Thank you to an anonymous reader for the coffee~ ^-^
Chapter 77.1 – Judgment
Hearing this voice, An Chang De and his wife's legs went soft in a split second.
Some time ago, they heard that An Zi Ran married a wang ye. And that wang ye killed the prefectural magistrate of Yong Province, Jiang Zhong Ting, for him. With that one move, it got rid of An Chang De's backer.
At that time, neither of them believed it. Their first reaction was to brush it aside as rumors.
How could An Zi Ran be so lucky as to marry such a high-ranking wang ye? Fu Wu Tian forbid people from talking about the incident that happened in the An manor, so no one dared to go out and leak the story. It wasn't until news of Jiang Zhong Ting's death and news of Liu Fei Hong and his men's beheading spread did An Chang De and his wife finally believe that An Zi Ran married a wang ye.
Then, fearing retaliation, the two of them set aside their evil intentions, and dared not go out again. They stayed at home all day trembling with fear, scared that An Zi Ran would bring that wang ye to their door to flex his new powers and make things hard for them.
How could they know that An Zi Ran never placed any importance on them? His psychological age was not that of a bratty teenager.
However, those two only remained quiet for a short period of time.
It wasn't even a month before they started getting restless with bad intentions again.
They heard that An Zi Ran wanted to take most of the An family members with him to settle in Jun Zi City, and they started to entertain certain thoughts. With An Chang De's reputation in tatters, they could no longer stay in An Yuan County. If they move to Jun Zi City then they would have opportunities to get close to the upper class and make friends with them. Then they wouldn't have to worry about not being able to climb up the ladder.
However, they had yet to state their purpose and An Zi Ran already ordered people to throw them out. In front of so many people, they lost all face*.
[*T/N: "Face" is a Chinese concept with nuance meanings. Example: respect, reputation, dignity, etc.]
The most frightening part was that they thought that Fu Wu Tian would not come back until five p.m. This was what they found out after making inquiries. Who knew that he would come back early?
An Chang De and his wife turned around with fear and trepidation. They were immediately met with Fu Wu Tian's dark and fathomless black eyes. Backlit by the sun, his eyes seem even darker and more frightening. There was a hint of coldness and cruelty in his eyes. It was like a knife upon the their old faces. Their skin felt hot, almost giving them the illusion that the flesh of their faces were being scraped off.
Fu Wu Tian's figure was very tall, more than a head higher than An Chang De. His huge shadow shrouded the two older people, and the pressure instantly multiplied.
Only by supporting each other did the two manage not to embarrass themselves in public.
Wu Zhi swallowed and squeezed out a stiff smile. Stuttering, she said, "Wang… wang ye, you heard wrong… no one was swearing at Zi Ran…"
"You're calling wang fei by name?" Fu Wu Tian's face was expressionless and indifferent.
An Chang De and his wife immediately bent over. "Wang ye is very right, wang fei's name cannot be mentioned negligently. In the future we won't dare to say wang fei's honored name again. Wang ye, you are great and magnanimous, you won't quibble with us small common folk, right?"
Fu Wu Tian stared at their monkey-like movements for a long while, until the two couldn't help but raise their heads, but they ran into this icy stare and only heard him say coldly, "Qian An."
"Your subordinate is here." Ge Qian An stepped forward.
"Take them to the government office for me, and have Zhang He deal with them."
"Yes, wang ye!"
An Chang De and his wife's expressions changed dramatically. This wang ye was even crueler than An Zi Ran. They didn't even exchange two words and he wanted to send them to the government office? Was he planning to imprison them?
Ge Qian An effortlessly took one of them in each hand.
"Let me go, you can't do this, I am An Zi Ran's big aunt…"
An Chang De and his wife were so scared that they couldn't be bother to worry about their image anymore and they screamed loudly, especially Wu Zhi. Their voices were very shrill. The onlookers all perked up their ears, but no one sympathized with them.
It would definitely not be a good thing for them if they ended up in Zhang He's hands, because that man knew what they did before. It would be easy to produce evidence of their deeds, but even without evidence, they wouldn't be able to escape.
Zheng He already guessed that Fu Wu Tian was getting ready to promote him, so he was even more eager to please him. This time the An Chang De couple fell within his target circle.
The sounds of their screaming faded away quickly and could not be heard anymore.
The news that An Chang De and his wife were sent to the government office soon spread.
Not long after, their children also heard the news. An Yao Zong didn't care about enjoying the beautiful spring scenery* anymore and ran helter-skelter back home.
[*T/N: idiom for frequenting brothels]
"Brother, I heard that father and mother has been locked up in the government office's prison, is this true?"
An Xue Yan threw herself at her brother as soon as he entered the door. Her pretty face was already full of panic. Their father and mother were the pillars of the family. She could hardly imagine what they should do after they're imprisoned.
An Yao Zong was also out of his wits. He didn't know what to do at all.
Should he go to Zhang He and beg him to let their parents go? He heard that their parents were personally ordered into prison by that wang ye son-in-law. Without the backing of the prefectural magistrate of Yong Province, there was no way that Zhang He would listen to them.
"Yao Zong? Xue Yan? What is going on with you two? Did something happen?"
At this time, a voice came in from the outside.
When they turned their heads to look they saw An Ming Rui escorting his mother, Zhang Wan Qin, inside. These two rarely ventured out, so they didn't know about the situation concerning An Chang De and his wife.
An Yao Zong snorted and was about to say 'it has nothing to do with you,' but seeing An Ming Rui's calm face a light bulb went on in his head and he thought of a good method.
"My father offended An Zi Ran. Right now, he is being held in prison."
"What?" Zhang Wan Qin turned pale with fright. "What happened? How could Chang De be imprisoned in the government office jail? Could there be some misunderstanding?"
"Mother, don't be agitated." An Ming Rui rubbed her back.
An Yao Zong revealed a look of resentment. "There's no misunderstanding. When I heard the news I couldn't believe it. Only after I made inquires did I confirm it. Father really is locked in prison. Really can't believe that An Zi Ran is so cruel. Once he achieved meteoric success he quickly fell out with us and became hostile."
Although Zhang Wan Qin often stayed at home, she also heard about this news. "What should we do then? Do we go beg County Magistrate Zhang to release your father?"
An Yao Zong said slowly, "It's useless. County Magistrate Zhang only listens to the An family's gu ye. No matter how we beg him, he will not release Father. Unless…"