Chapter 22: The Sin of Killing Cows

  Xiao Jiading nodded and said: "Hello!"

  The Tang Dynasty people would not greet each other like this, so it made the woman slightly surprised, she raised her head and glanced at him, quickly lowered her eyelids and turned away. This turn of the body left a fragrant breeze, which was not the scent of rouge or powder, could it be the girl's body fragrance? That didn't seem right either, Xiao Jia Ding had deeply interacted with many women, including young girls who had just come of age, but he had never smelled such an unusual fragrance on any woman.

  This reminded Xiao Jiading of the Fragrant Princess in Jin Yong's "The Book and the Sword". She ate snow lotus every day, so her body had a unique fragrance. This woman was also a Western Hu person, could it be that she also smelled so good from eating flowers every day?

  Zhu Haixin saw him staring blankly at the girl's back, and laughed: "Big brother, you're also stunned? Haha, I'm telling you, Yu Zhanggui, your daughter is too beautiful, in the future this betrothal gift will definitely not be less, she's your money tree, haha!"

  Yu Gui also laughed and responded in unison: "Yes, yes."

  "What's your daughter's name?" Just now Zhu Haiyin only looked at the beauty and didn't listen carefully to Yu Gui's words, so he didn't remember.

  "Loulan."

  "This name is quite unique, isn't it, Big Brother?" Zhu Haiyin looked at Xiao Jiading.

  Loulan was an ancient country in the Western Regions that mysteriously disappeared before the Tang Dynasty. "This shouldn't be her surname," said Xiao Jiading, "Is this her original name?"

  "No, over a decade ago, Old Han was doing business in the Western Regions. One day, I passed by a valley and saw many dead bodies of civilians on the side of the road, all with knife wounds and blood flowing everywhere. They were probably killed by bandits. This child was sitting on the ground crying, she was about three or four years old at that time. I took pity on her and adopted her as my daughter, teaching her to speak Han language. I understand a bit of Western Regions' barbarian language, so I asked her what her name was, but she just cried. Since I heard that the Western Regions are also called Loulan, I named her Loulan."

  "I see." Xiao Jiading nodded and continued eating.

  " How old is she? Has she been promised to marry someone?"

  "You're already 16 and still haven't given permission."

  "It's impossible! How can someone so beautiful not have a mother-in-law?"

  "Alas, few respectable families are willing to marry off Hu Nu, saying she doesn't understand the rules. And since she's a strong-willed little woman, it's been delayed."

  Zhu Haixin nodded, this is indeed the truth. Even if it were himself, he wouldn't want to marry a Muslim woman as his wife, no matter how beautiful she was. She might be acceptable in bed, but not as a daughter-in-law entering his home. He sighed and sat down.

  In modern society, Xiao Jia Ding had seen too many kinds of beauties, and his melting point for beauties was very high. He wouldn't be easily infatuated with them, let alone a cold and icy beauty like her, so he didn't bother to mention her again.

  He had eaten his fill and said to Yu Gui: "Tell me about your case."

  Yu Gui had been waiting for this, and hastily smiled: "It's like this, I bought a cow a few days ago and raised it in the backyard. Yesterday, the cow accidentally fell to its death. As a result, our neighbor, Old Third from the small food shop, saw it. He has always been jealous of our family's snack business, saying that we used underhanded methods to steal their customers, and often found fault with us. This time, he saw that our cow had died in the backyard, so he ran to the government office to accuse me, saying that I intentionally killed the cow. The officials locked me up at the county government office, and no matter how I explained, they didn't believe that the cow had died on its own. They wanted to punish me for a crime. Luckily, there were people who helped me testify, saying that I hadn't intentionally killed the cow. In the end, the government decided that it was an accidental killing, and I wouldn't be punished. Yesterday, they released me, but confiscated my dead cow as evidence. I'm furious, and went to reason with the officials. They said that this is a case of contraband, and must be confiscated. - Young Master, a cow is worth eight taels of silver! Can it just be confiscated like that? I didn't intentionally kill the cow, why should my cow be confiscated?"

  In the Tang Dynasty, cows and horses were specially protected animals. Intentionally killing a cow or horse was punishable by one year of imprisonment. If a cow or horse died due to negligence, no punishment was given. As for intentionally or negligently killing a cow or horse, whether the dead animal was considered stolen goods to be confiscated by the government was not specified in the "Eternal Glory Code", but it was clearly stipulated in the "Tang Law Explanation" several years later that the meat of cows and horses belonged to personal property and were not tools for committing crimes, so they could not be confiscated by the government. Instead, they should be returned to their original owners. Therefore, the county government's judgment was incorrect.

  Xiao Jiading knew that the case was actually very simple, but the current officials couldn't draw conclusions from the simple Yonghui Code. This requires a certain level of legal literacy. He said: "I understand, the yamen's confiscation of your cattle and horses is wrong. You don't need to write any petition for this matter, because you're not accusing someone else, but the yamen itself, it was the yamen that made the mistake, how can you accuse them by writing a petition?"

  Yu Gui was taken aback and said: "That... is that it? That's eight taels of silver!"

  Xiao Jiading saw his greedy appearance and thought to himself that he might have killed the cow to make beef buns, but pretended it was an accident. However, although the Tang law stipulated that killing a cow would be punishable by death, modern criminal law concepts made Xiao Jiading not think this way, after all, it was someone else's property, how could the government arbitrarily confiscate it?

  Xiao Jiading said: "Alright, I'll remember this matter. After we enter the government office this afternoon, I'll see if I can help you speak up and get your beef back."

  "Oh dear, thank you so much! Thank you, Xiao Gongzi! Thanks a lot!"

  No wonder Yu Gui was so excited, eight guan of money is equivalent to 40,000 yuan. That's just the cost of the beef itself, if it were made into beef buns for sale, that would double the profit, a not insignificant amount. As the saying goes, "rare things are precious", beef was very hard to come by in the Tang Dynasty.

  Zhu Haixin couldn't eat anything from this snack stall at all. Seeing Gu Yezhou finish eating, he said: "Shall we go, big brother?"

  Xiao Jiading nodded and stepped out, with Yu Gui accompanying him to see him off.

  Arrived at the front hall, there were fewer guests than before. Lou Lan was cleaning up bowls and utensils, wiping the table, her pretty face still icy as frost. Some regular customers greeted her and spoke to her, but she just nodded slightly, not even looking at them, those guests who wanted to chat with her could only shut their mouths in embarrassment.

  Xiao Jiading understood that this girl's icy demeanor was probably a helpless act of self-protection. She was too beautiful, and working in a small eatery where rough men often came, they would dare to say anything to a beauty, even resorting to physical harassment. If she didn't have such a stern expression, her face as cold as ice, she would really be bullied.

  Xiao Jia Ding felt a little sympathy for her, and as he walked past her, he said softly: "Lou Lan girl, you've worked hard!" After that, he didn't look at her and went straight out the door.

  Loulan was taken aback, no guest had ever spoken to her like that before, and a warm current of anger rose in her heart, staring blankly at the receding back of Xiao Jia Ding.

  Zhu Haoyin quickly caught up with Xiao Jiading and said, "Big brother, are you full? If not, let's change places and continue eating."

  "I'm full."

  Zhu Haixin himself had hardly eaten anything, his stomach was growling with hunger, but Xiao Jiading said he was full, and he didn't dare suggest going to eat again, that would be like asking Xiao Jiading to accompany him to eat. He turned his eyes and said: "It's still early now, how about we go for a boat ride on the river?"

  "Cruise ship river?"

  "Right! Taking a boat ride upstream on Hua River is one of life's greatest pleasures!"

  Xiao Jiading guessed that this was a pleasure boat on the river, probably a flower boat, and laughed: "So early in the morning, you're going to do something like this?"

  "The boat on the river is only visible during the day, at night you can't see anything. And if you get drunk and fall into the river, no one will notice. It's best to go during the day. Besides, Hua Creek is just up ahead, not far from here. We can walk there. At this time, it's still a long way until noon, let's have some wine to lift our spirits."

  "I still have to go to court this afternoon, can't drink alcohol."

  "Well... then let's not drink and just hang out till noon, have lunch and go to the government office later. If not, where should we go now? It's so boring sitting at home."

  "That's also true, okay then! Let's go!"

  Xiao Jiading followed Zhu Haixin to Huanhuaxi, and indeed saw the green water surface, with boat after boat of flower boats floating by with joyful songs and laughter. From time to time, they saw beautifully dressed women standing at the bow of the boat, waving at them.

  As soon as they saw the flower boat, Zhu Haisheng's face lit up with joy. When they arrived at the dock, he was greeted warmly by the people there, who were all familiar with him. Zhu Haisheng ordered a beautifully decorated pleasure boat, and the two of them boarded it. There were over ten women on the boat, chattering and laughing as they leaned against the two men.

  The girls on the painting boat are much lower than those in Cuizhu Lou, and their singing and dancing are also ordinary. However, people who come here generally don't come for that. Xiao Jiading is not a decent person, of course he won't be polite, but he really doesn't want to come, who knows if these women are clean or not, he doesn't want to get into trouble.

  Time flies when you're having fun with the ladies, and before they knew it, it was already noon. Zhu Haixin had the boat docked, and the two of them, accompanied by their servants, went to a restaurant for lunch again. Zhu Haixin ordered a big table of dishes, but didn't drink any wine. After finishing their meal, they looked at each other and saw that it was almost time to go to court, so they left the yamen.

  Xiao Jiading first returned to the inn, took out the landscape painting of the prefectural government's Sima, folded it into a square and put it in his sleeve pocket, then followed Zhu Haisheng to arrive at Shaocheng County Government.

  After entering the county government gate, turning over the mirror wall, walking through the long corridor, and arriving in front of the high wall in front of the second hall. There is a ceremonial gate here, but it is usually not open unless it is to welcome a superior official or other special occasion, otherwise people enter and exit from the side door on the right. The government office can be roughly divided into two parts: the front part, including the main hall, where ordinary citizens can come to file complaints, attend trials, read notices, etc., while after passing through this side door, the back part is the county government's office area, which ordinary citizens are not allowed to enter.

  Thanks to Zhu Haixin, Xiao Jia Ding didn't need to waste words with the gatekeeper at Corner Gate and was able to enter smoothly.

  Zhu Haixin saw him off to the gate of County Magistrate Deng Quansheng's signing room, pointed to the house in front of the prison, indicated that he would be there, and left.