Rebel: The Inheritance System

Chapter 54 - Arson

General Ling is stunned by what the crown prince said and he blanks out.

"Illegitimate daughter??" General Ling unconsciously repeats what the crown prince said.

"Really?! So Shang Jian Rui must have met Ying Yue's mother while he was still travelling the world, with nothing but a sword at his side right! he must have saved her an-" The crown prince started blabbing about his fantasies of the cultivators that he hears often in stories but before he could finish describing the adventures of Shang Jian Rui in his fantasies, General Ling makes several coughs to interrupt him.

*cough* *cough*

"Your Highness, Ying Yue is not his illegitimate daughter, but instead the fiancee of his eldest son." General Ling explains.

The crown prince has a frown on his face now, showing his disapproval for the marriage. "How could a girl with talent that rivals the heavens be in an arranged marriage with a useless person?! Is the Ying family out of their minds?"

"Your Highness, I spent a great deal of money to bribe the servants as I had the same reaction as you. Apparently, the little girl said that they met when they were young and he had saved her life or something like that, which made her fall in love with him. I do not recommend that you interfere with this marriage as both Shang Jian Rui and Meng Zhi Rou might go crazy but perhaps if you destroy the image that Ying Yue has of her husband, she might realise that it was just a crush and call off the wedding on her own." General Ling reports his findings to the crown prince who is deep in thought now.

"What is the boy busy with now? He should have gotten a job in the government according to the rules of the Shang Family?" the crown prince asks.

"Your highest, the boy's name is Shang Shi, and he is now a travelling judge, but he has set off on a riding circuit a long time ago." General Ling answers.

"I heard from my royal father that you will be heading out to clear the rebels soon? If there is a chance, just get rid of him. I will start talking about her to my royal father and get the grand astrologer to check her birth date. Once Shang Shi is dead, I will propose a marriage to her if she is a good match, otherwise, she can just join my harem when I become the emperor." The crown prince gives an order nonchalantly as if talking about squashing an ant.

"Yes, your highness!" General Ling immediately answers.

...

The next day at Yao Feng Town, the magistrate and his steward are eating with us while he informs us about the findings of the coroner and the case of the ministry of rites being burnt. This time, everyone is interested in the report so we all sit together and listen attentively while munching our bread.

"We found a total of 9 corpses in the debris of the Ministry of Rites. 7 of these belong to the guard dogs that were raised to chase away trespassers and petty criminals and the coroner found that all of these dogs were killed with a single slash. Half of these were accurate slashes at the throat of the dogs, while the others were martial moves which had separated their heads from their bodies. This was one reason why nobody heard the dogs barking."

"As for the other two corpses, they are the bodies of a woman, in her early twenties and a man who should be in his early thirties. They were stripped naked and were tortured before they died in the fire. The coroner found eleven stabs on both the man and the woman which were not fatal and they were eventually bound together and gagged. They were then left in one of the offices and were burned to death in the fire." The magistrate took a bite of his bread once he finished reporting the coroner's findings.

"We are currently unable to determine who they are as the bodies are badly burnt and nobody has lodged a missing person report yet. It is likely that this is an act of revenge, or there would be no need to stab them each eleven times."

"Also in our investigations, we have determined that the fire was intentionally started. Someone had moved the straw from the horse shed to one of the offices that were carpeted and started the fire there. The straw and the carpet help spread the fire around the room and created a huge fire which eventually burned the entire building. Since the fire was started in one of the inner rooms, nobody noticed the fire until the entire building was in flames."

"It was really lucky that the fire only burned down the main building of the Ministry of Rites and didn't spread to any of its other buildings or its neighbours. We are also unclear if the arsonist and the person who tortured the two corpses we found are the same people, but once we find out the identity of the corpses, we should be able to arrest some suspects." Magistrate Dong confidently says.

Before he could continue, however, the sound of someone shouting arrived and soon, the dining hall's door was pushed open violently.

*Bang!* the sound of the door hitting the wall sounds out.

"Magistrate Dong! WHAT AR..." the man stops his loud shouting and finger pointing once he sees us in the room eating.

"Ah! I am Ling Zi Xiang, the director of the local Ministry of Rites. It is nice to meet the judges from the capital but do excuse me for I have to talk to Magistrate Dong privately. MAGISTRATE DONG! COME OUT WITH ME!" The fat director greets us and tells Magistrate Dong to leave the room with him, probably so he can shout at Magistrate Dong for a few minutes since his ministry has been burned down.

As the director of the local ministry, his rank is the same as ours, who belong to the Ministry of Justice and the governor's office, so he does not have to bow when he sees us. Of course, the governor's rank is higher than him but we are not the governor, just his representative. While we have the power to punish him if we find proof his wrongdoings, we cannot punish him or force him to show obeisance to us.

We can, however, tell him to get lost and stop shouting at the magistrate, but that would cause more harm than good in the long run and the magistrate is the one who has to deal with his own relationships, so we just watch the fat man shouting and pointing his finger at Magistrate Dong through the window.

After a few minutes of shouting, the fat man is finally tired and he returns into the dining hall to apologise and take his leave.

"I apologize for my unsightly behaviour, but I am sure you would understand since my ministry has been BURNED TO ASHES last night. I hope you will assist the magistrate in finding the culprits who burned down my ministry and if you require any assistance, I will do my best to cooperate. I will not distract you anymore from your breakfast and take my leave." The fat man makes a bow out of courtesy and goes off in a huff.