Free Web NovelChapter 410: Chapter 159: Evil Gets Its Due (Part 3)
Their fight turned vicious. They clawed at each other’s faces, and soon, clumps of hair littered the ground, carpeting the spot beneath their feet.
They tumbled to the ground as they fought, taking turns straddling one another. Their fists and fingers aimed for the tenderest parts of each other’s bodies.
Fan Meijuan had been "caught in the act" more than a few times and had become a skilled fighter. She suffered fewer injuries, and since she was determined to teach Mrs. Li a harsh lesson, she took advantage of an opening to rip open her shirt, then immediately started tearing at her pants.
Mrs. Li couldn’t cover her top and bottom at the same time. If she protected one, the other was exposed. Soon, she lost control of both and was stripped bare like a plucked chicken.
The County Magistrate and constables were all in the courtroom, but this did nothing to dampen the raucous atmosphere below.
All sorts of whistles and taunts rained down as everyone stared intently at Mrs. Li’s pale, naked body.
While she was busy trying to cover herself, Fan Meijuan’s hands were like iron pincers, attacking her upper and lower body.
Finally, the constables pushed through waves of people, reached the front, tossed Mrs. Li a piece of clothing, and shoved Ms. Fan aside. Only then did the farce come to an end.
Mrs. Li became the laughingstock of Qingshui County. Chen Lin was ashamed that she had been seen naked by everyone, utterly disgracing him in public. He immediately wrote a letter of divorce and threw Mrs. Li out of the house.
But at that moment, there were others in far more wretched circumstances than Mrs. Li.
Chief among them was Mr. Shi.
For the first half of his life, Mr. Shi didn’t know the meaning of the word "fear." His mind was filled with money, and he would do anything as long as it was profitable.
Whether it was driving competitors out of business, deliberately using undersized coffins to bury the dead, or turning a blind eye as a family stuffed a living girl into a coffin for a ghost marriage.
He did these things with the greatest of ease, completely ignoring the suffering of others.
When you do too many evil deeds, you eventually face retribution. His retribution was that every child he had died, one after another, until he was old and nearly useless, when his last son finally, barely, managed to grow up.
But his son was a fool!
A fool was still acceptable; as long as he could produce a grandson, Mr. Shi could entrust the rest of his life to him.
But now the grandson was gone, and his son had been imprisoned for murder.
That’s right, Mr. Shi’s son had also been taken into custody.
Although he was a fool, he had personally beaten the peddler and Mrs. Shi to death—both of them clung to life for a few difficult days before finally succumbing to their injuries.
Chen Wanyue had incited others to commit a crime, but she was also a victim. Taking into account that she had just had a miscarriage, she was sentenced to one hundred strokes of the cane and exile of three thousand li.
Mr. Shi’s son was a fool, yet he had used a weapon to take lives. He was also sentenced to one hundred strokes of the cane and exile for three thousand li.
Overnight, his son, grandson, and wife were all gone. Mr. Shi sat in his coffin shop, crying day and night.
His appearance was pitiable, but then people would remember the evil he had done, and no one felt sorry for him.
Those who had suffered at his hands or been thoroughly disgusted by him would spit on the ground and taunt him.
"Well, well, now you can sell more coffins. Time to rake in the big money again."
"Rake in what? This time, it’s his turn to pay for a coffin. She was his wife, after all. Mr. Shi will definitely pick the most expensive one for her."
"His family line is finished! Now he can just wait for others to devour him alive."
"It’s karma! I’d like to see who’ll be there to bury you when you die, you old bastard!"
While everyone was gossiping, the Shi Family’s shop suddenly closed its doors one day.
When the doors opened again, the crowd discovered that the coffin shop had a new owner.
"Mr. Shi sold everything in the coffin shop to me at a reduced price—the storefront, the residence in the back, the lumber, tools, and coffins. He took the Silver and went back to his hometown to live with his nephew."
The townspeople were shocked.
"His wife hasn’t even been prepared for burial, and his son is still in prison recovering from his wounds. Mr. Shi is so heartless! Did he decide he can’t rely on anyone, so he just abandoned them all, packed up, and left?"
"An old codger like him carrying a huge sum of money, how far can he get? Even if he gets far, someone will catch him. And even if he makes it to his nephew’s place, with an uncle like him, what kind of person could the nephew be? Mr. Shi’s real suffering is yet to come."
But Mr. Shi never made it to his hometown.
Not long after, a rumor began to spread. Someone, while visiting distant relatives, had seen a notice posted in another county town.
It had a portrait of a man who, no matter how you looked at it, resembled Mr. Shi.
Mr. Shi had been murdered in the middle of the night. All the gold and silver on him was stolen. He was found lying stiff in a ditch by the side of the road, his body already cold.
The government put out a notice asking for clues, but a long time passed without anyone providing useful information.
Gradually, the case was shelved. One year piled on top of another, and another, until several years had flown by. The case, like so many others, became a cold case, and no one ever asked about it again.
