Echoes of My Heart Throughout the Court-Chapter 341: Isn’t This Melon a Little Too Sweet?! New

Checkout the new novel I started. In the Years When I Was a Father I Started this novel because I was looking for something to read after my last novel - I Don’t Want To Be Reborn and this came to be. I really wanted to read it, so I started the translation myself. There will be no fixed schedule for this particular novel. Please support on KoFi to provide you with more exciting novels.

Lying was bad enough — lying to the elderly was even worse.

Xu Yanmiao didn’t tell Granny that she had been tricked. He planned to catch the culprit first and reveal everything at once, so that Granny could be happy knowing the scammer had already been thrown into prison before she even had time to get angry enough to harm her health!

Having made up his mind, Xu Yanmiao flipped through the system files, found the related gossip, and confirmed the culprit: “Eh?”

Granny asked anxiously, “What’s wrong? Are you facing some trouble?”

Xu Yanmiao quickly lied, “I just saw a calico cat sitting on the courtyard wall — it ran away now — but its eyes looked just like our Shimao’s eyes. Granny, I’ll go take a look!”

He got up and ran off pretending to be excited.

Inside, though, he was shocked: [What the heck, the one selling fakes… is YOU, Yaozu!]

Xu Yanmiao quickly found Yaozu again — no, wait, Jia Bao.

He hadn’t expected to meet him not in Luoxian County, but at the Drum of Petition.

That’s right, Jia Bao was beating the Drum of Petition again. This time he came alone — not dragging his whole family with him.

Dong, dong, dong—

Inside the palace, the old emperor heard the drum and immediately grew suspicious: “Why are there so many grievances the local authorities refuse to handle lately?”

Had killing those retired officials not been enough of a deterrent? Were there still people daring to commit crimes and oppress the people?

The Crown Prince spoke up, “Father, since you hurt your back, let me handle this.”

The old emperor was delighted, almost wishing he could hurt his back every day: “Good! You take charge! Effective immediately!”

The Crown Prince added slyly, “I’ve already asked the imperial physicians when you’ll recover.”

So don’t even think about dumping the government on me — once you’re better, I’m outta here!

The old emperor scowled, “Scram!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

When the court assembled, the Crown Prince was stunned: “You again?!”

Jia Bao knelt solemnly, holding up a grievance petition with both hands: “Your Majesty!”

—Only to be corrected at once: “That is His Highness, the Crown Prince.”

Jia Bao hurriedly corrected himself: “Your Highness!”

He stayed frozen stiff, visibly nervous: “This humble subject wishes to accuse the Marquis of Luoshui of sheltering counterfeiters!”

Among the ranks of military officials, Xie Luoshui blinked slowly in surprise — but showed no fear.

With her achievements bringing back potatoes, sweet potatoes, and corn, as long as she didn’t commit treason, pretty much anything else she could survive.

Besides…

“When did I ever shelter counterfeiters?”

[Huh? Since when did the Marquis of Luoshui shelter counterfeiters?]

Two voices — one internal, one external — spoke almost at the same time.

Most of the civil and military officials could only hear the second, but it was enough.

“No way…” Some officials eyed Jia Bao oddly. “Is this another false accusation? Does he have a… thing for it?”

Last time he filed a false accusation, he wasn’t punished. And now, after just over a month, he’s back? Was he trying to get himself punished?

“Could he… be into self-punishment?”

Several people involuntarily glanced at Censor Meng. Censor Meng also froze for a moment — then got visibly excited, his eyes lighting up as he stared at Jia Bao.

Could it be… a kindred spirit?!

—You like getting beaten too?

The Crown Prince’s eyes gleamed, his whole being radiating “I’m here for the drama”: “You said the Marquis of Luoshui shelters counterfeiters. Explain.”

Jia Bao launched into his explanation: “A group of women recently arrived in Luoxian County. They live together without marrying. At first, they raised silkworms, reeled silk, and wove cloth. Later, they started selling fabric. At the start, I felt sorry for them — women without men, struggling to make a living — so I often bought from them. (Alright, mainly because after my father died, my mother was struggling to support the family. Though she could weave, all the workshops were full and wouldn’t hire her. These women took her in. So I wanted to support their business.)“

As he spoke, his tone turned sour: “But the fabric they sold me — it only looked fine on the surface. In truth, it was coated in oil and glue to fake its quality!”

The Crown Prince nodded: “Alright. So what does this have to do with the Marquis of Luoshui? Also, why didn’t you file a complaint with the county office and instead come straight to the court?”

(What kind of brain-dead logic is that — buying fabric to support your mother’s coworkers?)

Jia Bao blushed furiously, almost standing up in his agitation: “The previous county magistrate was dismissed, and the new one hasn’t arrived yet! When I went to the county office, the county deputy refused to take my case — said the Marquis of Luoshui had ties to those women — and refused to process my complaint. I had no other choice but to come here to file an imperial grievance!”

[Wait, but this still has nothing to do with Xie Luoshui herself, right? How did he jump from “the deputy wouldn’t handle it” to “the Marquis is sheltering counterfeiters”?]

[I checked — the officials didn’t even summon the women to court. Looks like the county deputy was just scared of offending a marquis and made his own call.]

Tsk.

The Crown Prince and the officials immediately lost interest.

Another rotten melon.

Why was this family so good at brainwashing themselves into believing every powerful person wanted to oppress them? Did they think all nobles just automatically abused civilians?

The Crown Prince, now thoroughly bored, said lazily, “Oh, is that so? Well, do you have any evidence?”

“Of course!” Jia Bao was still holding up his petition. “I brought fabric samples! You can see the oil and glue with your own eyes!”

[No, he didn’t.]

Xu Yanmiao ruthlessly exposed him: [The fabric was clearly sourced elsewhere! He sold a ton of it too — at high prices! Ugh, thinking about it makes me mad. Granny’s such a good person, and he dared to scam her?! Absolutely shameless!]

Everyone froze for a moment.

Granny? Who’s that?

Only the Deputy Commander of the Left Army — a towering man over eight feet tall — instantly clenched his fists.

That’s my mother!!!

This bastard scammed my mother?!

He practically sprang forward with a few heavy stomps and said with a mocking tone, “Ohhh? You say you bought it from those weaving ladies, so it must be true? They were so honest and upfront that they sold you defective cloth and even carefully kept records for you to make it easier to catch them? Funny. When I bought watered-down meat, why didn’t I meet such ‘good-hearted’ people, huh?”

Jia Bao immediately tensed up. “I—I have witnesses! A lot of people saw me buying fabric from them!”

The Deputy Commander of the Left Army slanted a look at him, acting all high and mighty, deliberately provoking him: “Yeah? And who’s to say you didn’t swap the cloth after you took it home, just to frame them?”

[Whoa! Li Deputy Commander actually guessed right!]

Deputy Commander Li: 🙂

Jia Bao was really rattled by that attitude, getting angry and flustered: “I wouldn’t go causing trouble for the store that helped my mother, even if I wanted to scam someone!”

Deputy Commander Li paused.

Huh… he had a point?

After all, Jia Bao did really have a mother, and he genuinely seemed filial toward her.

Seeing that he had shut up, Jia Bao immediately looked down on him a little and asked sharply, “Does Your Excellency still have any doubts?”

Deputy Commander Li mumbled something under his breath, then said loudly, “If the local authorities wouldn’t take your case, you could have gone to a Censorate official. Why go straight to beating the Drum of Petition? His Majesty deals with countless affairs every day, and now he’s gotta waste time worrying whether your fabric was fake? Isn’t that making things a bit too hard on him?”

He wasn’t wrong. Generally speaking, you couldn’t just beat the Drum of Petition for every little grievance. And across pretty much any dynasty, leapfrogging the system like this wasn’t something lightly encouraged.

The most uptodat𝓮 n𝒐vels are published on freёnovelkiss.com.

However…

Jia Bao puffed out his chest.

When his uncle had once told him stories, he had learned something and remembered it well: “But His Majesty loves the people like his own children! In the sixth year of Tiantong, there was a case where a commoner beat the Drum of Petition because his house servant lost his pig. Not only did His Majesty not blame him for making a big deal out of nothing, he even rewarded him with a thousand coins! Are you saying His Majesty was wrong?!”

Deputy Commander Li was stunned for a moment, his eyes flashing.

He had genuinely forgotten about that incident.

[Wait, that really happened?!]

Xu Yanmiao immediately perked up. [Let me check. Yep, it’s real! Wow, the old emperor was actually pretty generous for once!]

Meanwhile, far away in his sleeping chambers, the old emperor: “?”

Why am I suddenly getting praised?

But he quickly chimed in too: “What do you mean for once generous?! I’m always generous!”

[Somehow… that doesn’t feel quite right…]

[Let me check…]

[HAHAHAHAHAHA! So that’s what happened!]

The Crown Prince and all the civil and military officials immediately perked up.

So what did happen?!

Was the real scandal finally about to drop?!

[At the time, Ji Sui wanted to abolish the slave system. The first step was to get people to treat slaves as human beings. In previous dynasties, if someone beat a slave to death without cause, they’d just get a year of hard labor as punishment. And if the slave had committed a crime — say, stolen something — and the master killed them without reporting it to the authorities, they’d only get a hundred strokes of the cane, and even that was often “lightly” administered — or if you bribed the right people, you didn’t even get beaten at all!]

[Then, right on cue, the perfect example appeared: a master sued his servant, rather than taking private revenge.]

[Ji Sui seized the chance to persuade the old emperor to treat the servant as an ordinary citizen. If a regular citizen lost someone else’s pig, they only had to compensate the loss.]

[Since the servant had no money, Ji Sui personally paid 980 coins. The old emperor, not wanting to seem stingy for giving nothing, added another 20 copper coins himself. Then, publicly, they claimed the full thousand coins came from the emperor’s own generosity.]

[HAHAHAHAHAHA!]

[Unbelievable!]

[Absolutely unbelievable!]

The old emperor: “…”

If you had said earlier it was this story, I would’ve just kept my mouth shut.

Also! What are you all even doing? How did the topic shift to me again?! Digging up all this old, embarrassing gossip — don’t you think that’s a bit much?!

The Crown Prince and the officials didn’t think so.

They were having a blast with their melon feast (gossip).

And they agreed: When Little Bai Ze serves the melons, they’re always sweet and juicy! The ones that come knocking on their own are always rotten!

Always rotten!!!

And yes, they’re talking about you, certain “glorious ancestor.”

The Crown Prince, now annoyed, said, “I thought you had some solid evidence. You’re accusing Marquis Xie of shielding counterfeiters based on nothing but speculation?”

As for his father’s old scandal… Cough… no way to argue that… just gonna pretend that didn’t happen!

Jia Bao rolled his eyes cleverly and replied, “Your Highness, it’s not mere speculation. Back then, from the way the county magistrate spoke, it was clearly implied. If Marquis Xie weren’t capable of such a thing, why would the county magistrate be so terrified?”

In short: he was innocent, just a commoner who got tricked — very understandable.

Meanwhile, Xu Yanmiao was puzzled: [Wait, why would he go this far? If he’s the one selling fake goods, isn’t he scared of being found out?]

[Oh!]

[Found it. Turns out, after his father died, he squandered the family fortune like crazy. Once the money was gone, his mother found work and ran off with his nine sisters, leaving him behind. He resented her for abandoning him and became hell-bent on ruining the shop where she worked.]

[What a born scumbag.]

[Ughhhh!!!]

[No wonder he wasn’t scared! He became the lover of a high-ranking official and thought that official would protect him!]

[Wait… what about his “Uncle Lover”??]

[WHAT THE HELL!]

[He’s with both of them?!]

The Crown Prince: WHAT??

Civil and military officials: pupils quivering in shock.

This—this melon is too juicy!

As expected, the best parts are always saved for the end!

Hurry, hurry, keep going!

The Crown Prince immediately sat up straight. The officials all snapped to attention too.

Which high-ranking official was it?! Quick! Spill! Who was so shameless — deliberately keeping both the nephew and uncle?! They must have known they were involved with each other!

Xu Yanmiao: !!!

Quick, slice that melon!!!

If you'd like bonus updates or early access, you can support me over on Ko-fi! Every bit helps me keep translating and bringing you more stories to enjoy.

👉 Support me on Ko-fi

Thanks for reading and being here~ 💕

Happy reading!