He was betrayed at the beginning, from a cake seller to a wealthy person

Butler Liu and Liu Rui were very confused when they were brought to court. They did not expect that Liu Cheng, who they thought was loyal, would testify against them.

The two insisted that it was all a personal grudge between Liu Cheng and Feng Er, or that Liu Cheng was doing it for money and had nothing to do with them.

Liu Cheng argued: "I have no personal grudges with Feng Er at all! Moreover, the jade pendant used to get Feng Er's letter was given to me by Butler Liu. It had been in the warehouse before it was given to me. I am not qualified to take it. Sir, go check it out." I know. The IOU on me was also given to me by the housekeeper, and I didn’t steal it. If I really had the ability to steal it, I would just steal all the banknotes from Feng Er while he was drunk, and that would be the end of it. Why go to the trouble of killing him and then taking him away?”

Liu Cheng's words are true. He is not qualified to open a warehouse as a servant, and the Liu family's warehouse opening, taking and storage are all recorded, which can be found out by checking.

Moreover, Feng Er and Liu Cheng hooked up and were as close as brothers a few days before his death. If the two of them had old grudges, even if Liu Cheng deceived him later and made profits with him, the two of them would not be able to do anything. There is a superficial harmony, and the relationship can be as good as this, which means that the old grudges could not be so big that they would rather kill him. The two said that it had nothing to do with them and it was all Liu Cheng's personal grudge.

Liu Cheng pulled the housekeeper into the water. Seeing that there was no room for change, Liu Rui winked at the housekeeper Liu. Butler Liu hesitated for a moment and took all the blame on himself.

"I was the one who instigated Liu Cheng. I saw Feng Er coming to the house to make trouble several times, so I tried to find a way to get rid of him. It has nothing to do with our young master, and the young master doesn't know about it."

Liu Rui also immediately climbed up the pole: "Your Majesty, I really have no idea."

Liu Cheng felt bad when he saw this situation. If one of Liu Rui and the housekeeper was released, his family would not be able to recover, and they must all stay here. So he opened his mouth to defend himself: "My lord Mingjian, I heard with my own ears that the young master ordered Butler Liu to shut up Feng Er completely. Butler Liu is the most loyal, and he has always done whatever the master said, even for such a serious crime of murder. If you are going to take the blame for the young master, how can you commit murder and swindle behind the young master's back?"

When the two heard what Liu Cheng said, they felt bad. The magistrate narrowed his eyes: "You said Liu Rui ordered the housekeeper to shut up Feng Er completely. Why should you shut up?"

Liu Cheng said hurriedly: "Feng Er has an old grudge with the young master. He came to the house several times to coerce the young master into asking for money, which made the young master very angry, but I don't know what the specific matter was."

Only Liu Rui and the housekeeper knew that Liu Rui hired Feng Er to steal things from the Lu family, but it was impossible for the two of them to speak out on their own initiative. The county magistrate was not annoyed and directly ordered: "Come, go to Feng Er's house and summon his wife."

Feng Er's wife Li was quickly summoned. Li was wearing shabby clothes and had a thin figure, and her face still had scars from Feng Er's blows. She had just learned about Feng Er's death not long ago, and she had mixed feelings. She was not happy, but she was not very sad either.

The magistrate asked: "Ms. Li, look at the person kneeling next to you. Do you recognize him?"

Mrs. Li looked carefully at the three Liu family members kneeling next to her, and replied, "I recognize one of them. The one on the far left is Young Master Liu. He has been to my house."

The magistrate asked again: "What did he do at your house? Please tell me in detail."

Li recalled: "On the night when Feng Er was taken home from the Yamen, this young master came. Feng Er called him Master Liu and asked him for [-] taels of silver, which he gave. It seems that because ...Because Feng Er said that he didn't confess him..." Li had never seen so much money, so she was deeply impressed by Liu Rui and remembered it very clearly.

"He asked Master Liu for a sum of two hundred taels of silver, but he spent it quickly. Later, the Zhang brothers came to him and asked for a hundred taels of silver, but he didn't have a penny in his hand. Recently, he He hasn't been home for several days, and I don't know what he did outside."

"I know later, sir." Liu Cheng continued: "Feng Er told me that he owed the gambling house five hundred taels of silver. He should have come to the young master again after being kicked out of the gambling house to ask for money."

The magistrate suddenly realized: "It turns out that you were the mastermind behind instigating Feng Er to steal the Lu family's secret recipe! Feng Er used this as a threat and asked you for money many times, so you simply took Feng Er's life, right?"

What happened was very clear, but Liu Rui and Butler Liu refused to admit it. They insisted that Butler Liu saw that the young master was angry and decided to kill Feng Er in order to vent his anger on the young master. The young master did not know about it.

The county magistrate had no choice but to say: "Don't think that I can let you go. Don't forget that you still owe forty yuan. And as the saying goes, if the slave commits a crime, the master will be blamed. No matter what you do about this matter, It’s impossible to run away even if you deny it.”

Butler Liu and Liu Cheng couldn't escape this matter at all. One planned the murder and the other committed the murder himself. Both of them were sentenced to death. However, local officials were not qualified to carry out the death penalty. They could only submit official documents containing the course of the case and the verdict to the Ministry of Punishment. The two men were temporarily detained and later escorted to Beijing for execution.

Liu Rui was sentenced to thirty years in prison, which means he will sit in jail for thirty years, basically until he dies. Before going to jail, I first made up for the forty debts I owed. He and his mother have already broken up, and his mother probably won't come to see him, let alone take care of him with money. One can only imagine Liu Rui's miserable life in prison.

The news that Liu Rui and Butler Liu were both imprisoned overnight spread back to the Liu family. Mrs. Liu had mixed emotions when she heard the news. On the one hand, she had raised Liu Rui for many years, and she had really given her feelings even before they broke up now. On the one hand, he was in jail, and the family property that the two of them had torn apart for a long time was returned to his own hands without any effort. She was originally cold-blooded, but since she got so much property for free, she didn't want to think about other things and went to collect the property non-stop.

Mrs. Liu also took her four-year-old second son Liu Jue on a special trip to see Liu Rui. Liu Rui was beaten forty times and could not move while lying on the broken straw. Mrs. Liu looked down at him through the railing.

"Are you here to see my joke?" Liu Rui asked in a hoarse voice.

"Son, what are you talking about?" Mrs. Liu said with a smile: "Son, you will always be my son. We don't speak the same language as our family. I will take care of the property you have received." It's okay. I'll leave it to your brother when I leave. You can stay in here and don't have to worry about family matters. Jue'er, thank you brother."

Liu Jue was confused and didn't understand what was happening and why his brother was lying there. But he listened to his mother. When her mother asked him to thank his brother, he really said "Thank you brother."

Liu Rui was so angry that he almost fainted: "Get out! Get out of here!"

Mrs. Liu was still smiling: "Okay, then we won't disturb your recovery."