The Lucky Farmgirl
Chapter 811 - 789 Chapters Materials (Extra 7 - s rewarded to book friend "Jinyiwei: Rongrong")

Chapter 811: 789 Chapters Materials (Extra 7 Chapters rewarded to book friend "Jinyiwei: Rongrong")

Qili Village’s newborn records were easy to find; there were only a few children born each year, and unfortunately, the numbers reported by the Chief were the simplest figures, but the official paperwork and the copies of the announcements posted on the bulletin boards were far too abundant.

It was not just a matter of looking, finding them was quite difficult.

County Magistrate Tang did not care how they were going to find them; he just wanted to see.

He had a little something to eat and then compared the newly found data with the household registration records.

Since children were registered at different ages, he still had quite a few registration books to go through, even though he only needed the data from Qili Village, which took considerable effort.

Fortunately, he was accustomed to this tedious work, capable of skimming quickly and possessing a good memory; he took a blank piece of paper and wrote down all the births registered in the household registration from the first year to the third year of the Dazhen era, then compared this with the newborn data just obtained from the village Chief.

But comparing the data did not necessarily yield the information he wanted because children were highly susceptible to dying young. Some were recorded in the registration books, while others who did not survive long enough to be registered were only in the data provided by the Chief—as births or deaths.

County Magistrate Tang listed the data hidden in the documents, eliminated them one by one, and finally focused on the second and third years of the Dazhen era.

On the large sheet of paper he listed out, Zhou Man’s name was recorded under the second year of the Dazhen era, indicating she was born that year. In Qili Village, three births were registered in the same year, including Zhou Man and her nephew, Zhou Lixue.

But that year, the Land Officer reported only two births. Interestingly, in the third year of Dazhen, three newborns were reported by the Chief, but the registry showed only two births that year. County Magistrate Tang examined the back data of the registration book and the reported sudden deaths and ages, and discovered none of the infants born in the third year of Dazhen had died unexpectedly.

Thus, the extra newborn from the third year of Dazhen was actually Zhou Man, who was born in the second year.

But why?

Why did Zhou Man delay reporting her birth by one year?

Especially when there was another newborn in the Zhou family.

The data was always sealed and reported before the end of the year; Zhou Man was born in November, so there was plenty of time to report her birth.

County Magistrate Tang furrowed his brow, closed the registration book, and tucked the piece of paper into his chest pocket, then walked to the bedside and gazed at the crescent moon in the sky.

He sighed deeply; he just knew that if the longevity lock was on Manbao, investigating her would definitely reveal something.

County Magistrate Tang stood by the window, listened to the distant crowing of a rooster, and realized it was already the fourth watch of the night.

He rubbed his forehead, feeling overwhelmingly exhausted, and then turned to go rest in the back yard.

His servant Mingli had fallen asleep with the coat by the door, but woke up at the sound of the door opening; he quickly wiped his face and followed, "My Lord, are you finally thinking of sleeping?"

"Mm," County Magistrate Tang said, "Have a little sleep, and remember to send Zhou Dali in the prison his death row meal in the morning."

"Don’t worry, my lord, I won’t forget."

It was the time when people slept most soundly, but Lai Tou, in the prison, couldn’t sleep well at all due to injuries on his back and buttocks. Also feeling hungry, he couldn’t sleep but closed his eyes from time to time, occasionally fighting with the rats running over him.

As he endured, footsteps of a patrol officer approached from outside; he had gotten used to it since they had patrolled several times throughout the night. He was initially startled, thinking they were coming to interrogate him, but after realizing it was just a patrol, he just lay there quietly.

Lai Tou kept his eyes closed, but heard the footsteps stop outside his cell, then heard a low voice say, "This is the death row inmate, huh? Doesn’t look much different from an ordinary person. What did he do?"

Lai Tou’s body stiffened, then he heard another person say, "Who knows what he did? All we know is that he was arrested by County Magistrate Tang, so there must be no mistake, we just follow the orders."

"But this is too quick, I’ve never seen a death row inmate before, but I heard Lord Yang say that death row inmates are to be reported to the Ministry of Justice for review. County Magistrate Tang arrested him no sooner than he wanted to execute him without trial, what if it’s a wrongful case..."

"Oh you, why are you so naive? Lord Yang is not in the city now, and County Magistrate Tang is temporarily acting as the magistrate sent from Tang County. We are just clerks; can we say he wrongly imprisoned someone?"

Lai Tou felt a chill in his heart and couldn’t help but open his eyes slightly; he saw two people standing at the door of his cell. Turning his ears towards them, he heard someone continue, "Our magistrate is just a seventh rank, while County Magistrate Tang is sixth rank, a whole major rank above ours. Even if Lord Yang returns, he wouldn’t overturn the case. Although Luojiang has become wealthier, it still can’t compare with Huayang County; naturally, County Magistrate Tang wants to finalize the case quickly and return."

"It doesn’t matter whether Lai Tou did it or not, since he was arrested, he must have done it. Eventually, execute him and report that he committed suicide out of fear of punishment, then cover it up, and it’s passed."

Lai Tou’s whole body weakened.

"After all, it’s an old case from years ago, with insufficient evidence. Who can say who did it? When County Magistrate Tang closes the case and gains merit, he can leave, and we’ll have less stress too."

"Alas, it’s still a human life."

"Well, it’s his bad luck; why doesn’t he say anything? Even we can see he’s holding back, not telling everything. Who’s to blame?"

"That’s true, let’s go. This is the last round, right? It’s so exhausting to patrol every night."

"Isn’t it just..."

Lai Tou saw the two figures turn and leave out of the corner of his eye; he then shoved his fist in his mouth, preventing himself from making a sound. His tears flowed uncontrollably...

The day brightened, and the officers came by with wooden buckets, clanking wooden spoons while distributing breakfast, still one spoon of porridge per person, plus a brown bun mixed with bran.

Lai Tou leaned out from the bars at the door, looking out. The officers ignored him and were about to leave after reaching the cell around the corner.

Unable to withstand his hunger, Lai Tou quickly called out, "Brother, brother, Officer, will I not have any food today?"

"You?" The officer looked back at him, his eyes full of sympathy, "Yes, you have some, but yours is a bit different; you’ll need to wait a bit."

Lai Tou was stunned.

The officer had already picked up his things and left, regardless of how much Lai Tou called, never looking back.

As Lai Tou despaired, two officers approached smiling, carrying two large food boxes, and came straight to Lai Tou, kindly asking him to step back before they opened the big door of his cell and brought the boxes in.

Upon opening, inside were a whole stewed chicken, a fish, duck meat cooked into soup, and a large bowl of pure white rice...

The officers set the meal in front of Lai Tou and even placed a pot of wine there, smiling broadly, "Hungry since you haven’t eaten all day? Come on, eat up."

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