Tianliangyuan

Chapter 232 23 Things in the Chang Mansion

Baron is probably the lowest rank of nobility.

Oh, by the way, Xu Junting was granted the title of baron.

"No wonder I haven't had much of an impression of this place. Who's in charge of the Chang family now?"

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the title of the Chang family is inherited by the Third Master, Chang Yuan, but the one who truly has a say in the Chang family is the First Master, Chang Qing. Because he was born out of wedlock, he was not allowed to inherit the title. However, his birth mother was extremely favored, and he and the Second Master Chang are siblings from the same mother."

Xu Zhaozhao understood immediately upon hearing this.

No wonder the Chang family declined so quickly; it must be because of the internal discord between legitimate and illegitimate children.

"Where is the matriarch of the Chang family?"

"Master Chang's mother had already passed away. After Master Chang passed away, Master Chang inherited the title, but some matters in the inner quarters were still controlled by Master Chang's birth mother, Madam Kong."

"Kong? It's actually the surname of a sage. Could he be a descendant of Confucius?"

"I don't know about that. But I've heard that this Ms. Kong came from a humble background and had even worked in a brothel. That's why, no matter how much she was favored back then, the elders of the Chang family wouldn't allow her to be made their official wife. Even after she gave birth to two sons, the elders of the Chang family still wouldn't allow her to represent the Chang family outside."

Xu Zhaozhao nodded. It was alright; at least the elders of the Chang family had some manners.

Unfortunately, that foolish Lord Chang was a complete idiot.

His Majesty has always valued legitimate and illegitimate offspring, and among the prominent families, which one doesn't place even greater importance on legitimate offspring?

That is, the Chang family is in such a mess.

"Send someone to investigate and find out whose power that wicked servant is relying on, and then find a way to invite Liu Qi over."

"Yes."

This kind of thing is very easy to handle.

Once they are surrounded, the Chang family will not be able to escape.

Moreover, although the Chang family considers themselves a prestigious family, few families actually acknowledge their status as such.

Or rather, when Master Chang was alive, the Chang family was a joke in the eyes of many nobles.

Now that Master Chang is dead, the Chang family has been demoted, and Master Chang the Third is now only a sixth-rank official. Master Chang the First is also an official, but his rank is even lower, only an eighth-rank official. He only got his rank because Master Chang favored his eldest son and because of the family's good fortune. So naturally, no one would take him seriously.

In other words, the Chang family members were complacent and used to internal strife, and they actually thought that the Chang family was some kind of extraordinary family.

This is indeed a serious case of abducting a woman in the street.

After all, it's right under the emperor's nose.

Moreover, these servants kept saying that she was a runaway slave, while the woman claimed that she had been drugged and brought to the capital by human traffickers. The matter had to be verified.

The woman's accent was clearly from a place further north of Beijing; it was obviously not a Beijing accent.

Therefore, the possibility of them being abducted is extremely high.

Liu Qi was actually having a bit of a headache.

Before he even got a trial, the Chang family sent someone to plead his case.

Although he didn't take the Chang family seriously, the Chang family had been glorious for decades, and Third Master Chang was now a nobleman working in the Ministry of Personnel. He really didn't dare to offend them too much.

However, within a quarter of an hour, two groups of people from the Chang family arrived.

A group claiming to be from the Chang family, sent by the Duke to take the person back, insisted that they were capturing a runaway slave.

Another group also claimed to be acting on the orders of the Duke, but they demanded that Magistrate Liu investigate thoroughly and repeatedly stated that the Duke had never sought out any bed warmers!

The last three words did remind Liu Qi.

Whose bed is this girl going to be taken to warm?

After a moment's thought, Liu Qi understood the key to it.

If this matter is handled well, not only will we not offend the Chang family, but we might even be able to do Chang Sanye a favor.

After that, things will be much easier.

The woman was indeed drugged and brought to the capital by human traffickers, and it's unclear how the contract was obtained, but she was taken to the Chang residence.

Finally, Liu Qi ordered an investigation and discovered that the woman's identity was questionable, because if she was a slave, why was there no record of her in the government's records?

The woman explained everything, saying that Grandpa Chang had taken a liking to her and insisted on taking her as his concubine, but she refused, which is why she fought back so fiercely.

"Your Honor, please investigate! Half a month ago, that villain harbored evil intentions towards me. I fought back with my life, but I was weak and helpless at the time, so I could only desperately bang my head against the corner of the table. I still have a scar on my head. Your Honor, please have someone come and examine me!"

Liu Qi raised his hand, and someone went over to check.

"Your Excellency, it is indeed a new scar, and some scabs have not yet completely fallen off."

"Someone, summon the Chang family."

The woman's identity has now been verified; she was not a slave. As for how she entered the Chang residence, and whether this will lead to a major human trafficking case, it's hard to say.

The two eldest and second eldest members of the Chang family were both invited to the courtroom, and after a series of interrogations, the truth of the matter was quickly revealed.

The main reason was that, of the two, Master Chang was a commoner, so Liu Qi went straight for Master Chang, using a combination of intimidation and coaxing, and Master Chang confessed everything.

He brought the person into the mansion to curry favor with his elder brother.

Who would have thought that she would have such a fiery temper?

Now that things have turned out this way, Master Chang is naturally unable to extricate himself.

As for Grandpa Chang, he naturally denied everything, claiming he knew nothing about it.

But if you say you don't know, Liu Qi can't do anything about it?

As a maid, she was naturally under the supervision of the women in the inner quarters.

This also brought up Grandpa Chang's birth mother, Kong.

At this point, Master Chang and his wife could no longer stand idly by.

Kong was merely a concubine, and upon entering the courtroom, she was immediately dealt with by Liu Qi.

"I, Daxing Law, have no right to allow a mere concubine like you to dress like this! Guards, strip her of her fine clothes and drag her outside for twenty strokes of the cane!"

"Yes!"

Grandpa Chang panicked: "Sir, what's going on?"

"Hmph! As a concubine, you are of lowly status. How dare you come to the main hall dressed in bright red with a phoenix hairpin in your hair? Where does this place my court? Do you have no regard for the law or etiquette?"

One question was enough to leave Grandpa Chang speechless.

Indeed, Kong was just a concubine; where would she get the audacity to wear bright red?

But the Kong family had been accustomed to dominating the Chang family for so many years, and it seemed that they had always dressed like this. Now that I think about it, wasn't that overstepping their bounds?

This has become so commonplace that it's taken for granted!

After Kong was stripped of her hairpins and clothes, and given twenty strokes of the cane, she was ordered to be carried back.

This humiliation was so profound that even Grandpa Chang felt utterly ashamed.

The final result, of course, couldn't be given so quickly, because Master Chang had been detained.

The Third Master and his wife returned to their residence as if nothing had happened. Before Madam Kong could react, the Third Madam arranged for people to surround the courtyard and move all the belongings away, leaving only a bed and a table.

Not to mention other decorations, even the display shelf for vases was moved away.

While Grandpa Chang was busy running around for his second brother's sake, the Third Madam sent people with a list to collect things from the other two households one by one. With a clear reason and evidence, which of the two wives dared to stand up to her?