en shi explained further: "This child has time to go to the kitchen and tinker around. I see that she is interested in this, so I simply added a small kitchen in her courtyard and had the cook teach h...Meng Jin Yao glared at him angrily and said, "You're also a beneficiary of this law."

Gu Jingxi chuckled helplessly, looking at the little girl who was fuming. He understood her sudden anger. It wasn't surprising for someone who had been exploited to be angry with the beneficiary. He said softly, "My lady, don't be angry. If you dislike it, I can give up this benefit."

Meng Jin Yao raised an eyebrow and asked with a nonchalant expression, "How do you plan to give up"

Gu Jingxi replied softly, "If my husband commits a crime in the future, he will sign a divorce letter. In this way, we dissolve our marital relationship. At that time, Madam can take the evidence to sue me, and you don't have to go to jail."

As soon as the words left her mouth, Meng Jin Yao froze, staring blankly at Gu Jing Xi. She pondered over his words for a moment, and the anger on her face subsided. She was quite childish, actually pleased by his words. The little spark of resentment in her heart was soothed, and her volatile emotions gradually calmed down.

For a moment, she questioned him, "Husband, do you also think this law is right"

Gu Jingxi shook his head slightly. "Madam, I don't think it's right."

Meng Jinyao was taken aback, staring at him silently, gesturing for him to continue.

Gu Jingxi said in a low voice, "The first case I took over was patricide, with the son accusing the father."

Hearing this, Meng Jin Yao was startled again and hurriedly chased after her, "What happened then"

Gu Jingxi narrowed his eyes, his tone laced with a hint of resignation: "It turns out to be true. The father and mother had a dispute, and afterwards, the father became increasingly angry. Filled with rage, he killed his wife. In the end, he was sentenced to death for murdering his spouse. His son reported him to the authorities, considered unfilial, and was punished with twenty lashes and three years of hard labor."

Meng Jin Yao fell silent, feeling absurd and the anger in her heart surged again.

A son betrays his father, and the father is killed by his own son. Despite this, the son becomes an unfilial child.

Is it filial piety if a son covers for his father who killed his mother

A child being filial to their parents is a good thing, but what if the father commits murder and the victim is his own mother What about the son's duty to his mother then If the mother is killed and the son doesn't avenge her or report his father, isn't that unfilial

Killing one's father, covering up for the father is filial piety, reporting on the father is unfilial, no matter which choice you make, you become an unfilial son in the mouths of the people.

Gu Jingxi glanced at her and asked in a low voice, "Does Madam find this absurd"

Meng Jinyao retorted, "Isn't this absurd, my husband"

She said, taking a deep breath, her voice growing increasingly indignant: "A son reporting his father for killing his mother is an act of upholding justice, of protecting one's own mother. Yet, he ends up being labeled as unfilial. His mother carried him for ten months, she gave birth to him. He witnessed his father kill his mother and then protected his father—then he is still the unfilial son. The difference lies in this: he didn't speak out, so no one knows."

Gu Jingxi agreed, "I agree with my wife's statement."

Meng Jinyáo glared at him with resentment: "Then you still sentenced me to twenty strokes and three years of labor"

Gu Jingxi replied, “I was the presiding judge of that case, but I couldn’t ignore the law. I felt it wasn’t right to sentence him this way, but the law dictated that it be done so. Even if I ruled him not guilty, the higher court would overturn my judgment during review. When carrying out the flogging, I privately instructed the executioner to go easy on him. That was the only thing I could do for him at the time.”

Upon hearing this, Meng Jinyao fell silent again. She suddenly realized she shouldn't blame him. She looked at him with sympathy, feeling that he must have been tormented inside as well back then. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn't change the situation.

Gu Jingxi took the little girl's changing expression into his eyes, curled his lips and smiled faintly. The little girl was still very soft-hearted. She had been angry with his actions just now, but now she felt sympathy for him. He opened his mouth again and said: "However, for the same kind of case, I was serving as the Minister of Dali Temple when I encountered it while passing through Suzhou on a case. It was also a case of father killing mother, son accusing father, but the ending was different

"

Meng Jin Yao, upon hearing this, suddenly lifted her head to look at him. Her eyes lit up the moment she saw the smile playing on his lips, and she hurriedly asked, "What was the outcome of that case"

Gu Jingxi narrated slowly: "A similar case involves a husband and wife quarreling, during which a fight broke out. The father went into the kitchen and picked up a kitchen knife, stabbing his wife fifteen times. The wife died instantly. When the son returned home, he found his mother dead at the scene and his father holding the bloody knife. He immediately called the neighbors to arrest his father. In the end, the son accused his father of killing his mother, with both witnesses and physical evidence present. The father was sentenced to death, but the son was acquitted and deemed not unfilial."

The result was what she wanted, but Meng Jinyao wasn't quite satisfied. She questioned: "Why couldn't you have handled the first case the same way Since you were able to do it for the second case, why didn't you put in the same effort for the first one"

Gu Jingxi replied, "That's also for a reason."

Meng Jin Yao listened, bewildered, and asked, "All the cases are similar. They all involved arguments that ended in a wife being killed. What could be the reason"

Gu Jingxi gently shook his head, and said in a slow and steady voice: "The difference between these two cases lies in the fathers. In the first case, both parents are biological parents, while in the second case, the father is a stepfather and the mother is the biological mother."

"Originally, in the second case, the son accused his father. The presiding judge also sentenced him to twenty lashes and three years of hard labor."

But I think that a stepfather, even though he is a father, is different from a biological father. A stepfather becomes a father because of the mother. In the second case, the stepfather killed his wife. The moment he raised his knife, he severed all ties with her, cutting off any father-son relationship.

Since filial piety is no longer a factor, the case should be treated as an ordinary murder and not under the charge of "disobedience," so the original ruling of the presiding judge was overturned. The son was found innocent, but the father's sentence remained unchanged.

Meng Jin Yao, upon hearing this, lifted her eyes and stared at the man before her, feeling as if the image of this Yi Fu Jun had instantly grown taller in her heart, like a god.

Before, she hadn't felt anything when she heard about Dali Temple Minister's ability to solve cases like a god. But now, listening to Gu Jingxi talk about these two cases and their different outcomes, she suddenly realized that Gu Jingxi was truly divine. Facing the cold and ruthless laws, he fought to make the law more humane.

This man is exceptionally capable, using his extraordinary talents to turn the tide and shine brightly in his field.

The little girl, who had just been scolding him angrily, now looked at him with a gaze of surprise mixed with admiration. Her eyes were fixed on him, without any pretense.

Gu Jingxi met those bright eyes, his face slightly stiff, then he smiled and said softly, "My lady, I told you these two similar cases with different endings is to tell you that people are often helpless in many ways, bound by rules and regulations, but also protected by them."

"There are some legal provisions that cannot be changed in the short term. We can only push for gradual change through one case after another, refining and improving them, taking the essence and discarding the dross. Or we can try our best to utilize loopholes to protect the interests of innocent people."

As I just said, for these two cases, if they were tried according to the law, the son in the second case would definitely be given twenty lashes and three years of hard labor. However, by taking advantage of this loophole in his stepfather's claim, we were able to deduce and successfully remove the charge of filial disobedience against the son, saving him from the three years of imprisonment and corporal punishment that would have resulted from it. he couldn't bring himself to mention it. Now, out of curiosity, he asked, "It seems that Yao Ling and his wife get along well"Gu Jingxi's face twitched slightly, as if he hadn't expected the emperor...