My Wife is Unbeatable in the Whole World, Touch Me If You Dare!-Chapter 115 - 93: Certain Death Within Three Days!
Li Nuo was now well-versed in the Laws of Daxia.
The nobles of Daxia, as well as their relatives, had privileges under the law.
For instance, Li Yuan, as the eldest son of a first-class marquis, could avoid punishment for any crime short of a capital offense with 600 silver taels, even if it meant imprisonment for three years or banishment for three thousand miles.
Li Nuo’s father was a third-rank official at court; theoretically, he too had access to this privilege.
However, the prerequisite for redemption was that the crime committed was not a capital offense.
Capital offenses were not redeemable—a result hard-fought by generations of Legalists, who paid with their lives to achieve it.
A hundred years ago, even relatives of nobles committing capital offenses were merely fined a hundred taels of silver.
This, of course, conflicted with the principles of Legalism.
To amend the laws, Legalists of that era struggled with the court for decades, with countless individuals shedding blood in sacrifice.
Yet their deaths advanced the law only a small step.
They managed to narrow the scope of redemption from five punishments to four, excluding capital punishment.
Furthermore, this law did not apply to the nobles themselves; it merely restricted their relatives.
The nobles themselves could still evade capital punishment by voluntarily reducing their noble rank.
Over the decades, though countless people continued to advocate for reform, they only managed to increase the silver required for redemption.
Previously, a hundred taels of silver could buy a life; now it only offset one year of imprisonment.
If Li Yuan truly committed a capital crime, unless the Marquis Yunyang passed on his title to him now, he could not escape punishment.
Song Yu looked at Li Nuo’s serious demeanor, swallowed, and whispered, "Li Yuan is a very odd person, as temperamental as flipping pages. Sometimes he gives all his silver to beggars on the street, and other times he might break their limbs just because they dirtied his clothes...
"Six months ago, while he was studying at Yunmeng Academy, because a fellow student reported him for cheating, causing him to lose face, he kidnapped that student outside the academy and beat him to death. The incident caused quite an uproar at the academy, and Li Yuan was expelled..."
Li Nuo raised an eyebrow and commented, "Such a significant case of manslaughter, and the government didn’t handle it?"
Song Yu said helplessly, "At that time, at the Chang’an County Government, the victim’s family testified in court that their son only had minor injuries, and he accidentally fell and hit his head against the wall and died during the night. The Chang’an County Magistrate acquitted Li Yuan on the spot and released him..."
Li Nuo looked at him and asked, "Is the victim’s family still in Chang’an?"
Song Yu shook his head, "I don’t know; I’ll have to ask back at the academy..."
After a moment, he suddenly realized something, looked sharply at Li Nuo, and asked, "Brother-in-law, are you planning to..."
Indeed, Li Nuo intended to seek justice for that student.
Since Li Yuan liked to talk about the law, he would discuss it thoroughly with him.
Since coming to this world, he had never suffered such an injustice.
Thinking of Li Yuan’s arrogant demeanor at the government office door, he felt suffocated.
How could he sleep with this anger unvented?
Soon, a carriage slowly entered an alley in the west of Chang’an City and stopped in front of a small courtyard.
The courtyard, clearly long neglected, had a low wall full of holes and weeds grew thick around it, with the red paint on the gate peeling off badly from weather exposure.
On either side of the gate hung a pair of white couplets.
"Red plums do not fall, green plums do;
White hair sends off black hair returning home."
The edges of the couplets had yellowed and curled, badly damaged, and the horizontal inscriptions were nowhere to be seen.
The gate was unshut, Li Nuo pushed it open, and the decrepit wooden gate creaked alarmingly, worrying him that it might collapse at any moment.
Walking into the courtyard, a strong musty smell hit him.
The ground was covered with dust and fallen leaves, and a hunched figure stood still, sweeping lazily with a broom.
Hearing the noise, the figure slowly turned around, looking at the three figures standing at the door, hesitated for a moment, and then hoarsely asked, "Who are you looking for?"
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The courtyard was full of swirling dust. Song Yu coughed twice, covered his nose, and asked, "Is this Zhou Hao’s home?"
The man with graying hair was silent for a long while before responding, "Zhou Hao is already dead."
Song Yu turned to look at Li Nuo and a thin young man, saying, "Brother-in-law, sister’s husband, it seems this is the place."
He walked over to the man and said, "You must be Zhou Hao’s father. My name is Song Yu, and I study at Yunmeng Academy. I was Zhou Hao’s schoolmate."
The man looked down, continued sweeping the yard, and said quietly, "Zhou Hao is already dead. Leave, please."
Song Yu said, "Uncle Zhou, we know that Zhou Hao’s death was unjust, and we came here hoping to help you."
The man shook his head, "Zhou Hao died from a fall, there was no injustice. Come from wherever you were, go back."
Song Yu grew impatient, "Uncle Zhou, please believe us, we really want to help..."
The man continued to shake his head, "I have nothing that needs helping with, please leave."
A quarter of an hour later.
Song Yu walked back to the doorway, licked his dry lips, and said to the others, "What do we do? He refuses to overturn his son’s case..."
Zhou Hao’s case, already half a year old, had been concluded.
It was the Zhou family who had testified in court, claiming Zhou Hao died from a fall, unrelated to Li Yuan.
To seek justice now, they needed the Zhou family to retract their statement.
But despite Song Yu’s pleas, Zhou Hao’s father remained adamant that his son had died from a fall.
