The playboy county magistrate

"Father."

"You use your mother to coerce your son, and your relatives to bind your power. You use a woman's reputation and the safety of your closest relatives to blackmail your officials into bending the law for personal gain and corrupting the court."

"This is not a family rule."

"This is coercion, favoritism, and disregard for the law."

Li Dehai's face hardened: "You still dare to argue!"

Li Xuanzhi looked at his mother, whose face was pale, and felt heartache in his eyes.

"My mother lived a life of integrity, working tirelessly and enduring countless hardships to raise me. She has done nothing wrong. No one should insult her, expel her, or ruin her reputation."

Then, he looked at Li Dehai again, his tone as cold and hard as iron.

"My father is determined to divorce my mother, so I'll give it a try."

"If you dare to write the letter of divorce today, I will submit a memorial to His Majesty tomorrow, reporting the facts to him."

"The Duke's family is prioritizing personal matters over public duty, using my mother's reputation to coerce me, and using family rules to disrupt the court!"

"At that time, not only will the Earl's mansion be utterly disgraced, but even you, Father, will not escape questioning from the court and legal punishment!"

The moment those words were spoken, the entire room fell into a deathly silence.

Li Dehai froze, his pupils contracted sharply, and the oppressive and ruthless aura on his face instantly solidified.

Li Dehai sat upright in the main seat, holding a brush, his face ashen. His fingers gripped the brush handle tightly, the ink stagnating at the tip, ready to drip.

He thought he had Li Xuanzhi’s only weakness, and that with a little coercion, his son would surely put down his pride, compromise, and pave the way for his brother.

But to his utter surprise, Li Xuanzhi not only did not back down in the slightest, but instead looked him straight in the eye. There was not a trace of cowardice, nor a trace of compromise.

Zhang stood to one side, her body trembling slightly, her eyes blurry with tears. Yet she still bit her lip tightly, refusing to sob and disturb her good son, who had grown up and was now able to protect his mother.

She spent half her life confined to her secluded home, restricted by social hierarchy.

Endure the differences between the eldest and second sons of the legitimate wife, endure the coldness and warmth of human hearts.

She didn't care about any of that; all she needed was for her son to grow up healthy and safe.

Li Xuanjing, standing to the side, had long lost the refined demeanor of his former eldest son. His face was deathly pale, and his eyes held panic and resentment. He stood silently in the shadows, waiting for Li Xuanzhi to panic and give in. He waited for his father to subdue this increasingly glaring younger brother.

But the current situation is completely out of his control.

"Moreover, since Father keeps saying he wants to divorce his wife, he should do so according to the seven grounds for divorce."

When Li Xuanzhi was in Pingzhou, he studied the Dayong Law extensively in order to prevent those powerful nobles and old-fashioned ministers from successfully plotting against him.

Now that he is the Left Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, he will be accompanied by laws and regulations every day from now on.

It could be said that Li Xuanzhi now had the relevant legal provisions in his mind, making it easy for him to deal with this fabricated charge.

Before Li Dehai could angrily rebuke and stop him, Li Xuanzhi had already spoken loudly.

"The first of the seven grounds for divorce is childlessness. After entering the Cheng'en Earl's Mansion, my mother was diligent and obedient. It is an indisputable fact that she gave birth to me, the second legitimate son. She ensured the continuation of your Earl's Mansion's lineage and did not sever the clan's heritage. This charge is untrue."

"Secondly, licentiousness. My mother has lived a life of integrity, upholding the virtues of a wife and fulfilling her duties. Her words and deeds were upright and her manners proper. No one in the household dared to criticize her virtue, and no one in the court or the public dared to spread rumors about her. This charge is untrue."

"Thirdly, she did not serve her parents-in-law. She paid her respects to her mother morning and evening, served medicine and tea to her grandmother, without regard to heat or cold, year after year. She fulfilled her duties as a daughter-in-law to the best of her ability, as can be testified by the elders of the clan. This charge against her is untrue."

"Fourthly, gossip and slander. For many years, my elder brother and I should have been treated equally in the household, but the resources in the household have always been biased towards my elder brother. My mother has never said a word against it."

"On the contrary, the rumors and gossip about Mother in the mansion have never stopped, and Father is well aware of who is behind all of this."

"My mother kept quiet and endured everything for the sake of harmony and stability in the family, never arguing or gossiping. On the contrary, Father, you favored your concubine and neglected your wife, allowing your late wife's sister, a concubine, to stir up trouble in the backyard."

"Mother's frankness in court today was not a mere pretense of slander, but rather an attempt to protect her son's innocence and defend against injustice. This is a mother's instinct, not slander or instigation forbidden by traditional female virtues. This charge is untrue."

"Fifth, theft and embezzlement. Mother does not take a single penny of ill-gotten gains from the household, nor does she covet a single extra benefit from the clan, and she has never committed any despicable or unethical acts. Moreover, Father should know who earns the money in the Chengen Earl's Mansion now and whose maternal family it relies on. This charge is untrue."

"Sixth, jealousy and malice. This can be discussed together with the fourth point, after all, my elder brother is idle and incompetent yet holds a high position, while I am diligent in my career yet am restricted everywhere. Mother has never been jealous or resentful, nor has she ever sown discord or framed my elder brother. She has always been law-abiding. This charge is untrue."

"Seventh, she is afflicted with a serious illness. My mother is physically healthy and of sound mind. She has no chronic or incurable diseases, nor any hidden ailments that could lead to moral decay. She is upright and of pure heart. This fault is simply out of the question!"

The seven laws were refuted one by one, each word resounding and shattering the charges forcibly imposed by Li Dehai.

Li Dehai's hand, gripping the pen, trembled violently again as he sternly rebuked:

"Outrageous! A son should not speak ill of his father! How dare you, relying on your meager authority in the court, publicly question your own father and argue against family rules!"

"Family rules and reason should follow justice. The laws of the court cannot tolerate favoritism." Li Xuanzhi stood firm, facing Li Dehai's overwhelming pressure. "Father, on trumped-up charges, wants to divorce an innocent wife. This is using personal grudges to disrupt family rules and selfish desires to disregard propriety!"

"Even ordinary noble families wouldn't dare divorce their wives without cause, let alone Father, a member of the imperial family with a hereditary title. To knowingly break the law, to act out of personal favoritism and injustice, is an even greater crime! If this were to spread in the court and among the world, it wouldn't just be Mother's disgrace, but the tarnished reputation of the Cheng'en Earl's family for generations, the very foundation of a noble family's standing!"

The words hit the nail on the head, leaving Li Dehai speechless. His chest was churning with anger, but he couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.

Li Xuanzhi's gaze was sharp, and his tone was firm.

Therefore, the idea of ​​divorcing one's wife is utterly absurd and laughable!

The room fell into a deathly silence, then Li Xuanzhi abruptly changed the subject.

"Divorce is not allowed, but a peaceful separation is possible."

Li Dehai was deeply shocked.

Everyone knows that divorcing a wife and getting a divorce are worlds apart.

Divorce is considered a sign of a woman's moral depravity, leading to her being rejected by her husband's family. Such a woman is stigmatized for life, removed from the family register, and forever unable to hold her head high.

A peaceful divorce is a mutually agreeable and amicable separation. Neither party holds the other responsible, their innocence is preserved, and their reputation is protected. It is a dignified departure permitted by social norms and customs.

Li Dehai suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with a fierce light, staring intently at Li Xuanzhi, gritting his teeth:

"You want your mother to divorce me? Do you know that after the divorce, your mother will be completely severed from the Earl's Mansion and will have no clan to rely on anymore!"

Upon hearing this, Li Xuanzhi suddenly turned around, completely suppressing the fierce and hostile aura he had displayed when confronting his biological father.

Looking at her tearful mother beside her, her eyes were filled with burning tenderness and deep affection.

He stepped forward slowly and gently supported his mother's trembling shoulders, his fingertips gentle yet firm.