Chapter 45: Such a Sentence

Looking at the motionless Censor Wei, Bai Yu urged him continuously, "What are you staring blankly for? Hurry up and hand down the verdict!"

Censor Wei’s brain was spinning at high speed. He vaguely sensed that the problem might lie in Sai Yu's identity, which was why Bai Yu had been given the opening to substitute the charges.

Recovering his wits, Censor Wei spoke up, "Although Miss Sai Yu is indeed a harlot, we cannot arbitrarily misjudge her simply because of her status..."

Bai Yu impatiently interrupted Censor Wei and continued his crude onslaught, "Are you still reading your mother's script? Why is it so damn difficult for you to pronounce a judgment? Can you judge this case or not? If you can, judge it; if you can't, get lost, and I'll find another judicial official!"

The narrative momentum had been completely shattered, and Censor Wei, driven to a corner with no retort, could only say, "You beat..."

Bai Yu interrupted him once more, "Stop right there, it was a mutual brawl!"

Censor Wei had not expected Bai Yu to be even more brazen and shameless than himself. He rebuked angrily, "This Censor saw with his own eyes that you physically assaulted Miss Sai Yu. How can you have the face to call this a mutual brawl?"

Bai Yu retorted without a moment's hesitation, "Even if you only saw me hitting her, didn't she have even the slightest fault? My hat fell to the ground—is this not evidence? Could the hat have fallen off by itself? Besides, how could someone of my respectable background casually make a mockery of my own innocence?"

Logical, substantiated, and spoken on the fly, the readymade arguments required virtually no thought.

Kneeling nearby, Miss Sai Yu could bear it no longer. If she let Bai Yu continue like this, would she, the "victim," end up being punished instead?

She cried out to Censor Wei, "This humble one was indeed forced into an assault by him! Even if I made any moves, it was purely out of self-defense!"

Censor Wei dropped any further pretense and declared directly, "What Miss Sai Yu says is far more credible."

Bai Yu did not back down in the slightest. Instead, he stepped forward, pointed directly at Censor Wei, and rebuked sternly:

"Watch your stance! I am a personal guardsman of the Son of Heaven, a citizen of respectable family! She is a debased courtesan of the music bureau! You refuse to believe the facts witnessed by your own eyes, you refuse to believe a respectable citizen, and yet you are only willing to believe the words of a woman of lowly status? Under circumstances this clear, if you dare to openly favor a low-born woman, I dare to strike the Dengwen Drum and let the entire officialdom of the capital witness your shameless, ugly face as you arbitrarily favor a harlot!"

With the stakes elevated to this level, Censor Wei finally felt a massive, imminent threat.

In particular, the office of the Censorate placed a high value on reputation. The commission he had originally received was quite simple: rush to the scene of the alleged crime and swiftly complete an airtight judicial verdict of "a brocade-guard flag-officer forcing himself upon a woman."

As for how the various factions would fight it out afterward, that would be none of Censor Wei's concern.

However, given the current situation, if he insisted on delivering that verdict, he risked implicating himself. Moreover, Bai Yu was not entirely without backing.

Therefore, the issue was no longer how to judge the case, but how to protect himself.

Censor Wei quickly made his decision. The opponent was far too thorny; self-preservation was the absolute priority! He could not allow himself to be dragged down into this muddy water!

At this point, Miss Sai Yu would simply have to suffer.

Censor Wei then said in a deep voice, "According to the legal codes, the punishment for beating another person is eighty heavy blows; a mutual brawl cancels each other out. In light of Miss Sai Yu's injuries, some modest compensation shall be made..."

Looking at the virtual light screen of his AI assistant, Bai Yu was thoroughly dissatisfied with the proposed verdict. He protested to Censor Wei on the spot:

"Hold on! How can it cancel out? As I said just now, I am a respectable citizen of a military household, while she is a lowly courtesan of the music bureau! The Great Ming Code stipulates that in offenses between the respectable and the base, respectable citizens have their punishment reduced by one degree, while those of lowly status have theirs increased by one degree! You are, after all, a Touring Censor charged with enforcing the law—how can you be so ignorant of the statutes? If you hand down such a muddled verdict, it constitutes dereliction of duty! I will memorialize the court to impeach you!"

Censor Wei: "......"

*Damn it!* My mind was in too much of a mess just now, and in my momentary lapse in judgment, I forgot to distinguish between the respectable and the base! And I got caught red-handed!

At this point, Miss Sai Yu would simply have to suffer once more.

To avoid being exposed for dereliction of duty, Censor Wei had no choice but to modify the verdict: "An ordinary mutual brawl would cancel out, but a respectable citizen's offense is reduced by one degree, and a base-born person's offense is increased by one degree. Therefore, the compensation Bai Yu was to pay is entirely waived, deemed a reduction of punishment by one degree. Meanwhile, Sai Yu shall receive twenty heavy blows, deemed an increase of punishment by one degree."

Bruised and battered, Miss Sai Yu slowly collapsed to the ground, her mind in absolute turmoil. She could never have imagined such an ending.

It was bad enough that she had received a brutal beating; not only did she receive no compensation, but she was also sentenced to twenty heavy blows! She knew these officials had dark hearts, but she never dreamed they could be this pitch-black! Had she not just suffered a momentary lapse in judgment and acted a little willful?

At that exact moment, a voice full of exaggerated surprise drifted in from the courtyard entrance: "Oh my, I've arrived late again!"

Without even lifting his eyes, from the tone alone, Bai Yu knew it was that lingering ghost, Lu Baiyi.

Bai Yu was not surprised in the least by Lu Baiyi's appearance here. As the adopted daughter of the Director of Ceremonial and the Commander of the Eastern Depot, since Lu Baiyi was capable of issuing a warning to him, she naturally had the ability to gather intelligence on the related deployments.

Sure enough, a moment later, Lu Baiyi walked in with a beaming smile and said to Bai Yu, "Well, if it isn't Captain Bai! How on earth were you so careless as to let the judicial authorities catch you?"

Bai Yu had a lingering suspicion that Lu Baiyi might have misunderstood something, and retorted, "What are you doing here?"

Lu Baiyi said smugly, "To look at your pathetic state, and incidentally ask if you need me to help clear you of your crimes and get you out of trouble."

She practically had the words *"Come and beg me"* written all over her face.

Yet Lu Baiyi found something slightly odd. Why were the other people looking at her with such strange gazes? Especially Bai Yu—his gaze was exceptionally bizarre, tinged even with a trace of pity.

"What are you staring at?" Lu Baiyi asked, unable to hold back any longer.

Bai Yu curled his lips in contempt and muttered, "You always show up too late for the fresh meal!"

Lu Baiyi was utterly bewildered. What was that supposed to mean?

Then she heard Bai Yu say to Censor Wei, "Since there's nothing else, I'll be leaving first! As for the other person's twenty heavy blows, not a single one must be spared!"

Then Bai Yu pointed at the brothel madam and said viciously, "Don't think this is the end of it! This matter is far from over! You'd better watch out!"

Having delivered his parting threats, Bai Yu picked up his red-tasseled felt hat and left with his head held high.

Pointing at Bai Yu's retreating back, Lu Baiyi demanded of Censor Wei, "You're a judicial official—how could you just let him walk away like that?"

Censor Wei had no desire to speak. He ordered his attendants and bailiffs to pin Sai Yu down and immediately began administering the blows.

Watching this scene, Lu Baiyi felt as though the world had turned surreal. Before she had even had the chance to kick a man when he was down—ah, no, before she had the chance to offer timely help in a crisis—how had Bai Yu managed to clear himself completely unscathed?

Before arriving at the scene, she could never have anticipated such a reversal. In her mind, she had simply assumed Bai Yu was struggling to defend himself while being pinned down for sentencing.

So when she strutted in just now, wearing the expression of someone who had the game completely won, didn't she look like an absolute fool?

*Damn it!* She finally understood what Bai Yu had meant by "showing up too late for the fresh meal."