I was reborn after cheating on the aloof and powerful man.

Chapter 33 Prison Disaster

Fei Xi put down her pen and calmly looked at the person who had barged in.

"Junior Brother Yu, what happened? Tell me in detail."

Through Yu Mu's explanation, Fei Xi understood what had happened.

The effects of the Three Religions Origin Ceremony have not yet begun to take hold. However, in Nanxuan City, the Qingcheng Sect, which stole the show at the Three Religions Origin Ceremony, is naturally known to everyone.

In the past, the people in the city both respected and feared the martial arts practitioners who came to defend the righteous path.

Before the establishment of the righteous cause, ordinary people could only report their grievances to the government for resolution. But as the saying goes, "The government office faces south, but those with reason but no money shouldn't enter." Unless absolutely necessary, no one wanted to go through the ordeal of rolling on a bed of nails, having a piece of their flesh cut off by the heartless yamen runners.

Most people welcome martial arts heroes who are willing to stand up for them.

Martial arts practitioners who value money highly always talk about eliminating evil and upholding justice, possessing a passionate spirit to sweep away all injustices in the world.

However, chivalrous individuals are inherently bound by the law and use their martial arts to break the law. While they may be good at fighting and killing with their passion, asking them to distinguish right from wrong and debate ethical principles is harder than killing them.

Should parents who abuse their children be arrested?

Seeing a toddler tortured to the point of barely clinging to life, anyone would want to humanely destroy the person who harmed her.

However, since our bodies and hair are given to us by our parents, under the prevailing ethical and moral principles, parents who beat their children to death often go unpunished.

Martial arts practitioners don't care about such things. They'll beat up the abusive parents first, and at worst, they'll take the child back to their sect and give them a meal to keep them alive. Anything is better than letting them stay with their parents and be tortured to death.

But in the eyes of ordinary people, how could a child not be beaten when these martial arts practitioners snatched someone's child?

These martial arts practitioners are utterly unreasonable!

However, this is still relatively good; more often than not, the two sides simply cannot understand each other.

Even with Emperor Huadi's decree "no killing of ordinary civilians," the martial arts practitioners, being the dominant force and not engaged in productive labor, often acted as they pleased, causing many ordinary people to be terrified of these chivalrous defenders of justice.

With Fei Xi in charge of the southern part of Nanxuan City, and relying on his familiarity with the imperial laws, he governed with reason and law. The people in the south, seeing these young men who were willing to "reason" with them, were no longer as afraid as before. On the contrary, the bolder ones would even warmly greet them.

After the grand gathering of the three religions, the people in the south discovered that the people they knew had become celebrities. They couldn't help but feel proud and were especially happy when they talked about it with everyone they met.

Yesterday, Granny Liu, who sold breakfast noodles at the Mao'er intersection, suddenly knelt down in front of Ji Zhongxuan and his entourage.

In the past, when they passed by the Mao'er intersection, they would always see Granny Liu warmly inviting them to come and have breakfast noodles. Not seeing the familiar stall this morning, Ji Zhongxuan and his group discussed it curiously for a moment.

To everyone's surprise, Granny Liu, who came out from the intersection, looked worried and knelt down in front of them with a thud as soon as she saw them.

Liu Erpozi's husband's surname was Wang, and the neighbors all called him Brother Qiang. The couple used to run a noodle business together, barely making ends meet. But then a cold caused Wang Qiang to contract tuberculosis. To treat his illness, they not only spent all their savings but also borrowed from all their relatives and friends. In the end, they even sold their youngest daughter, Wang Xiaoya, but it still didn't save him.

Wang Xiaoya was sold to work in the home of Master Yan, a scholar from the west, before she was even eight years old. The indenture was for ten years. After her husband died, Granny Liu worked tirelessly from dawn till dusk, determined to earn money to pay off the debts and redeem her daughter.

That day, she waited at the back gate of Master Yan's house in the west, and received the private gift her daughter brought. Seeing that her daughter looked worried, she told her some happy stories.

Her eldest brother, who works as a waiter, received a considerable tip from customers this month; her second sister is getting married soon, and her future son-in-law seems to be a kind and honest person; the Qingcheng Sect knights who come to the stall to eat noodles from time to time always give her two extra coins, and as long as the family raises enough money, they will definitely redeem her as soon as possible.

As they were talking, a sudden shout startled them so much that their legs went weak and they knelt down:

"You scoundrel, sneaking around here, daring to steal and sell your master's things!"

The newcomer was furious and grabbed Wang Xiaoya by the hair, kicking her hard in the chest.

The man who arrived was none other than the master of the house, Yan Gongsheng. He had just returned from a trip, and was seething with anger. He had drunk some cat urine and had come to his concubine's room in the backyard to vent his frustration. When he saw the maidservant handing something to the old woman outside the door, he felt as if his precious possessions were about to be stolen by these thieves. Without asking any questions, he raised his fist and punched the maidservant.

Although Wang Xiaoya had signed a contract with no restrictions on her ability to return home for the New Year, she hadn't been granted permission to do so. It was understandable that she could have a private conversation with her mother through the door, but it was still against the rules. She dared not argue and could only kneel on the ground, wailing and begging her master for mercy.

Granny Liu also knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing, explaining that the package did not contain Master Yan's treasures, but rather her son's monthly allowance and some old clothes he had changed out of.

The commotion quickly attracted the attention of the rest of the Yan family. When the steward saw that the maid on the ground had been beaten to the point of near death by the master, he quickly gave the other servants a look and threw Granny Liu out.

"It's all my fault. I haven't seen my little girl for two years, and she didn't send me a single word during the New Year. I thought I could just sneak a peek at her, but who knew it would cause my son such a huge disaster. My eldest son couldn't even get into the Yan family's house before he was kicked out. I don't know how my poor child is doing now. You kind and heroic ladies, please help this old woman explain! This old woman really didn't take anything from Old Master Yan!"

Ji Zhongxuan and the others agreed to Granny Liu's request, and that very day they decided to go to the Yan residence first. However, when they arrived at the Yan family home, the steward greeted them, saying that his master was not in the house and that they should wait until he returned to discuss anything.

Today, they went to the Yan residence again. This time, Old Master Yan was home, but he only made excuses, saying it was a family matter. Regardless of whether it was a misunderstanding or not, the girl should be punished for her mistake, and they wanted to kick them out. Sensing something was wrong, Ji Zhongxuan gave his fellow disciples a look, and the group left the Yan residence first. Ji Zhongxuan went alone to the next alley, leaped over the wall, and secretly ran back to the Yan residence to check the situation.

Less than half an incense stick's time later, someone in the Yan residence suddenly shouted that someone had been murdered, which was overheard by the group from Xuehai Academy who happened to be there.

In the backyard of the Yan family, Ji Zhongxuan was holding a small, thin female corpse, while in front of him was the body of Old Master Yan.

……

"I didn't recognize the leader from Xuehai Academy. As soon as he saw us, he attacked without even asking any questions. They were no match for Junior Brother Ji, and he quickly knocked them to the ground. Junior Brother Ji led us and the female corpse to the yamen. Who knew that after hearing what the Xuehai Academy people said, Lord Jia was convinced that Junior Brother Ji was the murderer of Old Master Yan and wanted to arrest him and imprison him. Senior Sister, come with me quickly, I'm afraid that if I'm a step later, who knows what will happen!"

"No rush, Lord Jia is reasonable, and Junior Brother Ji is also sensible. Hmm, where did Junior Sister go?" Fei Xi found it strange. Given Junior Sister's personality, she should have been with Junior Brother when the incident occurred.

"Junior Sister and that Wu girl went out together early this morning, I don't know what they went to do."

Junior Brother Yu twitched his lips. Ever since Wu Yanluo arrived, apart from Senior Sister, all the senior and junior sisters have become much more fierce than before, making him have to be careful with his words now, for fear of getting a beating for saying the wrong thing.

Fei Xi couldn't help but chuckle. In the current environment, many of her junior brothers' ideas and opinions were deeply ingrained. The Taibai Sect, on the other hand, always believed that truth lay only on the edge of the sword, so Wu Yanluo was naturally unhappy with a group of men being so indecisive and self-righteous.

Why all the fuss? If you're not happy, just fight!