Chapter 1890: Compensation for the Opponent's Mother-in-law

Chapter 1890: Compensation for the Opponent's Mother-in-law

Qi Lie turned his gaze towards Grandma Fang and Guo Zheng, "Furthermore, Chen Bing has already admitted that the person who saved thirty years ago was Fang Caixia. If that's the case, the money given as repayment should rightfully belong to Fang Caixia. Since Fang Caixia and Chen Bing are no longer married, the money that Chen Bing misappropriated should be returned to her."

Grandma Fang was taken aback. That's right, Chen Bing had just confessed to the actions he had taken back then. While these actions might not warrant imprisonment from a moral standpoint, the money he had misused was indeed hers, and it needed to be returned.

Qi Lie continued, "Within five days, the Chen family must return the six hundred taels of silver that originally belonged to Fang Caixia."

Six... six hundred taels? Chen Bing was stunned. If he handed over that much money, what would he use to bribe the inmates if he were sentenced to prison? The Chen family was already on the brink of collapse, and they slumped to the ground in despair.

Pan Shi probably had an idea of how much money they had. Over the years, the family expenses had been substantial. Besides taking care of their son and daughter, there were additional expenses such as when their son married and had a child.

Their only source of income was the store, but ever since Zhou Tiedong, their store clerk, had left, business had been dwindling. And with the need to bribe the likes of Constable Li, they had long since depleted their savings.

Currently, they could only scrape together three to four hundred taels.

They were also required to compensate Zhou Tiedong, so where were they supposed to find that much money? They would have to sell their mansion or the store. But if they sold those, how would they survive?

And the situation was not yet over. Qi Lie added, "Furthermore, Chen Bing has also admitted to conspiring with Constable Li, falsely implicating Guo Zheng, which has resulted in Guo Zheng's suffering for many years. He must compensate Guo Zheng with fifty taels of silver."

When Chen Bing had been confessing earlier, Qi Lie had seized the opportunity to ask him a few questions, including ones about Guo Zheng. Chen Bing had also confessed to that.

Tears welled in Guo Zheng's eyes. After years of wrongful accusation, he had finally cleared his name. How could he not be emotional? He immediately kowtowed three times and said, "Thank you, Your Excellency, for your insight."

The members of the Chen family were completely speechless now. When Zhou Tiedong had been imprisoned, Chen Bing had falsely accused him of theft, and Zhou's family had been forced to compensate. Due to their difficult circumstances, Zhou's family could only scrape together twenty taels, which had been handed over to the Chen family. Chen Bing had even taken an IOU for the remaining two hundred and eighty taels, which was now worthless. And now, these twenty taels had to be returned, along with the additional fifty taels in compensation.

This added up to seventy taels. On top of that, there were the six hundred taels for Grandma Fang, the fifty taels for Guo Zheng, totaling seven hundred and twenty taels.

Goodness, where would the Chen family find that much money? Pan Shi almost wished she could crawl over to them. Meanwhile, Eldest master Pan face turned icy. If the Chen family couldn't produce the money, they would undoubtedly need to "borrow" from the Pan family. While they called it a "loan," they probably wouldn't ever have to pay it back.

Chen Bing's expression turned bleak. His years of effort had come to nothing. He had arrived in Chenggu County with nothing, and now... he was worse off than before.

He was destined for prison, but he didn't know for how long.

Unfortunately, his thoughts were still too naive. Shu Yu felt that the most crushing blow had yet to fall.

Qi Lie slammed his hand on the table. "Chen Bing, your collusion with Constable Li, your malicious framing of others, and your embezzlement of funds are all despicable acts. According to the laws of Dasu, you should be given thirty lashes and imprisoned for two years. But!"