newbobooks Chapter 234 Do You Want to Find a Master?
Chapter 234 Do You Want to Find a Master?
Zhao Ping, full of suspicion, was coaxed out of the case room by Hu the clerk.
Not long after leaving the case room, I saw two people holding one person's arm and helping him come over. A yamen runner said, "Help Song Shuli go to our duty room to rest for a while."
As they spoke, several people turned towards the direction of the yamen duty room.
Zhao Ping recognized that it was Song Shuli, and what surprised him was that Song Shuli seemed to have been beaten with a stick.
Zhao Ping was worried and full of doubts, but he didn't know who to ask, so he could only return to the second hall nervously.
When Zhuzi came out of the study, he saw his son wandering outside, as if he was waiting for him. When he saw him come out, he came up to him.
"Dad, what happened today? Why was Song Shuli beaten with a stick?"
Zhuzi looked back at the study and said in a low voice, "Let's talk about it when we get back."
When he returned to his room after the court session ended that night, Zhuzi told the whole story of how Song Shuli had been found to have tampered with the testimony, and finally gave him a warning:
"Stop hanging out with the clerks these days, and don't go to the case room if you have nothing to do."
Zhao Ping seemed to be frightened by the beating of Song Shuli. He was a little nervous and his eyes were wandering.
Zhuzi saw that he looked strange and asked suspiciously, "You didn't follow the clerk to do anything, did you?"
Zhao Ping quickly shook his head, but his expression was still full of doubt.
Zhuzi emphasized his tone and threatened: "If you have done anything, tell me as soon as possible. Otherwise, if the adults find out, I will not care about you."
Zhao Ping quickly raised his eyes to look at his father and then looked away. Zhuzi understood immediately.
"What did you do?!"
Although Zhuzi tried to keep his voice down for fear of being heard, Zhao Ping was still frightened by his sudden harsh words.
"Dad, I, I, I... I have helped the clerks deliver case files before. A few times, they were not delivered to the government offices, but shown to people outside. Those people should, should be related to the case..."
Before he could finish, Zhuzi slapped him in anger: "You have been getting more and more troublesome in the past two years!"
Zhao Ping dodged sideways and almost fell to the ground.
"Dad, Dad." Zhao Ping said in a panic, "Is this okay? I was just assigned to run errands. I don't know what it is for."
"Besides passing it on, have you touched the contents of the case files?"
"No, no, I only recognize a few words." Zhao Ping shook his head desperately.
Zhuzi sat down and calmed down a little.
He knew that Qin Yunhe's intention today was very clear. The bottom line was that the fairness of the verdict could not be affected. Zhao Ping had not touched the case file, and he was instructed by someone, so he would not be severely punished.
Zhuzi looked up and saw his son anxiously waiting for him to speak, so he said, "Master should be having dinner soon. I'll take you to the inner house to see Master later, and you can tell him what happened."
Zhao Ping begged: "Dad..."
Since adults don't know, why not tell them? At worst, I can just stop doing this.
"We can't mess around with this. We must tell the adults about it."
Zhuzi prepared some dinner, and the father and son ate it, each with their own thoughts.
After dinner, they waited for a while before Zhuzi took Zhao Ping to the inner house to meet Qin Yunhe.
When Zhuzi took Zhao Ping to the study room in the inner house, Qin Yunhe was writing a petition. Zhao Ping came in and knelt down without saying anything.
Qin Yunhe looked at the pillar: "What's going on?"
"Sir, I deserve to die. I didn't teach my son well. Today, Zhao Ping told me that he once helped the clerk run errands to deliver documents. He said that twice he didn't deliver them to various government offices. After what happened today, I thought that maybe one of the two courts in the case wanted to see it."
Zhuzi raised his voice and yelled at his son: "Tell me what's going on!"
Zhao Ping tremblingly recounted the cases and processes of several document transmissions.
In fact, after dealing with Song Shuli, Qin Yunhe had calmed down.
Especially the kid Zhao Ping, he thought that he would not really do anything illegal, he was just being used to do something wrong, so he just asked casually:
"Anything else? Have you touched the case files?"
Zhuzi also shouted urgently: "Anything else?! If you keep it secret again, I will kick you to death!"
Zhao Ping shuddered and said in a trembling voice: "That's all, Dad, I've said it all..."
"You just cause trouble every day, why don't you just go home and farm!"
Qin Yunhe understood Zhuzi's accusation, but he was just very tired after a busy day and really wanted to be quiet, so he said, "Zhuzi, calm down and stop scolding the child."
Zhuzi stopped talking, and Qin Yunhe asked again: "You haven't touched the contents of the case file, right?"
Zhao Ping shook his head desperately: "Without adults, how many words can I recognize?"
"Have you ever seen other clerks tamper with case files?"
Hearing Qin Yunhe's question, Zhuzi suddenly became nervous again. He glanced at Qin Yunhe and then at his son, fearing that he would say something, which would not only offend the clerk but also make Qin Yunhe think that he had deliberately concealed something before.
Fortunately, Zhao Ping just said, "No, sir, I have never heard of or seen such a thing before. If I knew they were doing something bad, I would never run errands for them.
I went there to help run errands just to learn something, I really didn’t mean to…”
Qin Yunhe still believed what Zhao Ping said. Besides, he had said during the day that even if someone had done something wrong, he would forgive them as long as they admitted it within three days.
So he had no plan to punish Zhao Ping. When he heard that he wanted to learn something, he casually asked, "Do you want to be a clerk?"
Zhuzi said, "Sir, don't listen to his dreams. Does he have the ability to be a clerk? He doesn't know his identity all day long and has no way to move forward or backward. Tomorrow I will send him back home to farm."
Zhao Ping didn't expect that his father was determined to send him back home to farm. He said anxiously, "Dad, I won't go home. Please..."
Seeing that Zhuzi was about to scold his son again, Qin Yunhe quickly stopped him: "Zhuzi, calm down. This matter is not that serious. Go find a stool outside and sit for a while. I will talk to Zhao Ping."
After hearing what Qin Yunhe said, Zhuzi was completely relieved. Without saying anything else, he turned around and found a place to sit outside.
After a tiring day, and not working now, Qin Yunhe pointed at the stool and asked Zhao Ping to sit down, and asked again: "Do you want to be a clerk?"
"Sir, I don't really want to be a clerk. I just want to learn to write and improve my knowledge. I don't want to be blind. I also want to learn some skills and know when to advance and retreat. It's good to be a clerk, but if I can't be a clerk, it's still a benefit."
Qin Yunhe nodded: "What have you learned these days?"
"Your Excellency, I have learned dozens of characters and many rules. I practice calligraphy every day."
Qin Yunhe smiled and said, "What characters did you learn?"
Zhao Ping repeated the characters he had learned recently.
Qin Yunhe was well aware of the difficulty of self-study, especially asking others to teach, which was even more difficult. He felt a bit of admiration and pity for the child.
"Do you want to find a master?"
Zhao Ping nodded excitedly.
"Sir, who do you want to be my master?"
"Wait a couple of days. I'll make arrangements in a couple of days."