The Constable Booked the Assassin Every Night novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: The Wording
The Inspector read the verdict at dawn, from the same grey chair, in front of the same courtyard.
The lanterns had burned down to stubs, and half the city had not gone home.
They stood on the stones in their festival clothes, hollow-eyed, and listened.
Ding Wenbo stood below the dais in a prisoner's white shirt.
Someone had taken his jade belt.
Without it, he was only a small round man with soft hands.
He kept looking around for a bag of plums that was not there.
"Ding Wenbo, former magistrate of Tongling, Prefect of Shuangjiang," said the Inspector.
"The court takes these as one charge: that you made the law of this prefecture your own purse."
"This court finds the charge proved, from your own chop, in your own hand, on your own pages."
Ding opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
"You will hang on the bridge you built for another," said the Inspector. "At noon. In front of the city."
A sound went through the crowd, not a cheer.
It was lower than that, and older, and Shouzhi felt it in the soles of his feet.
Xiuying, standing in her rope at the foot of the dais, did not turn her head.
"Tan Xiuying," said the Inspector.
"Yes, Inspector."
"The Code of the Empire knows the case of a wife whose husband was killed by an officer's perjury."
"If the officer's own court would not hear her, the Code calls what she did redress, and not a crime."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Constable Booked the Assassin Every Night are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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