The queen announced opening of the hearing and ordered to shut the large doors – no one will be able to leave until the final verdict to not spread any disinformation or false news. In addition, she ordered princesses Min and YunYun to leave since they were present during the Tiger hunt and might be asked to testify as witnesses.
"Queen Hu, there is no need to for all of this!" Chu matriarch excitedly announced. Judging from the queen's displeasure speaking to her own daughters a moment ago and her own Chu clan's intelligence reports it was obvious she disliked this Nick person herself. In addition, he didn't use any real weapon and Li family would never allow such disgrace to join them.
It was a perfect timing for queen Hu to get rid of him and, with this many people present, it was obvious Nick will simply be found guilty regardless of any proof – anything could be turned against him. In fact, almost everyone in the hall had the same thoughts. The trial was simply a show for the queen to legitimately get rid of the unpleasant son in law and even her daughter couldn't do anything about it in such circumstances.
"What do you mean madam Chu?" Queen Hu was 'surprised'.
"We have witnesses here who saw how this Nick fellow brutally murdered my son! We …" Chu matriarch didn't manage to complete her sentence when the queen interrupted her.
"Are those three the witnesses?" She pointed at the three men behind Chu matriarch, and when the latter nodded, queen sighed, "Alright, bring them away and treat them like the rest – keep in separate rooms and don't let them communicate with the others."
"The others?" Chu Ranqing suddenly had a bad premonition.
"Yes, after the news spread through the capital, many people came forward claiming to have seen what happened and came to palace offering their help. Those three are probably the same, but went to your place instead." Queen nodded.
Before Chu Ranqing could object or express her opinion, queen Hu ordered, "Prime minister Mei Zhen, please choose two experienced Qi masters and three of you will provide assistance to me. Everyone will need your expertise to judge whether witnesses are telling the truth."
Prime minister diligently chose two elders from the largest aristocratic clans Wu and Zhang as her assistants and no one in the hall could have any suspicions about them not being impartial.
At this moment Chu Ranqing heaved a sigh of relief. Some random people from the streets will be executed because of their false testimonies, but the three she brought were expert Qi masters, had identical story and no one could ever tell they were lying. To her pleasant surprise the first witness that was called in was, in fact, one of her trusted men.
He presented himself as a simple hunter who was working with aristocrats during the Tiger hunt and, while looking for tiger tracks, witnessed Nick sneak attacking and brutally murdering Chu Feng and his two followers. The story was simple and there were no real loopholes – no one could say Nick was too weak, because this was a sneak attack which could surprise anyone and there was no reason to describe too many details like the choice of a weapon or the actual positioning because of the deep shock this hunter was in.
Chu matriarch was about to call for the next witness when Nick politely asked queen if he had any rights to defend himself in this trial. Queen got confused, but in the end granted this favor.
"How far were you from the spot when those people were murdered?" Nick asked the witness.
"Around fifty meters." Qi master inwardly snickered. They were already prepared Nick would question what he saw, but fifty meters was an excellent distance for him to stay hidden and at the same time see the event clearly.
"Good." To everyone's surprise Nick nodded approvingly, "Then you saw everything clearly. What did you do after the murder?"
At this point the witness had to make up something. Their idea from the start was that the three simple identical testimonies would be enough to prove the bastard being guilty and there shouldn't be any other discussions.
"I … I went to check up on the victims, but they were dead and I ran off to get some help." Qi master finally figured out a decent story.
"Good." Nick just continued to nod, "Were there any other people around during the attack or you were alone?"
To this they already had a decent answer to cover themselves in case anyone questioned several witnesses being present, "I think I was alone, but there it's possible several other hunters watched the murder stealthily."
"Good." Nick's 'good's' were already making Chu Ranqing crazy. Even though everything seemed pointless, she didn't like the way this trial was going – everything had to be much smoother. Why did the queen even allow him to talk?
But Nick continued, "So you ran to get some help, but where did you run to and didn't you hear that Chu clan was looking for their lost young master and even promising monetary reward for finding his remains? Or maybe you personally returned the remains to the Chu clan?"
If earlier the people in the hall were mostly bored, now they woke up and started to pay attention on how this 'witness' will get out of the mess he had gotten himself into. Everyone saw that he came with Chu matriarch and was most likely one of her men, but that didn't mean he could lie freely in front of the queen.
"I … I went to warn everyone about your evil deeds, but then went back to take the young master's remains to the Chu clan. Unfortunately I got lost on my way and only got to the capital recently." The Qi master managed to give a reasonable answer and even Nick had to praise him.
"Thank you, I have no further questions." Nick smiled at the queen while saying a sentence that he had heard multiple times in movies, "I'm ready for the next witness."
But Chu Ranqing was not an idiot. At this point she understood that even if only her witnesses would testify, their testimonies will turn to laughable excuses. All of them will claim that they brought Feng back home personally! This kid was too sly!
"Your majesty! There is no reason to waste our time here. Everyone knows this bastard brutally murdered my son!" She pleaded to the queen while trying to sound as emotional as she could. This was a good opportunity for the queen to end the theater as well. But to her surprise the queen sighed and turned to prime minister.
"What is your conclusion, did the witness speak the truth?"
The three old experts were sitting closer to the witness and could definitely tell if he was lying. At first the queen wanted to put her own people on this, but Nick persuaded her that it will be more effective if some famous and unanimously accepted experts would take care of this part seriously and truthfully.
And experts did, "Yes, your majesty, he did."
An uproar started in the hall. This could only mean that Nick really brutally murdered the son of the Chu clan.
"Silence!" Queen roared in loud voice and the crowd instantly calmed down.
"Your majesty! I beg you to bring justice!" Chu matriarch almost fell on her knees.
"Ranqing, we have known each other for decades, so don't worry, you will get your justice!" Queen smiled, but then sighed again, "But first we still have to listen to eighteen more witnesses."
"What?" Everyone voiced the question at the same time and even the windows trembled from the sound.
Queen actually didn't want to entertain these people from the aristocratic clans, but wanted to get entertained herself and the next witness was immediately called.
Chu Ranqing paled at the sight of a young female Qi master entering. Something was wrong! This should've been enough to persecute the hateful kid!
The crowd was looking at the young woman with interest. If the previous Qi master was telling the truth, then what was the use of this one?
"Me and Chu Feng were having a secret affair already for several years." The witness dropped a huge bomb from the start. The crowd roared again while the Chu family's matriarch reached for her sword and intended to kill this woman on the spot for sullying her son's memory.
"Silence! The next one who will cause disorder will be executed on the spot." The queen got angry as her entertainment was interrupted, "All of you are Xian's honorable citizens, not some lowly merchants from the market square!"
Then she turned to the witness and beckoned her to continue.
"We used public events like Tiger hunt to meet and express our deep love." She slowly told her story while bashing from ear to ear, "But when … when we were … intimate … that bastard jumped out from nowhere and stabbed my beloved!"
The witness pointed at Nick with tears in her eyes, but the queen sat there and thought 'Damn, that kid! He was right, this is entertaining!'
While sobbing, witness recalled 'the tragic incident' and described in detail how she buried her love and cried at his grave for almost a month only to return to the capital and report to the palace right after.
But what happened next caused everyone to gather their mental strength to not make another fuss. When the queen asked the three Qi experts whether the witness has spoken the truth, they unwillingly had to admit that she, in fact, did.
Chu clan's matriarch felt nauseated. How the hell was this truth? It was clearly slandering, but before she could voice her objections, Nick already asked his question.
"So from what I understand, at the time of attack your lover was on you, correct?"
"Yes! You, bastard, stabbed him to death!" Witness shouted back with tears in her eyes.
"How come I stabbed him, but you are alright? Did I stab him with a toothpick or something?"
"You … you … I don't know! Maybe you missed because you were scared!" She stuttered.
Nick shrugged and sat back down. Queen asked for the next witness and as the final hope for Chu Ranqing it was one of her men again. She had to end this after his testimony!
This witness testimony was the exact copy of the first one, but for some reason he claimed to bring Chu Feng's corpse back to capital himself as well. And the three experts claimed that he was speaking the truth! Everything would be fine if not for the last part and finally people began to question the queen's real intent.
What followed next surprised everyone again.
The next witness was an elderly Qi master who claimed to be observing hunting skills of the younger generation from the shadows when he saw how Nick summoned a lightning dragon and struck Feng so hard that nothing was left. Audience was already laughing, when the three experts announced that the man was telling the truth.
'How the hell did he know?' Queen was inwardly shaken.
When she was about to put almost twenty of her own people on this, Nick told her to grab random people from around the city who claimed they have seen with their own eyes what happened and almost guaranteed that the expert 'lie detectors' would have to announce their stories were true. Nick reasoning was that in a city like Xian with several hundred thousand inhabitants, there will definitely be many mentally ill people who believed their own made up stories and this old man proved to be one of them. Thus the queen only added a couple of her own, for example the woman earlier, while picking up the rest of 'witnesses' from the streets.
After this Chu Ranqing already understood that the queen had no intention to punish Nick and, even if she looked stern, it was obvious from her eyes that she enjoyed the show. This was probably the payback for Feng's previous actions or maybe she even knew her son had a plan to rape and kill the princess.
'No … wait! It can't be the truth! If the bitch knew, she would just flatten our Chu clan!'
Matriarch calmed herself down with this thought, but the following events threw her mind into chaos again.
Another seemingly trustworthy hunter testified, but this time the charming love story was between him and Chu Feng. When it got voiced out, he was abashed, but still proudly standing as if their love was stronger than any storm. One such 'storm' attacked the witness with a sword in her hand, but the queen managed to save him in time and Chu matriarch got a warning – if she repeated such a disgraceful act, she would be executed on the spot.
Nick didn't hold back at all and questioned the man to the detail about positions he and Chu Feng preferred during the intimate relations and what pillow talk they usually had afterwards.
The invited crowd already understood there was no serious trial here and it became an audience for a comedy, and enjoyed the spectacle. Some people threw pitied looks at the Chu clan's matriarch, but everyone understood she finally had to pay the price for her son's perverted behavior.
After all the witnesses were questioned, the three whom Chu clan brought had a similar story, but somehow each of them brought Feng back by themselves, two other pairs testified that they fought Nick together, but failed to save the young master, and another eleven each had a different version of some kind of a love affair, supernatural encounter or even witnessing a romantic duel for the young princess's heart on the edge of a cliff.
Every single one of these witnesses were telling the truth, at least according to the Qi experts and there was no reason to believe any of them. The Qi experts looked confused and conflicted, but mostly kept their bearing despite contradicting calls they had to make.
Queen got bored from all of this already half way, but she had to keep going because there was still some time till the nightfall. In addition, she promised YunYun to allow her to take a part in the 'play' and there was another thing that they had to test.
"Enough with this nonsense!" Queen sternly interrupted murmurs in the audience after the last witness was brought away, "There are some real witnesses, so I want to hear what they have to say."
The crowd got their interest peaked again, but got a bit disappointed when they saw YunYun come in.
"Everyone here understands that Nick is your fiance and that you will try to protect him. Therefore I want you to swear on my life that to the questions I ask you will only give truthful answers." Queen plainly said. It was not a joking matter, but, even if princess lied, there she wouldn't be struck by a heavenly lightning. Still, this approach provided at least a little bit of seriousness to the comedy that transpired during the previous hours.