuehua fell, or even if they did, they chose to fabricate lies because they couldn’t tell the truth, resulting in a mess of disordered statements.
Actually, from the incident until now, they hardly had the opportunity to collude on their stories, which was precisely why Tang Yuan had returned after leaving earlier.
Tang Yuan’s questions were far more professional than those of any other questioner because she probed into various details, like which hand she landed on first when she fell and which hand broke the jade bracelet. Even though the Government Officials had asked their questions in front of everyone the first time, they were too general and completely overlooked these so-called details. Therefore, by the time the case was re-examined, Cao Xuehua’s fearless attitude had already been the most foolish notion.
What came next was even more convincing from Tang Yuan, as she scrutinized each person’s testimony and, based on what they said, conducted a reenactment of the case. She discovered that none of them could demonstrate how she could possibly have tripped Cao Lihua.