Chapter 103: Evil Deeds Eventually Meet Their Just Deserts

If Qin Hui had possessed an air of absolute composure moments ago, he now appeared utterly defeated, his head bowed low. A heavy silence descended upon the hall, broken only by the sound of Hai Rui leafing through the account books. With every page turned, Qin Hui’s heart trembled in rhythm.

Hai Rui set aside the ledger and the list of names, looking down at the man before him. "Let us begin with the first matter: the Blackwater Village incident. It has been confirmed that a plague did indeed occur there. The bodies in the mountainside have been recovered. While Qin Hui has refused to acknowledge the slaughter of the villagers—laying the blame instead upon his subordinates—I have someone here who participated in that very massacre. I wish to hear his account. Who are you? Speak the truth, for if I find any falsehoods in your testimony, I shall show you no mercy."

The man brought in by Gu Shen stepped forward, knelt in the hall, and declared in a loud voice, "My lord, I am Peng Ba, a bandit from a neighboring county and the second-in-command of the Black Mountain stronghold. Magistrate Qin is well-acquainted with our leader, and we have been in frequent contact. Every time he needed to stage a 'bandit suppression' to bolster his record, he relied on us to provide the men. Just recently, Magistrate Qin sent his men to deliver three large chests of silver—over five thousand taels—with orders to assassinate Young Master Gou and slaughter the entire village of Blackwater. Because the mission was significant and required breaching the grounds of the Duke's estate, we recruited additional bandits from the surrounding area. However, the opposition was numerous and highly skilled in combat. We were no match for them and were forced to abandon the mission. I sustained a leg injury in Blackwater Village and was unable to escape."

Qin Hui roared with a savage expression, "Do not spout nonsense! When would I have ever sent men to your stronghold? I do not even know you!"

Peng Ba let out a grim laugh. "Magistrate Qin, we drank together just last year, and now you claim not to know me? Do not forget, you wrote us a handwritten letter. Our leader ordered it burned, but I kept it as insurance, tucked away beneath my bed."

"You have all conspired to frame me!" Qin Hui continued to protest desperately. At that moment, an elderly man with disheveled hair and a weathered face, who had entered behind Dali, stepped before Qin Hui and said in a deep voice, "Qin Hui, do you still recognize me?"

Qin Hui looked the man up and down, then immediately turned away, trembling as he spoke, "I don't know you! I don't know you at all!"

The man laughed aloud. "Qin Hui, I have waited nearly a year for this day. Who would have thought? Not only am I not insane, but I am standing here today. Do you regret not killing me back then?"

Hai Rui then asked, "Who is this man?"

The man turned, knelt in the hall, and replied, "My lord, I am a resident of this county, Dai Dongmin. It happened last winter when Qin Hui held a banquet at the Welcome Pavilion for a group of local merchants and gentry. My young daughter was working there as a maid. That evening, as she served the guests, the merchant Ma Dewang took a fancy to her. Consumed by lust, he attempted to defile her. My daughter resisted to the death, striking Ma Dewang’s head with a wine cup from the table. Enraged and humiliated, Ma Dewang drew a guard’s sword and killed her. After the incident, Magistrate Qin, to cover up the crime, sealed off the Welcome Pavilion that same night. They paid the owner a large sum of money, dismissed all the servants, and buried my daughter in the wilderness."

Hai Rui asked, "Were you present when this happened? Do you have evidence that Qin Hui and the others were there?"

Dai Dongmin responded, "My lord, though I was not there that night, I have proof. After the incident, I went to the Welcome Pavilion to find my daughter, but the doors were sealed and everyone was gone. I inquired in the neighborhood and finally learned from a baker across the street that a curfew had been imposed early that evening. He had peered through the door cracks and seen Magistrate Qin and his associates leave the pavilion, followed by a group carrying a body—my daughter—before they hurried away. Then, everyone inside the pavilion left, locked the doors in a panic, and they have not been opened since."

"I searched for a long time until I discovered where my daughter’s body had been discarded in the wild. When I went to collect her remains, I found a pendant in her hand. It was a piece she had snatched from Ma Dewang during the struggle, and it was engraved with the character 'Ma.' I suspected them then, but I dared not confront them. I continued to investigate and secretly crept into the pavilion one night. In the room where the incident occurred, I found a jade thumb ring on the table corner—a ring only an official would wear. I became certain they were all complicit. However, I was discovered that night, and they captured me. They found the ring on me, but I had been cautious; during our struggle, I had deliberately scraped the ring hard against the floor, leaving a deep scratch." With that, Dai Dongmin walked up to Qin Hui, pointed at his hand, and shouted, "That is the very ring!"

Magistrate Qin tried to crush the ring in his hand, but his grip was too tight to remove it in time. Gu Shen immediately rushed forward, seized his hand, pulled the ring off, and handed it to Hai Rui.

Hai Rui examined it closely; sure enough, there was a scratch. Despite attempts to repolish it, the mark was too deep to be erased. He set the ring aside and, rather than sentencing Qin Hui immediately, sent men to summon the baker and arrest Ma Dewang. Under questioning, the baker confirmed that he had indeed seen Magistrate Qin and the merchants leaving the Welcome Pavilion that night.

Seeing this, Ma Dewang collapsed in a panic. Before any torture could be applied, he confessed everything in detail and implicated the other merchants present that night. Most tellingly, the cowardly Ma Dewang added one more detail: five years ago, it was Magistrate Qin who had ordered him to recruit the doctors sent to Blackwater Village, as the newly appointed Magistrate had lacked the funds then and had not yet married Zhu Ling.

With these revelations, Qin Hui’s direct involvement in the Blackwater Village incident was undeniable. Simultaneously, Hai Rui found his name in the account books. The merchants confessed everything, admitting they had conspired with Qin Hui to embezzle grain rations. By shaving a portion from every sack, they could amass nearly a hundred sacks each time; over a year, this amounted to thousands of sacks of grain. They would then fill the remaining sacks with inferior chaff and sell them to the people. Because the citizens dared not speak out, this scheme had continued for three years.

Magistrate Qin had no more room for deception. He sat slumped in hopelessness. Gou Ye stepped forward and said softly, "Magistrate Qin, have you ever heard the saying: 'Evil deeds eventually meet their retribution; if they have not yet been repaid, it is simply because the time has not yet come'?"